COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 19 May 1970)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, if no noble Lord objects, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in Amendments Nos. 15 and 16. Clause 15, subsection (4), provides that where an attachment of earnings order has been made and the person to whom it is directed ceases to have the debtor in his employment the order will lapse unless and until the court again directs it to a person, whether the same as before or another, who appears to have the debtor in has employment. It shall not be treated for the purposes of this Act, other than those in that subsection, as ceasing to be in force.

It was suggested, I think, by the Opposition in another place that as subsection (4) does not in terms refer to any purposes, it is difficult to know in what respects a lapsed order is to be treated by virtue of subsection (5) as being still in force. But there can be no real doubt about the purposes of subsection (4), which are obviously to provide for the order to cease to operate against the old employer, but to keep it alive so that it can be redirected to a new employer. The purely verbal point that no purposes are in fact mentioned in subsection (4) is met by the Amendment to replace subsection (5) by a new subsection providing that the lapse of an order under subsection (4) shall not prevent its being treated as remaining in force "for other purposes". In providing for the lapse of an attachment order on the cessor of the debtor's employment, subsection (4) prevents it operating as 1004 respects deduction from earnings paid after the cessor of payment to the collecting officer of the amount deducted.

The object of the Amendment to add the words "at any time" is to make it clear that the second part of the passage in the references is not limited by the first. Notwithstanding the lapse of the order, the former employer is to remain liable to pay to the collecting officer any amount deducted from the debtor's wages before as well as after the lapse. I beg to move.