HC Deb 16 June 1892 vol 5 cc1283-4
MR. JOHN ELLIS

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Board of Trade propose to draw the attention of the Cambrian and four other railway companies mentioned to the following paragraph on page 4 of the Report of the Select Committee on Railway Servants (Hours of Labour):— Sometimes long hours are evidently due to mismanagement, as in the case of the Cambrian, the Waterford and Central Ireland, and the Midland and South-Western Junction Railways; sometimes to a congestion of traffic which ought to have been seen and provided for by additional accommodation and additional staff, as on the North British and the Lancashire and Yorkshire"?

*THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.

I think it appears from the recent evidence before the Committee and from the papers presented to the Committee that the particular instances referred to in this part of the Report were being remedied; but with regard to the subject generally, I have given instructions to the railway department of the Board of Trade that the procedure recommended by the Committee in reference to excessive overtime should at once be carried out, as far as is possible, without fresh legislation.

MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)

I beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade a question of which I have given him private notice—namely, why the Report of the Select Committee on Railway Servants Hours has been issued without the Minutes of the Proceedings which I understand and believe to be the usual course; and whether, having regard to the general interest in the proceedings of this Committee, he will take steps to have the Minutes of the Proceedings issued immediately?

*SIR MICHAEL HICKS BEACH

I was informed by the Clerk to the Committee that he had been told by the printers that, owing to the great length of the alternative Report which the hon. Member proposed, it would be impossible for him to print as usual the Report with the proceedings so as to be issued without very considerable delay. As a very inaccurate statement of the Report of the Committee had already appeared in the public Press, I thought it most desirable, as the matter was one of considerable interest, that the accurate Report should at once be issued. I therefore directed that it should be issued at once without the proceedings, at the same time directing that the full Report and proceedings should also be issued as soon as possible without waiting for the evidence.