ENFORCEMENT OF ORDERS UNDER PART 1 (Hansard, 8 April 1981)

§ Mr. Eadie
I beg to move amendment No. 9, in page 17, line 8, at end insert— '(1A) The Secretary of State shall reimburse any local weights and measures authority for all additional expenses incurred as a result of carrying out its duties under the provisions of orders made under part I of this Act.'. The Minister will recall that I raised this matter in Committee when discussing the clause. The enforcement orders under the Bill involve local weights and measures authorites, which generally are local authorities. The hon. Gentleman will recall that I asked what cost would be incurred by a local authority in carying out a statutory obligation imposed by the Bill. This is a fair question in relation to the scrutiny of the rates burden imposed on local authorities by the Government.
I have studied the Minister's remarks in Committee, when he said: we do not expect that the Bill, as I said before, will have significant implications for local authority manpower. Almost the final words of the hon. Gentleman were: that the local authority manpower and revenue implications were, according to their own organisations after consultation, minimal."—[Official Report, Standing Committee A, 19 March 1981; c. 86.] I know that local authorities will expect to be reimbursed for the minimal expense that could be involved. I am sure that no Government, as a matter of principal, would wish to impose at this time additional cost in furtherance of legislation. My amendment is simple. It asks the Government to put their money where their mouth is. I do not believe that the Government can pass the buck of responsibility to others.
The Government cannot deny reimbursement to local authorities. If the amount is so small, why quibble?
My amendment is an honourable position for the Government to adopt—namely, to pay the cost of their legislation. I commend the amendment to the House.

§ Mr. John Moore
The hon. Member for Midlothian (Mr. Eadie) rightly raised this issue in Committee and on Second Reading.
The role of local authorities in this connection relates only to the enforcement of part I of the Bill, the type approval provisions. Part II will be enforced by Government officials, who will simply match the records of the boilers supplied with the records of boilers which have passed the efficiency test and make further inquiries about any discrepancies. Most of the work arising out of part I will be carried out by the type approval bodies. That is where most of the work will be done. Those bodies will not only have the job of testing samples of appliances to see whether they come up to the required standard and whether all the appliances of a model can, therefore, be type approved, but under clause 5 they will make sure that new appliances of a model which has been type approved continue to conform to the standard.
The role of local weights and measures authorities will be confined to ensuring that appliances on sale in retail establishments have been approved. That will not represent a significant amount of work, because type approval will be clearly indicated by means of a type approval mark attached to the appliance. All that will be 1088 required is a quick visual check to see whether the appliance carries such a mark. Moreover, the checks will be carried out in the course of visits which training standards officers employed by local weights and measures authorities already make for other purposes. We do not envisage that any special visits merely for the purpose of enforcing the Bill will generally be necessary.
For those reasons, we believe that the Bill will not lead to any significant additional expenditure by local authorities, but, even if such expenditure were incurred—this is relevant to what the hon. Member for Midlothian said—the proper method would be in the context of the rate support grant, which represents the totality of the Government's support to local authority rate-funded services, and not by way of specific and quite unprecedented provision in legislation.
I hope that in the light of what I have said the hon. Member will seek to withdraw the amendment.

§ Mr. Eadie
The Under-Secretary of State says that local authorities will be reimbursed from the rate support grant. I should have preferred that to be written into the legislation. However, the hon. Gentleman is on record as saying that if expense is involved it should come from the rate support grant. I therefore beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

§ Mr. Eadie
We have devoted many hours to the Bill, and it is late. Nevertheless, we are entitled to make a few comments about it. I shall be brief.
We have tried to improve the Bill. Its title promised much, but the Bill promised little. We have marginally improved the Bill, perhaps because we had a Minister who listened and responded as best he could to the arguments. However, the House should take note of the Bill's inadequacy as a conservation measure.
The Government can surely do better than this. The message to emanate from our discussions is that we Look forward in the near future to a Bill that deserves to be called an energy conservation Bill. We are sending the Bill limping on its way. That is not its fault, for I believe that it never had proper legs to start with.

§ Mr. John Moore
I rise briefly to discuss the Bill that I hope to see passed on to the statute book. Contrary to what the hon. Member for Midlothian (Mr. Eadie) said, it will enable the Government to set certain compulsory standards of efficiency for space and water heating appliances. Such appliances consume about one-third of the country's energy—the equivalent of 60 million tonnes of oil a year—so obviously a large proportion of the nation's energy is covered by the Bill.
There is proven scope for improving our performance in this area. If energy efficiency were improved by only a modest 5 per cent. in the area covered by the Bill the nation would be saved about £300 million a year. That is a sizeable and significant amount.
The Bill also gives permanent statutory authority to the Department's energy conservation and advice schemes. I am glad that through the Bill we have been able to improve the prospects for small-scale hydro users. I have been 1089 gratified by the wide support given for what we regard as an important energy conservation measure, and we can all take real satisfaction in putting the Bill on to the statute book. I commend the Bill to the House.