Lords Sitting of 1 May 1918

PONTYPRIDD AND RHONDDA JOINT WATER BOARD BILL. [H.L.]
  RAILWAY PASSENGERS ASSURANCE BILL. [H.L.]
  Read 3a (according to Order) and passed, and sent to the Commons.

  WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION (ILLEGAL EMPLOYMENT) BILL.
  Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
  VISCOUNT SANDHURST: My Lords, this is a very short and simple Bill. It is absolutely non-contentious, and it passed through all its stages in a single sitting in the House of Commons. It is to enable an injured workman to obtain compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, although the contract of service or apprenticeship under which the injured person was working at the time when the accident causing the injury happened was illegal. By the law, to recover compensation a workman, as your Lordships know, must be a workman within the meaning of the Act, and supposing that the employer has entered into an agreement which is illegal, the man has no status whatever. There have been cases before the Court where great hardship has thereby resulted, it having been declared by the Court that the workman was not entitled to compensation owing to the contract being illegal. The effect of this Bill is to enable compensation to be paid, in spite of the illegal contract. The right proposed is not absolute; it is left to the arbitrator to decide whether the illegality should be waived in favour of the workman; the Bill applies not only to accidents, but to industrial diseases, as industrial disease is, beyond a doubt, covered by the framework of the 1906 Act. I have stated the object of this Bill, and I beg to move that it be read a second time.
  Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a— (Viscount Sandhurst).
  On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.

  PRIVATE BILLS.
  [From Minutes of April 30.]
  The LORD CHANCELLOR The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House, that the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid upon the Table the Certificates from the Examiners that no further Standing Orders are applicable to the following Bills:

  Land Drainage (Lotting Fen) Provisional Order.

  Local Government Provisional Orders (No. 1).

  The same were ordered to lie on the Table.

  ALDERSHOT GAS, WATER, AND DISTRICT LIGHTING BILL. [H.L.]
  Reported from the Select Committee, with Amendments.
  SHROPSHIRE, WORCESTERSHIRE, AND STAFFORDSHIRE ELECTRIC POWER BILL. [H.L.]
  Reported from the Select Committee, with Amendments.
  COUNTY OF LONDON ELECTRIC SUPPLY BILL. [H.L.]
  Reported, with Amendments.

  NORTH CHESHIRE WATER BOARD BILL. [H.L.]
  Second Reading (which stands appointed for to-morrow) put off to Wednesday the 15th of May next.
  House adjourned at twenty-five minutes before five o'clock.