Schedule 34 - Policies of life insurance etc: miscellaneous amendments
Finance Bill
8:55 am
Mr Howard Flight (Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
These and forthcoming amendments essentially pick up on the points of principle that I have raised. Amendments Nos. 140 and 141 would avoid making the conditions unnecessarily rigid and unsuited to typical circumstances, and would make the conditions reflect the intention in the explanatory notes and new subsection (7). Benefits under a group life policy will typically be held under flexible trusts allowing the ultimate beneficiaries to be selected after the death of a given life assured. The present wording fails to cover the position in which someone might desire part of the sum in question to be paid to a charity and the remainder to an individual. The amendment would clarify, without needing to rely on the Interpretation Act 1978, that the condition is satisfied when more than one individual or charity is involved.
Amendment No. 155 would better reflect the intention evident in the explanatory notes, and would protect partnership life group policies from being left within the charge that the provisions otherwise exclude.