HL Deb 25 July 1916 vol 22 cc901-5

Order of the Day for the Third Heading read.

Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a—(Lord Stanmore.)

On Question, Bill read 3a.

Clause 2:

Standard barrelage.

2.—(1) The maximum barrelage shall be determined by the Commissioners in the case of each brewery and shall be, as respects any quarter, the standard barrelage as denned in this section with the addition as respects any quarter after the first quarter of the surplus barrelage as so defined.

(2) The standard barrelage for the purposes of this section shall be—

  1. (a) in the case of a brewery which was working during the corresponding quarter in the year ending the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and sixteen, the number of barrels which appear to the Commissioners to have been brewed at the brewery in that quarter; and
  2. (b) in the case of a brewery which was not working in the corresponding quarter of that year, the number of barrels which appear to the Commissioners to be reasonable having regard to the average number of barrels brewed at the brewery during the time the brewery has been working; and
  3. (c) in the case of any special brewery where the Commissioners are satisfied that, owing to the transfer of a brewing business or any other change in the circumstances of the brewery taking place after the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and fifteen, the standard barrelage as ascertained under the foregoing provisions does not afford a proper standard of comparison or affords no standard of comparison, such number of barrels as the Commissioners think just having regard to the special circumstances of the case
reduced in each case by fifteen per cent.:

Provided that if a brewer gives notice to the Commissioners before the first day of August nineteen hundred and sixteen that he desires that the foregoing provisions of this section should be applied to his brewery with the substitution of the year ending the thirtieth day of September nineteen hundred and fourteen for the year ending the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and sixteen and of thirty per cent. for fifteen per cent., those provisions shall be applied to his brewery with those substitutions, subject to the power of His Majesty by Order in Council to withdraw this privilege as from a subsequent date to be fixed by the Order in Council or to substitute any higher percentages pro rata if, at any time after the expiration of six months from the first day of April nineteen hundred and sixteen, it appears that the rate of the total Output of beer in the United Kingdom is not reduced to below a rate of twenty-six million barrels a year.

(3) If any licensed premises shall after the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and I fourteen, have been or be sold, transferred, mortgaged, or leased to any brewer, the brewer shall be entitled thereafter to supply to the licensed premises the same quantity (less fifteen per cent.) of beer as has previously been supplied to those premises, and if the beer has previously been supplied by another brewer the maximum barrelage of that other brewer shall be reduced by the amount of such supply, and the maximum barrelage of the brewer to whom the premises shall be so sold, transferred, mortgaged, or leased, shall be similarly increased. The transfer of a mortgage on any licensed premises shall be deemed to be a transfer of licensed premises within this section.

(4) For the purposes of this section the surplus barrelage shall be, as respects any quarter, the number (if any) of barrels by which the aggregate number of barrels brewed during the previous quarters to which the Act applies is less than the aggregate standard barrelage for those quarters.

VISCOUNT PEEL moved to omit from paragraph (c) of subsection (2) the words "thirty-first day of March one thousand nine hundred and fifteen," and to insert" thirtieth day of September one thousand nine hundred and fourteen."

The noble Viscount said: This Amendment applies to only a small number of cases, but I think in those cases it does remove an injustice. I may remind your Lordships that to attain the object of the Bill—the restriction of the output of beer—a certain year is taken, namely, 1915–1916. The number of barrels brewed by different breweries is ascertained, and the brewers are allowed to brew up to 15 per cent. less than the amount then brewed; but they have a choice of taking the year 1913–1914 as their standard in certain cases of hardship, but in that case they are only allowed to brew up to within 30 per cent. of the standard of that year. In order to meet hard cases there is a provision in the Bill that certain adjustments may be considered as regards those who take the standard of 1915–1916 The effect of this Amendment is to give an opportunity for the Commissioners to take these matters into consideration and effect these adjustments in the case of those breweries which take the year 1913–1914. It would work injustice in certain cases were this liberty only given to the Commissioners in the case of the year 1915–1916 and not in the case of the year 1913–1914. It may be said, Why not take the year 1915–1910 and then the matter can be looked into. But there are a certain number of brewers—I do not pretend that, there are a great many—in whose case for various reasons that is not possible, and they are bound to take the year 1913–1914 as their standard. If the labour involved is small, and if, as I say, the number of breweries affected is also small, surely there can be no objection on the part of the noble Lord to accepting my Amendment. The object of this clause is to make this very drastic Bill inflict as little hardship as possible, and there seems no reason why in these few cases this act of justice should not be done. There is not much risk of a great number of breweries taking 1913–1914 as the standard, because, the reduction in that case being 30 per cent. on the total, it is less favourable, in spite of more brewing being done in that year, than the year 1915–1916. In these circumstances I hope that the noble Lord will do his best to remedy what might be an injustice in a certain number of cases, and accept my Amendment.

Amendment moved— Clause 2, page 2, lines 13 and 14, leave out ("thirty-first day of March one thousand nine hundred and fifteen") and insert ("thirtieth day of September one thousand nine hundred and fourteen")—(Viscount Peel.)

LORD STANMORE

I am sorry I cannot accept the noble Viscount's Amendment. The intention of the Bill is to regard the year 1915–1916 as a standard for all ordinary purposes, and only to give brewers the right of choice of an earlier year if they like to take it with all the attendant disadvantages. I would also point out to the noble Viscount that any concession made under this Bill will reduce the amount of tonnage which it is intended that the Bill should set free to help in the importation of articles that are absolutely necessary.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

Does the noble Viscount withdraw his Amendment?

VISCOUNT PEEL

If I cannot persuade the noble Lord to amend the Bill. I do not wish to press the Amendment further. I only desire to state that his argument as to the amount of tonnage which would be affected by accepting my Amendment has not much weight in it. The Amendment would give a little more trouble to the officials concerned, and that is, I dare say, the reason why it is opposed, but it would have practically no effect on the question of tonnage.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 5:

Supply of beer to free licensed house.

5.—(1) Any licence-holder in so far as he is not bound by any covenant, agreement, or undertaking to obtain a supply of beer from any particular brewer, and who has at any time during the year ended the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and sixteen, been supplied with beer by any brewer or brewers, shall be entitled on giving not less than fourteen days' notice in writing to obtain from such brewer or brewers particulars of the number of bulk barrels of each description of beer supplied and also a certificate or certificates stating the total number of standard barrels represented by the beer supplied during each quarter of the year ended the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and sixteen, or such shorter period as the supply has continued.

(2) The licence-holder shall after forwarding any such certificate to the Commissioners be entitled to obtain during any corresponding quarter to which this Act applies the same number of standard barrels (reduced by fifteen per cent.) from any other brewer who may be willing to supply him therewith, and in every such case the maximum barrelage of the brewer ceasing to supply the licence-holder shall be reduced by the amount stated in the certificate (less fifteen per cent.), and that amount shall be transferred to the brewer who has undertaken to supply: Provided that where the licence-holder is himself a brewer for sale the certificate shall not be used to obtain a transfer of barrelage to himself, and that where a certificate forwarded under this section relates to any quarter in which the licence-holder is supplied with beer by the brewer from whom he obtained the certificate, the number of barrels which he is entitled to obtain from another brewer, and which are transferred accordingly, shall be reduced by the quantity with which he is so supplied.

(3) In this section the expression "licence-holder" means the holder of an Excise licence authorising the sale of beer whether wholesale or by retail; and includes, where any licensed premises have changed hands the licence-Holder for the time being; and where any premises on which beer is sold are under the management of the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic), the Central Control Board, and where the holder of the licence is a manager managing the licensed premises on behalf of any other person or a tenant of any other person who controls the ordering of beer for the premises, the person who so controls the ordering of the beer.

(4) This section shall apply to registered clubs as it applies to licensed premises, with the substitution of the person managing the club for the licence-holder.

LORD STANMORE

Since this Bill was in Committee the matter has been further considered by the military authorities, and they have now come to the conclusion that there would be some advantage if they were able to transfer from one brewer to another the right to brew beer for the purpose of military supply. It is not administratively convenient to put individual canteens on the same basis as licence-holders, as was proposed by the Bill in the shape in which it came up from the Commons. The new subsection which I now move to add to Clause 5 will practically treat military canteens as a whole and give them as a whole the same privileges which are accorded by the Bill to individual licence-holders. I hope your Lordships will accept the Amendment.

Amendment moved—

Clause 5, page 4, line 38, at end insert as a new subsection: (5) Where during the year ended the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and sixteen, beer has been supplied by any brewer to a canteen held under the authority of the Secretary of State or the Admiralty, the same rights as are conferred under this section upon a licence-holder shall be exercisable in respect of that beer by the Secretary of State or the Admiralty, as the case may be.—(Lord Stanmore.)

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

Bill passed, and returned to the Commons.