Clause 66 - Miners' welfare institutes
Licensing Bill [Lords]
Public Bill Committees, 29 April 2003, 4:00 pm
Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight, Conservative)
I was interested to hear the exchange between the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Fareham because an opportunity may be being missed to draw on the experience of miners' welfare institutes, the details of which I was unaware. In some communities, commercial organisations, businesses, engineering firms and others run similar clubs and organisations for their staff and sometimes for former staff. In my constituency, the GKN Westland club was an example but, sadly, it closed down recently. However, as I understand it, the principal distinction between the institutions referred to in clause 66 and those referred to in clauses 62 to 64 is their government the Minister will tell me if I am wrong—and the fact that they are managed in part by the employers and in part by the members, employees or people acting on their behalf. That does not seem to be a system that is unique to miners' welfare institutes.