HC Deb 06 August 1975 vol 897 cc223-4W
Mr. Cartwright

asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether she has any immediate plans for helping the shopper through price display or by other means.

Mr. Maclennan

The Government have just embarked upon a rolling programme of orders for price display, including unit pricing and for other measures designed to facilitate price comparison.

As a first step in this accelerated action programme an order has been made which will require the price to be shown for all fresh fruits and vegetables from 1st November. In practice this will widely extend unit price marking—i.e. price per pound—in greengrocers' shops. I am also setting up a working party to study the unit pricing of prepacks.

We have also made significant progress in our discussions on meat with representatives of the trade and of enforcement authorities. As a result, a pilot scheme for unit price marking for all normal retail cuts of meat will start on 1st October. In order that the scheme can be properly supervised and monitored, participation will be limited, both as to the localities in which the scheme should operate and the number of shops involved in each area. We expect that a few multiple and independent butchers as well as retail co-operative societies will take part in each of the following areas:

Metropolitan Counties:

  • West Midlands
  • West Yorkshire

Non-metropolitan Counties:

England

  • Suffolk
  • Gloucester
  • Surrey
  • Dorset

Wales

  • Clwyd
  • West Glamorgan

London Boroughs:

  • Hillingdon
  • Lambeth
  • Barking

Scottish Regions:

  • Borders
  • Grampian
  • Highland
  • Strathclyde
The scheme will end in January 1976 and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be inviting comments on the experiment.

The Government are grateful to all those involved for their agreement to run this pilot scheme which will give the trade an opportunity to find ways of best complying with any future legal requirement to show prices, and which provides a unique opportunity for the trade and enforcement authorities to work together towards practical, enforceable legislation for the benefit of the consumer.

My hon. Friend the Minister of State referred last week to proposals for price display in licensed premises. In addition, during the next six months I hope to lay orders which will result in the extension of unit pricing to prepacked frozen fish, to certain popular cheeses and to prepacked milk sold from vending machines. Shoppers, particularly the elderly and the young, will also benefit from proposals for two orders which I intend to lay before Parliament in this period; one will require biscuits, and the other chocolate bars, to be sold in prescribed quantities.