§ Mr. BoothbyOn a point of Order. As the position of the barley industry and the whisky industry in Scotland is of such desperate and dire, importance would I 2446 be in Order in asking the Government to allow an extra hour in which to debate this subject?
§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Mr. Hubert Beaumont)That is not a point of Order.
§ 4.27 p.m.
§ Mr. Snadden (Perth and Kinross, Western)I have only two minutes left but I can still get over a lot of ground. I want to ask the hon. Lady the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food what she intends to do about the barley which is rotting in bags in the North-East of Scotland? Scottish agriculture cannot take advantage of wheat growing to any great extent and we are dependent upon oats and barley as our main cereal crop. In Scotland today the distilling outlet has been closed because the Ministry of Food will not allocate any barley to the distillers. There is only one other outlet—the domestic outlet. That is also restricted because the Ministry of Food has applied a points rationing scheme to barley, including pearl barley It is just nonsense to suggest that today there are guranteed prices and an assured market for barley. My point is that the Government have broken their pledge, in that there is no maximum price payable, and even the minimum price is uncertain, because points rationing has been put on pearl barley. This means that in the North-East, particularly in Moray, Nairn and Aberdeenshire, hundreds of thousands of quarters of barley are lying rotting because farmers cannot get the maximum price. We want to know what the Minister intends to do about it? Considering that farmers are under direction to grow crops and be as efficient as possible, and having become efficient 100 per cent. by producing a first quality sample, to have it thrown back in their teeth by the Government and to be offered only a miserable minimum price of 81s. is a gross injustice. It means a loss of £5 an acre. We want to know what is to be done about it. I hope the hon. Lady the Parliamentary Secretary will tell us that the Government intend to over the distilling barley, which is now rotting in bags on the farms, at the maximum price of 101s.
§ 4.29 p.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (Dr. Edith Summerskill)I regret that time is very short, because 2447 I wished to speak in greater detail upon this subject. I know that several Scottish Members would like to have spoken and perhaps we may have an opportunity to discuss this matter fully at a later stage. I fully appreciate that farmers are disappointed but I must remind the hon. Gentleman the Member for West Perth (Mr. Snadden) that there was no guarantee that the barley grown by the farmers in Scotland would be used by the distillers.
§ Mr. SnaddenThe maximum price.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe hon. Gentleman is asking for the maximum price. Certainly there was no guarantee that the farmers would have the maximum price for all the barley they produced. The Ministry have said they are quite prepared to buy any surplus barley at £4 1s. per quarter.
§ Mr. SnaddenThat is a loss of £1 per quarter.
§ Dr. SummerskillIt is a loss of £1, certainly, on the maximum price. The hon. Member asks me to answer and I would point out that already my time is up. It is a loss of £1 on the maximum price but the Ministry of Food have never guaranteed to the farmers that they would pay the maximum price for surplus barley.
§ Mr. SnaddenThey have taken away the market.
§ Dr. SummerskillAll fair-minded men think that £4 1s. is a fair price
§ It being Half-past Four o'Clock, Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order, till Tuesday, 21st January, pursuant to the Resolution of the House this day.