DEVELOPMENT OF INVENTIONS BILL (Hansard, 4 December 1958)

§ THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (THE EARL OF DUNDEE)
My Lords, this is another amending Bill concerning an Act of Parliament, which I hope your Lordships will agree was a good Act, passed by the Labour Government in 1948. It seeks to extend the period during which money may be advanced by the Board of Trade to the National Research Development Corporation over a further period of ten years—that is, to 1968. It also authorises the maximum amount of such loans to be raised to £10 million instead of £5 million.
The Corporation was established by the Labour Government in 1948 with the function of developing inventions which emerged from research in both publicly financed laboratories and universities, paying the expenses of testing and proceeding with such inventions, and arranging for their industrial exploitation. The Corporation also has the function of picking up any private inventions which, in its opinion, are good but which for some reason or other cannot be proceeded with otherwise. After ten years of work, the Corporation now holds 1226 about 1,000 British patents and about 2,000 overseas patents. The amount of royalties which it is already receiving amount to £170,000 a year, one-third of which is in dollars.
I think your Lordships would wish me to express our gratitude to the members of the Corporation for the excellent work which they have done and are doing, and in particular to the managing director, the noble Earl, Lord Halsbury, to whose personal efforts the success of the Corporation is principally due. I understand that the Bill is supported by all Parties, and I beg to move that it now be read a second time.

§ THE EARL OF LUCAN
My Lords, we on this side cordially welcome this Bill and the evidence it provides of the success of the National Research Development Corporation. The noble Earl told us a little about it. I do not know whether an annual report is issued by the Corporation.

§ THE EARL OF DUNDEE
Yes, it is; and we are hoping to advance the date of the issue of this admirable report. The last one was in March, and we hope that the one for this year may be a little earlier.

§ THE EARL OF LUCAN
My Lords, the only doubt I have heard expressed is that the Corporation is rather on the conservative side in its ventures—that it is not very venturesome. That shows that, to some extent, it is not carrying out the functions for which it was originally set up. Whether it sets too much store by the need for earning money and not expending public money, I do not know. One other thing the noble Earl did not tell us is what amount of the £5 million originally authorised has actually been drawn by the Corporation. I wonder whether he could tell us that.

§ THE EARL OF DUNDEE
I am afraid that I have not that figure with me now, but as the noble Earl is aware, the total is being increased to £10 million. One would assume that it would not be necessary to do that unless it was anticipated that more than the £5 million was likely to be drawn.

§ LORD MILNER OF LEEDS
My Lords, I presume that many of these inventions, if not most, are taken over from private inventors, probably on some basis of payment or royalty to them. In my experience there has been complaint at times that the Government of the day have appropriated private inventions on some occasions, and that the inventors have received no compensation, or inadequate compensation. After the war, a Committee was set up, under the noble and learned Lord, Lord Cohen, which decided on the compensation which ought to be paid. Can the noble Earl tell us what proportion of the inventions which are assisted or exploited are private inventions and inventions made by Government employees, and whether proper compensatory arrangements are made with private persons when their inventions are taken over by the Corporation?

§ THE EARL OF DUNDEE
The inventions taken up by the Corporation are almost entirely public, from public sources, although they have the power to further private inventions which, for some reason or other, have not been used. In practice, they have hardly ever done so because they have not managed to discover many private inventions which, in their view, have not been properly exploited. I will certainly ask my right honourable friend to look into any case in which it is considered that inadequate compensation has been paid. But that is the position: that their powers on the private side are hardly ever used at all.

THE EARL OF HALSBURY
My Lords, it would not be proper for me to comment on the provisions of this Bill, but I believe that I shall not be violating the traditions of either your Lordships' House or the public service if I thank the noble Earl most sincerely for the gracious terms in which he has referred to the part that I have played in the direction of this Corporation for the last ten years. I am sure he would also permit me to say that, in so far as the Corporation has found favour in Parliamentary eyes, it is due to the large measure of good will that it has enjoyed in the other branches of the public service, in the universities, many of whose learned professors have given us an extraordinary amount of help and encouragement, and in the industrial firms who have acted as the Corporation's con- 1228 tractors. I hope it will not be out of order if I take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped. Of course, we have a staff, too, and I should like to interpret the kind remarks of the noble Earl as meaning that I have either exercised some skill or been very lucky in getting a first-class staff who have done the work of the Corporation. I shall be laying down my responsibilities in a few months' time, and perhaps I might take this opportunity of wishing my successor and his colleagues the best of good fortune for the years ahead for which this Bill provides.