– in the House of Commons at on 29 June 1939.
asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that cinema proprietors, in seeking to secure the necessary statutory steps to obtain a draft order for the opening of cinemas on Sundays, are promising the local authority to defray the costs of the necessary proceedings, and that some authorities have accepted the money; and whether he will make it clear to those authorities that it is illegal and against public policy for them to do so?
My right hon. Friend's attention has been drawn to one case in which any arrangement of the kind referred to by the hon. Member has been made. My right hon. Friend fully appreciates the objections to it. In his opinion the decision of the local authority to exercise its powers under the Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932, should be taken on public grounds, and should not be influenced by any offer on the part of interested persons to defray the cost. The question whether the arrangement is legal is not one which my right hon. Friend has any authority to determine, and he is not in a position to issue instructions to local authorities on the subject.
Is the hon. Member aware that the instructions which have been sent by the Home Office to one or two of these authorities have been taken as implying that they are within their legal rights in accepting these payments? Is it not obvious, therefore, that the acceptance of these payments must be regarded as an inducement to local authorities to do a thing which they otherwise would not do?
If that is so, then local authorities are under a misapprehension. I will look into the matter.
Is it possible to give some guidance to these local authorities, in view of the fact that if the action is illegal they may be surcharged?
I will note that point.