§ Sir J. Edenasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether the changeover from imperial to metric measures will have any appreciable effect on the price per unit of prescribed quantity products.
Mr. Alan WilliamsI do not expect any increases solely as a result of metrication in the unit price, i.e., the price per pound or per kilogram, of such products. In general, metric packs of prescribed juantity products will be about 10 per cent. larger than the corresponding imperial packs, and any price increases, which are, of course, subject to the overall controls contained in the Price Code, will have to reflect this. A large manufacturer of breakfast cereals has recently introduced such metric packs and has succeeded in reducing his unit price by 3 to 4 per cent.