HC Deb 18 December 1969 vol 793 cc1539-40
32. Mr. Dodds-Parker

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that in the present state of the law it is lawful to advertise for a French waiter to work in Great Britain, but it is unlawful to advertise for an Australian or British waiter to work in this country; and whether he will introduce legislation to get rid of this anomaly.

Mr. Merlyn Rees

Parliament decided that it would not be practicable to avoid the distinction to which the hon. Member refers without frustrating the whole purpose of Section 6 of the Race Relations Act, 1968. Any amendment would need to overcome this basic difficulty.

Mr. Dodds-Parker

To help to sort out this nonsensical situation, will the hon. Gentleman consider asking the advice of Mr. Spike Milligan next Friday evening?

Mr. Rees

If race relations could be solved by joking and laughing it would be an excellent thing, but I happen to think that this is a much more serious and intractable problem. I also believe that solving this legal problem is almost impossible. It would not have arisen if hon. Members, when considering the Bill, had not forgotten that some people might put forward daft questions to the Board. That is what happened in this instance and it led to this problem. I did not think that anyone would be silly enough to put a question like this to the Board.

Mr. Rose

Is my hon. Friend aware that this matter was discussed in Committee in great detail and that he is correct in his assumption that it was not expected that people would deliberately try to denigrate the Act in this way, but that this difficulty was foreseen and discussed in great detail at that time?

Mr. Rees

My hon. Friend confirms what we all know. There is great difficulty in trying to get this problem legally correct in an Act.

Mr. Sharples

This question was foreseen by those of us who were on the Standing Committee and it was pointed out at that time that exactly this type of situation was likely to arise.

Mr. Rees

It was pointed out, but it was also pointed out that if the Bill were drawn more loosely it would greatly weaken the powers of the Board to carry out the job it was set up to do.