Clause 29 - Statutory dispute resolution procedures
Employment Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central, Labour)
We have had an interesting debate on clause stand part. The hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) took an interesting line and I would be pleased if my hon. Friend the Minister would respond to that because there is genuine concern about the gap between schedule 2, which becomes the basic minimum standard of disciplinary and grievance procedures, and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service's existing code of conduct. That code of conduct does not have statutory backing, but has similar force in that any industrial tribunal would consider itself bound by it.
The hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge referred to the legitimacy or otherwise of secondary legislation being used to introduce amendments to the schedule. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will resist the temptation to say that it is illegitimate to make changes in that way. I heard that argument deployed many times when my party were the Opposition, only to be rebuffed, and probably more casually rebuffed than the way in which my hon. Friend will rebuff the hon. Gentleman.
It is right and proper that there should be parliamentary scrutiny and the interesting question is whether that should be done in secondary legislation or in a similar way to the ACAS code, which has no backing from debate in the House. Most people believe that the ACAS code was well discussed and I am the first to argue that it is not always necessary for such matters to go through the House, but it would be an improvement for the provision to be discussed through the secondary legislation mechanism.