§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Employment what he expects the number and percentage of men and women serving on industrial tribunal panels to be in October 1977 under his new proposals if the 44 independent women members are not sponsored by the TUC and CBI.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI cannot forecast these figures with any precision since they will depend, inter alia, very much on the response of the nominating bodies to the recent letter which I sent to them.
§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the number and percentage of men and women, respectively, currently serving on industrial tribunal panels.
49W
§ Mr. Harold WalkerThe numbers and percentages of men and women serving as lay members of industrial tribunals are at present:
No. Per Cent. Men … … 1,760 78.6 Women … … 478 21.4
§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of nominations for industrial tribunal panels coming forward from the TUC and CBI, respectively, were men and women, respectively, in the latest convenient period.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerDuring the first nine months of 1976 the proportions were as follows:
Men per cent. Women per cent. TUC 89 11 CBI and other employer organisations. 91 9
§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make his proposed changes in the industrial tribunal panels conditional on all the independent women members who lose their seats, being replaced by other women nominees.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerNo. To do so would appear to breach the principle of non-discrimination and to be contrary to Section 86 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. However, I have asked the sponsoring bodies, when putting forward their nominations, to continue to bear in mind my concern that the composition of the tribunal membership should if possible broadly reflect the proportion of women in the working population.
§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department complies with Section 86 of the Sex Discrimination Act in appointments to industrial tribunal panels.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI can assure my hon. Friend that I am very conscious of the need to comply with the Act. During the period of the most recent major recruitment to the panels my Department urged the nominating bodies to have regard to the desirability of seeking to ensure that the proportion of women on tribunals reflected the proportion of women in the working population.
50W
§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will now consider nominations from the Institute of Personnel Management for industrial tribunal panels.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerNo. I am satisfied with the present arrangement.