Clause 179 - Cartel offence
Enterprise Bill
10:30 am
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
It is a great pleasure to be here again. We will do our best to tailor our remarks to meet the guillotine, but the prospects of finishing our discussions on this part of the Bill by then are remote.
I shall remind the Committee of what amendment No. 88 would do. It is an imposition on anyone in business to introduce new legislation on cartel offence only a couple of years after 1 March 2000, when the Competition Act 1998 came into force. The amendment would give business a settling down period, allowing that legislation to bed down, and an opportunity to see what will happen in the European modernisation programme of this part of the law. That is a sensible precaution, as the Government are rushing too soon into further legislation. I am interested in what the Under-Secretary has to say.