§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry from which other EU member states the sale of precious metal articles in the UK has been validated for sale by the hallmark of that member state; and whether such a validation process applied to past hallmarked articles from those member states. [140525]
§ Mr. SutcliffeAs a signatory to the Vienna Convention, the UK accepts items marked with the Common Control Mark (CCM) without additional marking and testing. Other member states belonging to the Convention and entitled to use the CCM are: Austria, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Following the ECJ Houtwipper judgment in 1999, the UK has also recognised the124W hallmarks of other EU member states without a CCM where they have been marked by independent assay offices. This includes France, Ireland, Portugal, the Netherlands and some Spanish marks.
§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what reports and recommendations her Department has received since 1998 relating to the draft Directive on Articles of Precious Metal; and to what extent their recommendations have been followed. [140528]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe DTI has received a number of reports and recommendations from stakeholders about the draft Directive. The majority of these have been against the proposals. Since we believe that the draft Directive would effectively weaken consumer protection, and there was little support for a change of system, the UK did not support the Directive in Council Working Group discussions. At Coreper (Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU), it was decided that the draft Directive and Progress Report would not go forward to the Council of Ministers on 27 November because of the lack of agreement.