§ Mr. Henderson Stewartasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what methods are used by his Department to 80W determine the actual costs of transporting white fish from the ports of landing to the points of sale; from whom such figures are collected; whether they distinguish between road and rail transport; whether they include road transport from the ports to local markets; and to what extent these costs, for road and rail respectively, have changed since the date of the removal of the flat rate transport subsidy in the case of Scotland as a whole, and of the Anstruther district ports in particular.
Mr. McNeilMy Department estimate the cost of sending fish to market from the port of landing on the basis of information obtained from the merchants as to quantities, means of transport and destinations and from the transport undertakings as to freights. For the year ended 30th November, 1949, the actual cost thus estimated of transporting fish from the Anstruther district was about £3,500. At current freights the cost would have been about £4,100. The transport levy actually paid was £9,827. None of these figures takes account of local cartage. I regret that similar figures for the whole of Scotland are not available.