HC Deb 26 May 1971 vol 818 cc513-5

Lords Amendment: No. 3, after Clause 4, in page 5, line 6, at end insert new Clause "B": B. Notwithstanding anything in section 7(2) of the Act of 1956, a building (other than a dwelling-house)—

  1. (a) which is occupied by a person keeping bees and which is used solely in connection with the keeping of those bees, and
  2. (b) in respect of which the same condition is satisfied as has to be satisfied under subsection (5) of section 4 of this Act for a building used as mentioned in subsection (2)(a) or (b) of that section to be a building to which that section applies,
shall be treated as respects the year 1971–72 and subsequent years as agricultural lands and heritages for the purposes of section 7(3) of the Act of 195 6.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

Obviously it is better to take the three Amendments together, Mr. Speaker.

The reason behind the Amendments is to extend the benefits of the Bill to the buildings of bee farmers.

I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Norfolk, South (Mr. John E. B. Hill) and for Kings Lynn (Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler) for the assiduous way in which they have pursued the matter throughout the different stages of the Bill. I also thank the right hon. Member for Deptford (Mr. John Silkin) for his encouragement, in the earlier stages, that if we could bring forward an Amendment of this kind he would give it his support.

I shall not detain the House long. After all, we are fulfilling undertakings which we gave on Report and on Second Reading in the House of Lords.

Although the Amendments look somewhat long and complicated and, in proportion to the size of the Bill, of quite disproportionate length, they are necessary if we are to be certain of extending the benefits under the Bill to the buildings of bee farmers.

I am very pleased about the Amendments. Honey is one of my favourite foods. I recommend it to other hon. Members. It is a healthy, nutritious food and well worth while. I am also an amateur bee keeper. As such, I cannot hope to benefit from the extension of the Bill, but I can understand that to those concerned in commercial bee keeping it is worth while.

In this good spirit—I hope that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Deptford will respond similarly—I commend the Amendments to the House.

10.15 p.m.

Mr. John E. B. Hill (Norfolk, South)

May I add some congratulatory flowers to the Under-Secretary of State's honey? These Amendments are an end product of a question which I raised in an intervention in the winding-up speech on Second Reading. I did so because a constituent had come to me in person during the postal strike to give me a message just as I was leaving the country to come here for this debate.

I am grateful to the Minister. This is a classic example of the responsiveness of Government and the procedures of Parliament to a point, however small, which is deemed to have some merit. That it has produced two new Clauses and the whole procedures of amendment in the other place is a measure of the Government's consideration. I express my thanks and those of the bee-keeping fraternity to the Under-Secretary and to the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, and their respective draftsmen and advisers, for overcoming a tricky legal point.

Mr. John Silkin (Deptford)

I am very happy to welcome these Amendments on behalf of the Opposition. It is right that they should all be taken together. It is a remarkable achievement by the Parliamentary draftsman that they have met this point. The Under-Secretary of State's speech was both witty and brief: mine at least will be brief.

Question put and agreed to.

Remaining Lords Amendments agreed to.—[Special Entries.]