HC Deb 23 April 1959 vol 604 cc585-6
32. Miss Burton

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he is now in a position to make a statement on the proposal made by the Consumer Advisory Council of the British Standards Institution that an independent national body representing every aspect of consumer interest should be established.

The President of the Board of Trade (Sir David Eccles)

The proposal of the Consumer Advisory Council will come within the terms of reference of the Committee to be set up to consider questions of consumer protection.

Miss Burton

As there is considerable interest in this matter in the House and outside, in trade generally and the consumer organisations, will the President answer one general question? Will he say what he means by a departmental committee? Is it a committee composed entirely of civil servants or with a civil servant at its head, or will it have power to co-opt?

Sir D. Eccles

It will not have any, civil servants. The name is a regular name for a committee of distinguished men and women, but not a Royal Commission.