§ Order of the Day for the Third Reading read.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Lindgren, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time. In view of the comments of my noble friend Lord Morrison of Lambeth on the Committee stage, I should be grateful if the noble Earl, Lord Jellicoe, could say a word about the point raised by my noble friend in respect to the possibility that the Minister might amend the regulations, or make regulations, to meet the point that more information would be more readily available to the public about the amounts spent by local authorities and other bodies and by members of those authorities.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a. —(Lord Stonham.)
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, I am very glad to respond to the noble Lord's invitation. As I undertook to do last night when we were discussing this Bill on the Committee stage, I brought the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Morrison of Lambeth, to my right honourable friend's attention. I am sure the noble Lord will understand that there has not been a great deal of time since then to give mature consideration to all this. Nevertheless, my right honourable friend has asked me to say that he has read the Report of your Lordships' dis- 380 cussion last night with attention, and that he will certainly give very careful consideration to the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Morrison of Lambeth, and, indeed, by the noble Lord, Lord Stonham. He will consider whether it would be a good thing to amend the existing provisions of the regulations.
But I should also like to add that, on a matter such as this, my right honourable friend feels very strongly that there would be an obvious need for consultation with the local authority associations. That said, may I congratulate the noble Lord on his successful pilotage of this Bill, and express the hope that he feels that his triumph on these two major issues is some compensation for the slight rebuff which he had on a minor issue earlier this afternoon.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Earl, first of all for removing some of the tarnish from the title of Victor ludorum which was awarded to me by one of his noble friends not long ago. I am grateful for the noble Earl's assurance. I fully accept that this matter must be referred to the local authorities. It would be quite impossible unless the local authorities agreed, but I feel that the assurance he has now given that his right honourable friend will consider the representations of my noble friend, will give considerable satisfaction. I feel it was a useful suggestion, which I hope will produce useful results.
§ On Question, Bill read 3a and passed.