§ Dame Joan Vickersasked the Secretary of State for Employment why Her Majesty's Government have not been able to ratify the following articles of the Social Charter of the Council of Europe: Article 2(1), Article 4(3), Article 7(1), Article 7(4), Article 7(7), Article 8(2) and Article 8(3).
188W
§ Mr. Chichester-ClarkWhen the United Kingdom instrument of ratification of the European Social Charter was deposited on 11th July 1962, the Government of the day did not accept 10 of the charter's 72 provisions because it was not certain that, after careful consideration, it was able wholly to fulfil the undertakings in respect of those provisions. The United Kingdom was the first member State to ratify the charter so there were no precedents to assist the Government's decision.
Since the charter entered into force on 26th February 1965 the supervisory procedure provided for in Part IV of the charter has revealed some different opinions between the supervisory bodies in respect of the fulfilment of undertakings and a number of these differences have not yet been resolved. Until the situation has been clarified it is considered premature to undertake a complete review of the United Kingdom's position in relation to the provisions of the charter which it did not accept.