INSURANCE BUSINESS (Hansard, 6 April 1981)

§ Mr. Eyre
I beg to move amendment No. 18, in page 24, line 30, after 'body', insert `not being a body carrying on a banking business'.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this we may take Government amendment No. 19.

§ Mr. Eyre
The amendment corrects an unintended consequence of the present wording of paragraph (c) of clause 34, which has come to light since the Committee stage. The overall intention of paragraph (c) is that capital redemption and managed pension fund business should be subject to the authorisation and supervisory requirements of the legislation only when carried on by a company that is already an insurance company.
Inadvertently, banks have also been caught. A bank carrying on business permitted by clause 2(4) is carrying on business which is insurance business apart from clause 34(c) and would, on the present wording, require the appropriate authorisation. The amendment simply excludes banks from the bodies described in lines 30 to 32, 744 on page 24. Amendment No. 19 is also concerned with the circumstances in which capital redemption and managed pension fund business is to be treated as insurance business. Our overall intention is to treat such business as insurance business only when carried on by an insurance company. The change from section to paragraph corrects the anomaly.

§ Mr. Clinton Davis
Once again the Minister has been moved by the possibility of many difficulties. I have had representations from my constituents, and my hon. Friends the Members for Norwood (Mr. Fraser) and Norwich, South (Mr. Garrett) have received representations from their constituents about this tremendously important matter. I was impressed by the way in which the hon. Gentleman explained the case. I could not understand a word of it.