CLAUSE 67.—(Provisions as to Regulations) (Hansard, 13 August 1913)

§ Mr. WEDGWOOD
This is a very important Clause dealing with the procedure which has to be gone through before the regulations drawn up by the Board become law, and I want to hear from the Home Secretary a description of exactly what powers the ordinary private Member has who objects to any of these regulations, whether there are any powers they possess under the Clause as it is now amended to prevent regulations being passed which we consider undesirable from the point of view of freedom. How exactly can we get an Address presented to His Majesty? I realise that regulations cannot be passed while the House is not sitting, but what procedure has to be gone through? How can a private Member secure time to have the question debated?

§ Mr. BOOTH
Surely this puts the procedure exactly like the regulations under the Insurance Act, that any hon. Member can put down an Address to His Majesty, and it is exempted business, and he can bring it on.

§ Mr. WEDGWOOD
So far, good. He can put his Address on the Paper, but has that Address to be carried by a majority in this House and then by a majority in the other House, or is one House sufficient; and, further, is it any practical safeguard when we know how difficult it is for a private Member to get a majority? It seems to me that it is asking rather much to suppose the possibility of a private Member getting time to object to a regulation and then converting a majority of the House to his point of view. Any substantial protest against these regulations ought to be taken into account, and this should depend not upon the ipse dixit of the Government, which is the case at present, but it should be taken into account from the point of view of modifying the regulations. An Address can only be an Address against the whole regulation, and that regulation cannot be modified by means of an Address. I am not quite satisfied with the powers possessed by the House. In the ordinary case it is all very well to say the regulation is approved or disapproved, but there may be a great deal in the regulation that the House as a whole approved of while disapproving of some details, and I should like to know whether it is possible to modify a regulation as well as to negative it altogether.

§ Mr. McKENNA
In the last resort the opinion of the majority in this House must prevail, but the hon. Member is a very old and experienced Parliamentary hand, and he knows that any group of hon. Members have a right to raise the subject after eleven o'clock, and if they have got any substance at all in their objections they are nearly always in such a position as to enable them to make terms with the Government. Of course, it must be understood that if the Government comes to the conclusion, and is supported by the House in that view, that no change ought to be made in the regulation, the opinion of the House must win; but, on the other hand, my hon. Friend will have ample opportunity of expressing his views and bringing pressure to bear.

§ Mr. BOOTH
I agree with this, because it grants a point that we urged very much upon the Home Secretary in Committee 2598 last year. The Clause as drawn only gives hon. Members the opportunity between eleven and half-past eleven on the Adjournment. That was the sole point. There may be some Division going on which will leave only a quarter of an hour. The complaint was that that was not a proper safeguard, merely to speak on the Adjournment Motion. In that way this enlarges it, so that Members may put down an Address to the Crown.