HL Deb 02 March 1967 vol 280 cc1180-1

[The references are to Bill [166] as first printed for the Commons]

[Nos. 1–5]:

Clause 15, page 13, line 11, at end insert— ("(8) In this section 'the Minister', in relation to England means the Minister of Housing and Local Government and not the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.")

Clause 19, page 15, line 22, at end insert— ("(4) In subsection (3) above 'the Minister' in relation to England, means the Minister of Housing and Local Government and not the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.")

Clause 49, page 35, line 7, leave out from first ("Minister") to ("as") in line 8 and insert ("except as provided by sections 15(8) and 19(4) and Schedule 3, means the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.")

Schedule 3, page 41, line 21, at end insert— ("4. In this Schedule 'the Minister', in relation to England, means the Minister of Housing and Local Government and not the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.")

Schedule 6, page 47, line 33, at end insert ("or of Article 2 of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources (Dissolution) Order 1967 (which dissolved the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources and transferred its principal functions under the said Acts to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).")

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, unless any noble Lord disagrees, I propose to ask your Lordships to consider these five Commons Amendments together, because they all raise the same point, and I will then put them together to the House. This is not a case in which the Commons have made Amendments because they disagree with anything that your Lordships have done.

The common cause of these five Amendments is simply this. At the time when this Bill was before your Lordships' House we had a Ministry, to which we were all devoted, called the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. When this Ministry was constituted there were transferred to it certain functions relating to forestry, which had belonged to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and certain other functions, of a planning nature, which had been the concern of the Minister of Housing and Local Government. Those several functions were transferred to the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. Since the Bill was before your Lordships' House, that Ministry, amid general lamentations, has been dissolved, and the Dissolution Order accordingly re-transferred these functions to the two Ministries from which they had previously come. But that meant that this Bill, which is a Consolidation Bill of our Statute Law relating to forestry, was now inaccurate and no longer reflected the existing law. Accordingly, the sole purpose of these five Amendments is to put that right.

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 1 to 5.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendments Nos. 1 to 5.—(The Lord Chancellor.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.