MILK AND DAIRIES. (Hansard, 12 May 1914)

§ The PRESIDENT of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Herbert Samuel)

I beg to move, "That leave be given to introduce a Bill to make better provision with respect to the sale of milk and the regulation of dairies."

This is a Bill to deal with the purity of the milk supply. The general law of this country in relation to milk has regard chiefly to the prevention of fraud, the checking of deliberate adulteration, and it has, so far, very little regard to the far more important matter of the protection of the health of the people. Expert authorities have reported that tuberculosis is undoubtedly spread, particularly amongst children, by the consumption of tuberculous milk. The hon. Member for the University of London shakes his head, but the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis appointed to consider that very question, after having sat for six years and taken a wealth of expert evidence, reported unanimously that tuberculosis, especially amongst children, was not infrequently due to the consumption of tuberculous milk, and the recent Departmental Committee on Tuberculosis, presided over by the hon. Member for Plymouth, reported unanimously in the same sense. There are in England and Wales about 53,000 cases of tuberculosis every year, and no fewer than one-fourth of them are cases of non-pulmonary tuberculosis amongst children, and no in- 946 considerable portion is undoubtedly due to the consumption of tuberculous milk. Although we take an infinity of care in the protection of our water supply, the safeguarding of our milk supply, which is a matter of equal importance, is little regarded by the law.

So far as legal authority does deal with the question of health in relation to milk it does so, I submit to the House, on wrong lines. About a hundred local authorities, most of our great urban authorities, have now secured power to protect their population against contaminated milk. The result is a multiplication of inspection in the rural districts which is most distasteful to the agricultural industry. From a particular district the farmers may be accustomed to send their milk to half a dozen different towns, and all these different towns are enabled to send their medical and other inspectors down to the agricultural district each to conduct an independent examination as to the conditions under which the milk is produced and distributed, and each of these inspectors may impose upon the farmer a different standard to be observed by him. It has long been recognised, I think in all quarters of the House, that this is a matter which demands legislation, but the subject of milk, which ought to be a peaceful topic and the very name of which summons up ideas of all' that is meek and mild, has, in fact, been a matter of heated and almost burning controversy among the several great interests concerned. The public health authorities, especially of the towns, are eager, and properly eager, to safeguard the health of the population under their care, and they are rather unwilling to surrender the powers which have been conferred upon them by local Acts, unless they can be assured that a really efficient system of inspection and control will be established in the rural districts. Then the milk-selling industry is a numerous and highly organised body who are conducting a trade of inestimable value to the community. The milk sellers are anxious to see that the purity of the milk supply is secured, but, at the same time, they are, not unnaturally, anxious to make sure that they shall not in the conduct of their business be unnecessarily harassed by Regulations, and, especially, they are anxious to secure that the members of the milk-selling trade shall not be punished for faults that they themselves have not committed, merely because they are the parties most easy to reach.

947 Then, thirdly, there is the great agricultural industry, which is equally eager to observe any practicable measures for safeguarding the health of the population and for maintaining the reputation of the milk industry. The agriculturists object strongly to the present system of multiple inspection, but they are rather timid lest they should be exposed to harassing and unpractical Regulations framed by persons who have more regard for urban considerations than knowledge of the agricultural industry. They are especially timid lest their industry may be put to great expense owing to idealists endeavouring by a stroke of the pen to make all cowsheds on a farm into model dairies. Since I have had the honour to be at the Local Government Board, I have been in close and constant communication with the representatives of all those interests, and I find each of them is anxious to see legislation passed and the law put on a more satisfactary footing, and I find at bottom each of them is very ready to meet the legitimate interests of the other two, and I have endeavoured to frame a Bill which will meet with the general assent of the various parties concerned. The Bill is, as is necessarily the case with a matter of Departmental legislation of this kind, of a detailed character. It is not possible for me within the time at my disposal to describe to the House what I am afraid are its somewhat numerous and very detailed Clauses. But generally it may be enough, probably, to say that the Bill proposes to make Regulations in order to prevent the supply of contaminated or dirty milk, and that these Regulations shall be made by the Local Government Board with the concurrence of the Board of Agriculture, which will be asked to act in this matter in co-operation with the Local Government Board. These Regulations will be laid before Parliament, and will not become operative if either House of Parliament passes an Address against them. So I am taking every step in order to prevent in every way unreasonable Regulations being made by any Government Department at any time.

The Bill also proposes to provide means for tracing diseased milk—milk liable to communicate disease—back to its source, and stopping the source of supply of such milk. Where there is adulteration, the Bill enables an improved procedure to be adopted in order to bring the offence home to the really guilty person. The Bill pro- 948 poses to abolish the present system of multiple inspection, and to provide single inspection, and to safeguard against overlapping Regulations. I would mention incidentally—the hon. Member for Shropshire will be specially interested—the Bill also proposes to apply similar Regulations to foreign milk imported into this country for consumption. The Bill does not deal with the question of finance, but I should like to make it clear in this connection, first, that the Board of Agriculture propose to compensate farmers for cows that have to be slaughtered on account of tuberculosis on a more generous scale than hitherto, and, next, that the Public Health Grant which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes in the Budget this year will provide for paying half the salaries, not only of the medical officers of health and the sanitary inspectors, but the veterinary surgeons and the milk inspectors, so that half the expenses in enforcing these Regulations will be paid out of national funds. I have said enough, I think, to indicate the general purpose and scope of this Bill and the spirit in which it is framed. I shall only say further that I shall most gladly consider any Amendments or suggestions made from any persons interested in the measure with a view to meeting all reasonable wishes of all parties concerned. For five years Bills upon this subject have been before Parliament, and I trust this year Parliament will be willing to deal, I hope with general assent, with a subject which it is admitted on all hands demands the attention of the Legislature.