HC Deb 06 March 1963 vol 673 cc447-8

The Minister shall annually lay before Parliament a report of his proceedings under this Act and generally about the operation of this Act.—[Mr. Hare.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

5.45 p.m.

Mr. Hare

I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.

I think that Parliamentary interest in the Bill is likely to remain high. Therefore, I think it right to produce an annual report so that Parliament can be informed of the working of the Measure. Taking this together with a subsequent Amendment to Clause 50, in page 39, line 44, at end insert: (2) A copy of every report made in pursuance of the foregoing subsection by an authority shall be kept at the authority's offices, shall be open to inspection by any person at all reasonable hours free of charge and shall be supplied to any person on payment of a reasonable charge therefor. which will provide for annual reports of local and higher authorities to be open for public inspection locally, I believe that it will be possible for Parliament and the public to judge how the Act is working both locally and nationally, and that is why I move the Clause.

Mr. Prentice

I should like to say on this Clause something that I said on the first new Clause and might well have said on the intervening ones if I had not wanted to avoid tedious repetition. We are glad of the conversion, although it is late, of the Minister to our attempts to improve the Bill.

We welcome the Clause particularly because we hope that the publication of the annual report will focus public attention upon the whole operation of the Measure. As we have said on other occasions, the Bill can either be almost meaningless or really make a big impact on the working lives of the 8 million or so people who are affected. Whether it will make a big impact or not will depend partly on enforcement, partly on the vigilance of everyone concerned, including the trade unions at national and local levels, and partly on the willingness of the workpeople themselves to insist on their legal rights and, where necessary, to report a bad employer.

We hope, therefore, that the publication of an annual report and the publi- city which it will receive will help to focus attention in this way, that the annual report will perform the same function as the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, and that it will be the subject of Questions and, possibly, debate in this House and another place. We hope it will help to create the climate of opinion needed for carrying out the purposes of the Measure.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.