Mr. Vyvyan Adams:

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the Chemists Friend Scheme under which manufacturers agree not to supply their goods to shop proprietors who are not registered chemists; whether he is aware that the result is that certain proprietors who have, possibly through lack of funds, failed to take their chemists examination, are suffering through this restraint on their legitimate trade; that no public interest is thus served; and whether he will take powers to curtail the operation of all such restraints on trade?

I am aware of the scheme to which my hon. Friend refers and of the objections which have been taken to it. The whole question of arrangements of this kind between manufacturers and traders was fully considered by the Departmental Committee on Restraint of Trade which reported in 1931, and I see no reason to dissent from the view which they expressed that there was no compelling reason for a change in the law.