§ MR. R. S. STRAUS (Tower Hamlets, Mile End)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he would state, in reference to Regulation 9 of the Board of Trade Weights and Measures Regulations, 1907, as to how many boroughs and county councils permission has been 24 granted by the Board of Trade to extend the period of inspection from one to two years, either generally or with respect to some part of their area; and whether, in view of the necessity of protecting the interests of the poorer classes of the community, he will consider the advisability, if boroughs are undertaking annual inspection, of refusing to grant any relaxation to county councils in regard to general traders short of annual inspection in so far as towns having a population of 10,000 and upwards are concerned.
(Answered by Mr. Kearley.) Permission has been granted to thirty-one county councils and to ten town councils to extend in certain cases the period for inspection prescribed by the Weights and Measures Regulations. I quite agree with my hon. friend that an extension of the period of inspection is probably less likely to be required in towns than in country districts, and, while I am not prepared to apply any rigid numerical tests in such cases, I may say that a distinction between urban and rural parts of a county has in certain instances already been made.