OFFENCES IN CONNECTION WITH REGULATIONS UNDER S. 56 (Hansard, 4 August 1971)

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

Mr. Deputy Speaker
We can also discuss Lords Amendment No. 127 with this.

§ Mr. Dudley Smith
This is a small but not unimportant Amendment. As the Bill stands, a person would be guilty of an offence if he made a statement which he knew to be false or recklessly made a statement which was false in furnishing information required by regulations made under Clause 56.
This could mean, for example, that an employer would be liable to prosecution simply because some minor and unimportant detail in his submission had gone unchecked and, therefore, was incorrect. The acceptance of this Amendment and Amendment 127 will make it clear that only if an employer submitted information which was incorrect to a significant degree would he be liable to prosecution.
Two other parts of the Bill, paragraphs 36(2) and 44(4)(c) of Schedule 3 also defines circumstances in which furnishing false information constitutes an offence. In both cases the offences will be committed only if the information submitted is false in a material particular. The Amendment and that associated with it will bring Clause 57 into line with these provisions.