HC Deb 22 November 1916 vol 87 cc1494-8

On receiving any statement or statutory declaration made in pursuance of this Act, the registrar shall cause the same to be filed, and he shall send by post or deliver a certificate of the registration thereof to the firm or person registering.

Mr. FELL

I beg to move, at the end of the Clause, to add the words, "Such certificate of registration shall be framed and exhibited in a conspicuous position at the principal place of business of the firm or individual."

I think this Amendment will be of great convenience to the public. It will mean that companies or individuals, when they have their certificate of registration, will frame it and put it up in the office of the company or individual. Then everyone who went into the office or into the waiting room would have an opportunity of seeing the certificate of registration. I think that if this Amendment is accepted, it will be the handiest means of ascertaining who the parties are who are conducting the firm or business or shop. People can go to the head office of the company, business, or firm, look at the certificate of registration and take down the names of the members if they wish to sue them, or do anything of that kind. Not only will this be the handiest method and the most convenient, but it will be inexpensive to all parties, and certainly much less expensive than advertising, which I do not think will be quite so efficacious.

Mr. PRETYMAN

I am quite ready to accept this Amendment. I think it is right that the certificate should be exhibited, but I hardly think we need stipulate that it should be framed. It would be even less expensive if it is not framed. Perhaps it will be better if the hon. Member moved his Amendment in these words, "and the certificate shall be exhibited in a conspicuous position at the principal place of business of the firm or individual."

Mr. FELL

I beg to move it in that form.

Mr. KING

I do not know whether this will always be a practicable matter to carry out. I have in my mind the case of a man who carries on an agency business and who lives in hotels, going from place to place. Such a man has a banking account, and he gets a large amount of his correspondence addressed to his bank or to the different places he goes to from time to time. That man has no fixed office. Is he to carry this registration certificate about with him and to hang it up in his bedroom when he changes his address once a month? I suppose he will have to do that. If he does not do it he will be committing an offence under the Act and be liable to be fined £5 a day. I do not know what is going to happen. No doubt this Amendment is well meant and will be applicable and useful in many cases, but whether it is always going to be so easy to carry out I am not certain.

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN (Mr. J. W. Wilson)

The hon. Member (Mr. Fell) had better withdraw his original Amendment and move the revised Amendment.

Mr. FELL

I beg leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Mr. FELL

I beg to move, to insert the words "and the certificate of registration shall be exhibited in a conspicuous position in the principal place of business of the firm or individual."

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN

The further Amendment which has been moved is, "and the certificate shall be exhibited in a conspicuous position in the principal place of business of the firm or individual."

Amendment agreed to.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill.

Sir A. WILLIAMSON

What is the certificate to contain?

Mr. PRETYMAN

It will really be a certificate that the man has registered. It will not contain particulars. Those can be obtained elsewhere The process, I imagine, will be that anyone who goes into the place of business will see the certificate and will note that in accordance with the Act the firm is registered. The person will have his attention called to the fact that the firm is registered and he can write to the Central Office for particulars or go to get particulars from the Inquiry Office.

Mr. R. McNEILL

I should like to move an Amendment to the proposed Amendment, to insert after the word"registration"—

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN

The Amendment has already been adopted. I have put the Question, "That the Clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill."

Mr. McNEIL

I think I gathered that you put the Amendment in a form other than that moved by my hon. Friend. My hon. Friend read out the words "certificate of registration." In putting the Amendment, you put it in a different form.

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN

I put it in the form in which I understood the hon. Member to move it—"and the certificate shall be exhibited in a conspicuous position at the principal place of business of the firm or individual. "Those words I have declared carried, and I have since put the Question," That the Clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill."

Mr. McNEILL

On a point of Order. I may say that those words were not moved. Is there any way of rectifying it, because you left out the words "of registration," which were moved by my hon. Friend?

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN

The words "of registration" were in my hon. Friend's original Amendment, but not in the amended Amendment suggested by my hon. Friend (Mr. Pretyman).

Mr. McNEILL

I read it from the paper in my hand, and my hon. Friend left out the word "such" and made it read "and the certificate of registration," and he also left out the words "framed and." You, Sir, not catching my hon. Friend's words, omitted the words "of registration."

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN

As a matter of fact I took the words suggested by the hon. Gentleman on my right, in which he omitted the words "of registration" as being redundant.

Mr. McNEILL

I submit that my hon. Friend was entitled to move the Amendment in his own way, and not to accept the form suggested by the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Pretyman); and, in fact, he moved the words which I have stated.

Mr. RENDALL

You read out the words, Sir, and you asked the hon. Member whether he assented to them.

The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN

I have put the Amendment. I cannot suggest any remedy, having put the Amendment in the words suggested, and which the Committee have passed. I hold that no alteration can now be made.

Mr. KING

There is one point in connection with the question of the Clause as amended which I should like to put to the Solicitor-General. I notice that he has just added the duty that a certificate shall be exhibited, but he has not provided for any penalty.

Sir G. CAVE

We have noticed that, and we propose to put in words on Report.

Question, "That the Clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to.