Clause 34.—(LICENCES OF RIGHT FOR STATUTORY USERS.) (Hansard, 18 July 1963)

§ Sir K. Joseph
I beg to move, in page 36, to leave out lines 3 to 18 and to insert: any quantity specified in the licence as a quantity of water authorised to be abstracted in pursuance of the licence during a period or periods so specified shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, be determined by reference to the requirements of the applicant as indicated by (and not, except by virtue of the next following subsection, to be taken to exceed) the quantities of water proved to the reasonable satisfaction of the river authority to have been abstracted from the source of supply in question by the applicant or his predecessors from time to time during the relevant period by virtue of the relevant statutory provision. (4) In determining any quantity to be specified in the licence, in a case falling within the last preceding subsection, the river authority shall have regard to the terms of the relevant statutory provision and to such of the following matters as are proved to their reasonable satisfaction (in addition to the 843 quantities of water proved to have been abstracted as mentioned in the last preceding subsection) that is to say—
(a) the seasons of the year during which the quantities of water abstracted during the relevant period, as mentioned in the last preceding subsection, were so abstracted".
May this be considered with the following Amendment, Mr. Deputy-Speaker?

§ Sir K. Joseph
There was a question in Committee about the basis on which river authorities should fix the quantity of water to go with a licence of right arising from a statutory authorisation which had not itself fixed the quantity of water authorised. The view has been expressed strongly that the provision in the Bill at present which leaves the fixing of the quantity largely to the discretion of the river authority is too much at large. This Amendment seeks to fix the quantity which the river board shall allow much more closely to the quantity which had previously been abstracted. This will reassure such licensees of right that the quantity which they will be allowed will have a close relation to the quantity that they had been previously abstracting, even where the statutory authorisation under which they had been abstracting did not authorise the quantity.

§ Sir K. Joseph
I beg to move, in page 36, line 34, at the end to insert: either or both of the following, that is to say". This and the following Amendment are both drafting Amendments. Perhaps it was rather ungracious of me to say that. They are drafting, but they meet a criticism put by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Small Heath (Mr. Denis Howell).