§ 5.58 p.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. William Whitelaw)I beg to move, in page 5, line 8 to leave out from "industry" to first "to" in line 10.
Would it be for the convenience of the House, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, if we also considered the Amendment in page 5, line 16 to leave out from "industry" to "to" in line 17.
§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Sir William Anstruther-Gray)If that is convenient to the House, so be it.
§ Mr. WhitelawThese two Amendments arise from an undertaking I gave during Committee in reply to an Amendment moved by the hon. Member for East Ham, North (Mr. Prentice). As the House will appreciate, under Clause 4(1) a small firm can under certain circumstances be exempted from paying the levy. As the Bill stands, a similar exemption would be applied under Clause 6(1) to the provision of information.
The hon. Member for East Ham, North argued in Committee that, although it might be right under special circumstances to exclude small firms from paying the levy, nevertheless it might inhibit industrial training boards if they could not get the information they wanted from those small firms. As I undertook, we have considered the point very carefully since the Committee stage and agree with the conclusion of the hon. Member. I think he will notice that these Amendments are in exactly the words he proposed in Committee.
§ Mr. R. E. Prentice (East Ham, North)In supporting these Amendments, I point out that we want the whole scope of the Bill to apply to all firms, large or small. Although we concede that there may be circumstances in which certain units in some industries are so small that they might reasonably be excused from paying the levy, we would regard that exemption in itself as some- 962 thing which should be used very sparingly. We think that that should happen in all cases where the firms are so small that the cost of collecting the levy would be greater than the yield of the levy itself. Further, we think that the board should be given the fullest possible information by all firms, as we originally moved in Committee.
6.0 p.m.
We are glad that the Government have accepted our ideas. If I may say so, this is a good example of how the vigilance of the Opposition has helped the Government out of their difficulties. There are further examples in the Notice Paper of ways in which we are trying to help them, and we hope that they will meet us on those points as well.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Further Amendment made: In page 5. line 16, leave out from "industry" to "to" in line 17.—[Mr. Whitelaw.]