HC Deb 12 July 1948 vol 453 cc841-3
61. Sir John Mellor

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury when copies of the National Health Service (Appointment of Specialists) Regulations, 1948 (S.I., 1948, No. 1416), which came into operation on 29th June, were available in the Vote Office and in the Stationery Office, respectively.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Glenvil Hall)

Copies were in the Vote Office on 1st July and on sale at the Stationery Office on 2nd July.

Sir J. Mellor

Ought not these regulations to be published before and not after they come into force?

Mr. Glenvil Hall

I do not think there is any delay. The hon. Baronet has to remember that the Stationery Office is very busy. The Stationery Office received a copy of this instrument in the late afternoon of, I think, 28th June. The operative date for publication was 1st July, and it was published then.

Sir J. Mellor

Will the Financial Secretay agree that these regulations were the law of the land before anybody could find out about them?

Mr. Langford-Holt

Will the Financial Secretary draw the attention of his right hon. Friend the Minister of Health to the undesirability of sending these orders to the Stationery Office at such a short period before they come into force?

Mr. Renton

Would it not be better to postpone the coming into operation of these orders for a few days so as to give time for them to be printed before they are due to come into force?

Mr. Oliver Stanley

What would happen to a man who broke these regulations on 30th June and was unable to read them until two days afterwards?

Mr. Glenvil Hall

I am not the Attorney-General, and that question should be directed to one of the Law Officers; but I assume that if a man broke the law he would be guilty of having broken the law.

Mr. Wilson Harris

I know that the right hon. Gentleman is not responsible in this case, but does he not think it is intolerable that these documents should not be published until after they come into force?

Mr. Glenvil Hall

Normally we try to publish them in good time. In this case the regulations were pretty well known. It was simply a question of putting the thing into regular order so that people who require to have the regulations by them for future use should be able to get them.

Captain Crookshank

So if an order came into operation two days before it was published, the Financial Secretary would not consider there had been any delay. Would he tell us what, in his view, is delay?

Hon. Members

Answer.

Mr. H. Strauss

By whom were these regulations pretty well known before they were printed?

Mr. Charles Williams

Would the Financial Secretary inform the House what he means by "pretty well known"? By what proportion of the population does he assume that orders issued which came into force some days before could be pretty well known, say in Wales or Scotland, or in the East End of London?