Employment Bill [HL]

It is always a pleasure to listen to a tour de force on these topics from the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, who takes us back through the 40 years in which he has been involved in employment and industrial tribunals. We should listen to what he has to say with eager attention. As I understand it, the substantive point that he is trying to make is that the role of lay members should not be modified. I do not wish to go into the details of the amendments or their implications, which is for the Minister, but it is obvious that lay members in employment tribunals play a very valuable and worthwhile role. They have an important role to play particularly in cases involving dismissal, where issues of reasonableness are often better decided or commented on by the lay members than by the non-lay members. I do not wish to go on at length on this point. Obviously, the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, is seeking reassurance from the Government that there is no intention whatever of diminishing or altering the role of lay members. I do not often join in the cheekiness about the noble Lord, Lord Jones, but I wonder whether the reason he has moved to the right on this amendment is because the CBI agrees entirely with the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn. I sat here wondering, ““What is the world coming to when the CBI agrees with Lord Wedderburn?””.