Clause 34
Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill
1:45 pm
Siôn Simon (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; Birmingham, Erdington, Labour)
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on raising the issue. He asked some pertinent questions on what is an arcane piece of drafting. The simple answer is that the clause is intended to make the Bill’s apprenticeship provisions apply to Crown servants and parliamentary staff who do not have legal contracts of employment or, as they are termed in the Bill, “contracts of service”,—I will not go down that geeky road. The provisions of the Bill as drafted would not apply to them because they do not have contracts of service, and a contract of service is a necessary part of the definition of an apprenticeship.
I, too, was a little confused about that and never asked anyone about it, but the conclusion I came to was that “parliamentary staff” in this context does not refer to the staff and researchers of MPs, although they are Crown servants, but to those we call officers of the House, such as the Clerks and the Serjeant at Arms. The technical reason for Crown servants such as parliamentary staff and members of the armed forces not having contracts of service is that the Crown is, in theory, able to terminate such contracts at will despite any contrary term within a contract. That is seen to be part of the wider rule that the Crown cannot fetter its future executive action by contract.
Although I declined the hon. Gentleman’s invitation to geekiness on the matter of contracts of apprenticeship, contracts of service and contracts of employment, I cannot resist noting that:
“In one of the leading cases, Dunn v. R, (decided in 1896) the Court stated that employees of the Crown held office during the ‘pleasure’ of the Crown unless statute provided otherwise. A contract to employ a Crown employee for a fixed term was deemed to be against the public interest and unconstitutional.”
On that note—[Interruption.] My hon. Friend the Member for Erewash said, from a seated position, “I rest my case”. I hope that the hon. Gentleman is persuaded of the integrity of our intentions and will withdraw his amendment.