IRON AND STEEL (COMPENSATION TO OFFICERS AND SERVANTS) REGULATIONS, 1964 (Hansard, 28 April 1964)

§ LORD DERWENT

My Lords, I beg to move, that the draft Iron and Steel (Compensation to Officers and Servants) (Amendment) Regulations, 1964, be approved. Section 24 of the Iron and Steel Act, 1953, requires my right honourable friend the Minister of Power to make regulations for the payment of compensation to employees of publicly owned iron and steel companies who 892 suffer loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments or pension rights in consequence of denationalisation. Such regulations require an Affirmative Resolution by each House.

The Iron and Steel (Compensation to Officers and Servants) (No. 2) Regulations, 1953, made under Section 24 of the Act, provide that the disturbances leading to a claim must have occurred not later than ten years after the coming into operation of the Regulations. This period expired on December 31, 1963.

The draft Regulations now before your Lordships' House extend the period during which claims for compensation may be made by persons who would otherwise be prevented from doing so by reason of the postponement of the return of their employing company to private ownership. They amend the 1953 Regulations to provide that one of the conditions to be satisfied by a person claiming resettlement compensation for termination of employment is that the termination must have occurred not later than ten years after the relevant event, instead of ten years after the coming into operation of the 1953 Regulations. The relevant event is defined in the 1953 Regulations as the exercise by the Iron and Steel Holding and Realisation Agency of their powers under the Act for the purpose of securing the return to private ownership of the undertaking, being the exercise which results in the disturbance leading to the claim.

A necessary consequential extension is made to the time within which a claim must be put in. Similarly, in the case of claimants for long-term compensation, the draft Regulations provide that the loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments or pension rights for which a claim is made must have occurred not later than ten years after the relevant event. Under the powers provided in the Iron and Steel Act, 1953, the Draft Regulations provide that they shall have effect retrospectively to January 1, 1964. The draft Regulations do not alter the compensation terms of the 1953 Regulations. I beg to move.