LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND LAND (No. 2) BILL (Hansard, 3 July 1980)

§ Mr. Dafydd Wigley (Caernarvon)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I raise with you the matter of the selection of amendments for Report, particularly with regard to new clauses 22, 23 and 24 and amendments Nos. 234 and 235? I have, of course, written to you about this matter, and naturally I accept the ruling of the Chair. These amendments are of considerable importance in Wales. They relate to the vexed question of second and holiday homes, which regrettably has been a subject of unfortunate incidents which in recent months have been condemned in all parts of the House.
On 20 December, my hon. Friend the Member for Merioneth (Mr. Thomas) and myself attended a meeting at the Welsh Office to discuss the methods by which the House might address itself to how some of the problems in Wales might be overcome. It was suggested to us that the Housing Bill, which was then before Parliament, and the Local Government, Planning and Land (No. 2) Bill were two possible avenues.
As a consequence, my hon. Friend tabled amendments to the Housing Bill, but they were not selected because, we understand, this was deemed to be a more appropriate subject for a planning Bill, and such a Bill was before Parliament. It is for that reason that we have tabled these amendments. We referred to our intention to do so during the Second Reading debate on 5 February, as reported in column 338 of Hansard.
Unfortunately, no member of my party and no hon. Member from Wales served on the Committee. Of course, my party has no opportunity of moving amendments in another place either. There is a feeling in Wales that Parliament should address itself to these matters at the earliest opportunity. They are extremely serious, and if they are delayed for another year or two it could have drastic consequences. Of course, this issue goes beyond Wales. There have been prob- 1778 lems in the Lake District, and just before Christmas a planning appeal involving Poole council related directly to this question.
Although I realise that it may not be possible to include these amendments for today's discussion—presumably, amendments Nos. 234 and 235 will be discussed later—I ask whether it is possible for you, Mr. Speaker, to reconsider your selection.

§ Mr. Speaker
I am obliged to the hon. Member for Caernarvon (Mr. Wigley) for the way in which he has raised his point of order. He rightly said that we have been in correspondence on this matter. He will be aware that I am deeply conscious of its importance. No one can live in Wales without being conscious of the importance of these issues.
Naturally, I spent a long time considering the selection of amendments for this Bill, just as I did when I originally considered the amendments of the hon. Gentleman and his colleague the hon. Member for Merioneth (Mr. Thomas). I gave the matter further consideration when I received his letter. I do not want to raise false hopes that I will be able to select the amendments at a later stage, but, of course, I shall look at this again, as the hon. Gentleman has invited me to do.

§ Mr. R. C. Mitchell (Southampton, Itchen)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In your wisdom, you have not selected new clauses 26, 27, 28 and 29, in which I have a particular interest, presumably because in your judgment the contents of those new clauses do not fall within the long title of the Bill. I am in no way querying that.
However, we are now faced with a difficulty, because we have a Bill in which quite a number of clauses—without the amendments or anything else—fall outside the provisions of the long title. For example, the first line of the long title refers to the relaxation of "controls over local government". But quite a number of the clauses do exactly the opposite and, in fact, increase controls over local government. I should like to give one example. I shall not bore the House, although I could give dozens of examples. Part VIII does the exact opposite.
The only reason why I raise this question now rather than later is that I have 1779 always understood that the contents of a Bill had to fall within its long title. I submit that quite a lot of this Bill does not do so.

§ Mr. Speaker
All that I can say to the hon. Gentleman is that I am satisfied that everything that I have selected is in order. I say nothing about those amendments that I have not selected, because obviously the House does not ask me to give reasons why I have selected one amendment and not another. However, I shall, of course, consider what the hon. Gentleman has said.

§ Mr. Mitchell
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. In case there is any misunderstanding, may I say that I do not complain about your selection of amendments. My point relates to the contents of the Bill as it has been presented to the House. I am querying whether many of the existing contents of the Bill come within the long title.

§ Mr. Speaker
As the hon. Gentleman knows, the long title is a description of the Bill. It does not completely decide the scope of the Bill. He had better work that out over a cup of tea in the Tea Room.