Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 6:00 pm ar 7 Mai 2002.
I beg to move amendment No. 335, in page 128, line 28, leave out ''so far as practicable''.
With this it will be convenient to take amendment No. 336, in page 128, line 30, leave out
''in its opinion seriously and prejudicially affect''
and insert—
''significantly harm the legitimate business interests''.
The amendments deal with exclusions from the annual report of the new Competition Service. Amendment No. 335 would delete the words ''so far as practicable'' in the second line. As I understand it, if the words are deleted, it would not be the case that the service necessarily must exclude the matters set out in subsections (a) and (b), but they must have regard to them. That is the key point. It is not an absolute situation but something that should be considered in every case.
The purpose of amendment No. 336 is to ask why decisions about what to publish and whether something harms a person's interest should be left to
the Competition Service. We feel that that should not be the case. Indeed, the Competition Service may not actually know whether someone's interest may be harmed if information were to be released, so the new wording has been included. In such a situation, why should it not be the case—
That being the case, should we make our comments in the clause stand part debate, following discussion of Government's amendments? I think that we probably should. On that basis I shall—
I shall leave it to my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne to ask why the clause is to disappear. I simply wanted to make one further point on the clause.
Will the accounts of the Competition Service, which are referred to in schedule 10, be published in the report? There is no reference to any financial figures being included in the report. I thought it would be helpful if the Government could clarify their intention.
I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's suggestion.
It might have been helpful if the Government could have presented their case before we spoke to our amendments. However, that said, I should be grateful if the Minister could explain how the financial figures set out in schedule 10 are to be released to the public if there is now to be no report.
This matter has become slightly confused, and I must accept some responsibility. As the Competition Service will no longer provide support services for the Competition Commission, we have decided to delete the provision and replace it with a clause that requires the Competition Commission to produce an annual report. It is not complicated. New
clause 8 will be inserted into the Competition Act 1998. Therefore, I propose that the clause should not stand part of the Bill.
Question put and negatived.Clause 177The Commission