CLAUSE 43.—(Service of notices.) (Hansard, 6 October 1944)

§ Mr. H. Strauss
I beg to move, in page 45, line 15, after "person", to insert: or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, at that address. This and other similar Amendments relate to the publication and service of notices. The authorities are required to deliver notice, or send it by pre-paid registered post to an address for service, if such an address has been given. It is further provided that an owner or occupier could leave an address for service, in his absence, of any notice under the Bill to which he may be entitled.

§ Mr. W. S. Morrison
I beg to move, in page 45, line 31, to leave out "or being an occupier of land."
This Amendment is designed to simplify personal service of notice to an occupier of land. There is provided, at the same time, a safeguard which requires that the authority should call attention 1367 to the importance of the communication by a special marking.

§ Mr. H. Strauss
I beg to move, in page 45, line 37, at the end, to add: or, (g) where it is a notice or other document that should be served on or given to a person as being an occupier of land, by addressing it to him by the description of 'occupier' of the land (describing it) to which the notice or other document relates, and either posting it in a prepaid registered letter addressed as aforesaid and marked in such manner as may be prescribed for securing that it shall be plainly identifiable as a communication of importance or delivering it in a letter addressed and marked as aforesaid to some person on the land. This is a consequential Amendment.

§ Mr. Silkin
I beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed Amendment, in line 7, at the end, to add: or, where no person is found on the land to whom it can be delivered, affixing it or a copy of it to some conspicuous part of the land. The Amendment which has been moved on behalf of the Government provides for service of notice on an occupier of land by post, in cases where the owner cannot be found. Where he is known, or can be found, or has left an address, he will get the notice. This addition is intended to provide for the case in which the owner cannot be found, or he is not known, and the notice has to be sent to the occupier. A case may arise where there is no occupier, and my Amendment is to meet such a case. In such a case notice has to be served by fixing it, or a copy of it, on some conspicuous part of the land. There is already a precedent for notices being served in this manner. It is not a revolutionary change in the law and I therefore hope the Minister will accept it.

§ Mr. Morrison
I have looked with sympathy at my hon. Friend's Amendment, but my present feeling is that it goes a little far because it proposes to allow service on an occupier, without previous inquiry as to his name and 1368 address, by fixing the notice on some conspicuous part of the land. The Government's proposal is that a document addressed to the occupier should be marked "important" so that it will, once it gets into the hands of anybody on the land, stand a good chance of reaching the occupier. The person to whom it is given will presumably be the occupier's servant or agent or someone who will know who he actually is. On the other hand, there is a case for saying that we have drawn the thing a little too tightly and that some provision ought to be made to meet the substance of the point the hon. Member has in view. We are all desiring the same thing and I hope he will withdraw his Amendment and allow us to look at the whole matter altogether.

§ Mr. Edmund Harvey (Combined English Universities)
Could the Minister consider some alteration in his Amendment to obviate a difficulty? It provides for the delivery of a letter to some person on the land. That provision might be legally complied with if the letter were delivered to some person casually present, who had no connection whatever with the owner or occupier.

§ Mr. Morrison
I will certainly look at the point and see whether I can meet it, but I do not wish to put upon postmen the duty of cross-examining every person to whom they deliver a missive to see that he is the person he purports to be or that he is entitled in any way to receive it. But I will look at the whole matter again in the light of the hon. Member's suggestion.