To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when he received the Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on the British Steel Corporation; and when he intends to publish it.

[holding answer 29 April 1988]: The report was delivered to the Secretary of State in 1986. The delay in publication has been caused by the need to consider very carefully a request by the British Steel Corporation that the Secretary of State should exercise his powers under section 17 of the Competition Act 1980 to make a number of excisions to the published report in order to avoid prejudicing the interests of the corporation. We shall publish the report as soon as possible.