§ Major Leightonasked the Minister of Agriculture what progress has been made by the Livestock Commission in the matter of the establishment of centralised slaughterhouses?
§ Sir W. WomersleyI have been asked to reply. As my right hon. Friend indicated in reply to a question asked by the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. T. Williams) on 9th February, 12 specific proposals for the establishment of central slaughterhouses were submitted to the Commission within the time allowed for the purpose.
627WThese proposals have been examined by the Commission, who have naturally found it necessary to discuss the proposals in detail with the respective applicants. These discussions are now reaching their final stages. In the meantime the Livestock Advisory Committee have been given an opportunity of expressing any views of a general nature which they wished to advance regarding the selection of three from among the 12 applications.
As soon as the discussions to which I have referred are completed, the Commission will be able to proceed to their decision regarding the selection of three of the proposals for the experiments, and I understand that they hope shortly to arrive at their decision.