Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many well-woman and other clinics are now screening women for breast cancer; and what progress is being made in research to provide an adequate breast-cancer screening programme for all women at risk.
Mrs Joyce Butler: As so many women still die of this disease and as many others live in dread of it, whereas a dramatic decrease of 33 per cent. in the mortality rate of the over-50s has been shown by a recent study in America, will my hon. Friend keep up the pressure on his Department to ensure that it gives adequate priority to the helpful advances in early detection and early treatment?
Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will introduce a ban on the import of pâté de foie gras in view of the cruelty often involved in its production.
Mrs Joyce Butler: Since these birds overeat naturally, will my hon. Friend say why this most repulsive mechanical forced feeding is still permitted and whether any regulations in the EEC can prevent inadvertent cruelty by hundreds of operators who have no knowledge of animal pathology? Will he use such influence as he has to persuade the EEC to end this most distasteful practice instead of perpetuating it by...
Mrs Joyce Butler: I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. In the few minutes left to me, I want to draw attention to the main aims of the Bill. It covers a very wide range of products which are used by men, women and babies and children. The number and use of these products is constantly increasing. In recent years consumers have been demanding to know more of what these products contain, but...
Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will propose amending the Nationality Act to ensure that British women have the same rights as British men in regard to the residence of their foreign spouses in this country; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs Joyce Butler: Can the Home Secretary amplify in any way the more liberal use of the criteria that he will apply in exercising his discretion on compassionate grounds in these cases? It is intolerable that this inhumane sex discrimination against women should continue while there is a means of ending it by administrative action.
Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will ensure that the milk subsidy is increased in line with permitted increases in the retail price of milk.
Mrs Joyce Butler: While that consideration is taking place, will the right hon. Gentleman say whether any studies are being made of the probable effect on the health of the elderly and of children of even a small increase in the price of milk, which will lead to reduced consumption of such an essential food? The farmers can speak for themselves, but will the Minister act for consumers, who have no powerful...
Mrs Joyce Butler: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to clarify the rights of patients to privacy when receiving hospital treatment under the National Health Service, and in regard to medical experiments on human beings. The subject of consumer protection as it affects the health service is a very big one, but in this Bill I wish to draw attention only to two aspects which worry a great many...
Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will introduce regulations to increase the meat content of sausages provided in catering establishments; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs Joyce Butler: How much longer are we to be fobbed off with second-rate sausages when we eat out? Is the hon. Lady aware that as long ago as July last year her predecessor said that he would examine the catering sausages loophole, but there has been no improvement. Last month the Daily Mirror found four out of six samples of catering sausages deficient in meat content. When are we to have effective action?
Mrs Joyce Butler: I have been amazed this afternoon at the ease and familiarity with which right hon. and hon. Members have carried the House through the clauses of what I confess to finding a rather daunting Bill. By the time that one has studied, however briefly, the 169 clauses and five schedules, one begins to wonder why anyone in Britain ever enters into a credit transaction. But that they do, and in...
Mrs Joyce Butler: I am glad to know that women have a friend in court in this respect. I should be grateful if the Minister would also bear in mind that widowed, single, separated and divorced women are in even greater difficulty since they virtually cannot make any credit transaction or hire-purchase agreement because of the trouble they experience in trying to find a male relative or friend to act as...
Mrs Joyce Butler: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me the opportunity to correct an impression which I may have created. I said that there was regret that the consultation had been asked for on the White Paper after its publication. The consultation would have been welcomed had it taken place before the Bill was published. It was the undue speed with which the Bill was introduced which prevented...
Mrs Joyce Butler: After publication.
Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunica- tions if he will give a general direction to the Post Office to utilise for residential purposes all residential property which it holds or to make arrangements for the appropriate local authority to do so.
Mrs Joyce Butler: Will the Minister at least ascertain how many houses of this kind the Post Office holds in the London area similar to those in Dowsett Road, Tottenham, in my constituency which have been left empty and boarded up with unsightly corrugated iron for the past two years in an area of acute housing shortage? Will he also discuss with the Post Office whether means can be found of keeping local...
Mrs Joyce Butler: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which categories of dried fruit are treated with liquid paraffin before sale to the public; what indication is given about this on the labels or containers; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs Joyce Butler: How far has the Food Standards Committee in its review of the Hydrocarbon Oils in Food Regulations gone to hear consumer concern about this practice and its unsatisfactory nutritional effects, particularly as no warning is ever displayed that the liquid paraffin should be thoroughly washed off the food before it is eaten? Would it not be satisfactory to substitute an effective vegetable oil...