HC Deb 21 January 1937 vol 319 cc427-9

Considered in Committee, under Standing Order No. 69.

[Sir Dennis Herbert in the Chair.]

Motion made, and Question proposed, That, for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to make provision for the development and better organisation of the livestock industry and industries connected therewith, for paying a subsidy to producers of fat cattle, for regulating the importation of livestock and meat, the holding of livestock markets and the slaughtering of livestock, and for purposes conected with the matters aforesaid, it is expedient—

(1) to authorise, subject to the provisions of this Resolution, the making of the following payments out of moneys provided by Parliament, that is to say—

  1. (a) payment of such remuneration and allowances to the members, officers and servants of the Livestock Commission constituted by the said Act as may with the approval of the Treasury be determined under the said Act;
  2. (b) payment into the fund for the purposes of the said Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the Fund') of such sums, not exceeding five million pounds in the aggregate in any one financial year, as may with the approval of the Treasury be determined under the said Act;
  3. (c) payment of such remuneration and allowances as may with the approval of the Treasury be determined under the said Act to such persons as the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Department of Agriculture for Scotland may respectively employ to grade and to mark 428 carcases, and to perform services in connection with such grading and marking; and
  4. (d) payment of the sums required to defray any expenses which, otherwise than on account of payments falling to be made under the said Act to producers of fat cattle, are incurred for the purposes of the said Act by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, by a Secretary of State, by the Board of Trade, or by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, not being expenses directed by the said Act to be defrayed out of the Fund;

(2) to authorise, subject to the provisions of this Resolution, the making, out of moneys provided by Parliament, of such advances (either by way of loan or by way of grant or partly in one way and partly in the other), and on such terms and conditions as may, with the approval of the Treasury, be determined under the said Act, with a view to assisting the carrying out of arrangements for the provision or alteration of slaughterhouses which are to be deemed to be central slaughterhouses for the purposes of schemes under the said Act;

(3) to authorise the Treasury, during the period beginning on such day as may be appointed by order of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Secretaries of State respectively concerned with agriculture in Scotland and in Northern Ireland (hereinafter referred to as 'the appointed day') and ending on the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, to advance to the fund, out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, sums not exceeding in the aggregate one million pounds, so, however, that the amount of any sums so advanced to the fund shall be repaid therefrom to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom not later than the end of the said period; and

(4) to require payment out of the fund to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom—

  1. (a) of amounts equivalent to the amounts paid out of moneys provided by Parliament in respect of remuneration and allowances payable to the members, officers, and servants of the said Commission; and
  2. (b) of such amounts as, in the opinion of the Treasury, approximately represent the accruing liability attributable to the 429 execution of the said Act in respect of pensions, allowances, and gratuities under the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1935, and the rental value of any premises belonging to the Crown and used by the said Commission, being premises in respect of which no rent is payable;

Provided that—

  1. (i) paragraph (1) of this Resolution shall not authorise payment into the Fund, in the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, of more than the number of pounds which bears to five million the same proportion as the number of days falling between the beginning of the appointed day and the end of the said financial year bears to three hundred and sixty-five; and
  2. (ii) paragraph (2) of this Resolution shall not authorise the advancing of more than two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in all, or the advancing, by way of grants, of more than one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in all—(King's Recommendation signified).—[Mr. W. S. Morrison.]

7.50 p.m.

Mr. Kelly

I should like to ask one question. At the present time certain people are now in the employ of the Department dealing with matters which will be passed on to the Commission. Are we to understand that those people who may not be required in the positions they now Occupy will be taken into the service of the Commission and given an opportunity of employment there under conditions similar to those they now have?

Mr. W. S. Morrison

That is a matter for another Department, but I can give a general assurance to the Committee that as far as possible in the work of the Commission the experience of officers who have previously served on the Cattle Committee will be utilised.

Resolution to be reported upon Monday next.