HC Deb 22 July 1943 vol 391 cc1218-20
The Attorney-General

I beg to move, in page 5, line 10, to leave out "have regard to," and to insert "be bound by."

That is in accordance with the undertaking I gave to the Committee.

Earl Winterton

I want to thank the Attorney-General for meeting this point and to say that as he has met it I do not propose to object to taking the Report stage now.

Amendment agreed to

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read the Third time."

Mr. Dobbie

I would like, on behalf of my colleagues on this side of the House, to congratulate the Minister on the way in which he has met all the matters that have been brought to his notice by hon. Members. We hope that during the next year he will keep his mind open with regard to any anomalies that may arise in the application of the Royal Warrant and which may be brought to his notice by Members

Sir I. Fraser

I want to offer congratulations to the Minister on having got as far as he has in the difficult road he has been riding along. I would like to congratulate also the Attorney-General who has been of the greatest help to the Committee. I would like, too, to say a word of appreciation of ourselves in the House and the Committee. I cannot help thinking that this Bill has been very greatly improved by the consideration which has been given to it outside the Committee and here on the Floor. It makes me wonder, when I think of the days we have spent bringing these matters to the notice of the Government and securing this and other Measures which are either fully completed or in process of being completed, what similar situation could arise were the ex-Service men in the enemy's country. Could they or their friends in Parliament have been able to have their views expressed? Could the Government have been embarrassed, as this Government has been, quite properly, in the past months, and could they have had the attention and care which this House has given them? I think not, and it is to our credit that we can render the service which the House has rendered to ex-Service men

Dr. Morgan

There is one flaw in this magnificent Bill, and I was caught napping when I let it pass. It is the provi- sion that medical practitioners who are members of tribunals should be of seven years' standing. It is an inequity to ask men to risk their lives on the battlefield, who know the conditions of service, and then to deprive them from being members of tribunals because they have not been qualified for seven years. There are young men who have been qualified for less than seven years who have been brought up in modern medicine and have had experience of service conditions, who ought to have the opportunitiy of serving on tribunals

Mr. David Adams

I want to supplement that by saying that I feel very strongly on this point. The Minister accepted the Amendment so rapidly that there was practically no opportunity for discussion. I know, as a member of a local authority of many years' standing, that there are many brilliant young men who have gone into the Forces, and they will be excluded under this provision from serving on tribunals. I hope that the Minister in another place will see that an Amendment is made to provide for a shorter qualifying period

The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Eden)

Now that we have reached the last stage of the deliberations on this Bill and my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. Dobbie) and my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Lonsdale (Sir I. Fraser) have paid such generous tributes to the Minister of Pensions and his staff, and to the Attorney-General, tributes which I may say are really deserved, because they have worked not only very laboriously but against the clock, I would also like to pay a tribute to the House itself. The fact that the House has worked so hard and expeditiously to-day will enable us to get this Bill to another place and get it back before the Recess, and enable us to get the tribunals into operation at the earliest possible moment, which is what we all desire: and so the purpose for which I rise is to express my thanks to the House.

Question, "That the Bill be now read the Third time," put, and agreed to.

Bill read the Third time, and passed.