§ As amended by the (Standing Committee), considered.
§ *MR. COCHRANE (Ayrshire, N.) moved a new clause to empower the Postmaster-General to make arrangements for safeguarding the issue of policies granted by insurance companies to small em- 322 ployers. He pointed out that the Bill now embraced every small employer including those who employed five men or less, and this clause would give facilities which they otherwise lacked. These very small employers as a class were absolutely ignorant on questions of insurance, and they would fall very ready victims to a certain class of insurance companies. He proposed that in the Post Office the small employer should have an agency by means of which he would get into touch with solvent insurance companies, whose business would be carried out under regulations prescribed by the Treasury. The regulations which he contemplated would provide for annual returns showing the extent of the liabilities and the amount of the reserves, and possibly for some deposit in recognised securities. Care would be taken, too, to secure that the conditions imposed were not unduly onerous. A case came under his notice the previous day where a man had insured against an accident for £200; but in the policy there was a clause providing that all costs were to come out of the sum assured. This was a direct incentive to the company to fight the case, and as a matter of fact they did so. The costs ran up to £150, and the holder of the policy therefore only got £50. Such a thing as that might be avoided under the clause.
§ MR. JOHN O'CONNOR (Kildare, N.)Was that a case under the Workmen's Compensation Act?
§ * MR. COCHRANEsaid he was not certain, he thought it arose under the common law, but he only cited it as showing that under his proposal such a provision would not be likely to escape the vigilant eye of the Registrar of Friendly Societies. Again, there was danger of the insolvency of the small employer, unless it was made easy for him to insure. There was a warning of that in the Report of the Departmental Committee, in which it was pointed out that some precautions should be taken to minimise that danger. In that Report the Committee stated—
What is to be expected if this prospect of a great access of business brings about the establishment of a number of new companies eagerly competing for the custom of the classes of employers who will for the first time be brought under the liabilities imposed by the Act,323 That point needed no illustration on his part to make the House see that it was in the mind of the Departmental Committee, although not a subject included in their reference, that if the Act was widely extended some provision must be made to protect the small fad ignorant employers against bogus companies. He himself would have liked to propose something much wider; for instance, to have made the Post Office Savings Bank directly responsible for insuring the small employer. Indeed, he would have gone a step further and said that, having regard to the fact that the small employer must necessarily pay a higher premium than the large employer, the same protection should be given to the small employer as was given to the small investor in the Post Office Savings Bank. He blamed the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary for having done nothing whatever to meet the case which was raised eight months ago at the Second Reading of the Bill by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the Forest of Dean, himself, and other speakers. The Home Secretary had had every opportunity for inquiring into this point and of bringing forward legislation upon it, if he had so desired. The Government had been ready enough to adopt private Members' Bills, regardless of their merits—[MINISTERIAL cries of dissent]—or their demerits, he ought to have said.
§ Message to attend the Lords Commissioners.
§ The House went; and, being returned—
§ Mr. SPEAKER reported the Royal Assent to: (1) Marriage with Foreigners Act, 1906, (2) Intoxicating Liquors (Ireland) Act, 1906; (3) Clydebank and District Water and Burgh Extension Order Confirmation Act, 1906; (4) Blair-gowrie, Rattray, and District Water Board Order Confirmation Act, 1906; (5) Edinburgh Corporation (Superannuation) Order Confirmation Act, 1906; (6) Metropolitan Electric Supply Company Act, 1906; (7) Dover Harbour (Works, etc.) Act, 1906; (8) Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Act, 1906.