HL Deb 13 May 1920 vol 40 cc305-6

Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee, read.

Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee. (Viscount Peel.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.

House in Committee accordingly.

[The EARL OF DOXOUGHMORE in the Chair.]

Clauses 1 and 2 agreed to.

Clause 3:

Supplemental provisions.

3.—(1) The Minister of Transport may for the purposes of this Act employ such accountants as he may think fit, and it shall be the duty of tramway undertakers to furnish to any such accountant such information and to produce to him such accounts and books as he may require for the purpose of reporting to the Minister or the Advisory Committee as to the financial position of the undertaking.

(2) The costs incurred by the Minister in connection with any application for an order under this Act, including the remuneration of any such accountant, shall be paid by the undertakers, and the Minister of Transport may certify the amount of the costs incurred, and any sum so certified and directed by the Minister to be paid by the undertakers shall be a debt to the Crown from those undertakers.

(3) For determining the cost of labour for the purposes of this Act, the Minister of Labour shall, at the request of the Minister of Transport, certify what are the rates of wages which have been fixed either by the National Joint Industrial Council for the tramway industry or by an award under the Industrial Courts Act, 1919.

(4) For the purposes of this Act statutory maximum charges shall not include any charges authorised by an order under the principal or this Act.

(5) For the purposes of this Act, the word "tramway" shall include light railways constructed wholly or mainly on public roads.

VISCOUNT PEEL moved, at the end of subsection (5), to insert "and where a tramway undertaking is leased to or worked by a company or person other than the owners thereof, undertakers shall for the purposes of the principal Act and this Act include that company or person." The noble Viscount said: This is really a drafting amendment, and I desire to move it on behalf of my noble friend Lord Lytton.

Amendment moved— Clause 3, page 4, line 12, insert the said words.—(Viscount Peel.)

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

Clause 3, as amended, agreed to.

Remaining clause agreed to.