HC Deb 18 October 1968 vol 770 cc839-40

Lords Amendments No. 1: In page 10, line 7, leave out "is" and insert "has been".

2.18 p.m.

The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. Edmund Dell)

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Sydney Irving)

I suggest that it would be convenient to discuss at the same time, Lords Amendment No. 2.

Mr. Dell

These are essentially drafting Amendments. Clause 9(1) gives the Registrar of Restrictive Trading Agreements a discretion not to refer dead or abandoned restrictive agreements to the Restrictive Practices Court. It was always the intention that this discretion should apply to agreements which became dead or were abandoned before, as well as those which became so after, the coming into force of the Measure. Indeed, we believe that the Clause as drafted secures this result, but it has been suggested that the use of the word "is" in lines 7 and 8 of page 10 creates a doubt as to whether the power applies to agreements dead or abandoned before the coming into force of the Measure. To remove any possibility of doubt, the Amendments replace the word "is" by the words "has been".

Mr. A. G. F. Hall-Davis (Morecambe and Lonsdale)

In every stage of our consideration of the Bill it has been the wish of both sides that uncertainty should be reduced to a minimum, and that people who wondered whether they should register agreements, or whether action might be taken at a future date on agreements that had been registered, should be given a clear indication of where they stood. If the Minister says that the Amendment will help to clear up a slight possible remainder of doubt, the House will be only too pleased to see it incorporated in the Bill.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.

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