§ The Solicitor-GeneralI beg to move amendment No. 8, in page 16, line 39 leave out from 'may' to the end of line 4 on page 17 and insert
'if in those proceedings property has been arrested or bail or other security has been given to prevent or obtain release from arrest—
- (a) order that the property arrested be retained as security for the satisfaction of any award or judgment which—
- (i) is given in respect of the dispute in the arbitration or legal proceedings in favour of which those proceedings are stayed or dismissed; and
- (ii) is enforceable in England and Wales or, as the case may be, in Northern Ireland; or
- (b) order that the stay or dismissal of those proceedings be conditional on the provision of equivalent security for the satisfaction of any such award or judgment.'.
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThese amendments improve clause 26, which provides for the retention of property arrested in Admiralty proceedings before a court in England or Northern Ireland, where the court grants a stay of those proceedings in favour of a reference to arbitration or to a court in an overseas country. In most cases the ship will have been released against bail or other security provided either to the court or privately to the plaintiff.
The amendments to clause 26 will ensure that the court may make a stay of proceedings conditional upon the provision of equivalent security, for example a bank guarantee, to satisfy any award or judgment given in the arbitration or foreign proceedings.
Amendment No. 41, which amends schedule 12, introduces a transitional provision which ensures that the new power contained in clause 26 will not apply to property or other security given before it comes into force.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Amendment made: No. 9, in page 17, line 11, leave out 'bail or other security '.—[The Solicitor-General for Scotland.]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI beg to move amendment No. 10, in page 17, line 15, leave out subsection (4).
Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to take Government amendments Nos. 12, 19, 21, 22, and 24.
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThese are purely drafting amendments.
Clauses 26, 31, 32, 33 and 34 all make various provisions about overseas judgments, and each defines the term "judgment" in the same way. The amendments delete all those definitions and substitute a single definition to the same effect in clause 50, which is the general interpretation clause.
§ Amendment agreed to.