HC Deb 04 May 1937 vol 323 cc1072-3

8.3 p.m.

Mr. W. S. Morrison

I beg to move, in page 41, line 30, at the end, to insert: (2) The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries or the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, as the case may be, may charge, in respect of the performance by any person of any service which he is employed under this Section by the said Minister or Department to perform, such fee not exceeding five shillings as may be prescribed in relation to that service by regulations made by the said Minister or by the Secretary of State for Scotland, as the case may be; and any sums received by the said Minister or Department by virtue of this Sub-section shall be applied as an appropriation in aid of moneys provided by Parliament for the payment of expenses incurred under the preceding Sub-section by the said Minister or Department, as the case may be. The point about this Amendment is simply that it has been customary to have a fee charged in the neighbourhood of 2S. for a beef carcase down to a few pence for the carcase of a sheep. It is better to have it on a regular basis, and the only thing I would say is that the sum of 5s. is intended to keep the charges about the present level.

Mr. Adamson

The sum suggested here is 5s. The Minister has told us that the fees generally are of a few pence to a few shillings, but is it not the case that generally when a maximum figure like this is inserted the danger is that it will become a regular and daily charge? Without some proviso it seems that it would be better to have some fee that could be met by some arrangement rather than by fixing a sum that was likely to become general instead of being the exception.

Mr. Morrison

I think I can reassure the hon. Member that there is no such intention at all. It is merely a maximum, and there are many cases where maximum figures are put into Acts of Parliament, and they are always put a bit high because one does not know what will happen. It is a great pity to put them too low and unforeseen circumstances cause them to be raised. There are other cases where there is a maximum which is not often reached, such as very heavy penalties and terms of penal servitude for offences which are very often dismissed with the binding over of the person in charge. In this case I can assure the hon. Member that there is no intention of altering the existing arrangements and that the 5s. is only put in to regularise the existing practice and, in the second place, to provide a figure which it is hardly likely will ever be reached.

Amendment agreed to.