words "remain an insured person at the end of the first paragraph of Sub-section (1) as the Committee considered that the latter words were scarcely sufficient to determine the character in which an ex-employed contributor would remain insured.

2. An analogous amendment has been made in Sub-section (2) of this clause.

3. The words at the end of Sub-section (3) or of any period after a person has attained the age of seventy years, or in the case of a woman who is an insured person of the period of four weeks after her confinement do not occur in the enactment reproduced, but the Committee are satisfied on the one hand that the insertion of the words does not in any way alter the law, inasmuch as they simply represent the existing practice, and on the other hand that without them the language of the clause is obscure; it is clearly for the convenience of all persons interested in Health Insurance, whether as beneficiaries or administrators, that the actual legal position should be stated in the Bill without ambiguity.

CLAUSE 7.

The words" at the employed rate " have been inserted by the Committee after the word "contributions" towards the end of Sub-section (4), so as to make it clear that contributions paid in respect of a period of unemployment must be at the full rate. Though there is no doubt as to the law (inasmuch as during a period of unemployment there is no employer to pay the employer's share of the contribution), the language of the existing enactment tends to mislead the more ignorant contributor into thinking that he is only required to pay the employed person's share of the contribution.

CLAUSE 9.

1. In connection with this Clause the Committee considered the difficulties which arise in connection with the use of the word "week" in the Bill.

The clause, which is reproduced from the Third Schedule to the Act of 1911, contained several references to a "calendar" week, which is defined "for the purposes of this Schedule " as meaning the period from midnight on one Sunday to midnight on the following Sunday. The word "week occurs in a very large number of places in the Bill (some hundred), but it is only in Clause 9 and in a few other places that it means a "calendar" week; elsewhere it simply means a period of seven days. The expression "calendar week" appears to be an unsatisfactory one, and the Committee have adopted instead what appeared to them to be a more satisfactory term, viz., "contribution week," and have dealt with the whole position by inserting a definition of "contribution week" in Clause 132, and the word "contribution" before "week" in those passages of the Bill where "week" means "contribution weeek."

2. The words "rendered incapable of work by reason of some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement" have been substituted by the Committee for the words "in receipt of sickness or disablement benefit " in proviso (b) (ii) to Sub-section (1). In practice the test of the employer's liability to pay a contribution depends, not on whether the employed person is in receipt of benefit, but on whether he is incapacitated, and this must necessarily be so, inasmuch as an employer has no power to find out, and in a large number of cases does not in fact know, whether the employed person is or is not in receipt of benefit. The alteration made by the Committee thus reproduces the existing practice and further makes Clauses 9 and 10 homogeneous.

CLAUSE 13.

1. In Sub-section (4) the words on or before the third day of the incapacity" have been substituted by the Committee for the words

"within three days from the commencement thereof." The existing language involves difficulties of construction and the substituted words represent the present practice, which is based on the only workable interpretation of Section 12 (2) of the Act of 1918.

2. In Sub-section (6) which was formerly the proviso to Sub-section (5) the words "for the purposes of determining the rate and duration of benefit" have been substituted for the words "for the purposes of this sub-section." The Committee are satisfied that the last-mentioned words are quite meaningless in their context inasmuch as the subject matter of the proviso has nothing whatever to do with the main enactment in Sub-section (5), and that the substituted words undoubtedly give effect to what must have been intended by the Act of 1913. The Committee accordingly made the amended proviso into a sub-section.

CLAUSE 17.

The Committee considered it advisable to redraft Sub-section (1) of this clause so as to make plain the undoubted intention of the existing section, i.e., that only benefit which accrues while the person is in hospital is to be covered and not benefit which has accrued previously. The original section appears to have been drafted on the assumption that benefit would be paid immediately a person became entitled to it, in which case this question would not arise, but cases necessarily arise in which immediate payment is not possible.

CLAUSE 22.

The section reproduced authorises an approved society to provide for the application of its existing rules to the new state of affairs, but the Committee consider that this provision was rightly omitted from the Bill as being spent.

CLAUSE 24.

Some difficulty arises in reproducing Section 11 of the Act of 1913, which is represented by proviso (iii) of Sub-section (2) of this clause. Section 11 appears to lay down that the scale of payment is to be fixed by the insurance committee even in cases where the undertaking to pay is by the Minister, but the Committee apprehend that it can scarcely have been contemplated that this should be the case; they accordingly approve the proviso in the form in which it appears in the Bill, its effect being that payment will be fixed by the Minister himself in cases where the undertaking to pay is made by him.

CLAUSE 30.

The enactment reproduced in this section refers only to the registered office of a society, but the Committee are of opinion that references to the head office of societies have rightly been introduced into the clause, inasmuch as in many cases approved societies are not registered, and have, therefore, no registered office; in such cases according to the existing practice the head office of the society is treated for the purpose of these enactments as to the registered office.

CLAUSES 35 and 71.

The words "or credited" at the end of Sub-section (4) of Clause 35 are not in the existing enactment. The Committee are satisfied that the words have rightly been added, as under the existing practice dividends or interest are not actually paid over to the society but are credited to the society by means of a book entry.

The above remarks apply equally to the words "or credit" in Subsection (3) of Clause 71.

CLAUSE 39.

Paragraph (c) of this clause as originally drafted gave no power to transfer the engagements of a branch of a society to the society of which it is a branch, though there is power to transfer to other branches of the society and to other societies.

Power to transfer the engagements of a branch to the society itself was given by the First Schedule to the Act of 1913, paragraph A (ii). That provision was, however, repealed by the Act of 1918 which re-enacted it (Schedule IV (1) (b)) in an extended form, but, by what the Committee are satisfied was an oversight, the power to transfer to the society itself was not preserved in the substituted provision. In these circumstances the Committee have thought proper to insert in paragraph (c) the words or to that society."

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CLAUSE 54.

Section 42 of the Act of 1911 as originally enacted was to remain in operation until 1st January, 1915, and since that date has been continued from time to time by successive Expiring Laws Continuance Acts. At the present moment accordingly Section 42 is due to expire on 31st December, 1924, but the Committee, anticipating that Section 42 will in any event be included in the Expiring Laws Continuance Act of the present year, have amended the clause so as to provide that it shall remain. in operation until 31st December, 1925.

CLAUSE 56.

1. The words "during coverture and " in line 4 of Sub-section (1) and the words as from the date of her marriage or " in line 7 are not in the enactment reproduced. The Committee consider that these words merely give effect to the existing practice and are desirable in order to make the position clear.

2. Paragraph (iv) of Sub-section (1) (a) has been inserted by the Committee in order to prevent any doubt being thrown on the existing practice under which married women are treated as being entitled to additional benefits provided by a scheme made under Clause 75 of the Bill, notwithstanding that additional benefits are not mentioned in Section 22 of the Act of 1918. Without this new paragraph, the effect of consolidation might possibly be to involve the matter in doubt, though under the existing enactments there seems to be little doubt about the legal . position.

CLAUSE 61.

The enactments reproduced in this clause have been modified by a Special Order (the National Health Insurance (Reserve and Auxiliary Forces) Order, 1924) made under the proviso to Sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the Act of 1911. The effect of the Order is to place men of the Army Reserve, Territorial Army, Air Force Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force when called out for service at any time otherwise than for training or for permanent service or on embodiment in the same position as that in which men of the Army Reserve are placed when called out for permanent service. The Committee, being of opinion that this Order, which remedies what was doubtless an oversight in the original enactments, may be regarded as a permanent amendment of the law, considered that it would be convenient to incorporate its substance in Sub-section (3) of this clause, and this has been effected by substituting " on service otherwise than for training" for on permanent service," and by adding the words " or on service otherwise than for training after "embodiment."

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CLAUSE 70.

The enactments reproduced in this clause include references to the Central Fund which was created by Section 4 of the Act of 1918. The

Committee consider that these references to the Central Fund have rightly been omitted from the clause, as the Central Fund does not in fact form, and never has formed, part of the National Health Insurance Fund, and it is impossible that it could ever have done so, inasmuch as there is a National Health Insurance Fund for each national unit, whereas there is only a single Central Fund which is under the control of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee.

It cannot be doubted that the references to the Central Fund inserted by the Act of 1918 in the enactments reproduced were purely and simply mistakes.

CLAUSE 75.

The Committee consider that the words in paragraph (b) "" among insured persons who are members of the branch for the purposes of this Act" have been rightly inserte: in the Bill, though they do not appear in the enactment reproduced. It is desirable to state in terms in the case of a branch, as under paragraph (a) it is stated in the case of a society without branches, that the surplus is only to be distributed among members of the branch.

CLAUSE 77.

The words at the end of Sub-section (1)" and in the case of a society in relation to which an employer has undertaken any obligation, in so far as it is not made good in accordance with that obligation" have been inserted by the Committee in order to make plain what, as a matter of construction seems clearly to be the intention of the Act of 1918, viz., that the case of a society guaranteed by an employer the obligation of the employer, though it comes after the contingencies fund, is to be resorted to in priority to the Central Fund.

CLAUSE 97.

1. The opening words of Sub-section (4) have been slightly altered. Section 11 (2) of the Act of 1920 referred to proceedings before a court of summary jurisdiction, and it has been suggested that these words, which in England would cover summary proceedings in civil cases (e.g., proceedings for the recovery of sums as civil debts), might in Scotland receive a more limited construction and be regarded as limited to criminal proceedings, in view of the fact that the expression "court of summary jurisdiction" in relation to Scotland is capable of being interpreted as meaning a court exercising jurisdiction as regulated by the Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Act, 1908. There is no doubt that this distinction between proceedings in England and proceedings in Scotland cannot have been contemplated by the Act of 1920, and the change in the language will operate to place Scotland on the same footing in this respect as England. 2. The enactment from which Sub-section (4) is reproduced relates only to questions whether a person is or was an employed person within the meaning of the Act, and doubts have been expressed as to what the position is when a question arises in summary proceedings as to whether a person is or was the employer of an employed contributor, a question which the Minister has power under Clause 80 to determine, just as he has power to determine questions of the first-mentioned kind. The Committee consider that it was merely by an oversight that this second class of question was not included in the original enactment, and they have accordingly amended Sub-section (4) so as to read on any question whether or not a person is or was an employed person or is or was the employer of an employed contributor within the meaning of this Act."

CLAUSE 116 (FORMERLY 117).

Sub-section (2) of Clause 105 of the Bill provides that justices, in deciding whether or not to make an order under the Bastardy Laws Amendment Act, 1872, for the payment of the expenses incidental to the

birth of a child, shall not take into consideration the fact that the mother is entitled to maternity benefit. This Act of 1872 does not apply to Scotland, and it has therefore always been considered that the enactment reproduced in Sub-section (2) of Clause 105 had no application in Scotland. Substantially, however, the position has been exactly the same in Scotland as in England, inasmuch as ever since 1912 the Courts in Scotland have consistently followed the rule that in awarding inlying expenses (i.e. expenses incidental to the birth of a child) no deduction is to be made on account of maternity benefit.

It appeared to the Committee that it would be more satisfactory that the legal position in Scotland in relation to this matter should, like that in England, form the subject of a statutory enactment and, as there is no reasonable doubt as to the law, they therefore felt justified in adding to the Bill the new Sub-section (5) of this clause, though there is nothing corresponding to it in the existing enactments.

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SCHEDULE III.

In paragraph 8 of this Schedule the Committee have substituted the word "provision" for 'building or leasing". It appears that in practice the corresponding paragraph in the existing enactment has been construed as authorising societies to purchase convalescent homes and there is every reason to believe that this was the intention of the Act of 1911.