DECISION ON APPLICATIONS FOR SPECIAL AUTHORISATIONS (Hansard, 21 October 1968)

The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. Bob Brown)
I beg to move, That this House cloth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
This Amendment gives the Minister power, by regulation, to add to the factors of speed, reliability and cost by reference to which the comparison between road and rail services is to be made in the quantity licensing cases. There are other matters relevant to the needs of the consigner.
It is important that there should be no misunderstanding about the purpose of the Amendment. It is not an attempt to alter the policy of quantity licensing. Quite the opposite. The Government have made plain their intention that the expression "speed, reliability and cost" shall be interpreted very broadly so as to include not only such specific matters as packaging and insurance costs, risk of damage to goods, or the need for larger inventories, but also flexibility and convenience. To give effect to this intention, the Bill contains a power for the Minister, by regulation, to direct licensing authorities about how the factors should be interpreted.

§ Mr. John H. Osborn (Sheffield, Hallam)
In Committee, we were unable to 894 discuss these variants because of the Guillotine and on Report on 29th May the Government voted against an Amendment on this issue. I am glad that this Amendment, moved by Lord Merrivale in another place, has been accepted by the Government. Many factors, including problems of insurance, the transport of fragile goods, fruit and electronic equipment, go beyond the three criteria presented in this Clause, which will be criteria of quantity licensing.
Having had this concession, which means that there will be discussions between the Minister of Transport and industry as to what these criteria are, it would be helpful to be told how the Minister proposes to issue these regulations. Will they be presented to this House, or will they be the normal sort of regulations which are outside our procedure? What is the system for providing that what may be prescribed is done? The concession is welcome, but it would be useful to have a little more information about how the Minister proposes to proceed, because the subject raises many points which were raised in Committee and which were, as some of us thought, rather summarily dismissed on Report.

§ Mr. Geoffrey Wilson (Truro)
I want to put on record my thanks to the Government for having accepted this Amendment. As hon. Members will be aware, it touches on a point that I have raised many times, which is that speed, reliability and cost are not sufficient as criteria. The Amendment goes quite a long way to meeting points raised over a number of years, and particularly my frequent references to the 1959 Report of the Traders' Road Transport Association which gave some reasons why people use various forms of transport.
The Amendment covers part of the point, and I am grateful that notice has been taken of it.

§ Mr. Peter Bessell (Bodmin)
I, too, appreciate the Government's acceptance of this Amendment. It is an important concession, and will be welcomed by everyone who uses road transport to convey goods. When the criteria are agreed, will the Ministry, and the Parliamentary Secretary in particular, bear in mind the peculiar needs of people who are conveying such perishable goods as horticultural 895 produce and fish from the areas of Cornwall represented by the hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Geoffrey Wilson) and myself? I hope that the needs of those conveying perishable goods for long distances will be borne in mind.

Mr. Bob Brown
With the leave of the House, I can assure the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. J. H. Osborn) that the House can discuss implementation. Again, I can assure the hon. Member for Bodmin (Mr. Bessell) that the question of perishable goods will be very much borne in mind.