asked the President of the Board of Trade if he has considered the correspondence sent to him by the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South, dealing with the treatment of the Staffordshire Potteries Water Board by firms who submitted identical tenders for the supply of cast iron pipes; and, in view of the frustration thereby caused to the Water Board in the discharge of its financial responsibilities, if he will reconsider his previous decision and instruct the Registrar of Restrictive Trading Agreements to give this matter priority before the Restrictive Practices Court.

Mrs. Slater:

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware of the identical tendering of firms for cast iron pipes to the Staffordshire Potteries Water Board; and if he will therefore reconsider his previous decision and instruct the Registrar of Restrictive Trading Agreements to give the matter priority before the Restrictive Practices Court.

The only registered agreement relating to cast iron pipes was terminated on 31st December, 1958, so that the question of priority for the Court does not now arise.

Mrs. Slater:

Is it not significant that this should be cancelled in 1958, when representation was made to the Board of Trade as far back as 1957? This large undertaking, with a £3 million capital expenditure, put out tenders for cast iron pipes and received four identical tenders. Does not that make a farce of tendering and hold local authorities and joint boards at the point of a pistol in the hands of these firms which are nothing more or less than a monopoly?

The agreement has now been abandoned and, if I could venture to give any advice to the board concerned, it would be that it might call for new tenders.