§ 6.58 p.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Mr. Blenkinsop)I beg to move,
That the Draft National Health Service (Superannuation) Regulations, 1950, a copy of which was laid before this House on 16th March, be approved.There is very little time now in which to introduce this Motion, and I rise now merely to say one or two preliminary words before the clock strikes seven. These are, as I think the whole House recognises, very complicated and detailed Regulations, and I would not wish to suggest for a moment that I am a complete 634 expert on them. Indeed, I doubt whether any Member of the House—with, perhaps, one exception—may claim any special knowledge of them. Perhaps, the great value of these Regulations that we are considering today is that they consolidate a series of previous superannuation Regulations and, I hope, make them somewhat more comprehensible to those who need to follow them, and save them the complexity of having to refer to three different sets of Regulations, as previously they had to do.There are a few points I wish to put, when a further opportunity presents itself, about certain minor changes which, in addition to the consolidation, we are proposing in these Regulations, and about which hon. Members on both sides of the House may wish to say something—
§ It being Seven o'Clock, and there being Private Business set down by direction of The CHAIRMAN OF WAYS AND MEANS, under Standing Order No. 7 (Time for taking Private Business, further proceedings stood postponed.