Written Answers
Motorways: Speeding Offences
asked Her Majesty's Government:How many (a) heavy goods vehicles; (b) buses and coaches; and (c) cars were caught speeding on the motorways between 1982 and 1987.
No reliable information is available for specific types of vehicle. The available information relates to total findings of guilt in magistrates' courts for exceeding 70 mph limits on motorways. It is published annually in Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales, Supplementary Table (Table 5 of the issue for 1986). The report of a national speed survey, which was conducted in 1987, gives results for different vehicle types and has recently been published by the Department of Transport in Statistical Bulletin number (88)30. Copies of both publications are in the Library.
Uranium Imports
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether uranium has been imported from South Africa, Namibia, Australia and Canada into the United Kingdom and what safeguards against misuse have been applied in each case?
All civil uranium imported into the United Kingdom under the present administration has been subject to Euratom safeguards and to the terms of the UK/Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement. Since 1979, the Central Electricity Generating Board, on behalf of the British Civil Uranium Procurement Directorate, which is responsible for meeting the uranium requirements of the UK's civil nuclear programme, has imported from only Canada and Namibia out of the four countries specified by the noble Lord. Such imports from Namibia ceased in 1984.
Ocean Drilling Programme
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they intend that Britain should continue to take part in the international deep sea drilling programme.
The United Kingdom, through the Natural Environment Research Council, is currently a member of the Ocean Drilling Programme (ODP). The ODP began in 1985 and succeeded the International Deep Sea Drilling Project. The UK will continue its membership at least until 30th September 1989. A decision about participation thereafter will be made later this year.
Sea-Bed Mining
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware of any British companies intending to commence mining the sea-bed.
The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry issued an exploration licence in 1984 under The Deep Sea Mining (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1981, to the Kennecott Consortium in which three British companies, British Petroleum. Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation plc, and Consolidated Gold Fields plc, have an interest. No British company has indicated an intention to commence sea-bed mining at the present time and no application has been received for a licence to undertake exploitation activity.
"Review Of Restrictive Trade Practices Policy"
asked Her Majesty's Government:When the Green Paper on reform of the restrictive trade practices legislation will be published.
The Green Paper, Review of Restrictive Trade Practices Policy has been laid before the House today. It proposes fundamental reform of the current legislation in order to control seriously damaging cartels more effectively. Together with the conclusions announced in the departmental policy paper on mergers published on 3rd March, this concludes the review of law and policy on mergers and restrictive trade practices announced in June 1986, by my right honourable friend the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.In particular, the Green Paper proposes a general prohibition of business agreements whose effect is to prevent, restrict or distort competition. This concentration on anti-competitive agreements means that the scope of the law is at once consistent with its objective. By contrast, the present legislation covers agreements of a particular legal form; it is therefore possible for it to cover agreements which have little effect on competition. This disadvantage and the present statutory requirement to furnish details of agreements of a specified form to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) makes the present law unduly burdensome on business. The new law proposed in today's Green Paper, which is aimed at the effects of agreements, will be more precisely targeted on those agreements which are genuinely anti-competitive, and will have the added advantage for firms of being closely aligned with European cartel law.There will be provision under the new system for the exemption of agreements which, though anti-competitive, are on balance beneficial. Applications for exemptions will be judged against a broad test, along the lines of Article 85(3) of the Treaty of Rome. Guidance notes will be published to help firms and their advisers.
It may be appropriate to draw up block exemptions for some categories of agreement, such as franchising, whereby agreements which satisfied certain conditions would become automatically exempt. This would allow some element of self-policing by firms.
As a general rule, it is our intention that exemptions will be granted sparingly; it is a central objective of the Government's economic philosophy to promote competition as far as possible—not to sanction anti-competitive behaviour. The same principle applies to economic sectors and professional services which benefit from exemption from the present legislation. These exemptions will not be automatically carried across into new legislation without the merits of each case being thoroughly re-examined. The Government intend to end as many of the existing exemptions as possible.
We propose that decisions whether agreements are anti-competitive and decisions on applications for exemption will be taken by an administrative competition authority. This will be based on the OFT although the new legislation would require changes to the OFT's organisation and procedures. For this reason, the Green Paper simply refers to an "authority" throughout. There will be rights of appeal from the authority to the Restrictive Practices Court, and provision for private actions.
The Green Paper also proposes more effective powers of investigation and enforcement and potentially heavy fines—up to 10 per cent. of total turnover—for those who breach the law. This is a particularly important feature of our proposals and an approach strongly urged on us by many of those who submitted comments during the review. It is envisaged that the authority will impose the fines, although decisions on fines would also be subject to appeal.
I hope the business community will support these proposals; they reflect many of the comments made to us over the last year or so. But this is a crucially important area for business and I believe that our proposals will benefit from thorough public debate. We are allowing a further period (up to 30 September) for comments on the basis of the Green Paper proposals, which I hope will be widely read.
Nuclear Reactors And The Irish Sea: Conference
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will take note of the proceedings of the conference on nuclear reactors and the Irish Sea, held in Wexford, Ireland and attended by 200 local authority councillors.The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Glenarthur): Yes. We were represented at this conference.
Geographic Information: Inquiry Report
asked Her Majesty's Government:When they will publish their response to the report of the committee of inquiry into the handling of geographic information.
We have today published our response to the committee's report; copies have been placed in the Library.The Government share the committee's view that the potential exists for the rapid spread of applications of information technology in the handling of geographic information, and that these offer the prospect of very considerable benefits.We agree with the committee also about the importance of prospective users being aware of the possibilities being opened up and being able to obtain informed and impartial advice. We consider, however, that it would be preferable to look to existing organisations rather than create a separate new centre for geographic information for these purposes.The committee recommended a more rapid programme for the conversion of Ordnance Survey basic scales mapping into digital form. As a result of trials conducted since the committee reported, Ordnance Survey and the major users have developed a new specification which will help Ordnance Survey to speed up its digital conversion programme. Adoption of this new common specification will help in incorporating data produced by others into the Ordnance Survey national digital database and will further speed up the conversion programme.The Government are grateful to the committee for the thorough consideration given to this wide-ranging subject. The committee's report has itself been a major step in making prospective users aware of the opportunities in this field.