§ MR. LAMBERT (Devonshire, South Molton)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether his attention has been called to recent prosecutions for adding preservatives to cream, resulting in conflicting decisions; whether, seeing that two Departmental Committees are investigating this question, he can take any stops to prevent any further prosecutions pending the decision of these Committees.
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. LONG,) Liverpool, West DerbyI have seen the reports of the cases to which the hon. Member refers, but I have no power to interfere with the exercise of the discretion of the local authorities by whom proceedings under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts are initiated. I do not doubt, however, that those authorities will bear in mind the fact to which the hon. Member calls attention—namely, that a Departmental Committee, over which my right hon. friend the Member for Wigtownshire presides, is now making a full inquiry into the subject of the use of preservatives in food. The matter is not one which falls within the purview of Lord Wenlock's Committee on Milk Standards, to which I understand the hon. Member also to refer.