§ Amendment made: No. 160, in page 129, leave out lines 2 to 5.—[Mr. Allan Stewart.]
§ Order for Third Reading read.—[Queen's Consent, on behalf of the Crown, signified]
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That the Bill be now read the Third time.
1181 11.13 pm§ Mr. Bruce Millan (Glasgow, Craigton)The House will be glad that I do not intend to make a lengthy speech. I recall paying tribute on Second Reading to the work that had been done on the Bill in the other place particularly by Lord Ross of Marnock, who suggested a number of improvements. It would be remiss of hon. Members to allow the Bill through on Third Reading without mentioning the tremendous amount of work done by a number of hon. Members in Committee. Some of the results of that work have appeared in the Government amendments discussed today. In many respects, the Bill is hardly recognisable as the measure that originally entered the other place.
I wish to pay tribute especially to my hon. Friends the Members for Glasgow, Garscadden (Mr. Dewar) and for Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth (Mr. Ewing). I do not believe that those hon. Members who served on the Committee will feel it invidious if I single out for special mention my hon. Friend the Member for Garscadden who, I understand, kept the Committee going more or less happily—I do not know how happily—for many meetings. My hon. Friend produced a large number of arguments and ideas. Many of them have been incorporated into the Bill. 1182 My hon. Friend the Member for Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth also contributed to what I believe is a far better, but by no means perfect, Bill. I suspect that each piece of Scottish legislation from now on will have minor and consequential amendments to the Civic Government (Scotland) Act as part of its schedules.
§ The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. George Younger)I appreciate what the right hon. Member for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan) said, and I hope that the House will give the Bill a. Third reading. It is highly appropriate that such a complicated measure should have been examined so thoroughly by the House and I pay tribute to those hon. Members on both sides of the House who have taken many hours to try to make it a better Bill. It is a better Bill than when it started. That is the right way for the House to approach such Bills. It will be of good service in the future and I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that it will probably be amended on other occasions.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Bill accordingly read the Third time and passed, with amendments.