HC Deb 15 December 1970 vol 808 cc1103-4
20. Mr. Ashton

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of his receipts from motor taxation, he will make a grant to the Consumers' Association specifically for car testing and checks on garages.

Mr. Maurice Macmillan

The question of a grant to the Consumers Association is for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. I do not think that the existence of motor tax revenue would affect my right hon. Friend's decision.

Mr. Ashton

Is the Chancellor of the Exchequer aware of the Which? inquiry into garages which showed that they were not only thieves but potential murderers? In view of the enormous revenue from motor taxation, whichever Minister is responsible, does not the right hon. Gentleman think that it is about time that the majority were investigated instead of the few which the resources of the Consumers' Association make possible?

Mr. Macmillan

I think that the hon. Gentleman has slightly mistaken the point. The validity of a grant does not depend on the source of finance for it. We cannot start on this hypothecation of revenue, which distorts the Government's judgment in the spending of public funds.

Sir G. Nabarro

Will my right hon. Friend at once recognise that the representative garage organisations refuted absolutely the kind of disreputable language used by the hon. Gentleman and that the standards of maintenance for motor cars, while varying very widely, are on the whole creditable, not discreditable?

Mr. Macmillan

I must apologise to my hon. Friend for missing that point. The hon. Gentleman's supplementary was so wide of the point that I did not take it up in substance.