§ Lords Amendment No. 161: In page 68, line 29, at end insert new Clause "V":
§ in London and in the offices in Cardiff. It will be a great help to the public to have this set out in a register to which they can refer to ascertain exactly where the various provisions of the Act will be in force, when they come into force, and so on.
§ It could be made even more beneficial to the public if local authorities were obliged to keep a register so far as it affects their area. It would not entail any great expense or trouble for the Ministry to pass the information on to local authorities. A local authority must know when any Section is coming into operation in its area. There should be a register at the local registry which the public can inspect. This is a simple practical point which would make subsection (5) more beneficial to the public.
1513§ In subsection (3) the Minister takes power to make transitional provisions which will in many cases alter the law.
§ He will be able to do so by an Order which will not be laid before the House, let alone have any Parliamentary procedures applied to it. This seems to be taking immense powers. It is usual for an Order bringing an Act into operation on a certain date to be a simple statutory instrument not laid before the House and subject to Parliamentary procedure, but these Orders go further than ordinary commencing Orders. They will bring certain Sections of the Act into operation geographically, in some areas and not in others. I t would have been more helpful for the House to follow how an Act comes into operation to have Orders at least laid. I would prefer that they should be subject to annulment. As the new Clause stands, the Minister has complete power to make Orders without giving them the publicity one would hope they would have.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonWe considered carefully whether there would be any great advantage in adopting the suggestion contained in this Amendment and decided that there would not be. I think the hon. Member realised this when he said that local authorities will themselves know what their position is. They get all the copies of statutory instruments as a matter of routine. In addition, local authorities will be informed by the Welsh Office and by the Ministry of commencement Orders relevant to their areas. The provision in the Bill for national registers is designed to meet a need for an authoritative statement on a collected national basis. For inquiry about an individual area, the normal thing would be to go to the local authority. Although we are not out of sympathy with trying to provide this information, the suggested procedure seems unnecessary and elaborate.
We have had discussion about the point related to subsection (3). It is necessary to have regard to this other legislation. This is a provision which is always made and it is included here for obvious reasons.
§ Amendment negatived.
§ Lords Amendment agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.