§ 3.57 P.m.
The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Wedderburn)I beg to move, in page 2, line 5, at the end, to insert:
(3) The board shall, in addition to their functions under the principal Act, have the function of keeping generally under review matters relating to the herring industry, including the conditions of employment of persons employed therein.This Amendment has been put down in order to carry out an undertaking which we gave in Committee to the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Mr. Adamson), who proposed an Amendment to Clause 2 enabling the Advisory Council to make recommendations to the Board on this subject. As I said, there seemed to be some doubt whether consideration of this matter would come under the functions of the Board. Therefore, we agreed to accept the Amendment of the hon. Gentleman in principle. But it is clearly better to amend Clause 1, which defines the functions of the Board. It would, obviously, be useless to enable the Advisory Council to render advice upon matters which did not concern the Board.
§ 3.58 p.m.
§ Mr. AdamsonThe Amendment is in fulfilment of the promise given by the Under-Secretary to extend the functions of the board to include consideration of the conditions of the people employed in the industry, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for the better draftsmanship which his Department has incorporated in the Amendment which he has submitted to the House. It certainly fulfils the dual purpose not only of adding to the functions of the board, but of not precluding the Advisory Council from still considering and advising the board on these matters. Therefore, we accept the Amendment.
§ Amendment agreed to.