(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House approves the First Report from the Committee on Standards, Session 2014-15, Respect Policy, HC 321, which endorses proposals for the operation and review of a policy to deal with complaints of alleged bullying or harassment by Members or their staff towards House of Commons staff.
The motion appears in my name and those of the Leader of the House, the shadow Leader of the House my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle), and members of the House of Commons Commission.
I want to make one thing clear at the outset: the fact that the Committee on Standards and the Commission are inviting the House to agree to a policy to deal with allegations of bullying and harassment is not a sign that there is a widespread problem. It shows the reverse: that the Commission wants to be a good employer and that Members of Parliament themselves want to make sure that any incidents of bullying and harassment are dealt with effectively.
Recent events have shown the dangers of not taking action to deal with potential problems. We are no longer in a situation where a quiet word with the Whips might be used to persuade an MP to change his or her behaviour. We need to be able to demonstrate that we do not have a culture of covering things up or of avoiding difficult issues. We also need to make sure that the system is fair and recognises that complaints need to be handled appropriately.
Although we may have very different political philosophies, those who stand for election do so because they believe in social justice, however they define it. It would be perverse for this House to be one of the few places without an effective and visible policy.
This debate and this policy are necessary because MPs are not employees of the House, but we depend on the services provided by those who are employed by the House of Commons Commission. If staff of the House are bullied by their colleagues, management can discipline those colleagues. If we as MPs bully our own staff, they have rights under employment law, as well as the support structures many parties have now put in place.
MPs, however, cannot be disciplined by the House of Commons Commission if they bully or harass House staff. We are in the position of hotel guests or other service users. If this were a hotel, services might be withheld from a particularly obstreperous MP, but that would be going against everything that the House service exists to do. It has never, ever been contemplated.
If it is to be a good employer, the House needs to have a policy in place that tackles the fact that MPs cannot and should not be subject to sanctions imposed by House management, but provides a clear framework for dealing with incidents when things go wrong. The motion gives us the opportunity to do that, and I believe we should agree it not only because we think it is right and that the House should be an exemplary employer, but for reasons of self-interest. Without such a policy, the House of Commons Commission is vulnerable to legal challenge if things go wrong.
The report by the Committee on Standards, which I Chair, briefly sets out the background to this debate. There has been, and there still is, a respect policy, which comes in two parts. The first deals with the informal resolution of disputes between Members and staff, and it remains in force. The second, which dealt with formal action if differences could not be resolved, has been suspended, because in practice it was found to be flawed, not least because it was seen as unfair to the Members being investigated. Investigation was done by a member of House staff and Members had no right of appeal, but staff did. It was quite clearly, in the Committee’s view, flawed in that way and I think most people agreed.
The note on our website on what Members can expect from the House service makes it clear that dignity, courtesy and respect on both sides are central to the relationship between Members and staff. That is generally the case. I have checked before delivering this speech, and there is not a single live complaint about a Member at present.
That is not to say that bullying is inconceivable: I think we all have to accept that it happens in almost every workplace. We operate in a high-pressure environment, and I am absolutely sure that, sometimes, things are said that are almost instantly regretted. Diffidence and patience with the status quo are not natural qualities for an MP, so a framework is necessary in case things go wrong.
The proposed policy strengthens the informal part of the process and revises the formal part of the process, so that investigation is independent and the complainant has no more rights than the person complained about.
The informal part of the process is most important. It requires Members to be told if they have upset a member of staff. I am told that, in most cases, Members have immediately apologised and taken steps to make amends as soon as they know that they have upset someone. It requires managers to look at the wider picture and consider whether difficulties arise because of a lack of capability or resources. If difficulties cannot be resolved, and both parties agree to it, there will be mediation.
These measures should mean that very few cases are taken forward to the formal stage of the process—that is, possible investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards—but it is right that we should have effective measures to deal with such exceptional cases. If a complaint is made, the Parliamentary Commissioner will review the material. She will decide whether the behaviour alleged is so serious that it meets the high bar of conduct that would have the potential to
“cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally.”
Members will know that that quotation is from Members’ code of conduct.
As the respect policy itself makes clear, the commissioner may be concerned by a complaint about a brusque response in a highly charged political situation. She has the power to make recommendations to management about the handling of the situation and to settle matters informally, if both parties are willing to do so, even at such a late stage. Where it is appropriate, she will be able to investigate and report to the Committee, which will decide what action to recommend.
We recognise that cases of this kind can be difficult for both the complainant and the person complained about, so they will be handled differently from normal complaints. A far higher level of confidentiality will be observed, and names will be released only if the commissioner concludes that bullying or harassment has occurred. As hon. Members know, when the commissioner investigates the activities of a Member of this House, that fact is currently stated on the commissioner’s website, even though nothing is found against the vast majority of Members. The commissioner—like the Committee on Standards and, I believe, the Commission—thinks that that should not happen in the rare circumstances of these cases.
The Committee did not take the decision lightly to endorse the Commission’s proposals. We wanted to be sure that the existence of the formal stage of the process was not seen as an excuse for management to ignore their responsibilities towards both staff and Members. We consulted every Member of the House, and took comfort in the fact that there were very few replies on that point. We did not agree to this change until we were sure that real measures were in place to prevent problems from arising in the first place, and to stop problems needlessly escalating if they did arise.
We wanted to make it clear that this matter is primarily the responsibility of the management of the House. I welcome the fact that the respect policy recognises that difficulties may arise not simply from a Member’s behaviour, but from other behaviour. At the very first stage, it requires line managers to consider whether there is a resourcing, capacity or other issue that needs to be addressed.
We wanted staff training to make sure both that staff are appropriately trained to deal with what I shall call “customers” in difficult situations, and that managers understand their responsibilities under the new system. We understand that training has begun, and that there will be more training for staff of the House to implement the change.
We wanted it to be clear to everyone that the bar for investigations by the commissioner would be high, and we are satisfied that the new policy spells that out. We were also concerned that the new system should work for staff. We asked the House authorities to assure us that staff whose first language is not English will be adequately supported, and I am glad to say that that is included in management guidance.
We are also grateful to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for her work with the House authorities and with us. She worked with the House authorities to make sure that the human resources processes in place recognise that making a complaint to the commissioner is a last resort. She reviewed the procedures for investigation so that there is a separate appropriate procedure for use in such cases. I have already noted the higher level of confidentiality. The new procedure also involves the complainant, as well as the MP, in checking the facts in the commissioner’s memorandum. Both parties will of course have the opportunity to appear before the Committee if there are further proceedings.
There is one final safeguard. The Committee recognises that this is a major change, so we recommend that it is reviewed in the next Parliament, and we invite the House to give the House of Commons Commission, together with the Committee, powers to suspend or renew the policy. I expect the findings of the review to be published and possibly debated, if that is felt necessary.
Let me repeat that I do not expect many cases to be brought under the policy. I do not think that bullying is widespread, but that should not be an excuse not to have an effective means to deal with it. I am sure colleagues on both sides of the House would condemn bullying in any other workplace. This motion gives us the opportunity to make it clear that we will not tolerate it in our own workplace. I hope that the House will agree to the motion.
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
May I place on the record the thanks of the House of Commons Commission to the Chair of the Committee on Standards, the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Kevin Barron), for his and the Committee’s work on this very important matter? As with everything it does, the Committee took it extremely seriously, put in a lot of work and came up with something that is thought through and detailed, and does exactly the job we had hoped it would do.
I want to pick up on two of the right hon. Gentleman’s points. The first is that it is absolutely essential that the policy is fair to all parties. It is vital that the House has a respect policy that looks after staff, but it is equally of the utmost importance that it is one in which Members have full buy-in and can feel confident, because otherwise it would not be fair to both sides. The second point is that there are no outstanding complaints at this time. By far the majority of Members treat the staff with the courtesy and respect that they so richly deserve. When it is made clear to them, most Members who have from time to time been errant in their behaviour immediately apologise to the members of staff concerned. The policy is as much a preventive measure as something to deal with a problem, and it puts us into the category of best practice employers. The way in which the right hon. Gentleman framed the opening of the debate is very much what the Commission had hoped for.
I will briefly set out why the policy is so important to the Commission. The Commission is of course the statutory legal employer of House staff, and it therefore has a very important duty of care towards them. Without effective policies on bullying and harassment, the House is more vulnerable to legal charges. There are of course policies in place for bullying and harassment of members of staff by their line managers and employers and for relations between Members and Members’ staff, but there is a gap between members of the House service and Members of the House in that, as was pointed out, we are rather more customers than employers. In that respect, the problem is that unlike the customers of most establishments, who can be shut out by the establishment’s owner if they are felt to be bullying or harassing the staff, it would be unthinkable for Members to be excluded. We therefore require a policy that works, and the respect policy seeks to address that situation.
Notwithstanding the fact that occurrences are very rare, some 7% of staff—nearly 100—experienced some form of harassment, according to a survey of staff, in the previous 12 months. For one in six of those affected, the harassment took the form of repeated incidents involving the same individual. The proportions are small, but that suggests that something like 20 to 25 House staff may experience ongoing problems with one or more individuals.
As the Committee’s report sets out, the policy initially agreed by the Commission in June 2011 proved to be flawed. It was based on policies used by other employers, but it did not fully take into account the special relationship that exists between House staff and Members. I reiterate that the Commission is very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for taking on this unenviable task. We believe that it has produced something that provides a proper mechanism for dealing with the rare circumstance of the most serious cases. The Committee has concluded that the revised policy is fair to all parties, as I have mentioned. On that basis, the Commission both thanks the Committee and commends the policy to the House for its endorsement.
I should note that, assuming the House agrees to the motion, the policy will come into effect immediately, but it will not be retrospective.
Kevin Barron
The hon. Gentleman says that the policy will not be retrospective. However, if somebody has a difficult relationship at the moment, something that has gone on during the past few days, weeks or months might be added to a complaint to the commissioner if she felt that it ought to be investigated. There are no such cases whatever to my knowledge, but just in case there are, I thought that we should mention that the policy would be retrospective in relation to such behaviour over many months or years that is considered at some point in the future.
John Thurso
I am most grateful to the Chair of the Committee for intervening to make that point. Of course, at the moment no complaints are extant, so there will be nothing retrospective about complaints that we know about and have dealt with. However, if a complaint is made now, it will of course be subject to this policy.
The House greatly values its staff and the exceptional work that they do in supporting us all. An effective respect policy is a very important part of delivering the Commission’s aim to be exemplary employer. I commend the policy to the House.
Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)
I support the motion, to which I put my name, on behalf of the Opposition. It states that the House accepts the first report from the Committee on Standards on the respect policy.
I concur with the tribute that the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso) paid to the Chair of the Standards Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Kevin Barron), for the work that he and his Committee have done on this important issue.
Every employer has a duty of care to its employees, and it is absolutely right that the House should be no exception. House staff serve this place with diligence and care, and the least that we must do is to afford them a safe and encouraging working environment and offer them protection against any instances of bullying or harassment, however rare.
After the suspension of the formal stage of the respect policy that was originally endorsed by the House in June 2011, we have endeavoured to replace it with something that works more effectively and that is fair to all concerned. It is therefore right that the House considers the motion to ensure that we have new and comprehensive rules in place immediately.
The changes before us have been explained in detail by my right hon. Friend and the hon. Gentleman, who represents the House of Commons Commission. However, the rules do two important things that I want to highlight. First, they rightly place an emphasis on informal resolution, where it is possible, and emphasise the role of managers in resolving complaints at an early stage. Secondly, they ensure that there is unbiased treatment for the complainant and the person who has been accused. The decision about any formal investigation is taken by the commissioner, who is independent of House staff and Members. Both parties will have equal access to make their case.
As the report notes, the respect policy needs to be fair and be seen to be fair. I am content that the proposals before us meet that test. I am also satisfied that they address the concerns that were raised before the previous formal structures were suspended because of the flaws that my right hon. Friend highlighted so clearly in his excellent opening speech.
It is vital that the changes are well communicated to Members and employees alike. I am pleased that training for staff is already under way. I hope that, after this debate, every effort will be made to ensure that all Members are aware of the new rules. I thank all who have been involved throughout the process of building this package, in particular the Standards Committee and its Chair.
As the report before us states about the new rules,
“the revised Respect Policy is fair to Members and House of Commons staff; has a clear process for investigation; provides both sides with the opportunity to put their case; and provides sanctions for improper behaviour.”
As the report notes, the unions view the changes as the
“basis for an effective and proportionate policy”.
The rules are supported by the House of Commons Commission, as the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross said, and by the Committee on Standards. They provide a sensible and comprehensive process, and I urge the House to support them.
The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Tom Brake)
I am grateful for the contributions of all colleagues and for the support that they have expressed. I will speak briefly in support of the motion.
I thank the Chair of the Committee on Standards and the members of the Committee for their detailed and thoughtful report. During the debate, the Chair set out fully the background to the report, and the consideration and reasoning of the Committee in coming to its conclusions and recommendations.
The report sets out the relationship between the House, in particular the House of Commons Commission, and the thousands of people who come to work on the estate every day. The House is unusual in that many of the people who work on the estate are not employed by the House. That applies most obviously to Members of the House and Members’ staff. As the statutory employer, the House of Commons Commission has a duty of care to those it employs, which includes protecting them from bullying and harassment, including by third parties.
We heard from the spokesman for the Commission how seriously the House authorities, including the House of Commons Commission as the statutory employer, take their duty of care towards staff. It is important to reiterate, as did the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Kevin Barron), that having a policy does not necessarily indicate that widespread problems exists. In such matters, prevention and planning are better than waiting for difficult situations to arise.
I know that we can agree that all workers on the estate deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. I echo my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso) and the shadow Leader of the House in expressing my congratulations and those of the Office of the Leader of the House to the staff on the outstanding work that they do for us all in this place.
The respect policy is one of the ways in which the House aims to be an exemplary employer. It might be appropriate at this point to recognise the other good work that has been achieved by the House recently, such as its accreditation as a London living wage employer, the offer of minimum guaranteed hour contracts to all previously casually employed staff and the work to secure a long-term pay deal that paves the way for the modernisation of working practices. I am pleased that, as the shadow Leader of the House said, the unions are supportive of the policy we are debating.
I am grateful for the reassurances that have been offered to Members, particularly by the Chair of the Standards Committee. It is right that the bar for the acceptance of complaints for investigation by the commissioner is high, and that there is a higher requirement for confidentiality under the procedure for inquiries under the respect policy than for the other work of the commissioner. The House should also be reassured by the commitment to ensure that training is provided to ensure that managers are equipped to do their jobs, as was set out by the Chair of the Standards Committee. I note from the report that such training has already been provided to large numbers of staff. As the report states, the policy
“needs to be fair, and needs to be seen to be fair.”
Let me remind Members why the House needs the respect policy that has been developed. It is not right that members of staff do not have an independent process of appeal in respect of unresolved complaints relating to Members or their staff. Nor is it right that staff of the House, however senior, should adjudicate on the conduct of Members. The consideration by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, followed by investigation and decision by the Committee on Standards, albeit only after an extensive prior process and where the conduct alleged is serious or prolonged, provides the authoritative and proportionate approach that will protect the interests of all parties.
This has been a helpful debate. I hope that the House will approve the motion so that the policy can come into effect.
Question put and agreed to.