PRIVATE BILL STANDING ORDERS

HL Deb 29 March 1961 vol 230 cc116-8

2.54 p.m.

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (LORD MERTHYR)

My Lords, I beg to move the Motion which stands in my name on the Order Paper. I must apologise for asking the House again to agree to a rather formidable list of Amendments to the Private Bill Standing Orders, but, as I said on the last occasion, it is intended completely to reprint the book of these Standing Orders, and your Lordships will no doubt sympathise with me in my attempt to make them as perfect as they can be made before they are reprinted.

On this list there are 21 Amendments. I think I can assure the House that none of them is controversial. Of these 21, 13 are drafting, 4 are consequential, and of the remaining 4 the first on the list enables Promoters and other parties to use the new recorded delivery service which has been introduced recently by the Post Office. The fourth Amendment on the list deals with Standing Order 39, which concerns the deposit at the Commonwealth Relations Office of Bills relating to companies, persons or bodies in the countries named. The list of countries has been revised and the countries placed now in alphabetical order.

The eighth of these Amendments introduces a new Standing Order 195A. It deals with a set of circumstances which must be very rare but which is not dealt with at present and with which I think we must deal. It relates only to Private Bills which are Scottish, which originate in another place, which authorise works, and in cases where the works authorised are altered after the deposit of the Bill. Your Lordships will appreciate that the combination of those circumstances must be rare; nevertheless the possibility of it exists.

The last of these Amendments refers to fees payable to the Official Shorthand Writer. Yesterday the House approved the Report of the Offices Committee, which authorises an increase in the fees paid to the Official Shorthand Writer for his services to the House—that is, fees paid by the House. This Amendment makes a similar increase in the fees payable to him by parties to Private Bills. My Lords, if there are questions which any noble Lord wishes to ask I will do my best to answer them. I beg to move.

Moved, That the following Amendments be made to the Standing Orders relative to Private Bills, etc.:—

Standing Order 1, page 12, line 38, at end insert— ("References in any Standing Order to registered post, a registered letter or to the registration of such letters shall he construed as including a reference to the recorded delivery service, a letter sent by that service and the acceptance by an officer of the Post Office of letters for recorded delivery, respectively.")

Standing Order 5, page 15, line 17, leave out ("or user") and at end insert ("or of rights to use the surface of")

Standing Order 19A, page 20, line 2, leave out ("provision") and insert ("provisions")

Standing Order 39, page 27, leave out lines 19 to 22, and insert— ("(a) Australia, Canada, Ceylon, Cyprus, Ghana, India, the Federation of Malaya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, South Africa or any territory, administered under the authority of the government of any of those countries; or (b) the Republic of Ireland; or")

Standing Order 61, page 36, line 32, leave out ("as the case may be")

Standing Order 144, page 64, line 12, after C' (b)") insert ("to")

Standing Order 187, page 76, lire 22, leave out ("eleven") and insert ("twelve")

After Standing Order 195, page 78, insert a new Standing Order 195A—

("Application of Standing Order 61 to substituted Bill (House of Commons 233A)

195A. Whenever, during the progress through the House of Commons of any Bill originating in that House promoted in lieu of a Provisional Order or part thereof in respect of which a plan and section were required under General Order 27 to be deposited, any alteration has been made in any work to be authorised by the Bill, Standing Order 61 shall apply to the Bill subject to such adaptations and modifications as may be prescribed by general or special directions of the Chairman of Committees, or of the Standing Orders Committee in cases where the Chairman of Committees thinks fit to refer the matter to the Committee.")

Standing Order 212, page 85, line 43, leave out ("212") and insert ("[Standing Order 212 repealed 17th July, 1951]")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 32, leave out ("as")

Part XII, Appendix A, page 90—

line 11, leave out ("this property") and insert ("the property mentioned in the annexed Schedule")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 12, leave out ("of the annexed Schedule") and insert ("thereof")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 14, leave out ("that")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 20, after ("councils") insert ("or") lines 20 and 21, leave out ("or principal sheriff clerks")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 36, leave out ("Act") and insert ("Bill")

Standing Order 216, page 88, lines 38 and 39, leave out ("[or Section 90 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1845]")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 41, leave out ("Act") and insert ("Bill")

Standing Order 216, page 88, line 38 and 39, leave out lines 50 to 59 and insert— ("Objection to the Bill may be made by depositing a Petition against it. We shall be pleased, on receiving from you a request in writing, to inform you of the latest date on which you may deposit a Petition in either House. For your present information, the latest date for depositing a Petition against the Bill [in the first House is the 6th February, if the fist House is the House of Lords, or the 30th January, if the first House is the House of Commons. The latest date for depositing a Petition against the Bill in the second House is the tenth day after that on which the Bill receives its first reading in that House]*. If this date is a Sunday, Christmas Day, or a Bank Holiday, or a day on which the House does not sit, the final date for depositing may be postponed")

after line 67, insert the following footnote—

(" ^* If the Bill is a late Bill substitute for the words in brackets in either House is the tenth day after that on which the Bill receives its first reading in that House'.")

Table of Fees, page 96, leave out lines 29 and 30 and insert—

("For each day he shall attend—

	£	s.	d.
Home	5	13	6
Distance of more than 60 miles from Charing Cross	6	14	6

For the transcript of his notes, per folio of 72 words:—

	£	s.	d.
When carbon copies of transcript are supplied	0	1	9
When no carbon copies of transcript are supplied	0	2	9
Carbon copy, per folio of 72 words	0	0	3")

—(Lord Merthyr)

On Question, Motion agreed to.