HC Deb 03 August 1971 vol 822 cc1517-20

Lords Amendment: No. 30, in page 88, line 15, after "19" insert of the Ministry of Supply Act 1939".

Mr. Noble

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This merely adds the words in the subheading to the text of the Bill and so is drafting.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords Amendment: No. 31, in page 89, line 31, leave out from "words," to end of line 33 and insert: "approved under the Convention "there shall be substituted the words" which are either—

  1. (i) approved under any international agreement to which the United Kingdom is a party, or
  2. (ii) in the opinion of the Minister likely to be approved, before or within one month after the date when the regulations come 1518 into force, under any international agreement to which the United Kingdom is likely to be a party before or within one month after that date;"".

Mr. Noble

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This Amendment enables regulations for the payment of navigation services charges to Eurocontrol under an international agreement to be made in advance of the United Kingdom bet-coming a party to the agreement if the Secretary of State considers that the United Kingdom is likely to be a party before or within one month after the date when the regulations will come into force. It is a somewhat technical Amendment.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.

Lords Amendment: No. 36, in page 93, line 44, before second "the" insert "under".

Mr. Noble

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

We may conveniently take at the same time Lords Amendment No. 37, in page 93, line 46, before "any" insert or likely to be approved under".

Mr. Millan

I am in some difficulty here. I do not understand these Amendments and I think that there must have been a misprint somewhere. Amendment No. 36 refers us to the second "the" in line 44. I can see only one "the" in that line. The second Amendment also does not seem to make sense. I do not believe that we can agree to the Amendments, because they will make the paragraph a nonsense. I am sorry that I have not been able to give the right hon. Gentleman notice of this point.

Mr. Noble

I am sorry that I cannot give the hon. Gentleman the answer at this very short notice. In my list the Amendments were bracketed with No. 31.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

Order. May I help the House? The hon. Gentleman may be under a misapprehension. As far as we can make out from the Chair, the Amendment is correctly worded.

Mr. Millan

I should be grateful if someone could explain why that should be so.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

May I point out that the reference in the Lords Amendment is to the Bill as first printed by the Lords? Perhaps that is how the hon. Gentleman's difficulty arises.

Mr. Millan

I understand that the Amendments refer to Bill 194, which is what I have in my hand, and if the two Amendments are made to Bill 194 they do not appear to make sense. Perhaps the Minister can explain it to me from his copy. The first Amendment is completely defective, because there is no second "the" to insert any word before. I see that the hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Onslow) agrees with me. The second is also defective, because if we insert the words we have an absolute nonsense. Something must have gone wrong with the printing. I am sorry if this is an embarrassment to the Government.

Mr. Noble

I wish that I could help the hon. Gentleman more. I am told that the Amendments are correct in relation to the Bill to which they aim to be made. I agree that in my copy of the Bill line 44 has only one "the", but that may not be the copy of the Bill to which the Amendments are being made.

Mr. Onslow

I think that the hon. Member for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan) is under a misapprehension about the second Amendment, because it makes a sort of sense, but he must be right about the first, because there is only one "the" in the line. No doubt there is a Bill somewhere which has the necessary word. I only regret that my right hon. Friend has been able to obtain a copy but the Vote Office was not able to supply hon. Members with it.

Mr. Noble

The appropriate copy of the Bill has now arrived in my hands, and there are two "the"s in the line. If I hand my copy to the hon. Gentleman he will see that the Amendment was technically correct, and I believe makes sense.

Mr. Millan

I am sorry if I caused a little confusion, particularly at this time of night. Now that I have seen the appropriate copy I think that I understand that the Amendments may indeed make some sense. Not all Government Amendments do, but I think that I have been under a misapprehension, and I apologise to the House.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his characteristic courtesy.

Question put and agreed to.

Remaining Lords Amendment agreed to.