CENSUS OF PRODUCTION BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 13 December 1938)

§ THE PAYMASTER-GENERAL (THE EARL OF MUNSTER)

My Lords, in view of the important Motion which stands in the name of my noble friend Lord Lloyd, and which will be discussed by your Lordships at the close of Government business this afternoon, the remarks that I shall have to offer on this Bill will be of the shortest possible length. This is a measure which is concerned with the 498 powers of the Board of Trade to require statistics of industrial production, and its principal purpose is to co-ordinate the provisions of the Census of Production Act, 1906, with Sections 9 and 10 of the Import Duties Act, 1932. Those of your Lordships who are connected in any way with business will know that the census of production is a general review of productive industry, and it may be applied to all private firms and public authorities, excluding agriculture. Since its institution in 1907 the census has not been taken at more frequent intervals than every five years, and it is the intention of my right honourable friend the President of the Board of Trade to continue the series quinquennially.

The Import Duties Act, 1932, applies only to those firms engaged in the manufacture of goods which, if imported into this country, would be chargeable with a duty under that Act or under certain Acts of Parliament, but any such inquiry under the Act passed in 1932 is of far more limited application than one under the Census of Production Act, and generally one of these inquiries is conducted annually for a selected number of industries. Under both these Acts the Board of Trade is authorised to require information as to the quantity and value of output, the cost of materials, fuel, and electricity consumed, and the number of persons employed, but it is only under the 1906 Act that information can be obtained as to the power used or generated, the total sum paid to contractors for work given out to them, and the number of days worked. Nevertheless Section 3 of the Census of Production Act severely limits the particulars which can be obtained in respect of output and materials, fuel and electricity used.

Let me first of all deal with output. The quantities of goods manufactured can only be obtained for those classes of goods which are required to be returned by quantity on importation or upon exportation. Statistics of production are very frequently required in a different classification from that of the Import and Export List, as obviously many goods are produced almost entirely for home consumption and are not imported or exported in sufficient quantities to justify separate mention in the external trade classification. As regards materials, fuel and electricity consumed, the cost can only be obtained in one aggregate figure under the Census 499 of Production Act, and I think it will be clear that the insertion of one sum for such a variety of goods is really quite valueless for any industry, except, in the words of the 1906 Act, "for compiling statistics of the net value of production without duplication."

The MacMillan Commission on Finance and Industry expressed the view that the lack of information about materials used in this country makes many of the most important industrial statistics extremely chaotic. In 1935 the Manchester Statistical Society urged an amendment to the principal Act in this direction, and the matter was discussed further in that year at a conference at Ottawa of British Commonwealth statisticians, who passed a resolution recommending that this additional information should be obtained. Now the details that can be required under the Import Duties Act regarding output and material used are not subject to any restriction, and much valuable additional information has been obtained since the Act was passed, particularly for materials used in industry. The House will observe from what I have said that if every quinquennial census was conducted under the principal Act, it would, as matters stand, be necessary to sacrifice this additional information although it could be obtained under each Import Duties Act inquiry.

My right honourable friend has been advised that there are strong legal objections to obtaining the information required under the joint authority of the two Acts and thereby taking advantage of the compulsory powers of both Acts in conjunction one with the other. Accordingly, the provisions of Clause 1 of this Bill will remove the restrictions I have referred to, and the powers of the Board of Trade will then be as wide as those given by the Import Duties Act. I may add that unless these restrictions are removed it would be necessary to issue two forms to every firm at the next quinquennial census in order to obtain the full information required, a course which quite obviously would be both troublesome and wasteful. Subsection (2) of Clause 1 of the Bill, your Lordships will observe, authorises the disclosure of returns made by individual firms under the 1906 Act to the Import Duties Advisory Committee and other Government Departments concerned with the administration of the Import Duties Act.

500 The measure is one essentially of a coordinating nature, and one to which no objection could possibly be taken. The schedules for the individual trades are always prepared in consultation with organisations in a position to indicate what information is desirable and is readily available to the larger number of firms concerned, and my right honourable friend proposes to continue that practice. The measure is, I admit, somewhat complicated, but I trust, after the remarks I have made, that your Lordships will see fit to give the Bill a Second Reading.