§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what guidelines have been issued to the manufacturing and retail industries regarding the millennium bug; what steps have been taken to ensure that new products are millennium compliant and are labelled as such; and if he will make a statement. [65085]
§ Mr. WillsInformation on the Millennium Bug and guidance on how to deal with it is available to businesses from Action 2000. My Department set up Action 2000 last year to lead the work on behalf of the Government in raising awareness of the private sector of the need to take action and to provide help to companies.
Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, goods sold by traders must among other things "correspond with description" as to fitness for purpose and satisfactory quality. The description of the goods includes any information given about them, by the seller directly or by any other means. Controls already exist to prevent new products being falsely described or labelled as millennium compliant. The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 makes it a criminal offence to apply false or misleading statements to products.