CLAUSE 105.—(Service of notices.) (Hansard, 5 June 1947)

I beg to move, in page 83, line 24, after "some," to insert "responsible."

This Amendment is designed to meet the criticisms which were made by hon. Gentlemen opposite in Committee on Clause 105. That is the Clause which deals with the service of notices. It was argued by hon. Gentlemen opposite that Subsection (4) as it stood would permit of a notice being served upon somebody on premises who might have absolutely no authority to receive it and who might be a chance, casual person who happened to be found there. That argument we have met by inserting the word "responsible" before the word "person", so that a notice can only be given to a "responsible person" on the premises. The second ground of criticism was that, as the Clause stood, if there was anybody on the premises it would be impossible to serve the notice by affixing it to the premises. This next Amendment, in line 24, to leave out from "or," to "by," in line 25, deals with that point by removing the words which made it obligatory, if there was anybody on the premises, to serve it on them. In that way we have met the second argument, and made it an alternative option: if you can see somebody who is a responsible person on the premises, you serve the notice on him; if you do not, you affix it to the premises, and you are not precluded from affixing it to the premises if there is anybody on the premises on whom you can serve it.

§ Mr. Manningham-Buller

This Amendment is to some extent an improvement in the Bill, and to some extent meets the arguments put forward from this side during the Committee stage. I still do not regard the Clause as entirely satisfactory and I hope it will be further examined. The hon. and learned Gentleman has referred to a "responsible person", but there is no definition of what constitutes a "responsible person". The point was put to the hon. and learned Gentleman that a conspicuous object on the land might well be a movable object, and that if there was a vehicle or a cart on the premises, service might be effected by sticking a copy of the notice on that vehicle, although it had no connection 549 with the owner of the property. I suggest that the Clause requires looking at again. Although the hon. and learned Gentleman has done his best, and gone some way to meet us, it is not satisfactory and does not conform to similar provisions in other Acts. There is a strong case even now for trying to produce a code which can be used not only in a Measure such as this, but in other Measures relating to the delivery of notices of this kind.