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Manchester City Council Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, for the explanation of the amendments. We have had a stream of such Bills coming through the House over the years. I very much hope that these will be the last of them. As he said, consultation is taking place at central government level out of which will come—I hope, because it is not a politically contentious matter—an agreed programme to be enacted when whatever Government we have have the time. It has long been inappropriate that we should deal with such local Bills on what is essentially a national issue. Now that consultation is in place, it seems entirely inappropriate that we should deal with any further Bills on the subject. We should wait for the national consultation to finish and proceed down that route. I hope that promoters of similar Bills that are on the stocks will not proceed with them in the new Parliament, or that if they do they will be given extremely short shrift. We have much better things to do with our time than to go through this tortuous private procedure in respect of stuff that is being dealt with at a national level. That is not least the case because the human rights implications of such Bills are not properly dealt with in private Bill procedure. They are not dealt with by the Joint Committee and our own committee—the Opposed Bill Committee—refused to look at the subject. Particularly when we are clearly dealing with the human rights of pedlars and others in the Bill, it seems inappropriate that there be no proper consideration of the matter. The original attempt—it has now been amended—by Bournemouth and Manchester to tie up pedlary was inappropriate when it was made, and is certainly inappropriate now. At this stage of the economy, we ought to encourage people to take up their own enterprises—to get involved in business and do something to help themselves out of the situation in which they find themselves. Being allowed to trade house-to-house and on the streets is a way in which some big businesses have been founded, as I am sure that the noble Lord is aware. We should not close that option out for people, merely for the sake of tidiness. I am grateful to the other place for having made this major amendment. It improves the position considerably, but there are a few detailed matters on which I would be grateful for the detailed guidance of the noble Lord, Lord Bradley. Does "location" mean a static location—in other words, that I am standing five feet outside No. 15 Portobello Road, for example—or does it have a wider sense? Are we dealing with a point? What is the technical interpretation of the word? What is the exact definition of a "bona fide customer"? If someone is inquiring about a pedlar’s wares, is he a bona fide customer or does he have to do something more to establish himself as one? Is anyone a bona fide customer who is in some way not a false customer—some aide of the pedlar who rushes up and starts inquiring about the goods whenever the local authority’s officials pounce? What is the definition of "trading"? When these local authority officials are trained, what will they be told that trading consists of? A pedlar, as I am sure the noble Lord is aware, will spend a lot of time displaying and talking about the wares that they are selling. Is that trading, or does that require some active exchange of goods and money? I should be very grateful for the noble Lord’s help on those points.