HC Deb 14 July 1955 vol 543 cc2096-8
36. Mr. Harold Davies

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in shops on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report.

37. Mr. Hunter

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in catering establishments on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report.

38 and 39. Mr. Swingler

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in coal wharves on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report;

(2) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in cinemas on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report.

40 Mrs. L. Jeger

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in offices on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report;

(2) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in premises outside the scope of the Factories Acts and the Mines and Quarries Act;

(3) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in theatres on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report.

43 and 44. Mr. Harold Davies

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in music-halls on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report;

(2) when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in the dental mechanics' workrooms on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report.

34. Mr. Lee

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will introduce legislation to safeguard the health and provide for the safety and welfare of those employed in road passenger undertakings on the lines recommended in the Gowers Report.

35. Mr. Mulley

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware of the need for legislation to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of office workers; and if he will make a statement of the Government's intentions in this matter.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Welsh Affairs (Major Gwilym Lloyd-George)

A Bill is being prepared and will be introduced as soon as time can be found for it.

Mr. Davies

Is the right hon. and gallant Gentleman contending that his answer covers all these Questions, and will he say whether that Bill will include, for instance, dental mechanics' workrooms, shops and offices and locomotive sheds? Can we have a little more information?

Major Lloyd-George

The answer I gave covered all these Questions. If the hon. Gentleman will look at them, there are about nine different callings mentioned in those Questions and they will all be dealt with in one big Bill. He will appreciate that this will be a very big Measure indeed. The Government have already announced their intention of introducing a Bill this Session on agriculture and forestry. If it is possible, there will be another Bill later—on railways. The Bill on shops, offices and other non-industrial employment will be the biggest and will take a long time to go through the House. I can speak from my experience of the Factories Bill because I was Chairman of the Standing Committee and we took well over three months.

Mrs. Jeger

Is the right hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that there is great impatience about this Bill among the trade unions concerned, because discussions have been going on for a long time and the unions have been told for many months, and even years, now that the Bill is in process of preparation? Can he not be a little more forthcoming about some of the other categories?

Major Lloyd-George

I thought I had made it perfectly clear that the reports cover agriculture, forestry, railways and non-industrial workers. The Government have already announced their intention on agriculture, which is regarded as the most immediate because of the increasing number of accidents occurring in a highly mechanised industry; they decided that, on the whole, this was the one that should be put through first. After that, we shall have the railway Bill, and then the much larger one, which will mean a great deal of work because of the enormous number of callings involved.

Mr. Swingler

Has the Minister noted that the Questions ask when the legislation will be introduced? Can he not indicate how long he thinks the bigger Bill will be in course of preparation? How long will it take to draft the Bill, and will the right hon. and gallant Gentleman give an indication of when the legislation to cover these sections of workers will be introduced? Will it be in the next Parliamentary Session?

Major Lloyd-George

It was made clear in the Gracious Speech that the biggest Bill was not expected in this, the first, Session.

Viscount Hinchingbrooke

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Are not all these Questions on the same topic, which seek to establish the right of hon. Members to supplementary questions, a type of collective resale price maintenance, and ought they not, one and all, to be brought before the Monopolies Commission?

Mr. Speaker

I have already expressed my view that it is not a right use of the Order Paper to try to pre-empt it with Questions on a particular topic. These things happen, however, and it has happened before, although I suppose that this collection of Questions on the same subject is entirely fortuitous.