HC Deb 16 July 1948 vol 453 cc1637-40

11.11 a.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Belcher)

I beg to move, in page 3, line 13, at the end, to insert: Provided that the approval of the Board shall not be requisite—

  1. (i) by virtue of paragraph (a) of this subsection, for anything done only by way of experiment or trial, or
  2. (ii) by virtue of paragraph (b) of this subsection, for the giving of assistance to a person in any year where the amount of that assistance together with any other assistance given to him by the Corporation in that year (less, where that other assistance took the form of a loan, any repayment made by him) does not exceed five hundred pounds."
During the Committee stage there was a considerable discussion on this Clause. Amendments were put down by the right hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton) and were withdrawn on my assurance that we would endeavour to find a suitable form of words which would allow the principle to be adopted. I think we have found the right formula in the Amendment, and I hope the right hon. Gentleman will agree.

It may be as well, before I deal in detail with the terms of our proposals, that I should bring out clearly their relationship to the rest of the Bill. Clause 1 (1) states the functions which the Corporation is intended to perform, which are, broadly, the development and exploitation of inventions and the acquiring and disposing of rights in such inventions. Clause 1 (3) empowers the Corporation to do anything necessary to carry out these functions including, it necessary, the development or setting up of new companies. But this latter power is restricted under Clause (4) by the obligation to exploit inventions through established industry unless there are good reasons against that course In other words, the Corporation can only set up new companies in exceptional circumstances.

Clause 4 adds nothing to the powers of the Corporation. On the contrary, to ensure some supervision of its activities outside its main job of development and exploitation through industry, the Clause requires the Corporation to obtain the approval of the Board of Trade to its embarking on actual manufacture, either by contract or by setting up new companies for the purpose, to the construction of works or the provision of services, to the giving of financial help to anyone concerned with bringing an invention into use, and to its acquiring an existing company or interest in such company. I think we are all agreed that this provision for the control of the Corporation's activities, where they encroach on the field of private enterprise, is right. But on looking at the original terms of the Bill more closely, it was felt that this control went a little too far in certain respects, and the Amendment is intended to apply what we consider to be the right degree of correction.

In the final stages of the development of an invention the Corporation may well wish to satisfy itself, by actual trial, that the invention is practically useful and economically worth while. For this purpose it may wish to set up a full scale model, capable of working under ordinary factory conditions, to study such questions as production costs and labour utilisation in the actual operation of the invention. In many cases such trials will involve, for the time being, the making of goods which the Corporation will, quite rightly, wish to sell to recoup its expenditure in some degree. It may equally wish to carry on activities of the kind which are described by the Bill as the construction of works or the selling of services in similar circumstances.

11.15 a.m.

I hope that we all agree that no one would wish to prevent the Corporation from undertaking these activities, provided they are necessary to the trial of an invention, on a commercial scale, and that it seems unnecessary to require the Corporation to obtain the consent of the Board of Trade in such cases. Therefore, the first part of our Amendment permits the Corporation to make goods, construct works or provide services without the consent of the Board of Trade, provided this is done only by way of trial or experiment in connection with an invention.

With regard to assistance given to others for the purpose of developing or exploiting an invention, we feel that the public interest would not be prejudiced if the Corporation were left to exercise its own judgment in connection with small sums provided for such purposes. Accordingly, the Amendment provides that assistance, without the consent of the Board of Trade, may be given by the Corporation to any person up to a total of £500 in any one year. Such action will, of course, be taken by the Corporation only when, in its judgment, it is in the public interest that assistance should be given. We have tried, in this Amendment, to meet what I believe to be the wishes of the Committee, and I hope that the House will accept it today.

Mr. Oliver Lyttelton (Aldershot)

The Amendment is an improvement to the Clause, although they do not happen to be exactly the quarry that my hon. Friends and I were hunting. We were alarmed about the very wide powers which the Corporation was being given with regard to the acquisition of or any interest in any undertaking. The Amendment does not meet that point, but, nevertheless, I think we can be satisfied, because under Clause 1 (4), as the Parliamentary Secretary has said, the Corporation, except where it appears to them that special circumstances otherwise require, have to exercise their functions through the medium of private enterprise. If, in addition to that, the Corporation has to obtain the leave of the Board of Trade for this particular function as specified in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of Subsection (2) I think that our point is reasonably met, so that we can accept the Amendment.

Dr. Haden Guest (Islington, North)

Would the Amendment permit the Corporation, if it was felt desirable, to undertake special scientific research, the need for which might have arisen owing to difficulties having occurred during the course of the development of an invention?

Mr. Belcher

I do not think there is any doubt at all about that.

Amendment agreed to.