§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD MAUGHAM)My Lords, I need say little about this Bill. It came before this House for Second Reading on June 27 of this year. In Committee it was subjected to two sorts of Amendment: the first being Amendments which I myself introduced into it to deal with some very technical matters arising under Clause 7 of the Bill as it then stood. It was also subjected to some Amendments in Clause 22, which were moved or suggested by Lord Listowel, and were designed to protect certain public authorities from belated actions based on negligence. These Amendments were duly passed, and the Bill reached its Third Reading on July 13, when it left us for another place. 127 On July 19 it reached a Second Reading in the other place, and then, unfortunately, owing to the lateness of the Session, it got no further. It was therefore incumbent on the Government to introduce the Bill again, and it is now introduced in the form in which it was before your Lordships on a previous occasion, subject to those two sets of Amendments, to Clause 7 and Clause 22, to which I have briefly referred.
In those circumstances I think your Lordships will not desire to hear from me any lengthy introduction to the Bill. Indeed, the topic, if treated with any completeness, would require a considerable time. The Bill is the result of the prolonged efforts of the Law Revision Committee, beginning, I think, in the year 1934, and of the Report which they made as a result of their labours. On the last occasion your Lordships had the benefit of speeches from my noble friends Lord Romer and Lord Wright, both of whom had sat on that Committee, which gave your Lordships some explanation of the reasons for the Bill and showed how desirable it was from the point of view of the law that this amending and consolidating Act should be passed.
Your Lordships will perhaps remember that the Bill deals with twenty different Acts, beginning with one of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and coming down to the year 1934. Six of those Acts are wholly repealed. I think I am right in saying that the Report of the Law Revision Committee contains a statement that the examination of measures running over three or four hundred years showed that the law has now reached a state of almost unbelievable chaos and confusion. I need not, therefore, enlarge upon the necessity for this measure, and I hope your Lordships, bearing in mind what was said such a short time ago, will be willing to give it a Second Reading again on this occasion. I need only add that if any noble Lord desires an explanation of the reason for any of these very complex and technical provisions, I shall be happy, to the best of my ability, to endeavour to give him one. I cannot, however, promise to explain very satisfactorily some of the exceedingly complex provisions which are to be found in this technical measure. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.