§ 19. Mr. McNair-Wilsonasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will introduce legislation to provide a system of marking boots and shoes to ensure that customers are made aware of materials used in their manufacture.
§ Mr. DarlingThe revised merchandise marks legislation—which incidentally will have to have a new name when we have finished with it—which I am preparing will provide, as recommended by the Molony Committee, a general power to require informative labelling of specified classes of goods.
§ Mr. McNair-WilsonWhile thanking the hon. Gentleman for that reply, is he aware that customers up and down the country are at the moment buying footwear, much of it very shoddy, without any idea of what it is made of? Would he not think that this was something which should be urgently considered as a sensible measure of consumer protection?
§ Mr. DarlingI agree that it is an urgent matter, and we will introduce the legislation I have mentioned as soon as is practicable.