§ Mr. MacfarlaneI beg to move amendment No. 35, in page 20, line 2, after 'Parliament', insert `(a)'.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe amendment enables the Secretary of State to meet the commission's costs directly in the early planning phase when the commission will not be well placed to operate a financial control system. The normal method of funding will be for the Secretary of State to pay grant in aid to the commission, probably monthly, against estimates of its needs for funds. It will then be up to the commission to arrange to pay its bills, disburse grant, or whatever is necessary. There will be a short time between the first appointed day on which the commission comes into being and the second appointed day on which it will assume its full functions when alternative arrangements make more sense. During that time it will have various small expenses but not the detailed financial system set-up which would enable it to process payments with full propriety easily, as it will do later. The simplest way to avoid administrative difficulty and ensure that public money is safeguarded is for the Secretary of State to pay the commission's bills in that short time.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§
Amendment made: No. 36, in page 20, line 3, at end insert—
`(b) defray such expenditure of the Commission as the Treasury may approve,'.—[Mr. Macfarlane.]