§ Lords Amendment: In page 69, line 21, at beginning insert "Subject to subsection (3) of this section".
1868§ Miss PikeI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
We are back on petrol again. As I explained in error before, Clause 50 left local authorities to undertake this licensing function, but it has been decided that this should be the responsibility of the Greater London Council, and I think that this decision will commend itself to the House.
§ Mr. M. StewartIt is a matter of distress to my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Mrs. Corbet) that she is not able to be here while we are discussing the final stages of the Bill. I know that she will regret not being here at this juncture, because I think that she raised this point in Committee upstairs.
My hon. Friend is an expert on the whole range of miscellaneous administrative and public control functions of the London County Council. The view we took was that although we do not like the general pattern of the Bill, if we are to have in Greater London one large authority, and then various smaller authorities inside that area, there are certain public control functions, particularly those which require uniformity of administration and the services of a limited number of expert officers, which could be done better by a large authority than by a number of small ones.
The argument generally against that was that if we put too many functions in the hands of the Greater London Council we would leave the boroughs with too little to do. In view of what those London boroughs are to be asked to do in housing in future, I do not suppose that any of them will be grieving over the fact that they are no longer to be the licensing authorities for the purpose of petroleum. The hon. Lady is right when she says that the Amendment will commend itself to the House.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.