PROTECTION OF DEPOSITORS BILL (Hansard, 25 April 1963)

HL Deb 25 April 1963 vol 248 cc1307-9 1307

§ 3.8 p.m.

§ Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee read.

§ Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee.—(Lord Derwent.)

§ On Question, Motion agreed to.

§ House in Committee accordingly.

§ [The LORD MERTHYR in the Chair.]

§ Clauses 1 to 11 agreed to.

§ Clause12 [Change of business]:

§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, BOARD OF TRADE (LORD DERWENT) moved in subsection (4), to leave out all words from "section" down to and including "notice". The noble Lord said: With the approval of the Committee, I will speak to Amendments Nos. 1 to 5 together because they all deal with the same point. As the Bill is now drafted, Clause 12 (4) provides that any notice under that clause shall be in such form as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Board of Trade by statutory instrument. That is the clause dealing with change of business only. As drafted, the Amendments extend this power to make regulations prescribing the form of notices to all notices which the Bill requires to be delivered to the Registar of Companies or sent in writing to depositors or prospective depositors. They do so by deleting this provision which applies only to Clause 12 (4) about the prescribed form of the notices required by that clause, and by adding to the next clause, Clause 13, a new subsection which enables the Board to make regulations prescribing the form of any of the notices which must be delivered to the Registrar, or given in writing to depositors or prospective depositors. It simply extends this power to other clauses.

§ The reason for proposing these Amendments is, first, that the notices delivered to the Registrar will be put on public files, and should therefore be in such a form that the public can readily identify them as what they are. Secondly, the notices sent to depositors or prospective depositors are concerned with somewhat 1308 complicated matters, and should therefore be in a form which will ensure that they contain the right information and set it out as clearly as possible. A precedent for prescribing the form of notices exists in the Companies Act. The Board does, in fact, prescribe the form of the notices required to be delivered under that Act, and we think the Board should have the same power under this Act. I beg to move.

§ Amendment moved— Page 11, line 6, leave out from ("section") to ("shall") in line 8.—(Lord Derwent.)

§ LORD LATHAM
As the noble Lord, Lord Derwent, has said, these Amendments are principally procedural. They have the effect of widening the application of certain other provisions of the Bill, and I submit they can be approved.