CLAUSE 117.—(Questions of Removability and Settlement to be decided in accordance with this Act alone.) (Hansard, 15 July 1927)

§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of HEALTH (Sir Kingsley Wood)

I beg to move, in page 59, to leave out from the word "that" in line 18 to the end of line 21 and to insert instead thereof the words:

"(a) where before the commencement of this Act an application has been made to justices or to the Minister to determine any question in relation to the settlement or removal of any person, that question shall in all stages of the proceedings be determined as if this Act had not been passed; and
(b) where any such question has been determined before the commencement of this Act, and an application to determine a question relating to the settlement or removal of the same person and dependent on the same facts is made after the commencement of this Act by or against a board of guardians not bound by the previous decision, the question on that application shall be determined as if this Act had not been passed."

This Amendment is occasioned by a rather curious circumstance. After the Committee had reported the Bill, the Divisional Court came to a decision in the case of Norwich Guardians versus 2557 Henstead Guardians which differed in some measure from the provision we had made in Clause 109 (1) as to questions of settlement. I have had the opportunity of conferring with hon. Members opposite in regard to this matter, which was rather technical. To put it briefly, it has been decided that Clause 109 (1) should stand as printed, on the ground that it gives a better result in practice than the decision of the Divisional Court, and also because that Court considered that it was a casus omissus, and it is within the proper function of a Consolidation Bill to cure defective drafting. The object of the Amendment is to prevent any proceeding, pending upon the Bill coming into operation, from being affected by its provisions, or any decision already given as to the settlement or removal of a particular person from being affected by the Bill. In both instances, the question is to be decided upon the law in force before the Bill operates.