§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will release the latest figures and calculations of the University of South Africa that provide the current guidelines for the European Community code of conduct in South Africa.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkI am placing in the Library of the House the table published by the University of South Africa of supplemented living level requirements for August 1985 and February 1986. These are the figures relevant to the latest completed reporting period for which companies are now submitting their returns under the EC code of conduct for companies with interest in South Africa. The code requires that pay based on the SLL for an average sized family must be considered the absolute minimum. Further explanatory guidance to British companies is contained in Cmnd. 9860.
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§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what he is doing to ensure that companies failing to report on their holdings in South Africa for the 12 months ended 30 June 1985 comply with the European Community code of conduct.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe EC code of conduct remains voluntary, but I and my officials take every opportunity to urge all the British companies concerned to comply fully with it and submit full reports. Of the 138 companies whose interests were known or believed to warrant a full report under the code, only three declined to submit returns for the 1984–85 reporting period, and two of these offered certain general assurances about the conditions of employment of their black South African employees.
§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what are the minimum living levels and the supplemented living levels for South Africa.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe supplemented and minimum living levels are calculations by the bureau of market research of the University of South Africa. The supplemented living level makes provision at current local prices for items considered by researchers to be essential to human needs in South Africa, additional to those costed in minimum living level, which is regarded as the minimun subsistence level in African conditions. Separate calculations are made for individual districts and household sizes and are expressed in rands per months. The calculations are revised every six months in February and August.
§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information is provided by his Department to companies with interests in South Africa on levels of wages relevant to the European Community code of conduct.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkGuidance on the level of minimum wages advocated by the code for black African employees is contained in the explanatory guidance published in Cmnd. 9860. Companies are referred to the statistics published by the bureau of market research, University of South Africa.