BRITISH INDUSTRIES FAIR (GUARANTEES AND GRANTS) BILL (Hansard, 1 April 1954)

§ LORD MANCROFT

My Lords, in moving that the House do resolve itself into Committee on the Bill, I should like to take the opportunity of correcting a slip which I made in the course of my winding-up remarks on the occasion of the Second Reading of this Bill. I was answering some questions which the noble Lord, Lord Lucas of Chilworth, put to me in regard to the financial control which Parliament would have over the expenditure of money incurred by the British Industries Fair Limited. Briefly, the financial position is this. The grants made to the B.I.F. Limited by the Board of Trade, under Clause 2 of the Bill, will be included in the Estimates of the Board of Trade, and will, therefore, be subject to normal Parliamentary scrutiny. As to the guarantees, the position is this. Under the Bill, Parliament is asked to approve the giving of guarantees up to a limit of £100,000. The guarantees will be given by the Treasury only in such manner and on such terms as they think fit, and the Treasury are required to lay before both Houses of Parliament a statement of any such guarantees immediately after they have been given. Such Statements can. of course. be debated in both Houses of Parliament.

That procedure follows the precedent set in several previous Bills, now Acts of Parliament, such as the Borrowing (Control and Guarantees) Act, 1946. the Colonial Loans Act, 1949, and the Overseas Resources Development Act. 1948. Unfortunately, I had not those precedents with me when I was answering, the questions of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas of Chilworth, and I inadvertently told him that not only could Parliament debate the statements that I have just mentioned 945 but that Parliament could also, if it thought fit, reject them. That, as I think I have now shown to your Lordships, is a wholly inaccurate statement of the law. I must, therefore, in view of the nice regard for the proprieties which the noble Lord, Lord Lucas of Chilworth, has just displayed, ask his pardon for having misinformed him On that point, and I hope that the House will allow me to withdraw that misstatement of the law. With those words, I beg to move that the House do resolve itself into Committee on the Bill.