General Duties and Powers of National Ports Authority, and Adaptation of Powers of Other Bodies

Part of Clause 6 – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 28 April 1970.

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Mr. Geoffrey Wilson:

I support Amendment No. 12, with proposes that the National Ports Authority shall only engage in activities under Section 48 of the Transport Act, 1968, if an order approving it has been approved by this House.

I served on the Committee which dealt with the Transport Act, 1968. Section 48 of that Act gives wide manufacturing powers to the nationalised industries. I will not repeat all the arguments that were deployed then, but it is an exceptionally wide section. I observed at the time that it was so wide that it was comparable to the powers given to the South Africa Company, which Cecil Rhodes described as giving the South Africa Company power to do everything except to make war. Those are the kind of wide powers proposed in the Bill to be given to the National Ports Authority.

This matter was debated in Committee where it was pointed out that the British Transport Docks Board already had powers of a similar nature. On 5th February I asked the Minister a question to which he was kind enough to give me an answer which did not satisfy the point I wanted to know about. I asked: As a matter of interest, has the British Transport Docks Board as existing made any use of Section 48? It would seem a most redundant provision? The Minister replied: Often when dealing with suppliers one cannot get reasonable terms in a contract, and there is then the possibility that one might manufacture for oneself."—[OFFICIAL REPORT,Standing Committee D, 5th February, 1970; c. 212.] He pointed out that there had been no abuse of these powers and that what had been feared had not materialised.

That is all very well, but to give powers to a nationalised industry simply to wave about as a threat in order to get good terms in a contract seems to me to be going much beyond what is necessary. If manufacturing powers of a wide nature are necessary to the National Ports Authority I should have thought it was reasonable enough for it to come and ask the House of Commons for such powers; and our Amendment proposes just that —that powers should be included in the Bill in the form in which they are in the Transport Act, 1968. That provision would give the nationalised industry power to do absolutely anything, but it should be restricted so that these powers shall not be used until the approval of this House has been sought and given.

It seems to me that that would give the National Ports Authority an opportunity to ask for any particular powers it wanted, and covers the point made by an hon. Gentleman opposite, that in Manchester certain powers are now being used which are of assistance to users of the Port of Manchester. If any particular powers are wanted by any section of the subsidiary of the National Ports Authority, or the authority itself, it is easy enough for application to be made to this House and an order approving the proposal could come before the House. We should then know what we are doing and that we are not giving an open cheque to the nationalised industry to do absolutely anything it likes and to claim that it is doing so under powers under Section 48 of the Transport Act, 1968.