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RECEIVED IN REESTRY NO. 51
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RD BILSTEAD.] en the reply which I review which my right undertaking into Westmi s included the matter of the as being an indication tha this matter seriously and position to be able to subject in a reasonably short time.
Financing
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16 JUL 1981 we are currently considering representations about
OFFICER been RESZEL associations.
parish precepts that have been made to us by the local PA basculantes subject, which has long been a matter of We have not issued any circu- disagreement, not least because of the significance it district authorities' expenditure control.
INDEX prece tension of the fanchise, the Government are taking putting themselves into a eak constructively on this
Lord Malloy: My Lord, is the noble Lord aware that, having examined the situation, many of us are of the opinion that it has een a bureaucratic decision taken in Brussels, or so ewhere on the Continent, which blatently descrimin tes against British citizens? It is pointless simply to kɩp an eye on discrimination. What the noble Lord should be assuring the House is that he intends to eliminate it on behalf of the British people.
Lord Belstead: My Loi Is. when the noble Lord's party was in Government I did not even keep an eye on it.
Lord Bruce of Donington: My Lords, can the noble Lord give the House any idication of the time when the European Parliament report is expected? Will he give the House information as to whether the inquiry will go into the method f election? As the noble Lord is well aware, this country is about the only country that applies direct elections in any meaningful constituency sense.
Lord Belstead: My Lord, as regards the position of the report in Europe, 1 understand that the draft report on a uniform procecare for European elections is now before the Political Affairs Group of the Euro- pean Parliament. That situation has been the case for longer than many peo le would wish; in fact, it has been the case since 1 79. The report will then have to go to the Parliamet and then to the Council of Ministers. On the second point which the noble Lord put to me, yes, of course; I think that the under- standing of all of us is tha this report will deal with the method of election.
3.15 p.m.
Parish Councils: Financing
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Baroness Stedman: My Fords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
Baroness Stedman: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that Answer, so far as it goes, following our long discussions on the Local Government Bill. Will he not agree that the parish councils, which are already under stress, are suffering even more financially because of the present financial stringencies under which the districts and other authorities operate? Therefore, will he consider, when he is producing the penny rate rules, which I understand are anticipated later this year, whether he could define the calculation of a penny rate attracted by a parish expenditure--- the RSG attracted by a parish expenditure--and try to cure this way of dealing with the concurrent powers, thus making sure that they are operated properly?
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of discussions in this House on the Local Govern- ment, Planning and Land Bill on 9th October 1980, whether negotiations at proceeding with local authority associations on the question of financing of parish councils, and whether any circulars have been sent to local authorities reminding them of their discretionary powers to make grants to parish councils where they have concurrent powers.
The Parliamentary Under- @cretary of State, Depart- nent of the Environment (1 rd Bellwin): My Lords,
Lord Bellwin: My Lords, what the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman, says is most interesting. I shall gladly look into her suggestion about defining in more detail the penny rate and exactly what it does or does not comprise. Yes, I shall bear very much in mind what she has said. I think she knows that I am by no means unsympathetic to the problems which face the parish councils. On the other hand, there is the great concern of the district councils, which take an opposite point of view; and in this case, as so often in life, one is involved in trying to get a balance in
between.
Lord Leatherland: My Lords, is it really necessary for the Government to waste time on this revision of the rating system?—because at the last general election they promised to abolish the rating system altogether.
Lord Bellwin: My Lords, not for the first time the noble Lord-although always fascinating in the questions he asks--leads the subject very wide of the Question.
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DATE. 9.7. Go cor. fro-A
Gibraltar: British Nationality BillTM Memorandum
13.17 p.m.
Lord Boyd-Carpenter: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish in the Official Report the dispatch and enclosure from His Excellency the Governor of Gibraltar dated 17th February 1981 forwarding a memorandum containing the considered views of the Government of Gibraltar on the effect on Gibraltar and its citizens of the provisions of the British Nationality Bill if enacted in its present form: whether any reply was sent; and, if so, the text of that reply.
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