SECOND READING. (Hansard, 13 November 1893)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HERSCHELL)

My Lords, the object of this Bill is to give further facilities in relation to deposits in savings banks. At present the limit of the amount of deposits in any one year is £30. It is proposed to raise that limit to £50. When the Bill was introduced, the proposal was to raise it to £100. That met with some opposition, and finally, as a compromise and settlement of the matter, the £50 was agreed upon. The Bill does not propose to make any alteration in the total amount which may be deposited. As regards Government Stock which may be directed to be purchased, it raises the amount which may be purchased in any one year from £100 to £200, 758 and it raises the aggregate purchases from £300 to £500. In addition to that, it makes a small but useful change. At the present time if a sum of money deposited has, owing to an emergency, to be called in by the customer, that sum may be replaced once in the year without its being counted in the total amount which the customer is allowed to deposit during the year. That is the law already as regards monetary deposits; but as regards the purchase of Stock, if Stock which is purchased has been sold out to meet an emergency, there is no power to replace that Stock without its counting with regard to the limit permitted in any one year. The Bill proposes to put the Stock on the same footing as the money, and to allow Stock which has been sold out to be replaced not more than once in any savings bank year in one entire sum. The only other provision to which I think I need call your Lordships' attention is this: that there is to be in future an automatic provision in regard to the interest on investments upon deposit. At present, when the amount deposited arrives at and exceeds the limit allowed—say that it exceeds £200—the excess remains standing to the credit of the customer, but without any interest being paid upon it. The proposal of the Bill is that where the amount in the manner which I have prescribed exceeds the limit, that excess shall, without any direction of the customer, be invested in Stock. I think those are all the provisions with which I need trouble your Lordships, and I trust you will see that the Bill is one which merits your support. I beg to move its Second Reading.