Day 064 - 08 Dec 94 - Page 41
1 Abstract of Pleadings. I cannot find anything about
2 communications -----
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: At the moment Mr. Oakley is not charged with
5 who is giving evidence. He does not know. He says the
6 matters are not within his area of responsibility.
7
8 MS. STEEL: I am trying to find out whether -- if one of those
9 is coming then obviously I can leave it for them. But
10 I was told by Mr. Hawkes that if I wanted to ask questions
11 on this subject I should ask Mr. Oakley.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I appreciate that but you cannot ask someone
14 questions if they really do not know about it. You may or
15 may not find you have actually got a witness you can ask
16 questions about at the end of the day. It is entirely up
17 to those who represent McDonald's as to who they call. You
18 can ask questions of those who come into the witness box.
19
20 MS. STEEL: I think the problem is where one witness says:
21 "Oh, you ask so and so about" to shelve their
22 responsibility, then when you ask the next witness they say
23 "no".
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: For all we know he may well have thought that
26 was the accurate answer. But there you are. That is the
27 situation at the moment. Mr. Oakley has said, in effect,
28 that he cannot help.
29
30 MS. STEEL: How long have you been in charge of Communications?
31 A. Since 1992.
32
33 Q. Mr. Oakley, you said when Mr. Rampton was asking you
34 questions that you thought that the customer had the right
35 to know the ingredients of the McDonald's products that
36 were being sold; is that a personal opinion or is that a
37 company opinion?
38 A. That was a company opinion.
39
40 Q. Right and how long has that been -- for how long has that
41 been the case?
42 A. Well, in the UK since 1984.
43
44 Q. Since 1984? Are you sure about that?
45 A. In the UK, yes. I was not responsible for those
46 publications at that time, as you know. I have only
47 recently had that responsibility but, to the best of my
48 knowledge, it was 1984.
49
50 Q. Would you accept it if I told you that even up until 1989
51 ingredient information was not available to customers?
52 A. No, I would not accept it.
53
54 Q. Before the McDonald's "Food - the Facts" published in 1989,
55 what documents are you aware of which say the ingredients
56 of the products?
57 A. Specifically ingredients?
58
59 Q. Yes.
60 A. I am not aware of any specifically on ingredients.
