§ 75. Mr. Awberyasked the Minister of Transport if the advisory panel of the National Ports Council will visit all the ports referred to in the Rochdale Report; whether its terms of reference include the power to vary any of the recommendations made; and to what extent local authorities, dock companies and other bodies directly affected by the changes suggested will be invited to give evidence before legislation is introduced.
§ Mr. MarplesThe Council itself will decide what inquiries it makes, and by what means, but I have no doubt that before it makes considered recommendations about major matters affecting particular ports, some of the members of the Council will have visited the ports concerned and appropriate bodies will have been consulted.
The Rochdale Committee recommended that the National Port Authority (or Council, as the Government has decided to call it) should examine the future of all major ports. The Government having accepted this recommendation, the passages about individual ports 73W in the Rochdale Report should now be regarded as a preliminary contribution to this examination, and the Council is in no way bound by them. The legislation at present contemplated will be of a general nature, and will not be directed towards individual ports or harbours.