§ 30. Mr. Osborneasked the Minister of Food if he will divide the losses shown by his Department in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report for 1948–49 of £24,000,000 on animal feeding stuffs, £133,000,000 on cereals, £28,000,000 on egg products, £57,000,000 on meat, £44,000,000 on milk £59,000,000 on milk products, £7,000,000 on oils and fats, £11,000,000 on potatoes and carrots, £20,000,000 on sugar and £18,000,000 on tea into the actual subsidy received by the public, and the trading profit or loss for each separate item.
§ Mr. WebbWith subsidised foods it is not practicable for us to do this. On some unsubsidised foods, however, we made profits which helped pay our total subsidy bill. With permission, I will publish these figures in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. OsborneIs the Minister not aware that by refusing to give these figures, he leads the public to feel that the losses on trading are much greater than they are, and would it not be better for him to publish the whole story?
§ Following are the figures:
§ The figures for these unsubsidised foods are as follow:
| profit | |
| £m. | |
| Egg products sold to caterers, manufacturers and bakers | 0.5 |
| Meat—Imported canned meat, rabbits, poultry, etc | 0.5 |
| Milk products—Milk powder | 0.2 |
| Oils and fats including sales abroad or for export | 12.7 |
| Sugar—Raw sugar for export or sold direct abroad | 1.4 |
| 15.3 |