POWERS FOR AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE SERVICES AND FACILITIES FOR THE COMPANIES (Hansard, 15 January 1971)

§ Mr. Douglas

I beg to move Amendment No. 5, in page 14, line 26, at end add: ( ) The Authority shall include in its annual report to Parliament details of the services or facilities provided to the companies under this Act. The Minister covered the point which it is desired to raise by the Amendment when he indicated that it was possible that this type of negotiation between the Authority and the companies would be conducted at arms' length and that in some way we would receive information about the services and facilities provided by the Authority under the Bill when enacted.

I would expect that the Authority, in its annual reports, would present to Parliament information regarding the type of facilities and services provided, but I would like that to be put beyond reasonable doubt. I would expect that the Authority would accept the intention that Parliament should receive this information, but intention is not enough and, as we are dealing with a new situation, the Bill should include some strictures on the Authority to bring before Parliament, in its annual report, this type of information.

With the new structure which is coming into being, we are not clear what the rôle of the Authority will be for research and development in the future. The Government may want to take some time and let matters settle to see what will develop. I want to see it clearly stated in the Bill that the Authority shall have the responsibility of indicating in its annual report what facilities and services it is providing to the companies, because, although the companies will be carrying on research and development work, I should imagine that the Authority's services will be called on to a considerable extent by the companies, and Parliament should see the details of this and have some idea of the valuation that we would want to put on different services.

I trust that the Minister will be his usual forthcoming self and accept the Amendment.

§ Mr. Ridley

I can give the hon. Member for East Stirlingshire (Mr. Douglas) the assurance which he seeks. It is the Authority's duty to behave commercially in any aspect of its business concerning the outside world, which the Fuels Company will be when it is set up. The Authority is required to behave at arms' length in relation to anything which it sells to or buys from other companies. There is no doubt that this is where its duty will lie.

As to ensuring that this is what happens, which is the object of the Amendment, there is no reason why the Authority should not publish this information in its annual report. I can assure the Committee that it will do so when the time comes. I do not think that it is necessary to write this instruction into the Bill. If we were to start writing everything into a Bill of this sort, we should make a Bill impossibly complicated and by implication things which were left out might be assumed not to be duties upon the Authority. Therefore, it is unnecessary to accept an Amendment to impose this duty upon the Authority. I assure the hon. Gentleman that the in formation will be given in the annual report.

There is the further safeguard that the Authority's affairs are subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General and to scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee; so there is an automatic means of ensuring that what the hon. Gentleman and the Government require, which is that services should be provided at economic cost and charged accordingly, will happen, because there would be awkward questions to answer by both the Comptroller and Auditor-General and by the Public Accounts Committee if it was thought that it was not so.

I therefore hope that the assurance that I have given, together with the safeguards which I have indicated, will convince the hon. Gentleman that the point he has in mind is accepted by the Government, although an Amendment is not strictly necessary.