HC Deb 17 June 1965 vol 714 cc1033-4
Mr. Russell Johnston

I beg to move Amendment No. 36, in page 11, line 10, to leave out paragraph (3) and to insert: (3) All members of the Board shall be full time. I will be brief, because the argument was dealt with in Committee at some length. I wish to state clearly and categorically that we on the Liberal Bench believe that the membership of the Board ought to be full time. Such a decision would be far the best which the Government could take. We must remember that the area which the Board is about to develop, and we very much hope develop successfully, covers half of Scotland. It is a very large area indeed.

We have said that we should prefer to see this done by a small Board of five, but the Government have held to seven. Even so, we feel that this work in an area covering half Scotland, in which we hope to see new industry, agricultural improvements and social and transport advice given, requires a full-time Board. We do not think that it is a part-time job. So many of the Boards which have been involved in Highland development have been bedevilled by this part-time attitude. It is not merely that a man is not giving the whole of his energies to a job; he is not fully committed to it. We are embarking on what the Government know is the first real experiment in regional development to take place in Britain—although, judging by the noise from hon. Members opposite, it seems that many of them do not appreciate that fact.

I do not wish to extend the argument. It is simple. I fear that the Minister does not intend to accept the Amendment, but both the Secretary of State and the Minister of State are wrong in their attitude; this is a job for full-time people and there will come a time when Ministers will admit that that is the case.

Amendment negatived.

Mr. Willis

I beg to move Amendment No. 37, in page 12, line 23, to leave out from "matter," to "a" in line 24 and to insert: but he may, nevertheless, be taken into account for the purpose of constituting". This is another Amendment which is moved to meet a point raised in Committee, when it was pointed out that as the Schedule was worded we might reach a position when we could not conduct the business of the Board. The Amendment enables the business of the Board to be conducted and I hope that the Opposition will accept it.

Mr. G. Campbell

The Amendment meets the point that was raised by us in Committee and we are grateful that the Minister of State has been able to bring it forward, although when we argued the matter in Committee he gave us no hope that he would.

Amendment agreed to.