§ 7. Mr. Rankinasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will make a statement on the letter sent by him to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Govan, on 21st April concerning the relative nutritional value of food provided from broiler and roaster chickens.
§ Sir E. BoyleAs the hon. Member knows, I wrote to him on 21st April to draw his attention to an error in the OFFICIAL REPORT of 9th April, 1964, which I am having corrected for the Bound Volume.
§ Mr. RankinMay I thank the right hon. Gentleman for telling me that part of his reply was misleading and incorrect in that letter? Has the right hon. Gentleman given any further consideration since then to the point I raised about arsenic in broilers? Is he aware that while the quantity of arsenic which may be fed to these broilers is limited by the Pharmacy Acts, the amount of arsenic which the human being can acquire from broilers is quite unlimited? Does he not realise that this is a somewhat serious situation? If he has not inquired into it, would he look into it again?
§ Sir E. BoyleI am sorry about the misreporting of one word of mine which I have tried now to put right. The hon. Gentleman has, since that ques- 594 tion, pursued the matter with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health. I think he does not, perhaps, take fully into account the provisions in the Arsenic in Food Regulations, 1959, which go a long way to meet the hon. Gentleman's point.