Member

These amendments would take the existing requirements of the silver and gold employers and offer them to a wider group of people. The example of public duty is a good one. At Cerebral Palsy Scotland, we were finding ourselves completely hammered by jury call-ups. Clinicians, who make appointments six weeks in advance, were being called up for jury service—which, in Scotland, is even more likely to happen because there are 15 people on a jury rather than 12. We decided that we needed a public duties policy. It was because of my daughter and the need for such a policy that we had to consider how we would be treat reservists as a small employer. I am glad to say that we have a policy that enables us to lay out what we would do about time off and all the rest of it. These amendments lay it down and, importantly, would give that certainty for the vast range of employers. Anecdotally, I see that the current active reserves are made up disproportionately of people from organisations in the public sector—civil servants, teachers—