§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Peake)I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
The need for this Bill is due to certain technical considerations arising from the fact that the Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom. The National Service 2204 Acts of 1939 and 194o and the first National Service Act of 1941 have been applied to the Isle of Man by Order in Council. The result is that men in the Isle of Man who are under the age of 41, are subjected to the same liability to military service as men under 41 in the United Kingdom.
As regards women and men over the age of 41 in the Isle of Man, there is in operation a Defence Regulation which is the counterpart of the United Kingdom Defence Regulation, 58A, which enables the Minister of Labour to direct any person in Great Britain to undertake such service as may be required in the national interest. Under the corresponding Isle of Man Regulation, persons in the Isle of Man can be directed into employment in the same way as persons in this country can be directed into employment in the United Kingdom. Consequently, men and women in the Isle of Man can be directed to perform Civil Defence duty, and to undertake other work of national importance in the Isle of Man. The absence, however, of any power to direct persons in the Isle of Man to take up work in the United Kingdom leaves a loophole for women and for men over 41 who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, to avoid their obligations by transferring their residence to the Isle of Man. The information available to the Home Office does not show that any appreciable number of people have taken advantage of this loophole. If there are persons who have gone from Great Britain to the Isle of Man to avoid their obligations, their number must be extremely small.
Nevertheless, it is clearly undesirable to leave a loophole of this kind and the object of the Bill is to stop this gap in the existing law. This object is effected by a provision in Clause 1 which authorises the making of Defence Regulations requiring persons in the Isle of Man to take up work of national importance in the United Kingdom. As regards persons ordinarily resident in the Isle of Man on 24th August, 1939—that is the date of the first Emergency Powers Act—there is a proviso that they shall be exempted from service outside the island, unless and until the local legislature agrees that such an obligation may be imposed upon them. As regards persons not ordinarily resident in the Isle of Man at that date, there 2205 will be power as soon as the Bill becomes law, to direct them to undertake service in the United Kingdom and, as a consequence, there will be no method by which any person ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom at the outbreak of war, can escape his or her obligations by means of residence in the Isle of Man.
§ Question, "That the Bill be now read a Second time," put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read a Second time.
§ Bill committed to a Committee of the Whole House.—[Major Sir James Edmondson.]
§ Committee upon the next Sitting Day.