FEES (INCREASE) BILL. (Hansard, 19 April 1923)

§ THE EARL OF CLARENDON

My Lords, I do not think I need detain your Lordships more than a very few minutes in attempting to explain the provisions of this Bill. As your Lordships are aware, the Bill received a good deal of amendment in another place, and I am given to understand that the form in which it reaches your Lordships' House is more or less an agreed one. The clauses of the Bill are mainly taken from the Economy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which was introduced by the late Government last year, to give effect to those recommendations of the Geddes Committee which required legislation, together with certain other provisions in the interests of economy suggested by the Department concerned. The Bill enables the Government Department to recover all or part of the cost of the different services which they perform. On reviewing the Economy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, it was thought best to make those of its clauses which dealt with fees charged by Government Departments the subject of a single Bill by themselves, and to leave the remaining provisions of 770 the Economy Bill to be dealt with otherwise.

The matters embraced in the Bill may be divided into three heads:—(1) Clauses 1, 2 and 3 relate to fees for services performed by the Board of Trade in connection with merchant shipping; (2) Clauses 4, 5 and 6 relate to fees for inquiries by Government Departments; (3) Clause 7, 8 and 9 relate to fees chargeable by Government Departments for miscellaneous matters. As to (1) (merchant shipping), the duties laid upon the Board of Trade by the Merchant Shipping Acts have two main objects, namely (a) the safety of the public and (b) the well-being of the crews. The Board's duty in relation to the safety of the public is to see that vessels are in such condition that passengers and goods can be transported by them in safety; its duty in relation to crews is to ensure that the latter are carried under reasonably healthy conditions. The fees chargeable for these services were fixed a long time ago, and for various reasons, such as the increase in the size of vessels and the shrinkage in the value of money, are now totally inadequate.

It may interest your Lordships to know that at the present time, as far as can be estimated, the cost of these services amounts to something like £420,000. The fees payable to-day by the shipping industry amount to £92,000. Under this Bill it is proposed—and this is being done with the concurrence of the shipowners—that the fees payable shall be increased from £92,000 to £210,000. In other words, you will see that the shipping industry will pay half of the cost of these services, and the Board of Trade the rest. This basis, as I have already said, was agreed with the shipowners, and takes into account the fact that the Board's duties are in the interest of the general public as well as in the interests of the shipping industry.

As regards fees for inquiries by Government Departments, the provisions of the Bill are designed to enable the cost of the inquiries (which are held under various Acts administered by the Departments concerned) to be met without being a charge upon the general body of taxpayers. Clauses 4, 5 and 6 provide for increasing the fees charged by the Board of Trade for certain tests of petroleum apparatus for local authorities, for registering particulars of firms and traders 771 under the Registration of Business Names Act, and for testing local authorities' standards of weight and measure, so as to place these services on a self-supporting basis.

With regard to the remaining clauses of the Bill, provision is made for new fees to be charged by the Home Office for licences to remove bodies after burial, and by the Foreign Office for certain duties, analogous to those of consuls, for which there is at present no power to charge when they are carried out in the United Kingdom, although if performed abroad they would be subject to consular fees.

That, my Lords, is a brief but general survey of the provisions contained in the Bill, and I hope that your Lordships will agree that it gives effect in a practical manner to certain specific recommendations and proposals as set forth in the Geddes Reports. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.