Clause 32 - Consequential adjustment of time limits
Employment Bill
Public Bill Committees, 18 December 2001, 11:15 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede & Weybridge, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 58, in page 37, line 16, leave out paragraph (c).
This is a probing amendment. It seeks to leave out clause 31(2)(c), which allows regulations to
''make provision treating proceedings begun out of time as begun within time.''
I have pondered on that for a while but I cannot see what the Minister is driving at. When will it be right and proper to treat proceedings begun out of time as being timely?
It may be fine to adjust time limits to reflect statutory procedures. That does not seem the same, however, as taking the power to decree that proceedings that are out of time are within time. Can the Minister clarify the exact circumstances in which that power will be appropriately deployed? I hope that it is precisely definable, because otherwise it is a rather sweeping power that could have serious consequences. If it is definable, why can it not be defined in the Bill, rather than being reserved as a regulation-making power?