HC Deb 05 February 1951 vol 483 cc1495-7
The Attorney-General

I in page 11, line 34, to leave beginning, to the second "insert Except in so pressly provided.

This is a drafting Amendment

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. Powell

I beg to move, in page 11, line 36, after "Crown," to insert: or the Duchy of Lancaster, and where there is an interest belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, The object of this Amendment is to bring within the scope of this Bill lands belonging to the Crown in right of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. The difference in the terminology used in respect of the two Duchies is due to the fact that, whereas the Duchy of Lancaster is by Statute forever merged in the Crown, the Duchy of Cornwall is capable of being separated from the Crown, though whether that separation occurs by a new creation or in virtue of a Statute or of the ori2inal charter is a matter of extreme obscurity.

If you will refer, Sir Charles, to the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1927, you will find that Section 24 of that Act provides for its application not only to lands belonging to His Majesty in right of the Crown but also to the lands of the two Duchies. The purpose of this Amendment is to ascertain from the Government why a provision which was appropriate in the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1927, is inappropriate in a Bill which in some measure extends the operation of the 1927 Act. The Attorney-General, in moving the Second Reading, gave two reasons. He said that there were special constitutional circumstances applying to the two Duchies which made reasonable their exclusion from this Bill. But if these constitutional circumstances—

It being Eleven o'Clock, The CHAIRMAN left the Chair to report Progress. and ask leave to sit again.

Committee report Progress; to sit again Tomorrow.