HL Deb 11 July 1974 vol 353 cc735-6

[No. 14 and 15]

After Clause 15 insert the following new clause—

Banks for clients' money

>The duties & to make rules imposed on the Council by subsection (l)(a) and subsection (2)(a) of section 29 of the principal Act (opening and keeping of clients accounts and trust accounts) shall be duties to make rules requiring solicitors to open and keep accounts only with the Bank of England or with companies which are banking or discount companies within the meaning of the Protection of Depositors Act 1963."

Clause 18, page 13, line 38, leave out "14(1) and (2)".

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 14 with which it might be convenient to consider Amendment No. 15.

My Lords, these Amendments are linked. The new Clause 14 is the basic Amendment and it provides that accounts rules under Section 29 of the 1957 Act must require solicitors to keep their client and trust accounts only with the Bank of England or with companies which are banking or discount companies within the meaning of the Protection of Depositors Act 1963, and an appropriate definition of "bank" for this purpose is introduced by Amendment No. 33. At present there is no definition of "bank" in the Solicitors Acts, and Section 29 of the 1957 Act, although it requires accounting rules to provide for the keeping of accounts at banks, does not require or enable the rule to specify at which banks the accounts should be kept. It is thought desirable for the protection of solicitors' clients to require that accounts under the section be kept with banks in the primary banking sector, and that is best identified by the list of companies recognised by the Secretary of Stale for Trade as banking or discount companies for the purpose of exemption from the Protection of Depositors Act 1963, together with the Bank of England itself. Recognition under the Protection of Depositors Act, 1963, which effectively exempts a company from the provisions of that Act (for example, as to advertising for deposits), is granted by the Secretary of State after consultation with the Treasury and the Bank of England. A body so exempted is one of high standing in the banking community.

Amendments Nos. 27 and 28 enable rules, made under Section 29 of the 1957 Act, as to the keeping of accounts at banks for clients' money and money in controlled trusts, to specify the location of the banks' branches at which the accounts are to be kept.

I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 14 and 15.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendments.—(The Lord Cliancellor.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.