asked the Minister of Food whether he will make it a condition of issuing licences for the slaughter of pigs under the self suppliers' scheme that the pigs are slaughtered with the use of a humane killer.

I have great sympathy with the hon. Gentleman on this question, but I regret that it would be impracticable to make the use of a humane killer a condition for the grant of a slaughtering licence for a pig for home consumption, since a large number of these pigs are killed on remote farms. In any case it would be impossible to enforce such a requirement.