Code of Industrial Relations Practice (Hansard, 29 April 1971)

§ 8. Mr. Scott
asked the Secretary of State for Employment when he expects to publish the outline draft of the Code of Industrial Relations Practice.

§ 10. Mr. Adam Butler
asked the Secretary of State for Employment when he expects to publish the draft of the new Code of Fair Industrial Relations Practice.

§ Mr. R. Carr
I hope to publish a draft of the Code as a basis for consultation in the next few weeks.

§ Mr. Scott
I welcome that reply. Will the scope of the Bill be restricted to those sections of industry which are unionised or will it be of general application, subject only perhaps to a de minimis provision? As the Government have rightly 691 withdrawn from the responsibility to pay sickness and unemployment benefit for the first three days, would it not be appropriate for the Code to make it clear that, for employees with minimum qualifying service, this should be the responsibility of the employers?

§ Mr. Carr
I will take that suggestion into account. The Code will be universal. We want trade union membership to increase and believe that it will. But this is a code of practice for industrial relations in every company, in every centre of employment in the economy, and therefore it must be universal and apply to non-trade unionists as well as to trade unionists.

§ Mr. Butler
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for informing us that the Code will be published in the near future. Will he confirm that there will be months rather than weeks for consultation? Has there been any indication from the T.U.C. whether it will consult the Department about the contents of the Code, contrary to its present practice of non-co-operation.

§ Mr. Carr
I very much hope that, when I publish the draft document, the T.U.C. will consult fully with me. I shall do everything I can to help and encourage it to do so. I assure my hon. Friend that there will be months for consultation. The timetable I have in mind is that it should finally be put to the House towards the end of the year. That will give many months for consultation.

§ Mr. Heffer
Is it not ludicrous that it is possible—although, with the situation in the House of Lords at the moment, it may also not be possible—that the Bill will have gone through the House before we have an opportunity to see and discuss the Code? Will not the right hon. Gentleman have second thoughts so that, when the Code comes before the House, we shall have an opportunity not only of discussing it but of amending it?

§ Mr. Carr
The hon. Gentleman knows that that is not possible under parliamentary procedure. In this respect, the Bill is an enabling measure in that it enables the Secretary of State of the day to produce a code and in due course to produce new codes, revised versions, and additions. The Bill is an enabling 692 measure, so what the hon. Gentleman suggests is not possible under the procedure of the House.

§ Mr. Heffer
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, when the Road Safety Code was before the House, right hon. and hon. Members on both sides said how frustrated they felt that they could only discuss it and not put forward amendments to it? If such a feeling of frustration exists in the House, is it not possible for the right hon. Gentleman to consider the possibility of changing the procedure in order to enable us to amend codes of this kind?

§ Mr. Carr
A change of procedure is not a matter about which I can reply, and I know that the hon. Gentleman understands that. I hope, however, that by publishing this Code as a draft document in plenty of time, there will be ample opportunity for hon. Members, as well as for people outside, to discuss it and to make their views known, and it may well be that we could have a debate at that stage before we finally approve or reject it. I cannot give any undertaking—it is not my business to do so—about a debate earlier, but if that is the wish and there is discussion through the usual channels, I will see what can be done.