WEIGHTS AND MEASURES BILL. (Hansard, 24 June 1936)

§ LORD TEMPLEMORE

My Lords, it will be within your recollection that this is not the first time within recent months that a Bill dealing with weights and measures has been brought before your Lordships' House. About a year ago it was my duty to present to you a Bill dealing with weights and measures on which we had very considerable discussion during the Second Reading and on the Committee and Report stages. I see in his place to-day my noble friend Lord Eltisley who was one of the great 186 protagonists in those debates. He introduced many Amendments which were inserted in the Bill, and I am glad to say that if he looks at this Bill he will still find they are there. That Bill, having passed your Lordships' House, was sent to another place, but owing to the Dissolution of Parliament it never got beyond the First Reading there. It has occurred to the Government after due consideration that the part of the old Bill which dealt with bottles used as measures was a matter which ought to be dealt with separately, and one which required a great deal more consideration than they had been able to give it. Therefore this present Bill contains, as it were, the first part of the Bill of last year. That is to say, it deals only with sand and ballast.

The reasons for the Bill, which I may state shortly, are that there have been complaints from many quartet's for the past few years of short weight, short measure and pilferage en route. The Bill is demanded by all sections—by the producers, by the hauliers and by the consumers alike, and I do not really think that any appreciable body of opinion in this country is against the Bill as it now stands. To go briefly through the clauses, I might mention, first of all, Clause 1, where your Lordships will see that sand and ballast are only to be measured by weight or by the cubic yard. Clause 2 follows up this requirement by providing that receptacles used for measuring sand and ballast by the cubic yard must conform to regulations to be made by the Board of Trade and must be verified and stamped in order to ensure, that they are, and will remain, accurate. Clause 3 of the Bill requires that where material is sold or carried by weight, the vehicle must be marked with its tare weight, and similarly where material is sold or carried by the cubic yard, the vehicle must be calibrated so that it is possible to see at a glance how much material it contains. To complete the safeguards, the man in charge of any vehicle conveying sand or ballast along a highway is required to carry a conveyance note showing the quantity involved. That requirement will be found in Clause 4. Clause 5 gives power to inspectors of weights and measures to examine vehicles carrying sand and ballast and, if necessary, to check the contents to make sure that everything is in order.

187 As regards the rest of the Bill, it contains the necessary provisions for administration. Its date of operation is to be fixed by the Board of Trade in order to give time for the necessary regulations to be settled in consultation with the interests concerned before the Bill is brought into force. It applies only to England and Wales; the Scottish interests do not want the Bill, and in Northern Ireland it is a matter which falls within the province of the Northern Ireland Parliament. It should perhaps be added that in addition to the Amendments which were made to the Bill in your Lordships' House last year, which still remain in the Bill, a certain number of further Amendments were made in another place at the instance of my honourable friend the Parliamentary Secretary. The object of these Amendments is to avoid possible hardship in certain cases which have been brought to the notice of the Board of Trade. They do not affect the main structure and purpose of the Bill. As I see my noble friend Lord Bertie in his place, it only remains for me to say that I believe the grammar of the Bill is quite irreproachable, and I beg to move.