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for example, that only one sample of cream, five of sausages,,
one of butter, one of bottled fruit, etc., etc., have little public
health significance, while, too, one can think of the condensed
milks, common beverages, coffee, and all drugs which were not
represented in the list for 1936 at all. It is suggested that a
better sampling would have ben made by the staff of a public
health department under the technical administration of the
iVIedical Officer of Health. It is relevant also to note that all
the Sanitary Inspectors of the Borough Council hold the special
food certificate of the Royal Sanitary Institute, and have constant
opportunity greater than that of the County's Inspectors
of Weights and Measures to observe infringements of the Food
and Drugs and Merchandise Marks Acts.
Having considered the figures which were supplied by the
Clerk of the County Council, it would seem that the costs of
the service would have appeared likely to become less for
Wembley had the Borough Council become the Authority. For
example, for the £266 15s. 9d. mentioned in a letter, by the
County Council, 142 samples were examined for Wembley, 52 by
the County analyst and 90 by the officers of the Public Control
Department. For the 142 samples to have cost £266 15s. 9d. the
average cost for a sample must have been £1 17s. 6d. Were all
these "formal" samples, (and they were not), and were they
all examined by a public analyst, (and they were not), they
would have cost 15/- per sample for analysis, that is to say,
the administration cost alone per sample seems to have been
£1 2s. 6d.
For the aforementioned reasons, it was pointed out that
were the Borough Council to become the Food and Drugs
Authority both would there be a greater co-ordination of the
responsibility with the general public health services of the
Borough, and the administration costs would have been less than
they are meantime through the County rate.
In due course, the Medical Officer of Health attended upon
the Select Committee of the House of Lords and the House of
Commons, to which Committee his observations were submitted.
The Middlesex County Council, however, made application
for a direction under proviso (a) to Section 64 of the Food and
Drugs Act, 1938, that they shall continue to be the Food and
Drugs Authority for the County of Middlesex on and after the
1st October next as respects the districts of those local authorities
who, but for such a direction would become Food and Drugs
Authorities.
The Minister has just intimated (July, 1939), that he has
decided to grant the County Council's application.
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