§ [Nos. 27 to 30]
§ Clause 26, page 20, line 19, leave out "in Great Britain".
§ Clause 26, page 20, line 33, after "Gazettes" insert "and, except where the court has otherwise directed, in two national newspapers".
§ Clause 26, page 22, line 10, leave out "Subsection (1) above" and insert "Subsection (7) above does not apply to a transfer of long term business carried on elsewhere than in Great Britain but, save as aforesaid, this section".
§ Clause 26, page 22, line 10, after applies" insert "whether or not the long term business is carried on in Great Britain and".
§ THE EARL OF LIMERICKMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 27 to 30 inclusive, and with the agreement of the House I would propose that we should consider Amendments Nos. 58 and 61. Clause 26 replaces Section 11 of the Insurance Companies Act 1958 which provides that the whole or 1579 any part of the long term business of an insurance company carried on in Great Britain may be transferred to another company only by means of a scheme sanctioned by the court. It has now been decided that the provisions of the clause need not be confined to the transfer of long term business carried on in Great Britain, as a company may find it of some advantage abroad to have the transfer of the business in question valid under English law, and such a transfer may indirectly affect the interests of United Kingdom policyholders. The first Amendment, No. 27, therefore deletes the reference to "Great Britain" in subsection (1) of Clause 26, and so provides for it to apply to the transfer of long term insurance business carried on anywhere in the world by any company to which the 1958 Act applies.
Amendments Nos. 29 and 30 are consequential, but also remove the mandatory provision of subsection (7) of the clause. A company wishing to transfer long term business carried on elsewhere than in Great Britain may, therefore, apply for the sanction of the court under the permissive provisions of subsection (1) but is not obliged to do so. Amendment No. 28 meets a criticism that the protection which subsection (5) was intended to give to other interested persons, including employees, would be inadequately publicised by notices in the London Gazette and Edinburgh Gazette only.
The Amendments to Clauses 48 and 51 —that is, Nos. 58 and 61—are transitional, and postpone the coming into operation of the revised procedure established by Clauses 26 and 27 because the preparation of schemes for submission to the court takes a considerable time and it would be inconvenient to have to revise any that were based on the present procedure but not ready to be put before the court until after the new requirements would otherwise become effective.