§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ EARL FORTESCUEMy Lords, in the absence of my noble friend Lord Temple-more, it is my duty to move the Second Reading of this Bill. It is a Bill which is generally passed at intervals of about twelve months in order to provide funds for the Public Works Loan Commissioners to exercise their statutory functions of lending money for public works to local authorities and certain other bodies. The current Act was passed in December, 1937, and provided £25,000,000. This amount will be exhausted before Parliament meets again after the Christmas Recess and we therefore have to pass this Bill before Christmas. Any balance still available under the current Act will lapse as soon as the new Bill is passed. Clause 1 of this Bill also proposes a sum of £25,000,000 which, according to the best estimates we can make, ought to last for another twelve months. The remaining clauses are in a form which has appeared in many previous Bills. Clause 2 writes off from the assets of the 501 Local Loans Fund certain debts which seem unlikely to be collected. The liability is not extinguished but merely transferred from the Fund to the Exchequer. Clauses 3 and 4 take this process a stage further in the case of the amount due this year in respect of the Eyemouth Harbour loan and in the case of one of the Agricultural Credits Act loans referred to in Clause 2. In this one case it is quite clear that there is no hope of recovering any more of the debt, which is, therefore, entirely extinguished. I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Earl Fortescue.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.