asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether it remains the Government's intention as suggested in the Department of the Environment's Circular 171/74 that local authorities should recover the full cost of meat inspection from the charges made for that service; and whether he will reconsider his Department's proposed rate of increased charges as this involves the subsidisation from the rates of nearly half the cost of providing this service to the meat trade.

Government policy is that, in general, local authorities should be able to recoup their costs of slaughterhouse meat inspection by charges within the maximum rates prescribed by the Meat Inspection Regulations. We have had representations that because of increasing

The average prices paid to producers in Great Britain for potatoes were as follows:

November 1973	November 1974 (latest available)
£18·92 per ton	£23·55 per ton.

Comparable prices for the other commodities specified are not available.The following retail prices are as collected by the Department of Employment for the Index of Retail Prices:costs, and despite the substantial increases in the maximum rates proposed by my Department, many authorities will continue to face losses on this service. We therefore propose immediately to institute a fresh review of these costs and rates of charge. This will inevitably take some time. Meanwhile, as an interim measure, we propose, subject to consultation with the Food Hygiene Advisory Council, to implement the proposed increases.