HC Deb 05 July 1960 vol 626 cc367-8
Sir E. Boyle

I beg to move, in page 40, line 17, to leave out "stocks and shares" and to insert: shares, 'shares', except where the context otherwise requires, includes stock. The Amendment is a drafting Amendment and puts right a drafting omission in subsection (4). The definition to be amended is that of securities, which is defined in the original version as including stocks and shares. There are various anti-avoidance Clauses in the Bill, especially Clauses 20 to 25, which we have considered today and shall be considering again tomorrow, which deal with transactions such as sales of shares in a company and prescribe the tax consequences which follow on such sales in certain circumstances. As the Bill is drafted I am told that it would be possible to get round these provisions if a company's shares were formally converted into stock. The Amendment precludes this possibility by making the reference to shares include a reference to stock, except where the context otherwise requires.

This is the kind of point which is easy to miss when one is drafting a Clause, and I am glad it has been possible to clear up the matter before the Bill reaches its final stage.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.