Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Ebrill 1955.
I think that as a Treasury Minister I had better not be led into decimal currency at this hour of the night.
The hon. Member for Clapham (Mr. Gibson) asked about the Rating and Valuation Bill. He and I share a common interest in local government, but we are today dealing with private Members' time and Private Members' Bills, and no doubt the Leader of the House will, on a future occasion, make a statement about Government business. The whole House will, I think, regret that, on what may be a unique occasion, when my hon. Friend the Member for Hertfordshire, South-West (Mr. G. Longden) has been successful in the Ballot on two successive occasions for bringing private Members' Motions forward on Fridays, although he got the first one, he will, under this procedural Motion, lose his second one. I had the duty and pleasure of replying for the Government on the first one. I believe that I might have escaped replying on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, but, in any case, I feel that even he will agree that he has had his fair share.
As regards paragraph (b) of the Motion, I believe that there is no precedent for it, and I should hate to be the one to urge upon the House that it should take action that in any way curtails debate on finance, which not only in my official position but according to my personal predelictions I consider the House ought to treat with the utmost care. Erskine May, in page 674, states:
In the case of motions and bills of a financial character the ancient practice of the House prescribed the rule that not more than one stage should be taken on a single day.… The effect of the standing orders concerned with this matter has been to reduce the rigidity of the rule by abolishing some of the intervals required by practice.
The interval between the two stages of a Ways and Means Resolution preceding a Finance Bill has, so far as I am aware, never previously been shortened in this way. On the other hand, it is only in the last seven years or so that our standing Orders have been altered to preclude debate on the Report stage of such a Ways and Means Resolution. Therefore, paragraph (b) of the Motion in no way interferes with the rights of the House to debate. It only provides that the Report stage may be taken on the same day as the Committee stage. That, of course, is purely for the convenience of the House because otherwise it would not be possible for the Finance Bill to be brought in and made available to hon. Members before this week end.
Finally, there is paragraph (c) of the Motion, which is designed to restore the wartime practice under which it was possible to put down Amendments to Bills before they had had a Second Reading. Again, this paragraph is presented wholly for the convenience of the House in order that the opportunity to put down Amendments may not be confined to the period between the Second Reading of the Finance Bill next week and the time when the House goes into Committee on that Bill. The text of the Bill has already been published as a White Paper, and, if the Motion is agreed to, it will be possible for hon. Members to put down Amendments at an earlier stage than would otherwise have been possible.
The right hon. Member for South Shields raised questions about the scope of the Bill and the type of Amendments that will be in order. I am bound to point out that this Motion is without prejudice to what Amendments to the Bill may or may not be in order. In that sense it imposes no restriction whatever. It merely widens the time during which Amendments can be put down. Whether a particular Amendment is in order is entirely a matter for the Chairman of Ways and Means. It would be wholly wrong for any member of the Government to seek to express an opinion on that, and I would have said that the Chairman of Ways and Means himself could hardly have given his opinion until the Amendment was on the Order Paper. This procedural Motion will expedite the time when Amendments can be put down.
If the right hon. Gentleman is still concerned about this, let me remind him that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his Budget speech, in no way ruled out the possibility of another Finance Bill later in the year. The right hon. Gentleman said that he welcomed the idea of an Election. I presume from that that he, however vainly, hopes to win the Election. If he wins it, there will then be freedom for him and his right hon. Friends to bring in a Finance Bill containing whatever Clauses they like. I think that that is the possible scope for action which is open to him after the Election. As to what is available between now and then, let me assure him that by agreeing to this procedural Motion, he will in no way be restricting the number of Amendments that will be found to be in order.