HC Deb 01 July 1954 vol 529 cc1628-30

Amendment made: In page 68, line 15, leave out from "quarry."' to end of line 18, and insert:

  1. (a) in a case where there is an association or body representative of a majority of the total number of persons employed at the mine or quarry, by that association or body;
  2. (b) in any other case, jointly by associations or bodies which are together representative of such a majority.—[Mr. Joynson-Hicks.]

Mr. Joynson-Hicks

I beg to move, in page 68, line 19, to leave out subsection (2), and to insert: (2) The owner of a mine or quarry shall be under an obligation to permit such inspections to be carried out thereat by members of the panel appointed therefor under subsection (1) of this section as will enable every part of the mine or quarry and the equipment thereof to be inspected once at least in every month by two of these members together (of whom one at least is employed at the mine or quarry). It may be for the convenience of the Committee if we take together this Amendment and the five succeeding Amendments, in page 68, line 45, and in page 69 to lines 3, 21, 29, and 42. Although they look quite a lot, the point is a very short one, and I hope it will afford satisfaction to hon. Members on both sides of the Committee. These Amendments deal with the problem of the right of inspection of a mine. Under the 1911 Act there was a minimum right to inspect each part of the mine once in each month, and it was urged in Committee that that right should be repeated in this Bill. That is what is done in the Amendment which I am moving.

The second point which this series of Amendments covers is the promise made by the Minister to turn round the emphasis in the Clause so that the statutory minimum number of inspections which each working man had the right to claim should be put before any reference to the aditional inspections to which they might have a right under an agreement with the owners. So that has been done, and it only remains for me to say that those two provisions are achieved in the first two Amendments, and the remaining four are consequential.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendments made: In page 68, line 45, at end, insert: (4) Nothing in subsection (2) or (3) of this section shall be construed as precluding the making, as respects a mine or quarry, of an agreement between the owner thereof and the association or body (or, as the case may be, associations or bodies) by whom a panel therefor is appointed under subsection (1) of this section with respect to the carrying out, by members of that panel, of inspections at the mine or quarry, so, however, that no such agreement shall operate so as in any way to abridge the rights conferred by the said subsections (2) and (3).

In page 69, line 3, leave out front "out," to "an." in line 5, and insert: by virtue of subsection (2) or (3) of this section or of any such agreement as is mentioned in subsection (4) thereof.

In line 21, leave out from "are," to "carrying." in line 24, and insert: by virtue of subsection (2) or (3) of this section or of any such agreement as is mentioned in subsection (4) thereof.

In line 29, leave out from "out," to "it." in line 31, and insert: by virtue of subsection (2) of this section or of any such agreement as is mentioned in subsection (4) thereof.

In line 42, leave out from "thereat," to end of line 44, and insert: by virtue of subsection (2) or (3) of this section or of any such agreement as is mentioned in subsection (4) thereof."—[Mr. Joynson-Hicks]