FINANCE BILL (Hansard, 18 May 1960)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Derick Heathcoat Amory)
I beg to move, That the Bill be considered in the following order: Clauses 1 to 3, Schedule 1, Clauses 4 to 9, Schedule 2, Clauses 10 to 17, Schedule .3 Clauses 18 to 36, Schedule 4, Clauses 37 to 58, Schedules 5 and 6, Clauses 59 to 73. new Clauses. Schedule 7, new Schedules. The object of the Motion is to enable the Committee to discuss the Schedules immediately after the Clauses to which it refers. That is a procedure which I think the Committee has found convenient in our deliberations during the past two years, and I think that it would be for the convenience of the Committee if we followed the same procedure again.

§ Mr. Harold Wilson (Huyton)
I am sure that it is for the convenience of the Committee that the Motion should be passed. It is a new procedure to put down the Motion on the Notice Paper at the beginning of our consideration of the Bill. During the last year or two we have had to make representations to the Chancellor at a very late hour to have the Schedules brought forward into their proper place, and it is far better that we should know where we are and that the Notice Paper should hereafter be printed in accordance with the terms of the Motion.
Proceeding in this way may help to accelerate our consideration of the Bill, which, I am sure, will be in accordance with the wishes of hon. and right hon. Members on both sides of the Committee. This is, I think, the dullest Finance Bill we have ever seen and all of us want to see it go through with as much speed as is compatible with a thorough investigation of the points raised.
The Chancellor will have noticed from this morning's Notice Paper that to the Clauses and Schedules 123 Amendments have been tabled, 11 of them from himself, 38 from my right hon. and hon. Friends and myself, and 1281 74 from hon. Members opposite other than Government representatives. In the circumstances, while we intend to co-operate to the full in getting the Bill through in the most satisfactory manner possible, I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will not waste his time discussing with us the idea of a timetable. I think that his discussions should be with those behind him.

§ The Chairman
I should inform the Committee that I have put in the "No" Lobby a list of the provisional selection of Amendments up to the end of Part II of the Bill.