Clause 11 - Interpretation
Anti-social Behaviour Bill
6:45 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 42, in
clause 11, page 8, line 28, leave out 'of the fee simple'.
My hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire has now spotted amendment No. 190 under clause 1, so the mystery is solved.
It may be my cynical mind, but whenever I see a Government Bill that is printed in one typeface apart from one part of one page, which is in a completely different typeface and involves specific legal language with which I am familiar, it occurs to me that it might be what people in the film industry call a last-minute cut-and-paste job. I wonder whether one of the Home Office draftsmen suddenly realised that there may be a technicality relating to land law and rushed off to the relevant bit of the Treasury Solicitor's Department for a specific definition of ownership. Other than those of us who had to fight through exams on land law as part of our legal qualifications, one does not often see phrases such as
''other than a mortgagee not in possession, who is for the time being entitled to dispose of the fee simple of the premises''.
I would be fascinated to hear the Minister describe his understanding of fee simple, but at this time of night it would be unfair on him, hard though I know he works. I want just to know whether he has a simple explanation for it.