§ 3.10 p.m.
§ Read a third time.
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, I beg to move that the Bill do now pass.
§ Moved, That the Bill do now pass.—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.]
§ Lord Lloyd of KilgerranMy Lords, as the Minister has had such a busy afternoon so far, I am delighted to be able to issue nothing but praise to him and to his officials for the way in which they have conducted this Bill through its various stages in this House. I am also pleased to say that I have been able to persuade the Government to allow about 12 amendments to the Bill. Some of them are minor amendments but many of them will be of use to industry in helping to create wealth and in saving legal costs.
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran, for his remarks. I am sure that the House will join me when I say that the joint effort on the part of the noble Lord and the Government has produced this reasonably satisfactory solution this afternoon.
Lord Bruce of DoningtonMy Lords, we, for our part, would like to offer our felicitations to the noble Lord on having piloted this Bill through so smoothly. We noted with some anticipation that the Government showed sufficient flexibility in this instance to agree to no fewer than 12 amendments which emanated from the noble Lord, Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran. We sincerely hope that this is an omen for future Bills, possibly of a rather more important and significant nature, and not excluding the one which will go into Committee after these deliberations have finished.
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, for his remarks, and I am grateful to him for what he was able to do during the passage of this Bill, which he suggested himself on Second Reading might be controversial. Undoubtedly its passage was due to his assistance in moving that controversy into an area with which we shall deal much, much later.
As regards other Bills which may come before your Lordships' House and in which both I and the noble Lord may be involved after the Whitsun Recess, I am quite sure that all your Lordships will agree that we shall have to deal with the matter when those Bills come to this House.
§ On Question, Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.