Clause 61
Crossrail Bill
5:15 pm
Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Glasgow South, Labour)
The clause deals with the service of documents under the Bill. Its purpose is to set out how notices under the Bill should be served. Amendment No. 72 would require that any document served under the Bill by way of the postal system should be delivered by registered post. It is important to realise that that would apply to any person serving a notice, whether they were the Secretary of State, the nominated undertaker or any other member of the public serving a counter-notice. A number of provisions provide for other parties to serve notice on the nominated undertaker, and the amendment would require such notices to be served by registered post. Using some method of registered post might be sensible in some cases. It is in the interest of the person serving the notice to ensure that it reaches the intended recipient, as the person serving the notice would be disadvantaged if, in the event of a dispute, they could not later demonstrate that the notice had been properly served. The hon. Gentleman was right to point that out.
Registered post is more expensive than regular post and cost may be a consideration in some cases—presumably not for the Secretary of State, but possibly for private individuals. The person concerned should decide how they wish to proceed, bearing in mind that it may later be a matter of dispute before a court or other judicial body.
I am instinctively opposed to any measure that might incur the accusation of ushering in a nanny state, and I would have thought that a legislator prescribing the method of post that an individual should use to serve any particular notice is perilously close to territory that might lead the Daily Mail to take issue. That does not concern me, but it might concern Opposition Members.
Amendment No. 73 would allow documents to be served on legal representatives rather than a business partnership. However, clause 61(4) already allows the person on whom a notice would otherwise be served to specify an alternative address to which documents should be served. That allows a person to ask for notices to be served to the office of the legal representative if they so wish. I therefore consider the amendments unnecessary, and I hope that the hon. Gentleman will consider withdrawing the amendment.