§ MR. T. BURT (Morpeth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether, in case the Northumberland and Durham Miners' Permanent Relief Fund should enter into an arrangement with the employers to accept responsibility for all claims (whether of members or non-members) under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897, and the rules of the society are altered accordingly, it would be legal for the society to administer the provisions of the Act to persons who are not members, provided a mutual arrangement under the Act is made with the 41 employers in the general interests of the workmen; and (2) whether a contribution by the employers to the Miners' Permanent Relief Fund under such arrangement would be equivalent to a contribution by the workmen for whom it was paid?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTThe information before me as to the arrangement is hardly sufficient to enable me to answer these Questions definitely. I see no legal objection, however, to a scheme under the Act being administered by the Fund, both for its own members and others—of course, there must in every case be a contract to accept the scheme between the employer and the individual workman—or, on the other band, if that is the arrangement proposed, to the Fund insuring an employer against his liability under the Act in respect of workmen not included in the scheme. I do not quite understand the second paragraph.