Contributions
1,586 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)It is always good to see the Government copying and pasting from a piece of Conservative legislation, with the odd use of the replace function. I will focus my comments largely on…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)When it comes to protecting our intelligence services, it turns out that the Minister is not Dr No after all. [Interruption.] I think we will leave it there. The point that I have…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)I hear what the Minister says about slowing things down, but it would be remiss of me not to comment that if the Government had perhaps taken their time a bit on the drafting of…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)I beg to move amendment 118, in schedule 4, page 128, leave out lines 11 to 16. This amendment is consequential on NC20 and removes those regulations from the list of legislation…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)There is my first question, prompted by my hon. Friend: does that include right hon. and hon. Members of Parliament who themselves are members of trade unions? Could that be the…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)I am always pleased to delight the Minister in these debates. It was a probing amendment, and I can confirm that we will not be pressing amendments 117 to 119 or new clause 20 to…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)Does the Minister not agree that for any power held by any Secretary of State in any Department, the critical friend is a very simple concept? It is called Parliament—it is all of…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)Amendment 169 clarifies the specific obligations relating to the payment of statutory sick pay that are enforceable under part 5. Similarly, amendment 170 will ensure that those…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)I am enjoying the Minister’s audition to be Leader of the House of Commons, a role that I am certain he would do exceptionally well. As I am sure he well understands, although the…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)I cannot remember, Sir Christopher, whether you were in the Chair when the Committee previously discussed exemptions for the intelligence services, but it seems that we now have a…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)On the face of it, this is a sensible clause with appropriate safeguards around HMRC data. The only note of caution I would throw into the mix when involving HMRC in any…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)On the face of it, the clauses are not problematic: they are quite clear, and it is important that those things that are considered as enforcement functions are clearly defined.…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)I rise to speak to amendments 117, 118 and 119 and new clause 20, which stand in my name and in the name of my hon. Friends on the Committee. I make it clear that they are probing…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)Government amendments 86 and 90, as the Minister says, will clarify the purposes for which the power conferred by clause 79 to enter premises and inspect documents may be…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Seventeenth sitting)I will be delighted to in one second, when I have finished my train of thought. Can someone be classed as independent if they are an academic or a university professor, perhaps…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)We accept the list, but welcome the Minister’s commitment from the previous debate to provide clarity on the organisations on it. We need greater reassurance on those, but for the…09 Jan 2025HANSARDSustainable Aviation FuelsOf course, there is always another way. Much of the debate so far on SAF has been about fuels made from feedstocks and waste products. Unlike fuels that require feedstock, whose…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)I will focus most of my comments on clause 87, on the means of giving notice under the provisions of clause 84. I think we can all fully understand what clause 87(1) means by “(a)…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)It is good to see you in the Chair, Sir Christopher. Clauses 76 and 77 are relatively straightforward. Quite rightly, as is standard in similar legislative provisions, they state…09 Jan 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill (Eighteenth sitting)As the Minister said, this is a relatively substantial grouping of amendments, and he outlined very clearly what they all seek to do. I will merely pose a couple of questions so…09 Jan 2025