SUGAR REFINING AGREEMENTS (APPROVAL) ORDER, 1957 (Hansard, 9 May 1957)

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL ST. ALDWYN)
My Lords, I beg to move that this Order be approved.

§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH
What does the Order achieve?

EARL ST. ALDWYN
My Lords, I have been in touch with some of the noble Viscount's colleagues, and I gathered that they had no points to raise on the Order so I was not proposing to say anything. But if the noble Viscount wishes, I am quite willing to say a word. The Order gives the approval of my right honourable friend, the Minister of 547 Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to two agreements, one for the United Kingdom and one for Scotland, between the British Sugar Corporation and other sugar refiners. The agreements are an extension of a series of similar agreements going back to 1936, all of which have had ministerial approval by Order or otherwise. The Sugar Act, 1956, requires that such agreements shall be approved by Order subject to Affirmative Resolution.
The purpose of these agreements has been and remains to assure a market for the produce of the British beet sugar industry by regulating the marketing of sugar in the United Kingdom as between the British Sugar Corporation and the other refiners. The two agreements in the Order differ from their predecessor, the 1953 Agreement, only in formal and minor respects, the main change being to have a separate agreement for Scotland within the United Kingdom agreement. My right honourable friend the Minister has satisfied himself that the agreements fulfil the conditions laid down in the Sugar Act, 1956, under which the Order approving them is made, namely, that:

(1)they shall provide an adequate market for the output of the beet sugar industry;

(2)they shall make all types of refined sugar manufactured by parties to the agreements generally available throughout the United Kingdom; and

(3)the agreements are compatible with the interests of consumers and users of sugar in the United Kingdom.

The effect of the Minister's approval is to give the agreements statutory protection against "any rule of law" relating to agreements in restraint of trade. I beg to move.

§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH
My Lords, I am much obliged. I do not propose to debate this matter. I am looking at these classes of Order rather closely because of the rate of prices at the present time.