SECOND READING. (Hansard, 16 May 1892)

*THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN
My Lords, this Bill, to which I now ask your Lordships to give a Second Reading, is, with the exception of one or two particulars to which I will call attention in a moment, identical with a Bill which passed through this House in 1885, and which, while it was in this House, was considered in its details by a Select Committee. My Lords, this Bill has two main objects; it imposes upon all Water Companies who supply water for profit an obligation to send to every consumer a demand note containing the particulars of charge, and it also requires all Water Companies, when a dispute arises between them and any consumer of their water, to abstain from cutting off until a decision of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction has been obtained. In order that I may make clear to your Lordships the reasons for this Bill I may remind your Lordships of what the law is with regard to all Water Companies. At the present time on the first day of the quarter every consumer of water is required to tender to 938 the office of the Water Company a quarter's payment of his water rate in advance, and he is also supposed by the law of England to know what the amount of his debt to the Water Company is; there is no obligation upon the Water Company to give any particulars of charge, and if on the first day of the quarter the consumer has not tendered to the Water Company the correct quarter's rate in advance, the Company are empowered and have the absolute right the very next day to cut off the supply of water. Under these circumstances, my Lords, it would be very strange if a good many abuses had not arisen, and this has been the case as some years ago I proved before the Select Committee. My Lords, this Bill passed through this House in 1885, but it was afterwards lost owing to want of time in the other House of Parliament, although certain portions of it were passed into law by Mr. Forrest Fulton two years later. I am now going to ask your Lordships again to pass the Bill, and I still have some hopes that there is time for it to become law. I believe it will be very useful if Parliament shall be able to pass it. I will now call your Lordships' attention in a very few words to the contents of the Bill. Under Clause 4 the Company is required to send to the consumer a demand note containing particulars of charge, and those particulars are to be furnished at various dates, which are more or less frequent as the house is a larger or a smaller house. The next point is that the consumer is allowed twenty-one days within which to consider the charges which are made, and, if during that time he thinks that any of those charges are open to dispute, he is allowed to dispute them; but at the same time he is obliged by the Bill to send in the particulars to which he objects, and the charge which he thinks ought to be made in lieu of the charge which is actually made. Then, in these cases of dispute, the Company are not allowed, as they are now, to settle the matter by cutting off the supply, but must bring the consumer before a Court of Summary Jurisdiction; and when the dispute is decided, if it is decided in favour of the Company, the Company may issue a notice that they will cut off the supply, which notice 939 must run 14 days. In the same way in cases where no dispute has arisen the companies are allowed to at once issue a notice of their intention to cut off, which notice likewise has to run 14 days; and, if within those 14 days the bill has not been paid, then it is allowable for the Company to cut off the supply. I think those are the main provisions of the Bill. There are certain other minor provisions to which perhaps I may call attention in Committee, but which are devised quite as much in the interests of the companies as in those of the consumers. I ought perhaps to call attention to Clause 13 which defines the extent of the Act. Clause 13 states that this Act shall apply to where water is supplied for domestic purposes, and also to such cases where it is supplied partly for trade business or manufacture and partly for domestic purposes, if the amount in respect of domestic purposes is greater than the amount of the water rate for the other purposes. That last reservation is to meet a particular case. There are I understand a great many small shops where the shopkeeper lives above his shop, and it would be highly inconvenient if the house portion of the shop were to be subject to the Bill, and if the shop below were not so; but your Lordships will see that if the charge for the trade purposes be larger than the supply for domestic purposes, then the Bill is not to apply. That is the chief point of difference between this Bill and the Bill of 1885. I now ask your Lordships to give the Bill a Second Reading.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Lord KNUTSFOED)
Might I ask the noble Earl what are the other points of difference?

*THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN
Under Clause 11, which is a new clause, when a Water Company cuts off the supply, the Company is to be required to give the Sanitary Authority notice that it is cut off—that is in accordance with the general law. There are other changes in drafting, but I am not aware of any other change in substance.