COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 30 October 1975)

§ Lord LOVELL-DAVIS

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 8. If I may, I should like to speak to No. 37 at the same time. I do not think I need to go into a great deal of detail. We have already had such discussion in both Houses on the Agency's function, to carry on industrial undertakings and to establish and carry on new industrial undertakings", which has now, happily, been reinstated in the Bill. These Amendments are consequential. Now that that function has been put back into the Bill, I am sure that noble Lords opposite will perforce accept that the reinsertion of the references in these Amendments are consequential in this direction also. There are, of course, parallel Amendments in the Scottish Development Bill and in the Industry Bill. My Lords, I beg to move.

Lord CAMPBELL of CROY

My Lords, we recognise that, having decided to revert to the original text and put back into the Bill the power of the Agency to establish companies in competition with private firms in Wales, the Government would wish to give the Agency the power to form bodies corporate. But, again, from this side of the House I must make it clear that we do not think this is the best way of helping forward industry in Wales. We think it likely to cause loss of confidence in the Agency. Certainly when the Amendments were made in this House to the two Development Agency Bills we could see the reaction in industry in this country to the effect that this was an improvement and that the Agency were going to be less of a threatening, overpowering body, and more of a body to help them and to help them be efficient.