Application of Geo. 5 c. 21, "Saving for Clause 56, page 57, line 34, after "time" insert "during coverture ". Clause 56, page 58, line 21, after" and "insert" any additional benefits “provided by her approved Society in accordance with a scheme under "section seventy-five of this Act " Clause 56, page 58, line 23. leave out "remain" and insert "be treated "as if she were ". Clause 56, page 58, line 28, after "the" insert "contribution ". Clause 56, page 58, line 34, after "last" insert "for the purpose of "determining her title to benefits, other than additional benefits Clause 57, page 61, line 39, after "each" insert "contribution ". Clause 61, page 67, line 14, leave out "permanent service" and insert "service otherwise than for training ". Clause 61, page 67, line 16, after "embodiment" insert "or on service "otherwise than for training ". 46 Clause 75, page 81, line 37. after "arrears" insert "and if it so provided may make a corresponding modification in any regulations providing for the reduction suspension or postponement of benefits (other than additional benefits) on account of arrears ". Clause 77, page 85, line 41, after "obligation "it is not made good ". 66 insert in so far as Clause 36, page 92, line 13, leave out "and" and insert" or ". Clause 91, page 96, line 27, after "body "insert" or special bodies". Clause 97, page 102, line 18, after "not" insert" or any question "whether or not a person is or was the employer of an employed contri"butor within the meaning of this Act". Clause 103, page 107, line 4, after "any" insert "contribution ". Clause 117, page 119, line 22, after subsection (4) insert a new subsection: "(5) In the application of Section one hundred and five of this Act "to Scotland, the following subsection shall have effect in lieu "of subsection (2) of that section:— "In awarding inlying expenses in Scotland in connection "with the birth of an illegitimate child, the Court shall not "take into consideration the fact that the mother of the "child, is entitled to receive maternity benefit under this "Act." Clause 121, page 124, line 14, leave out "three guineas" and insert "five guineas ". Clause 130, page 132, line 13, leave out "1921" and insert “1923 ". 66 "PART IX." "APPLICATION OF ACT TO WALES." "130. Subject to the provisions of this Act all sums received by way of contributions under this Act in respect of persons resident "in Wales, and all sums paid out of moneys provided by Parliament "in respect of benefits for persons so resident, and the expenses of "the administration of those benefits shall be paid into a fund to "be called 'the Welsh National Health Insurance Fund', under the "control and management of the Minister, and the provisions of this "Act with respect to the National Health Insurance Fund. shall, "with the necessary modifications, apply to the Welsh National "Health Fund," 46 131. Nothing in this Act shall affect the power of the Minister ur der Section five of the Ministry of Health Act. 1919, to exercise and perform any of his powers and duties in Wales through the "Welsh Board of Health." Part IX now becomes Part X. Clause 131, page 135, line 8, after "requires" insert "the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them, that is to "say:-" Clause 131, page 135, lines 18, 22, 27, 31, 34, 36 and page 136, lines 1, 3, 6, leave out "the expression ". Clause 131, page 136, line 7, after subsection (1) insert" (m) Contribu**tion week means the period of seven days commencing from the midnight ** between Sunday and Monday ". 66 In the Schedules. First Schedule D, page 140, line 15, after "benefits" insert "conferred by this Act". Third Schedule, page 144, line 19, leave out "building or leasing of " and insert "provision of ". Fifth Schedule, page 147, insert "Section 12 (6)-Administration of "medical treatment and attendance ". Fifth Schedule, page 147, leave out "birth" and leave out "and "marriage ". Seventh Schedule, page 149, line 16, third column after "sixty-four' insert "Sections seventy-two and seventy-three ". 46 64 Seventh Schedule, page 150, line 17, third column, after " Act" insert except subsection (4) of Section two and subsection (1) of Section twenty-one". APPENDIX II. The Committee considered that the concluding words of the Clause "and have since that date continued to be insured persons were rightly inserted in the Bill as in effect reproducing the principle adopted in section 7 (1) (c) of the Act of 1918, under which the right to be a voluntary contributor, where that right depended on having been a voluntary contributor on 1st January, 1918, was lost by a lapse from insurance. Without these words there would be nothing to prevent a person who is entitled to be a voluntary contributor at the date when the Bill comes into operation claiming at a later date to become again a voluntary contributor after he has lapsed from insurance. CLAUSE 3. 1. The words "be treated as an employed contributor " were substituted by the Committee for the words "remain an insured person" at the end of the first paragraph of subsection (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 subsection (2) of this clause. 66 3. The words at the end of subsection (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 confine"ment" 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 subsection (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. 66 The clause, which is reproduced from the Third Schedule to the Act of 1911, contains 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 131, and the word "contribution" before "week" in those passages of the Bill where "week" means "contribution week ". 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 subsection (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 emplover 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 subsection (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 the proviso to subsection (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 subsection ". 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 subsection (5), and that the substituted words undoubtedly give effect to what must have been intended by the Act of 1913. CLAUSE 17. The Committee considered it advisable to redraft subsection (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 subsection (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 the registered office. CLAUSES 35 AND 71. The words "or credited" at the end of subsection (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 ". 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 in force 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 Expirng 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 subsection (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 subsection (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 no doubt about the legal position. CLAUSE 61. The enactments reproduced in this clause will as from an early date be modified by a Special Order (the National Health Insurance (Reserve and Auxiliary Forces) Order, 1924) about to be made under the proviso to subsection (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 an 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 subsection (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 ". 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 hve 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 |