§ Mr. Curryasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on the adoption of a European Community Directive on dangerous imitations of consumer products.
§ Mr. MaudeThe Council of Ministers adopted on 25 June a directive prohibiting the sale of products which are made or packaged to resemble other products and may as a result mislead and injure consumers, especially children. Examples are scented lamp oil and scented erasers. The United Kingdom had obtained substantial improvements during negotiations to meet our own concerns; we limited the scope of the directive to products resembling food or drink where there was a risk, and we blocked a proposal to give the Commission greater powers to require member states to ban particular products. These improvements might have been called into question had the United Kingdom delayed adoption beyond 1 July, the date on which the Single European Act came into force. I therefore judged that it was in the United Kingdom's interest not to delay adoption of the measure until the House had completed its consideration of the Commission's proposal. I regret that the normal procedures were not followed on this occasion, but I hope the House will understand the special reasons why the Government agreed to the adoption of the directive in these circumstances.