I propose to take Questions Nos. 15, 22, 52, 60 and 75 together.
The Commission on the Newspaper Industry reported to my predecessor in June 1996. One of the recommendations called for the introduction of legislation to outlaw below average marginal cost selling of newspapers. The recommendation was framed along similar lines to proposals by the national newspapers of Ireland, the umbrella representative group for Irish-owned newspapers.
The commission was satisfied that there were considerable grounds for supporting the NNI's contention that some UK newspaper publishers were selling newspapers at prices less than their average marginal cost. However, the commission also recognised that the detection and proof of such selling is complicated. The complications arise in particular from the difficulty in ascertaining the true extent to which advertising revenue can, with accuracy, be described as being derived from or targeted at the Irish market.