§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many breweries have complied with the Supply of Beer (Tied Estates) Order 1989—SI 1989 No. 2390; what information his Department holds on the purchasers of public houses under the order; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonI understand from the Director General of Fair Trading that all the national brewers have complied with the Supply of Beer (Tied Estate) Order 1989, on the basis of information they have supplied to him. The statutory undertakings given by these brewers to provide the Director General with information to enable him to monitor compliance with the order do not require them to provide details of the purchasers of public houses that are sold. His office does, nevertheless, hold a significant amount of information provided voluntarily by the brewers and compiled from reports that have appeared in the trade press.
§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what investigations his Department undertakes into the ownership of companies purchasing public houses from breweries en bloc; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe Director General of Fair Trading is under a statutory duty to investigate sales of packages of public houses when these qualify as merger situations under the Fair Trading Act 1973. He has also made it clear that he will look very closely at all transactions involving supply agreements. Public houses owned by companies in which a national brewer has a shareholding of 15 per cent. or more, which are tied to that brewer's beer, would count towards its tied pub limit under the Supply of Beer (Tied Estate) Order 1989.