LORDS AMENDMENT. (Hansard, 1 August 1944)

§ TEE EARL OF SELBORNE

My Lords, the next Amendment with which we have to deal is at page 6, line 35, and I would like to say at once that there is a misprint on the Order Paper. I am not quite sure if it has been corrected in the copy which your Lordships have but it has not been corrected in mine. On page 2 of the Order Paper you will see it is stated that: The Commons propose to amend the above Amendment as follows: Line 11, after ("school") insert ("premises"). Line 13, after ("school") insert ("premises"). The first of those lines is a misprint. It ought never to have been printed. The sole Amendment proposed by the Commons is in line 13, after "school" insert "premises".

The point of this proposed Amendment is this. Your Lordships will remember that the Amendment made in this House was to give the Minister some latitude in applying his school building regulations. As the Bill came to your Lordships from another place the Minister would have been bound by his regulations and would have been unable to make an exception in exceptional circumstances. I remember giving to your Lordships the instance of a beautiful old classroom that was really quite adequate for the purpose but might be six inches or one toot too short in its dimensions. It would be absurd to insist in such circumstances that that classroom should be pulled down and lengthened by the requisite number of inches. The effect of the Amendment made in your Lordships' House was to give the Minister some latitude in the matter. When the Amendment went to another place, however, it was argued, and rightly argued, that the words in the clause as we left it would have enabled the Minister to use his discretion to make exceptions in exceptional circumstances that might have nothing to do with the premises. That of course was not the intention of the Government nor I think of your Lordships, but it was argued that 8 the words would have entitled some future Minister to say "This is an exceptionally poor denomination and therefore I will not insist on the same building standards as are required in other cases." In order to obviate anything of that sort the word "premises" is inserted after the word "school" in line 13 so that the proviso will read: Provided that if the Minister is satisfied with respect to any school that having regard to the nature of the site or to any existing buildings thereon or to other special circumstances affecting the school premises it would be unreasonable in that case and so on. I hope therefore your Lordships will agree to the Commons Amendment to your Amendment.