27 and 28. Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Secretary to the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the Tea (Net Weight) Order, 1917, contained no provision as to the local officers to be entrusted with its enforcement; that a further Order has been issued by the Board placing the working of the Tea Order in England and Wales in charge of the district councils, which in practice 18 means the sanitary inspectors, not the inspectors of weights and measures who are provided with the standards; whether he has taken into consideration that this will lead to inefficiency and overlapping owing to two classes of local officers being entrusted with the cognate duties of examining the means of weighing a pound of tea in a shop and of seeing that the pound of tea has been properly weighed and labelled; and whether he proposes to take any further action?
The hon. Member also asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he is aware that the Local Authorities (Food Control) Order (No. 1), 1917, placed the duty of enforcing the Bread Order, 1917, the Manufacture of Flour and Bread Order (No. 2), 1917, Clause 5, as varied by the Manufacture of Flour and Bread Order (No. 3), 1917, and the Cake and Pastry Order, 1917, on the sanitary authorities of municipal boroughs and rural district councils in England and Wales, which involved that sanitary inspectors should enforce these Orders; whether, seeing that previous to the Local Authorities (Food Control) Order (No. 1), 1917, the Food Controller had assigned to inspectors of weights and measures throughout England and Wales the duty of enforcing these Orders, this Order by the Local Government Board was issued after consultation with the Food Controller; whether the Food Controller has decided that sanitary inspectors oil urban and rural districts with their ordinary duties to perform, and with eleven other Orders of the Food Controller to carry out, can more efficiently work these three Orders than those inspectors of county councils who regularly visit shops in connection with the inspection of weights and measures; and, if not, whether he will continue to allow county council inspectors to enforce these necessary Orders in their county areas, unless in any area under borough or urban or rural or district councils which contains a population exceeding 20,000?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Hayes Fisher)The Order of the Local Government Board, which was made by arrangement with the Food Controller, leaves it to the local authority to arrange as they think fit for the enforcement of the Orders of the Food Controller, and I do not anticipate that it will lead to inefficiency and overlapping.