Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill [HL]

Lord Lloyd of Berwick Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lloyd of Berwick]

My Lords, I am very glad to hear that the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, is not objecting to the amendment. Whether it is something new or exactly the same in a different form does not matter so much, but I am glad that the amendment proposed will not be opposed by the noble Lord.

While on my feet, perhaps I could say a word about the Law Commission and the part that it has played in bringing us to this point. The report was originally published in 2009. It followed three years of intensive research and a great deal of evidence-taking, as one can see from the report. The commission then succeeded in reconciling the many divergent interests and produced, as a result, a draft Bill, which is the Bill before us with only a few alterations. It is unquestionably the most important reform of the law of insurance since the Marine Insurance Act 1906. The draftsman of that Act was Sir Alfred Chalmers, who is always referred to in this part of the law as the “legendary Chalmers” because he was a brilliant draftsman. It seems to me that this Bill is a worthy successor to the Chalmers Act of 1906. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Law Commission and, in particular, to David Hertzell, who was in charge of the report. I hope that we may have many more Bills from that stable and I gather that there is already one in the offing, but as it relates to some rather obscure matters of trust law I assume that we shall not have the pleasure of the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, taking it through the House.

[Lord Goodhart]

My Lords, I would like to mention one matter as the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, has referred to the amendments that I put forward in Committee. As I said then, there was basically a pedantic reason for what I did. I thought what I did was slightly better but, quite frankly, it was not a serious problem at all. As they were not automatically accepted in Committee, there is no point in raising the matter again now. I am quite happy that it no longer appears.