HC Deb 14 February 1938 vol 331 c1661

Lords Amendment: In page 2, line 14, leave out from the beginning to the second "and," in line 18, and insert: Every employment specified in the Schedule to this Act that is an employment specified in Part I of the First Schedule to the principal Act shall, on and after the fourth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, be an insurable employment for the purposes of the Unemployment Insurance Acts, 1935 and 1936, unless it is an excepted employment.

10.1 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. Butler)

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

It might help the House if I said a word about each Amendment. In fact, almost all these Amendments are of a drafting character. This particular Amendment is introduced so as to avoid bringing in anyone normally not insurable under the procedure of this Act. The sort of people this Amendment will exclude are those who have an income limit over and above £250 a year and those who are independent of a contract of service.

10.2 p.m.

Mr. Lawson

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that this Amendment is one to clarify the position and that it adds nothing to the Clause and takes nothing away from the Bill. These are small Amendments—I have looked at them personally—and there is nothing to which we object. This is a very complicated Bill, containing several subjects which are usually outside Unemployment Bills, and if the hon. Gentleman will give a short explanation of the Amendments, although there is not much in them, we shall be very much obliged.