§ Mr. LuffTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if articles of the 10 carat gold standard hallmarked in Ireland may be placed on the market in the United Kingdom; and what assessment he has made of the consequences for British competitiveness of such marketing. [72589]
§ Dr. HowellsFollowing the amendments to the Hallmarking Act 1973 which came into effect on 1 January, the United Kingdom, in accordance with Article 30 of the EC Treaty and European case law concerning the free circulation of goods, has permitted articles of precious metal hallmarked in Ireland to be marketed here without further hallmarking by a UK assay office. I can confirm that this would include articles of 10 carat gold.
380WManufacturers can have articles of gold hallmarked by UK Assay Offices to standards of fineness including 9, 14, 18 and 22 carat (375, 585, 750 and 916.6 parts per thousand respectively) as well as new "pure" standards of 990 and 999 parts per thousand. Given that there is no reason to believe that UK consumers are likely to prefer the 10 carat standard over any of the standards of fineness available here, I do not believe that UK manufactures are likely to be placed at a competitive disadvantage as a result. It is generally agreed that a proliferation of standards is not in the interests of consumers and the United Kingdom seeks to give a lead in this matter by not introducing further standards into the UK hallmarking system. However, DTI will look very carefully at the position in the light of future experience.
§ Mr. LuffTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if all the European Economic Area states have amended their laws to permit articles hallmarked in the United Kingdom to be sold in their states; and if he will make a statement. [72590]
§ Dr. HowellsOnly those EEA States which have a mandatory requirement for hallmarking under their law and have in the past required imported articles to be re-hallmarked in their country before being placed on the market they would need to amend their laws to permit articles hallmarked in the United Kingdom to be placed on their markets without further marking. The DTI is obtaining up-to-date information from the Commission about which countries have now made the necessary changes to their legislation. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as the information is available and will place a copy of the reply in the Libraries of the House.
In any event, it should be noted that the legal position concerning the free circulation of goods in the EU Member States is set out in Article 30 of the EC Treaty and European caselaw. Notwithstanding whether a Member State has amended its national legislation the Treaty and caselaw will have effect and under these provisions I understand that UK hallmarks should be accepted throughout the European Community. The other EEA States (i.e. Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) are governed by the EEA Agreement (1992).