§ 6. Lieut.-Colonel Cordeauxasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he will restrict the basic petrol allowance to any degree necessary to protect the livelihood of those people whose work necessitates the use of a motor vehicle.
§ Mr. Aubrey JonesThe basic ration is intended to meet essential purposes, including getting to work. Where a firm's production is none the less threatened through the inability of key personnel to get to work, special consideration will be given. Equally, sympathetic consideration will be given in the case of the self-employed person whose livelihood is really endangered. But I must make it clear that the situation will not allow these special hardship allowances to be plentiful either in number or quantity, and the threat to production or livelihood must be clearly proved.
§ Lieut.-Colonel CordeauxBut does not my right hon. Friend agree that since many people are expecting to lose, and have in fact lost, their jobs, it is psychologically wrong that the basic ration should be more than double what it was last time? Would he not also agree that one of the chief causes of bitterness to people such as commercial travellers in the Nottingham area, who are accustomed to travel 1,600 miles a month and are now restricted to 300, is the fact that private motorists can, if they wish, use two-thirds of that amount on purely pleasure motoring?
§ Mr. JonesThe basic ration was fixed at an average of 200 miles a month so as to exclude the greater number of the special compassionate allowances which obtained under the last scheme, and in so far as private motorists expect special allowances now, I am afraid they will, to a large extent, be disappointed. Equally, the basic ration was fixed at this figure so that the staff should be free to consider purely business applications. For the rest, the 300 miles a month available to the commercial traveller is, of course, a minimum. The self-employed commercial traveller will have something in excess of that. The final allocation of the commercial traveller employed by a firm will, of course, be determined by his firm.
§ Mr. CallaghanIs the Minister aware that all these promises are in the future and that today messages have been arriving at the House of Commons for my right hon. Friends from all parts of the country, from chambers of commerce and many other persons connected with business, saying that unless they get their 912 ration shortly, including a supplementary allowance, there will be considerable hardship and a breakdown in the transport services of this country? Quite apart from these matters which are to be determined in the future, can the Minister assure us that there will be no breakdown, either in food distribution or in any other part of our industrial life, through the failure of his Ministry to issue the necessary coupons?
§ Mr. JonesI think, Sir, that the hon. Gentleman is referring to the supplies of fuel made available to commercial vehicles. Questions on that aspect must be addressed to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport.
§ Mr. CallaghanDoes not the doctrine of collective responsibility apply? Are we really to go through the whole of this Question Time without having any word from the Government about the breakdown which we are assured is likely to take place within the next two or three days? The Minister cannot shuffle out of his responsibility like that.
§ Mr. JonesThe doctrine of collective responsibility does apply, but it is a convention of this House, particularly at Question Time, that individual Ministers answer for their Departments. I am answering for mine. I cannot answer for commercial vehicles, but I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport has in mind the considerations which the hon. Gentleman has mentioned.
§ Mr. CallaghanOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I ask you whether you will consider sympathetically a Question put to the Minister of Transport at the end of Question Time today on the serious situation that is arising in the country?
§ Mr. SpeakerI have plenty of sympathy, but I am bound by the rules of order.
§ Mr. NicholsonWould not my right hon. Friend agree that some, at any rate, of the basic ration will be used for purely pleasure purposes? Would it not be more appropriate if that amount of petrol were given to the people who either need it for their livelihood or because they live a very long way from a railway station or a market town?
§ Mr. JonesWell, Sir, 80 per cent. of the petrol consumed in this country is consumed for business and professional purposes, the other 20 per cent. by private motorists. Clearly the whole of the cut could not be borne by the private motorist. The 200 miles a month is less than it was last time for the private motorist—that is, the basic allowance plus his special compassionate allowances. I am satisfied that the 200 miles a month should enable the private motorist to cover his essential purposes and leave nothing over for pleasure.
§ Mr. NicholsonWould my right hon. Friend answer my Question?
§ Dr. KingWhilst thanking the Minister for what he has done to save the taxi industry, may I ask him how he can reconcile endangering the livelihood of commercial travellers, causing what the Southampton Chamber of Commerce calls grievous dislocation of trade because he has not made up his mind about goods vehicles, and the slap-happy issue of four months' basic petrol to the private motorist on the one hand and the giving to political agents of from 25 gallons to 80 gallons a month?
§ Mr. JonesThe facility given to motorists, business or private, to draw on their whole four months' supply was intended as a cushion, or as a bank, pending full scrutiny of the supplementary applications. For the rest, I must repeat that questions on goods vehicles cannot be answered by me.
§ Mr. J. GriffithsI want to ask the Minister a question arising out of his reply to these many questions. Whilst recognising Departmental responsibility, the right hon. Gentleman will have had consultations with the Ministry of Transport in drawing up this system of rationing. May I ask him, therefore, whether, as a result of those consultations, he will now give an assurance to the House that he is satisfied that there will be no breakdown in commercial transport leading, perhaps, to shortages in essential foodstuffs and other essential services?
§ Mr. JonesI am satisfied that my right hon. Friend is doing his best to ensure that there will be no breakdown.
§ Mr. GriffithsWill the Minister give an assurance that if experience in the next two days shows that the allocation is inadequate, he will reconsider it?
§ Mr. JonesI said in the House a week ago today that every arrangement must, of course, be reviewed in the light of experience.
§ 17. Miss Burtonasked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether, in view of the urgency of the matter, he is now in a position to make a statement concerning supplementary allowances of petrol for workers in the motor car industry in Coventry.
§ 24. Mr. J. Johnsonasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he is aware that there are villages within a radius of 15 miles from Rugby and Coventry whose inhabitants work at factories in those towns; and, in view of the fact that these villages possess no bus service, whether he will consider sympathetically the case for an adequate supplementary ration of petrol for these workers.
§ Mr. Aubrey JonesI fully appreciate the gravity of the problem of travel from home to work in areas like this and, in order to help firms whose production is seriously endangered by their workers' inability to get to work, I am arranging for special application forms for supplementary allowances to be available as soon as possible at regional petroleum offices. Meanwhile, the basic ration should suffice for the great majority of workers who really cannot get to work except by car or motor cycle.
§ Miss BurtonIs the Minister aware that in Coventry on Saturday I received a deputation from the Armstrong-Whitworth factory, where 2,500 workers go to work by car? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the firm has been granted one-eighth of its application for petrol and that it will take forty extra buses from Pool Meadow to transport the workers, which is quite impossible? In view of the Minister's answer to Question No. 6, will be expedite matters, because the basic ration will not be enough?
§ Mr. JonesI Very much question whether the firm at issue has applied for a supplementary allowance on the basis of the arrangement which I have announced today and which I foreshadowed last week. If it does make an application, clearly it will be considered.
§ Mr. JohnsonIs the Minister aware that at the moment some of my constituents are faced with either taking lodgings 915 in Coventry, which is ten or fifteen miles away and will involve additional expense, or losing their jobs? Will he please expedite the measures he intends to take for giving additional allowances?
§ Mr. JonesAny additional allowance of this kind which is made will be considered as soon as possible.
§ Mr. KershawIs my right hon. Friend aware that in Gloucestershire, at any rate, the basic allowance will probably not enable workers to continue going to factories by car for very long after 1st January? Is he satisfied that he has the staff available in the regional offices to allocate the extra supplies of petrol in time to make them of any use?
§ Mr. JonesIt is a question not merely of numbers of staff, but also of the quality of staff. I can assure my hon. Friend that every effort will be made by the regional offices to consider these applications with the utmost expedition, but I hope at the same time that hon. Members will have regard to the very heavy volume of work falling on the regional staffs.
§ 18. Mrs. Castleasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he is aware that representatives of many firms have been allocated less than 20 per cent. of their normal usage of petrol for business needs and, as this is a much greater cut than the 25 per cent. anticipated, if he will increase the supplementary allowance for commercial travellers.
§ 2. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he is aware of the long distances commercial travellers have to travel in the north, east and west of Scotland; what account of this he has taken in his petrol rationing schemes; and what extra supplementary allowances he intends to make for commercial travellers in those places.
§ Mr. Aubrey JonesMy regional petroleum officers are under instruction to consider applications from self-employed commercial travellers whose livelihood would otherwise be substantially affected. The nature of the territory covered will be automatically taken into account. In other cases, it will be for the employer to consider how his block allowance can best be allocated in the interests of production and employment.
§ Mrs. CastleIs the Minister aware that he has totally failed to answer my Question? My complaint and the complaint of my constituents is that these firms have received a supplementary allowance which, distributed among their representatives, gives them a mere 20 per cent. of the allocation they would normally have instead of the 75 per cent. which they assumed they would get. Can the Minister sit there complacently and allow business in this country to come to a standstill while allowing pleasure motoring to continue?
§ Mr. JonesI hope that I am not complacent, but I think it quite unfair to suggest that business will be brought to a stop through the continuance of pleasure motoring. Having regard to the fact that 80 per cent. of the petrol consumed is consumed by business, business cannot escape some kind of reduction. Applications for a supplementary allowance by business firms whose production is really affected will, of course, always be considered.
§ Mrs. CastleFurther to that, if I send the Minister particulars of a firm in my constituency which manufactures medical products where the allocation for its representatives is a mere 20 per cent. of what it was, will he give me an assurance that he will increase that allocation to 75 per cent.?
§ Mr. JonesThe allocation made to a firm is not necessarily for the exclusive use of its representatives. The allocation is to the firm for all its purposes, and it is left to the firm to decide in its own interests how its total allocation is best distributed among repcesentatives and other employees.
§ 35. Lieut.-Colonel Liptonasked the Minister of Fuel and Power how many applications for supplementary petrol have been made in the London region; and how many applications for allocations greater than already granted are still under consideration.
§ Mr. Aubrey JonesAbout 100,000 applications for supplementary petrol have been made in London and the South-East. The information asked for in the second part of the Question is not available, and could be obtained only by delaying other more essential work.
§ Lieut.-Colonel LiptonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that there has been a complete breakdown in the allocation of supplementary petrol in the London region? Is he also aware that many of us have had letters from constituents which indicate that they will be either ruined completely by the end of the year or subjected to very severe financial loss unless the Minister sits up and takes notice? What is the right hon. Gentleman doing to remedy the deplorable and disgraceful state of affairs for which he must accept sole responsibility?
§ Mr. JonesI am not aware that there has been any breakdown on nearly the scale suggested by the hon. and gallant Member. I have already made it clear that, where production and livelihood are affected, applications for supplementary allowances will be sympathetically considered. At the same time, I would ask the hon. and gallant Gentleman to reflect upon the fact that a reduction of a whole quarter in the petrol consumption of the country can scarcely be affected without some degree of friction.
§ Mr. CallaghanHow many of the 100,000 applications still remain to be met, and how soon does the Minister hope to have those applications cleared off?
§ Mr. JonesI think I am right in saying that of the 100,000 applications about 90 per cent. have already been dealt with.