§ Lords Amendment: In page 19, line 40, leave out second "the" and insert "any such".
1992§ Mr. WhitelawI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
This is a drafting Amendment. To please the hon. and learned Member for Derby, North (Mr. MacDermot), he will note that it makes one word into two.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§
Lords Amendment: In page 21, line 7, leave out paragraph (a) and insert:
(a) specify the greatest number of persons who, in the opinion of the appropriate authority, can safely be employed to work at any one time in the premises".
§ Mr. HareI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
I think that it would be for the convenience of the House also to discuss the consequential Amendments in page 22, line 23, and in line 24.
These Amendments are designed to improve the procedure relating to fire certificates. Under Clause 29(5,a) as it left this House, a fire authority was required to specify in the fire certificate the number of employed persons stated in the application for the certificate as the greatest number employed to work at any one time in the premises, or proposed to be so employed. On reconsideration, the Government thought that it would be better if instead the fire authority specified in the fire certificate the greatest number of persons who, in the opinion of the authority, could safely be employed to work at any one time in the premises.
The amended procedure should prove helpful to both owners and occupiers on the one hand and to fire authorities on the other, without in any way reducing the protection for employed persons. Indeed, the specification of a maximum safe number should in fact improve protection. The occupier will know that with the given means of escape he can safely increase his staff to the number stated in the certificate without making a further application to the fire authority under Clause 30(3).
The fire authority will also be spared unnecessary paperwork and additional inspections of premises in cases where the occupiers have notified what is, in their view, a material increase in the numbers employed, but which does not make the means of escape insufficient. The new procedure should also help 1993 owners who will be responsible for fire precautions in buildings to which Clauses 42 and 43 apply.
The Amendments in lines 23 and 24 of page 22 are consequential.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.