§ Mr. Sextonasked the Minister of Health whether he will have the present law relating to controlled rents and mortgage interest rates incorporated in one consolidating Statute owing to the fact that the numerous Acts legislating and amending by reference to previous Acts make it almost impossible for tenants, landlords, mortgagors, mortgagees and persons advising them to understand the present Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restriction) Acts?
§ Mr. ElliotThe question of consolidating these Acts has at different times been fully considered by my predecessors and myself. The difficulty in the way of producing an effective simplification of the law by consolidation lies in the fact that the status of each house is largely determined by the dates at which transactions412W affecting the house occurred and consequently each of the earlier Acts in force at any of these dates would have to be reproduced in the consolidating enactment. The main advantages of consolidation would thus be frustrated. In any case, in view of the emergency conditions now obtaining I do not consider the present time to be favourable for undertaking this task.