Part of Business of the House – in the House of Commons at 12:30 am on 6 May 1980.
Mr Nigel Spearing
, Newham South
12:30,
6 May 1980
I am grateful to the Minister for that technical explanation, which I understand and accept. He referred to Clause 1(3). I may not have heard the amounts related to payments to the National Dock Labour Board, which is not then in respect of employees of the PLA, or those whom it inherited. I have no doubt that there are a few, and therefore I think that the Minister is technically correct, although once again, for reasons of a quirk of history, people will no doubt equate one with the other, because most of the moneys go via the accounts of the PLA, and most of the rest of the Bill applies to it.
But, because of what the Minister has said, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.
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.
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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.
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