COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 28 July 1981)

§ The Lord Chancellor
My Lords, Amendment No. 14 deals with the commencement of the Act, and I group it, if I may, with Nos. 15 and 16. The second of this group of amendments postpones general commencement of the Act by three months, from 1st October 1981 to 1st January 1982. It had been my hope that the Bill would come into force at the beginning of the legal year, on 1st October, but there are a number of matters in respect of which rules of court, both in the Supreme Court and in the county courts, and in other subordinate legislation, will be required before they can come into operation. Some of these, such as the new provision for appeals from county courts to the Court of Appeal (in paragraph 10 of Schedule 3), were in the Bill from the beginning, but a number of others have been added during the course of the Bill's passage; for example, the provision about attachment of debts, vacation sittings and the transfer of proceedings between the High Court and county courts. Even if the resources of the Lord Chancellor's department were greater, it would have been difficult to carry out the appropriate consultations and then get the necessary rules drafted and approved by the rule committees before 1st October. I have therefore rather reluctantly decided that commencement will have to be postponed for three months, and that is the effect of this amendment.
The other two amendments in this group, Nos. 14 and 16, stem largely from this postponement. They bring forward, so that they come into effect on Royal Assent, instead of having to wait until 1st January 1982, two things: first, the provisions giving a two-judge court of the criminal division of the Court of Appeal power to deal with sentencing appeals; and, secondly, the new clause which we have just been 667 discussing dealing with Anton Piller orders. So I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in Amendment No. 14.

Lord Colville of Culross
My Lords, with very great daring I would suggest to my noble and learned friend that on occasions such as this in the past the House has permitted blocks of amendments to be taken together. My noble and learned friend has said, I think, that Nos. 14, 15 and 16 go together, and I have known the House to be agreeable to taking three in one, as it were, where it is suitable. I do not know whether this is a suitable occasion, but we have a long list of amendments before us.

§ The Lord Chancellor
My Lords, the answer to that is that my noble friend is of course perfectly right, but the trouble with this procedure, which I would have taken, is that it only really works when the amendments are in sequence. He is quite right in saying that Nos. 14, 15 and 16 could be dealt with in this way, but most of the others are dotted about the Bill. But if it is the will of the House, I will put all three together in one Motion, if I may now propose that.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, I am not surprised that it has been thought necessary to delay the implementation of the provision on the rules on this very technical matter. After some experience in the Lord Chancellor's Office I know how difficult it is to catch up very often with these major pieces of highly technical legislation, and, of course, it is very important to get the rules right.