WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION (AMENDMENT) BILL. (Hansard, 10 December 1937)

§ Mr. Cary
I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
To all intents and purposes this is an agreed Measure. It will be seconded by the hon. Member for Rotherhithe (Mr. Benjamin Smith), from the Benches opposite. The Bill proposes to amend Sub-section (1) of Section 3 and Subsection (2) of Section 5 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925, with respect to persons engaged in plying for hire with any vehicle or vessel the use of which is obtained under a contract of bailment, and for purposes connected therewith.
I would remind hon. Members of the unique circumstances in which many London taxicab drivers hold their cabs and ply for hire. They do so under a contract of bailment, which means that they are on a hire-purchase agreement. They do not draw wages in the ordinary 780 sense of the term, but they supplement their earnings by such tips as they may be given. It was held by the Holman Gregory Committee on Workmen's Compensation in 1920 that they could not benefit under the existing law, and provisions were accordingly included in the Act of 1923 to meet their case. Since that time, there has been a change in the arrangements under which the taxi-drivers work. Over one-third of the 11,000 taximen in London, though they still obtain their cabs under contract of bailment, do not obtain them from the owners, but from garage proprietors, etc., who, owing to the spread of hire purchase, are not the owners, but only the hire purchasers of the cabs. By deleting the words "from the owner thereof," the position of the taximan is clearly defined by the Bill. The second part of the Bill makes it clear who is to pay compensation. I would like to say, for the benefit of the senior Member for Oxford University (Mr. A. Herbert), that the Bill will not only apply to taxi-drivers, but also to that unique company of workmen on the Thames, the bargees; but it does not cover the dart-throwers. This Bill should have been passed more than two years ago. It will render an immediate service to every driver of a taxicab on the streets of London, and I have pleasure in commending it to the House.

§ Mr. Benjamin Smith
I beg to second the Motion.
I want to the thank the Secretary of State, who, I understand, has given facilities to the hon. Member for Eccles (Mr. Carey) for bringing in this Bill. Arising out of some questions of mine a few months ago, it was stated that the Government could not afford facilities for such a Bill, but the present method is, I believe, an agreed method of remedying what has been a serious difficulty in the past. Fully a third of the taxi-cabs of London are purchased on the hire-purchase system, the purchasers in turn using what we know as the double cab method, employing a man to work for the hirer. The old law definitely excluded from the right to compensation a person engaged in plying for hire with any vehicle or vessel the use of which is obtained from the owner thereof for a certain consideration under any contract of bailment or letting for hire other than a hire-purchase agreement. 781 That is the provision that we want to amend. If the person working for the man who is hiring the cab from the vendor by hire-purchase meets with an accident, he is excluded from the benefits of compensation as the law now exists. The Bill applies also, as the hon. Member for Eccles has said, to the bargemen, who adopt almost the same principle, less, of course, the tips. They have no means of meeting those munificent ladies and gentlemen who are prepared to pay something extra by way of a special tip. The Bill will, I am sure, remove an anomaly. I want to thank the hon. Member for Eccles for bringing in the Bill, and I join with him in hoping that the Home Secretary will assist in removing the anomaly by giving facilities, not only for the Second Reading of the Bill to-day, but for its passage through the House at the earliest possible moment.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd)
I think the House will be very glad that this Bill has been brought in. I will not go into the technical points; they have been stated already; but I agree that broadly speaking it is a fact that several thousand London taximen, owing to a technical point, are excluded from the benefits of workmen's compensation. The object of the Bill is to remedy that technical difficulty, and I think we shall all wish it to be passed as soon as possible. I can certainly give the assurance that the Home Office will do whatever they can to co-operate in its further stages.