Lord Bellingham
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Employment Tribunals
Lord Bellingham Excerpts(4 weeks, 2 days ago)
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Lord Bellingham (Con)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Barber, mentioned the Employment Rights Act. The Minister will be aware that every single employer organisation, from the CBI through to the Federation of Small Businesses, has predicted that not only will it destroy growth and damage jobs but lead to a very large spike in tribunal cases. Can the Minister tell the House specifically about her department’s impact assessment for the Act and what it says about the increase in tribunal cases?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
The noble Lord will understand that I am not going to relitigate the passing of the Employment Act all over again as part of this Question Time. The Government are managing the impact on the employment tribunal. One thing they are doing, commencing in October this year, is extending the time for individuals to make a claim from three to six months. We believe that that will help people to try to work things out beforehand or to prepare their cases better before they come to the employment tribunal. I am not sure if that entirely answers the noble Lord’s question, and I do not have the impact assessment in front of me, but I will write to him.