MAJORITY REPORT. 
203 
the directions in which additional powers are thought to be 
needed, we cannot do better than quote two questions addressed 
to Sir Walter Kinnear, and his replies :—'‘ Are you satisfied with 
the present powers of the Ministry for enforcing the provisions 
of the Act as to the payment of contributions, or do you think 
that they need strengthening in any respect? ''—‘ There are 
one or two comparatively minor points upon which we think it 
would be to the advantage of insured persons and to the adminis- 
tration of the Act if we had some further powers. The time 
limit for taking criminal proceedings we suggest should be 
twelve months in the case of ‘all offences specified under Sec- 
tion 96 of the Act. Section 97 allows a time limit of one year 
In the case of failure to pay contributions and in the case of 
trafficking in cards and used stamps, but proceedings for all 
other offences against the Act and Regulations are governed by 
the time limit of six months under the Summary Jurisdiction 
Acts, subject to the power of the Minister to extend the time 
by a certificate under Section 97 (1) (b). Many of these other 
offences are, however, closely linked up with the non-payment 
of contributions; for example, it often happens that prosecution 
for non-stamping is impracticable because the employer is 
believed to hold the relative card and prosecution for detention 
of the card is already barred by the six months’ limit. In fact, 
We do not know of the offence until the six months’ limit has 
expired. Other instances are the offences of fixing used stamps 
to a card, obstructing an inspector, failing to produce cards to 
an inspector, and making illegal deductions from wages. We 
are greatly hampered by the present time limit in the Act, and 
suggest that it should be made twelve months. There are one 
or two other smaller points. We suggest the period for which 
unpaid contributions can be recovered preferentially in bank- 
tuptcy or liquidation should be extended from four to twelve 
tonths. When the provision of four months was originally put 
Into the Act we had a quarterly card, but now that we have a 
half-yearly card we think the period of twelve months would 
enable us to recover from the assets of a bankrupt unpaid con- 
tributions, and so help to keep the insured persons in benefit. 
There is another small point. We have had some cases recently 
of small limited companies which we have not been able to prose- 
cute because of their being run by simply two or three directors, 
and we cannot prosecute for illegal deductions or for non-payment 
of contributions directors of companies. We think that, follow- 
ng the precedent of legislation set up in the Coal Mines Emer- 
gency Act, 1920, we should have power in the case of these small 
Companies to conduct a prosecution against the directors where 
they were actively running the concern themselves, unless they 
could show that they could not reasonably be expected to have 
any knowledge of the non-compliance in question.’ (Q. 23,442.) 
“You think there is precedent for dealing in that way with