EMERGENCY LAWS (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) ACT, 1947 (Hansard, 14 December 1948)

§ LORD SHEPHERD
My Lords, a year ago my noble and learned friend on the Woolsack introduced a Bill into your Lordships' House providing for an extended period for a number of measures. 1042 This year His Majesty's Government require to recommend to your Lordships that only two measures should be continued, and they are the subject of the Motions which appear in my name on the Order Paper. Your Lordships will recall that at the beginning of the late war an agreement was reached between employers and employed under which workshop practices were waived in order that production might be increased. The agreement was embodied in a Bill which became the Pre-War Trade Practices Act, 1942. Under that Act of Parliament these practices were to be resumed in force within two years from the end of the war, and were to be maintained in force by the employers for a period of eighteen months. For this purpose, however, the end of the war has not yet been reached, but it would be reached if we allowed the present measures to die at the end of this year, December 31. My right honourable friend the Minister of Labour and National Service has been in touch with the National Joint Council on the subject, and both sides are agreed that the Government should recommend to your Lordships that these measures should be continued for a further twelve months. I beg to move.
Moved, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty in pursuance of Section seven of the Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1947, praying that Section eight of the Emergency Laws (Transitional Provisions) Act, 1946, which, as amended by subsection (1) of Section five of the Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1947, would otherwise expire on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, be continued in force until the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-nine.—(Lord Shepherd.)

§ LORD QUIBELL
My Lords, I would like to ask for further elucidation on this Motion. It says: That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty in pursuance of Section seven of the Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1947, praying that Section eight of the Emergency Laws (Transitional Provisions) Act, 1946, which, as amended by subsection (1) of Section five of the Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1947, would otherwise expire …. and so on. I really cannot make anything of that, and it is not the first time it has happened. I wonder if the Minister 1043 knows twice as much as I do! I know nothing about it.

§ LORD LLEWELLIN
My Lords, before the noble Lord replies, perhaps I should say that we on this side have no objection to this Motion. We have gone into it perhaps a little more fully than the noble Lord who has just spoken, and although I must say the wording of this particular Motion is extremely complicated, it does what the noble Lord has said it does; and to that I think none of us will have any objection.

THE EARL OF PERTH
My Lords, I am not quite clear on one point. The noble Lord mentioned the end of the war. Does "the end of the war" apply only in one specific instance? May it be a different date in other instances?

§ LORD SHEPHERD
My Lords, what I know about this measure is really what I have been told. I understand that if the particular measures mentioned by my noble friend had not been re-enacted or enacted year by year since, there would have been considerable trouble in the workshops in the country because of the position that these practices would bring about. We are anxious to keep them out of the productive machinery of our country for the time being.

§ LORD SHEPHERD
My Lords, my second Motion refers to Regulation 76 of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939. It covers the handling of explosives and inflammable materials in ports and inland waterways. New by-laws, under the Petroleum Consolidation Act, 1928, are now being prepared for acceptance by the Minister, and new regulations are now being prepared by the Minister under the Explosives Act, 1875, for the approval of Parliament. Unfortunately, there is still need for His Majesty's Government to deal with explosives and inflammable materials in the ports and waterways so, pending the new regulations, the Government suggest that we should continue this regulation in force for a further twelve months. I beg to move.
Moved, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty in pursuance of Section seven of the Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1947, 1044 praying that Regulation seventy-six of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939, which would otherwise expire on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, be continued in force until the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-nine.—(Lord Shepherd.)

§ LORD LLEWELLIN
My Lords, as I understand it, the reason for the continuance in operation of this particular regulation is that the Government have not been able to get out their new regulations in time, and they are asking us to give them another year in which to complete their researches. I only hope that we may not have to have regulations to deal with petroleum and petrol for a very long time, and that the Government will have more of it to deal with than we are getting into this country at present.