HC Deb 26 March 1925 vol 182 cc813-4

Lords Amendment:

In page 3, line 25, leave out to which a subsidy is paid under this Act shall send annually. and insert which manufactures in Great Britain sugar or molasses from home-grown beet shall in every year in which a subsidy is payable under this Act send

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment"—[Mr. E. Wood.]

Captain BENN

It is usual on these occasions for the Minister to give some explanation, because we have not been provided with copies of these Amendments?

The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Mr. E. Wood)

I am very glad to comply with the hon. and gallant Gentleman's request, and indeed I think I owe to the House an apology that it has not the Amendments, though it is not due to any fault which could have been avoided.

Captain BENN

It is not usual.

Mr. WOOD

No. The Amendment I have now invited the House to agree with is in fact a drafting Amendment, consequential upon a concession which I made, in order to enable the process of the manufacture of sugar to be carried on, if need be, in two stages—the early part of the manufacture in one stage and the final part in another stage in the factory. It came to notice that the Clause as drawn would have only enabled us to claim the accounts of the company to whom the subsidy was actually payable. Those words are necessary, in order to make sure that we can get the accounts of the whole process from the two factories engaged in the two respective parts of the process.