Officialese in Order: M.P.s Revolt
Page 31
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
IN the House of Commons last week, I Mr. Boyd-Carpenter moved that the Road Haulage and Hire (Charges) (Amendment) Order, 1946, da ted November 11, 1946, a copy of which was presented on November 13; should be annulled. Mr. Boyd-Carpenter submitted to the House that there was great obscurity in the wording. He wished to obtain elucidation from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and an assurance that future , Orders would be simpler to understand.
He was fortified, he said, in his view that the language of the Order was extremely obscure. by the report of the Select Committee on Statutory Rules and Orders.
Sir John Mellor seconded the motion and raised another point. He asked the Parliamentary Secretary why the Order had been made in the form of an amended Order and 'not a fresh Order; which, he said, would have appeared to be as convenient and clear.
Mr. 0. R. Strauss, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry, replied that it would be difficult for any member of the public who read the Order to understand exactly what its effect would be and the extent of any change which might result in the level of charges made by road-haulage operators. The difficulty arose, he stated, because the charges made by road hauliers varied enormously.
" We have a certain amount of information on the subject to give us some guidance," he said, "but it is not really satisfactory, and we can only make a very rough estimate Ourselves of the result of the Amendment of the Order. We cannot say -with any precision whether road-haulage rates will be permitted to go up by this or that amount."
Later he went on to say that it was More simple and more direct for a man who had to operate the Order to have the amendments, rather than the whole of the Order reprinted.
Mr. Boyd-Carpenter withdrew his motion in view of the assurance given by the Parliamentary Secretary.