§ Mr. GaleTo ask the President of the Board of Trade when she expects to announce proposals resulting from a review of the workings of the MMC and OFT to improve efficiency in determining the implications of takeover bids. [44471]
102W
§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths[holding answer 8 June 1998]: In the summer of 1997 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) set up a joint working party to examine the scope for streamlining their procedures for handling merger cases, with the aim of reducing the burden on organisations which provide information to them. As a result, the arrangements for presentations made by the OFT to the MMC during a merger inquiry have been refined to enable the MMC to gain a better understanding of the main issues more swiftly, thereby helping it to focus its lines of inquiry. The working party is now considering whether the form used to prenotify the OFT formally of a merger can be modified in order to simplify and improve the effectiveness of the information-gathering procedures. In addition, the OFT and MMC have established a forum with lawyers from City law firms to consider possibilities for further streamlining of the way in which the OFT and MMC gather information.