asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish the price of structural steel in the United Kingdom and state how this compares with prices in the rest of the Common Market.

The steel producers are responsible for publishing their own prices, which vary according to product, size, quality, etc. Comparison with European prices is made more difficult by the differences in the specifications in the various countries, but the following table, provided by the British Steel Corporation, gives a broad indication of the relative levels of home trade prices in countries of the European Communities and BSC prices for typical structural steels on 6th January 1974. It does not cover prices charged by United Kingdom private sector steel producers.