§ The Minister for Employment Relations, Industry and the Regions (Alan Johnson)I have today placed in the Libraries of the House copies of a consultation document as part of the Government's review of the Employment Relations Act 1999.1 have also placed in the Libraries copies of the draft regulations prohibiting the blacklisting of trade unionists, which arose from the review. The review was announced on 11 July by the Secretary of State, with the following terms of reference
The Government has reformed the labour market to build a durable and fair basis for constructive employment relations. By a range of measures, the UK labour market is achieving high levels of employment and combining fairness and flexibility.In line with commitments made in the 1998 Fairness at Work White Paper, the Government will review the operation of the statutory union recognition and derecognition procedures in the Employment Relations Act 1999. The review will also look at the operation of the other provisions of the Act.The review will be carried out by the DTI through full public consultation. The DTI will complete this task to a timetable enabling any legislative recommendations which the review may make to be introduced within the lifetime of this Parliament.Based on the evidence, the review has found that the Act is working well. The review has concluded that the central pillars of the Act should remain unchanged, but it makes a number of proposals to amend other parts of the Act to improve their practical operation. The consultation document also presents the Government's proposals to change trade union law in line with the judgment reached on 2 July by the European Court of Human Rights in the Wilson and Palmer case. The consultation period ends on 22 May.