Clause 14.—(INTERPRETATION.) (Hansard, 29 April 1949)

§ Dr. Summerskill
I beg to move, in page 11, line 6, to leave out: and in the principal enactment. This Amendment and the two which follow—in line 33, and in page 12, line 22—are drafting Amendments. We have had second thoughts about the Bill, and we have recognised that Clause 14 as it stands, governs the meaning of the principal enactment, namely, Section 21 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938. This is wrong, particularly in regard to the definition of milk. If hon. Members will look at the definition of milk in the Bill, they will see that it does not include cream, but we wish, so far as the Food and Drugs Act is concerned, to have a reference to cream. Although there are at present no special designations for cream, we are anxious that when the times comes we shall be able to take some action in that matter. It is, therefore, proposed to define milk separately, and the House will see the definition in the Amendment to line 22.
1.15 p.m.
The third Amendment is concerned with defining selling. It will be seen that the Clause provides that selling means selling in the course of a business. We are anxious, that for the purposes of Section 21 of the principal Act, to make a sale under Section 21 include the free supply of milk.

§ Major Legge-Bourke (Isle of Ely)
I should like to express my gratitude to 564 the right hon. Lady for listening to what I said in the Standing Committee. It was a little ridiculous not to have milk defined as including cream, when everything which the Ministry of Agriculture is doing is directed towards encouraging the production of milk which contains more cream. I think the Amendment meets our point to some extent, but I would like to ask the right hon. Lady why, instead of saying in the Amendment that milk means cows' milk, but does not include cream, or separated, skimmed, dried, condensed or evaporated or butter milk, the important point—that milk includes cream except when the cream has been separated from the buttermilk—is not covered. I suggest that a better wording would have been an indication that milk does not include separated cream, and I am very surprised that the word "separated" has been left out.

§ Dr. Summerskill
I understand that under Section 100 of the Food and Drugs Act, cream means that part of milk rich in fat which has been separated by skimming or otherwise; I should also say that where we describe milk as such, it means full cream milk.

§ Captain Crookshank
I am sure that is very satisfactory. I want to ask the right hon. Lady a question on a much more elementary point than what milk means. Why should we have such a curious arrangement in drafting? Here we have Clause 14 (1), which says that the meaning of certain words is as set out there, and we then expect to find a definition of milk. It does not do that at all, but says that milk will be defined in a special subsection. While everybody is prepared to accept the new definition of milk in the new subsection, why does it not do it in the place where we expected it, instead of saying that milk is something which is defined somewhere else? It is a quite unnecessary complication.

§ Dr. Summerskill
It is quite simple, if the right hon. and gallant Gentleman will examine the principal enactment. I think hon. Members opposite are not paying sufficient attention to the principal Act, where they will find most of these definitions. The reason why we have this definition of milk separately in the Bill, is because it applies to this Bill and not to the principal enactment.

§ Captain Crookshank
I do not understand. It may be that it ought to be changed in the further stages of the Bill. In this Bill, Clause 14 (1) has nothing to do with the principal enactment. It is a definition of milk for this Bill and not for the principal enactment, and therefore it ought to be in line with the definitions in subsection (1). I do not make any great point of it; I only suggest that it might be looked at again.

§ Dr. Summerskill
The right hon. and gallant Gentleman is really concerned with tidying up the wording; he thinks that it might perhaps look better. We want to give some emphasis to the importance of milk. After all this is a milk Bill, and I would have said—and I think I may have a little support from the hon. and gallant Member for the Isle of Ely (Major Legge-Bourke) who raised the question of cream—that it is important to define clearly what we mean by milk, that is why it is given special emphasis in the new subsection.