HC Deb 10 December 1934 vol 296 cc18-9
22. Brigadier-General CLIFTON BROWN

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether the contract issued by the Bacon Board to curers includes porkers; if so, whether he is aware of the handicap to small mixed-trade curers in country towns imposed by their inclusion in the flat-rate scheme; and whether he will have this removed?

Mr. ELLIOT

The contract prescribed by the Pigs Marketing Board is for use only in cases where registered pig producers wish to contract with registered bacon curers for the sale of pigs for manufacture into bacon. I understand that it is a term of the contract that all live pigs purchased by the registered curers who have contracts registered with the Pigs Board shall be transported by the railway companies at a flat rate as provided in the contract. My hon. and gallant Friend will appreciate that the application of a general principle of this nature, which is designed in the interests of the industry as a whole, may give rise to some difficulties in individual cases, and the Bacon Marketing Board have expressed their willingness to discuss any such difficulties with the curers concerned.

Brigadier-General BROWN

Are we to understand that a curer who buys porkers for which he has no contract with the Bacon Board is still liable for the flat rate?

Mr. ELLIOT

It covers all the things that have been put forward.

Brigadier-General BROWN

If there is no market for porkers, why should they be interfered with?

Mr. ELLIOT

Nothing is interfered with.

23. Brigadier-General BROWN

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether his attention has been called to the complexities of the contract for bacon pigs issued by the Bacon Board; and whether he will intervene with the board to amend it and simplify it?

Mr. ELLIOT

The terms of the contract were prescribed by the Pigs Marketing Board after consultation with the Bacon Marketing Board, and are necessarily somewhat complicated owing to the range of detail the contract has to cover. The boards fully appreciated the necessity of ensuring that registered producers and curers should understand the agreement into which they were invited to enter, and explanatory notes were circulated with the contract forms for that purpose. The matter is mainly one between the boards and their constituents, and I have no power to intervene.

Brigadier-General BROWN

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that his answer to the last question shows that this question is justified?