§ Amendment proposed: No. 91, in page 68, line 31, leave out subsection (5).—[Mr. Butcher.]
§ Madam Deputy SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 92,101,129 and 136.
§ Mr. BlairI should like a word of explanation, because clause 155 is important as it declares the jurisdiction, extent and application of this part of the Bill.
I am not entirely sure what are the effects of the amendments, but if they are to extend or limit the territorial application of the Bill, we should be told.
§ Mr. ButcherThe hon. Gentleman is correct.
The five amendments together make three technical changes to the provisions in the Bill about extension of its effect to dependent terrorities.
Clause 155 provides for the extent of part I of the Bill. Orders in Council may be made to extend the part to the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or any colony. In a sort of mirror-image provision, paragraph 36(3) of schedule 1 provides for Orders in Council to repeal the extension of existing copyright law to the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man if they introduce their own copyright laws, as the Isle of Man is doing. In both cases, the orders are subject to the negative resolution procedure. The use of this procedure would be contrary to the principle that an Order in Council extending an Act of Parliament to a dependent territory is not subject to' parliamentary scrutiny. Amendments Nos. 91 and 136 therefore leave out the provision for the negative resolution procedure in those cases, thus bringing clause 155 and schedule 1 into line with clause 245, which deals with the extension of part 3 to dependent territories. I hope that that is a sufficient explanation for the hon. Gentleman.
§ Mr. RowlandsI was pleased to hear the Minister use the words "dependent territories," as I tried to move an amendment to the effect that that was the appropriate term. The Minister told me that it would require such immense legislative changes that he could not accept the amendment.
Secondly, I ask the Minister the time scale in which he will implement this legislation. The Lego case—[Interruption.] My hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen, South (Mr. Doran) throws his hands up in horror because I have referred to the Lego case again. It was some years after the Lego case that the copyright legislation was applied to Hong Kong. Will there be a long time lapse between the implementation of the legislation domestically 201 and its application to dependent territories? It was in some of the dependent territories that battles were fought over design and copyright. The Minister will remember that it was in a dependent territory that the Lego battle was initially fought. It was the application of the legislation to dependent territories which led to that case.
It would be useful if the Minister could give some idea of the speed or lack of speed with which the Bill will be applied to dependent territories. That can have profound effects on the copyright rights of companies if those cases are taken up in dependent territories.
§ Mr. ButcherIt is, of course, up to the Governments of the independent territories to decide when the Bill should be extended, and it is not for us.
§ Amendment agreed to.