HC Deb 27 March 1963 vol 674 cc1474-5
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Edward du Cann)

I beg to move, in page 3, line 6, to leave out from beginning to end of line 7 and to insert: (c) in the opinion of the Trustees the object is unfit to be retained in the collections of the Museum and can be disposed of without detriment to the interests of students. This Amendment covers a minor but none the less, the House may think, an important point. It has been tabled by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary in satisfaction of an undertaking which I gave during the Committee stage and which, I think, will be remembered particularly by the hon. Member for Islington, East (Mr. Fletcher).

During the discussion on Clause 5 the Committee discussed an Amendment which the hon. Gentleman tabled to delete the word "unfit" and certain other words and to substitute the words of any interest or value to students. I do not think I need at this time of the night rehearse the discussions which we then had except to say that I pointed out at the time, inter alia, that the wording which we were using in the Bill followed closely that of the Act of 1807 which has stood the test of time to a substantial extent, the House may think. I promised to look again more closely at the wording of the Bill and, in particular, at the wording of this subsection, and in view of that assurance the hon. Member for Islington, East was good enough to withdraw his Amendment.

To sum up, this Amendment has been tabled to meet the point of the hon. Member for Islington, East and I hope he will think, as I do, that perhaps it gets the best of both worlds. It retains the old wording while at the same time putting in the additional safeguard for which the hon. Gentleman asked. I should say, finally, that this is a matter which we also discussed with the Trustees, as I said we would and they are happy with the proposed wording.

Mr. Fletcher

As the Amendment follows almost precisely what I suggested in Committee upstairs, I naturally cannot take any objection to it. On the contrary. I am grateful to the Minister for having used the interval to satisfy himself of the desirability of accepting the principle we urged on him then. The words that are now suggested meet to the fullest extent the improvement we desired in the Bill, and we are very glad the Amendment has been proposed.

Amendment agreed to.