HC Deb 25 June 1951 vol 489 cc976-7
8. Mr. Dye

asked the Minister of Food what action he proposes to take to improve the facilities for slaughtering fat stock in Norfolk when large quantities are forthcoming during the autumn months.

Mr. Webb

I do not think that this will be a very difficult problem. Fat cattle marketings in Norfolk are greatest in the spring, not in the autumn. Other parts of the country are then able to help, and in the autumn Norfolk helps them.

Mr. Dye

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the conditions of the slaughterhouses, whether in autumn or spring, are the subject of most adverse criticism by medical officers of health, and does he not agree that it is urgent that something should be done?

Mr. Webb

That is a wider question. I am conscious of the lack of adequate facilities for slaughtering, not only in Norfolk but in other parts of the country.

9. Mr. Dye

asked the Minister of Food how many fat pigs were accepted at the collecting centres and by the area pig allocation officer in Norfolk during 1950; how many were sent outside the county for slaughter; and what was the shrinkage allowance made in respect of these pigs.

Mr. Webb

One hundred and four thousand, two hundred and sixty pigs were accepted at collecting centres and 47,114 by the Area Pig Allocation Officer. About 146,000 were sent out of Norfolk to bacon factories in Suffolk and the Midlands, which are partly dependent on that county for supplies. About 5,000 pigs were slaughtered in Norfolk for use as fresh pork and for manufacturing purposes. Considerable labour would be needed to work out the shrinkage payments on all these pigs, but I am sending my hon. Friend copies of the scale on which they are calculated.

Mr. Dye

Does not my right hon. Friend appreciate that shrinkage of pigs in transit, before they get to the slaughterhouses, is a matter of concern to the producer and that it should be to the Ministry, because of the loss of weight? Would it not be better to make some re-arrangement of the slaughtering facilities in the Eastern Counties?

Mr. Webb

I have already explained to my hon. Friend the difficulties in this matter. I cannot add anything to my previous answers.

Commander Maitland

Does not this Question, and the last, indicate the importance of having slaughterhouses at places nearer to where the meat is produced, and also illustrate the general shortage of slaughterhouses in the country?

Mr. Webb

I think that is so.

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