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Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 97: 97: Schedule 13, page 224, line 34, at end insert— ““( ) for the words ““neglect, connivance or omission”” substitute ““negligence or connivance”” The noble Lord said: As I said beforehand, under the Bill we are expecting our bailiffs to exercise a fair degree of discretion as to whether they leave goods on the premises or accept that a particular circumstance is vulnerable. We want our trained professional bailiffs to have some freedom of action to allow them to react properly to the circumstances they find themselves in. To my mind, the inclusion of the word ““omission”” in this section means that bailiffs, as they do at the moment, will let themselves in for the entirety of the debt if they fail in some way to collect it through having taken the sort of decisions that we hope they will take, as we have discussed under other amendments. I am happy that they should be liable in negligence, and certainly in connivance, but I have grave doubts about the effect it will have on the behaviour of bailiffs if they continue to be liable in omission. I hope that the Government will consider removing that word. I beg to move.