§ After Clause 25, insert the following new clause:
§ Further provisions as to restriction of private slaughterhouses
§ (".—(1) Subsection (2) of section sixty-one of the principal Act (which enables a local authority to pass a resolution determining upon the closure of private slaughterhouses in their district) shall have effect in relation to any resolution passed by a local authority under that subsection after the coming into force of this section as if for the reference therein to such date as may be fixed by the authority's resolution there were substituted a reference to the appointed date, which shall be a date fixed by the Minister if he approves the resolution.
§ (2) The Minister may, in giving or withholding his approval to a resolution of a local authority under the said subsection (2) or 1732 under subsection (2) of section four of the Slaughterhouses Act, 1954 (under which a local authority may resolve to restrict in future the grant of slaughterhouses licences in their district), being a resolution passed by the authority after the coming into force of this section, direct the authority to take such steps as he may specify for informing persons interested of the effect of the resolution and his decision thereon and also, in the case of a resolution which he has approved, of the date fixed by him as the appointed date for the purposes thereof and the authority shall comply with any such direction.
§ (3) It is hereby declared that a person's entitlement under subsection (1) of section five of the said Act of 1954 (which provides for compensation to be paid by a local authority on the closure of private slaughterhouses in their district) to compensation in respect of any interest of his in premises is not to be treated as taken away by any undertaking not to claim the compensation which may have been given in connection with the grant or renewal of a slaughterhouse licence as defined by that Act.
§ This subsection shall be deemed always to have had effect.")
§ LORD CARRINGTONThis Amendment and that to Clause 33, at page 27, line 41, relate to slaughterhouses, and they put right a number of defects in the slaughterhouse provisions of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938. Under that Act, the local authority are empowered to say that they will grant no further licences and will close existing, slaughterhouses "as from a date to be specified." The Minister, however, has an obligation to approve, or not to approve, a resolution to that effect. In the past, it has been possible for the local authority to fix the date for the closing of a slaughterhouse before the Minister's approval of their resolution. This has led to considerable difficulty owing to the fact that the butchers did not know where they were, whether their slaughterhouses were closed or not. The first of these two Amendments puts that right and prevents the local authority from fixing a date before the Minister has approved the resolution. Also in regard to that Amendment, I believe that in one or two cases in the past local authorities have agreed to a waiver of compensation, and in some cases have forced a waiver of compensation on the owner of a slaughterhouse. This part of the Amendment makes such waivers null and void. They probably are already null and void, but this puts it beyond doubt. The second Amendment makes this new clause come into operation on the passing of this Act instead of on a day appointed by the 1733 Minister of Food. I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(Lord Carrington.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.