Mrs Diana Maddock: Most hon. Members will agree with the spirit of the amendments. Many of us recognise that, since the 1986 Act, things have changed and that the societies that converted had a significant advantage over others. That was a key fact during consultation on the Bill. We all agree that organisations that wanted the advantages of a stock market listing should have to take on board other...
Mrs Diana Maddock: Would the Minister clarify the position a little? She has given many practical reasons why it would be difficult to accept the amendments to introduce the two-year rule. Will she tell us the view of the Building Societies Association when she discussed the matter with it? Although that society is anxious for the Bill to become an Act, it is concerned about the two-year rule and I wonder if...
Mrs Diana Maddock: The Minister told us of the practical details. Did the building societies agree with the Minister?
Mrs Diana Maddock: I have much sympathy with the views expressed by the hon. Members for Burnley (Mr. Pike) and for Bournemouth, West (Mr. Butterfill). Many of us who spoke on Second Reading are concerned about small depositors, the local nature of building societies and the important place that they have in local communities. When societies move to plc status, we have seen people with no particular interest in...
Mrs Diana Maddock: I think that we all agree that, up against the time scale of a general election, and however much we would like to get this right, we shall barely be able to get the Bill on the statute book. Although I agree with the principles behind the amendments, we are not in a position to get them right today. Therefore, I cannot support the amendments as drafted.
Mrs Diana Maddock: Like the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mr. French), I declare my interest—in my case, as vice-chairman of the all-party building society group. I also have various other interests in building societies. I certainly associate myself with the hon. Gentleman's remarks about the five-year rule and the future of mutuality. There may be arguments over whether we should have had a new Building...
Mrs Diana Maddock: In fact, we did create some excitement at the meeting. Anyhow, my right hon. Friend described some of the problems to which the Bill today offers some solutions. For instance, he mentioned the problem, during the recession, of the over-promotion of credit which led to a lot of people ending up with negative equity. Some of them still have it. My right hon. Friend also said that building...
Mrs Diana Maddock: There is some dispute about that. As I was saying, many of the concerns expressed in recent years about mutuality have been dealt with in the Bill. The Building Societies Association welcomes the Bill, as do many of us who are in favour of mutuality. It will preserve the unique characteristics of building societies and ensure that their record of safety continues. All of us welcome the fact...
Mrs Diana Maddock: Does the Minister recognise that, despite her statement today, many people think it a scandal that so many people have been in prison for so long when no offence has been committed? Does she agree that no one should be allowed admission to this country when they stage a hunger strike, but that delays are unacceptable? In the case of those on hunger strike in Rochester, may we have assurances...
Mrs Diana Maddock: indicated dissent.
Mrs Diana Maddock: Will the hon. Lady give way?
Mrs Diana Maddock: As one of the vice-chairmen of the all-party warm homes group, I congratulate the hon. Lady on introducing the Bill. I hope that she agrees that one of the reasons why it is so urgent that we do something is that the Government and we as a nation have been so laggardly about properly insulating buildings. If homes were insulated, pensioners would be able to turn up the heat and their bills...
Mrs Diana Maddock: I present a petition from the branches of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals throughout England and Wales about control of the breeding and sale of dogs and puppies. It urges that amendments be made to the legislation to bring an end to unlicensed commercial breeding of dogs and puppies and to ensure high standards of welfare for all animals in breeding establishments....
Mrs Diana Maddock: The amendment would ensure that civil proceedings on a claim for an injunction under the clause would not be referred to arbitration without the consent of all the parties. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that people can afford to deal with the situation in which they find themselves. Most civil proceedings take place in the county court. A system of arbitration without lawyers'...
Mrs Diana Maddock: I beg to move amendment No. 30, in page 1, line 15, leave out from 'shows' to 'under' in line 17 and insert, `that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable—(a) for the purpose of preventing and detecting crime, or'.
Mrs Diana Maddock: Before the Minister replies to my speech and points out the flaws in my amendments, I should like to mention again the speed with which we had to draft them. I regret that, because of my speed in doing so, the amendments do not achieve what they were intended to do. They were intended to deal with the issue of "reasonableness", which has already been mentioned in the debate. In clauses 1 and...
Mrs Diana Maddock: I accept from the way in which the Minister gently rejected my amendments, given the vigour with which he has rejected others, that he understood my points. I listened carefully to his remarks about what constitutes reasonable conduct. I hope that his reassurances are right. I suspect that questions about what is reasonable conduct will be raised again in another place. In view of his...
Mrs Diana Maddock: I beg to move amendment No. 33, in page 2, line 6, after 'claim', insert 'for an actual breach.' The purpose of the amendment is to make explicit what we believe is the Government's intention anyway—that damages are not awardable where there has been only an apprehended breach but no actual breach of section 1. I seek reassurance from the Government.
Mrs Diana Maddock: In view of the Minister's comments, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Mrs Diana Maddock: Although the Bill is generally perceived to be about stalking, its tentacles are likely to spread far wider. In some ways it is like four Bills rolled into one—an anti-stalking Bill, a feuding neighbours Bill, a domestic violence Bill and a Bill that extends civil injunction remedies in such cases to the criminal courts. It is therefore all the more disappointing and worrying that the...
