Industry Act 1975

30 Duty to give information to Minister

(1) A Minister who has made an order under section 28 above may by notice require the company or companies concerned to furnish him, in such manner and within such reasonable time as may be specified in the notice, and in such form as may be so specified, with such information as may be so specified relating to the business in the United Kingdom of the relevant undertaking, but not as to any matter except those specified in subsection (2) below.

(2) The matters mentioned in subsection (1) above are—

(a) the persons employed in the undertaking, or persons normally so employed (but not specifically as to individuals);

(b) the undertaking's capital expenditure ;

(c) fixed capital assets used in the undertaking ;

(d) any disposal or intended disposal of such assets ;

(e) any acquisition or intended acquisition of fixed capital assets for use in the undertaking ;

(f) the productive capacity and capacity utilisation of the undertaking;

(g) the undertaking's output and productivity ;

(h) sales of the undertaking's products ;

(i) exports of those products by the undertaking ;

(j) sales of industrial or intellectual property owned or used in connection with the undertaking, grants of rights in respect of such property, and contracts for any such sales or grants ; and

(k) expenditure on any research or development programme.

(3) A notice may require information as to any of those matters—

(a) in relation to a specified date not earlier than the commencement of the most recently completed financial year of the person specified in the notice ;

(b) in relation to a period commencing not earlier than the commencement of that year ;

(c) in relation to a future specified date or a future specified period;

but a requirement which is made, wholly or partly, in relation to a future specified date or a future specified period, is to be construed, to the extent that it relates to that date or that period, as a requirement only to give a forecast.

(4) The Minister shall send a copy of a notice under this section to the authorised representative of each relevant trade union.

(5) Nothing in this section shall be construed as enabling a Minister to require information about the details of know-how or of any research or development programme.

(6) In this section—

• " industrial or intellectual property " includes, without prejudice to its generality, patents, designs, trade marks, know-how and copyrights, and

• " know-how " has the meaning assigned to it by section 386(7) of the [1970 c. 10.] Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970.