I have an amendment down to Section 3, sub-section (7). That amendment has been agreed to by the Parliamentary Secretary in substitution for an amendment which I had on the Order Paper last week. This is really a drafting amendment, as I explained on another occasion. The sub-section purports to provide that the benefit of a local contribution guaranteed by a local authority may be assigned to another approved company with the assent of the Minister. It seemed to me that an ambiguity existed in the phrasing of the sub-section and I was anxious to remove that ambiguity. As the sub-section is worded it would be possible, in my judgement, for the assignment to be made to some body other than an approved company, provided the assignment had the consent of the Minister. That clearly was not the intention, and the amendment I put down was intended to bring the wording of the sub-section into accord with the intention.
When I explained my point last week the Parliamentary Secretary promised to consider it. He has since done so, and he has been good enough to get the draftsman of his Department to put the amendment into the form in which it now stands, and which, in my judgment, covers my point in the most satisfactory manner possible. I therefore recommend it to the House. Before formally moving it I ask the permission of the House to make a slight verbal alteration. The amendment reads:
Section 3, sub-section (7). To delete all after the word "save" in line 2 down to the end of the sub-section and to substitute therefor the following:—
"unless all the following conditions are complied with, that is to say:—
(a) that such assignment is to an approved company,
(b) that the Minister consents to such assignment,
(c) that such consent is endorsed on the document effecting such assignment."
I ask the permission of the House to change the word "save" in the first line of the amendment to the word "assigned."
