HC Deb 25 October 1967 vol 751 cc1638-9

Considered in Committee.

[Sir ERIC FLETCHER in the Chair]

10.15 a.m.

The Chairman

The Amendments in the names of the hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Graham Page) and the hon. and learned Member for Buckinghamshire, South (Mr. Ronald Bell) to Clause 5 and the Amendments in the name of the hon. Member for Crosby to Clause 20 are out of order. I shall, however, call the hon. Member for Crosby to move his Amendment to Schedule 1.

Mr. Graham Page (Crosby)

Might I, on a point of order, ask for your guidance in this connection, Sir Eric? We are dealing with an entirely new procedure. If you tell me that these Amendments would have been out of order in any Bill or that they would not have been selected in the case of any Bill, then I cannot question it, but if there is any reason under the new procedure why the Amendments are not in order it would be a great help if the House were given some guidance on that.

The Chairman

I am always anxious to help the Committee in these matters and appreciate that this is the first Bill that comes to us which is not merely pure consolidation but is also a Bill to deal with Amendments to give effect to recommendations of the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission. The position is that Amendments are permissible only in so far as they would have been permissible if it had been a pure consolidation Bill, which, of course, is very limited in scope, and also if they were within the scope of the Bill and fell within Amendments proposed by the Law Commission or the Scottish Law Commission.

Mr. Graham Page

Further to that point of order, Sir Eric. I should be quite wrong, I am sure, in endeavouring to debate this point in any way, and this is only to get a guidance for the future. I understand, then, that an Amendment such as that to Clause 5, which is very closely related to the Amendment made on the recommendation of the Law Commission, has been thought to be not within the scope of the recommendation of the Law Commission.

The Chairman

The proposed Amendments to Clause 5 go quite outside any of the recommendations of the Law Commission.

With the permission of the Committee, I will put some of the Clauses collectively, first Clauses 1 to 20.

Mr. Graham Page

I am sorry to interrupt again, Sir Eric, but I wish to comment on the proposition that Clause 5 and Clause 20 stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 1 to 4 ordered to stand part of the Bill.