§ Mr. John Fraserasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will make a statement about the circumstances in which an unsigned memorandum on the units of measurement directive 5247/79 was placed by his officials in the Vote Office at 8pm on 19 December 1979; and why it was not signed.
§ Mrs. Sally OppenheimThe memorandum was a simple factual note explaining a small change that had occurred in the text of this draft directive as a consequence of the Government's successful negotiations in respect of an existing EEC directive on the same subject.
309WDirective 76 / 770 / EEC, which was debated and approved by the House on 7 July 1976, required that a number of imperial units should cease to be authorised after 31 December 1979. In our view this was an unacceptable arrangement in the case of three units—the yard, square yard and therm—so I sought and obtained EEC agreement for these to continue in use in the United Kingdom. Since draft directive 5247/79 contains a tabulated list of the common imperial units whose future does not have to be reviewed before the end of 1989, that list had consequently to be extended to include the three additional units.
These were relatively minor amendments to a rather lengthy document, which were to be explained in debate by the Government spokesman. But on further consideration of the form of the motion it was thought that it would be helpful to the House if a short memorandum, describing these beneficial amendments were placed in the Vote Office at the earliest possible hour. In view of the particular circumstances, it was considered at officiallevel that there was no procedural requirement for the memorandum to be signed.
It is often a matter of fine judgment whether an explanatory memorandum should be provided to the House for a debate on EEC legislation where minor technical amendments—such as in this case those relating to scientific definitions of the candela and the sievert—have been made since the Select Committee's recommendation. Where such memoranda relating to more substantial amendments are provided, I have given instructions that in future they are to be signed by a Minister.