CONVEYANCING (SCOTLAND) AMENDMENT BILL. (Hansard, 17 July 1924)

§ LORD DUNEDIN

My Lords, in 1905 I was appointed Chairman of a Royal Commission to inquire as to whether the law of Scotland could be amended cither by introducing registration of title—the present arrangement in Scotland being registration of deed—or in other ways. That Commission sat and we made a Report, which advised two things—First, that a certain experimental trial of registration of title should be made, and, secondly, that a great deal could be done in the direction of the simplification of conveyancing. That Report had the fate which I think has been common to many Reports. Everybody approved of it and nobody did anything in consequence of it. In 1911, after six years more, the Lord Advocate of the day appointed a Committee of eminent Scottish lawyers, unconnected with politics, to see what measures they could recommend for the general improvement of the law of Scotland. That Committee, composed of Sir George Paul, Mr. Chree, and Mr. Prosser, has worked continuously ever since, and I think Scotland owes them a great debt of thanks. Several of the Bills they have produced have become law, and this Bill is their Bill.

This is the second edition of the Bill. It has been subjected to heavy criticism. and a good many alterations have been made in it. I cannot, say that opinion is absolutely unanimous, because there are some in Scotland who are against it, but they are only against it on this point—namely, that they would rather like, instead of amending the law, to make a clear sweep and begin from the beginning. That is a proposition which is rather hard and obviously prevents improvement. I have said this because I wish it to be understood that I am not in any way responsible for this Bill. I am not its parent in any sense. I was not consulted about it, and I should not have taken the responsibility of bringing it before your Lordships unless I had looked carefully into it and could say that I thought it was a thoroughly good Bill. The reason why I have taken this position is, in the first place, that I had that far-off connection with it in 1905, and, secondly, that the Bill is so technical that if any of your Lordships are of a curious turn of mind I really believe that I am the only man in the House who could answer the conundrums that you might put.

692 The Bill itself can be described in a very few words. First of all, it does away with the cumbrous form known as the notarial instrument. In very many ways it shortens this. Then it deals with, and very much simplifies, the method of finding out and commuting rights of terce and courtesy. Those are the rights which a husband and wife respectively have in the estate of a deceased spouse. Last of all—and probably this is the chief improvement—it reduces the prescription of heritable rights from twenty years to ten. What is more, it reduces the present searches to a period of five years. I may remind your Lordships what a search means. If you are getting an estate from anybody, in order to see that the title is good you have to have a search in the register to see that there are no burdens affecting it. The result of this will be a great cheapening, because the search will be so much shorter. I really think that your Lordships may safely give a Second Reading to the Bill, seeing that it has passed the inquiry which was directed to it in another place.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, my noble and learned friend has said that he is not directly responsible for the initiation of this Bill. That is quite true, but the fact that he has taken it up and has expressed his full approval of it will have great weight with your Lordships' House. My noble and learned friend's experience is unrivalled, so far as Scottish law is concerned, and when he comes here with his great authority and says that this is a Bill which we ought to pass, and gives reasons for that advice, that is a consideration to which we will attach great weight. It is true that opinion in Scotland has not been unanimous regarding this Bill, but the reason has been, not that the Bill is regarded as a bad one, but that something larger was wanted. I do not myself see any immediate prospect of that larger measure being brought in and passed. I hope it will come, but I cannot say at what period the Government will be ready to introduce such a measure, or to go into the details that have to be examined before it can be fashioned.

This Bill effects what I believe to be very substantial improvements in the Scottish law of conveyancing The Government is not responsible for it, but 693 it has been examined by the Lord Advocate and scanned closely, and the Lord Advocate, who is also a great authority upon the law of Scotland, agrees with my noble and learned friend Lord Dunedin, that this is a Bill which ought to pass. It has the good fortune to have passed the House of Commons, and now it comes here. Speaking for the Government, I commend this Bill to your Lordships' attention, and I think that it should be read a second time.