§ Lords Amendment: In page 10, line 29, leave out from "as" to end of line 30 and insert "the Registrar thinks fit."
§ Mr. Walker-SmithI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
It might be convenient if we take at the same time the next Amendment, in line 32. These Amendments are designed to make a minor but practical improvement in the arrangements for the actual keeping of the Register. As the Bill is drafted, the Registrar has to make regulations about the form in which the Register is to be kept—that is to say, the entering and filing of particulars of agreement—and he would be committed, in advance of experience of how best to do it, to the form which he has described in advance theoretically by his regulations.
The effect of the first Amendment is to enable the Registrar to keep the Register in the form which he finds to be most practical and appropriate. The second of the two Amendments is consequential.
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Further Lords Amendment agreed to: In page 10, line 32, leave out "so prescribed" and insert:
prescribed by regulations made under section eighteen of this Act.
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Lords Amendment: In page 11, line 21, after "Registrar" insert:
or any assistant registrar or other officer authorised to act on behalf of the Registrar.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
All that the Amendment does is to make it possible for copies or extracts from documents entered or filed in the Register to be admitted as evidence in legal proceedings if certified by an assistant registrar or any other officer authorised to act on behalf of the Registrar. As the Bill is drafted, only the Registrar himself can certify copies. No doubt, in practice this would prove to be 966 inconvenient as the number of copies might prove to be considerable.