HC Deb 05 October 1944 vol 403 cc1273-4
Sir J. Lamb

I beg to move, in page 31, line 16, after "such" insert "reasonable."

I have a later Amendment—on page 31, line 24, at end, to insert: and if any question shall arise as to the reasonableness of any conditions imposed under this Sub-section, that question shall be referred to the Secretary of State whose decision shall be final. Perhaps I may discuss the two together. The Minister may have to make orders with regard to the treatment of a burial ground if it is included in the portion of the ground that the local authority is dealing with. While both the bishops I know would only make conditions which are reasonable, there might be some who would not be reasonable in the conditions they would wish to impose on the local authority. In that case we think the Minister himself should have the power of saying that the conditions the bishop wished to impose were unreasonable. It is with the object of protecting ourselves against what might possibly occur and putting ourselves in the hands of the Minister rather than the bishops that I move.

Mr. W. S. Morrison

I mink the first Amendment is quite reasonable. We should desire that the conditions should be reasonable. But, in regard to the second, I do not know that I or the Home Office would accept the duty of deciding whether the conditions were reasonable. I think the contingency of unreasonable conditions being imposed is very remote and I am told by the Home Office that in all their experience they do not know of any such unreasonable conditions having been imposed on burial grounds. I accept the first Amendment but cannot accept the second. I hope my hon. Friend will be content with that.

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. Morrison

I beg to move, in page 31, line 43, to leave out "Sub-sections (3) and (4)" and to insert, "Sub-section (3)."

The Amendment to which this is consequential was moved by me and accepted by the Committee, on page 24, line 5, and that was related to on a new Clause which I propose to introduce, proposing planning control of operations carried out by interim development authorities.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.