Clause 1 (Hansard, 6 April 1973)

§ Mr. Phillip Whitehead (Derby, North)
I beg to move Amendment No. 1, in page 1, line 5, leave out first '9' and insert '11'.
I am grateful to the House for accepting the motion of my hon. Friends and myself that this Bill should be considered in a Committee of the whole House. This Bill has widespread support on both sides of the House and there is a general wish to facilitate progress. When seeking leave to introduce the Bill under the Ten-Minute Rule procedure on 6th February I said that an hour or two of parliamentary time would allow us to make (he necessary amendments to the General Rate Act.
This amendment needs very little explanation because it is purely a drafting amendment. In the original Bill we 875 inadvertently inserted a reference to paragraph 9 of Schedule 9 of the General Rate Act 1967 when we meant paragraph 11. Paragraph 11 deals with areas of exclusion from assessment of income while paragraph 9 deals with areas of inclusion.

§ Mr. Whitehead
I beg to move Amendment No. 2, in line 6, after ' 1967 ', insert: 'and (as respects Scotland) of section 7(3) of the Rating Act 1966 '

§ The Chairman
With this we can also discuss Amendments Nos. 3, 4 and 13.

§ Mr. Whitehead
The amendments effectively extend the Bill to Scotland and therefore they are very largely drafting amendments.
It is always with some temerity that English and Welsh hon. Members attempt to extend any legislation to Scotland, with its different tradition in law, but, with the collaboration and help of the Department, we have decided that the Bill should be extended to Scotland. The purpose of the Bill, as set out in the Long Title, is to disregard payments of attendance allowances as income under the General Rate Act 1967. That Act extended only to England and Wales. Rate rebates in Scotland, the terms of which match exactly those afforded to domestic ratepayers in England and Wales, are granted under the Rating Act 1966, and clearly it would be inequitable if domestic ratepayers in Scotland were denied the benefit of the Bill if it became law.
The purpose of the amendment is to extend the Bill's provisions to domestic ratepayers in Scotland. On 3rd April last we approved an Instruction in the name of the Secretary of State for the Environment to the Committee that it should have power to add attendance allowances to the matters listed in Section 7(3) of the Rating Act 1966.

§ Mr. Whitehead
I beg to move Amendment No. 5, in page 1, line 10, after second 'of', insert 'any'.

§ The Chairman
With this we can also discuss Amendments Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 12.

§ Mr. Whitehead
As drafted, the Bill provides for the disregard to rate rebate purposes of the attendance allowances payable under the National Insurance Acts, and particularly those payable since December 1971 to the most severely disabled. The constant attendance allowances are payable under the War Pensions and Industrial Injuries Schemes and currently about 10,000 allowances are being paid. The Bill does not cover the recipients of those allowances and the Government have kindly intimated to me that they would propose to extend the Bill to cover them.
The purpose of the amendment is to extend the provisions of the Bill to include the constant attendance allowances payable under the War Pensions and Industrial Injuries Schemes. Treatment of all attendance allowances for rate rebate purposes will then coincide with their treatment for rent rebate and rent allowance purposes under paragraph 9 of Schedule 3 to the Housing Finance Act 1972.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Eldon Griffiths)
I am sure that it is entirely right that the amendment should be made, and I welcome it on behalf of the Government. As the hon. Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead) said, constant attendance allowances payable under the War Pensions and Industrial Injuries Schemes cover about 10,000 people. I doubt very much whether such a number of people will benefit from the amendment, but I am glad to welcome the hon. Gentleman's suggestion that the amendment should be made.

§ Mr. John Astor (Newbury)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Undersecretary of State on supporting the suggestion of the hon. Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead) about extending the effect of the Bill. Will my hon. Friend confirm that it will cover both sets of allowances—constant attendance allowance by day and by night, and the more recently introduced allowance by day or by night?

§ Mr. Whitehead
It is my hope that they are covered by the Bill. If I am wrong, perhaps the Minister will intervene to correct me. It was my intention that they should be covered when I introduced the Bill.

§ Mr. Eldon Griffiths
That is my understanding of the position, but it would be wise if I were to make sure and to let my hon. Friend the Member for New-bury (Mr. Astor) know before the Bill completes its passage in another place.