HC Deb 16 March 1953 vol 512 cc1826-7
57. Mr. Ernest Davies

asked the Minister of Transport if he will make a statement on the views submitted to him by the Central Transport Consultative Committee on Clause 27 of the Transport Bill in response to his request.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I take it that the hon. Member is referring to Clause 28 of the Transport Bill as printed on 12th March. Attached to the Minutes of the 20th meeting held on 30th January, 1953, of the Central Transport Consultative Committee, which reached me on 17th February, 1953, was a document which contained a comment on Clause 28 of the Transport Bill. I am circulating this in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Mr. Davies

As the Minister has now agreed to circulate that section of the report he received from the Committee, will he reconsider his decision not to publish the whole report?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I can only repeat that I have not received the report, though I received a draft report attached to the Minutes. I have nothing whatever to hide, and I am quite prepared to put into the Library the draft report, which is all that I have received.

Following is the comment:

"This Clause proposes that the Transport Users' Consultative Committees for Scotland and Wales shall send to the Minister of Transport, as well as to the Commission and ourselves, copies of their Minutes and recommendations, and that the Minister may give such directions to the Commission with respect to the matters dealt with as he thinks fit. We appreciate the desirability of a direct contact between the Minister and the Scottish and Welsh Committees in so far as their recommendations are confined to Scottish or Welsh problems respectively; on the other hand, the recommendations of those Committees may from time to time affect transport throughout the whole of Great Britain. In such cases it would seem to us that action upon recommendations of those Committees should be deferred until the Central Committee has considered them from the national aspect and advised the Minister of their conclusions. The Scottish and Welsh Committees support this view."

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