Clause 24 - Conciliation
Employment Bill
6:30 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
Perhaps when the hon. Gentleman is a Minister he will be in a position to say that it was a stupid amendment, but the Minister did not say that. It may be that 90 days is not the right period, but the Minister seems to recognise that there are resource implications. However, it is unlikely to be helpful for the Secretary of State to have to identify them as the resource requirement identified will doubtless be substantially in excess of the resource available. It is likely to be very unhelpful because it will mean that Ministers will have egg on their faces.
In general it is good to have assessments of the resources required as a result of legislation made public so that people can see whether the resources have followed the rhetoric of the legislation and that there is something there to back up the legislation in practice. I take the Minister's point about 90 days. Perhaps a more sensible suggestion would have been six or 12 months.
However, the Minister will not concede anything, other than acknowledging that more resources may be needed, and he does not even admit that that is necessarily the case. Essentially, the matter will be dealt with at Ministers' discretion behind closed doors, which is not what I would have liked. Given the time, I will withdraw the amendment and see if the issue can be tackled in another way at a later stage. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 24 ordered to stand part of the Bill.