NORTHERN IRELAND (GAS) (Hansard, 10 March 1977)

§ The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr. J. D. Concannon)
I beg to move, That the Gas (Northern Ireland) Order 1977, a draft of which was laid before this House on 1st March, be approved. The main purpose of this order is to introduce essential new legislation in connection with metrication in the gas industry, the transfer of functions of the gas meter testing station and quality control of gas. At the same time, the opportunity is being taken to update and amend existing gas legislation to bring it into line with legislation in the rest of the United Kingdom, particularly in relation to safety and consumer protection. The bulk of the order consists of the consolidation of the existing code of gas legislation in Northern Ireland. The present code is complex, consisting as it does of 15 pieces of legislation dating from 1847. Its consolidation into one instrument will have the twofold effect of removing several archaic Acts from the statute book and providing the gas industry and its consumers with a more comprehensible gas code.
There is nothing in the order which anticipates the findings of the British Gas Corporation study team, which has not yet submitted its final report. We shall have plenty of time to discuss that in due course. The order was circulated in draft to interested parties prior to being laid. All comments were of a minor nature and these have been taken into account when preparing the order, which I now ask the House to consider.

§ Mr. Ian Gow (Eastbourne)
It is no discourtesy to the Minister to say that this order and the speech he has made underline the very unsatisfactory method that we now have of dealing with legislation affecting Northern Ireland. The order deals not only with metrication—an important subject—but with the crucial matters of the supply of gas, the compulsory laying of gas pipes, the compulsory acquisition of land, and penalties for breach of the order.
The order repeals nine whole Acts of Parliament as well as parts of three others. It contains 30 articles and three 1753 schedules. It is the kind of measure which, although in part consolidating, could quite properly have occupied the Committee upstairs for six or eight sittings. It contains proposals which are far reaching and which ought to be the subject of proper debate on the Floor of the House, and, indeed, upstairs.
There was one other matter to which the Minister did not refer. It is quite clear from the Order Paper that this order has not yet been considered properly by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. It was considered briefly on Tuesday, but it would not be proper to refer to what took place in that Committee. However, it is relevant and perfectly legitimate for us to speculate why there has not been the opportunity for the Joint Committee to consider the order before the Minister brings it to the Floor of the House.
In another place, there is a Standing Order which provides that no draft order shall be considered by another place until the Joint Committee has made its report. At the beginning of this Session, in the First Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, the criteria which the Committee should apply when deciding whether it ought to draw the special attention of the House to a draft order provided, inter alia, that the special attention of the House should be drawn where an order imposed a charge on the public revenues. It also provided that when, in the Committee's view, the form of an order required further elucidation, a special report should be made to the House.
There is no doubt that the order imposes a charge on the public revenues. One has only to look at Articles 8 or 16 of the order to know this. I regret that it was not possible for the Government to complete the statutory procedure laid down by the Joint Committee before the order was presented to the House.
I have two specific points to put to the Minister. The first relates to Article 5. One wonders what on earth is meant by paragraph 4 of that article, which says that Undertakers in fixing tariffs shall not show undue preference to any person or class of persons and shall not exercise any undue discrimination against any person or class of persons. 1754 That is certainly language which, if we were in Committee and if we were in a position to amend the order, would be the subject of a lengthy and proper debate, because I think that that kind of language is a recipe for future dispute.
The second point is much more important and relates to Article 13. This is an important article because it gives substantial powers to a gas undertaker to lay pipes—this is the matter which is partly in dispute— below ground across any land owned by a citizen in Northern Ireland Paragraph (1) of Article 13 refers to the laying of a gas pipe "below ground", yet in the subsequent paragraphs those important words are omitted.
The true meaning of Article 13 is fat from clear. Do the gas undertakers have power to lay pipes above ground as well as below ground? Do not the provisions —which are gravely prejudicial to the citizen across or under whose land the pipes are to be laid—constitute an absence of any kind of appeal procedure, which is gravely disquieting?
Under the provisions of paragraph (4) of Article 13, it is only the consent of the Department which is required if the owner of the land disagrees with a proposal that pipes should be laid under his ground or over it. One can think of a hundred reasons why it would be unreasonable for an undertaker to wish to go to the disruption of agricultural land or even of commercially-owned land for the purpose of laying pipes over or under it. It might be very much easier and less costly for the undertaking to take its pipes by a different route. Yet even though the owner, occupier or tenant of agricultural land—say, a smallholding—believed that it would be deeply prejudicial to the land and he objected, all that would be required under the provisions of Article 13 is for the Department to say that it was necessary for these pipes to be laid. There is no provision for any kind of statutory appeal.
I said that one of the criteria laid down to give the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments power to make a special report to the House on a draft order concerned matters of redrafting. The drafting of Article 13(8) is sloppy. The words "the Department" at the 1755 foot of page 9 would be very much better replaced by the single word "it".
The Opposition wish to register their anxiety about the way in which this legislation has been presented. We express our dissatisfaction with this system of legislating for 1½ million of the Queen's subjects in Northern Ireland. We think that it would have been better if the Minister had explained why it was that the Joint Committee had not had an opportunity to consider the order before it was presented on the Floor of the House.

§ Mr. McCusker (Armagh)
I am sure that the House joins me in congratulating the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Gow) on his first Front Bench appearance. If he shows the same diligence with other legislation as with this, we shall benefit substantially from it.
As the Minister knows, the gas manufacturing industry in Northern Ireland has given a general welcome to this order. Anything that will consolidate the legislation dealing with quality control, proper and accurate metering, safety, and the introduction of metrication is to be welcomed. The order repeals nine Acts of Parliament ranging over almost a century and a half, and it provides a fitting code for the gas industry.
However, one is prompted to ask whether there will be a gas industry governed by this code. The question is not whether there will be disputes about the placing of pipes above ground or under the ground but whether there will be any more gas pipes laid in Northern Ireland I hope that there will be.
In considering this modernisation can the Minister say why there is a section in the code dealing with the ascertainment and regulation of gas consumed by public lamps. Paragraph 11 of the code deals with this matter. Is it that the report which the Minister mentioned will have such an effect on the gas industry in Northern Ireland that once again it will be possible to light our streets with gas lamps, or is there some other reason for wishing to improve this paragraph in the code, which we thought was an updating and modernising exercise?
I am glad that the Minister has assured us that we shall have an opportunity to 1756 discuss the report that is being produced on the Northern Ireland gas industry. It is probably ironic that we are discussing the order on the day when British gas consumers have been told that their tariff will be increased by 10 per cent. There is some doubt about whether that will happen, but gas consumers in Great Britain are getting hot under the collar about having their tariff increased from 15p per therm to 16½p per therm. At the same time gas consumers in Northern Ireland are facing a 25 per cent. increase on a tariff of 45p per therm.
It will be understood what I mean when I say that it is to be wondered whether there will continue to be a gas industry to operate. We all hope that there will be, and I notice that perhaps the British Gas Corporation has taken some note of our deliberations in Committee, because in its latest advertisements it refers not to United Kingdom gas but to great gas for Great Britain. I hope that when we get the report to which the Minister has referred the wording will change to great gas for the United Kingdom. That is what we require.
I shall not enlarge upon these matters now as there will be another opportunity to do so. On behalf of the gas manufacturers in Northern Ireland—as I have disclosed on several occasions, I am Chairman of the Gas Employers Board —I give a general welcome to the order.

§ Mr. John Dunlop (Mid-Ulster)
My hon. Friend the Member for Armagh (Mr. McCusker) referred to efficient metering. Has the Minister of State any information about the wholesale burglary of the Strabane gas undertaking by the fiddling of meters, which resulted in a loss of about £100,000? If he has any information about that, I should like to hear it on behalf of my constituents and the Strabane undertaking.

§ Mr. Concannon
I give a general welcome to the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Gow), who has joined us on the Opposition Front Bench in this debate. I am delighted to see him on the Opposition Front Bench. I am delighted that there is a fresh man taking part in Northern Ireland affairs. We look forward to seeing more of the hon. Gentleman.
1757 The hon. Gentleman might not know this, but Article 13 has an involvement with the Statutory Instrument. I do not want to anticipate a formal reply in Committee, but the mechanism of the order means that it cannot go through another place before the three small points that have been raised this evening have been satisfied. The order is protected in that way. Article 13 is covered in that way.
The hon. Member for Mid-Ulster (Mr. Dunlop) asked me about Strabane. Earlier this evening an hon. Gentleman remarked that he did not believe everything he read in the newspapers. The hon. Gentleman who made that remark said that that applied especially to the Belfast Telegraph. I enter a word of caution about Strabane. We are looking into the matter but we feel that it should not be given general publicity. Many people might be interested to know what the people in Strabane might have been doing and how they might have been doing it. We are carrying out an investigation and we wish, if we can, to tackle the matter at source.
The order seeks to establish parity with the rest of the United Kingdom. Much of its wording is from United Kingdom legislation. Much of the remaining wording deals with the consolidation of some very old Acts. It is a great thing to pull them together. I accept what has been said about legislation for Northern Ireland, but the system now being used has been agreed by the House. The matter was reconsidered last year and some extensions were introduced. The system might not be satisfactory to those who are used to the ways of the House, but it is a great improvement on what used to take place
I assure the hon. Member for Armagh (Mr. McCusker) that once the gas committee report is in my hands I shall have to move with some speed. The report will have to go out for discussions. The hon. Gentleman, with his other hat on in Northern Ireland, will be involved in the discussions. I have no doubt that we shall again talk about gas in a more general way in the near future. I commend the order to the House.