§ Mr. Cryerasked the Minister for Trade if he will place an order bringing into operation section 19 of the Weights and Measures Act 1979; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. Vaughan[pursuant to his reply, 1 July 1982, c. 355]: No. I have only just received further representations from the West Yorkshire metropolitan county council about bringing section 19 into effect, and a copy of the transcript of the recent judgment of the divisional court which rejected its appeal in the case of Bennett v. Markham King against the latter's acquittal of the charge of serving short measure beer. I shall naturally consider whether these documents contain any new material which would justify changes in the present law.
United Kingdom support price*£/tonne Estimated world prices† £/tonne Common levy‡ £/tonne United Kingdom MCA‡ £/tonee United Kingdom net levy ‡ per lb# Beef and veal 1,963.78 934.98 ≑1,141.02 175.37 54.74 Sheepmeat 2,264.83 1,610.20 ¶n.a n.a. n.a. Pigmeat 850.16 720.94 235.52 81.62 13.36 Poultrymeat 841.19 602.19 167.90 21.48 7.86 Eggs 733.48 337.96 170.01 25.06 8.11 Milk £/litre 0.162 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Butter 2,163.44 1,178.32 1,060.62 207.69 ▀52.91 Skimmed milk powder 904.66 533.08 441.91 86.85 22.06 Common wheat 114.35 76.66 67.69 10.98 3.27 Barley 102.22 81.18 49.92 9.81 2.49 Maize 140.68 73.36 58.67 9.81 2.85 Rice 424.34 173.51 230.34 — 10.45 Olive Oil 949.33 707.99 157.76 — 7.16 Sugar 319.91 135.12 210.90 29.99 *10.01 Notes: * Prices ruling as at 21 June 1982. Beef and veal—intervention price converted to carcase equivalent using 54.5 per cent. killing out co-efficient; sheepmeat—GB guide price; pigmeat—lowest buying-in price although in practice support is through occasional aids to private storage rather than buying in; poultrymeat and eggs—sluicegate price plus basic levy; milk-milk equivalent intervention price; butter—intervention price for 82 per cent. butter; skimmed milk powder, barley—intervention price; common wheat—reference price; white sugar—United Kingdom intervention price including storage levy. Maize, rice and olive oil—threshold price. The support prices have been converted from ECUs at the representative green rate of £1 = 1.61641 ECUs. † "World prices" have been taken as the minimum offer prices of imports underlying the calculation of the variable levies and have been calculated by substracting the levy in ECUs applicable on 21 June from the appropriate threshold guide price in ECUs. The beef price is also adjusted for duty. For poultrymeat and eggs the "world price" has been taken as the sluicegate price less supplementary levies; the sluicegate price has been taken for pigmeat. The "world prices" have been converted from ECUs at the market rate used for calculating MCAs on 21 June of £1: = 1.80723 ECUs. ‡The rates of levy and United Kingdom MCAs in force on 21 June 1982. These rates vary for different tariff headings. The rates quoted are: beef and veal—carcase; pigmeat—carcase; poultrymeat—70 per cent. chickens; rice—wholly milled long grain; olive oil—virgin lampante.