HL Deb 11 October 1990 vol 522 cc413-4

3.34 p.m.

Lord Williams of Elvel

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time.

I shall be as brief as possible because there is business to be done in your Lordships' House this afternoon and I do not wish to detain noble Lords.

As I explained on Report, the Bill is an attempt to ensure that the undertaking that was given at Second Reading by the Government to your Lordships on 22nd March 1990 at col. 413 of the Official Report to provide that, for a transitional period, additional and separate compensation will be payable to tenants of on-licensed premises to which the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1954 Part II will apply because of the Bill, and where the landlord wishes to use them as on-licensed premises himself", could be achieved. This is the method that I chose to ensure that that was so.

I say that it is an attempt because, as I again explained on Second Reading, I have no particular pride in my drafting. I was hoping very much that in the Summer Recess the Government would take up the Bill and amend it in a proper fashion to make it technically correct and to put it into the proper words as they indicated that they would do.

I hope, with the approval of your Lordships, that the Bill will now go to another place. I believe that the Government should take it up in another place, amend it as appropriate in another place and bring it back to your Lordships. If that happens, I shall only reiterate the commitment that I have given to your Lordships: that so far as concerns myself, my noble friends, my right honourable friends and honourable friends in another place, we shall give the Bill, with the appropriate amendments—providing that they meet the Government's undertaking—a fair wind. We shall co-operate. We shall do everything possible to get it through.

With that assurance, I hope very much that the Government accept my invitation. I hope that they will take up the Bill in another place and bring it back to your Lordships with appropriate amendments from the Commons which will be taken on the nod. I beg to move.

Moved, That the Bill be now read a third time—(Lord Williams of Elvel).

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I hope that your Lordships will allow me to say a few words in support of the Bill. I am afraid that the noble Lord, Lord Williams, is right. I gave the undertaking to which the noble Lord referred. It was a matter of very great regret to me that in the event it was not found possible to honour it in the way that I should have wished.

I recognise that a number of difficulties of a very serious technical nature arose that made the question of honouring the undertaking especially complex. Nonetheless, in so far as the noble Lord's Bill meets the undertaking that I gave, I hope that the Government will find time to facilitate its passage through the other place.

The Viscount of Falkland

My Lords, on behalf of these Benches perhaps I may say how much we appreciate the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, rising to speak on this occasion. We feel that he was put in an impossible position, but I am sure that he would not allow himself to agree with me. However, we felt that he was put in such a position. An experienced noble Lord with his knowledge of procedure in the House would not have put himself in that position if he had known that the undertaking that he gave would not be honoured.

Having said that, we echo exactly what has been said by the noble Lord, Lord Williams of Elvel. We shall support the Bill. My colleagues in another place will support the Bill so far as they can in the hope that it will have a swift passage.

The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Hesketh)

My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for raising the problems and difficulties to which he referred earlier. As the noble Lord, Lord Williams, is aware, the Government are not intending in any way to oppose the Bill.

Lord Williams of Elvel

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, for his intervention. If I may say so, it was an extremely honourable intervention as one would expect from the noble Lord who has always shown himself to be the soul of honour. I am grateful and I believe that the House, too, will be grateful for that.

I very much hope that the Government will take the noble Lord's advice. The Government have made a commitment to your Lordships and the Government should honour it.

Bill read a third time, and passed, and sent to the Commons.