To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the proposed sale of The Observer.

I announced on 14 May 1993, Official Report, column 599, that I had received an application for my consent to the transfer of The Observer newspaper to Guardian Newspapers Ltd., a subsidiary of The Guardian and Manchester Evening News plc. My consent is required under section 58(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1973. I may give my consent to a newspaper transfer without a report from the Monopolies and Mergers -Commission where I am satisfied the newspaper concerned in the transfer is not economic as a going concern and as a separate newspaper, and that, if the paper is to continue, the case is one of urgency. In this case, I am so satisfied and have today given my consent in accordance with section 58(3)(a) of the Act.