HC Deb 12 April 1933 vol 276 cc2708-10

Motion made, and Question proposed, That the Import Duties (Exemptions) (No. 3) Order, 1933, dated the tenth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, made by the Treasury under the Finance Act, 1932, a copy of which was presented to this House on the tenth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, be approved.

11 p.m.

The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Hore-Belisha)

I have, in the most unreserved manner, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, to make an apology to the House. Section 19 of the Import Duties Act, referring to such Orders as this, says that: Any such order … imposing a duty of customs shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of twenty-eight days from the date on which it is made, unless at some time before the expiration of that period it has been approved by resolution passed by that House, but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder or to the making of a new order. It will be seen that such Orders have to be approved within 28 days. Our interpretation of the Act was that that meant 28 Parliamentary days, but, unfortunately, we have been advised that we were not entitled to assume that the days were Parliamentary days, and, therefore, we had no right to take account of Saturdays and Sundays. In these circumstances, the Order referred to in this Motion, and also the Additional Import Duties (No. 3) Order, 1933, lapsed last Monday, not having been approved by the House within the due time. As soon as we discovered our error, we immediately went through the whole procedure again, putting down new Orders, and we ask the House to approve of them at the earliest possible opportunity. It was a genuine mistake on our part. We had no intention of taking advantage of the procedure, and I hope the House will forgive us. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade is ready to deal with the merits of the Orders, but I thought I ought to take the earliest opportunity of expressing to the House my deep regret that this mistake occurred.

Sir STAFFORD CRIPPS

I am sure that the. House will be grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his apology. I hope that next time, when he is dealing with a Bill for which he himself was responsible, he will understand what it means.

Mr. MAXTON

I am glad to hear the hon. Gentleman's apology, so nicely phrased, but do I understand that for a period of five or six days the Import Duties which have been collected have been illegally collected?

Mr. HORE-BELISHA

The first of these Orders expired at midnight on Monday last, and the new Order came into operation immediately thereafter. There was thus no intervening period during which duty could not legally be exacted. My hon. Friend will appreciate that the Order deals with a very small matter. There are not very large importations of these diamonds, and I do not think that anything very dreadful has been done.

Resolved, That the Import Duties (Exemptions) (No. 3) Order, 1933, dated the tenth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, made by the Treasury under the Finance Act, 1932, a copy of which was presented to this House on the tenth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, be approved.