HC Deb 25 July 1963 vol 681 cc1880-1

Lords Amendment: In page 85, line 20, at end insert new Clause "C": C.—(1) Any of the following councils, that is to say, the Greater London Council, the London borough councils and the Common Council, may pay compensation—

  1. (a) to any of their officers who sustains an injury in the course of his employment; or
  2. (b) to the widow or widower or child of any of their officers who, in the course of his employment, dies or sustains an injury resulting in death.
(2) Any compensation payable under this section may be paid either—
  1. (a) by way of a lump sum; or
  2. (b) by way of periodical payments of such amounts and payable at such times and for such periods as the council in question may from time to time determine having regard to all the circumstances of the case.
 (3) The payment of compensation under this section shall not affect any right or claim to damages or compensation which an officer of any of the councils aforesaid or his widow or widower or child may have against any person other than that council or, except so far as may be agreed when the compensation is granted against that council.

Mr. Corfield

I beg to move, That this House does agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This Clause has been included in substitution for what was paragraph 13 of the Second Schedule. The change is intended to extend these provisions to the London boroughs as well as the G.L.C. When we discussed this matter in Committee a case was put forward for extension throughout the country, but the Government felt—I think with the agreement of the Opposition—that that was not suitable. This applies to the Greater London Area.

Mr. M. Stewart

This is a most welcome Amendment. Are we to understand from what the Parliamentary Secretary has said that the power to pay compensation for an officer who sustains injury or to his widow or dependant in the case of death, will belong when the Bill has passed to the Greater London Council, the London boroughs and the Common Council, but not to boroughs outside London?

Mr. Corfield indicated assent.

Mr. Stewart

If that is so, it is something that we cannot remedy in this Bill, but something of which the House should take note because here we are creating an anomaly in the right way. We are creating an anomaly which opens the way for a change elsewhere.

Dr. Alan Glyn

I thought I detected in what my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary said a suggestion that the Government have in mind at a later stage to extend this provision to other parts of the country, but I may be wrong.

Mr. Corfield

I cannot commit myself to any time-table or anything of that nature, but I think it clear that, having gone this far, we would want to look at the matter in a wider context.

Question put and agreed to. [Special Entry.]