Orders of the Day — Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:52 pm on 19 January 1982.

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Photo of Mr Merlyn Rees Mr Merlyn Rees , Leeds South 4:52, 19 January 1982

The point that I am making is that the powers are there but that in order to come back to the House of Commons, the Bill provides a negative order. We have heard about Britoil and the trading company today. That is not in the Bill. We shall not be able to make amendments on those matters. We shall have to find ways of making safeguards, although I cannot see how that can be done when the subject is not mentioned in the Bill but was mentioned on the Floor of the House on Second Reading and in the briefings to the press. We shall not be able to debate those major proposals properly in Committee.

The Secretary of State said that BNOC would be split two ways. Should we not see the communication that I understand was sent to the Secretary of State by the whole board of directors of BNOC? It said that the solution put forward by the Government would maximise the EEC threat to participation, assure the inefficiency of the trading operation, which would have less access to technical operating expertise, make difficult the retention of qualified staff and expose the trading company to heavy trading losses. That is a damning indictment of what the Government have put forward. We should know about that assessment and not just deal with it on the surface. The board of directors may be wrong but the House should know what it said. The members of that board were appointed by the Conservative Party.