View from City Road: So much spent for so little by the DTI

Michael Heseltine should start his battle against red tape in his own department. After spending pounds 2,684,000 producing a 225- page report into the collapse of the mini-conglomerate Bestwood, the DTI sat on the report for nearly three years while the Serious Fraud Office attempted to convict some of the main protagonists.

Three of them pleaded guilty to a total of 10 charges, but none of them ended up behind bars. Seven other company directors, a firm of accountants and Lloyds Bank were criticised, yet the DTI has taken no action against any of these. Recommendations regarding changes to the Companies Act, the management of pension funds and share disclosure rules were also put forward. None of these have been implemented. The DTI has yet to publish its report into Atlantic Computers, which collapsed in 1989. The report into Mirror Group Newspapers will not appear until the end of the trials of the Maxwell brothers and others. We who pay through the nose for these DTI reports have the right to ask, what is the point of them?