May I add to the general misery of the Minister? This clause really is far too sweeping. Whatever Bill it appears in, to my mind it extends the power of
Ministers against the parliamentary officials by a far wider margin than can possibly be justified. The clause contains the words:
“If a Minister of the Crown considers it appropriate to do so”.
You can consider all sorts of things “appropriate” and then produce an SI that cannot be voted down in this House. It gives far too much power.
We already gave, in the previous clause, quite extensive powers of publication—probably more than many people would say were necessary, but there are certainly wide powers. The meaning of the clause is now, “If the Minister doesn’t like the information they’ve got, they can then proceed in detail to intervene in any public body”. That is just not good and acceptable public administration. I am not speaking now about localism or anything: it is not the way you should run a public administration.
The way the clause develops gives the Minister carte blanche to do virtually anything. They can ensure that,
“in each period specified by the regulations, the percentage of the working time of any relevant union official”—
they can say, “Let’s have a list of your union officials”; which ones are relevant?—
“of an employer that is taken as paid facility time does not exceed a percentage”.
Is the decision made in Whitehall? The noble Lord has already made the point about Newcastle and the parks department. This intervention is way beyond what is appropriate, acceptable or sensible. If you try to implement the regulations, you will immediately find that there are all sorts of extenuating circumstances. Given the need for publication, public bodies will not just sit down and roll over when the Government come along and say that elected or appointed officials in the health service or in local government cannot run a single unit of staff. This really goes far further than is sensible. I seriously urge the Minister to talk to her friends about withdrawing this unnecessary and, frankly, provocative clause.