LATE NIGHT REFRESHMENT HOUSES BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 22 April 1969)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. This is a small Consolidation Bill under the 1949 Act, and it is accompanied by the usual Memorandum by me explaining why it is desirable to make five corrections or minor improvements within the terms of that Act. I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time.

§ LORD BROOKE OF CUMNOR
My Lords, it may surprise some of your Lordships to find that I am interested in the subject of this Bill. I would hasten to point out that late night refreshment houses are by statutory definition nonalcoholic. I think the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor will agree that there are at present three Refreshment Houses Acts on the Statute Book, and it so happens that, in different capacities, I was responsible for piloting two of them through Parliament. I therefore feel rather as though two of my children are about to be done away with by this new Consolidation Bill. Those three Acts were passed in the years 1860, 1964 and 1967, so I shall leave your Lordships to conjecture for which two of the three I was responsible.
I welcome the proposal that the law on this subject should be consolidated, and also that these places of refreshment should be given a more logical name. The only comment I wish to make at this stage is that I hope the Joint Select Committee, to which this Bill will presumably be referred, will consider whether Clause 4 of the Consolidation Bill would not be more meaningful if it were to follow Clause 5 rather than to precede it.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I am sure that after what the noble Lord, Lord Brooke of Cumnor, has said the Committee will pay special attention to the point which he has mentioned. It is of course one of the advantages of this procedure that anybody can read the Memorandum and make any representations he likes direct to the Committee.