§ Mr. CHARLES BATHURSTasked the Prime Minister if he will arrange with the Presidents of the Board of Agriculture and of the Local Government Board for the appointment of an Inter-departmental Committee of those two Departments, as recommended by the late Sir Henry Camp-bell-Bannerman in May, 1006, to consider and report upon the best means of establishing a permanent Court of Reference, whose duty it shall be to investigate the various methods of adulteration (including the adulteration of animal feeding stuffs and fertilisers) which exist or may arise, and to advise as to the steps to be taken to protect effectually the public from the fraudulent sale to them of adulterated articles?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI do not think it necessary to set up a Departmental Committee to report upon the particular question—which, I may add, is not the question dealt with by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman—referred to by the hon. Member. The actual appointment of a Court of Reference would need legislation, 32 and may, I think, be deferred pending the result of further experience of the working of the new Foods Department, which has been formed under the Local Government Board. As regards the Board of Agriculture, I understand that the Department have begun the collection of analyses, which is the necessary preliminary to the fixing of a standard.