§ 4. Mr. R. MORRISONasked the President of the Board of Trade whether the Food Council is reconsidering the question of holding an inquiry into the prices of market-garden produce?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERAs the hon. Member is aware, the Food Council reported in April that there was no indication either from growers or consumers that an inquiry was called for in the public interests. The Council would, accordingly, require evidence that the situation had changed, before reconsidering the question of holding an inquiry.
§ Mr. MACLEANDid the Food Council invite consumers to appear before them to give evidence?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI understand that they were prepared to consider any representations that were made, but the difficulty was to get anyone to come forward.
§ Mr. MACLEANDid the Food Council issue any special invitations to any body of consumers to give evidence on this question, or did they merely leave it to the option of anyone to come forward?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI do not think, speaking from memory, that they sent out special invitations to everybody who might be consumers. They had one or two representations made to them, but they found it difficult to get people to proceed with their complaints.
§ Mr. MORRISONCan the reply which has been given by the right hon. Gentleman be regarded as an invitation to the public to send complaints to the Food Council, and, if the Food Council consider them of sufficient importance, that they will investigate them?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERIt is one of the functions of the Food Council to investigate any substantial complaint that is made. They showed their willingness to hold an inquiry into this matter, but they found that there were no complainants who were prepared to proceed with their complaints.
§ Mr. W. THORNEIs it not a fact that when the Food Council ask them a very large number of people refuse to give evidence? What action is taken in such cases?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThat is quite a different question. I do not think that where an inquiry has been held there has been any question of people being unwilling to come forward. Here there was a suggestion that an inquiry should immediately take place, as originally proposed by hon. Members in this House, but it was found that among those who were primarily interested in regard to the margin between the producer and the consumer, no one was prepared to come forward and prosecute the case.