HC Deb 11 July 1957 vol 573 cc561-2

Lords Amendment: In page 5, line 8. at end insert new Clause A: (1) The office of chairman of the Generating Board or of the Electricity Council shall not be held except by a person appointed as a whole-time member of the Board or Council. (2) Subject to the preceding subsection, in the exercise of his powers of appointing members of the Generating Board or of the Electricity Council in accordance with sections two and three of this Act, or of appointing members of an Area Board in accordance with section three of the principal Act, the Minister shall secure that as many of the members so appointed as he may consider requisite for the efficient performance of the functions of the Council or Board shall be appointed as whole-time members of the Council or Board.

Read a Second time.

Mr. Maudling

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

I understand that, once again, this Amendment was inserted in the Bill in response to promptings from Opposition Members in the other place. It is concerned with the extent to which membership of the Generating Board, the Electricity Council and, indeed, the area boards shall be whole-time appointments. As the Bill was passed by this House, it left the matter very much to the discretion of the Minister, but this Amendment would limit his discretion to the extent of providing in subsection (1) that the chairmen of the Generating Board and the Electricity Council shall be whole-time members. Subsection (2) requires, in that appointing people to the Generating Board, to the Council and to the area boards, the Minister shall secure that he has on each of these bodies enough full-time members to ensure that the functions of the body to which they belong are efficiently carried out.

I suggest to the House that this reaches a proper balance between the importance of having enough whole-time members on each board whilst, on the other hand, ensuring that we do not fetter the Minister in his discretion as to the exact proportion of members of the boards who are whole time and those who are part time.

Mr. Arthur Palmer (Cleveland)

We on this side of the House welcome the change proposed by the other place, particularly in relation to the Generating Board. The general effect of the change is to strengthen the tendency towards whole time membership of the boards. That is excellent as regards the Generating Board, and certainly in regard to the more important leadership of the Electricity Council.

There is, however, a point which I hope the right hon. Gentleman will take into account, namely, that a differentiation should be made in nature between the Generating Board, which is a production body concerned with making electricity, transmitting electricity, having a big functional, technical job to do, and the area boards, which again of their nature are more of a public service and closer to the consumer.

For myself, I think that the case for having more whole-time members on the Generating Board is infinitely stronger than the case for having too many whole-time members on the area boards. Therefore, I think that the emphasis should be on the representation of those interests which are natural to the locality, and which have some bearing on the interests of the local consumers, and are seen to have some bearing.

I hope, therefore, that in making these appointments, in respect of which the Minister now has flexibility, he will take into account the natural difference between the Generating Board on the production side and the area boards on the distribution side.

Mr. Maudling

By leave of the House, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that my noble Friend has that consideration very much in mind. I am sure he will agree in what has been said about the differing functions of the area boards and the Generating Board, and the comparative weight which would be given to whole-time and part-time membership in each.

Question put and agreed to.