§ 4.16 p.m.
§ The Minister of Pensions (Mr. Ramsbotham)I beg to move, in page 4, line 26, after "cow-heifers," to insert "sold or."
This Amendment is moved in order to rectify a small but apparently important omission in the Bill as it has come down to us from the Committee upstairs. When the Bill left the Committee it was decided that payment might be made in respect of a steer, heifer or cow-heifer certified at a live-weight centre whether the producer sold the animal or slaughtered it. As the Bill stands, payment will only be made in respect of a carcase of an animal certified at a dead-weight centre if the animal is slaughtered by or on behalf of the producer presenting it for certification. Accordingly, the farmer who sells the animal cannot, as the Bill stands, obtain payment at the dead-weight centre, on a carcase basis. Clearly he may very well wish to sell the animal and obtain payment on a carcase basis after certification at the dead-weight centre. That is not an uncommon practice at the present moment. Transactions are from time to time carried out between farmers and butchers on a dead-weight basis, the 813 animal being sold on the hoof at so much a pound, the exact amount to be paid being ascertained after slaughter at the dead-weight centre. As the Bill stands that would not be possible, but I think the Committee will agree that there is no reason why a producer, should he wish to do so, should not be able to present his animal for certification at either a live-weight or a dead-weight centre, irrespective of how he desires it to be disposed of, and this Amendment, quite rightly, gives freedom of choice in that matter.
§ Amendment agreed to.