Equality Bill

I share the concerns expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Gibson of Market Rasen. I should declare an interest, having once been a solicitor for the Transport and General Workers’ Union. An awful lot of people do not realise the extent of advice and support that goes on within a trade union. So much focus is put on the political side—particularly by the militants—that people forget the enormous amount of work involved. Mr Blyton of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, who I used to work for, was an example to everyone of how to ensure that people got the best advice. Have the Government done any assessment of the additional amount of work that is going to be necessary? The noble Baroness made the point in her Second Reading speech that she felt that the work would dramatically increase. I am worried about that. Do the Government envisage that the impact of this Bill would be so great as to put an enormous amount of additional work on the shoulders of trade union equality representatives, and have they done any work in this respect? What discussions have taken place with businesses and what consultation has occurred on how best to deal with this? How much time do they envisage should be permissible or allowable, for instance, under the terms of the amendment? And would the amount of time off envisaged allow a business to remain properly functional under those terms? We just need a little bit more information before we can decide how best to proceed.