§ 29. Mr. Oramasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in the 1958 Census of Distribution, information will be obtained about the development of self-service trading.
§ Mr. ErrollNo, Sir. My right hon. Friend, after consulting his Advisory 218 Committee, thinks that the questions to be asked in the Census should, for reasons of economy and to save traders time and trouble, be limited to the essential minimum,
§ Mr. OramDoes not the Minister appreciate that the self-service shop is one of the most encouraging developments in recent years from the point of view of reducing the cost of living? Ought it not, therefore, to be very desirable to get as much information about them as possible and disseminate it amongst those engaged in distribution?
§ Mr. ErrollI have a good deal of sympathy with that point of view, but the fact is that the census is only a sample survey covering about 1 in 10 of the smaller independent traders. It might therefore give a very distorted impression if we examined self-service trading which is largely in the hands of the larger traders.