Clause 28 - Pre-hearing reviews
Employment Bill
9:45 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 42, in page 34, line 31, at end add—
'(2) In section 9(1) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, after paragraph (a) there is inserted—
''(aa) for enabling the Tribunal to strike out any case which is found by a review conducted under paragraph (a) above to be without merit and where in the opinion of the Tribunal, no purpose would be served in allowing the case to be determined at a hearing, and''.'.
The clause removes the expression ''preliminary'' from the reference to the review procedure in existing legislation. The explanatory notes state that the purpose is to be crystal clear about the fact that the review procedure can be the end of the line in some cases and does not always have to be preliminary to a full hearing. The history and examples quoted by various organisations suggest that that is a sensible route to take.
The explanatory notes make it clear that the pre-hearing review as a result of the changes introduced by the Bill can lead to the dismissal or striking-out of a case. That may be crystal clear to parliamentary draftsmen but to anyone else reading the Bill, it would be as clear as mud. The clause inserts powers
''for authorising an employment tribunal to carry out a review of any proceedings before it at any time before a hearing held for the purpose of determining them''.
It says nothing about striking out or dismissing a case at that review.
The amendment would make the purpose of the change to section 9 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 crystal clear by stating that there will be a power to enable the tribunal to strike out a case and clarifying the grounds on which it can do so. This is a probing amendment in the sense that I have set out my view of what those grounds should be. If the Minister's view is different, I should like to hear it. If he will not accept
the amendment, I should like him to clarify how the grounds will be specified and how the provision to strike out a case will be written into the Bill.
The amendment states that a case that the review finds to be without merit could be struck out, where
''in the opinion of the Tribunal, no purpose would be served in allowing the case to be determined at a hearing''.