§ 3.28 p.m.
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, this is, as always, a certified Money Bill. Its object is to obtain authority for raising the funds needed for capital expenditure of the Post Office. Bills of this kind normally come before your Lordships approximately every two years, and I think that this is the third that I have had the privilege of bringing before the House. The last such Bill asked for £75 million, and this Bill asks for £120 million. That is not because there is any tremendously accelerated development contemplated in the Post Office; in fact, Post Office capital investment is now running at a fairly steady level. But it is almost entirely because the two measures cover different periods of time.
The £75 million previously authorised in the Act of 1958, which we began to use in April of that year, is expected to be exhausted by January, 1960—that is, over a period of just under two years. The new Bill seeks authority for sufficient money to meet the needs of the Post Office until about the middle of 1962, a period of some two and a half years. During that period I expect that about £270 million will be needed altogether for capital expenditure, as defined in the Post Office accounts; and of that expenditure about £150 million will be met out of the depreciation provisions, leaving £120 million to be borrowed under the present Bill. If we can take the briefest of glances at the 1165 details of the Bill we shall find that £120 million is the sum covered in Clause 1 (1). Subsections (2) and (3) provide, in the usual way, for the Treasury themselves to borrow if they need to, in order to issue the money to the Post Office. Subsections (4) and (5) deal in the same way as did the last Bill with repayment from the Post Office vote of all funds received under subsection (1).
I understand that some noble Lords opposite, and perhaps other noble Lords, have some points they wish to raise on this Bill, but that it would be more convenient to do so on Third Reading. If your Lordships are agreeable to that I most certainly am; and so, apart from the final remark that I am sure the money sought in this Bill will be very well spent, I will do no more than commend the Bill to your Lordships at the moment and ask your Lordships to give it a Second Reading. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2.—(Lord Chesham.)
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am obliged to the noble Lord for his clear statement on the Bill. This is, of course, a certified Bill and no one at any stage will want to query the basic financial provisions made in another place. But we shall need to ask some questions as to what use is to be made of its provisions, especially by way of priorities. Perhaps the most convenient course would be to send to the noble Lord a note of the points we have in mind, and then he can answer them on Third Reading, because it is not at all a Bill on which we should wish to move Amendments in Committee.
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, I am much obliged to the noble Viscount.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a: Committee negatived.