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Arachnoiditis

Mr. David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will commission research into the causes and treatment of arachnoiditis; and if he will make a statement. [116107]

Ms Hewitt: The Government fund health and medical research mainly through the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department of Health.

The MRC has a broad remit which covers all areas of research relating to human health. Although the MRC do not fund research specifically into the treatment of arachnoiditis, the MRC are funding research on one of the causes of arachnoiditis, meningitis. In 1998-99 the MRC spent about £525,000 on research of direct relevance to the cause and treatment of meningitis.

Ice-cream Market

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will implement the findings of the Competition Commission to ensure that consumers obtain the benefits of effective competition in the impulse ice-cream market for the coming season. [115955]

Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend announced on 28 January his proposals for remedying the adverse findings of the Competition Commission report.

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what date the undertakings by Birds Eye Walls will come into effect in relation to the impulse ice-cream market. [115956]

Dr. Howells: Undertakings on interim remedies given on the 16 February came into effect immediately. The Director General of Fair Trading is negotiating further undertakings concerning outlet and freezer exclusivity and retrospective discounts. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State asked the Director General of Fair Trading to seek to obtain undertakings by 31 March. The date at which they would come into effect, together with the terms themselves, are subject to negotiation.

National Weights and Measures Laboratory

Mr. Anthony D. Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his plans are for the next quinquennial review of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory. [117206]

Mr. Byers: The Modernising Government White Paper (Cm 4310, March 1999) set out the Government's commitment to delivery of high quality, responsive public services and the approach to quinquennial reviews of Executive Agencies has now been re-focused to reflect this modernisation agenda. I have set in train therefore a Review of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) which will, in keeping with the new approach, consider all the organisational options for the Laboratory and ways in which to improve performance.

The Review Steering Board is chaired by Mr. Robert Foster, Director, Innovation Policy and Standards, at the DTI. Mr. John Lee of the National Measurement

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Laboratories Unit in the DTI is the Secretary to the Board. The Board has appointed Mr. Martin Rumbelow as Reviewer.

The Board has adopted the following Terms of Reference for the Review:

The Reviewer is to consider and recommend:


first, whether Agency status remains the most suitable way of delivering the services provided by NWML, considering all the options, including abolition, continued Agency status, market testing, merger or rationalisation, privatisation and strategic contracting out, taking into account NWML's contribution to the objectives of the Department and of the Government as a whole, developments in the national and international legislative, regulatory and commercial environment in which it operates, and the views of its customers and staff; and


second, what additional services and functions could be provided, whether fee income could be increased, whether NWML's call on DTI resources could be reduced, and how its services and functions could be provided more effectively, for example through the increased use of partnership working and better use of information and communication technology, ensuring that lessons learned and best practice are clearly identified in the Report.


The review is to be undertaken in accordance with the latest Cabinet Office guidance. The Reviewer will report at intervals to a Steering Board. It will be the task of the Steering Board to respond flexibly to the Reviewer's proposals during the progress of the Review, each member contributing guidance and knowledge, including where appropriate the good offices of his or her parent department. The Steering Board will ensure that Ministers, the Treasury, the Cabinet Office, and the staff and customers of the NWML are kept informed of the progress of the Review and will facilitate the gathering of information for the Reviewer and his or her communication with staff and customers.

The membership of the Review Steering Board is as follows:

Mr. Robert Foster (Chairman)--Director, Innovation Policy and Standards, DTI


Mr. Noel Hunter--County Trading Standards Officer, Warwickshire County Council


Mr. Dick Farman--Strategic Planning Director, Avery Berkel Group


Mr. Harold Gay--Group Trading and Safety Legislation Manager, The Boots Company plc


Dr. Seton Bennett--Director and Chief Executive, National Weights and Measures Laboratory


Mr. Shelley Charik--Director, National Measurement System, DTI


Mr. Howard Ewing--Director, Consumer Advice and Information, DTI


Dr. Les Whalley--Deputy Director, Standards and Technical Regulations, DTI


Mr. Clive Fleming--Assistant Director, Executive Agencies, NDPBs And Service First, DTI


Mr. Tim Dymond--Cabinet Office


Ms Debbie Edwards--Enterprise Team, HM Treasury.

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The Reviewer, Mr. Rumbelow is contacting interested parties he believes can provide information and advice to assist him with his work. Information and advice from other interested parties is also welcome and should be sent to the Secretary to the Board:

Mr. John Lee


National Measurement Laboratories Unit


Room 351


Department of Trade and Industry


151 Buckingham Palace Road


London


SW1W 9SS


Telephone: [phone]


Fax: [phone]


E-mail:[e-mail]

BNFL

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the timing of a public-private partnership for BNFL. [117205]

Mrs. Liddell: Recent events at BNFL have clearly been a set back for the company. It is important that BNFL now responds positively to the HSE's reports on the Sellafield site and works to achieve necessary improvements in its safety and commercial performance. This will take time. As a result, it now appears that the earliest possible date for the introduction of any PPP into BNFL could not be before the latter part of 2002. The introduction and timing of any PPP remains subject to BNFL's performance against the targets set by Government as well as the further work being undertaken by the Government and their advisers.

EEA (Parallel Trading)

Mrs. Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's policy regarding the legality of parallel trading of goods from outside the European economic area markets; and what estimate he has made of the impact on United Kingdom manufacturing if such trading is rendered lawful. [116589]

Dr. Howells: The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in the Silhouette case [C-355/96] of July 1998 highlighted the extent of powers afforded by European law to trade mark owners. In particular, the Court decided that they can prevent the import into the Community of goods which they themselves have already sold in other parts of the world. This confirmed as a matter of law that the European Trade Marks Directive does allow trade mark owners to use their rights to prevent import of their goods into the Community after they have been marketed elsewhere.

Since this judgment, the European Commission has produced a study [Trade Mark exhaustion--Study on the economic consequences of alternative regimes by National Economic Research Associates for the European Commission] on the economic affects of such rights, and the results which can be expected if trade mark owners were to be denied them. The conclusions of this study are that a move to so-called international exhaustion would create beneficial impacts on the European economy. In particular, prices in some key consumer sectors would fall

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significantly, and competition in these sectors would increase as brand owners and retailers respond to increasingly competitive markets.

Our own studies agree with the conclusions reached by the Commission. In particular there is likely to be a beneficial, if small, impact on the United Kingdom economy. We expect a maximum of about £400 million of additional imports would be generated by moving to international exhaustion. Total United Kingdom imports are around £220 billion, of which £180 billion are imports of goods. Additional levels of parallel imports would, therefore, be equivalent to approximately 0.2 per cent. of United Kingdom imports. Such imports are likely to arise in a limited number of sectors, principally clothing, footwear, sports and luxury goods for which there is already a strong import market. It seems likely that parallel imports would take market share from existing imports rather than domestic manufacturers.

In the light of these studies, we are discussing trade mark rights with our European partners with a view to changing current legislation. However, in some sectors where the Single Market is not yet complete or which are subject to other special conditions, for example pharmaceuticals, the benefits of international exhaustion are not clear, and care will be needed to ensure that unwanted results do not arise.

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