§ SIR FREDERICK PERKINSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been directed to the prosecutions which have been instituted in various parts of the country against licensed victuallers for vending spirits of different degrees of strength under-proof, and the conflicting decisions which have been arrived at by local justices thereon; and, whether, considering the uncertainty which prevails upon the matter, he is prepared to consider the subject with a view to the fixing of a specific standard of under-proof at which spirits, and especially gin, can be retailed without any actual or implied infringement of the Food and Drugs Act?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHSir, the attention of the Government has from time to time been directed to the prosecutions which have been instituted against licensed victuallers for selling spirits of different degrees of strength under proof. The policy of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act was to leave it to the local tribunals to give decisions in accordance with the evidence in each case; and, in order to provide against the inconvenience which might result from varying views among the locally-appointed analysts, it was provided that the opinion of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue might be taken in disputed cases. I have no reason to doubt that in course of time, by this means, and by the decisions of the High Court of Justice on typical cases brought before them on appeal, greater uniformity of procedure will be arrived at. Meanwhile, I may say that the statements and facts submitted to me tend to show that there is a natural process of deterioration in the strength of spirits by lapse of time, which should caution local authorities against the institution of proceedings in doubtful cases, and that there is a margin between the degree of 744 about 17 per cent under proof, which may be taken to be the figure at which spirits are delivered over to the licensed victuallers, and the point or points at which the Superior Courts have supported convictions within which at present some uncertainty must be admitted to exist. There are difficulties in the way of fixing a specific standard, and Parliament has not thought it proper to insert any such in the Act; but means are provided by which, in doubtful cases, retailers of these articles can protect themselves from prosecution, either by retailing under warranty or by labelling the article sold as of a particular degree of strength below proof.