§ Mr. MaclennanI beg to move Amendment No. 19, in page 7, line 3, leave out 'by virtue of an order under section 1(7) above' and insert:
'or the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by virtue of an order under section 1(7) above or paragraph 1A of the Schedule to this Act'.
Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this amendment it will be convenient to take Government Amendments No. 21, 22 and 23.
§ Mr. MaclennanI must apologise to the House for introducing this substantial provision at a late stage. Large sums of public money are at stake, and it is the Government's duty to see that the Bill contains adequate safeguards in respect of the money which is paid out in subsidy.
The purpose of the substantive amendment, Amendment No. 21, is to extend the existing enforcement provision so that the Secretary of State or the Minister concerned may prescribe by order the:
… conditions to be observed by any person who claims or receives subsidy payments …".The amendment also extends the provision to the recipient of the goods or subsequent trade purchasers of subsidised goods. Once such an order has been made the recipient of the subsidy will have to give written notice of the condition to any purchaser. The second purchaser will have to give similar notice if he sells to a subsequent purchaser, and so on. Breach of the conditions or failure to give the required notice will constitute an offence. In addition, the Minister concerned is empowered to require the refund of a sum not exceeding the amount of subsidy diverted from its proper use.1740 The difficulty arises in particular when a subsidised product may pass through the hands of several people who are not in a direct contractual relationship with the Minister. We propose to strengthen the enforcement provisions not because there is any evidence of leakage of the subsidy but because the sums involved are very large and because the price relativities in respect of milk, in particular, have widened as a result of the introduction of the subsidy. For example, milk for liquid consumption is now 16.6p per gallon compared with 21.7p per gallon for milk for manufactured products.
These proposals will ensure that public funds are not misdirected, and I hope that they will be acceptable to the House.
§ Amendment agreed to.