HC Deb 19 June 1963 vol 679 cc437-8
18. Mr. Milne

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what sum was paid out to retail distributors arising from the recent decision of the Sugar Board.

Mr. Soames

None, Sir. The distribution payments are made by the Sugar Board to the refiners at the point where raw sugar passes out of bond into the refineries. The consequential reduction in the price of refined sugar is passed on by the refiners to the retail distributors and other customers.

Mr. Milne

Is the right hon. Gentleman absolutely convinced that the interests of the housewife and the consumer were fully protected by this machinery? Will he examine it with a view to tightening it up?

Mr. Soames

I believe that the measures we put into operation just before the Whitsun Recess have enabled the consumers and the housewives to have the fullest advantage from the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement. This has always been and remains the Government's intention.

Mrs. Slater

Does not the right hon. Member agree that these steps should have been taken very much earlier so that the housewife was not held to ransom not only by high prices but by conditions of sale? In some shops house wives were told that they could not have sugar without buying another commodity as well.

Mr. Soames

I cannot accept that it would have been reasonable to have done this sooner. The retail price began to rise early in May at a time when the world price was rising exceedingly steeply—so steeply that it could not possibly have been forecast. Then the wheels were put into motion and by about the middle of May—or at any rate by the end of May—we had laid these Orders. In fact, our prices were well below world prices in early May. There was a period of only about two or three weeks at the most when prices were higher than we would like to have seen.