§ Q2. Mr. Edelmanasked the Prime Minister whether he will seek to establish an independent food and drug authority similar to the United States Food and Drug Administration.
§ The Prime MinisterAll aspects of the machinery of government are kept under regular review, but I do not think that a Food and Drug Administration on the United States model would be well suited to conditions in this country.
§ Mr. EdelmanIs it not the case that there are at present four Ministries, including the Ministry of Technology, involved in dealing with the problem of food pollution, and that over 300 different authorities are concerned with the enforcement of regulations? Would it not be more rational to centralise authority?
§ The Prime MinisterI think that the system which we have is the right one and that it would be wrong to set up an independent authority outside the control of this House. Inevitably, a number of Ministers are concerned—for example, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on the food side, and the Secretary of State for Social Services on the health side—and it is right that the Ministers concerned should be answerable to this House. Anything in the nature of the F.D.A. would be against our principles in this matter, and I have no reason to think that it would be more effective.
§ Dr. WinstanleyWill the Prime Minister bear in mind that while it is necessary to exercise vigilance about the safety of food and drugs, any new machinery should be constructed to constitute more than just a sounding board for anti-fluoridists and other cranks who seem determined—[HoN. MEMBERS:"Oh!"I—to convince us—
§ Mr. RankinOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I have your guidance on this matter? Is it within the rules of order of this House to designate perfectly respectable hon. Members who 828 hold certain views as being people who hold "cranky" views? Is that in order?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Member for Cheadle (Dr. Winstanley) did not make a reference to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Govan (Mr. Rankin)—
§ Mr. RankinHe was thinking of me.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. It is in order to use discourteous terms about groups of people either inside or outside this House. Dr. Winstanley.
§ Dr. Winstanley—and others who seem determined to convince us that the only way to stay healthy is to starve to death?
§ The Prime MinisterI know that the hon. Gentleman has great medical authority, but so have the advisers of Her Majesty's Government in all these matters. I did not read the Question tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, North (Mr. Edelman), as referring to fluoride, and I know from a learned treatise written recently that he had in mind more the problem of cyclamates, monosodium-I-glutamate and other exciting substances of that kind.
§ Dr. MillerWould not my right hon. Friend agree that there is another side to this, which is the danger of drugs to the public? Has his attention been drawn to an advertisement appearing in a national newspaper exhorting members of the public completely to disregard the findings of a very important committee in this country which tries to protect the public from dangerous drugs? Will he see to it that this kind of exhortation is not given countenance?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not think that this advertisement is a matter for me. But I will see that my right hon. Friend looks into it if my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Kelvingrove (Dr. Miller) will give me particulars.
My hon. Friend will be aware that the Medicines Act, 1968, gives the Health and the Agriculture and Food Ministers a very extensive range of functions concerning the safety, efficacy and quality of drugs, comparable in scope to those of the F.D.A. which my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, North was pressing upon me.