§ [Nos. 3 and 4]
§ Clause 3, page 5, line 9, at end insert—
§ ("(6) In any case in which the Corporation is in competition with any private company operating in the energy sector the provisions of this and the next succeeding subsection shall have effect for the purposes of securing that such competition is fair.
§ (7) Neither the Treasury nor the Secretary of State nor any other Minister nor local authority nor any public corporation conducted wholly or in part under national ownership or control shall, or shall counsel, procure or incite others to discriminate unfairly as between the Corporation and a petroleum company operating in the private sector in competition 1761 with each other in favour of the Corporation, whether in respect of the terms of any loan, or any contracts, the making available of land, buildings or equipment, the granting of contracts, the prices and other terms for supplies or purchases of petroleum, goods or services or otherwise howsoever. For the purposes of determining whether discrimination is unfair, regard may be had not only to the economic but also to the social consequences of any matter.
§ (8) No criminal proceedings shall lie against any person on grounds that he has committed, or aided, abetted, counselled or procured the commission of or conspired or attempted to commit or incited others to commit any contravention of this section. But any person who suffers or apprehends that he will suffer any loss or damage by reason of any such contravention may bring civil proceedings in respect of such contravention or an apprehended contravention whether for an injunction or interdict or for the recovery of the full amount of the loss or damage or for any other appropriate relief or for any two or more of them.")
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment for the following Reason:
§ Because it would unduly inhibit the operations of the British National Oil Corporation.
§ Lord BALOGHMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 3 to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 4. I hope that your Lordships will acknowledge that, though moving this Amendment, we do not insist on it. I am not in any way going back on the many undertakings and assurances about the commercial behaviour of BNOC. Once more, I categorically and firmly assert that BNOC, especially if it goes downstream, will act in a perfectly honourable commercial manner, as is expected from a great oil corporation.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 3 to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 4.—(Lord Balogh.)
Lord CAMPBELL of CROYMy Lords, briefly, may I say that naturally one is grateful to the noble Lord for giving that assurance; but can the Government guarantee that there will be no discrimination against other companies in favour of BNOC, without this Amendment being in the Bill? I note that it is stated that the objection is that the operations of BNOC would be unduly inhibited. It is difficult to think of examples where this Amendment, had it been added to the Bill, would have unduly restricted the operation of BNOC. Can the noble Lord, Lord Balogh, give 1762 us any examples and give a guarantee that there will not be discrimination?
§ Lord BALOGHMy Lords, I can certainly give the noble Lord the guarantee that there will be no discrimination. But it seems to me that if noble Lords insisted on their Amendment this might result in extreme delays and various law suits, and interpretation of this Amendment would be extremely difficult. I therefore do not think that your Lordships should insist on it. Rather the contrary. The BNOC would be a sub-commercial enterprise if this Amendment is put through. Again, if it is asked to carry out services for the Government which another oil company could carry out, this too could be open to challenge, although we have always made it clear that it is the intention that BNOC should acton behalf of the Government. Inasmuch as the Amendment seeks to ensure that BNOC behaves commercially we have no objection to it, but it goes far further than that and therefore I hope that noble Lords will not insist on this Amendment.
§ Lord LLOYD of KILGERRANMy Lords, may I say briefly that I thank the noble Lord for the further concession he has made and for the assurance he has given to the House this evening.