§ Mr. John Hallasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has received from the Milk Marketing Board about the introduction of a new grade of milk; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. SoamesThe Milk Marketing Board proposed to market a new grade of milk at a higher price than ordinary milk. The new grade of milk would come from farms classified as Class A (premium quality) under the compositional quality scheme, and would have an absolute minimum total solids content.
I have sympathy with the proposal, but I regret that I have been forced to the conclusion that I cannot approve it at the present time. I should need to be assured beyond reasonable doubt that in the result the average quality of the remaining milk supply would not be lower than I could accept as sufficient in the light of the Report of the Cook Committee on milk composition, and in present: circumstances this is not so.
The way forward lies in raising the quality of milk generally through the Board's compositional quality scheme. To ensure this, I propose making for a limited period special financial arrangements to enable the Board to maintain reasonable premiums under the compositional quality scheme. These arrangements will be made at the time of the Annual Review without prejudice to whatever guaranteed price may be determined at the Review for milk as a whole. The circumstances of the Scot- 130W tish and Northern Ireland Boards are somewhat different but they will receive the same measure of assistance. These arrangements will, I trust, enable a new quality grade of milk to be put on the market in the not too distant future while keeping the quality of the general milk supply at an adequate level.