HC Deb 13 December 1950 vol 482 cc1284-5

Lords Amendment: In page 4, line 26, at beginning, insert: (1) Section thirty-six of the National Service Act, 1948 (which relates to the time for making applications for reinstatement) shall have effect, in relation to any period of whole-time service which consists of or ends with a period of whole-time service entered upon in the circumstances mentioned in section one of this Act or such a further period of whole-time service as is mentioned in subsection (3) of section three of this Act, as if for the words "second Monday" in subsection (2) of the said section thirty-six there were substituted the words "third Monday"; and section thirty-seven of the said Act (which relates to the duty of an applicant to state availability for employment) shall have effect, in relation to any such period of whole-time service, as if for the words "fourteen days" wherever they occur there were substituted the words "twenty-one days.

Mr. Lee

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This Amendment also implements a promise given to the House, and it gives partial effect to an Opposition Amendment. It is designed to give men covered by Clause 1 rather longer time than National Service men in which to apply for reinstatement and to notify their availability for work.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter (Kingston-upon-Thames)

As it fell to me to move the Amendment in response to which this Amendment has been put forward, it would be ungracious for me not to express my appreciation of the attitude of the Minister in accepting the principle of the Amendment we moved, although not the full extent of the Amendment. Perhaps I might add that this Amendment shows the value both of a conciliatory Minister and of an Upper House.

Question put, and agreed to.