HC Deb 12 May 1948 vol 450 cc2198-201

7.25 p.m.

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

I beg to move, at the end, to insert: (2) Any property, other than money or authorised investments, accepted by the trustees under the said Subsection (2) shall be held upon trust for sale: Provided that the trustees may in their discretion postpone the sale and conversion of any such property for such time as they think fit. This Amendment follows an Amendment which I accepted the other night when we were discussing the Bill in Committee. I indicated that it would be necessary when we reached a further stage in the Bill to make provision in order to see that when property was left it could be adequately dealt with. The hon. and gallant Member for Ayr and Northern Bute (Sir C. MacAndrew) was anxious that trustees should be allowed to accept and to hold, if so minded, property either given to them, or which came to them under a will as a bequest. In this Amendment we have provided for that. In addition, by the proviso, we have safeguarded the trustees—it may be theoretical, but nevertheless we think it essential—against any investments they desire to hold depreciating in their hands.

Mr. Viant (Willesden, West)

The trustees of this Fund will appreciate the spirit in which the Government have put this forward. They have met the general request. It would be unfair to let this pass without expressing our appreciation at the manner in which the Amendment has been tabled, and I hope that the House will accept it.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read the Third time."—[Mr. Glenvil Hall.]

7.27 p.m.

Sir Henry Morris-Jones (Denbigh)

I wish to utter a sentence or two before this Bill is given a Third Reading. Clearly there is a misconception in the country in regard to this Bill. I know that newspapers are now short of space and have much to deal with, but there is an idea in the country, which was expressed to me last week, that by this Bill hon. Members are securing a pension towards which the State contributes. I think it should be made perfectly clear that not one penny of State funds goes towards this Fund. It comes entirely from the contributions of Members of Parliament, and that is the only source from which it does come. This Bill, undoubtedly, is a concession, and I am glad that the Lord President acted so quickly upon the representations made to the Government on the report presented to the House by the Committee led by the Financial Secretary. It will bring some measure of relief to many old hon. Members of this House and their wives, and, in some cases, to their orphan children. It does not go as far as I would have wished, nor as far as some other hon. Members would have wished.

I think I am now the only one of the original members of the trustees, although the time is very short—only some 10 years —but I have been continuously a Member of the House through those years, and the need for some system of pension has impressed me very considerably. I am only expressing my own point of view, but I think that the day may come, and I hope the right hon. Gentleman will take note of this, when pensions of moderate character should be given to Members of Parliament without any means test whatever, and subscribed to by themselves, though possibly with some little assistance from the Treasury. I hope that time will come.

The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Herbert Morrison)

I am much obliged to the House for the kindly reception given to this Bill, and for the expeditious way in which it has been dealt with. It arose out of representations which we received from various quarters of the House and from Members of various parties, and we thought that it was right to meet their points and produce a Measure under which allowances could be made and under which we could get a greater degree of elasticity in administration. I would like to emphasise what has just been said by the hon. Member for Denbigh (Sir H. Morris-Jones) in pointing out that this Fund is entirely financed by the contributions of hon. Members of the House of Commons, apart from any benevolent donations that people outside might like to make, which would be welcome. Otherwise, it is entirely financed by Members of the House of Commons, and there is no public money in the Fund at all.

I think it is a sensible and public-spirited action by hon. Members of this House to do what they can to assist former hon. Members who are in financial difficulties after a given period of service to the House. It is the case that a large number of hon. Members can never expect or hope to get any personal advantage from this Fund. That is probably true of the great majority, and that is a tribute to the public spirit of hon. Members and to their love of this great Parliamentary institution. Therefore, I would like to pay my tribute to their public spirit, and to reinforce the point made by the hon. Gentleman that there is no public money in this Fund at all. I only wish in conclusion, to thank hon. Members for their assistance. This is eminently a co-operative enterprise in relation to all parties in the House, and I thank the House as a whole for the kindly spirit in which this Bill has been received.

Bill accordingly read the Third time and passed.