My Lords, we owe a debt to our Reserve Forces that is too great to measure. Despite what many have said, they fill a real gap in our military personnel at this time. Only on Thursday of last week, during a Question Time exchange with the Minister in the House, we were right to point out that Britain’s Reserve Forces bring skills to our military that, for whatever reason, are lacking at the minute. However, I do not propose to reopen that debate at this time. It would be less than honest for any of us not to recognise that, as a result of the Future Force 2020 programme, reservists are being recruited to meet targets in troop numbers as a result of a reduction in the number of Regular Forces. Again, this is not the place to open up that debate.
My concern, and the reason for this amendment, is a genuine worry at the sometimes adverse impact that serving in the Reserve Forces has on an individual’s main employment situation. Without the full support and co-operation of Britain’s employers, companies large and small, our entire reserve programme would not exist. Employment protection for reservists was a matter touched on during the passage of the Defence Reform Act 2014. The then Defence Secretary, Mr Hammond, responded to concerns about changes to the structure of the Reserve Forces. At that time, he gave assurances that employment discrimination against reservists is an issue that the Government take extremely seriously and that if the Government felt that further action was needed to tackle employment discrimination against reservists, they would come forward with measures in this Bill. Nothing has materialised. However, whether employment discrimination is not a problem or whether the necessary information does not exist properly, we need to examine the issue.
My starting point is the need to gather facts in order to understand the problem, to measure its extent and, lastly, if thought appropriate, to put in place mechanisms to solve it. Our amendment aspires to nothing more ambitious than making a modest start by requiring commanding officers to collect and publish statistics on employment discrimination against reservists. It is the right thing to do because we, the British people, are the employers of the reservists as much as their employers in their main civilian life. We have a duty to care and ensure that their commitment—and, yes, all too often, their sacrifices—do not lead them to painful disadvantages in civilian life and with their employment.
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Commanding officers would be required to collect statistics on how many reservists had reported employment discrimination in the workplace as a result of being
part of the Reserve Forces. Following that, the MoD would be required to collect and publish annually anonymised statistics on the number of complaints regarding employment discrimination received by reservists.
Obviously this is a probing amendment set down in order to give the Committee and the Government the opportunity to consider this matter, but I believe that it is in the spirit of the Armed Forces covenant for us to do so. I hope that the Minister will be prepared to consider including the essence of our amendment as a subject to be included in the annual covenant report.
I am sure I am not alone in having received a letter from the Minister only a week or so ago asking for help in promoting the covenant among employers. He included a helpful little book on key facts, setting out what the Government have done for reservists. All that we are doing with this amendment is giving the Government and the covenant a chance to do a little more for reservists. In response to the Minister’s letter, I promise to do my part, and I am sure that many other noble Lords here will do the same. All that I ask for in return, on this St David’s Day, is what we Welsh would call chwarae teg, which, for those not familiar with the language of heaven, in English simply means fair play. I beg to move.