§ 2.37 p.m.
§ LORD MITCHISONMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what Estacode is.]
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, Estacode is the name given to the Establishments code, or collection of rules and advice on staff management, for the non-industrial Home Civil Service. It embodies regulations and instructions made by the Treasury under Article 6 of the Civil Service Order in Council 1956, and provides in compact form guidance in all matters of permanent interest to etstablishment officers.
§ LORD MITCHISONMy Lords, including, I hope, the way to treat difficult Ministers. May I ask whether a copy of Estacode can be put into the Library or made available at the Printed Paper Office? We shall in due course have to consider the Fulton Report.
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, I have already asked for a copy to be placed in the Library of this House. There has been one for some time in the Library in another place and I understand that there are some 3,000 in circulation, some in the hands of the bigger employers in the country. There is therefore nothing secretive about this.
§ LORD NAPIER AND ETTRICKMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether I am correct in thinking that Estacode does not have the force of law—that is to say, that it would not be enforceable in a court of law?
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, this is a very lengthy document, including some hundreds—indeed, thousands—of items, and I should not like to give a categorical undertaking that not one of these items is not enforceable by law.