HC Deb 03 June 1957 vol 571 cc1018-9
Mr. Ross

I beg to move, in page 14, line 40, after "not", to insert "otherwise."

I hope that the Lord Advocate will help me by accepting the Amendment. When, in Committee, we drew his attention to the need for clarification of the Bill he said that to understand it we had to put in "otherwise" after "not." I suggested to him that at this stage I would put the word "otherwise" in. We have to think of the poor benighted lawyers of Scotland and help them as much as possible. They will not be able to understand the Bill unless "otherwise" is put into it.

Mr. T. Fraser

I beg to second the Amendment.

The Lord Advocate (Mr. W. R. Milligan)

I am not surprised that the Amendment has been put down by the hon. Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Ross). In the course of Committee proceedings I tried to paraphrase this part of the Clause in an effort to explain it, and I interpolated the word "otherwise." We would have been delighted to put in the word "otherwise" if we had thought that we could safely do so.

On reconsideration, we took the view that the word "otherwise" might be rather dangerous in this context. The purpose of the Clause is to make clear that planning permission is not granted under the Bill but under the appropriate planning Act. If the word "otherwise" were included there would be a slight doubt. In the absence of that word the true intent of the Clause is carried out, I am satisfied, and I must invite the House to reject the Amendment.

Mr. Willis

We have reached the limit of absurdity in explanations by the Law Officers of the Crown. First, we are told in Committee that to make the Bill intelligible we need to put in "otherwise". When we try to put in "otherwise" to make the Bill intelligible and safe we are told to leave it out.

When will the Government make up their minds and say what they want? The right hon. and learned Gentleman should have told us this in Committee and not waste the time of the House on Report on an Amendment which he now tells us he cannot accept. This is another example of how the Government are wasting an enormous amount of time on the Bill by giving bad advice and inaccurate interpretations. I hope that after this lesson the Lord Advocate will see that his advice is sound the next time he advises us in the Scottish Standing Committee.

Amendment negatived.