§ Page 9, line 17, at end insert new clause:
§ Appointment of Iron and Steel Prices Board
§ (".—(1)The Minister shall, within a period of six months after the general date of trans- 642 fer, by order establish an Iron and Steel Prices Board (hereinafter in this section referred to as "the Board").
§ (2) The Board shall consist of the following members—
- (a) an independent chairman, appointed by the Lord Chancellor and being a person having legal or accountany qualifications or such other qualifications as the Lord Chancellor may consider appropriate;
- (b) a member appointed by the Minister to represent the interests of the Corporation and its subsidiaries as producers of specified products;
- (c) a member appointed by the Minister to represent the interests of producers of specified products other than the Corporation and its subsidiaries;
- (d) a member appointed by the Minister, after consultation with the Iron and Steel Consumers' Council, to represent the interests of consumers of specified products;
- (e) a member appointed by the Minister to represent the interests of workers in the iron and steel industry; and
- (f) such additional members, not exceeding two, as the Minister may from time to time appoint, for the consideration of any particular matter.
§ (3) No person who is a member or officer of the Corporation or a director or officer of any subsidiary of the Corporation shall be qualified to be appointed or to be the chairman of the Board. The members of the Board shall not at any time include more than two persons who are members or officers of the Corporation or directors or officers of any subsidiary of the Corporation. No person who is a member of the Commons House of Parliament shall be qualified to be appointed or to be a member of the Board.
§ (4) In this, section the expression "specified products" means iron or steel products of any of the descriptions set out in the Tenth Schedule to this Act and such other descriptions as may be specified in an order of the Minister made under subsection (9) of this section, and the expression "iron or steel products" means products wholly or mainly composed of iron or steel.
§ (5) It shall be the duty of the Board to consider:
- (a) any representation, which may be made to them by the Iron and Steel Consumers' Council or by any other person who appears to the Board to be a person affected or representative of the interests of a class or classes of persons affected, with respect to the prices at which or the terms and conditions on which all or any of the specified products are sold or supplied by any producer or class or classes of producers of such products;
- (b) any matter which nay be referred to them by the Minister for consideration, including without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, a review of the prices at which and the terms and conditions on which all or any of the specified products are sold or supplied by any producer or class or classes of producers of such products; and
- (c) any proposal for the making of an order under subsection (9) of this section specifying other descriptions of iron or steel products for the purposes of this section.
§ (6) When the Board have considered any such representation or matter or proposal as aforesaid, they shall make to the Minister a report thereon containing such recommendations if any as they think fit.
§ (7) Without prejudice to the exercise of any powers conferred by or under any enactment other than this Act, on any Minister of the Crown or Government Department, the Minister may from time to time, on receiving a recommendation in -that behalf from the Board, make in accordance with that recommendation an order for controlling the prices at which and the terms and conditions on which all or any of the specified products may be sold or supplied by any producer or class or classes of producers of such products.
§ (8) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of an order made under subsection (7) of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be liable—
- (a) on summary conviction to imprisonment for not more than three months or to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds or to both such imprisonment and such fine; or
- (b) on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for not more than two years or to a fine not exceeding whichever is the higher of the two following amounts—
- (i) One thousand pounds;
- (ii) Three times the amount of any benefits derived by him from the offence;
§
(9) The Minister may from time to time on receiving a recommendation in that behalf from the Board, make in accordance with that recommendation an order specifying a further description of iron or steel products for the purposes of this section:
Provided that the Minister shall not make such an order with respect to any description of iron or steel products, unless it appears to him that at least one third by weight of the iron or steel products of that description supplied in the United Kingdom are supplied by the Corporation and its subsidiaries.
§ (10) The power conferred by subsections (7) and (9) of this section shall he exercisable by statutory instrument and any such statutory instrument shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
§ (11) The Board shall, as respects each financial year of the Corporation, make to the Minister a report on the exercise and performance by the Board of their functions during that year, and the Minister shall lay a copy of every such annual report before each House of Parliament, together with a statement of any action which has been taken by him in that year in consequence of any recommendation made to him by the Board.
644§ (12) The Minister and any producer of the said products shall provide the Board with all such information and other assistance as the Board may reasonably require for the exercise and performance of their functions under this section.
§ (13) The order made by the Minister under subsection (1) of this section establishing the Board shall provide for such incidental or supplementary matters as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient to provide for the purpose of giving full effect to this section including provisions—
- (a) as to the procedure of the Board;
- (b) requiring the Corporation to provide for the Board such officers and office accommodation as appear to the Minister to be requisite for the proper exercise and performance of their functions, subject to the approval of the Treasury with respect to the number of such officers; and
- (c) for the payment by the Corporation of such remuneration and allowances to the chairman and other members of the Board and to their officers as the Minister with the approval of the Treasury may determine.")
§ Page 95, line 49, at end insert new Schedule—
§ ("DESCRIPTION OF IRON OR STEEL PRODUCTS
§
1. Iron or steel (including alloy steel) in any of the following forms (and whether or not new or secondhand or prime or defective)
Pig;
Ingot;
Billet, bloom, slab;
Tinplate bar, sheet bar;
Plate, medium plate, sheet (and whether coated or uncoated);
Angle, channel, tee, joist, piling section, other sectional material (and whether fabricated or not);
Round, rod, square, hexagon, flat, other section and shape (and whether black or bright);
Rail, sleeper, fishplate, soleplate;
Tinplate, tinplate base (uncoated), terne plate, black plate, silver-finished plate;
Hoop, strip (and whether coated or uncoated, and whether hot or cold rolled);
Tube, pipe and standard fittings (not being conduit fittings) therefore;
Tyre, axle, wheel;
Casting, block for forging, block for pressing, forging, drop forging;
Colliery arch, and accessories therefor, pit prop;
Spring;
Wire rod;
Coated or uncoated wire (whether plain or barbed), wire rope, wire strand, wire netting, wire chain link fencing, wire reinforcement fabric mesh, wire rod reinforcement fabric mesh, wire nail, wire staple;
Bolts, nuts, screws, screw studs, washers and rivets.
§ 2. Ferro alloy of any kind.
§ 3. Scrap iron and scrap steel (including alloy steel).")
§ The Commons disagreed to the above Amendments for the following Reason:
§ Because the Bill already provides adequate machinery for dealing with the prices of products of the publicly-owned companies and the Corporation.
§ VISCOUNT ADDISONMy Lords, in accordance with the understanding at which we have arrived, I beg to move that this House do not insist on the Amendments to which the Commons have disagreed. These two Amendments relate to the same subject, the Iron and Steel Prices Board.
§ Moved, That this House do not insist on the said Amendments.—(Viscount Addison.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.