Employment Bill [HL]

I shall refer to ““the”” code; that is, the one that has been referred to earlier. I want to thank the noble Lord, Lord Bach, for getting to us a copy of what I take to be the draft—I do not know whether it is the first or second draft or whether there will be other drafts—as he partially promised when he wound up at Second Reading. He said that he would do his utmost to get it to us before we considered it in Committee. I thank him for having done his utmost and having got it to us this morning. The problem is that I first saw it as I got off the 6.30 am from Carlisle today and I am not sure that I wanted to read it in excessive detail. I also noted at the same time some comments from the Engineering Employers’ Federation, which said that it would be interested to see the code. It continued: "““It may be one thing if the draft code is a very short statement of basic principles which all employers and workers can be expected to know and understand, but quite another if it is, as now, a 36-page thesis on good practice for employers””." It looks as though they are complying with what the EEF was asking for and it is a relatively short code. However, at this stage, we would prefer to reserve our position—if I can put it in quasi legal terms—and say that we would want to come back to this, having had a further look at it, on Report. It remains to me therefore only to end by again thanking the noble Lord for having got it to us at this stage.