Employment Bill [HL]

The Government understand the concern of the noble Lord, Lord Cotter, regarding the difficulties faced by employees whose attendance at grievance or disciplinary procedures may be hampered by an incapacity caused by their work, and we are grateful for the chance of a short debate on this point. However, we do not believe that the amendment would help resolve any outstanding difficulties because, as has been hinted at in this Committee, the steps it requires are, in effect, already contained in existing health and safety law. Employers are already required under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to carry out risk assessments to determine what they need to do to protect their employees from health and safety risks. They also have to go a stage further and review those assessments if they have reason to think they are no longer valid, and the regulations’ approved code of practice makes it clear that, among other things, employees suffering accidents or ill-health should trigger a review. The approved code of practice has statutory force, so the legal basis for action is already there. We also need to bear in mind that risk assessments are aimed essentially at determining measures to prevent future harm; they are not designed to deal with such matters as establishing the cause of an employee’s incapacity or, for that matter, ensuring his equality of access. We believe that any remaining problems regarding incapacitated employees attending their grievance and disciplinary procedures will not be resolved by a further addition to health and safety at work law, as this amendment proposes. I hope that the noble Lord will be satisfied that the existing law covers the situation he has raised with the Committee.