§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY rose to ask His Majesty's Government whether the Board of Trade had considered the propriety of printing Bills which were partly for the amendment and partly for the consolidation of the law in such a way as to distinguish between old and new matter.
§ The noble Marquess said: Your Lordships may remember that at an early period of this session I ventured to put a question in debate to His Majesty's Government as to whether it would be possible to print Bills which were partly consolidation Bills and partly amending Bills in such a way that your Lordships 633 would be able to recognise at a glance what was new and what was old. Since then I have had the opportunity of conferring with different members of the Government, and I now venture to put the formal question whether His Majesty's Government see their way to comply with that suggestion.
§ VISCOUNT MIDLETONBefore the noble Earl replies, would it not be possible that measures brought before your Lordships' House which involve charges on the rates of a county should have such provisions as affect county rates put in italics? I believe that is the custom in the House of Commons, and I consider it would be of great public advantage that we should have some guidance in that way in respect to matters which sometimes affect the finances of the county to a larger extent than the Bill itself.
§ *THE EARL OF CREWE: I fancy that the question raised by the noble Marquess has been considered before, but it has not been taken in hand, I suppose for the reason that those Bills have not in past years been very frequent, although when they do come before us they are enormously bulky and very often important. It has, however, been pointed out to me that there is this difficulty, that in consolidating a number of previous Acts into a new Bill certain formal and verbal changes are made, altering the actual phrases used in the old Acts but containing all their substance, and it is not quite clear what the noble Marquess would wish done in a case of that kind. It is consolidation but at the same time it is an alteration, and it is considered, I believe, by the best authorities—we have taken the opportunity in the interval of consulting those who are best entitled to speak—that in many cases a marginal note or even an explanatory memorandum is the best form of explanation rather than anything to do with the printing. So far as, the Stationery Office is concerned, I am informed that there would be no technical difficulty, provided of course that the Bill is sent to them by the draftsman in a clearly marked form carrying out what the noble Marquess wishes. I can assure him we will bear the matter in mind, but I have no doubt he has followed what I have said as to the technical difficulty which might arise in certain cases, because, of course, it is conceivable that a difference of opinion might exist as to whether the 634 change in the phraseology involved some slight difference although done merely to represent the precise effect of the previous Act in a more compendious form. There might be a difference of opinion as to whether it did or did not make some slight difference in the law in effect, and the attention of noble Lords might be drawn away from that possibility by the fact that it was printed as a mere consolidation.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYIn speaking of what was old and what was new, I certainly referred to the substance and not to the phraseology. I quite recognise that part of the point of a consolidation Act is to put the old law into better phraseology. The noble Lord says a suspicion might arise that the new phraseology concealed a very slight change in the law, and therefore noble Lords' attention ought not to be directed away from it. But we are in that position now. When a pure consolidation Bill comes before your Lordships a Minister says "This is pure consolidation," and when he says so with his responsibility everybody accepts his assurance, and unless we are to have that trust in it which we ought to have we could not get on at all.
§ THE EARL OF CREWEI quite see the force of what has fallen from the noble Marquess, and we will consider before the next Consolidation Bill goes out, in what form it would be most convenient for the House to have a distinction made. As regards the question put by the noble Viscount, he will excuse me if I do not give him a definite answer at this moment, because it requires more consideration than I am prepared to give it now. I am not entirely convinced by the analogy to which the noble Viscount drew attention—namely, that in another place the the financial parts are printed in italics. That I take to be because a separate resolution is required. According to the forms which obtain there, they require a separate resolution to carry them into effect, and so far as charges on the rates are dealt with here that, of course, is not the case. I will take the whole question into consideration and see if it is possible in any way to meet the wishes of the noble Viscount.
§ House adjourned at twenty-five minutes past Seven o'clock to Monday next, a quarter-past Four o'clock.