HC Deb 04 July 1934 vol 291 cc1899-902
24. Mr. BATEY

asked the Prime Minister whether the House will have an opportunity of discussing before the Recess the reports of the commissioners regarding the distressed areas?

The LORD PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL (Mr. Baldwin)

I would remind the hon. Member that these reports will be confidential, as was made clear by the late Minister of Labour on the 19th April; any action which the Government may take as a, result of consideration of the reports will, of course, be brought before the House, but I see no prospect of the reports being completed in time to permit of any action upon them taking place before the Recess.

Mr. BATEY

Is the Lord President aware that the Northern Commissioner met several Members of the National Government the other night upstairs in a Committee room, and why should not the whole House have a similar opportunity of discussing the question?

Mr. BALDWIN

I do not suppose for a moment that the hon. Member would object to my hon. Friend meeting anyone. I am sure he would not suggest that my hon. Friend made to them statements which he should not do upon his report. I have no control over whom he may meet, but I have been in touch with him and he denies entirely any report which may have been made as to his having made remarks on the nature of his report, which indeed is not completed.

Mr. BATEY

If the report has so developed that the commissioner can meet certain Members of the Government, why cannot the whole House have an opportunity of discussing the matter with him?

Mr. BALDWIN

The hon. Member will have, I think, nothing of any interest to tell the House at this moment. The hon. Member has met members of his own party. He has had conversations with regard to the work he is doing, but not with regard to the report. He has had conversations with members of the hon. Member's own party, and I am sure that if any hon. Member desired to talk with him about the work he is doing in the North he would be delighted to see him.

Mr. LAWSON

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that there was a widespread feeling, when the Commissioners were first appointed, that there was already sufficient information in the hands of the Government about this matter? The Commissioners have now been busy two and a-half months, and there is not a single opportunity of discussion before the end of the Session. It will be November before we have any discussion on the matter at all. Is the right hon. Gentleman prepared to let matters drift in that way?

Mr. BALDWIN

Matters are not drifting, because reports are being prepared and will have to be considered. I am aware of the widespread feeling, because I remember the questions which were put in the House.

Mr. MAXTON

Do I understand the Lord President to say that, while reports will be made by these Commissioners to the Cabinet and to any groups of private individuals who may be on friendly terms with the Commissioners, the House and the country as a whole will have no information placed before them as to what these men have done and the ideas they have?

Mr. BALDWIN

No. The hon. Member affects to misunderstand.

Mr. MAXTON

I am being neither humorous nor cynical. I do think there is something wrong in the procedure that is being adopted and I want to ask the Lord President if there cannot be any steps taken by which the work of these Commissioners will be made known in a proper, regular, House of Commons manner, instead of by this haphazard, back-door, unofficial method that is being taken just now?

Mr. BALDWIN

What I meant by my reply just now was that I have great respect, as everyone has, for the hon. Member's intelligence. But the latter part of what he said was not the case. No back-door methods are being adopted. No disclosures of any kind have been made, for the excellent reason that the reports are not yet ready. The procedure, whether or not it commends itself to the hon. Member, is the procedure that was outlined during question and answer in this House in the month of April. These reports when received will be most carefully studied, and if action, as I hope it may be, is taken on them, there will be opportunity, when the proposals for action are brought before the House, to discuss the whole matter.

Sir NICHOLAS GRATTAN-DOYLE

Is my right hon. Friend aware that anything said by the Commissioner to the Northern group upstairs was entirely non-committal?

Mr. KIRKWOOD

The right hon. Gentleman says that there will be nothing done until the autumn. Does that mean that there will be nothing done for this incoming winter in those areas that are lying derelict? It was because of the dreadful state of affairs there that the Government appointed these Commissioners. There is evidently to be nothing done this winter at any rate.

Mr. LAWSON

Is it absolutely impossible for the Government to allow a discussion before the House rises? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that for the last two or three years there have been fewer people employed than there were two or three years ago, and that in the four industries particularly there is steady deterioration? Cannot he, in view of that fact, let us have a discussion before the House adjourns?

Mr. BALDWIN

Let us be quite clear and not mix up two subjects. It is open to hon. Members opposite to put down a pertinent Vote at any time to discuss the question of these areas or any cognate question. It will not be possible for the Government to discuss the outcome of these visits that have been paid until they have had the reports and have had time to consider them.