MARRIED WOMEN'S POLICIES OF ASSURANCE (SCOTLAND) (AMENDMENT) BILL (Hansard, 7 August 1980)

§ Lord WYNNE-JONES
My Lords, I beg leave to move that this Bill be now read a second time. The Bill is a small—

§ Lord TREFGARNE
My Lords, if the noble Lord would speak into the microphone there would be an improvement in audibility.

§ Lord WYNNE-JONES
My Lords, this Bill is a small, non-contentious one. It was introduced into another place as a Private Member's Bill, and I was asked to take it over in your Lordships' House by an honourable friend, Mr. McKelvey, Member for Kilmarnock, who introduced it into the Commons. In introducing this Bill, I want to make it clear that it has a very simple purpose: to put women in Scotland on the particular issue of assurance policies in the same position as is applied by the law of this country.
The Scottish Law Commission looked at this matter some time ago and they stated: We have received from more than one source proposals that the Married Women's Policies of Assurance (Scotland) Act of 1880 should be amended. The Council of the Law Society of Scotland proposed to the Commission that the 1880 Act should be brought into line with the Married Women's Property Act 1882, which applies to England and Wales. That is the purpose of the Bill: Assurance (Amendment) Bill 1712 to bring the Scottish law into line with the law which applies to England and Wales.
The difference is an odd one. According to the 1880 Act it was only possible for a married man to have an assurance policy for the benefit of his wife and children; it was not possible for a married woman to have a similar assurance policy. The English Act allows this.
It is perfectly clear that we would not wish to have any discrimination between women north of the Border and women south of the Border except in so far as they may be fairer in one part than in the other. But not surely in terms of assurance policies. I was reminded by my noble friend Lord Ross of Marnock that Robert Burns had a comment on this in which he referred to the rights of women. He said that the rights of women merit some attention. I am sure that your Lordships' House would not wish that this discrimination, which has continued for so many years, should remain. As it is an entirely non-contentious Bill, I hope that your Lordships will accept it without further discussion. I beg to move.

§ Lord ROSS of MARNOCK
My Lords, I gladly follow my noble friend. I will not inflict upon your Lordships the full Burns quotation, although it is short: When Europe's eye is fixed on mighty things, The fate of empires and the fall of kings; While quacks of state must needs produce a plan, And even children lisp the rights of man; Amid the mighty fuss just let me mention, The rights of women merit some attention. There is more of it, but that is enough, my Lords. I think my noble friend put the case beautifully and wonderfully. It was my successor in Kilmarnock who had the good fortune to introduce this Bill into Parliament. I have been preoccupied with other things, and I could not have done as good a job as the noble Lord, Lord Wynne-Jones, has done in this House. The Bill merits the attention and the support of this House, and I gladly support it.

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, I hope it would be fitting that we on these Benches 1713 should say one or two words on behalf of the Government about how grateful we are to the noble Lord, Lord Wynne-Jones, for outlining so very cogently the purpose of this Bill. He has my particular sympathy, since it was three years ago that I, too, did what he is doing and assisted rather complicated Scottish legislation through your Lordships' House. I think the House would agree that the noble Lord has made a very great success of piloting this Bill through your Lordships' House tonight. We on the Government Benches welcome this Bill as a modest but an overdue measure to remedy an anomaly which has existed since the Victorian era. As we have heard from the noble Lord, it is a slight but nevertheless valuable fruit of various deliberations which have gone on in Scotland, especially, as I am told, of the Scottish Law Commission. Certainly since its inception in 1965 the commission has examined other more weighty, more interesting and possibly more important matters, but nevertheless this particular Bill is very desirable. We see that it is necessary that minor deficiencies in the law be corrected, and this is what the Bill seeks to do.
We believe that the Bill is in tune with our times. It extends to the women of Scotland a right which their menfolk have enjoyed for a century. The Bill may not be regarded by the women's movement as a particularly significant advance, but we on these Benches, and especially I, as a spokesman for various Scottish affairs, welcome it as a major step forward in the right direction. It secures for women in Scotland the same right as has existed since 1881 for women in England and Wales. At last, when I find this happy acronym of MWPA, I shall know that I am acutely right. I always used to get it down as the Married Women's Property Act. I was told, "No, you've got it wrong; that's the English Act". When I was doing my training in Scotland—no doubt the noble Lord, Lord Ross, would concur—I used to get nought in my exams, but now I think this Bill is going to correct me. We are very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Wynne-Jones, for putting it forward, and we support it.
On Question, Bill read 2ª, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.