§ 57. Mr. Spenceasked the Minister of Food if he will dissect the aggregate sterling value of butchers' and/ or meat manufacturers' permits under the following headings; Groups I, II, III, IV and general butchers, and show these for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively, under the classification of multiple traders, private traders and co-operatives.
§ Mr. StracheyI regret that the information which the hon. Member seeks is not immediately accessible. To extract it would involve research into the individual permits of some 45,000 retail butchers—who are the Group II mentioned—and 800 Group I manufacturers, 18,000 Group III manufacturers and 3,000 Group IV manufacturers. None of these groups of manufacturers has been classified according to the three economic types referred to.