COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 19 May 1970)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 10. The purpose of this Amendment is to avoid any possibility of confusion between Clause 12(2) and the definition of the employer in Clause 24(1). Clause 12(2) provides that for the purposes of the Bill the relationship of employer and employee shall be treated as subsisting between two persons where one of them as a principal pays earnings to the other, and references to employer and employment shall be construed accordingly where the context permits. Clause 24(1) defines the employer in relation to an attachment of earnings order 1001 as the person who is required by the order to make deductions from earnings paid by him to the debtor.

The question when a person is an employer arises mainly in Clause 12, although also at other points of the Bill, such as Clause 18. In those contexts it is necessary for the court to inquire whether the debtor in fact has an employer by whom he is paid earnings as defined by the Bill. To answer this question you look at Clause 12(2). In any case where it appears that there is such a person, then an attachment of earnings order can be made and directed to him. Similarly, such a person, if there is one, is subject to the obligation imposed by Clause 18(c). In those contexts the words "the employer" are purposely avoided; for example, line 30 and line 31 on page 10, and also Clause 12(b). These words are used only in contexts which assume the existence of an attachment order made and in force and capable of being complied with by the person to whom it is directed. Here they refer to a particular person, a person who is for the time being required to comply with the order. On a close examination, therefore, it is clear that there is no overlap between Clause 12(2) and the definition of the employer in Clause 24(1). Nevertheless, in order to avoid having what may appear at first sight to be two definitions of the same term, the draft Amendment deletes from Clause 12(2) the provision for references in the Bill to "employer" and "employment" to be construed in accordance with that subsection.