§ Mr. RATCLIFFEasked the Food Controller if he is aware that at Bridlington Market on 7th April the Government graders and valuers allocated twenty-five sheep to the Morley Retail Butchers' Association and twenty-five sheep to the Out-wood and Stanley District Retail Butchers' Association, near Wakefield; that each of these lots of sheep were valued to weigh 118 lbs. each dead-weight, or a total of 2,950 lbs.; that the first lot weighed only 2,142 lbs. dead-weight, equal to about 85¾lbs. each; that the second lot, instead of weighing 2,950 lbs., weighed only 2,066 lbs. dead-weight, or about 82⅔lbs. each; and that these sheep cost the retail 1360W butchers over £2 each over the price fixed by the Ministry of Food; whether he is aware that a cheque for £25, or £l each sheep, has been sent to each of the associations to try to settle the matter, but has only been accepted on account; whether he will use his influence to put a stop to this practice and make sale by dead-weight the leading method of dealing with livestock; and will he remove the graders who were responsible for these bad valuations and are clearly unfit for their positions?
§ Mr. McCURDYThe answer to the first five parts of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the sixth part, the cheques to which the hon. Member refers were tendered not by the Ministry of Food, but by the owner of the sheep. The Ministry accepts no liability for losses which may be incurred by overgrading, and similarly does not require butchers to return any profit received in cases of under-grading. The Food Controller is satisfied that butchers in general have no objection to the live-weight basis; and they have in some cases refused to change their live-stock permits for permits to purchase dead meat. It is not, therefore, considered that there is any justification for depriving the farmer of his option to sell on the live-weight basis. I may add that the graders in question are no longer in the service of the Ministry.