asked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs why he did not discuss with industry the composition of the list of items to which the early warning system is to be applied, before publishing the list in the White Paper, Command Paper No. 2808.

It was clearly essential in publishing the White Paper to give an indication of the scope of the non-statutory arrangements for early warning of price increases drawn up in discussion with the T.U.C. and the C.B.I. As paragraph 6 of the White Paper makes clear the list of items is provisional. Consultations with the individual industries concerned, as envisaged in the White Paper, are now proceeding.