LORDS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 4 August 1975)

§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH
My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 2 to the Lords Amendment No. 1. I think it will be for the convenience of the House if I also deal with Amendments Nos. 3 and 4. The Amendments made in another place have the effect of securing the substance of the Amendments made to the Bill by your Lordships' House while removing their undesirable and inconvenient side effects. The intention of your Lordships' House was to require that the first and main set of regulations should be subject to Affirmative Resolution by both Houses of Parliament.
The Government had not thought the Affirmative Resolution procedure was essential in these circumstances. But we fully accept the desirability of there being ample discussion and consideration before the main regulations under this Bill are made, and the Government have there 1316 fore agreed to the Bill being amended so that these regulations will require an Affirmative Resolution by each House. However, the Amendments made by your Lordships' House were not only technically defective, but they also prevented Clause 13 (the clause designed to give immediate assistance to the voluntary organisations and other bodies at present operating lotteries under Section 45 of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963) from being brought into operation before the rest of the Bill. The Amendments which have been made in another place, and which I now commend to your Lordships while securing the Affirmative Resolution procedure for the main regulations, will enable Clauses 13 and 14 and the consolidation Amendments to be brought into operation before the regulations have been made. But the Bill in this form will prevent the principal provisions of the Bill, which depend on Clause 1, being brought into operation until the regulations have been approved in draft and made. I beg to move.

§ Earl COWLEY
My Lords, I should like to thank the Government and the other place for accepting the substance of the Amendment of this House to require the Secretary of State to lay regulations before both Houses for Affirmative Resolution. I think it is an important item in the Bill. The powers under Clause 10 are extremely wide and I am glad that the Government and another place have accepted the wisdom and the arguments in favour of having the Affirmative Resolution procedure applied to Clause 10.
I also think that the Commons Amendments are a good compromise between the original Amendments put forward by this House and the need to bring in Clause 13 as soon as possible. Since the Government argued, when these clauses were debated in this House, that Clause 13 was of paramount importance and needed to be brought in urgently, perhaps the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Greenwich, could give me a date when the Government hope to bring this clause into effect. I realise that many consultations are needed before any of the draft 1317 regulations will be brought before either House; but could the noble Lord give any idea of the time-scale which is envisaged for these draft regulations to be brought before each House? We on this side do not like this Bill, but the Affirmative Resolution procedure makes it slightly more palatable and it gives both Houses some control over its future operation.

Viscount MONCK
My Lords, as your Lordships know, I can never read Parliamentary language, and before the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Greenwich, replies, I should like, if possible, to get this clear. In the Commons Amendment, which seems extremely sensible, it is proposed as follows:
"Line 2, leave out from ('19(5)') to the end and insert…"
The only place I can find "19(5)" is in line 3 in Clause 18. May I ask whether "Line 2" is correct?

§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH
My Lords, perhaps I might deal with the noble Earl's points first and then later with the noble Viscount's point. Clause 13 will be brought into effect quite soon, and I will let the noble Earl know the precise date. I fear that I cannot at the moment give him any indication of the time-scale for the remainder because, as he indicated, there will need to be discussions with the local authority associations and others. Obviously, we shall do it as soon as possible.
Referring to the noble Viscount's point, the Amendment here referred to is the Amendment to the Lords Amendment No. 1; so one has to look at the Amendment and not at the Bill.