asked the Secretary of State for Energy, in setting financial targets for both gas and electricity industries, why he has set a return on turnover after interest in one case and a return on net assets before interests in the other, rather than establish a uniform requirement.

The nationalised industries White Paper (Cmnd. 7131) states that the main form of financial target would be a percentage return, before interest, on the average net assets employed by the industry. It recognises that in one or two cases a target might be set in terms of a percentage return on turnover. Given that gas is a largely distributive industry a return on turnover, treating interest as a cost, is an appropriate measure of performance.