Armed Forces (Flexible Working) Bill [Lords]

John Bercow Excerpts

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Monday 29th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)]

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

[Mr Speaker]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

New clause 2—Review of level and impact of part-time and geographically restricted working in the armed forces—

“(1) Within twelve months of section 1 of this Act coming into force, the Secretary of State must commission a review of the impact of measures contained in that section.

(2) The review must consider—

(a) the number of requests for part-time or geographically restricted working which have been granted,

(b) the number of requests for part-time or geographically restricted working which have not been granted, and

(c) the effect of the measures contained within this Act on armed forces recruitment.

(3) The Secretary of State must lay before each House of Parliament the report of the review under this section within three months of its completion.”

This new clause would require a review covering the number of requests for part-time or geographically restricted working that have been accepted and declined and the impact of the Act on armed forces recruitment.

Amendment 1, in clause 3, page 2, line 21, at end insert—

“(3A) Prior to making any regulations under subsection (3), the Secretary of State shall commission an independent evaluation into the impact of part-time and geographically restricted working on recruitment to the armed forces and shall lay the report of the evaluation before each House of Parliament.”

This amendment would require an evaluation of the impact part-time and geographically restricted working has on recruitment to the armed forces.

[Gerald Jones]

New clause 1 would ensure that the armed forces personnel numbers and diversity statistics are as accurate as possible and that there can be proper scrutiny of the new flexible working measures. It would require that the personnel statistics and the diversity statistics include details of how many personnel work part time. It is vital that there is transparency about the personnel numbers, so that there can be scrutiny, accountability and informed debate.

The recent change in how personnel statistics are reported —moving from monthly to quarterly publication—reduced the opportunities to scrutinise the figures. As I said in Committee, in their consultation on the change the Government made clear the purpose of reporting the figures. The consultation said:

“The main purpose of these statistics is to measure the performance of the MOD against government and Parliament targets, and also to inform general debate in government, Parliament and the wider public.”