Part II. (Hansard, 25 June 1947)

§ Mr. Gaitskell

I beg to move, "That the Schedule be read a Second time."

As the Committee will be aware, this new Schedule contains a list of authorised undertakers which we propose should be taken over under the Bill., It is not, of course, a complete list of all the undertakings because, as I explained earlier, we are also taking over several power station companies and the holding com- 641 panies, but it is a list of authorised undertakings, a description of which is provided in the earlier new Clause which I moved. There is perhaps no ^need for me to say very much. I might just refer to Part II, which lists composite companies. These are those which have gas or water supplies and they are put in a separate class simply for convenience. I think the Committee generally will agree that this is more satisfactory and a clearer way of dealing with the position than leaving it to some entirely general definition. It is true that it takes up a lot more paper and has involved us in a little more time, but it has the merit that, so far as the authorised undertakings are concerned, they know exactly where they stand. I do not think there is any serious question that is likely to arise.

Perhaps I might further inform the Committee of one or two things which may not be entirely clear from my earlier remarks on the new Clause. We do not include, in this list of various undertakings, certain companies which supply electricity mainly for their own use or the use of their parent companies. We have in mind the Lochaber Power Company, which supplies power for a large aluminium works which is a new feature of industrial development in Scotland. We have also managed to exclude, in the proviso, local authorities supplying electricity for their own transport undertakings. Indeed, it was on this point that we had the greatest difficulty with our definition, because our legal advisers told us that the Opposition's definition to define authorised undertakers as bodies which supplied the general public was not, unfortunately, satisfactory or adequate because "general public" appears to include local tramway or other transport undertakings. Therefore, the Government had to start thinking again and they are very definitely excluded by means of the admirable device of the Schedule. We also exclude from the list companies which carry on transport undertakings but do not supply electricity under a provisional or special order. The object of this proviso is to exclude companies such as the South Lancashire Transport Company, which is primarily a transport undertaking, but which supplies electricity by virtue of a Private Act, but not under a provisional or special order.