HC Deb 06 July 1966 vol 731 cc581-2
Sir K. Joseph

I beg to move Amendment No. 48, in page 11, line 44, to leave out "year" and to insert "two years".

We return now to an argument which we had in Committee about the time before the date of expiry of a licence within which the licensee shall have the right to apply for renewal. We quite understand that the Government cannot accept our original request that the period should be the three years preceding the expiry of the licence because, with any three-year licence, the application for renewal could be made on the day the licence began.

On the other hand, we ask the Government to concede that it makes for good planning if a licensee has a reasonable chance to plan ahead by knowing whether or not he will obtain a renewal of his licence. We hope that, since most of the licences will fall between the three and seven-year extremes, a two-year application period will be a compromise which the Government can accept.

Mrs. Shirley Williams

The right hon. Gentleman has seen the difficulty which would arise with the three-year period, but we acknowledge the point he makes about reasonable time for application. I recommend the House to accept the Amendment.

Amendment agreed to.