Member

I can confirm that we will consider future areas where fair pay agreements may bring benefits, but it is important that we prioritise learning from the process to make sure that our policy approach is as robust as possible. My noble friend Lady O’Grady rightly challenged our current proposals and said that they cannot be the sum total of our ambition. Nevertheless, we believe that a commitment to setting out a timetable and assessment process once the first FPA has been established would be premature. The nature of the assessment needed and the process for doing so will change based on what we learn from it. We believe that any such future measures will require primary legislation, meaning that there will need to be careful assessment in the usual way before bringing in legislation. We would not wish to prejudge or duplicate the assessments which would need to be made for such legislation and believe that the process for assessing benefits and costs would best be established in that context, based on specifics.