HC Deb 09 April 1948 vol 449 cc550-1
Mr. Glenvil Hall

I beg to move, in page 4, line 5, to leave out Subsection (2).

When we inserted this Clause in the Bill and approved it upstairs, I think the Committee generally were under the impression that that form of insurance which covered "nominees of members" under the 1896 Act had ceased to be used at all. Therefore, as the reference appeared to be of little or no use, we decided to delete it from the original Act, and to repeal that provision. We have now discovered that there are cases in which members or nominees of members are covered. For that reason we think that the Subsection in the original Act should remain.

Mr. Molson

Certainly, I do not wish to oppose this if it is desirable that these words should be preserved, but I am at some pains to find out exactly what those words meant in the Act of 1896, and I should be grateful if the Financial Secretary could tell us exactly what it is that has been discovered since the earlier stages of this Bill. I was under the impression that "nominees of members" was a matter of complete obscurity to everybody, and that it was not known why it had been used. Since now it has been found, at this rather late stage, that this provision of the earlier Act has some effect and is, in fact, in operation, I think it would be useful if we could be told what was the meaning of it.

Mr. Glenvil Hall

I think that, generally, we were all under the same impression as the hon. Member for The High Peak (Mr. Molson). We were not quite sure who these nominees were, or whether, in the original Act, nominees were ever covered by insurance of the kind that the Act itself covered. Even now, so far as I know, the nominee, in the ordinary sense, is not insured. But I am told that a certain class of case has come to light which might be considered under the general phrase of "nominees." For that reason, it is thought that, perhaps, we had better leave the words as they were there in the earlier Act.

Amendment agreed to.