COMPETITION IN THE NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION INDUSTRY

Early day motion 714, tabled 11 February 2003 by Lord Cotter (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 184 members.

That this House warmly welcomes the findings of the Office of Fair Trading's review of undertakings given by newspaper wholesalers; notes that they confirm what independent newsagents have been saying; that power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of just three wholesalers, that carriage charges have risen faster than costs yet service quality has fallen, that such high carriage charge increases reduce newspaper availability, that exclusive territories are questionable especially where there is not competitive tendering for the territories, that newsagent shop numbers have peaked and are now falling and that this is affecting home delivery; therefore believes that if the resultant recommendations are to offer any possibility of introducing greater competition in the industry, their implementation must include allowing selling on across territories as suggested in para 6.25; recognises that only newsagents can indicate whether sub-retailing is workable at all; and therefore calls upon the Office of Fair Trading to pay particular attention to the NFRN's further response.

Signatures by party: Labour 98, Liberal Democrat 35, Conservative 30, Labour/Co-operative 9, Scottish National Party 5, Plaid Cymru 3, UUP 3, DUP 1.