HC Deb 16 October 1918 vol 110 cc186-7

(3) An education authority may be authorised to purchase land compulsorily by means of an Order submitted to and confirmed by the Department in accordance with the provisions contained in the First Schedule to the Housing, Town Planning, Etc., Act, 1909, as applied to Scotland, and those provisions shall have effect for the purpose, with the substitution of the Department for the Local Government Board for Scotland, of the education authority for the local authority, and of references to the Education Acts for references to "this Act."

Provided that the Department shall not confirm any such Order even when unopposed, if they are of opinion that the land is unsuited for the purpose for which it is proposed to be acquired.

Provided also that an Order for the compulsory purchase of land of the nature which by Section forty-five of the Housing, Town Planning, Etc., Act, 1909, is exempt from compulsory acquisition for the purposes of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, shall be provisional only, and shall not have effect unless and until it is confirmed by Parliament.

Mr. MUNRO

I beg to move to leave out the words, Provided that the Department shall not confirm any such Order even when unopposed if they are of opinion that the land is unsuited for the purpose for which it is proposed to be acquired. This Amendment is put down in consequence of what took place in the Committee upstairs. The House will notice that the proviso which I am proposing to omit empowers the Department to refuse to confirm any Order even when unopposed if the Department are of opinion that the land which has been acquired is unsuitable for the purpose. Upstairs it was suggested that education authorities—especially the large authorities which this Bill contemplates—would exercise due and responsible care in the selection of proper land, and that it was not necessary for the protection of the public purse that this power should be reserved in the hands of the Department. After consideration, I have come to the opinion that that argument should be given effect to, and that this proviso reserving power to the Department to refuse to confirm an Order should be left out.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendment made: Leave out the word "also" ["Provided also"].—[Mr. Munro.]