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Lords amendment: No. 13, in page 11, line 35, leave out
("1st July 1978 ("the transfer date")") and insert ("the appointed day")
§ Mr. SpeakerWe shall consider at the same time Lords amendments nos. 14 to 17 and 19 to 21.
§ Mr. HoramThese are purely technical amendments affecting the date on which the transfer of Freightliners and the write-down of NFC's capital debt are to take effect. The NFC reconstruction was originally intended to take place on 1st July this year. In the event, the Bill could not be enacted by this date. It would not be appropriate for the transfer of Freightliners or the writing down of a portion of NFC's capital debt, which partly relates to the transfer of Freightliners, to take place retrospectively. It is therefore necessary to amend the date 1st July in clauses 12 and 14.
Clause 21(1) already provides for the Secretary of State to make an order appointing a day for the coming into force of these clauses. Under the terms of these amendments, the transfer of Freightliners and the write-down of debt would then take place on that day, which is expected to be immediately after Royal Assent.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Mr. SpeakerBy leave of the House, and only by leave of the House, I shall put the Question on Lords amendments nos. 14 to 17 together.
§ Lords amendments nos. 14 to 17 agreed to.
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Lords amendment: No. 18, in page 12, line 22, at end insert—
("(3A) Section 136(2) and (4) of the 1968 Act (transfers in connection with pension
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schemes and preservation of pension rights) apply in the same way; and for the purposes of section 136(4)(c), Freightliners Limited is to be treated (despite section 51(5) of that Act, which made it a joint subsidiary both of the British Railways Board and N.F.C.) as having become a subsidiary of the British Railways Board only on the appointed day.")
§ Mr. HoramI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
This also is a technical amendment proposed by the Government to ensure that there is no doubt about the consequences for pensions of the transfer of Freightliners Limited from the National Freight Corporation to the British Railways Board.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Mr. SpeakerBy leave of the House, I shall put the Question on Lords amendments nos. 19, 20 and 21 together.
§ Lords amendments nos. 19 to 21 agreed to.