§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how long he gave the Bank of England to prepare the report on bank charges to small businesses which he reported to the House on 20 January,Official Report, columns 623–25.
§ Mr. NelsonThe bank was asked on 16 November to undertake the study. Its final report, which was based on a number of exchanges with the commercial banks and the information provided by them, was published on 26 January. The period from initial request to final publication was 71 days.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 26 January,Official Report, columns 623–25, how many small business customers were interviewed in the instance on which he has based his statement.
§ Mr. NelsonThe answer of 26 January concerned a report produced by the Bank of England based on information which it had gathered from the banks. Although my right hon. Friend the Chancellor had commissioned the report because of the number of complaints which the Government had received from small business customers, none was interviewed as part of that study. However, as the answer made clear, the bank's conclusions were supported by another report commissioned from Nottingham university and published, a few748W weeks earlier, by the Forum of Private Business. The Nottingham university study had been based on information provided by small business customers.