DEPENDANTS (Hansard, 2 April 1979)

§ Mr. Harold Walker
I beg to move amendment No. 1, in page 3, line 41, leave out subsection (4).

The First Deputy Chairman
With this it will be convenient to take new clause 1, entitled "Payments for the benefit of minors, &c."

§ Mr. Walker
The Committee will have noted that subsection (4) refers to persons incapable of managing their own affairs and, in that event, the Secretary of State having power to appoint a trustee to act on their behalf. To limit the Bill in that way to dependants could put sufferers at a disadvantage who may be incapable of managing their own affairs. The Secretary of State should be able to appoint trustees to receive payments as in the Bill as drafted he is able to do with dependants. 1126 It makes sense and is equitable to extend the Bill in the manner that is proposed by removing subsection (4) and subsequently replacing it by a separate clause.

§ Mr. Harold Walker
I beg to move amendment No. 2, in page 4, line 11, at end insert— '( ) In the application of subsection (1) above to Scotland, for paragraph (c) there shall be substituted the following paragraph— (c) if neither of the preceding paragraphs applies but he left a person residing with who, but for some impediment to marriage, would be entitled to obtain a declarator of marriage with him by cohabitation with habit and repute, that person;".' The amendment is designed to make an adaptation for Scotland of the phrase "reputed spouse" that appears in clause 3(1)(c). That phrase is intended to cover a man who is living with a woman who is held up by him as his wife but who is not married to him. In England that term poses no difficulty. Something like it has already been used in the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The object of the amendment is to put the matter beyond doubt and to ensure that the same classes of people are covered in Scotland as in England.