CLAUSE 7.—(Notification of Changes of Address, etc.) (Hansard, 7 July 1915)

§ Mr. KING
I really think that this Clause wants some consideration on points in regard to which we hoped to get some concessions from the right hon. Gentleman. There is a good deal of feeling about what he himself has called "the ticket-of-leave Clause." It seems to me quite unnecessary, once having got a man registered, to pursue him about after he has moved and to impose upon him the duty of registering himself perhaps several times. If for various reasons he has changed his address, and he has to make another return, it does seem to me quite unnecessary, and certainly is likely to cause friction and suspicion. I hope we may have some justification of this Clause, and have enacted some concessions or modifications which would be very gratefully received.

§ Mr. LONG
The precedent for this Clause was received with unanimous assent by the House of Commons in connection with the National Insurance Act, and if the machinery has worked smoothly and easily where a man claims 5s. a week, there surely would be no objection where a man wants to give his services to his country. The same applies to penalties, and there are proper safeguards that where the act of a man is justified by the circumstance there will not be any proceedings. The penalties are somewhat similar to those existing under the Census Act, and I think are necessary.

§ Sir F. BANBURY
Supposing this Bill passes, as I hope it will, in a day I shall have to register all my female servants, not to offend the hon. Gentleman opposite, I register my female servants in London. I then, unfortunately, have a house in the country, and when this House rises, as I hope it will before August, I go down with my female servants to the house in the country. Am I to notify to the local registration authority that I have left London, and have all my servants to notify that they have changed? Then Parliament is summoned again in November. 505 I come back to London, and am I again to notify the people in London I have left my house in the country, which is mine, subject to the pleasure of the hon. Gentleman opposite, and the house in London is also mine. Are my female servants again to notify the registration authority that they have come back? That, as far as I can see, will be the effect of the Bill, and I have consulted my hon. and learned Friend (Mr. Rawlinson) on the point.

§ Mr. LONG
I do not know that I am bound to assist my hon. Friend to carry on his household arrangements. I am "bound to say if he has a house in London and a house in the country, and if he is fortunate enough to have a large staff of female servants, I do not think he deserves any sympathy if he has to go to the "enormous" labour of notifying the change.

§ Mr. HOLT
Do the Local Government Board expect when a person moves from one district to another that there is to be complete re-registration, or is the person simply to send in notice of the change of address? If the latter is all that has got to be done you may take it for granted that it will be of no use to anybody. If you are going to ask people to send you any notification of any value you have got to have complete re-registration. This is going to cause an enormous amount of friction in the country, and if the President of the Local Government Board is well advised it will be much better for him to explain exactly what it is he expects to do on changes of residence, and exactly why he wants to have it done.

§ Mr. WHITEHOUSE
I desire to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he has considered this Clause from the standpoint of elaborate and expensive machinery which will be necessary in order to record these changes of address. Let the Committee think of what happens in London alone. In London alone the entire population changes its address, on an average, once a year, so great are the number of times that many of the industrial classes have to change their address. That means that a very considerable number of persons will have to be employed permanently in order to record those changes of address. The detailed work will be so great that it will make for efficiency to the working of the Bill if this Clause is omitted altogether. If this Clause is maintained, I trust that the certificates of registration will be printed on parchment, otherwise it will be a very tattered rem- 506 nant which will travel between the registration authorities on many occasions. I think, if the right hon. Gentleman inquires of the Insurance Department, which is engaged in working the Insurance Act, he will find that most serious difficulties have occurred in connection with this provision, and that some administrative portions of the Act have actually been threatened with a complete breakdown owing to this particular provision. I earnestly beg him, unless he is attached to this Section, and unless it has in it greater advantages than appear on the face of it, to omit it.

§ Mr. HOBHOUSE
I want to put a simple and practical question. The Bill says that "if any person shall change his residence, unless the residence is "merely temporary." I do not ask the right hon. Gentleman to define in the Bill what "merely temporary" means. But I hope he will express an opinion here which could be quoted to any local authority requiring it. It would save a great deal of trouble if the right hon. Gentleman could make some pronouncement, if it could be done in half a dozen words, as to what he regards as "temporary" change of residence?

§ Mr. LONG
In reply to the hon. Gentleman the Member for Hexham, the object of the Clause is to secure as far as possible accuracy. The intention is not, as suggested, to embarrass people. It is to ensure that they shall make these alterations if they were again to live, more or less permanently, in a different part of the world. The idea is that their services should be available for national purposes. Obviously, if a man has moved from one place to another, the very fact of his removal would make his service impossible for the moment. Therefore it is only intended when the change is really of a permanent character that he should intimate that he has changed his address. So far as the question of the hon. Member (Mr. Whitehouse) is concerned, my information a couple, of days ago is that this power is being worked quite smoothly under the Insurance Act. I hope the Committee will now come to a decision. The views taken of the possible success or failure of the Clause are largely dependent upon the views entertained as to the success or failure of the Bill. Therefore as it seems to me that there are more who look forward to the success than those who take the opposite view I hope we shall get the Clause.

§ Mr. MOLTENO
Where are the large numbers who come from Ireland to Scotland to be registered?

§ Mr. LONG
I do not know that they are not registered in Ireland, but I presume they were in Scotland. As a matter of fact, I do not believe they stayed in Scotland for more than six weeks.

§ Mr. HOLT
Does the right hon. Gentleman expect that a man who registers when he changes his address has to register all those other circumstances which must necessarily follow change of address?

§ Mr. LONG
It is very difficult to answer carefully prepared conundrums of that character. I should imagine that all that would happen would be that a man would indicate his change of address. That is all we desire of him. That is all that is contemplated by the Bill as it stands. Those are the views which we shall endeavour to impress on the local authorities in the instructions which we shall issue to them.