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.

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.

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?

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—

It is not correctly labelled. Get it right.

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.

When shall we be debating that draft regulation?

The draft regulation is not yet ready.