§ 6.0 p.m.
§ Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee read.
§ Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ House in Committee accordingly.
§ [The LORD STRANG in the Chair.]
§ Clause 1 agreed to.
§ Clause 2 [Register of hairdressers]:
§ EARL COWLEY moved to leave out "entitled under the provisions of this Act" and to insert "qualified". The noble Earl said: I am afraid that these Amendments look rather formidable. There are 38 in all, but they are procedural and were brought about by this Bill's being no longer peremptory but merely permissive. Perhaps when I speak to Clause 2 I may also speak to Clause 16. The effect of the first Amendment is to provide that the register to be maintained by the Hairdressing Council shall record the form of hairdressing which registered persons are qualified to 511 practise instead of purporting to record the form of hairdressing which they are entitled to practise. The latter would be no longer appropriate in view of the deletion by the Committee in another place of the provision that no person should be permitted to practise hairdressing unless registered with the Council.
§ Clause 3(1)(b), however, provides that to obtain registration with the Council a person must satisfy them that he has obtained a reasonable and sufficient standard to qualify him to practise the form of hairdressing in respect of which he makes the application; and it is thought desirable that the appropriate qualifications should appear on the register. The effect of Amendment No. 14 is to give the Council greater latitude in describing in the register the forms of hairdressing in which the person is qualified. Without this Amendment the description would be tied to the various detailed processes included in the definition of "hairdressing" given in Clause 16. Not only would this be unduly restrictive, but it would, incidentally, prevent the register from stating whether a person was qualified in gentlemen's or ladies' hairdressing. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 1, line 19 leave out from ("are") to ("to") and insert ("qualified").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ LORD CHAMPIONI recognise the fact that this Bill had to have a tremendous amount of tidying up and that we should be engaged for some little time in this tidying up process, in addition to dealing with one or two Amendments of some principle, but before we go on, I should like to know exactly which Amendment the noble Earl actually spoke to in moving the first Amendment. As I understood it, he spoke to more than one Amendment. Was that his intention, and that he should move the others formally when he came to them; or was he merely moving that Amendment and making reference to Clause 3(1)(b) because it had some relevance to Amendment No. 1?
§ EARL COWLEYYes, it relied on the other Amendment. I was in fact speaking to or moving Amendment No. 1 to Clause 2; but I was also speaking to Amendment No. 14 which refers to 512 Clause 16 at page 7, line 1, to leave out from the word "face" to the end of line 3.
§ Clause 2, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 3 agreed to.
§ Clause 4 [Approval of courses, qualifications and institutions]:
§ 6.4 p.m.
§
LORD CHAMPION moved, after subsection (2), to insert:
() The Hairdressing Council shall not approve any course of training under this section unless that course includes instruction in such subjects as the Council may from time to time deem to be vocationally related to the practice of hairdressing.".
§ The noble Lord said: I beg to move the first Amendment standing in my name and that of my noble friends. Clause 4 of the Bill provides that the Hairdressing Council may approve for the purposes of the Bill any course of training which they may consider to be designed to confer on persons completing the course sufficient knowledge and skill for the practice of hairdressing. The term "hairdressing" is defined in Clause 16, and the main definition, as I understand it, will remain even if the Amendment which the noble Lord is likely to move later is carried. But the term "hairdressing" as there defined appears to me to apply only to the practical side of the trade or craft of hairdressing. I am not going to waste the time of the Committee reading out that clause—it is a fairly lengthy one—but I hope that the Committee will agree with me that it refers chiefly to the practical side of the craft.
§ The attention of this House and of another place has been drawn to a number of cases in recent months where accidents have occurred in hairdressing establishments, causing injury and discomfort to clients. These accidents have been caused not by a lack of skill in the actual practice of the hairdresser, but by an insufficiently skilled handling of the substances and instruments used by the hairdresser. They are accidents that could well have been avoided had those concerned possessed the necessary background knowledge of the operative use, or of the properties and the preparation of the substances which the hairdressers then used. This is particularly true of the use of chemicals, which are now 513 extensively used in the bleaching and dyeing of ladies' hair. To some extent it is also true of the various electrical appliances and devices which are used in hairdressing establishments.
§
This Amendment is proposed in order to try to avoid the recurrence of such accidents in the future, in the case of hairdressers registered by the Council. I may say, in parenthesis, that despite my somewhat caustic remarks on Second Reading about this Bill, I am hoping that if this Bill becomes an Act registration will mean something to the public, and in particular to women. This Amendment means that all persons who are registered, in addition to being taught the practical side of the craft, will be instructed
in such other subjects as the Hairdressing Council may from time to time deem to be vocationally related to the practice of hairdressing",
such as hygiene, anatomy and a certain amount of chemistry. Perhaps chemistry is the most important subject in this connection but hygiene is also necessary.
§ I should perhaps add that these subjects are already included in the full-time hairdressing courses at technical colleges. I know this to be the case in regard to the London County Council. Within their hairdressing courses they include teaching upon subjects such as hygiene, anatomy and chemistry. This Amendment is intended to be wholly helpful, to help the Hairdressing Council to raise standards in the craft to such a height that women in particular can confidently place their hair in the care of those granted registration by the Council. Too narrow an interpretation of Clause 4 and of the definition in Clause 16 may well defeat that object. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 2, line. 46, at end insert the said subsection.—(Lord Champion.)
§ EARL COWLEYI feel that in fact this Amendment is covered in Clause 4(1) (a), which says:
Any course of training which the Hairdressing Council considers is designed to confer on persons completing it sufficient knowledge and skill for the practice of hairdressing.I do not feel that this Amendment is entirely clear. It seems that its object is to ensure that courses of training approved by the Hairdressing Council as a condition of registration should 514 deal not only with matters strictly related to the practice of hairdressing but with other matters which are "occupationally related." The Amendment does not make clear what the matters are. It proposes to leave the judgment with the Hairdressing Council itself.There must be a danger, if the courses of teaching are made too elaborate and wide ranging, that this will prove a deterrent to prospective entrants and so keep from the register a number of people who would, nevertheless, prove to be perfectly competent hairdressers. There would have been the strongest objections to this provision if registration were to have been made a condition of practising the trade. I may add that if at some future date this Bill should change in any way and a further clause be inserted to make it mandatory rather than permissive, this Amendment would make it extremely difficult. Anybody who wanted to enter the hairdressing trade would wonder what exactly they would have to learn. But if the noble Lord would like to discuss this point, perhaps it could be re-drafted to make it clearer.
§ LORD CHAMPIONWhat the Amendment really does is to create a situation in which the Hairdressing Council would itself decide what would be deemed to be occupationally related to the practice of hairdressing. I cannot imagine any Hairdressing Council making this so exclusive as to frighten away every trainee. On the other hand, the Hairdressing Council ought to have some regard to the points I have mentioned. I must admit that the Amendment was suggested to me by somebody particularly knowledgeable on these things—an authority which has under its control hairdressing teaching establishments. That is why I put the Amendment down. I feel that it is worthy of a little more consideration, but, having regard to the noble Lord's offer to discuss this with me, I imagine we shall have a Report stage late this week—or is it intended to try to get all the stages through to-day?
§ LORD DERWENTI do not want to enter into the argument about this Amendment, but we have not very much time. I am advised that the present drafting is not satisfactory, as a purely drafting matter. I do not know whether 515 we can get it done in the time, because we do not know what is wanted; and if the two noble Lords are going to have conversations it is going to leave the time even shorter. I do not know how important the noble Lord thinks this Amendment is. My own view is that perhaps it is not vital to the Bill. I do not know. After all, this is a Private Member's Bill and not a Government Bill.
§ LORD CHAMPIONI was trying to find out whether it was the intention of the sponsors to try to get the whole of the remaining stages through to-day. But clearly that is not the intention, because I understand there might have to be further drafting Amendments, which will mean that we shall have to return to it, no doubt later in the week. I will have a few words with the noble Earl between now and that stage. I beg leave to withdraw the Amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Clause 4 agreed to.
§ Clause 5 [Supervision of approved institutions and examinations]:
§ 6.14 p.m.
§ EARL COWLEYI should like to deal with Amendments Nos. 3 and 4, together, and I will do so briefly. These are purely drafting Amendments designed to make the meanings of these expressions in Clause 5 clear and to identify them properly with the provisions of Clause 4. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 3, line 10, leave out ("approved institutions") and insert ("institutions approved under section 4 of this Act").—(Earl Cowley.)
§
Amendment moved—
Page 3, line 10, leave out ("approved courses of training") and insert ("courses approved under that section").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Clause 5, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 6 [As to examinations in hair-dressing]:
§ On Question, Whether Clause 6 shall stand part of the Bill?
§ EARL COWLEYI have down an Amendment to leave out Clause 6. This 516 would remove the provision that no one shall sit for any examination, success in which the Council may prescribe as a condition of registration, unless he has undergone an approved course of training. The provision is superfluous, since under Clause 3(1) an examination by itself would give no right to registration unless the person concerned had also undergone a course of approved training at an approved institution.
§ On Question, Clause 6 negatived.
§ Clause 7 agreed to.
§ Clause 8 [Publication of register]:
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment will seek to delete subsections (3) and (4) of Clause 8. These deletions are consequential upon the removal of the requirement of registration as a condition of continued practice and of the machinery of appeal to the Privy Council originally contained in the Bill. It is not easy in the circumstances to see what proceedings are likely to arise in which evidence of registration will be in issue. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 4, leave out lines 15 to 27.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Clause 8, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 9 [Investigation and disciplinary committees]:
§ EARL COWLEYIn dealing with this Amendment I should like to speak also to Nos. 7, 35, 36 and 37. These are purely drafting Amendments, designed to convert the references to the disciplinary committee and the investigating committee to the singular because, although the Bill at present refers to them severally in the plural, it makes provision in fact for only one of each. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 4, line 45, after ("of") insert ("the").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEY: I beg to move No. 7.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 5, line 3, leave out ("disciplinary committees") and insert ("disciplinary committee").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ LORD WILLIAMS OF BARNBURGHMay we know whether the silence being observed by the noble Lord, Lord Derwent, means that the Government consent to the Bill, so far as it has gone up to now?
§ LORD DERWENTIt means only that the Government have no view on the Bill. It means only that I am consenting to the drafting. If I find that five Amendments are moved at once because they deal with the same subject, my silence means that I am content with the drafting.
§ LORD WILLIAMS OF BARNBURGHOn the principle of the Bill the Government have no view?
§ LORD DERWENTThat is correct.
§ Clause 9, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 10 [Removal of names from register for crime, etc.]:
§ EARL COWLEYI should like to speak to Amendments Nos. 8 and 9 together. Again, they are purely drafting Amendments. Subsection (3) contains a reference to "a register", but the word "register" is ambiguous. There is only one register under the Bill but the references to it in this clause imply that there are more than one. I beg to move.
§ Amendments moved—
§ Page 5, line 21, leave out second ("a") and insert ("the")
§ Page 5, line 23, leave out ("that") and insert ("the").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Clause 10, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 11 agreed to.
§ Clause 12 [Notices, etc]:
§ EARL COWLEYI should like to discuss Amendments Nos. 10 and 11 together. Clause 12 relates to the service of notices and documents by the Hair-dressing Council in the exercise of its powers under the Bill. The Amendments would delete all reference to the service of documents other than notices, since the Bill does not authorise or require the service of any documents other than notices. I beg to move.
§ Amendments moved—
§
Page 5, line 38, leave out ("or other document")
line 44, leave out ("document") and insert ("notice").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Clause 12, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 13 agreed to.
§ Clause 14 [Reports and Accounts]:
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment deletes from subsection (3) the reference to reports made by the Council, since there is no provision in the clause, or anywhere else in the Bill, requiring the Hairdressing Council to prepare reports The subsection will now require the Council merely to furnish copies of its accounts to applicants. Although the original form of this clause required the Council to furnish annual reports to the Home Secretary, this provision was deleted at the Committee stage in another place. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 6, line 22, leave out from first ("of") to first ("the") in line 23.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Clause 14, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 15 agreed to.
§ Clause 16 [Limitation on powers of Council]:
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment deletes the definition of "establishment" which is now superfluous since the word occurred only in a provision of the original Bill that has now been deleted. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 6, leave out line 34.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move Amendment No. 14.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 7, line 1, leave out from ("face") to end of line 3.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Clause 16, as amended, agreed to.
§ Remaining clause agreed to.
519§ Schedule 1 [Constitution of the Council and supplementary provisions]:
§ 6.23 p.m.
§
LORD CHAMPION moved, in paragraph 1, after "The Council shall consist of:—", to insert:
(1) two persons to be appointed by the Minister of State for the Department of Education and Science;".
The noble Lord said: The Amendments to be moved by the noble Earl, Lord Cowley, to Schedule 1 clearly greatly improve the composition of the Council. I was pleased to learn towards the end of our Second Reading debate, that the Royal College of Physicians had agreed to appoint a person to serve on the Council. I take it from the Amendment which the noble Earl has down that the British Medical Association has agreed to do the same thing.
§ The Amendment I am now moving, if accepted by the Committee, would be out of place in relation to the Amendments to be moved subsequently by the noble Earl. But the actual placing of the Amendment at this stage does not really matter, because clearly we are now going to have a Report Stage of the Bill at which this could be put right. This is a matter of the mechanics of the drafting, rather than a question of the principle. In the Bill as it was originally presented to the other place, provision was made in Schedule 1 for the appointment of one person by the Minister of Education. That provision was struck out in Committee in the other place, and I cannot pretend to know why; but if it was done as a result of Government intervention then I think that the intervention was ill-conceived.
§ Under Clause 4 of the Bill the Hair-dressing Council will approve courses of training and qualifications, and also institutions for the conduct of the whole or any part of a course of training so approved. As I said on the previous Amendment, full-time courses are now held in technical colleges. The L.C.C., for example, maintain the London College of Fashion, which is an establishment in which hairdressing courses are run; and the courses in that establishment and others in the country will be subject to the approval of the Hairdressing Council. Clearly, if the technical colleges are to be subject to 520 some approval by the Council, the Council should have the advice of persons having a knowledge of technical colleges and the administration of education generally at that level, for there are bound to be pretty wide educational interests involved.
§ Perhaps I should add (I am not going to speak at great length on this Amendment, and I believe that I have made the points that matter) that I should prefer two representatives to one on Councils such as this, so that in case of illness, or inability for some other reason to attend, the interest concerned can be represented. For that reason, I should have preferred two from the B.M.A. and two from the Royal College of Physicians. But certainly I think that the Ministry of Education should appoint someone to this Council, and for that reason I move the Amendment. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 6, at end insert the said sub-paragraph.—(Lord Champion.)
§ LORD DERWENTMay I express the Government's view on this matter, and I hope that my noble friend in charge of the Bill will resist this Amendment. This Amendment would provide for the Minister of State for Education and Science to appoint two members of the Hairdressing Council. As originally introduced into the other place the Bill provided that a number of the Council's members should be appointed by various Ministers, including the Minister of Education. However, all reference in the Bill to Ministers was struck out in the Committee in the other place, and therefore if this Amendment were made the Minister of State for Education and Science would be the sole Minister with responsibilities under the Bill. This Amendment has not the consent of the present Minister of State; indeed, the Ministry have said that they have no interest in the Bill and do not wish to become implicated in the way a voluntary body like the Council conducts its affairs. This is clearly right. The removal of all ministerial responsibility for the activities of the Council was one of the chief conditions on which the Bill obtained its passage through the other place, and it would be quite unacceptable for the Government to go back on that arrangement.
§ EARL COWLEYI should like to resist this Amendment, and I would echo what my noble friend has said. Under the original Bill, of course, there were appeals to the Privy Council, there were references to Ministers and there were also certain penal provisions. These have now all gone. I think that if this Amendment were accepted the persons appointed by the Minister of State for the Department of Education and Science would be rather lonely on the Council at the present time. I would add that I think that the presence of two persons from any one Department would make the Council top-heavy. At the present time there are 15 people on it. Moreover, as the noble Lord said, there are courses at the L.C.C. and various Government institutes. I would therefore ask the noble Lord to withdraw his Amendment.
§ LORD CHAMPIONI am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Derwent, should have addressed me in those terms and in that tone. After all, I am merely trying to improve what is a very poor thing—this Bill. But, having had both of my Amendments turned down—at least, one turned down and the other rejected both by the Government and by the sponsor of the Bill in this House—I ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§
EARL COWLEY moved, in paragraph 1(1), to
leave out "nine" and insert "four".
§ The noble Earl said: In moving Amendment No. 16 I should also like to speak to Amendments Nos. 17, 18, 19 and 20. They are merely consequential upon deletions made to paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 in Committee in another place. The original intention was that the Hairdressing Council should consist of nine persons appointed by the employers' organisations, nine persons appointed by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers and nine ministerial nominees, of whom five were to be nominees of the Home Secretary. The ministerial appointments were intended to provide independent experts not directly connected with the trade. As a result of the Amendments made in another place, there are now to be no official nominees, and this raises the problem of how independent experts are 522 to be attached to the Council. At the same time the promoters of the Bill wish the independent element to be increased proportionately to the number of representatives of employers and employees.
§ The first need is to be met by providing for direct appointments to be made to the Council by the British Medical Association and by the Royal College of Physicians of London. These bodies have been approached by us, and have agreed to co-operate in this way. In addition to this, five other persons of experience and reputation in the fields of industry, commerce, administration, finance or law are to be appointed by the employers' and trade union elements on the Council. This will give a total of seven independent members. To achieve their second object—that is, to reduce the proportion of trade representatives in comparison with these outside experts—the promoters of the Bill have decided that the employers' organisations and the trade union should each now appoint only four members to the Council instead of the nine originally proposed. The full composition of the Council will, therefore, consist of fifteen persons, of whom eight will be trade representatives, equally divided between the two sides of the industry, and seven will be independent experts. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 7, leave out ("nine") and insert ("four").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEY: I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 10, leave out ("five") and insert ("two").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEY: I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 12, leave out ("four") and insert ("two").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEY: I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 14, leave out ("nine") and insert ("four").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§ Amendment moved—
§
Page 8, line 17, at end insert—
("(3) one person appointed by the President of the British Medical Association;
(4) one person appointed by the President of the Royal College of Physicians of London;
(5) five persons appointed (subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Schedule) by the members of the Council appointed under sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) of this paragraph from among persons appearing to them to have had wide experience of, and shown capacity in, industry, commerce, administration, finance, or the practice of the law, or to have, in some other respect, special knowledge or experience that would be of value to the Council in the exercise and performance of its functions.")—(Earl Cowley.)
§ LORD WILLIAMS OF BARNBURGHMay I ask the noble Earl what he meant when he said that the President of the British Medical Association, and presumably the President of the Royal College of Physicians of London, said that they were willing to co-operate? Did they represent the views of their respective associations; and did it seem clear to the noble Earl, if he had any personal contact with these gentlemen, that they were willing to appoint one of their members to this Council?
§ EARL COWLEYMay I answer the last question first? I have not had any personal contact with these two associations, but they were approached and asked whether they would be willing to appoint one of their number to this Council, and they both agreed to do so.
§ LORD WILLIAMS OF BARNBURGHHaving asked that question and obtained that answer, which I might suppose is very satisfactory, may I ask the noble Earl whether he seriously believes that a member of the British Medical Association will sit on this Council?
§ EARL COWLEYCertainly I do, if he is asked to do so.
§ LORD WILLIAMS OF BARNBURGHThe noble Earl is a great optimist.
§ 6.36 p.m.
§ EARL COWLEYAs paragraph 2 now stands, the trade representatives on the new Hairdressing Council would have to be registered by it before they could become members; yet until they have become members the Council will have no existence. The Amendment seeks to resolve this dilemma by making paragraph 2 provide, instead, that the first persons to be appointed as members of the Council should be registered by the existing Hairdressers' Registration Council, which it defines. By this means, paragraph 2 will become a transitional provision and will provide for continuity between the present Hairdressers' Registration Council and its statutory successor. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 24, leave out ("Hairdressing Council") and insert ("Hairdressers' Registration Council, that is to say, the company registered by that name under the Companies (Consolidation) Act 1908.").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment is intended to meet the difficulty of securing the first appointments of independent experts to the Hairdressing Council. There is no difficulty about the two experts to be appointed respectively by the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians of London. The other five, however, are to be appointed by the trade representatives on the Hairdressing Council who, under paragraph 5 of the Schedule, will not themselves come into office until the Council first meets, by which time all appointments to the Council are supposed to have been made. Since, for this reason, the trade representatives on the Hairdressing Council cannot act in the first appointment of independent experts, it is proposed that their functions on this occasion (and this only) should be assumed by the existing Hairdressers' Registration Council, as defined in the Amendment immediately preceding. I beg to move.
§ Amendment moved—
§ Page 8, line 24, at end insert—
§ ("(2) The persons first to be appointed in pursuance of sub-paragraph (5) of paragraph 1 of this Schedule shall be appointed by the Hairdressers' Registration Council from among persons appearing to it to have the qualifications mentioned in that sub-paragraph.")—(Earl Cowley.)
525§ EARL COWLEYIn moving Amendment No. 23, I should also like to speak to Amendment No. 24. These Amendments are consequential upon the reduction from nine to four in the number of appointments to be made to the Hair-dressing Council by each of the employers and union sides of the trade. The original intention was that, in each of the two groups of nine nominees, six should be persons engaged in ladies' hairdressing. With the groups now to be reduced in size, that is no longer possible, and the number of practising ladies' hairdressers comprised in them must now be reduced also. In fact, the reduction in their case has been disproportionate. Whereas they were previously to comprise two-thirds of the trade nominees, they will now comprise only one-half. But, as each side of the trade is now to make only four appointments, the only alternative would have been to increase their proportion to three-quarters, and we considered that excessive. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 29, leave out ("six of the nine") and insert ("not less than two of the")—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 32, leave out ("Six of the nine") and insert ("Not less than two of the")—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYIn moving Amendment No. 25, I should also like to speak to Amendment No. 32. The first Amendment removes that part of paragraph 5 which provides that members of the Hairdressing Council, though they have to be appointed in the first six months after the Bill is passed, do not actually come into office until the date of the Council's first meeting. This has been rendered unnecessary by the removal from the Bill in another place of a provision in the original paragraph 10 whereby the Home Secretary was to convene the first meeting of the Council. A consequence of the deletion of the Home Secretary's power to convene is that the members of the Council will have to arrange all their own business, and therefore their coming into office will have to coincide with their appointment to the Council. It also 526 follows that there is no longer any need for what is now left of paragraph 10. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 41, leave out from ("Act") to end of line 42.—(Earl Cowley.)
§
EARL COWLEY moved in sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 6, to leave out "appointed under paragraph 5" and to insert:
first appointed under sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) of paragraph 1".
The noble Earl said: In moving Amendment No. 26 I should like also to speak to Amendment Nos. 27, 28, 29 and 30. All these Amendments are concerned with the periods of office of members of the Hairdressing Council. The Bill as it stands provides that of the persons first appointed to the Hairdressing Council one-third shall retire at the end of the first year, one-third at the end of the second and the remainder at the end of the third. It is silent about the period of office of their successors, but it was presumably envisaged that the period should be one of three years. The Amendments apply the system of staggered retirements only to the trade representatives appointed to the Council and not to the independent members, who are to retire together after three years. As the number of trade representatives has now been reduced from nine to four on each of the employers' and the union sides—that is, to a total of eight—it is no longer possible in their case to provide for staggered retirements over a period of three years. Instead it is provided that a quarter should retire at the end of each year from 1965 to 1968. This implies that their successors should have a four year term of office, and provision is made accordingly. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 43, leave out ("appointed under paragraph 5") and insert the said new words.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 44, leave out ("one-third") and insert ("one-fourth").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 45, leave out ("and 1967") and insert ("1967 and 1968").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§ Amendment moved—
§
Page 8, line 45, at end insert—
(2) The term of office of the members subsequently appointed under those sub-paragraphs shall be four years.")—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§ Amendment moved—
§
Page 9, line 5, at end insert—
("7. The term of office of the members appointed under sub-paragraphs (3) to (5) of paragraph 1 of this Schedule shall be three years.")—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment is designed to remedy the wording of paragraph 7(2) which at present has the opposite effect of what it seems to intend. The sub-paragraph presumably wishes to achieve continuity of representation on the Council by providing for substitute appointments for the remnant of all offices falling vacant where the term of any vacant office has more than six months to run. The present wording has the effect of providing for substitution solely in those cases where the vacant office expires in less than six months. The Amendment will have the effect of allowing substitution no matter how long the term of the vacant office has to run.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 9, line 8, leave out from beginning to ("shall") in line 13 and insert—
(" .—(1) A person appointed to fill a casual vacancy among the members of the Council").—(Lord Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move formally.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 9, line 40, leave out paragraph 10.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment deals with the quorum of the Council and is consequential on the reduction in the number of members. Paragraph 12 of the Schedule has so far stood unaltered from the time when the Council was intended to consist of 27 members (nine ministerial nominees, nine representatives of the employers and (nine representatives of the trade union) and it was then thought that a quorum of nine—that is, one-third—would be appropriate. With the removal of the ministerial nominees and other alterations, the size of the Council has now been reduced to 15 members and it is in keeping with this that it is now proposed to reduce the quorum to five. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 9, line 46, leave out ("nine") and insert ("five").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ First Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
§ Schedule 2 [The Investigating and Disciplinary Committees]:
§ EARL COWLEYThis Amendment is designed to rectify the terminology of paragraph 1(1). There is no provision anywhere in the Bill for any board and therefore to give the paragraph proper effect the reference should be to the Council. The intention of the word "board" in the first place seems entirely due to too close a following of an analogous provision in the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act, 1960. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 10, line 9, leave out ("board") and insert ("Council").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 10, line 17, leave out ("disciplinary committees") and insert ("the disciplinary committee").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 10, line 40, leave out ("a") and insert ("the").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ EARL COWLEYI beg to move this Amendment formally.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 11, line 1, leave out ("a") and insert ("the").—(Earl Cowley.)
§ Second Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
§ The Title:
§ EARL COWLEYWith the removal of the requirement that registration shall be a condition of practising the hairdressing trade it is no longer correct to describe the Bill as one "to regulate the practice of hairdressing". I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
In the Title, line 1, leave out from ("hairdressers") to ("and") in line 2.—(Earl Cowley.)
§ House resumed.
§ Bill reported with Amendments.