Oral Answers to Questions — Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
Mr John Cronin
, Loughborough
12:00,
20 Rhagfyr 1973
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek powers to control the quality of the lower-priced wines sold in Great Britain.
Mrs Peggy Fenner
, Rochester and Chatham
No. Existing and projected legislation at national and Community level should provide the consumer with adequate safeguards on the composition and labelling of wine. It is not my function to intervene further by limiting the range of qualities available to consumers.
Mr John Cronin
, Loughborough
Has the hon. Lady's attention been drawn to a report of a comprehensive nature recently published in the Sunday Times, which indicated that a substantial proportion of wines sold to the British public are of unduly poor quality, undrinkable, or fraudulently labelled? Will the hon. Lady use her influence on the wine trade to persuade it to put its affairs in better order?
Mrs Peggy Fenner
, Rochester and Chatham
Like the hon. Gentleman, I read that criticism in the Sunday Times colour supplement with great interest. But that criticism no doubt reflects to some degree the preferences of the individuals who wrote the article. Provided that certain minimum compositional and hygiene requirements are met, and provided that wine is correctly labelled—
Mr Raymond Carter
, Birmingham, Northfield
It is not correctly labelled. Get it right.
Mrs Peggy Fenner
, Rochester and Chatham
Under the Food and Drugs Act wine has to be correctly labelled. The draft Community regulation on the description and presentation of wine is likely to be finalised in the fairly near future, and the proposal in that regulation, which spells out fairly stringent labelling requirements for wine, has been generally welcomed by consumer organisations in the United Kingdom.
Mr Neil Marten
, Banbury
When shall we be debating that draft regulation?
Mrs Peggy Fenner
, Rochester and Chatham
The draft regulation is not yet ready.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
