§ Mr. W. HIRSTasked the President of the Board of Trade the value of meat consumed per head of the population in Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the years 1924, 1925 and 1926, respectively?
§ Mr. GUINNESSI have been asked to reply. Until the results are available of the last Census of Agricultural Production in Scotland and Northern Ireland, any estimates of the consumption of meat in the United Kingdom can only be very approximate. However, according to rough calculations which have been made, the value of the per head consumption of all kinds of meat in the United Kingdom was about £4 18s. for each of the two years ending May, 1925, and May, 1926, and about £4 8s. for the year ending May, 1927. For the purpose of these calculations, home-produced meat has been valued at the average prices realised by second quality animals at the cattle markets for which price statistics are collected by the Ministry, while for imported meat the declared value has been adopted.