Hallmarking Act 1973 (Application to Palladium) Order 2009

I do not pretend to be an expert on this subject, but none the less I am fairly well briefed on it. The importance of this piece of legislation is that palladium will be included as a precious metal, and as we have heard, it will be third in ranking behind platinum and gold, with silver coming last. That is a significant development for palladium. The legislation applies to precious metal articles wholly or partly made of palladium and relates to the lack of consumer protection, which is very important. The order summarises the costs and benefits of adding palladium to the list of precious metals. Interestingly, Her Majesty’s Government estimate that sales in palladium jewellery could be worth £5.4 million in five years’ time, and reach 15 per cent of the UK jewellery market in 10 years. I have a number of additional questions for the Minister in order to give some indication of what we are likely to experience as a result of this legislation. Have the projected increases in the sale of palladium taken into account the recession? There was some indication from the Official Opposition Front Bench that this might be so. What impact might this have on the use of palladium in other areas, such as catalytic converters where it is commonly used? How many other countries have adopted some form of hallmarking for palladium? We have just heard what is happening in that area. What increase in taxation receipts do the Government anticipate from the increased sales of palladium which they predict will follow hallmarking? Finally, what experiences were learnt from platinum being added to the hallmarking regime in 1975 in terms of fraud prevention? This legislation sets out fairly clearly the differences between platinum and palladium. In addition, do the Government expect hallmarking to boost the value of palladium? Around the year 2000, palladium was more valuable than platinum, trading at $1,000 per ounce—platinum was around $600—due to shortages from Russia and demands from car manufacturers which needed it for catalytic converters. In response to those questions, perhaps the Minister will give us an indication of what is likely to occur as a result of this legislation.