§ The Minister for Employment (Mr. John Cope)I beg to move Government amendment No. 11, in page 19, line 1, leave out from `(a)' to 'either' in line 3 and insert
'within the period of three months after it receives the report—
- (i) send a copy of the report to every member of the union to whom it is reasonably practicable to send such a copy; or
- (ii) take all such other steps for notifying the contents of the report to the members of the union (whether by publishing the report or otherwise) as it is the practice of the union to take when matters of general interest to all its members need to be brought to their attention;
(b) ensure that any copy sent or notification given for he purposes of paragraph (a) above is accompanied by a statement that the union will, on request, supply any member of the union with a copy of the report,'.The amendment implements the results of the review that we promised in Committee of the method of making the scrutineer's report available to union members. The Bill as drafted was silent on how the report should be sent to members, as long as it is sent by some method to all members. As amended, the clause gives unions a choice as to how they distribute the report, and I hope that it meets the point raised by the Opposition in Committee.
§ Mr. Gavin Strang (Edinburgh, East)This is a minor amendment, but one that we welcome. There may have been some speculation on Second Reading, and certainly in Committee, about the general thinking behind the 393 Government's approach to some aspects of the Bill. I have to say that we thought it ridiculous that a separate copy of the scrutineer's report should have to be sent to every member of the union.
The question that has to be asked is not why the Government are amending it, but why it was in the Bill in the first place. I suppose one could say that it was an error on the part of the civil servants. However, with your great experience, Mr. Deputy Speaker, of trade union affairs and the Department of Employment, that is unlikely. I suggest another proposition, which is that civil servants have been operating on the basis that it is the Government's intention to harass the unions and make it as difficult as possible for them to go about their democratic affairs.
We welcome this minor change. I think that the Minister will confirm that it means that the results of the scrutineer's report can be published in the union journal, along with the statement making it clear that any individual member of the union can write and ask for the full report. That is a more practical way of dealing with the matter than having to send a copy of the scrutineer's report to each union member.
§ Mr. CopeI can confirm that the journal would be an appropriate method of doing that, if it is the way in which the union usually distributes information to its members. I would never blame our civil servants for any matter with which the hon. Member for Edinburgh, East (Mr. Strang) or anybody else may disagree. We are responsible for it. However, I would not accept the alternative explanation offered by the hon. Member.
§ Amendment agreed to.