Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)

My Lords, I will speak to the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Haslemere. He has spoken with great eloquence and killer arguments. I agree with him, so none of us needs to speak for very long. As he has said, this clause was added late in the day in the other place and there is one aspect which particularly appals me. The clause provides that the Secretary of State, or rather, in practice, their Civil Service agents in the new enforcement body, or any other enforcement officer as in Clause 113(7)(b), will be able to take a case to an employment tribunal where an employee is unwilling to pursue their own complaint—that is, without consent. Consent is such an important principle. Subsection (6) makes it clear that the Secretary of State or enforcement officer “is not liable to any worker for anything done (or omitted to be done)”, such as an error or reputational or personal damage. The clause also risks putting further pressure on the hard-pressed tribunal system. The Government’s recent implementation plan seeks expert help in getting the detail of the provisions right. I have worked for small companies, I have worked for a company with 500,000 people, I have worked with USDAW, I have been a member of two Civil Service unions and I have been head of HR in a government department. I believe that this lack of consent will cause untold trouble. The clause must be dropped, and I hope colleagues across the House will vote for the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Carter.