ARBITRATIONS (Hansard, 21 April 1983)

§ Mr. O'Neill
I beg to move amendment No. 9, in page 5, line 11, leave out from 'arbiter' to end of line 12.
The amendment is designed to afford an opportunity for a more informal style of arbitration whereby the parties concerned could agree to the appointment of an arbiter without going to the Secretary of State or the land court. We feel that such a provision could well speed up the business. In addition, it might be cheaper and easier to implement. We do not regard this as an issue of great principle—we do not think that it should be enshrined in the holy writ of the agreement between the Scottish Landowners Federation, the National Farmers Union and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries — but we consider it to be a reasonable amendment to which the Government should give sympathetic consideration.

§ Mr. John MacKay
As the Bill stands, parties will have a clear choice between agreeing to appoint an arbiter privately to determine the level of rent and rent reviews, in which event they agree in advance to accept the arbiter's decision whatever it may be, or to have the opportunity of appealing against the level of rent determined, in which event they can ask the Secretary of State to appoint an arbiter. That arbiter will be obliged by the Bill's provisions to state in writing his findings of fact and the reasons for his decision.
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Parties will therefore have a clear choice of opting for private rent arbitration, in the clear knowledge that: there will be no right of appeal, or for appointment by the Secretary of State, in which case there will be the right of appeal. To provide a right of appeal in all rent review arbitration cases, as proposed by the amendment, would represent a significant and unnecessary statutory intrusion into private arbitration. As the tenant and landlord have the choice of which route to follow, we feel it right to resist the amendment and to leave that choice available to the parties.

§ Mr. John MacKay
I beg to move amendment No. 10, in page 5, line 14, leave out 'one month' and insert 'two months'.
After debate in Committee I undertook to review the one-month period and to return on Report with an amendment to extend the period to two months, and that I am doing. I commend the amendment to the House.

§ Mr. Home Robertson
Again, I thank the Minister for this gigantic compromise. He will recall that in Committee I argued that one month was not sufficient to allow a busy working farmer to deal with his paper work. I cited my own experience as a busy working farmer in my time, when it was not unheard of for brown envelopes to lie around in large quantities on my desk, especially at busy times of the year such as harvest time and seeding time.
465 As the Bill was drafted, it would have been quite possible for a tenant farmer to find that his appeal against a rent assessment was time barred because of the original excessive restrictions which gave the farmer only one month to give notice of appeal against his rent assessment. A historic compromise is before us, and we should be thankful for small mercies.