Employment Bill [HL]

It is a very interesting constitutional point that we cannot discuss anything until the Prime Minister has decided whether it is appropriate for us to discuss it. I make two or three small points. First, I support what my noble friend Lord Campbell of Alloway said when he doubted that this was within the ambit of the Long Title. It might be, but my noble friend was saying that it is not quite within the spirit of the Bill. I would like to offer one small bit of advice to the noble Lord, Lord Jones, for when he winds up. The amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, and the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, comes from the fact that both noble Lords do not like agency workers—the idea of temporary workers—that they have fewer rights than other workers, and that there should be a flexible labour market with all the advantages there are for both employers and employees. One should emphasise the fact that for many employees there are considerable advantages in being agency workers and suchlike. I would have thought that the simple solution for the Minister is to reject the amendment because it is simply designed to make it much harder for people to seek employment as agency workers or as temporary workers. The same should apply to the Private Member’s Bill that was discussed in another place last Friday. No doubt the noble Lord will give the Government’s view on that and on this amendment in due course.