Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 15 June 1933.
Mr Charles Milne
, Fife Western
I beg to move, in page 4, line 1, after the word "Act," to insert the words:
the following Sub-section shall be added after Sub-section (4): —
(5) The Secretary for Scotland shall as soon as possible cause a copy of every such recommendation to be sent to the petitioners and to any persons who have in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time objected to the proposed order; and.
The purpose of the Amendment is to supply an omission in the Act. When an Order is promoted, the promoters are required to furnish to the Secretary of State for Scotland a draft of the proposed Order, and copies of the draft have also to be sent to some Government Departments. If these Government Departments have any criticism to offer or any objection to take to the Order, they make their recommendations in a report to the Secretary of State. When the Order is opposed, Commissioners are appointed and they hold an inquiry, and the Act especially provides that these recommendations shall be placed before the Commission. Here is the defect which the Amendment seeks to repair. The Act fails to make any provision to secure that these reports shall be made available to the promoters and to any objectors that there may be. It has happened in the past that until an inquiry has actually commenced the promoters or the objectors, or both, may be entirely ignorant of some objection or some criticism made by a Government Department and, had they known of it in good time, it may well be that they would have collected evidence and been able to satisfy the tribunal that the criticism was unfounded. In a Court of Law the ordinary rules of procedure require that all documents shall be made available to the parties
well in advance of the hearing. I am told that the Scottish Office have lately adopted the laudable practice of making these reports available, but it is merely a matter of indulgence. They do it ex gratia. The Amendment confers a statutory right upon the parties to have these reports sent to them.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
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During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
