HL Deb 29 November 1990 vol 523 cc41-2WA
Lord Macaulay of Bragar

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What progress they are making towards introducing legislation to implement the following reports of the Scottish Law Commission:

  1. (a) Child Abduction, laid before Parliament on 11th February 1987.
  2. (b) Legal Capacity and Responsibility of Minors and Pupils, laid before Parliament on 16th December 1987;
  3. (c) Civil Liability—Contribution, laid before Parliament on 14th December 1988;
  4. (d) Prescription and Limitation of Actions (Latent Damage and Other Related Issues), laid before Parliament on 11th October 1989; and
  5. (e) Succession, laid before Parliament on 24th January 1990.

Lord Strathclyde

The position is as follows:

  1. (a) The Scottish Law Commission's report on Child Abduction confined its recommendations to Scotland, but recognised that the problems involved required a Great Britain approach, which is currently under consideration.
    2. WA 42
  2. (b) The recommendations of the Scottish Law Commission's report on Legal Capacity and Responsibility of Minors and Pupils were accepted by the Government and were expressed in the Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Bill, introduced as a Private Member's Bill with Government support in the House of Commons in 1989. The Bill failed to obtain a Second Reading.
  3. (c) The Government are giving favourable consideration to the Scottish Law Commission's report on Civil Liability—Contribution.
  4. (d) The Government have carried out a public consultation on the recommendations in the report on Prescription and Limitation of Actions (Latent Damage and Other Related Issues). The responses received are now being analysed.
  5. (e) The Government attach considerable importance to the commission's report on Succession. In view of the complexity of this subject, we do not expect to reach a final decision on all the report's recommendations until we have confirmed that the proposals enjoy the broad backing of interested parties. We shall be issuing a consultative paper shortly seeking comments on the commission's recommendations.