Mr Robin Turton: Will my hon. Friend consider reviewing this policy? Is he aware that on 7th May a Jet Provost aircraft crashed into a field in my constituency killing two men who were working on a tractor only 400 yards from their homes, yet six weeks later nothing had been done to give any compensation to their widows although steps had been taken to compensate the farmer for his tractor? Is that not...
Mr Robin Turton: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what discussions have been held with the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce and with the relevant trade association in the light of the unwillingness of many seed mechants to claim denaturing premia on seed wheat.
Mr Robin Turton: As other farmers in the Community are taking advantage of this extraordinary loophole in the common agricultural policy regulations, and as British taxpayers are contributing to the cost, surely either the British farmers should be enabled to participate or my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food should take up the matter with the Council of Ministers to stop the...
Mr Robin Turton: Surely there is a case for an early independent inquiry into this matter, bearing in mind the films that have been taken overseas showing not only sheep but calves being treated in a most horrible manner on export.
Mr Robin Turton: May I revert to the question of parliamentary papers? Is my right hon. Friend aware that the date of publication of reports of Select Committees cannot now be determined and is left to the discretion of the strikers and those going slow in the printing shop? Can that be tolerated when the work of this House is being impeded as a result of their action? Surely the work on the Select Committee...
Mr Robin Turton: There is a great deal of good sense in what has been said by the hon. Member for Erith and Cray-ford (Mr. Wellbeloved), but I appreciate that there are special reasons why this course is being taken on this Opposition Supply Day. I remind the House that the Government Chief Whip and the Opposition Chief Whip made a combined approach to the Select Committee on Procedure to change the rule....
Mr Robin Turton: There has been a surprising complacency by two successive Governments in dealing with these interruptions of parliamentary business. Is my hon. Friend aware that at the present time Select Committees can get no printed evidence of the witnesses before them and that they can have no reports printed? This is a very serious dislocation of parliamentary business, which the Government should deal...
Mr Robin Turton: I on the other hand wish to congratulate my right hon. Friend upon his success in unifying the National Health Service. All of us would agree that there is an inherent weakness in the present health service in that it contains overlapping services as a result of its being divided, like Gaul, into three parts. To avoid the waste involved with overlapping services, too much time of skilled...
Mr Robin Turton: I have considerable sympathy for the argument put forward by the hon. Member for Halifax (Dr. Summerskill). In health it is always a battle of priorities. If hospitals are to have extra rooms for parents, particularly in the paediatric wings, there will be less hospital building. There is great difficulty particularly for children and geriatrics. It is a tremendous burden in geriatric cases,...
Mr Robin Turton: This is the wrong way of looking at it. The Supplementary Benefits Commission should look at the expenses which the parent in need cannot afford in visiting the child in hospital. It is equally important for the parent to visit the child in the first four weeks in hospital as it is in the 20th or 30th week; in fact rather more important. I hope my hon. Friend will ask the other side of his...
Mr Robin Turton: Surely it will have to be in the House of Commons Vote. Therefore, the House can challenge the Vote at any time, and any supplementary estimate upon it.
Mr Robin Turton: Among all the subjects mentioned by my right hon. Friend I did not hear any talk of the International Sugar Agreement, which poses an urgent problem. Can he confirm that the Council of Ministers discussed this matter and came to an agreement that the Community should join the International Sugar Agreement before the forthcoming conference?
Mr Robin Turton: As, previously, the EEC has refused to co-operate with the International Sugar Agreement, is not it absolutely vital that at an early stage, and before the resumption in October, the EEC makes a declaration that with Britain in the Community it will cooperate with the International Sugar Agreement? Further, the EEC should outline its attitude towards cane sugar production and the refining of...
Mr Robin Turton: I have considerable sympathy with my right hon. Friend in the arguments which he has addressed to the House. However, I was rather disturbed when he attacked my hon. Friend the Member for Belper (Mr. Stewart-Smith) for introducing a tax principle which certainly for 266 years had been immutable—namely, that if a benefit is taxed the contribution is tax deductible. Against that, my right...
Mr Robin Turton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the country will be grateful for the promptness with which he has come to report to the House on his difficult negotiations? He will be generally congratulated on the valiant way in which he has stood up for the interests of the British housewife. Will he quantify the amount of extra money that the French farmer will get as a result of his announcement on...
Mr Robin Turton: I did not understand the surprise of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Small Heath (Mr. Denis Howell) that when a Minister is responsible for overall planning, whether for health, electricity or gas, he should appoint the chairman and that the chairman should be chosen by him. When the hon. Member was in power I feel sure he would never for one moment have contemplated that the regional...
Mr Robin Turton: I beg to move Amendment No. 172, in page 14, line 1, leave out from beginning to 'authority' in line 3 and insert 'A water'.
Mr Robin Turton: Do I understand, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that in addition to Mr. Speaker's provisional selection of amendments, we are to discuss Amendment No. 190, in page 14, line 20, leave out second 'company' and insert 'statutory water undertakers'.
Mr Robin Turton: Amendment No. 172 and its 16 consequential amendments are designed to give to joint water boards the same agency powers as under Clause 11 are to be enjoyed by statutory undertakers. The history of water authorities is that in 1955 there were 1,100 water authorities, many of them small and inefficient. Now there are 28 statutory water companies and 170 joint water boards. All are now large...
Mr Robin Turton: Having heard what my hon. Friend said, and in full confidence that the matter will be fully debated in another place, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.