§ [The references are to Bill No. 98.]
§ Page 17, line 44, at end, insert the following new Clause:
§ Special provision for electricity holding companies.
§ (".—(1) This Section applies to any electricity holding company who shall, not later 1272 than three months after the passing of this Act, serve on the Minister notice in writing stating that they wish this Section to apply to them by reason of the fact that they were, at the date of the last audited balance sheet of the Company, before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, either directly or indirectly, the beneficial owners of extraneous assets specified in general terms in such notice and being property situate outside Great Britain, or being property situate within Great Britain which is not reasonably required for the efficient and economical administration or operation of the undertaking of any authorised undertakers or power station company:
§ Provided that no such notice as aforesaid shall have effect unless accompanied by a certificate signed by the auditor of the company and sating that the company was at such date as aforesaid the beneficial owner of the extraneous assets specified in the notice.
§ (2) Every company to which this Section applies shall be deemed not to be an electricity holding company for the purposes of the provisions of this Act.
§ (3) If, not later than three months after any company to which this Section applies shall have served a notice under subsection (5) of this Section, the Central Authority shall, by notice in writing to the company, require that all such, if any, of the property of the company as is reasonably required for the efficient and economical administration or operation of the undertaking of any authorised undertakers or power station company shall vest in the Central Authority, then the beneficial interest of the company in all such property shall, on the vesting date or one month after the date of such notice, whichever shall be the later, vest, by virtue of this Act and without further assurance, in the Central Authority.
§ (4) There shall be paid by the Central Authority to the company by way of compensation for the property vested in accordance with the last preceding subsection such sum as may be agreed between the Central Authority and the company or, in default of agreement, as shall be determined by arbitration under this Act as the fair market value of the beneficial interest of the company in such property.
§ (5) Not later than two months after any company to which this Section applies shall have served a notice under subsection (5) of this Section, either the Central Authority, or any person employed by the company wholly or mainly in the administration or operation of any one or more authorised undertakers or power station companies, may serve upon the other and upon the company a notice in writing requiring that any agreement for personal services made between the company and such person, and in force at the vesting date, shall apply and have effect as though such person had been employed by an electricity holding company, and thereupon the employment of such person by the company shall, for the purposes of the provisions of this Act, be deemed to be employment by an electricity holding company.
§ (6) Any question arising under this Section as to whether any property is reasonably required for the efficient and economical admini- 1273 stration or operation of any authorised undertakers or power station company, or as to whether any person was employed wholly or mainly in the administration or operation of any one or more authorised undertakers or power station companies, shall be determined, in default of agreement, by the Minister.")
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment for the following Reason:
§ Because it is expedient that the undertakings of electricity holding companies should vest in the Central Authority.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, this new clause was inserted by your 'Lordships. I do not want to weary your Lordships by going again through the arguments which were addressed to you on the various stages of the Bill. Sufficient to say that the Commons have not seen fit to agree with this Amendment. I still hope that, although the various holding companies must be taken over if we accept the Commons Reason, yet means will be found to enable those holding companies to dispose of their extraneous assets—of course at a fair price—and for the extraneous assets thus disposed of to be available for those, or at any rate some of those, who were previous shareholders in the holding company. I beg to move that the House cloth not insist upon the said Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist upon the said Amendment to which the Commons have disagreed.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I certainly shall not fight the battle over again, although I share the Lord Chancellor's hope that at least these companies, in one form or another, will be able to retain and develop activities which the Government do not wish to touch and which they wish to retain, and that it will be possible for them to retain all those activities and not be forced to sell extraneous assets which may be overseas. I would only add that I think the Reason given is rather strange, although we shall not press this Amendment. We are asked to accept the disagreement "because it is expedient that the undertakings of electricity holding companies should vest in the Central Authority." That does seem to me to be rather a strange Reason.
All the relevant undertakings which pertain to the production or distribution of electricity in this country, and anything which the Minister wished to take over in addition would, under this 1274 Amendment, vest in the Central Authority or the Board. Therefore, that can hardly be expedient. If by "expedient" it is meant "necessary," obviously it is not expedient in that sense. If by "expedient" is meant "right and just," then it does seem to us extremely unfair that people should be forced to part with assets which the Government do not wish to acquire, and then buy them back—as was demonstrably proved in this House—at what may well be, and probably almost certainly will be, a higher price than the Government have given for those undertakings. The only argument which was really advanced in another place in defence of this was that after all this was not a very big matter—there were not very many of these cases, and the assets were not very much. Of that I have only this to say. If a principle is wrong—and all of your Lordships were quite definite that the principle was wrong in this case—then the application of that principle is wrong, whether it be on a large scale or a small.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.