§ MR. ALEXANDER CROSS (Glasgow, Camlachie)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, if he will furnish a Return of the complaints coming before that Board under The Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, 1893, during the last five years, with the names of the persons concerned and a note of the essential points of complaint, for each year separately; also if he will grant a Return of the number of criminal prosecutions which have occurred under this Act during the period, and of the results of each criminal prosecution.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) We could not undertake to furnish a Return of the complaints made to the Board as to the specific cases arising under the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, for the reason that the information given is more or less of a confidential character. The enforcement of the Act, moreover, rests with the local authorities, and it is to those authorities and to the vendors that such complaint would ordinarily be addressed. Information as to the more general representations which we have received as to the working of the Act will be found in the Report and Minutes of Evidence of the recent Departmental Committee. Prosecutions under the Act may be undertaken by county councils without reference to the Board, and we have no information as the number which have taken place. Two applications have been made to the Board for certificates authorising a prosecution under Section 3 of the Act. The certificate was refused in one case and granted in the other, but we were not informed whether proceedings were actually instituted, and, if so, with what result.