§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 30 March, Official Report, c. 17, what information he has as to the reasons for the decline of 400 million tonnes in annual sugar consumption in the United Kingdom since 1972.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithI regret that there was an error in the answer referred to: the decline in annual consumption between 1972 and the present is 400,000 tonnes, not 400 million tonnes. There are a number of reasons for this decline, including changes in consumer taste, the fact that the reduction in sales at the time of the sugar shortage in the mid-1970s was not fully reversed and some substitution of glucose for sugar by food manufacturers.