§ Lords Amendment No. 34: In page 35, line 30, leave out "specified in the advertisement".
§ Mr. Elystan MorganI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
This is largely a drafting Amendment, but I apprehend that hon. Members opposite might want to know something about it. Clause 42(1)(a) prohibits any advertisement
informing the public that any premises in Great Britain specified in the advertisement are premses on which gaming takes place or is to take place,The words "specified in the advertisement" add nothing to the sense of this provision. There is therefore a risk that the provision will be construed as requiring that the premises should be specified in some way, as, for example, by giving the postal address. Such a construction would leave the provision open to evasion, or, if an establishment were already a household word, there might be some doubt if these words were to remain in the Clause. Accordingly, the Amendment takes them out.
§ Mr. BuckI can accept that the Amendment helps the Government in their avowed purpose of not allowing any form of advertising of these establishments, but that is a purpose with which we are not in sympathy, and therefore we are not in sympathy with the Amendment. It is absurd to set up all this panoply to provide legal and well-supervised establishments and then tell the people that they are not allowed to advertise. This pushes the matter under ground. We are against the purpose of the Amendment and this whole restriction. It suggests a presentiment of failure, because if we succeed and have a relatively small number of well run gaming clubs it is nonsense that people should not have access to information about them.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§
Lords Amendment No. 35: In page 36, line 30, after "granted" insert:
or from such later date as may be appointed by the licensing authority by whom the licence was granted".
§ Mr. Elystan MorganI beg to move. That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerIt would perhaps be convenient to discuss at the same time Lords Amendment No. 36.
§ Mr. MorganClause 42(3)(c) except from the restrictions on advertising applying to commercial gaming clubs newspaper advertisements issued within 14 days of a licence being granted and in a form approved by the licensing authority. The object is to allow the new club some chance of announcing its arrival and so establishing itself in competition with the clubs already in being. The Amendments will allow the newspaper advertisements to be inserted still for 14 days but not necessarily for the 14 days immediately after the grant of a licence.
Instead, the period may run from any other date approved by the licensing authority. The reason is that, very often before making an application for a licence, the proprietors of a club might wish to carry out substantial structural alterations or additions and would wish to do that only after the licence had actually been granted. They would not wish to commit themselves to substantial 757 capital expenditure on the mere contingency of a licence being granted. This enables the 14-day period to run from a date which has been specified by those granting the licence. I trust, therefore, that hon. Gentlemen opposite will have no fundamental objection to the Amendment.
§ Mr. BuckDoes not this illustrate the absurdity of the situation? What the Government are saying is that one can announce the arrival, the birth, of a new club in advertisements but one is never thereafter allowed to advertise the facilities on which one's survival depends. But in so far as this provides a little flexibility, to allow the period of the advertisement to be extended or to take place once the club and not just the licence is in existence, we welcome it. Probably the Government can see how absurd the situation is. This is sheerest nonsense. We condemn the absurdity but welcome the slight additional flexibility.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.