HC Deb 07 July 1927 vol 208 cc1444-6W
Mr. FOOT MITCHELL

asked the Minister of Agriculture if he is now able to state what action the Government has taken, or proposes to take, to give effect to the main recommendations of the Linlithgow Report?

Mr. GUINNESS

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave on 12th July, 1926, to a question addressed to me by my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Lamb), which contains a lengthy statement of the action taken on the recommendations of the Linlithgow Committee to that date. As the whole of the Ministry's marketing work is in consonance with the Committee's recommendations, it will, I hope, be sufficient for his purpose if I summarise briefly the main directions in which progress has since been made. The Horticultural Produce (Sales on Commission) Bill, the Markets and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) Bill and the Merchandise Marks Bill are now Acts of Parliament. Reports since issued in the Ministry's Economic Series are (a) Marketing of Poultry, (b) Marketing of Pigs, (c) Marketing of Fruit, and (d) a Report on Markets and Fairs, the latter being pursuant to the Committee's recommendation that particulars of the control and ownership of the markets of the country and other relevant information should be collected and published. A detailed Report on the markets of the Midland Counties has been completed; reports on the marketing of other commodities are in hand. In addition, practical demonstrations of improved methods of marketing are being staged by the Ministry at a number of agricultural shows in the present summer and will be repeated at a number of centres later in the year. These demonstrations direct special attention to grading, packing and standardisation, the necessity for which the Committee was at pains to emphasise. A recommendation of some importance was that the Ministry, in collaboration with curers, should make an authoritative pronouncement as to the best type of pig suitable for bacon production. This is now being done, for both pork and bacon, at the demonstrations referred to, in the sense that the Ministry has invited the representative organisations of curers and butchers to define their preferences in the matter of breeds and crosss and is exhibiting pigs selected by the trade as being best suited to the requirements of the market.