HC Deb 09 June 1988 vol 134 cc1070-1
Mr. Waldegrave

I beg to move amendment No. 38, in page 84, line 34 after 'residing', insert 'in the dwelling-house'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 39 and 71.

Mr. Waldegrave

Again, I hope that there will be no disagreement over this amendment. Schedule 3 describes the conditions that must be fulfilled for a tenancy or licence to qualify as an assured agricultural occupancy. I am not an expert on this because when the Committee discussed these matters I was engaged in the same kind of activity as that engaged in recently by the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Mr. Soley).

The agricultural worker condition may be fulfilled if the property concerned is occupied by the widow or widower of an assured agricultural occupancy on that person's death. Amendment No. 39 provides that a person living with the tenant as husband or wife shall be treated as a widow or widower in such a case. It brings the provision into line with changes that we are making elsewhere in the Bill by putting the unmarried partner on the same footing as the legal spouse.

Amendment No. 38 is essentially a drafting amendment to make it clear that, where it is a qualifying family member who may meet the agricultural worker condition, that family member must have been living in the property.

Amendment agreed to.

Amendments made: No. 39, in page 84, line 45 at end insert— `(5) For the purposes of the preceding provisions of this paragraph a person who, immediately before the previous occupier's death, was living with the previous occupier as his or her wife or husband shall be treated as the widow or widower of the previous occupier.' No. 71, in page 84, line 50, at end insert `and'.—[Mr. Waldegrave.]

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