Clause 7.—(INTERPRETATION.) (Hansard, 13 May 1960)

§ Mr. Nabarro
I beg to move, in page 3, line 28, to leave out from "1932" to "and" in line 30 and to insert: as amended by the Hire-Purchase Act, 1954, applies". I think that it would be for the convenience of the Committee if this were taken with the Amendment in page 3, line 33, leave out from "under" to "and" in line 34 and insert: such a contract as aforesaid ".

The Deputy-Chairman
That will be convenient.

§ Mr. Nabarro
These are drafting Amendments. The point is that, by virtue of the Hire-Purchase Act, 1954, the Hire-Purchase and Small Debt (Scotland) Act, 872 1932, now applies to contracts up to £300 instead of £20.

§ Mr. Nabarro
I beg to move, in page 3, line 41, to leave out from " appliance " to the end of line 44 and to add: suitable for use in a dwelling-house or other residential premises and designed for the heating of space by means of the burning of kerosene within the meaning of Part VI of the Customs and Excise Act, 1952, not being an appliance designed for use with a flue for the removal into the open air either directly or by connection with another flue or flues, of gases produced by the burning of kerosene". The Amendment substitutes a new definition of "oil heater" for that in the Bill. The definition in the Bill was purposely drawn wide to cover a wide variety of oil-burning equipment because it was not certain at that time how we could deal with the numerous and widespread hazards that were arising.
The new definition in the Clause confines the scope of the Bill to domestic oil heaters of a portable kind, namely, those that are not attached to a flue and are therefore called "unflued" heaters. Those present hazards of a kind different from non-portable heaters. If there are hazards arising in connection with flued heaters, boilers and equipment of a fixed kind, it would be appropriate that they should be made the subject of separate legislation.
This new definition will have precisely the effect of confining the Bill to domestic portable oil heaters and I commend it to the Committee.

§ Mr. T. H. H. Skeet (Willesden, East)
I am very glad to support the Amendment, because it is a consolidation of an Amendment which was put down in Committee by my hon. Friends the Members for Walthamstow, East (Mr. J. Harvey) and Ealing, North (Mr. Barter) and myself. What is sought to be done is to let the Bill cover the purposes for which it was intended. As time draws rapidly to a close, I do not propose to go further into the matter.