Member

I shall turn now to our own amendments. Amendment 1 relates to those people who might be eligible to be called up as reserves but who also perform work that is vital to defence in their civilian employment. During the second world war, people in such a situation were generally referred to as working in reserved occupations. The essence of this amendment is that the Secretary of State should be able to define, via regulations, certain categories of civilian work that would be classed as reserved occupations, and therefore be able to exempt people in that category from being mobilised. We still believe that is a practical suggestion, but I take the point that there is already some power on the statute book allowing Ministers to do that. I think we are halfway there, so I am not minded to press the amendment to a vote this evening.