§ Q5. Mr. Lubbockasked the Prime Minister why no person with recent experience of negotiations at factory level has been appointed to the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations.
§ The Prime MinisterI am satisfied that the experience of the members of the Commission will enable them to examine all the problems within their terms of reference with knowledge and understanding, and it is important that a body of this kind should not be too large.
§ Mr. LubbockHas the Prime Minister thought about how long it is since any of the persons appointed to the Royal Commission had practical experience of negotiations? Is he aware that one of the important problems in this matter today is the relationship between national and local bargaining? Would it not have been advisable to appoint to the Royal Commission persons with experience of both, in particular a shop steward and a works manager?
§ The Prime MinisterMany members of the Royal Commission have recent experience of wage bargaining—I agree not on an individual basis in a factory, but many of them at one time or another will have been brought into the problems arising from the transfer of wage negotiations from factory level to regional or national level.
§ Mr. GodberWill the right hon. Gentleman consider the opposite point of view, namely, that with Royal Commissions it is normal to appoint people who are wholly apart? Would it not 265 have been better to do so in this case, so that the chief protagonists would have been free to put their case before wholly independent persons?
§ The Prime MinisterObviously this matter was considered. What the right hon. Gentleman says is quite usual. In this case, it was felt that we were more likely to get a constructive report and one which would be not only of academic interest, but of practical interest and carried out, if it was done in this way. I agree that there are arguments both ways about it.