§ Captain Bullockasked the Minister of Food whether it is the duty of divisional food offices to notify local executive offices of any alterations or variation in rationing schemes immediately they are known, or whether his Department or the divisional food offices will notify local offices immediately of any alteration, since in many cases these offices have to rely on Press reports with resultant confusion for all concerned.
§ Dr. SummerskillAppropriate instructions are normally issued by my Department to divisional and local food offices before any official announcement is made about rationing or other changes affecting, local food control. Where this is not possible because of urgency or for some other reason, instructions are issued at the same time or as soon as practicable after the announcement. The hon. Member will realise that if instructions are to be held pending an announcement in the House they may not reach remote food offices until a day or two after the Press reports have appeared. If the hon. Member knows of any cases where difficulty has arisen because of delay in the receipt of instructions by any par-174W ticular food office and will let me have details, I will gladly look into the matter.