asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what criteria he used in determining the fee charged by the chief registrar for the issue of certificates confirming that bodies are common ownership enterprises as defined in the 1976 Act.

The fee charged is designed to cover the full cost of dealing with a successful application for a certificate. Each application requires detailed checking to ensure that the bodies comply with the 1976 Act.

I appreciate that, but is my hon. Friend aware that the fee of £50 that is being charged is too much for the smallest enterprises and the new ones, which have a particularly important part to play in the development of common ownership? Will he consider reducing the fee to, say, £20?

I am not sure whether I agree with my hon. Friend that the fee of £50 is too much. If an organisation wishes to become a common ownership enterprise, I should not have thought that £50 was too much. If there were model rules, for instance, for all these enterprises, it might be possible to reduce the fee. But, since each application involves considerable work, we have to charge a fee commensurate with that work.