HC Deb 19 July 1949 vol 467 cc1157-8
43. Mr. James Hudson

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the annual consumption of sugar by the brewing trade for each of the last four years.

Mr. Glenvil Hall

I will, with my hon. Friend's permission, circulate this answer in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Mr. Hudson

Not with my consent, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask my right hon. Friend whether these figures do not indicate that there is a slight reduction in the total amount of sugar allowed to the brewers, compared with pre-war usage. As there is a very large reduction in the domestic allowance of sugar, compared with pre-war usage, would my right hon. Friend say how the Chancellor of the Exchequer came to the decision that sugar for the domestic users must now be cut down whilst for the brewers it is left at the same level?

Mr. Glenvil Hall

My hon. Friend will, of course, see the complete figures in the OFFICIAL REPORT, but I can tell him that between 1947 and 1948 there has been a reduction in the sugar allocation of something like a quarter of a million hundredweights.

Mr. Hastings

May I ask whether my right hon. Friend is treating the soft-drink makers as liberally as he is treating the brewers?

Mr. Stanley

Is not the fall in the allocation of sugar to brewers due merely to the falling off there has been in the demand for beer, which falling off the Chancellor of the Exchequer is trying to put right by his Budget this year?

Following is the answer:

The estimated quantities of sugar, including the equivalent of syrup, glucose and saccharum consumed by the brewing trade for each of the last four years ended 30th September were:

1945 … … 1,784,064 cwts.
1946 … … 1,790,021 cwts.
1947 … … 1,601,186 cwts.
1948 … … 1,443,558 cwts.

I should explain that "saccharum" is a form of sugar ("invert sugar"), not saccharin, the use of which is prohibited in brewing.