Employment Rights Bill

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 16th June 2025 Lords Chamber

In summary, these amendments aim to promote fairness and sustainability. They would ensure that extending employment protections did not inadvertently tear holes in the cultural sector. Our intent is not to obstruct the Bill but to improve it, making it fit for every part of the economy. The arts enrich our society immeasurably; we should give artists and cultural workers the employment rights they deserve, while also preserving the institutions and projects through which our nation’s creativities thrive. I beg to move.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, my Amendment 287 in this group seeks to establish a freelance commissioner. I thank my noble friends Lord Freyberg and Lord Colville, and the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, who have supported this amendment. I support all the other amendments in this group, including Amendment 286, which is similar in intent in wishing to improve the situation of freelancers in the creative industries, and Amendments 301 and 302 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, which very usefully seek to define what a freelancer is.

The only thing that I would add to Amendment 301 is the category of sole trader, which would highlight the point that an artist is always working, whether they have a client or not and whether we are talking about a visual artist, a photographer, a musician, a composer or a novelist. The buyer, the publisher, the venue or gallery may materialise at some stage, but it is sometimes a thing of the future. In the creative industries, worker and client are not always walking hand in hand at any one time.

I very much support the Bill as far as it goes, but a truly modern employment Bill—and it is an employment Bill, not an employee Bill—would have included consideration of the self-employed and freelancers, a group which of course includes the creative industries. On 5 June in the previous debate in Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, said

“we cannot claim to be modernising employment law if we ignore how it interacts with one of the fastest growing and culturally significant sectors of our economy”.—[Official Report, 5/6/25; col. 950.]

In trying to deal with the problem of zero-hours contracts in the wider economy, the Government are already encroaching on this territory but without properly assessing the wider effects of doing so—one good reason why the whole landscape of employment needs to be looked at through employment law in the round.

As the previous debate on the amendment on theatre workers, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, pointed up, there is the danger of unintended consequences affecting workers in the creative industries. Freelancers constitute around 15% of the total workforce of the country, but as the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg says, the figure runs at twice that national average in the creative industries, rising to 70% in the visual arts and 80% for musicians. Indeed, freelancers are often described as the backbone of the arts landscape. For a number of reasons, this is a growing workforce, despite—or in some cases because of—the increasing difficulties for workers.

UK Resettlement Scheme 2025

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The Government have been and are currently—as the noble Lord will be aware from previous questions—looking at how we can assist with voluntary returns to countries that are now deemed safe for people who have come seeking asylum or refugee status in the United Kingdom. The situation in Syria is particularly fluid, which is why we have put a pause on some of the challenges that we are facing there at the moment in making some assessments. The noble Lord makes an important point, and we want to ensure, in all cases, that if people can return to their country of origin, they do so if that country of origin remains safe for them. The reason they are here now is because they were refugees from a regime; if that regime changes and stability comes forward then, self-evidently, the UK Government would want those individuals to return home should they wish to.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister will recall our meeting last year concerning the ongoing concerns of EU citizens trying to settle in this country. At some stage, can we have an update on progress that has been made in that area?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

Yes, I will examine where we are post that meeting that we had with the noble Earl, and I will respond to him as a matter of some urgency.

Anti-social Behaviour and Shoplifting

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I do not wish to pre-empt the sentencing review undertaken by David Gauke, a former Conservative Justice Secretary, which was commissioned by the Lord Chancellor. Self-evidently, it is in the interests of society to have fewer women go to prison and to have an increase in community-based sentences. David Gauke and the Lord Chancellor will look at both of those matters as part of the review.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, what assessment have the Government made about increased shoplifting being a result of increasing poverty in our society?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

As always, shoplifting takes place for a range of reasons. But I will not excuse shoplifting and shop theft under any circumstances, because they are still crimes. I grew up on a very poor estate in Liverpool and in Cheshire. It was not acceptable to shoplift then and it is not acceptable now. We need to ensure that we tackle that by having neighbourhood policing, a greater emphasis and focus for the police on shop theft and greater support to retailers. I appreciate the noble Earl’s view on poverty: we look at poverty in the round and put measures in for a range of reasons to lift people out of poverty, to ensure that they can live reasonable, productive and effective lives.

EU Settlement Scheme

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 24th October 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[The Earl of Clancarty]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to further protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK; and what improvements they intend to make to the EU Settlement Scheme.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)]

The Government take citizens’ rights very seriously. The EU settlement scheme has provided 5.7 million people with the immigration status they need to continue to live in the United Kingdom. Pre-settled status is extended automatically to ensure that people do not lose rights because of a failure to make a second application to the scheme. In future, we plan to start granting settled status automatically where we hold the data to do so.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, of a number of concerns that EU citizens living in the UK have, one that stands out is the lack of a physical back-up for immigration status. That is important not only for the vulnerable and digitally excluded. First, will the Government improve the implementation of the digital status so that it can sit with the status holder even when there is no internet connection, providing the physical back-up that the previous Government denied? This remains a concern, particularly with the move to e-visas. Secondly, will the Minister meet with parliamentarians and others, including the3million, to discuss ways forward for this and other concerns?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I hope that I can assure the noble Earl that, if a request comes in, I will always meet with any parliamentarian to discuss issues in my area of responsibility. It may take time to sort, but I undertake that commitment. The simple answer to his first question is: yes, work is ongoing.