Clause 33 - Non-completion of statutory procedure: exclusion of claims
Employment Bill
12:00 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Central. I do not understand how anyone could move on to a greater job than being in Standing Committee F to discuss the Employment Bill.
We do not intend to repeal large chunks of employment relations legislation. Use of the power must be related to the admissibility regime in subsection (1). Establishing that regime is a major step and the drafting of the regulations will require carefully attention. We shall consult widely on them before they are introduced.
The admissibility criteria will apply to many, although not all, the jurisdictions in schedule 3 and they will apply to many aspects of employment law. It is not a simple task to apply the admissibility regime to such a diverse set of legal rights and requirements and the criteria may fit more neatly into some parts of the legal framework than others. It is prudent to take the power to make any necessary amendments to ensure that the criteria can be clearly and consistently applied across all jurisdictions. That is why we need the power to amend the specific time limit provisions relating to each jurisdiction to be subject to the regime.
The amendment would remove that essential flexibility from the regulation-making process. I have said several times that the regulations will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. When initially set, they will be subject to the widest consultation and will relate only to clause 33(1) and not to any other part of the Bill. With those assurances, I hope that the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge will withdraw his amendment.