§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has any evidence of local education authorities in receipt of milk subsidies selling milk at a price above that of the unit subsidy and the unit bought-in price combined.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithAuthorities selling subsidised milk to schoolchildren are permitted to recover reasonable distribution costs provided they do not charge more than a maximum price of 18½ pence per pint.
§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why Her Majesty's Government limited European Economic Community negotiations on special arrangements for milk subsidy to whole milk rather than the four standardised grades of milk covered by the European Economic Community regulation.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe special arrangements on school milk which I negotiated with the Commission apply only to whole milk because the aim was to derive maximum benefit from the Community subsidy already being generated by authorities providing such milk free of charge.
§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what safeguards exist, having regard to the present structure of school milk subsidy arrangements, to prevent local authorities exploiting the scheme by obtaining the full European Economic Community subsidy on milk which is then sold at regular prices in schools.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithAfter negotiations with the Commission of the European Communities, I have set a maximum price of 18½ per pint at which milk may be sold to schoolchildren by those local authorities which receive subsidy. As I made clear in my written reply to the hon. Member for Preston, South (Mr. Thorne) on 26 October, I am satisfied that this price is reasonable, given the level of the subsidy and the authorities' needs to cover their costs.—[Vol. 10, c.224.]
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§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why the United Kingdom programme for the payment of the European Economic Community subsidy on school milk does not include skimmed and semi-skimmed fresh pasteurised milks.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe categories of milk included in the United Kingdom programme under the EEC school milk scheme are those which have applied since the Community subsidy was introduced in 1977, and reflect the preponderance of whole milk supplied by local authorities. However, we are at present considering whether to add certain kinds of semi-skimmed milk to the United Kingdom programme.