COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 29 July 1954)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, the last of the three Amendments which I ask your Lordships to approve is, in a sense, a corollary of the previous one. Clause 4 provides that the Act does not apply for the purpose, of any proceedings begun before December 16, 1952. An Amendment has been suggested in the terms your Lordships will see on the printed paper and subsection (1) of the clause will now run thus: (1) Subject to the next following subsection, effect shall be given to the provisions of this Act in legal proceedings begun before its commencement, as well as in those begun afterwards. 330 That is to say, the commencement of proceedings is not to debar the Act from applying. But the new subsection (2) provides that (2) This Act shall not affect any order or judgment made or given before its commencement in legal proceedings begun before the sixteenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, or any appeal or other proceedings consequent on any such order or judgment. That provides that the mere institution of proceedings shall not prevent the Act from applying, but if, in any proceedings instituted before December 16, 1952, judgment has been given before the Act comes into force, then the Act will not apply. That appears to be a fair compromise, and I hope that it will commend itself to your Lordships. I beg to move that this House do agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.