§ 61. Mr. William Hamiltonasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the proceedings of the recent conference of the Institute of Weights and Measures, details of which have been sent to him, and especially the statement by the Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures, he will take action to protect the consumer in this particular field.
§ Mr. DarlingAs my right hon. Friend stated in the Answer he gave on 28th June to the hon. Member for Monmouth (Mr. Anderson), he has already initiated consultations with the manufacturers of detergents on his proposals for requiring these products to be pre-packed only in specified quantities.—[Vol. 749, c. 102.]
§ Mr. HamiltonDoes my right hon. Friend recollect that in his speech to this conference, Mr. Norris, the Chief Inspector, pointed out that the biscuit manufacturers, for instance, had marketed no fewer than 492 different kinds of packages and sizes of biscuit, and that one soap and detergent manufacturer alone had 19 different sizes and weights? Is he aware that it is impossible for a housewife to keep track of these things, and that here lies one of the major causes of the concealed price increases that are making a 2112 nonsense of the prices and incomes policy?
§ Mr. DarlingTremendous difficulties ar involved in getting standard packaging for biscuits. I quite agree with my hon. Friend's views, but we have run into another complication. We are seriously considering, when we come to the marketing of quantities—where quantities can be marked—whether they should be marked in metric measurement or in Imperial weights. This is a problem we think can better be solved by marking in metric weights. If customers here accept this it is much easier for us to do so than to have Imperial measures.