HL Deb 05 February 1970 vol 307 cc760-2

3.47 p.m.

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do now resolve itself into Committee on this Bill.

Moved, That the House do now resolved itself into Committee.—(Baroness Phillips.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.

House in Committee accordingly.

[The EARL OF LISTOWEL in the Chair.]

Clauses 1 to 8 agreed to.

Clause 9 [Short title, commencement and extent]:

THE LORD ADVOCATE (LORD WILSON OF LANGSIDE) moved, after subsection (2), to insert as a new subsection:

Page 4, line 29, at end insert— (3) This Act, except section 8(2) and Schedule 2, docs not extend to Scotland.

The noble Lord said: While the Government present this as a desirable Amendment to the Bill, its effect, if it is approved by your Lordships, will be formal rather than substantial. The effect of Clause 9(3) of the Bill as it: at present stands is that, at least formally, the Bill as a whole extends to Scotland. In fact, with a small exception, the Bill deals entirely with aspects of the law relating to English bankruptcies and the winding up of English companies, and its provisions could not in any way at all apply to Scotland. The small exception to which I referred derives from Clause 8(2) of the Bill which, together with Schedule 2, deals with repeals. Certain of the enactments repealed can operate to a small extent in Scotland.

It has been represented to the Government, in particular by the Law Society of Scotland, that Clause 9 in its present form might be regarded as to some extent misleading, in particular to Scottish lawyers, since it suggests that the Scottish interest in the Bill is more extensive than in fact it is, with the result that in practice legal practitioners might be involved in considerable and unnecessary trouble before discovering that only a small part of the Bill has application in Scotland. It seems to the Government that this is a reasonable criticism. The Amendment will make clear on the face of Clause 9 that Scotland is concerned only with these repeals set out in Schedule 2 of the Bill. I beg to move.

THE EARL OF DUNDEE

I remained here only for the purpose of leaving Scotland out of the bulk of the Bill, and I am therefore glad to agree to the noble Lord's Amendment.

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

Clause 9, as amended, agreed to.

Schedules agreed to.

House resumed: Bill reported, with the Amendment.