§ 26. Mr. Mawbyasked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs to what extent it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government to grant the National Board for Prices and Incomes similar powers to those of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. George BrownThe rôle and powers of the National Board are entirely different from those of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal, and it is not our intention to make them similar.
§ Mr. MawbyIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that he must face up to the inevitable consequences of having a Prices and Incomes Board and that if one continues just to express pious hopes and to ask people to be good boys, if there are no sanctions the Board will lose any influence which it ever had?
§ Mr. BrownI am delighted to have the hon. Gentleman on my side. Perhaps he will address what he has said to the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Powell).
§ Mr. Iain MacleodIs the right hon. Gentleman confusing—I am not sure whether he is—the Industrial Court with the old Industrial Disputes Tribunal, which, unless my memory has gone wrong, was abolished? The point surely is that there is an element of compulsory arbitration by reference in the different references which he is making to the Prices and Incomes Board.
§ Mr. BrownI am not confused, but clearly the right hon. Gentleman is. The Question refers to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal, which, I remember very well, began under Order 1305 and then moved up. I answered the Question in the form in which it was put down. If the right hon. Gentleman wants to put something else down, he should by all means do so.