HL Deb 20 December 1934 vol 95 cc706-8
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)

My Lords, before we adjourn it may be convenient to say that I understand it is arranged we shall meet to-morrow at eleven o'clock and that there will be a Royal Commission at half-past eleven in order to give His Majesty's Assent to those Bills which we hope by that time will have been passed by both places. I understand the suggestion is that we should meet again on January 29. They meet in another place on January 28. We shall have the Adjournment in the form which has become usual in recent years—namely, giving power to the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons to summon the Houses together at an earlier date should occasion arise.

VISCOUNT MERSEY

Is it anticipated there will be sufficient business to fill up the first week after the Adjournment?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

I do not anticipate there will be sufficient business, but unfortunately there is one Bill—the Electricity (Supply) Bill—which we passed through all its stages last Session but which unfortunately did not pass in another place before the Prorogation and which it is very urgently desired to pass into law. The reason I am asking your Lordships to meet so early is to enable us to achieve that end, although I am afraid it does mean there will be same blank days. There are, I am told, three Bills down for Second Reading on January 29, so that there will be something, at any rate, to give us a start.

LORD SANDERSON

May I ask the noble and learned Viscount if he can kindly tell us what business there is before the Royal Commission at eleven o'clock to-morrow, and what are the three Bills which he proposes to take on January 29?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

The Bills in question are already on the Order Paper. They are the Matrimonial Causes (Amended Procedure) Bill, the Matrimonial Causes (Procedure in Suits for Nullity) Bill, and the National Gallery (Overseas Loans) Bill; these are the Bills which are down for January 29. The only business I anticipate to-morrow morning will be any necessary communications from another place before we get the Royal Assent. What I shall now call the Special Areas Bill has gone down with Amendments, and we shall have to hear from another place whether or not these Amendments have been accepted.

House adjourned at eight minutes past seven o'clock.