HC Deb 26 July 1963 vol 681 cc2015-6

Lords Amendment: In page 60, line 17, at end insert: (2) The foregoing subsection shall not apply to a prosecution for an offence consisting in a failure to comply with an obligation imposed under section 49(1) of this Act to notify the appropriate authority that persons would be employed to work in any premises; but in any such prosecution it shall be a defence to prove that the persons in question were employed to work in the premises while they were occupied as mentioned in the foregoing subsection,".

Mr. Whitelaw

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

The provisions of Clause 84 which relate to premises occupied for transitory purposes did not provide in the form in which it left this House a defence against an offence committed under subsection (1) of Clause 49. This is because Clause 49(1) requires an employer to register the proposed employment of persons in office, shop or railway premises before he begins to employ them. In the case of such an offence it would not be possible to prove, as required by Clause 84, that at the time of the alleged contravention the premises were occupied for a temporary purpose during a period beginning with the first day of occupation and ending six months or six weeks later as the case may be.

The new subsection contained in this Amendment adapts Clause 84 to the requirements of Clause 49 with the result that an occupier would have a defence against failing to register the employment of persons whom he proposed to employ in the premises for the purpose lasting less than six months or six weeks as the case may be.

Question put and agreed to.