Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 25 July 1941.
Sir John Mellor
, Tamworth
I wish to raise a point with regard to Sub-section (4) of Clause 2, which begins as follows:
(4) On the placing of the disposal of the Treasury of any security any right conferred by this Section to release or payment in respect of the security, or to payment in respect of any income or other payment arising there from, shall vest in the person who, immediately before the placing thereof at the disposal of the Treasury, was entitled (whether as bailee or otherwise) to possession of the documents of title to the security. …
I wish to ask what will be the position of a registered shareholder of shares which will be affected by this Bill who has deposited his certificates with someone as security for a loan. Under this provision, as I read it, when the shares are pledged the Government, in making any payment whether of capital or on account of income, will recognise only the person with whom the certificate had originally been deposited In fact, the shareholder will be ignored altogether. In the case of a bearer security, I do not see that it would make any difference, but in the case of a registered share probably what had been happening was that the shareholder received his dividend direct from the company and he had merely deposited his certificate, probably without any transfer attached to it, with a person as security for a capital sum. I do not think this will work very satisfactorily from the
point of view of a shareholder in that position, and I should be very grateful if whoever replies would give some assurance on that point, namely, that the shareholder, in a case where he has deposited his certificate as security, will not altogether be ignored.
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.