HC Deb 02 June 1960 vol 624 c1721
Mr. C. Johnson

I beg to move, in page 15, line 5, to leave out "forty-eight" and to insert "twenty-four".

The Amendment has been tabled by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Liverpool, Edge Hill (Mr. A. J. Irvine) and myself in order to give the Minister an opportunity to give the House, in accordance with his promise, his reserved judgment on the arguments put forward in Committee against the Clause as it stands. Briefly, it was then argued that because of the open character of caravan sites, advance notice of inspection appeared not to be essential and in any event two full days' notice was much too long, as that would normally afford the operator an opportunity of tidying up the site and even of remedying any breach which might exist, perhaps temporarily.

Moreover, as my hon. and learned Friend demonstrated in Committee, the comparable provisions for entry under the Public Health and other Acts invariably provide for only 24 hours' notice. For those reasons, and fortified by the way in which the Minister has met the last two Amendments, I hope that he will accept this Amendment, too.

Mr. H. Brooke

The hon. Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. C. Johnson) is also fortunate. I would not necessarily endorse all he has said on the subject, but I think that the grounds of uniformity here are very strong. It is 24 hours in Section 284 of the Public Health Act, 1936, and Section 103 (4) of the 1947 Act. I think it would be desirable to bring the period of notice in this Bill into line with that.

Amendment agreed to.