§ 3.21 p.m.
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, SCOTTISH OFFICE (BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time. The Bill is purely a consolidation measure and applies only to Scotland. However, because it is so large I think I should draw your Lordships' attention to two points.
First, the Rent Acts have almost always applied both to England and Wales and to Scotland, an arrangement which always leads to complicated Scottish application sections. Our predecessors, wisely, I am glad to say, separated the English and Scottish legislation, and the Rent Acts for England were consolidated in the Rent Act 1968. This Bill also consolidates all or parts of no fewer than 24 Statutes extending back over 50 years. While the consolidation will be a convenience to your Lordships and the Members of another place, the greatest benefit will, I am sure, be to the legal profession in Scotland. They will 239 now have within a single Statute the whole of the Rent Acts as they apply to Scotland. I commend the Bill to your Lordships for approval. If it is given a Second Reading it will go in the usual way to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills.
§ LORD HUGHESMy Lords, I wish to intervene very briefly. I have a strong suspicion that if the Election had resulted otherwise I should have been presenting an identical Bill. I only express the hope that this will not be the only occasion when the noble Baroness, the Minister of State, will get up to recognise the wisdom of what was done by her predecessors.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and referred to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills.