§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to establish an advisory panel to advise him on restrictive practices and monopolistic power in the provision of car parking in Britain.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonI announced to the House on 14 April,Official Report, column 842-50, that when parliamentary time permits, proposals will be introduced to strengthen existing United Kingdom legislation concerning anti-competitive and exploitative behaviour following the Green Paper on abuse of market power. At the same time, a prohibition on restrictive trade practices will be introduced. As part of this package, the Fair Trading Act 1973 and the Competition Act 1980 will be extended to cover some limited situations where specific property rights are exercised in a way which damages competition. I am currently considering the property rights to which competition law should apply and the extension of the Fair Trading Act 1973 to temporary rights of access such as car parks is one option under consideration.