HC Deb 29 June 1920 vol 131 cc349-50

(1) If on any day for a period of two hours or upwards the calorific value of gas supplied by any undertakers, ascertained in accordance with the provisions of this Act, is more than five per cent. below the declared calorific value, the undertakers shall be liable on summary conviction to a forfeiture not exceeding five pounds for every complete one per cent. by which the calorific value is deficient in excess of such five per cent.

(4) If in any quarter the average calorific value of the gas supplied by any undertakers, ascertained in manner prescribed by the gas referees, is less than the declared calorific value, a sum which the chief gas examiner shall determine to be as nearly as may be the amount by which the revenue of the undertakers has been improperly increased shall — (a) if the undertakers are a local authority, be applied towards a reduction in the price of gas in the next or some succeeding quarter; and (b) in any other case, be deducted from the amount applicable to payment of dividend on the ordinary capital of the undertakers for the year or half-year in which such quarter occurs, and carried forward to the credit of the revenue account for the next following year or half-year in addition to any other amount which would otherwise have been so carried forward, and the dividend which the undertakers may pay on their ordinary capital in respect of such first-mentioned year or half-year shall be correspondingly reduced.

Mr. BRIDGEMAN

I beg to move, at the end of Sub-section (1), to insert the words Provided that, where there is no continuous record of the calorific value of the gas supplied by any undertakers, if on any occasion of testing the calorific value at any testing place is found to be more than five per cent. below the declared calorific value a second testing shall be made on the same day after an interval of not less than one hour and the mean of the two testings shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Subsection, to be the calorific value of the gas supplied by the undertakers at that testing place for a period of two hours ascertained as aforesaid. This is designed to meet the case of some of the undertakings which have not a continuously recording calorimeter.

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. BRIDGEMAN

I beg to move, in Sub-section (4), after paragraph (b), to insert the following new paragraph: (c) In every case the amount so ascertained shall be shown in the accounts of the undertakers as a separate item until the undertakers have shown to the satisfaction of the Board of Trade that it has been applied to a reduction in the price of gas. This is to prevent the forfeited money being carried over from year to year, and eventually probably finding its way into the hands of the shareholders, and to see that the proper amount goes in reduction of the price of gas to the consumer.

Amendment agreed to.