§ 68. Brigadier-General Clifton Brownasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether the allowance to milk distributors for expenses and profit recommended by Lord Perry's Committee in 1940 to be 8d. per gallon has been exceeded; and if so, why?
§ Mr. MabaneThe recommendations of the Perry Committee including the recommendations to limit the distributors' margin to 8d. a gallon were not accepted by His Majesty's Government. The distributors' margin was not then and has not since been as low as 8d. a gallon, and evidence was produced to the Committee that, even at that time and under war conditions, many distributors would have found it impossible to continue in business under the margin recommended. I am not able fully to develop the considerations involved within the limits of an oral answer but I would refer my hon. Friend to the statements made by my Noble Friend in another place on 18th March, 1941, and 1st April, 1943.