§ 75 Schedule 2, page 81, leave out lines 15 to 17.
§ 76 Schedule 2, page 82, leave out lines 30 to 33 and insert"15,000 gross tons".
§ 77 Schedule 2, page 83, line 43, leave out "except in the case of a warship".
§ 78 Schedule 2, page 84, line 5, leave out from "registered" to end of line 9.
§ The Commons disagreed to these Amendments for the following Reason:
§ 79 Because it is important that the warship-building companies referred to in these Amendments should come into public ownership.
1247§ 8.27 p.m.
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lord, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendments Nos. 75, 76, 77 and 78, to which the Commons have disagreed, for their Reason numbered 79. Throughout the passage of this Bill the Government's position on this issue has been made clear many times. These warship builders, who in the Government's view are successful largely because they are major Government contractors, form an important part of the shipbuilding industry, employing about 20,000 people out of some 70,000 people in shipbuilding as a whole. The Government consider that it would be illogical that those yards which are most dependent on Government orders should not vest in British Shipbuilders. Leaving the warship builders outside the scope of this Bill would be inimical to rational planning. We must not forget that other companies as well as the three specialists builders have warship building capability. As I said at the last stage of the Bill in your Lordships House, although it remains Government defence policy increasingly to concentrate warship orders on the three specialist yards, it has always been acknowledged that it will be necessary to place orders with other yards from time to time.
Companies such as Swan Hunter Shipbuilders, Scott Lithgow and Cammell Laird have significant warship orders. To split warship building between British Shipbuilders and the three specialist firms would be against the best interests of the industry as a whole and those who work in it. I hope that for these reasons noble Lords will not insist on these Amendments. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist on the said Amendments, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 79.—(Lord Melchett.)
Lord CAMPBELL of CROYMy Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Melchett, has said, the Government have debated this subject several times in your Lordships' House and we have given the reasons why we thought it wrong that the three specialist warship building firms should be nationalised and I shall not rehearse those reasons now. We believe that including these three companies will be detrimental to their interests and to their 1248 effective functioning. We greatly regret that the Government have not accepted these Amendments and that they have come back from another place. I would have hoped that the Government would accept them and thereby give a boost to British industry where specialist building of warships is concerned.