Clause 1.—(INTERIM CONTINUATION OF ARMY AND AIR FORCE ACTS.) (Hansard, 17 February 1955)

§ Mr. Michael Stewart (Fulham, East)

I beg to move, in page 1, line 6, to leave out "appointed day" and to insert: end of the year 1956. 744 My right hon. and hon. Friends and myself would like to move our Amendment in this form instead of the form in which it appears on the Order Paper. Since our Amendment appeared on the Order Paper the Secretary of State for War has been good enough to acquaint me with the views of the Government, and we were happy to find that there was no difference of substance or principle between the Government and ourselves. The Amendment now proposed would achieve the desired result in the most convenient way. It is a point of considerable constitutional importance, and I hope that even at this late hour the Committee will bear with me for a few minutes.

Our reason for putting down an Amendment at all was because, were this Bill carried without an Amendment, we should have a legal position in which the Army and Air Force Acts continued until the appointed day, and the naming of the appointed day would be entirely within the discretion of the Government. Parliament would have let go its hold on the Army and Air Force Acts, because it would have been entirely within the discretion of the Government as to how long, not the Bill we are passing now, but the old Army and Air Force Acts, remained in force. It seemed to us undesirable that that position should arise.

Mention was made earlier of the fact that the annual control over the Army is not the only nor, perhaps, the main safeguard that the House has over the Executive. But it is a safeguard of some importance, and at any rate it would be a bad precedent were the House to throw over a safeguard of that kind quite casually as if the act of throwing it over were a matter of no importance. We felt, therefore, that it was important to have in this Bill a specific date beyond which the Army and Air Force Acts could not remain in force.

The problem arises as to what that date should be. At first we were inclined to think that it should be 31st July, 1956. But we are aware that before these new Bills can come into force and before the present Acts can be allowed to expire, a great deal of printing and indeed of instruction must be done; and it would have been unreasonable to press the Government for too early a date. I understand that a date at the end of 745 1956 is the date at which the Government feel it would be reasonably possible that the new Acts could be brought into force.

One other point remains. There is always the possibility of some completely unexpected difficulty arising, some breakdown in the operation of the printing trade, which would oblige the Government to say that it was simply impossible for them to bring in the new Acts by that date. We accept that, provided that, if the Government want a date later than the end of 1956, they are prepared to come to the House and ask for it. One result of putting the Amendment in this form is that, should it be necessary, the Government can ask for such permission in a comparatively intelligible Parliamentary form.

An Amendment in this form achieves the preservation of the important constitutional principle that the House ought never to give to the Government of the day complete control over how long the Army and Air Force Acts should remain in force. At the same time we take account of the practical difficulties and possible causes of delay before the new Army and Air Force Acts can come into operation. For these reasons, I hope that the Amendment will be accepted by the Committee.