Another scandal was ventilated in the early hours of the
same day. Here, again, the facts were not disputed. The Yorkshire Electricity Board is establishing its regional offices in a country house near Leeds. Extensive alterations were deemed to be needed, and two building licences, for £7,250 and £32,000 respectively, were granted ; actually work to the extent of £78.178, all requiring licence, was carried out over a period of tt,k0 years and more. Challenged in the House, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Fuel and Power observed blithely ' it is perfectly true that when an authorisation was given that authorisation was exceeded by about £39,000." But, he pro- ceeded to add, " these were technical breaches of the law "; the Minister of Works is responsible for prosecutions in such cases, and he was against a prosecution. The Director of Public Prosecutions was not consulted. He was consulted all right when the late Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire spent too much on alterations to his house, . had to pay a swingeing fine and narrowly escaped imprisonment. No doubt the two cases were net on all fours, in that the Ministry of Fuel and Power is the authority for granting licences to bodies under its jurisdiction and no doubt it would have sanctioned the full amount if any- body had troubled to ask it. But this further example of the extent to which nationalised industries can flout laws which mere private enterprise has to obey deserves a little contemplation.
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