Bill Cash: I wish to complete the story by explaining that I have some knowledge of this because I drafted the Bill in question.
Bill Cash: To bring matters a little more up to date, does the hon. Lady accept that, of the 10,381 cases which went to hearing, 68 per cent. were dismissed, showing that there was no real substance in the cases?
Bill Cash: I welcome the Bill, with some reservations. I shall confine my remarks to part II, which deals with licensed conveyancing, and at the outset I declare my interest. I am a solicitor, and for about 10 years I have been a legal adviser to the Institute of Legal Executives. I played some part in the preparation of evidence to the Farrand committee. I am also a legal adviser to the Society of...
Bill Cash: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Bill Cash: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Bill Cash: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement and on the Green Paper, which represents a landmark in responsible government. Will he explain more precisely how he will protect widows? Will they receive the 7 per cent. increase that has been allowed for everyone else? He was not entirely specific on that point.
Bill Cash: The Dooge report states at page 26: When a Member State considers that its very important interests are at stake, the discussion should continue until unanimous agreement is reached. The footnote states that my hon. Friend the Minister considers that, in order to prevent abuse, a member of the Council insisting that discussion should continue in this way should, through a special procedure of...
Bill Cash: The hon. Gentleman referred to alliance policy. He may recall that not long ago the right hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. Owen), referring to the use of the veto, urged the Prime Minister to give an assurance that in no circumstances would the Government ever get into a position in which they failed to use it when to do so was necessary. Against that background, how does the hon....
Bill Cash: Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that a serious problem arose in the late 1940s under the Labour Government—I do not criticise them for this—in what the Town and Country Planning Acts tended to stifle and over-regulate? Should we not be seriously considering ways and means of enabling the areas to which the right hon. Gentleman referred to develop domestically based jobs within homes...
Bill Cash: It is important to maintain proper and reasonably balanced levels of health and safety standards, but will the right hon. Gentleman accept that the examples that he has given fall within a period when health and safety legislation has been in force? Therefore, a significant number of the accidents to which he referred, regrettable as they are, may have occurred in circumstances which were...
Bill Cash: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, under the community programme and the youth training scheme, the same sort of opportunities are open to people to be employed as are available through the enterprise boards, at an amount less than that paid to those on the dole? Does he not want to encourage that?
Bill Cash: I welcome the debate on small firms and propose to speak briefly and mainly on attitudes, objectives and reasons and to give examples of and make comparisons with small firms in Britain and abroad. Until the Conservative party won the general election in 1979, Britain had lost the will and the feel for enterprise. We had lost the opportunity to develop the ethos of enterprise which lies at...
Bill Cash: Will the hon. Gentleman explain how he squares what he has just been saying with the statement made recently by the right hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. Owen), when he asked my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary to assure the House that we would continue to use the veto in all circumstances?
Bill Cash: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on her pragmatic and balanced approach to the Milan conference. Lest the voters of Brecon and Radnor have not taken note of it, does she accept that the alliance is indeed in significant disarray over the use of the veto in Europe in that the right hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. Owen) insists upon the use of the veto even to the point of...
Bill Cash: rose——
Bill Cash: My right hon. and learned Friend mentioned consumer protection, but he did not mention competence. In the context of estate agents providing conveyancing services at present practised by solicitors, does he agree that competence is extremely important, and that it is difficult to ensure that an estate agent will be competent to provide such legal services?
Bill Cash: I beg to move, That the clause he read a Second time. I am deeply worried that we may be moving towards concentrating economic power in the hands of lending institutions. The new clause relates to part II of the Bill, which to a certain extent anticipates the building societies legislation that we expect next year. To prevent anticompetitive practices and monopolies or their development in...
Bill Cash: I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend for the clarity of his reply. I am glad to note the assurance that he has given. Therefore, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.
Bill Cash: I am glad to have taken part in the proceedings, and I thank my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General for the courtesy that he has shown throughout. I wish the Bill well.
Bill Cash: Will the Crown Agents be able to give some assistance in alleviating the rail problems in Sudan in the way in which they have been able to give such assistance over the past 100 years?