Part of Orders of the Day — Part Ii – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 May 1947.
Mr Reginald Manningham-Buller
, Daventry
12:00,
13 May 1947
My recollection of what took place in Committee was that we criticised the original Clause pretty strongly, because, as we pointed out then, it would enable the Minister to say that a local authority miles away should be responsible for the planning, for instance, of Plymouth. We are still not quite happy in regard to this Clause, and I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will be very sparing of the use of his powers under it. Nothing could promote greater fric- tion than the Minister suddenly directing that a part of Yorkshire should take over the planning of Lancashire or, indeed, that the Devon county council should take over the planning of the city of Ply-mouth.—[An HON. MEMBER: "There would be a revolution."] It might be that Lancashire should plan Yorkshire. What the result would then be, I do not know. Be that as it may, I hope the exercise of these powers will be used sparingly. I cannot help thinking that it would be better that the Minister should himself take over the duties, rather than run the risk of creating local hostility.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
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.
