HC Deb 03 June 1946 vol 423 cc1762-5
Captain Crookshank

I have an Amendment to this Clause on the Paper, but I do not want to detain the Committee on it. I put it down because it seemed to me very strange that we should be asked to make the Bill retrospective to 1st April. This House of Commons has a natural objection to retrospective legislation upon whatever topic, but it is not very common that we have one increasing—

The Chairman

Does the right hon. and gallant Gentleman move his Amendment?

Captain Crookshank

I was going to as a matter of form, before I sat down.

The Chairman

I was not clear whether the right hon. and gallant Gentleman was moving the Amendment or not. If not, it is my duty to propose the Question on the Clause.

Captain Crookshank

I beg to move, in page 2, line 36, to leave out Subsection (2).

I wish to make it plain that it is Subsection (2) and not Subsection (1) with which I am dealing. It is very rare to have retrospective authority under an Act to pay an increase of salary. Hon. Members, wherever they sit in the Committee, have an objection to retrospective legislation, and quite rightly, because it invokes people in risk respecting things which they may have done in perfect innocence. If a retrospective Clause is presented to us we should know exactly why retrospective effect is sought. I do not know what the reason can be here. I should have thought it would have been reasonable to wait until the Act was passed until the salaries were increased. It rested entirely in the hands of the Government when they should introduce the Bill. If they thought 1st April the proper day for the increase, they should have introduced the Bill in time for that day. It is only because they have introduced such a mass of legislation that they cannot get their priorities right. I am not surprised. I suppose it is because they could not find time for this Bill earlier, or because it slipped by and they forgot about it, and they come now and ask us to give them two months' salary retrospectively.

Mr. Glenvil Hall

The right hon. and gallant Gentleman received his on Saturday.

Captain Crookshank

I do not know what the Financial Secretary has in mind. Two months seem quite unnecessary, anyhow. Beyond that, of course, I do not see why this should date back to an earlier part of the year. The Financial Secretary is dithering there because it has just come into his mind that the Resolution which was passed last week, and which it would be quite out of Order for me to discuss, enabled Members of Parliament to be paid from 1st April. But, of course, we have not finished with that topic because a Supplementary Estimate has to be placed before the House, and until the Committee has agreed to the Supplementary Estimate, and the House has accepted it on Report, there is no proper legal basis for the payment. The Financial Secretary does not know that when that Supplementary Estimate comes before the House there will not be a reduction made of an exactly corresponding amount, between the date on which the Resolution is passed in this House and the other date.

This is not a closed subject and therefore the Financial Secretary cannot base any argument on it, because he just does not know what is going to happen to the Supplementary Estimate, and until it is passed there is no legal authority for the payment to be made. I am not sure that it is not improper although the impropriety will no doubt be swallowed temporarily pending the regularisation of the position by law. This Clause stands on its own merits as to whether it is right in this Bill to ask for authority to make this increase retrospectively by two months. Again, I suppose this is subject to Supplementary Estimate so that we are not parting with it for the last time today. That, incidentally, is why I would not dream of dividing the Committee upon it today. It is the last round which counts.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Ede)

The right hon. and gallant Gentleman would have to be very quick to do it today. It is two minutes to twelve.

Captain Crookshank

The Home Secretary is too quick for me, but although it would be a different calendar day it would be the same Parliamentary day, so I think I am just as right as he is. I hope the Chancellor will give us some explanation as to this payment.

Mr. Dalton

The answer is the same as it was on Second Reading of the Bill—salaries are paid monthly. A month is deemed to run from the first day of the month to the last day of the month. It appeared to us most convenient to change the payment, whether of private Members' salaries or of junior Ministerial salaries, as from the first day of the month, as I explained on Second Reading. It was on 30th April that I announced the decision of the Government, on the recommendation of the Select Committee. I then stated that the Government proposed to make all these payments, whether of private Members or of junior Ministers, as from April 1. Full notice was given, and the Opposition did not, I think, raise any great objection at that time. My statement was accepted as being, it seemed, not unreasonable. An interval of time has elapsed; we have brought the Bill forward in due course. We did not think it so important that it should take precedence over the Bill for nationalising the coal mines or the Cable & Wireless Bill. We have brought it forward in its due place and I am here carrying out, in the terms of the Bill, the statement I made when I announced the Government's decision. Salaries are paid from the first of the month and that is the reason why junior Ministers, no less than private Members of Parliament, are entitled, in the terms of the declaration, to the increased salary as from the 1st April.

12 mdnt.

It is perfectly true, as the right hon. and gallant Gentleman says, that there will be another occasion, when the consequential Estimate is presented, when the Opposition can present a case and move, if they choose, a Motion to reduce the Vote; that occasion is safeguarded to them. Meanwhile we are asking that this provision should be brought into line with the same provisions regarding increased salaries of private Members, in respect of which, as one of my hon. Friends surmised, no Opposition Members have refused the increased cheques which were furnished to them last month. I hope, as the right hon. and gallant Gentleman has said, he will not divide the House tonight, that we may postpone any further discussion of the matter until the Estimate is presented in due course.

Captain Crookshank

That would probably be the best thing to do.

Mr. Dalton

Yes.

Captain Crookshank

No doubt the right hon. Gentleman will make sure that, under the Estimate for this year, we can vote money for a year which is closed.

Mr. Dalton

That has all been provided for.

Captain Crookshank

It has all been provided for. Then it is all right. We can discuss it. We shall see the Estimate when it is presented. I therefore beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported, without Amendment; read the Third time, and passed.