Workmen's Compensation Act 1923
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1923 c. 42 |
Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923
(13 & 14 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 42.
An Act to amend the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, and the Acts amending that Act, and to amend the law with respect to employers' liability insurance, the notification of accidents, first aid, and ambulance.
[16th November 1923]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Amendment of Benefits under Principal Act.
1 Repeal of War Addition Acts.
1. The Workmen's Compensation (War Addition) Acts, 1917 and 1919, shall cease to have effect after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty-three, and are hereby repealed:
Provided that the addition provided for in the said Acts shall continue to apply to a weekly payment payable to a workman under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906(hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), or under any enactment superseded by that Act, in respect of total incapacity arising from an accident which occurred on or before the said thirty-first day of December so long as the workman remains totally incapacitated, and the addition shall, for all purposes, be treated as if it were part of the weekly payment.
2 Increase of amount payable on death of workman leaving children.
2. Where a workman leaves a widow or other member of his family (not being a child under the age of fifteen) wholly or partially dependent upon his earnings, and, in addition, leaves one or more children under the age of fifteen so dependent, then—
Provided that the total amount of compensation payable to the dependants shall in no case exceed six hundred pounds.
3 Increase of minimum amount of compensation in fatal cases.
3. Paragraph (1) of the First Schedule to the principal Act shall have effect as if for the words ‘one hundred and fifty pounds’ there were substituted the words ‘two hundred pounds.’
4 Variation of amount of weekly payment.
(1) In paragraph (1) (b ) of the First Schedule to the principal Act, thirty shillings shall be substituted for one pound as the maximum amount of the weekly payment.
(2) Where the maximum weekly payment payable under the principal Act, as amended by the foregoing subsection, to a workman who is totally incapacitated is less than twenty-five shillings, the workman shall be entitled during such incapacity to a weekly addition equal to one-half of the difference between such maximum weekly payment and the sum of twenty-five shillings or his average weekly earnings, whichever is the less, and such addition shall, for all the purposes of the principal Act, be treated as if it were part of the weekly payment.
(3) In the case of partial incapacity, the weekly payment shall, subject to the provisions of paragraph (3) of the said Schedule, be of the following amount:
(a ) if the maximum weekly payment, had the incapacity been total incapacity, would have amounted to twenty-five shillings a week or upwards, the weekly payment in case of partial incapacity shall be one - half the difference between the amount of the average weekly earnings of the workman before the accident and the average weekly amount which he is earning or is able to earn in some suitable employment or business after the accident;
(b ) if the maximum weekly payment would, had the incapacity been total incapacity, have amounted with such addition, if any, as is provided by subsection (2) of this section, to less than twenty-five shillings, the weekly payment in case of partial incapacity shall be a sum bearing the same proportion to the said difference as the said maximum weekly payment with such addition as aforesaid bears to the amount of the average weekly earnings of the workman before the accident.
(4) Proviso (b ) to paragraph (1) of the said Schedule which relates to the amount of the weekly payment in the case of a workman who is under twenty-one years of age at the date of the injury shall cease to have effect.
5 Waiting period.
5. Compensation shall be payable under the principal Act if the injury disables the workman for more than three days from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed, but shall not be payable in respect of the first three days on which he is so disabled unless the incapacity lasts for four weeks or upwards.
6 Provision with respect to certified schemes.
(1) If it appears to the Registrar of Friendly Societies that any scheme duly certified by him under subsection (1) of section three of the principal Act no longer complies with the requirements of that section by reason of the foregoing provisions of this Act, he shall make such amendments of the scales of compensation provided by the scheme as may in his opinion be necessary to render them not less favourable to the workmen and their dependants than the corresponding scales contained in the principal Act as amended by this Act.
(2) Where the Registrar has amended scales of compensation provided by any such scheme as aforesaid, the scheme shall have effect as if when originally made it had provided for the substitution, as from the date of the commencement of this Act, of the amended scales for the scales originally contained therein, and the amended scales shall continue to apply until the expiry of the certificate in force at the commencement of this Act or of any renewal thereof given by the Registrar under the principal Act.
Inclusion of certain Accidents happening when Workman acting contrary to Regulations, &c.
7 Inclusion of certain accidents happening when workman acting contrary to regulations, &c.
7. For the purposes of the principal Act, an accident resulting in the death or serious and permanent disablement of a workman shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of his employment, not with standing that the workman was at the time when the accident happened acting in contravention of any statutory or other regulation applicable to his employment, or of any orders given by or on behalf of his employer, or that he was acting without instructions from his employer, if such act was done by the workman for the purposes of and in connection with his employer's trade or business.
Extension of principal Act.
8 Extension of principal Act to certain share fishermen.
8. Section seven of the principal Act shall have effect as if for subsection (2) thereof the following subsection were substituted:—
(2) This Act shall not apply to such members of the crew of a fishing vessel as are remunerated wholly or mainly by shares in the profits or gross earnings of the working of such vessel, except in such cases and subject to such modifications as the Secretary of State may by order provide:
Provided that no such order shall come into force until it has been laid before each House of Parliament for a period of not less than twenty-one days during which the House has sat, and, if either House before the expiration of those twenty-one days presents an address to His Majesty against the order or any part thereof, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the making of a new order.’
9 Extension of definition of workman.
(1) The definition of ‘workman’ in section thirteen of the principal Act shall have effect as if for the words ‘two hundred and fifty pounds,’ there were inserted the words ‘three hundred and fifty pounds.’
(2) For the purposes of the principal Act, the expression ‘workman’ shall include:—
(a ) a person engaged in plying for hire with any vehicle or vessel the use of which is obtained from the owner thereof under any contract of bailment (or in Scotland any contract of letting to hire), other than a hire purchase agreement, in consideration of the payment of a fixed sum or a share in the earnings or otherwise, and in relation to such a person the owner of the vehicle or...
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