§ (1) If an Act of Tynwald is passed for purposes similar to the purposes of this Act, the Minister may, with the consent of the Treasury, make reciprocal arrangements with the appropriate Isle of Man authority for co-ordinating the provisions of this Act with the corresponding provisions of the Act of Tynwald so as to secure that they operate, to such extent as may be provided by the arrangements, as a single system.
§ (2) For the purposes of giving effect to any such arrangements, the Minister shall have power, in conjunction with the appropriate Isle of Man authority, to make any necessary financial adjustments between the Redundancy Fund and any fund established under the Act of Tynwald.
§ (3) The Minister may make regulations for giving effect in Great Britain to any such arrangements, and any such regulations may provide that this Act shall have effect in relation to persons affected by the arrangements subject to such modifications and adaptations as may be specified in the regulations, including provision—
- (a) for securing that acts, omissions and events having any effect for the purposes of
1683 the Act of Tyndwall shall have a corresponding effect for the purposes of this Act (but not so as to confer a right to double payment in respect of the same act, omission or event); and - (b) for determining, in cases where rights accrue both under this Act and under the Act of Tynwald, which of those rights shall be available to the person concerned.
§ (4) In this section "the appropriate Isle of Man authority" means such authority as may be specified in that behalf in an Act of Tynwald.—[Mr. Thornton.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ Mr. ThorntonI beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
This Clause gives us power to make arrangements for co-ordinating our scheme with any similar scheme which the Isle of Man may decide to introduce. This is a provision for which the Isle of Man has asked. Although it will not necessarily be introducing similar legislation now, it intends to do so in future, and it is desirable for the two schemes to be linked when it does.
Much of the Isle of Man's social security system already corresponds to ours—for example, in National Insurance matters—and the power which the new Clause gives us is broadly similar to the power to make reciprocal arrangements with other countries which exists under the National Insurance legislation and also to the power which we have taken in Clause 51 in respect of Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. GodberI do not think we need spend a great deal of time on this new Clause. It has brought back a breath of fresh air to our debates. It brings an entirely new point into the Bill. Most of the points which we have been considering were hammered out at great length in Committee. I must admit that the Opposition failed to note this point in Committee, and we are grateful to the Joint Parliamentary Secretary for calling our attention to it.
This is an interesting development. It makes provision for reciprocal arrangements. This is tied up in some respects with the next new Clause which deals with overseas territories. This question of reciprocity is of considerable interest. We shall want to consider the next new Clause a good deal more closely, 1684 but with good will, as always, to the Isle of Man, we welcome this new Clause.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.