§ 33. Mr. Dobsonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, how many notifications of price increase have been made to his Department to the latest convenient date; how many have been rejected and how many approved; what is the average price increase of those approved; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HoyBetween 20th July, 1966 and 13th May, 1968 476 proposals for price increases have been examined by my Department under the early warning system. Of these, 175 have been rejected, withdrawn or modified and the remainder accepted as justifiable. It is not possible to give the average price increase.
It would be wrong, however, to judge the success of the early warning system by these figures. Manufacturers are aware of the rigorous scrutiny my Department gives to proposed price increases, and the great majority only make proposals when they believe them to be well-founded.