§ (changed from TOBACCO AND SNUFF (HEALTH HAZARDS) BILL)
§ As amended (in the Standing Committee), considered.
§ 2.2 p.m.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Robert Grant Ferris)Before calling the hon. Member for Worcestershire, South (Sir G. Nabarro) to move new Clause 3,
Regulation of labelling and advertisement of cigarettes",I remind the House that there is a large group of Amendments of a somewhat complicated nature, as they look in print at any rate, including new Clause 7—"Offences and defences"—new Clause 8 —"Exempted provisions" —and new Clause 11— "Offences and penalties". I shall not confound hon. Members by reading them all now. They are readily available if hon. Members wish to see them.
§ Sir Donald Kaberry (Leeds, North-West)On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I seek your guidance about a Motion which I wish to make about the number of Amendments to which you have just referred. We find ourselves in a strange and peculiar position this afternoon regarding the Bill. The first group of Amendments which we are about to discuss introduce a completely new set of principles into the Bill as originally drafted which was given a Second Reading in this Chamber on the nod and was discussed at some length in Committee. 1554 Many Amendments—some moved by myself—were withdrawn in response to undertakings given by the sponsor of the Bill about what he would do on Report.
I submit that the first group of Amendments should be recommitted to a Committee because they introduce principles which have never been discussed. Part of the first group of Amendments includes the amazing proposition by the chief sponsor of the original Bill to delete, with one exception, every Clause of the original Bill and of the Bill as it was reported back from the Committee
In a thinly attended House on a Friday afternoon it seems utterly wrong that a Bill of this importance, so altered, so changed, and with propositions now before us which cannot adequately be, and have not been, discussed in Committee and in respect of which some of the phrases used have not been fulfilled by undertakings given by the chief sponsor of the Bill in Committee, should be allowed to proceed now. It seems, in fairness, justice and equity, that I should move that the Bill be recommitted to a Committee.
Mr. Deputy SpeakerI am obliged to the hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Sir D. Kaberry) for bringing this point to my notice. I have had some time to consider the point and I have taken careful advice before reaching this conclusion. Whereas indeed I think that the hon. Member was justified in submitting his case, because there is something to be said for the course which he has advocated, on balance—this is all that the Chair has to do, and mercifully it does not have to give reasons—I definitely feel that the Bill should be allowed to proceed.
§ Sir D. KaberryFurther to that point of order. May I ask the nature of the debate which will flow? Shall we be entitled to have a wide-ranging debate as though the first group of Amendments were in fact a Second Reading? Shall we be able to embrace the whole subject matter of the Bill, and thereafter put in further manuscript Amendments which may be necessary in view of the wording of the new Clause and the inability, so far, of the sponsor of the Bill to fulfil the undertakings given upstairs? Can 1555 these Amendments be, so to speak, given a Second Reading and thereafter be referred to a Committee?
Mr. Deputy SpeakerIt is very difficult to give the hon. Member a satisfactory answer. I think that a fairly wide debate will be allowed in considering the new