§ 6. Mr. Denis Howellasked the Minister of Health if he will now give relative sales figures for vitamin foods available to children under the National Health Service for comparable periods before and after the recent increases in price; and if he will state the cost, the extent, and the purpose of the campaign now being undertaken by Her Majesty's Government to sell these commodities.
§ Miss PittThe figures are in the reply I gave to the hon. Member for St. Pancras, North (Mr. K. Robinson) on 1st December. The availability and value 7 of these supplements is brought to the notice of those concerned by local health authorities and others. It is not possible to specify the cost of doing so.
§ Mr. HowellIs the Minister aware that I have here a copy of a poster which has been circulated by the Government at enormous expense throughout the country to most business houses and other people, which clearly shows that the Government are obviously concerned about the enormous drop in the sale of the vitamin foods, which was evidenced by the previous Answer to which she referred? As we are worried about the effect on mothers and babies, and as we are spending a tremendous amount of money on advertising, is not the only sensible solution to take off these charges? Is it not a fact that we are spending as much money advertising these vitamin foods as the Minister tried to save by putting the charges up?
§ Miss PittI am surprised that the poster has gone to industrial concerns. It is issued to local authorities, and I think that it is a very good one. One of the purposes behind its issue was to bring home to those mothers who are in the residuary group, the people whom we most want to get at to improve the health of their children, that these supplements are available, and in particular that the orange juice supplement is now available to children up to the age of 5.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonDoes the hon. Lady recall that a month ago her right hon. Friend said that he had no reason to doubt that the proper vitamin intake was being maintained? In view of that, why have the Government embarked on this publicity campaign? Is not there some conflict here?
§ Miss PittNo, Sir. As a general statement that is accurate. The hon. Gentleman will remember that during the debate we had on the welfare foods most of us were very concerned about the small minority of cases where we still felt that help could be given.