Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 15 July 1925.
Mr Robert Dennison
, Birmingham King's Norton
I beg to move in page 23, line "31, to leave out the words
or such earlier date as may be proscribed.
I do not propose, in moving this Amendment, in any way to cover the general ethics of the case, for the case has been fairly well covered. The Clause lays it down that the pension is to cease at a date when the Minister receives notice of the award or agreement. If these words that we desire to delete stand part of the Clause it will be permissible for the Minister, not only to stop the pension when the Workmen's Compensation award reaches him, but he may make it retro-
spective. It was never, I think, intended that that should be the case, because, after all, the weekly payments have been made under the Workmen's Compensation Act, though the children were not included in the Compensation Act weekly payments. We put forward this Amendment in the hope that the Minister may think it desirable to delete it, and I beg to move.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
