Clause 46 - Powers of entry: notices
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Phil Hope (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Corby, Labour/Co-operative)
I understand the hon. Gentleman's intention. However, if we were to accept the amendment, it would give rise to undue complication in serving a notice. The formulation in subsection (3) is a common form used for the service of notice. The phrasing of the amendment would mean that if a dwelling were unoccupied and there was no forwarding address, the correct address could be an address that the individual lived at 40 or 50 years earlier. Alternatively, there could simply be no known address. I understand the hon. Gentleman's intention, and his point that subsection (4) deals with that by referring to pinning up a notice. However, his amendment would create a complication in dealing with matters under subsection (3) and, consequently, it would cause difficulties in tracking people down. It would result in complications involving serving notice on addresses at which people had lived many years before. That is not how he or I want to proceed, and I hope that he will withdraw his amendment.