ALLOCATION OF FEUDUTIES (Hansard, 11 May 1970)

§ Mr. Buchan
I beg to move Amendment No. 13, in page 4, line 32, leave out ' a ' and insert ' any '.
This is a minor drafting Amendment, the purpose of which is to bring subsection (1) into line with Clause 1(1). In Committee we accepted an Opposition Amendment to change the reference from " a land obligation " to " any land obligation ". That is what we are doing here. This has the additional advantage that it makes it clear that if allocation is effected of one portion of the cumulo feuduty, what is left becomes a cumulo feuduty, and the portions of this " rump " can he the subject of further notices of allocation. This is, therefore, consistent with the Bill, and valuable in itself.

§ Mr. Buchan
I beg to move Amendment No. 14, in page 5, line 4, after ' superior ', insert ' or upon any other person to whom the cumulo feuduty is paid on his behalf '.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this Amendment we are to take Amendment No. 15, in page 5, line 4, after ' superior ', insert ' or his agent '.

§ Mr. Buchan
The purpose of the Amendment is to make it clear that a notice of allocation need not be served on the superior personally, and that it will be lawful to serve it on a person acting on his behalf, for example, a factor or other agent, such as a solicitor. I understand that that is also the purpose of the Opposition Amendment.
The Amendment arises from a discussion in Committee. We have not followed the Opposition Amendment because we think that " agent " might be misunderstood. There could be a situation with a cumulo feuduty in which the individual feuar paid to the person whom we called upstairs the unpaid debt collector. He might think that he had paid the agent of the superior. We have chosen these words to make it clear to all concerned that the alternative to the superior as the person to be approached is the person to whom the whole cumulo feuduty is paid on the superior's behalf; namely, a solicitor or a factor.
912 I think that both sides of the House are trying to obtain the same thing. For the reasons which I have given I hope that the hon. and learned Gentleman will agree that our Amendment is probably more appropriate.

§ Mr. Wylie
I think that Amendment No. 15 was put down without taking notice of Amendment No. 14. It was really a probing Amendment. I am not sure that it is technically necessary to put in a provision like this, but if someone pays over a debt to someone else, for instance a body corporate, the only way it can be done is by paying it to an officer of the company. I think that an obligation to serve upon a superior could be fulfilled by serving on anyone acting with the superior's authority as his agent, and it sometimes makes it clearer. I think that Amendment No. 14 does that, and it should commend itself to the House.

§ Mr. Buchan
I beg to move Amendment No. 16, in page 5, line 8, after shall ' insert ' be in, or as nearly as may be in, such form as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State by statutory instrument, and shall '. I gave notice to the Committee of my intention to do this. What we are doing is prescribing by Statutory Instrument a form of notice of allocation to be served by the vassal on his superior. In Committee I stressed that I had been working to achieve informality to make it as easy as possible for the unpaid debt collector to escape from his unpleasant duty. It may be thought that introducing a form will of itself reduce this informality, but I do not think this will be the case.
The Amendment will make it easier for the individual vassal, the co-feuar, to fill in a form, which will be a simple one, rather than write a letter of the kind that is necessary. We want this form to be as widely available to the public as possible. We hope that a second benefit will he to encourage all vassals, and not merely the unpaid debt collector, to exercise their rights to seek allocation.
I am following up an undertaking which I gave in Committee to make it as easy as possible for other vassals to have it made known to them that this is being done. The form will contain a statement urging the person filling it in to tell his 913 co-vassals what he is doing. This will deal with a real problem which was raised in Committee, and I hope that the Amendment will prove acceptable to the House.

§ Mr. Wylie
In Committee we had a long debate on the problems arising under these provisions. There is no doubt that to meet the infinite variety of circumstances which may arise it is better to deal with the matter with a degree of flexibility rather than try to write this into the Bill, which is what my hon. Friends and I were seeking to do.
I am sure that everyone with an interest in the matter knows what is going on and it is desirable that there should be some standardisation in the process. The Amendment is calculated to achieve that, and I think that it should commend itself to the House.

§ Mr. Willis
I thank the Government for bringing forward the Amendment. I am not as happy with it as the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh, Pent-lands (Mr. Wylie) is, but it is an endeavour by the Government to meet a point raised by hon. Members on both sides of the Committee. Insofar as it does that, it is an improvement.