§ Mr. Hurdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has yet completed the appointment of the Pig Reorganisation Commission; and when the first meeting will be held.
Mr. AmoryYes, I am glad to say that the Commission will consist of the Chairman and the following four members
The Lord de Ramsey (Chairman of the Huntingdonshire Agricultural Executive Committee),Sir Robert Maclean (Chairman of A. F. Stoddart & Co., Glasgow),Mr. A. G. Tomkins (General Secretary of the National Union of Furniture Trade Operatives),and Mr. R. C. Tress (Professor of Political Economy, Bristol University).As I have previously informed the House, the Chairman of the Commission will be Dr. C. I. C. Bosanquet, Rector of King's College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and 58W projects which are ready soonest will be started first.
The following major projects are already in progress or are expected to start in the current financial year:
the following are the terms of reference of the Commission.
- (a) To consider the working of organised pig and bacon marketing in Great Britain under the Pigs and Bacon Marketing Schemes (now in suspense), having regard also to the provisions of the Bacon Industry Act, 1938;
- (b) to consider in the light of current and prospective conditions (including the level of production of pigmeat, the guarantees now given to producers under the Agriculture Act, 1947, and the Government's international obligations) whether these Schemes or any practicable modifications of them should continue in operation, and if so the nature of any alterations that may be required; or if not, whether any new marketing schemes should replace them and the form that any such new schemes should take;
- (c) to consider co-ordination between any schemes in Great Britain and corresponding arrangements in Northern Ireland; and
- (d) to make recommendations.
The first meeting of the Commission will be held on Wednesday, 13th July.