35. Mr. De la Bèreasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he will issue some statements to show to what extent the flour-milling industry is controlled by Order, both as regards the type of flour produced, and the price at which flour and feeding-stuffs made by the industry are to be sold?
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (Mr. Lennox-Boyd)As the reply is necessarily rather long, I will, with my hon. Friend's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
Mr. De la BèreMay I ask my hon. Friend whether he would ask the Minister of Food, who is not present to-day, to be good enough to see me personally in this matter, which is very important indeed?
§ Mr. J. MorganIs the levy subsidy still charged on the flour and paid through the consumers' bread?
§ Following is the reply:
§ The Flour Milling Industry is controlled as regards the type of flour produced and the price at which flour and feeding-stuffs made by the industry may be sold, by the following three Orders issued in pursuance of powers conferred under the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939:
§ The Control of Mills (Flour and Provender) (No. 1) Order, 1939, made by the Board of Trade on 3rd September, 1939.
§ The Flour (Prices) (No. 1) Order, 1939, made by the Board of Trade on 3rd September, 1939.
§ The Feeding-Stuffs (Maximum Prices) Order, 1940, made by the Minister of Food on 6th January, 1940 {as amended by Order dated 18th January, 1940).
1133§ The Control of Mills (Flour and Provender) (No. 1) Order, 1939, prohibits millers from milling or delivering.any cereal or manufacturing any cereal product except under licence and provides that any specified conditions may be attached to such licence including conditions as to the quantity and type of product which may be manufactured. On 3rd September, 1939, the Board of Trade issued a General Licence (as amended by Order dated 9th December, 1939) authorising all flour millers to continue to manufacture, but prohibiting, except under special authority, the production of any flour other than straight-run flour as defined in the Flour (Prices) (No. 1) Order. The Board have in a few cases issued special licences to individual millers for the production of flour other than straight-run flour. No special licence is required to produce wholemeal flour which is covered by the definition of straight-run flour.
§ The Flour (Prices) (No. 1) Order, 1939, defines straight run flour and fixes a "basic price" for all sales of such flour and provides for certain additions to and deductions from the basic price and for carriage, and credit. The Order prohibits the sale of flour at prices other than those specified on the Order.
§ The Feeding-Stuffs (Maximum Prices) Order, 1940 (which revokes the Feeding-Stuffs (Maximum Prices) Order, 1939, dated 29th September, 1939, which itself revoked the Feeding-Stuffs (Provisional Prices) Order, 1939, dated 18th September, 1939) prescribes maximum prices which may be charged to the consumer for approximately 70 types of home-produced feeding-stuffs, and for a similar number of types of imported feeding-stuffs. The most important of these from the British flour millers' point of view are the wheat by-products (fine wheatfeed and straight-run bran) manufactured in the process of milling flour, although flour millers who are also provender millers produce other cereal products specified in the Order.
§ The effective result of these Orders is that the flour mills have since the outbreak of war, while remaining in the possession of their owners, been controlled at first by the Board of Trade and subsequently by the Ministry of Food.
38. Mr. De la Bèreasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he is 1134 now able to give an assurance that it is not intended to continue for the duration of the war the operating system of the Millers' Mutual Association in connection with holding within certain limits the price of flour in view of the fact that under this system excess of output is penalised and non-attainment of output is subsidised?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI would remind my hon. Friend that the Millers' Mutual Association is not controlled by the Ministry of Food. My information is that the rules of the Association prohibit it from taking any action to fix or regulate the price of flour. The price of straight run flour in the United Kingdom was fixed at 22s. per sack of 280lb. by the Flour (Prices) (No. 1) Order, 1939, made by the Board of Trade at the outbreak of war. I am assured that immediately after the outbreak of war the Association in question suspended the operation of any rules regulating the output of flour by its members.