New Clause. — (Limitation of liability of trustees.)

Part of Orders of the Day — FINANCE (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 21 June 1948.

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Photo of Hon. Oliver Stanley Hon. Oliver Stanley , Bristol West 12:00, 21 June 1948

It is a measure of the depths to which we have been reduced by this particular part of the Budget that I gather that we are expected to express gratitude to the Government for this proposed new Clause. What, in fact, does it effect? It effects this, as I understand it. If I, as a trustee, have served upon me a notice by my cestui qui trust that I am to pay the Contribution out of the trust fund, and if there is not enough money in the trust fund to pay the Contribution, then the Treasury, very kindly, will consider whether or not they will let me off paying out of my money the Contribution which is not levied on me, in which I have no interest whatsoever, and under which, in ordinary circumstances, I would have no legal liability at all. I do not know if that is the position—it is put, I am afraid, in very crude and almost unintelligible terms—but if so, what is the justification for leaving this to the discretion of the Treasury?

What possible justification is there for not laying down by statute that, in those circumstances, I, as a trustee, should not be liable for any more than is available out of trust funds for which I am responsible? Why should it be left to the Treasury to decide in their goodness, in so far as they possess any, whether or not I should have to pay out of my own pocket in order to make good the Contribution due from my cestui qui trust when my trust fund is not competent for it? I might have been prepared to express a modified form of gratitude at least to the Government for putting right a wrong which ought never to have been included in the Bill if this new Clause had taken the definite form of exclusion from liability. I cannot see any reason—it certainly has not been given by the Solicitor-General—why a matter which, in equity, is so clear, should be left to the goodwill and discretion of the Treasury. Before we accept this new Clause I should like from the right hon. and learned Gentleman some explanation of what appears to me to be a quite inexplicable mistake.