HC Deb 28 November 1917 vol 99 cc2124-6

(1) This Act shall come into operation on the passing thereof: Provided that nothing in this Act shall affect—

  1. (a) any Parliamentary register for the time being in force, or any Parliamentary elections, or the constitution of the House of Commons, until Parliament is first dissolved after the first register to be prepared under this Act comes into force;
  2. (b) any local government register for the time being in force, or any local government elections, until the first register to be prepared under this Act comes into force.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the first register to be prepared under this Act shall come into force on, and remain in force until, such date as His Majesty may fix by Order in Council, and His Majesty may by any such Order alter, in connection with the first register, any registration dates, and direct that this Act shall have effect as so altered.

(3) If any difficulty arises as to the preparation of the first register or the holding of the first elections after the commencement of this Act, the Local Government Board may by order do any matter or thing which appears to them necessary for the proper preparation of the register or the proper holding of the elections.

(4) This Section shall apply to any new register to be prepared and to any elections held during the continuance of the present War and a period of twelve months thereafter, as it applies to the first register to be prepared under this Act and to the first elections held after the commencement of this Act, respectively.

Amendments made: In Sub-section. (1, a), after the word "dissolved," insert the words "or ceases to have continuance."

In Sub-section (2), after the word "dates," insert the words, "including the dates governing the qualifying period."—[Sir G. Care.]

NEW SIXTH SCHEDULE—Returning Officers for Scottish Constituencies situated in more than one Sheriffdom.
Name of Parliamentary Borough or country Name of Division. Returning Officer.
Montrose District of Burghs — Sheriff of Forfar.
Ayr and Bute Bute and Northern Sheriff of Ayr.
Berwick and Haddington — Sheriff of the Lothians and Peebles,
Caithness and Sutherland — Sheriff of Caithness, Orkney, and
Zetland.
Inverness and Ross and Cromarty Western Isles Sheriff of Ross, Cromarty, and Sutherland.
Perth and Kinross Kinross and Western Sheriff of Perth.
Renfrew Eastern Sheriff of Renfrew and Bute.

Brought up, and read the first time.

Mr. MUNRO

I beg to move, "That the Schedule be read a second time."

This is the Schedule to which I referred earlier in the afternoon and it carries out the Amendment to which the House then assented.

Schedule read a second time, and added to the Bill.

Major CHAPPLE

I should like, before I move the Schedule standing in my name, to know whether or not it is possible to reject these Schedules by vote, or whether the fact of having passed an Amendment to Clause 17 does not automatically incorporate them into the Bill, subject to any Amendment that may be moved to them.

Mr. SPEAKER

It certainly does not automatically incorporate the Schedules in the Bill, and the House now has an opportunity of either accepting or rejecting the principle of the Schedule and then of amending it. After a Schedule has been amended it can be added to the Bill.

Major CHAPPLE

Is it not a fact that on the Seventeenth Clause an Amendment was carried providing for the adoption of the alternative vote and its application on a system set out in Schedules 8 and 9? Has not the House thereby accepted the principle and determined by its vote that the scheme of alternative voting shall be as set out in those Schedules? Is it now competent for the House to make any modification inconsistent with these Schedules and to insert words against the intentions of the House?

Mr. SPEAKER

I take it that the vote of the House was in favour of the principle contained in the Schedule, but it does not follow that it was in favour of all the proposals therein contained and these are open to Amendment.

Sir G. YOUNGER

And does that mean that you will not require to put a Motion for the Second Reading of the Schedules?

Mr. SPEAKER

I have to deal with the Schedules in the same way as I deal with the Clauses.