Food Industry Competitiveness

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. It is important that the retail sector has good relationships with its suppliers, and by and large that is the case across the piece. However, in the course of the investigations into the relationship between supermarkets and producers, processors and the farming industry, it became clear that there had been some abuses. For example, sometimes there were no written contracts between the retail sector and the producers and processors, which seems very strange in this day and age. Also, prices were being changed after the event, which meant that the price that a producer or processor expected was not reflected in the cheque that came through the post from the retailers. Those abuses were taken into account, which was why the strengthened code of practice was produced and why all parties concluded that an ombudsman of some description would be appropriate to oversee the application of the new code. We were not convinced that the system was working as effectively as it could have done.