I beg to move, That the Cotton Industry Development Council (Amendment No. 5) Order, 1964, a draft of which was laid before this House on 25th March, be approved. This draft Order further amends the Cotton Industry Development Council Order, 1948.

The House will be aware that the Cotton Board was established by this Order as a Development Council under the Industrial Organisation and Development Act, 1947, which enables it to finance its activities by statutory levy. For a number of years it has carried out important and valuable activities on behalf of the cotton industry—the improvement of design, productivity, research, exports—and has played a major part in negotiations with Commonwealth countries over the limitation of exports of low-cost textiles to Britain.

The Cotton Board was entrusted with the administration of the Government's schemes for the reorganisation and re-equipment of the industry under the Cotton Industry Act, 1959. It has recently been designated, under the Industrial Training Act of 1964, as the appropriate body to act as a training board for the cotton industry.

Since its inception, users of man-made fibres as well as cotton in the Lancashire textile industry have been formally covered by the scope of the Cotton Board, but until 1961 no levy was paid in respect of man-made fibre activities nor were the more important functions of the Cotton Board carried out in relation to them. In 1961, however, as a result of the fusion of the separate research associations for cotton and rayon into the Cotton, Silk and Man-Made Fibres Research Association (the Shirley Institute) man-made fibre activities were included within the scope of the Cotton Board so far as the promotion of research was concerned and appropriate financial arrangements made to this end.

This move reflected the increasine tendency for the cotton and man-made fibre activities of the Lancashire industry to become intermingled. Most firms now process man-made fibre as well as cotton in varying proportions. This development has also been reflected by the merger of the separate trade associations in the industry which had previously represented cotton and manmade fibre interests.

The Government therefore feel that the time has now come to complete the process begun in 1961 by bringing manmade fibre activities under the scope of the Cotton Board pari passu with cotton activities. This is the main purpose of the present Order.

The opportunity is also being taken to include within the scope of the Cotton Board certain activities in relation to silk which are analogous to the activities covered by the Board in relation to man-made fibres and cotton. Nearly all firms which process silk also process, to a much greater extent, manmade fibres and the change is being carried out at the request of the organisations representing the firms concerned.

As required by the Act, the representative organisations and trade unions concerned have been consulted and have consented to the changes proposed in the Order.

To avoid misunderstanding, it should be explained that there has been no change in the textile processes which are covered by the Order. They remain—as they have always been—spinning, doubling, weaving, finishing and converting. There is no question of extending these to include such processes as knitting, garment making, etc. Thus, firms not already within the scope of the Cotton Board will not be brought within it apart from a few marginal cases where silk is concerned.

The necessary amendments are contained in Schedule I of the draft Order (pages 2–4). Schedule II (pages 4–16) sets out, for the convenience of all concerned, a fully amended version of the principal Order.

The amendments will not in themselves affect the total amount of levy raised at present from the whole industry, but there will be some adjustments in the actual payments for individual firms in accordance with their proportionate usage of cotton, manmade fibres and silk. For most firms there will be little change, but for those firms which process substantially more man-made fibres than cotton the increase in levy payments will be greater. The firms predominantly using man-made fibres will, of course, be able as a result of this draft Order to make full use of all the services of the Cotton Board in the same way as the firms which predominantly process cotton.

The upper limit on levies which may be raised under the Order remains fixed at £525,000 per annum as laid down in a previous amendment. There is also no change in the constitutional functions of the Cotton Board as they already exist.

The amendment requires an affirmative Resolution of both Houses. This Resolution has already been passed in Another place.