§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Industry what information he has on why British firms are apparently unable to supply the pharmaceutical industry with a sufficient supply of bottles and caps.
§ Mr. CryerThe main difficulty lies in matching the continuous production process for glass bottles with fluctuations in demand. Production of pharmaceutical bottles in 1977 increased by 7 per cent. over 1976, but at present demand exceeds70W supply. The situation should ease later this year when new plant now under construction comes on stream. Although there was a bottle cap supply problem in the first half of 1977, I understand that this has been overcome.