COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 31 July 1962)

§ LORD CHESHAM
My Lords, this Amendment, arises out of the discussion 143 of the question whether a compulsory rights order confers any rights of support to a pipe-line laid in land. This is, in a sense, rather a legal question. There was lengthy discussion on this paint, and the Minister considered this subject very carefully in the light of what was said. But he was again advised, as he had been all along, that if there was a question to be answered as to whether a compulsory rights order under the clause as it stands conferred a right of support, the courts would be likely to hold that it did not. But it still can be only a matter of opinion that the court would be likely so to hold, because there have been no cases (there could not have been, of course) strictly comparable to those which might arise under the Bull. It is quite possible that, if the Bill were passed in its present form, it might be necessary for there to be litigation to establish conclusively whether or not a compulsory rights order conferred rights of support. I do not think it would be right to leave the matter like that, and it has never been the intention that it should confer rights of support. That is what this Amendment says, my Lords, and that is what it does.

§ THE EARL OF LUCAN
My Lords, would the noble Lord explain what the phrase "rights of support" means.

§ LORD CHESHAM
If I can put it in layman's language I will try, though I may have to sit down in favour of the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack. As I understand it, it means that, having acquired the right to put your pipe-line on somebody's land, the owner of the land must not then go and start quarrying gravel and digging material away, and so on, so that your pipe-line collapses. I think that is an oversimplified explanation.
My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.