HC Deb 29 November 1966 vol 737 cc215-7

3.32 p.m.

Sir Barnett Janner(Leicester, North-West)rose

Mr. Speaker

Order. Will hon. Members who wish to leave the Chamber do so quietly and those who remain sit down?

Sir B. Janner

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the payment of compensation for injury or damage caused by animals straying on the highway. This is perhaps an appropriate moment to ask, for the fourth time in a number of years, for leave which has been granted on three previous occasions to me and to several hon. Members prior to me. When the Law Commisison issued its First Annual Report, it stated, under Item V, Civil Liability for Animals: The law concerning civil liability for damage done by animals has over a number of years been widely criticised both in the courts and by the general public. The general trend of criticism is that the law is too dependent on distinctions which belong to a past age, and that it fails to deal with contemporary needs. The Report of the Committee on the Law of Civil Liability for Damage by Animals"— then there is an asterisk referring to a Cmnd. Paper of 1953; and I emphasise this, because it is rather important in relation to what I shall say— which attempted to make these criticisms has not yet been implemented, and various attempts in Parliament to reform the law, or particular aspects of it, have so far met with no success. I fail to understand, and I am sure that hon. Members and the general public will fail to understand, why a Bill such as I now seek leave to introduce has not yet reached its final stages and been put on the Statute Book so as to protect the many thousands of people who are affected by the present silly situation. Perhaps I should not say "silly" in relation to such a tragic situation.

We are devising ways and means of stopping accidents on the roads. We are told that within a measurable term of years there will be as many motor cars on the road as there are inhabitants in the country at present. The death and injury toll rises by leaps and bounds. Something could be done to cure, or at least mitigate, this toll if there were a law compelling a person who did not fence his land and who allowed animals to stray on to the road to pay compensation if someone was injured.

This is a very serious question, because many breadwinners have been killed or mutilated because the owners of animals or of land on which animals graze do not have proper fencing and permit animals to stray. As a result of straying animals, motorists, no matter how careful they might have been, have been killed or maimed merely because there is not a law sufficiently stringent to make the owners of land aware of the duty upon them, not only in a criminal sense but also in a civil sense.

I gather from an Answer given a few days ago that the Home Office Bill which is about to be presented will increase the fines payable in certain circumstances in respect of straying animals. This will not meet the point to which I am directing the attention of the House, because the Law Commission was quite right to consider this proposition practically at the beginning of its activities. The House will forgive me if I repeat the very succinct statement made by Lord Greene in a case dealing with a matter of this description.

A few moments ago I said that a Committee had considered the matter; it was under the guidance of the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard. It stated categorically that the position should be remedied; it said in no uncertain terms that there was no question of the necessity for this; and it stated the method by which it could be done. Thirteen years have passed, and during that time numerous people have tried to get some kind of compensation but have been told by their lawyers that it is entirely impossible, because the law does not provide for compensation in these cases.

Lord Greene said: The rule appears to be ill adapted to modern conditions. A farmer who allows his cow to stray through a gap in his hedge on to his neighbour's land, where it consumes a few cauliflowers, is liable in damages to his neighbour, but if, through a similar gap in the hedge, it strays on to the road and causes the overturning of a motor omnibus, with death or injury to thirty or forty people, he is under no liability at all. I scarcely think that that is a satisfactory state of affairs in the twentieth century. If it should prove not to be open to the House of Lords to deal with the rule, the attention of the legislature might be directed to considering the whole position with a view to ensuring the safety of his Majesty's subjects when they are lawfully using the highway.… Lord Greene explained that the Committee had sat and pointed out, as did Lord Donovan, who was once a Member of this House, that the law as it stood was seriously defective in this sense.

I have received a vast number of letters from time to time and so have other hon. Members. Many are tragic, and I should like to quote from just one or two.

Mr. Speaker

Order. I must remind the hon. Gentleman that he has two minutes left.

Sir B. Janner

I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker, and that is why I said that I would quote from just one or two letters.

One was from a man who was travelling by car with his wife on the A.11 at 10 a.m., when … without any warning (neither of us saw anything) a bull jumped on to the bonnet, went through the windscreen, ripped the roof, and rolled off the back of the car. We were both knocked unconscious, the car landing up on the opposite grass verge against a tree. He then refers to their injuries, which had to be attended to.

That is but one among dozens of letters which contain a similar kind of complaint. I am sure that the House will realise that it is time that the situation was remedied and will grant me leave to introduce the Bill.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Sir Barnett Janner, Mr. Arthur Probert, Mr. Alexander Lyon, Mr. Kevin McNamara, Mr. Richard Mitchell, Mr. Paul B. Rose, Mr. Stanley Orme, Sir Myer Galpern, Mrs. Braddock, Mr. Eric Ogden, and Mr. Harry Howarth.