§ 9. Miss Fookesasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make use of his powers under the Weights and Measures Act, 1963, to rectify the anomaly whereby breakfast cereals in flake form must be sold in standardised quantities while other forms are excluded from this requirement.
§ Mr. OnslowThe Department will be discussing with the manufacturers whether it would be practicable and convenient to extend the present arrangements to some other types of breakfast cereal.
§ Miss FookesIn thanking my hon. Friend for that slightly more favourable reply than I usually receive, may I ask him whether he would not agree that it is time that one Minister was responsible for consumer protection rather than the variety to which we have become accustomed, including the Minister for Aerospace on the last occasion?
§ Mr. OnslowI am, of course, answering in my capacity as Under-Secretary of State to my right hon. Friend the Minister. If my hon. Friend is grateful for that advance, I shall be happy to discuss the matter with her over lunch, tea or dinner on any mutually convenient occasion.
§ Mr. MilneWhen the Under-Secretary has recovered from his previous answer, will he, in view of the awakening interest of his back benchers in the subject of consumer protection, look at the possibility of setting up the Consumer Council again or some counterpart to it?
§ Mr. OnslowI am aware of my hon. Friends' interest in this matter, but I do not think that it necessarily extends as far as the hon. Gentleman suggests.