§ Mr. AncramI beg to move amendment No. 124, in page 111, line 1 leave out paragraph 7.
Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to take Government amendments Nos. 4, 127 to 131, 134 to 137, 142, 147 and 151.
§ Mr. AncramAll these amendments simplify previous legislation. Amendments Nos. 127 and 128 do that by simplifying the drafting of the Bill. At the moment, schedule 2 contains redundant wording taken from schedule 2 to the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 and. no doubt, goes far back into history. There is no reason to spell out the functions of the traffic commissioner in giving the Secretary of State power to appoint deputies, and the amendments remove two unnecessary Lists of enactments. The other amendments also arise out of historical leftovers and tidy matters up. I hope that, on that basis, the amendments will be acceptable.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Mr. David MitchellI beg to move amendment No. 125, in page 112, leave out lines 37 to 43 and insert
'there shall be substituted, for the words from "stage carriage" where they first occur to "1981" the words "local service (within the meaning of the Transport Act 1985)" and for the words "stage carriage" where they next occur the word "vehicle".'.This is a drafting amendment, which corrects an inaccuracy in an amendment made by schedule 1 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 which substitutes the local service terminology of the Bill for the outmoded stage carriage one. It is technical, and I commend it to the House.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyWe accept many of these drafting amendments because they fulfil precisely the function that the Minister has outlined. They put into the Bill more accurate definitions that should have been in the original legislation. I hope that we shall not be told at the end of the Report stage that the Government have accepted another 128 amendments when about 127 of them arise out of their own drafting errors.
§ Mr. MitchellI note what the hon. Lady has said.
§ Amendment agreed to.