MEANING OF "DIRECTOR", "CONTROLLER" AND "MANAGER" (Hansard, 14 February 1979)

§ Mr. Ian Stewart

I beg to move amendment no. 27, in page 50, line 24, leave out "immediate".

The subsection to which this relates, subsection (4), contains a definition of the word "manager". It says: (4) 'Manager', in relation to an institution means a person (other than the chief executive) employed by the institution who, under the immediate authority of a director or chief executive of the institution— We had a brief debate in Committee on clause 41, relating to exemptions from the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. It is as a follow-through to that debate that I have tabled amendment no. 27 to raise once more, in a slightly weaker form, the amendment which I moved in Committee which sought to widen the term "manager" to cover all employees.

The Minister said that he did not feel that it was right to widen exemptions from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act in that way because it would breach the whole purpose of the Act, which is that, after a time, spent convictions may be disregarded for the purposes of employment and for many other reasons. There remains a problem here because the exemptions for banking purposes are drawn narrowly.

We are dealing only with directors, controllers or managers. That would be all right if the word "manager" had its normal meaning, if it meant those who had full management responsibility. But in the larger institutions in particular the term "manager" covers a number of executives, many of whom may not be under the immediate authority of a director or the chief executive. Nevertheless, they may have senior managerial functions and it may be quite proper that the bank or employing institution should have the right to know about convictions, even if they are spent for other purposes.

Most of those who graduate to the position of director or chief executive will have moved in the recent past through the office of manager, and so on, where they may not have been under the immediate authority of a director. They 1254 may have been one or two positions removed but, nevertheless, exercising genuine managerial functions.

I doubt whether the Minister will accept even this widening of the definition. It seems much narrower than the general one relating to "employee" which I moved in Committee. So far, the point is not quite dealt with. Perhaps, even though we may not be successful tonight, this is something which ought to be raised again, bearing in mind that there are further stages of the Bill when the Minister's thoughts can be taken further into account.

§ Mr. Denzil Davies

I do not think that there is a normal definition of "manager". This is part of the problem. The definition does not just apply to the legislation dealing with the rehabilitation of offenders. It goes wider and has to comprehend all the provisions in the Bill. We have received representations from the Finance Houses Association to the effect that the present formulation goes too wide, especially in respect of branches where each branch manager reports direct to the chief executive.

It could be said that in that case if there was immediate reporting that person would be a manager. Again, therefore, one must try to balance one against the other. As I have said, there is no natural meaning of the word "manager", but bearing in mind that we do not want the definition to be extended too widely the draftsman chose the word "immediate". and I have heard nothing to convince me to change that.