§ Mr. Ellisasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proposed food price increases have been stopped by his direct intervention since the standstill; and how many food price increases have taken place in spite of the standstill.
§ Mr. PeartNotifications of proposed price increases under the Early Warning System are confidential. I am not therefore at liberty to say what proposals I have rejected, but they amount to six. A further one was withdrawn. Twenty-three notifications to my Department of proposed price increases have been accepted as satisfying the criteria specified in the White Papers and a further 20 have been accepted after they had been modified in discussion with my Department.
The success of the Government's policy is to be measured not by the number of proposals which are accepted or rejected. Much more important is the extent to which, in co-operation with the Government's policy, manufacturers do not make proposals for price increases in the first place (or modify them after discussion with my Department) and traders do all they can to prevent unnecessary rises in the prices of foodstuffs which must vary.
§ Mr. Ellisasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a 75W list of foodstuffs which have gone down in price in the last month.
§ Mr. PeartThe prices of many foodstuffs must inevitably go up and down in accordance with fluctuations in supply and demand. It would therefore be impracticable to publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a detailed list of the foodstuffs which have gone down in the past month. However, I am glad to say that in the last month there have been significant falls in the average price of beef, lamb, tomatoes, bananas and oranges.