Clause 33 - Non-completion of statutory procedure: exclusion of claims
Employment Bill
12:00 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
The Minister is now going too far. I am ready to concede that the amendment is widely drafted and could cause difficulties. I hoped that he would find it easy to put on the record of the Standing Committee, but not to write into the Bill, that the Secretary of State will, in the narrow set of circumstances in which the powers would be exercised under subsection (1), consult with the clearly defined and limited number of tribunal user groups in each of the employment tribunal regions. The user groups will draw their own conclusions from the fact that the Minister has not been able to give that undertaking. They would expect to be consulted and are right to do so because the issue has been raised. So long as the Government propose to allocate sufficient time to the Report stage, I will ask the Minister to deal with such issues then, as well as with the headline issues to which we must return. I offer the Minister the opportunity to say whether that will happen.
During the passage of the Bill, either on Report or in the other place, I hope that the Minister or a colleague of his will give that simple undertaking. That would entirely satisfy me on the point that lies behind this possibly unwisely drafted amendment. In recognising that it is too wide, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 33 ordered to stand part of the Bill.