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Lords Amendment: In page 2, line 39, at end, insert:
(5) For the purposes of the Shops Act, 1950, the place where any exhibition above referred to is being held, and the festival gardens so referred to, shall be treated as falling within the description "gallery, museum, garden, park or ancient monument under the control of a
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public authority or university" in sub-paragraph (l) of paragraph 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the said Act (which sub-paragraph relates to the sale on Sunday at the places therein mentioned of guide books, postcards, etc.).
§ 3.43 p.m.
§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Ede)I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."
The purpose of the Amendment is to enable the Festival Office, the Festival Exhibition, and Festival Gardens Limited in the pleasure gardens, to sell guide books, postcards, photographs, reproductions, photographic films and plates, and souvenirs in the several places covered by the Bill up to 10 p.m. on Sundays, in accordance with Section 42 of the Shops Act, 1950. The Festival organisation naturally want to have these things, particularly guide books, on sale on Sundays, but as it stands the relevant section of the Fifth Schedule of the shops Act, 1950, permits of their sale only at places like galleries and museums, but not at exhibitions or in pleasure gardens.
In short, the Shops Act follows the line of the Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932, and is therefore drawn too narrowly to cover the Festival Exhibition and Pleasure Gardens. This provision should have been part of the Bill from the start, but the need for it had not been discovered when the Bill was drafted. The Amendment was passed in another place without comment.
§ Mr. Manningham-Buller (Northants, South)We should all recognise that the other place has remedied a defect in the Bill and should express our gratitude to them for what they have done, and also to the right hon. Gentleman for his clear exposition of the object of the Amendment. As I understand it, the Amendment is designed simply to legalise the selling of postcards, guide books and things of that sort at the Festival. It is a little curious to reflect that that can only be legalised by treating the Festival as an ancient monument. Whatever epithets those in favour of the Festival or those opposed to it might have thought of applying to the Festival, the last one to have entered our heads would have been to call it a gallery, museum or ancient monument, but apparently it is necessary to do so solely to provide for the sale of postcards, to which we have no objection.
§ Question put, and agreed to.