Employment Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 7: 7: Clause 3, page 2, line 27, after ““issued”” insert ““by ACAS”” The noble Baroness said: This is a simple amendment, which I hope, on this occasion, the Government will be prepared to accept. We seek to amend Clause 3, which refers to, "““‘relevant Code of Practice’ means a Code of Practice issued under this Chapter””." We want to insert that it, "““means a Code of Practice issued by ACAS under this Chapter””." We want again to emphasise the role of ACAS in regard to the code of practice and to make it clear that the relevant code of practice is the one issued by ACAS. It is important to have that put in this part of the Bill so that there is no doubt about it at all. As we know, the ACAS code, its desirability and the rest of it has figured very much in discussion of the Bill. I am grateful to the Minister, as others have been, for the text with which we were issued recently, but, of course, we have had it for only a very short time. I received it this morning, so I have not had a chance to look at it. Clearly, it is important and we want to make sure that this section makes it clear that the ““relevant Code of Practice”” is the ACAS code. I hope that the Government will be prepared to accept this amendment, which is meant to be helpful. I beg to move.