Clause 22 - Employment tribunals
Employment Bill
10:00 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I look forward to moving on to the substance of what we are here today to discuss.
Clause 22 replaces section 13 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. I hope that the debate on this group of amendments will be relatively quick. They deal with an issue that arises under both clause 22 in relation to employment tribunals and clause 23 in relation to employment appeal tribunals. For that reason, the two amendments have been grouped together.
The amendments will be familiar to the cognoscenti; they would remove a ''may'' and insert a ''shall''. We do not wish to make primary legislation more prescriptive, but we want to explore the strength of the Government's intention to implement the regulations for which the clause provides. I seek an assurance from the Minister that the regulations will include—not ''may'' include—provision for the award of costs and expenses. I suspect that the award of costs, expenses and allowances will be the subject of substantive debate as we consider this part of the Bill. We need to know that this will not be one of those permissive clauses that the Government then decline to use for one reason or another; that there will be regulations allowing for the award of costs, expenses and allowances.
If the Minister is able to say that the regulations will include provision for the award of costs and expenses, I will be happy to withdraw amendment No. 7. I can accept that the conventional language of the Bill is permissive rather than prescriptive so long as the Minister writes it into the record that the Government intend to include such provision.
In relation to amendment No. 18, the situation is a little more complex. My understanding—I am sure that hon. Members who have studied the matter will leap up to correct me if I have made an error—is that the wording in clause 22 that is to replace section 13 of the 1996 Act always contained a general power for the regulations to permit the awarding of costs. Therefore, we are removing section 13 and replacing it with wording that is of very similar construction and has the same effect.
The wording proposed in clause 23 does the same thing as the wording proposed in clause 22, but the wording in section 34 of the 1996 Act is somewhat different. Section 34 provides that the rules of procedure may include provision for ordering an award of costs or expenses where
''the proceedings were unnecessary, improper or vexatious''
or where
''there has been unreasonable delay or other unreasonable conduct in bringing or conducting the proceedings.''
That is to be swept away. Instead of limiting the circumstances in which costs or expenses can be awarded—as the 1996 Act does—at employment appeal tribunals, clause 23 will create symmetry with employment tribunals, which will have a general power to award costs and expenses.
The Minister may tell us that the regulations will reintroduce some of the restriction that the Bill is removing, but that is bizarre. We delete a provision in primary legislation that imposes a restriction; we replace it with a provision in primary legislation that does not impose that restriction; and we then look to secondary legislation to reimpose it. I cannot advocate leaving more provisions to secondary legislation. We all know that we do not have adequate time or facility to scrutinise statutory instruments properly in this place. Another subject is being removed from proper parliamentary scrutiny and placed in statutory instruments, which are inevitably debated in a cursory fashion.
Will the Minister confirm that provision will be made for the award of costs and expenses in both employment and employment appeal tribunals? Will he explain the practical effect of removing the restriction in section 34 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996? Does he intend to reimpose the restriction through regulations and, if so, why is it necessary to remove it from primary legislation? Will he allow the Committee fully to understand the intention behind the two clauses?