Employment Rights Bill

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 21st July 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay]

126: After Clause 54, insert the following new Clause—
“Chapter 4Industrial undertakingsRestriction on the employment of children in industrial undertakingsIn section 1 of the Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act 1920 (restrictions on the employment of women, young persons, and children in industrial undertakings), at the end of subsection (1) insert “(but voluntary work on a heritage railway or heritage tramway is not employment in an industrial undertaking)”.”

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 126 stands in my name and the names of the noble Lords, Lord Faulkner of Worcester and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, and the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty. The amendment is identical to one which the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, and I proposed in Committee, although noble Lords may have noticed that we have swapped round: whereas he served as the driver in Committee and I took on the role of fireman, shovelling extra fuel into the firebox, we have now swapped places, and a more diligent and experienced secondman I could not hope for. We are very glad to have support from the Liberal Democrat Benches and the Cross Benches as well, from the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty. The Minister very kindly arranged a helpful meeting with us following the debate we had in Committee, and we are very grateful to him and to his officials, as well as to colleagues from the Health and Safety Executive and the Office of Rail and Road, for the time they gave us.

Our helpful discussion highlighted the very good relationship that the heritage railway sector has with its regulators. The Heritage Railway Association, for instance, works closely with the ORR to produce guidance and examples of best practice for its members across the country. As we set out in Committee, this is a sector that takes its responsibilities to its staff, its volunteers and its visitors very seriously, and which is scrupulous in following the laws and regulations that govern it. That brings us to the problem that our amendment seeks to remedy. While there have been helpful assurances from the regulators that they would not rely on outdated legislation as the basis for a prosecution regarding the use of young volunteers, the statute book says otherwise, thanks to a law passed more than a century ago seeking to protect women and children in the decimated workforce that the country found in the aftermath of the First World War.

Let me briefly restate the problem. The Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act 1920 makes it unlawful to employ young people under the age of 16 on the railways. That 1920 Act was passed more than 30 years before the first preserved railway started operation with the aid of volunteers, but by slightly confused extension through later legislation, the work the Act prohibits includes unpaid work by volunteers—far from what the original Act envisaged. This has had a chilling effect on the responsible law-abiding businesses and charitable organisations that look after this important part of our national heritage. So concerned were they that in 2015, the Heritage Railway Association sought counsel’s opinion, which confirmed that the 1920 Act remained in force and that it was unlawful to allow volunteers under 16 to undertake voluntary work on a heritage railway or tramway.

For the past decade, the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, has been seeking to put that right. The Private Member’s Bill that he brought in during the last Parliament passed all its stages in your Lordships’ House without amendment, but was regrettably not taken up in another place, so did not become law. It did, however, win some important and helpful reassurances from the regulators, but these do not have statutory force and do not cover the threat of civil action or of prosecution by other public authorities. I stress that nobody in the sector wants to be accused of misapplying the law. If the law is unclear, it is our duty to clarify it, rather than asking voluntary organisations to spend many hours and many thousands of pounds trying to disentangle the confusion that legislators have caused.

The amendment that the noble Lords and I have brought is deliberately very narrowly framed. It seeks to make it clear that voluntary work on a heritage railway or tramway is not to be considered

“employment in an industrial undertaking”

for the purposes of the 1920 Act. It leaves that Act on the statute book. The Minister mentioned in Committee a case some 16 years ago in which the Act was used in connection with the illegal employment of a child in a factory. We can see its importance in such cases, but these are a world away from the volunteering that we want to encourage in young people in our heritage sector. The benefits of such volunteering are manifold. It helps young people to gain valuable experience and life skills, which will help them in their future employment. It brings people together across the generations and from diverse backgrounds to celebrate our shared heritage and to keep it alive for the benefit of future generations. It is an essential boost to the organisations that look after that shared heritage, which operate on very tight margins and in the face of many other challenges.

On Friday, I had the great pleasure of visiting, along with the noble Lord, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, the touring exhibition “Inspiration”, which is travelling the length and breadth of Britain by rail throughout this anniversary year, when we mark the bicentenary of the first passenger rail journey. Over two days at Waterloo this weekend alone, it welcomed more than 1,400 people, not just telling them the proud story of our industrial past but showing how they can get involved in the future of our railways, as coders, camera operators, ecologists, weather analysts and so much more, and how they can help to write the next exciting chapter of our railways. The exhibition in those carriages is brilliantly targeted at schoolchildren in school years 7 to 9—the time when they are choosing the subjects that will steer them towards their future careers. These are exactly the young people whose passion our heritage railways want to ignite, to help them in whatever direction life takes them.

The unintended consequence of this Act of Parliament, passed more than a century ago, stands in the way of unleashing that potential. The noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, has campaigned long and hard for it to be remedied. I do hope that his noble friend the Minister is able to help do that today. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, I am very grateful to all noble Lords who spoke in this short but important debate, particularly to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, who spoke with great clarity and authority about the legal problem that we are trying to fix. No responsible director or trustee wants to be put in the position of breaking the law, even if regulators or Ministers say that they will look the other way.

The Minister shares the passion of all noble Lords who spoke for the heritage rail sector. We saw that in our helpful meeting and in the first part of his speech today. He suggested in his closing remarks that it is for organisations such as the Heritage Railway Association to do the work: provide the guidance, take the risk and tell their members what to do. But the statutory problem remains. I stress that the Heritage Railway Association has a very good working relationship with the regulators. They have met since the letter that the Minister mentioned and they provide guidance. However, leaving this untidy situation on the statute book leaves them open to risk by civil action and prosecution by other local authorities, and in the invidious position of having to break the law, or appear to do so.

The Minister rightly mentioned other pieces of legislation which it may be important to look at, and said that we need a thorough cross-government review. This problem has been looked at for a decade by the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, the Heritage Railway Association and others, and there have been efforts to get that thorough cross-government review—under successive Governments, I admit. So I suggest that we put the noble Lord’s very modest amendment in the Bill and seek to expedite that work. I know that, with his great interest and passion in this area, the Minister can help us reach a happy solution. However, it is important that we get started and I would like to test the opinion of the House on this matter.