RECESS ELECTIONS BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 7 July 1975)

§ The LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord Elwyn-Jones)

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. It is a consolidation Bill. It consolidates the various enactments under which Mr. Speaker sets in motion the machinery for a by-election at times when another place 586 is not sitting and is therefore unable to do so itself.

The principal Act now in force is fairly venerable—it was passed in the year 1784—and deals with vacancies in the House due to the death of the sitting Member or his succession to the honour of a Peerage in your Lordships' House. This was extended to vacancies owing to acceptance of disqualifying offices by the Election of Members during Recess Act 1858. The procedure was further applied by the Irish, English and Scottish Bankruptcy Acts 1872, 1883 and 1913, in respect of seats falling vacant as a result of the bankruptcy of a Member.

I think I should say a word about one aspect of this Bill, which is the absence of any reference in Clause 1 to certain of the offices mentioned in Section 4 of the 1858 Act. These are the offices of Steward of the Manors of East Hendred and Hempholme and also the office of Escheator of Munster. The position is that the titles to the two manors I have referred to have passed from the Crown, and therefore to hold one of these offices is no longer a disqualification from being a Member of another place and no by-election would be necessary. As for the office of Escheator of Munster, I can only say that it seems, from this side of the Irish Sea at least, to have disappeared without trace, a phenomenon I can only attribute to political events which have taken place since 1858.

One other matter I should mention, which is only indirectly connected with the main purpose of the Bill, is that it repeals Section 106(2) of the Bankruptcy Act 1914 because it duplicates, so far as England and Wales are concerned, Section 33(1) of the Bankruptcy Act 1883, and is therefore unnecessary. My Lords, I beg to move.