§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effect of the ending of the Net Book Agreement in 1995 on(a) authors, (b) publishers and (c) booksellers; and if she will make a statement. [185676]
§ Mr. SutcliffeA recent report, "The Benefits from Competition: some Illustrative UK Cases" (available at:http://www.dti.gov.uk/economics/economics_paper9.pdf), prepared for DTI by Professor Steve Davies of University of East Anglia and his team, explored the impact of removing the Net Book Agreement as one of six case studies on the impact of enhanced competition.
The Davies Report concluded that the ending of the Net Book Agreement was largely beneficial as prices, at least for the more popular books fell, more channels to market have increased competition and access and choice of books, and the feared adverse side effects for small booksellers and book production did either not occur or were smaller scale than expected.
§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the likely effect of the proposed removal of the 1011W Recommended Retail Price from book sleeves on (a) authors, (b) publishers and (c) booksellers; and if she will make a statement. [185677]
§ Nigel GriffithsAfter consultation with industry, we are not aware of any proposals to remove the current system of displaying pricing on books.