King’s Speech

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I am pleased to speak in this debate on the gracious Speech and to welcome the focus on public sector reform and delivery. This is my first intervention since I was appointed the chair of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. As noble Lords know, ACAS is independent of government and provides impartial advice and support to both employers and workers. I am acutely conscious in my new role of the need for me to maintain and protect ACAS’s independence and impartiality. With that in mind, I will not be voting on any measures relating to employment law, labour regulation or any areas in which my doing so might be misconstrued as impacting on ACAS’s impartiality. I refer the House to my declaration in the register of interests.

The gracious Speech sets out the Government’s plans for further reform of critical public services. The public sector improvements proposed are far-reaching and impactful, but I argue that they are deliverable only with a strong industrial relations framework that rejects the outdated models of perpetual conflict and finds a new consensus. In 2025, the UK lost 740,000 days to industrial action. While that is significantly lower than the post-Covid bump of over 2.5 million per year, it is much higher than 10 years ago—and, as we know, that conflict cost GB employers at least £28 billion a year. All the evidence shows that the most sustainable business improvements are made where workers and their bosses make changes together. That has been the experience of a huge number of employers and unions, who have built robust modern systems of dialogue and partnership. Our challenge now is to bring everyone else up to those standards.

For example, the creation of Great British Railways is a real opportunity to reset industrial relations in the transport sector. Good workforce relations are going to be key to its success. I welcome the announcement of a long-term rail network strategy, but I hope my noble friend the Minister recognises that the workforce needs to be part of that strategy from the start, underpinned by a framework of strong collective industrial relations.

This is not just a problem in collective disputes. Research commissioned by ACAS tells us that about 44% of people who work in the transport and storage sectors experienced individual workplace conflicts in the past year. That carries a real cost to business through absenteeism, presenteeism, low retention and disengagement of staff. Does the Minister recognise that there are huge financial and operational advantages in creating a modern industrial relations framework in the transport sector that can prevent conflicts developing in the first place?

Good workplace relations are equally critical to the success of the health and social care sector. In fact, in this sector, employers’ research shows that there is a clear link between positive workplace relations and patient outcomes. There is more that we can do to improve industrial relations across the NHS, and the new adult social care negotiating body is a positive first step. It brings employers and unions together to tackle pay conditions and retention, and I am pleased to report that ACAS is supporting this work and the wider reforms. However, the fact remains that there is a higher incidence of conflict in the health and social care sector—47%, compared to 44% overall—and a higher prevalence of discrimination claims, and individual disputes are even more likely to end up being decided in employment tribunals.

The lesson from these examples is that our nation depends on workplaces in both the public and private sectors being efficient, responsive and innovative, with positive relationships between workers, leaders and their unions. However, we have seen a marked decline in the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to underpin relationships at work and manage conflicts early. I propose a simple reframe of good industrial relations, based on three principles. The first is collaboration and partnership, treating each other with mutual respect as negotiating partners rather than adversaries. The second is balancing interests to deliver the prize of economic growth, improving productivity and better working lives. The third is proportionality, where formal action is used only as a last resort to mitigate the harm that it aims to rectify.

I hope my noble friend the Minister recognises the prize that can come from reshaping industrial relations for the new challenges we face in both the public and private sectors, which can ultimately build an economy that is stronger because it works for all.