§ * MR. REESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he proposes to amend the law so as to provide a remedy for a workman who has been awarded compensation against a contractor who was not insured in respect of such liability, and who, owing to his inability to pay, has been declared bankrupt.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE,) Leeds, W.I do not see what remedy could be provided to meet the cases contemplated by my hon. friend, except by the establishment of some system of compulsory insurance As to this, I think that some experience of the working of the present law is necessary, but I am considering at what time it will be desirable to undertake the inquiry into the question of a genera scheme of compulsory insurance which I promised on the Second Reading o the Workmen's Compensation Bill in 1906. I may perhaps remind my hon. friend that in the cases of sub-contracting dealt with in Section 4 of the Act, the 676 workmen employed by a sub-contractor s given a right to proceed either against his immediate employer, or against the principal contractor.