Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 15 Gorffennaf 1925.
Sir Patrick Hastings
, Wallsend
It may be that I have missed the provision, if provision there be in the Bill, but so far as I know there is nothing in the Bill which prevents this Clause from being obligatory. Supposing a claim is not made before the expiration of a month, then the Minister is in difficulty in regard to allowing payment to be made. In other Acts, for instance, the Workmen's Compensation Act, there is nearly always a provision which says that, provided the Minister is satisfied that the failure to put in a claim is due to some legitimate and unavoidable circumstance, he has the power to relax the stringency of the rule. There is a good deal to be said for the Minister's contention that the mere variation from one month to two months does not affect the matter very much, but he might consider whether he could see his way to meet the gravamen of the Amendment by moving to insert some provision such as I have suggested. Of course, the onus of proof might be put upon the applicant to show that there was reasonable cause for delay in the making of the application. Supposing a widow was proved to have been ill at the time of her husband's death, and it was physically impossible for her to put in a claim. Why should it not be possible in such a case to bring into operation a proviso such as is common in other Acts that where the Minister is satisfied that the failure to make the claim was due to some reasonable cause he should have power to relax the stringency of the rule?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
