ASSURANCE COMPANIES BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 5 August 1909)

LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELL

My Lords, we were prepared to go on with the Committee stage of this Bill to-day, but I understand that it is not convenient to certain noble Lords that this should be done, and therefore, with your Lordships' permission, we will put off this stage. Your Lordships will recollect that what happened was that on the Second Reading I undertook that the Committee stage should not be taken for three weeks, in order to allow a period for negotiations to take place. Those negotiations went on till last Friday, and therefore the notice for the Committee stage of the Bill was necessarily rather short, but we thought that those interested would be in a position to go on with the Bill in the time. But we do not wish to hurry the Bill in any way, though it is a very important Bill and one which we hope to see passed into law in the course of the session; and as we have been asked to put the Committee stage off we are willing to do so.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

My Lords, we are obliged to the noble Lord for the considerate statement he has made, though I do not think he told quite the whole story which seems to me a justification for asking for the postponement of this stage of the Bill. It is perfectly true that the negotiations with the insurance companies lasted for a good many weeks—they lasted until Friday of last week, and it was at a meeting of the insurance com- 956 panies on Friday that they received an intimation from the Board of Trade that their Amendments would not be accepted and that the Committee stage would be taken this week. The Bill was down for Committee, yesterday, and if you consider that of the four days which elapsed between the Friday and Wednesday one was a Sunday and the other a Bank Holiday you will see that the opportunity for consideration of what Amendments should be moved and how they should be drafted was rather too short. Those who are anxious to secure Amendments did their best and we placed some Amendments down last night, but I am conscious that they are not worded quite in the best form. Some of them are only alternative, and therefore are not in a form in which it is very convenient to argue them. I think I am justified in saying that it would be a little too hurried to go on with the Bill to-day, because only this morning a very large number of Amendments of considerable substance were put down in the name of the noble Lord who represents the Board of Trade. The Bill is one of thirty-six clauses, and there are thirty pages of schedules. It deals with the amendment of the law in regard to companies doing life assurance and fire and accident insurance business. It is a very technical Bill, and I am advised that it is not altogether consistent in some of its parts. Any one will see that a Bill which has for its objects—as set forth in the Memorandum prefixed to the Bill—the consolidation and amendment of the Life Assurance Companies Acts, 1870 and 1872, and of the Employers' Liability Insurance Companies Act, 1907, and the extension to companies carrying on fire insurance business and accident insurance business of the law relating to life assurance companies cannot be a simple measure. I am not connected with any insurance companies, of any sort or kind, but I am authorised to say that there is no hostility to the main provisions of the Bill. I believe that those concerned are most willing to see it passed into law. They hope for some Amendments, and with the further time which has been granted I believe those Amendments will be put down in the best possible form so as to lead to the smallest amount of discussion, and I hope that some of the Amendments placed on the Paper by Lord Hamilton to-day will make it unnecessary to proceed with some of the Amendments standing in my name.