§ *SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is possible to inform the House as to the nature of the instructions given to Her Majesty's inspectors with regard to the new Truck Act, and arising out of the recent publication of lists of lines at Belfast; and whether test cases are to be taken into court?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR OF HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolThe instructions referred to are of general application and were issued before the Act came into operation, and, therefore, before the dispute at Belfast, arose; I shall be glad to lay them on the Table for the information of the House. I am watching closely the course of events at Belfast, and do not propose at present to take any test cases into court. Some of the items in the original list against which the workers struck are, I think, inconsistent with the Act; but most, if not all of these, have now been withdrawn. The points which remain in dispute are for the most part outside the operation of the Act, but I trust that a satisfactory settlement will be arrived at.