FOOD AND DRUGS BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 14 June 1938)

VISCOUNT GAGE
My Lords, your Lordships may remember that on the Second Reading of the Bill, it was stated that this was one of a number of major Consolidation Bills on which the Ministry of Health were engaged. I also explained then that the law was in some respects confused and contradictory, and therefore the Departmental Committee entrusted with this work had to introduce a certain number of Amendments entirely, of course, for the sake of clarity. It is a fact that it was these Amendments in the Bill that prevented it from being sent to the Consolidation Committee in the ordinary way, and instead your Lordships agreed that it should be sent to a special Joint Committee presided over by ray noble friend the Lord Chairman. That Committee have examined the Bill very closely, they have taken evidence from expert witnesses, and they have proposed a large number of Amendments which your Lordships will see on the Paper. Your Lordships will also see that while the Amendments are not entirely drafting in character, they are for the most part technical; but they do not seek to introduce any major alterations in the conditions under which food and drugs are sold in this country. They are designed purely to secure greater simplicity, uniformity and conciseness in the expression of the law. I may say that they have all been agreed by the Ministry of Health with the representatives of the local government associations.
In these circumstances I should like to suggest, if I may, that we should follow the precedents established in the case of the Local Government Act of 1933 and the Public Health Acts of 1936 and take all the Amendments en bloc. The Bill will then be available for discussion in the form finally approved by the Committee specially set up to consider it when it next comes before your Lordships' House. I suppose that in theory it would be open to your Lordships to discuss all these Amendments now on merits, and also any other questions arising in regard to the sale and disposal of food and 934 drugs. But I think that if we are going to consider all these Amendments on the Paper individually now it would be a very laborious task, and if they were amended from the point of view of their merits it might alter the whole character of the Bill and would not be in accordance with precedent. Therefore I suggest, if your Lordships agree, that we take all the Amendments proposed by the Joint Committee en bloc to-day on the understanding that my noble friend Viscount Bertie of Thame, who has some Amendments down, and any other noble Lord will be able to move Amendments on the Report stage. But I can only respectfully invite your Lordships to confine any such Amendments to the limited nature that I have described. We are well aware that there are many controversial matters included in this Bill, but I must leave it to your Lordships to decide whether the Amendments had best be discussed now or at a later stage when your Lordships are in possession of the Bill as amended by the proposals of the joint Committee. I beg to move that the House do now resolve itself into Committee.

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF ONSLOW)
My Lords, perhaps as I happened to be Chairman of the Joint Committee of your Lordships' House and another place, which considered this Bill, I may say one or two words in regard to what my noble friend Lord Gage has said. I ought to say that I was not Chairman during the whole time, because I was incapacitated for a period by influenza, and I am grateful to my noble friend Lord O'Hagan for having stepped into the breach. I should also add that I have had a little experience of Joint Committees on Bills of this kind. This is the third or fourth, I think, that we have had, and the procedure which my noble friend has indicated was followed on each occasion. That was to take the Amendments en bloc on the Committee stage, and then to discuss their effectiveness or the reverse on the Report stage when your Lordships had the Bill as amended before you. There are, as my noble friend has pointed out, a very large number of Amendments. I think there are over one hundred. Many of them are of a drafting character, some are Amendments of substance more or less, but I 935 think I ought to say this, that the Committee—and I am sure my noble friend Lord O'Hagan will agree with this—were careful in going through the Bill not to put into it any really controversial new matter.
It is really a Consolidation and Amending Bill of the existing law. Perhaps in that connection I may be allowed to draw your Lordships' attention to page 3 of the Report of the Joint Committee, which deals with milk. I refer to that particularly because it was mentioned on Second Reading by the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft. I do not see him in his place to-day and so I imagine that he does not wish to make any further observations on the matter. The noble Lord drew attention to the fact that the Bill did not contain proposals for drastic amendment of milk legislation. That matter was considered by the Joint Committee, but it was thought that, in view of the declaration of the Government and of the White Paper issued on the subject, it would be more appropriate to leave any considerable alteration of the law in regard to milk until the Government bring forward their proposals. That applies also to other matters.
The Bill, as amended, is, if I may say so, a useful measure of consolidation. It takes about 250 provisions scattered over thirty-six Acts, some of which date back to the time of Henry VIII, and puts them into one Bill of 103 clauses. There are some drafting Amendments which my noble friend proposes to move en bloc and I hope that your Lordships will favourably consider the proposal to take those Amendments in that way and leave discussion until the Report stage when a print of the Bill, as amended, will be available.

§ VISCOUNT BERTIE OF THAME
My Lords, it would be quite convenient to me to move, on the Report stage, the Amendments of which I have given notice, and I have in fact notified the Clerks that I desire to withdraw the Amendments at this stage.

VISCOUNT GAGE
I beg to move that the Amendments proposed by the Joint 936 Committee on pages 4 to 12 of their Report be agreed to.