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Then there is the question of the wider area of enforcement of all employment rights. Citizens Advice has done valuable work on this, demonstrating that it is a problem. According to its figures, some 275,000—mostly low-paid—workers go to citizens advice bureaux with their employment problems. Of them, 165,000 or more—a large number of people—have any problem from the following menu: a denial of the statutory right to four weeks’ paid holiday; denial of statutory sick leave and pay when unable to work due to illness; the reduction, particularly for migrant workers, of already low wages to illegal levels by deductions for accommodation, transport and other services, which are themselves illegal; being required to work 56 or even more hours a week, having been cajoled to opt out of the 48-hour legal limit; summary dismissal due to pregnancy and denial of time off for antenatal care; and the non-payment of wages owed for holiday pay and notice pay when the employee leaves employment. These are not minor problems; each year, 165,000 people are prejudiced in this way.
We draw the attention of the Minister to the speech made by John Hutton to the TUC in September 2007. He said that,
- “the existence of workplace rights alone is not enough if employers think they can flout the law with impunity ... Rights that exist only on paper are not worth the paper they are written on ... we must step up enforcement in workplaces across Britain ... to root out the rogues, whichever sector they are in”.
A lot of people, including, I think, members of a House of Commons committee, suggested that the mechanism set up for HMRC to deal with enforcement of the national minimum wage could be a model for increasing the opportunity for enforcement of rights for employees. We could have a single gateway for complaints to HMRC, the HSC, the EASI or the GLA—I shall test people on what that means when they want. This is a very significant point and I would welcome the Government’s response on whether they feel that there could be an opportunity in this Bill to create a fair employment commission to enforce these rights on behalf of a very significant number of employees.
I cannot resist turning to the difficult issue of agency workers. In a previous debate, the noble Lord, Lord James, touched on potential exploitation by rogue employment agencies. I know that he will speak about his proposals at Second Reading and in Committee, and we will be very supportive. There is also the more fundamental question on how to define in law an agency worker and an employee. There have been two recent cases—Dacas against Brook Street and Cable & Wireless against Muscat—both of which introduced the concept of “implied” employment status. That is a significant issue, particularly in relation to whether people who regard themselves as freelancers working
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Finally, now that there have been 28 Acts and hundreds of regulations, dare I ask whether this is not the moment to have a consolidation of employment legislation?
Pakistan and Kenya
3.53 pm
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made by my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary in the other place.
“I would like to make a Statement on recent developments in Pakistan and Kenya. Both countries are important to Britain and rightly important to many honourable Members. I know that the Foreign Affairs Select Committee visited Pakistan in November 2006, and that it was a key focus of its report on foreign policy aspects of the war on terror in July 2006 and then its report on south Asia in May 2007. I have today seen the letter from the honourable Member for Aylesbury, Mr Lidington, requesting an oral Statement on these crises.
“The situations in Pakistan and Kenya are very different, and I will deal with them separately. But there are important common elements to the recent crises that have afflicted these important regional powers. Both countries have experienced strong economic growth in recent years and the middle class is growing, but poverty is widespread and rising inequality is causing frustration and disillusionment. Both countries face violence and terrorism, and both countries are undergoing political transition. They are working to embed democratic systems and structures but are struggling to overcome the tribal or dynastic allegiances that have fed personality politics. In these circumstances, there is a temptation to turn away, but there are some 800,000 British people of Pakistani origin, an estimated 13,000 British citizens resident in Kenya and over a quarter of a million British tourists visiting each year. The UK is Kenya’s largest foreign investor and our bilateral trade with Pakistan is worth £1 billion. Further, both Pakistan and Kenya are key partners in the fight against al-Qaeda. That is why the Government are committed to using all their assets to help these countries on the path to peaceful and prosperous development.
“I will begin with Pakistan. I am sure that the whole House will want to join me in reiterating our condolences to the family of Mrs Bhutto at this terrible time, and to the other bereaved Pakistani
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“Whatever the disputes about her periods in office, Benazir Bhutto showed in her words and actions a deep commitment to her country. She knew the risks of her return to campaign for election, but was convinced that her country needed her. The target of her assassins is all those committed to democracy in Pakistan and it is vital that they do not succeed. The courage shown by Mrs Bhutto is now required of others as they take forward the drive to democracy and modernisation.
“The Government’s aims and role are fourfold. The first is to ensure that the circumstances of Mrs Bhutto’s death are established. A five-member UK police team arrived in Pakistan at the end of last week and has begun work in support of Pakistani colleagues. The second is to promote free and fair elections. The delay in the elections as the result of the assassination is regrettable, but the period between now and 18 February needs to be used to build confidence in the democratic process. When I spoke to the House on 7 November I made clear my conviction that democracy and the rule of law are allies of stability and development in Pakistan. Since then, President Musharraf has retired from the military. He has lifted the state of emergency. Almost all political prisoners have been released and most media restrictions have been rescinded. But more needs to be done, and we have continued to stress the Pakistani Government’s responsibility to create a level playing field on which credible and transparent elections can take place. This means that all remaining political detainees need to be released and the remaining restrictions on the media must be lifted. In my last telephone call with Mrs Bhutto on 9 December, I pledged that the UK would work on the details of the election process. In recent days, the Prime Minister has discussed the elections on three separate occasions with President Musharraf. I have also spoken to interim Pakistani Foreign Minister Inam ul-Haque.
“We continue to call on the Government of Pakistan to improve the prospects for credible elections, particularly by increasing transparency both now and on election day itself. This includes setting out clearly and early where all the 54,000 polling stations will be, posting the results for each station publicly immediately after the count, and ensuring that the media’s ability to report is untrammelled. We also want to see local mayors discouraged from the abuse of state assets which would allow them to interfere in the electoral process. I am glad that the EU is now working to put together a full-scale election observation mission. I understand that the American International Republican Institute mission may also be reinstated, and I believe that the Commonwealth can make an important and positive contribution, and I hope that Pakistan will decide to invite an observer mission.
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“Our third priority is to further improve counterterrorism cooperation. The deadly attack on Benazir Bhutto shows terrorism to be a threat to Pakistan, not just to the West. Over the last year, hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in shootings and suicide bomb attacks in that country. We have reiterated the UK’s commitment to build on the already significant counterterrorism support we provide to Pakistan. A team of cross-government UK experts will travel to Pakistan next week for further consultations. This will be a precursor to a further British visit to deepen our counterterrorism relationship.
“Fourthly, we are determined to ensure that British citizens of Pakistani heritage and Pakistanis resident in the United Kingdom are informed about developments and engaged in the drive to build a decent society in Pakistan. I met some of their community leaders earlier today. While the next five weeks are important, so are the next five years, and economic, social and political development in Pakistan needs to proceed hand in hand with international support.
“Kenya provided the second crisis of the new year break. When President Kibaki won the presidency in 2002 it was hailed as the most free and fair election that Kenya had seen. Daniel Arap Moi’s party accepted the result and ceded power. Tribal and ethnic divisions were overcome as the population rallied behind the new Government. It was a moment of great optimism.
“It is a marked contrast with the situation which has unfolded since the election on 27 December. I know I speak for the entire House in condemning the appalling post-election violence in Kenya, particularly the brutal killing of Kikuyu women and children in the church near Eldoret on 1 January.
“Let me deal with the three issues that have preoccupied the Government and indeed the whole international community over the past week: violence and the resulting humanitarian crisis, the elections and mediation. I have arranged for the nine Statements put out by the Prime Minister, myself, the International Development Secretary and our High Commissioner in Nairobi over the last week to be deposited in a single file in the House Library.
“The urban violence of the middle of last week has subsided. This is obviously welcome. But the reporting from rural areas suggests that there are up to 250,000 refugees. And there is the potential for violence to erupt again. That is why since 2 January our travel advice, along with other countries, has advised against non-essential travel to Kenya. That advice will remain in place until the security and political situation is clarified. We are advising Britons in Kenya to exercise extreme caution, to remain indoors in the affected areas and to seek local advice, from the tour operators or local authorities, if they need to travel.
“The humanitarian crisis we have all seen unfolding on our television screens is due entirely to the post-election violence. The UN, World Food Programme and Red Cross are leading the international
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“In respect of the election itself, millions of Kenyans queued for hours, peacefully and with dignity, to cast their votes for parliamentary and presidential candidates after a relatively calm election campaign. It is vital not just for Kenya but for the whole of Africa, with important elections over the next 18 months, that the democratic process works and is seen to work.
“However, the counting of votes in the presidential election, and more particularly the reporting of votes from local to regional and then national centres, has, according to reliable European Union observation, been plagued by irregularity. These irregularities stand in the way of the formation of a stable Kenyan Government who have the confidence of their own people and the international community. All allegations of fraud need to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.
“This requires due legal process, but there is also need for political mediation. Individual acts of fraud are reprehensible, but there is a deeper issue. Whatever the actual result, the country was deeply split. Yet when Kenya needs the diversity of its views to be respected, the presidential system is designed to concentrate power when Kenya’s immediate and medium-term future requires the sharing of power.
“Kenya’s political leaders must be willing to make the necessary compromises to find a way forward, but there is little sign of them doing so without external help. That is why at the heart of all our conversations—with Kenyan, African, EU, Commonwealth, US and UN partners—has been the need for a credible mediation process to be established. President Kufuor of Ghana, the current chairman of the African Union, is due to arrive in Kenya soon, and he will do so with our full support. But he needs Kenyan leaders ready to engage. There are some signs of this: on 2 January, Condoleezza Rice and I called for a ‘spirit of compromise’. Fail to compromise, and Kenya’s leaders forfeit the confidence, good will and support of their own people and of the international community. The stakes are high for the Kenyan people, and we will remain fully engaged.
“I conclude by thanking staff in the FCO and DfID, in-country and here in London, for their outstanding consular and political work around the clock in the very trying circumstances of the past 10 days. Their work is far from done, but both countries are better off for the engagement of these officials, and they deserve the thanks of the House”.
My Lords, that concludes the Statement.
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4.06 pm
Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, I am sure all noble Lords are grateful to the Minister for repeating this Statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. We all react in horror to what we have seen and heard from both Kenya and Pakistan in recent weeks, particularly, as the Minister mentioned, the burning to death of 30 women and children in a church outside Eldoret in Kenya. That was perhaps the most sickening event in an appalling few days.
Do not both situations that have developed over the Christmas period confirm the extreme instability and fragility of the international situation generally and the need more than ever to be clear about, hold on to and look after our own interests and national security in this country? Do these crises not also confirm that while we all want to see democratic development, crude democracy does not necessarily equate with good governance, and that without general restraint, proper monitoring and law abidance, election campaigns can spell more violence, as in the tragic killing of Benazir Bhutto, and more division and carnage, as in the tragic case of Kenya?
I should like to deal first with Kenya, where the immediate humanitarian situation must be uppermost in our mind. It is good that quite a lot of UN and Red Cross food convoys are now getting through, but could we hear a little more about the situation at the port of Mombasa, which is the gateway of supply not merely to Kenya but to surrounding countries as well? Is not the blockage there and the reluctance of truckers to operate affecting not just supplies in central Kenya but vital food, equipment and supplies to the whole of central Africa? When will that be eased, because the situation in the past few days has been critical? Does this not underline the way in which civil disorder in the once orderly Kenya, for which many of us had such high hopes, spreads its negative effects like ripples through the whole region? Will we not have to pay a heavy price for that?
With regard to our own immediate interests, can the Minister confirm that all British nationals, both resident—he mentioned the number—and visiting, who make up a considerable number, are safe, well informed and in touch with our High Commission in Nairobi? Can he say anything more about the UK’s considerable commercial and investment interests in Kenya? I do not think that he mentioned any discussions with the DBERR—I have difficulty in remembering the name; it used to be the DTI. Is it correct that we have well over £1.5 billion worth of investment in Kenya alone and a number of major companies operating there? Have there been any reports of closures, withdrawals, sabotage or any difficulties? There seemed to be a bit missing from the Statement.
I turn to the lessons to be drawn and the actions now to be taken. Does the Minister agree that the Kenya tragedy underlines more than ever the need to avoid supporting corrupt leaders and to direct aid and support to the grass roots and to enterprise itself, rather than through corrupt bureaucracies and corrupt systems? Does he agree that the eruption of armed mobs and killing in Kenya, which is so untypical of Kenya’s recent past, comes less from old tribal rivalries—
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Regarding the politics of it all, we agree that we should now do everything possible from outside—although, frankly, that may be quite limited—to encourage electoral and democratic probity. Among all the international institutions sending envoys and seeking to help, such as the Commonwealth, the UN, the African Union and the EU, may we be assured that Her Majesty’s Government are giving the maximum possible support to the first of those, since it is the Commonwealth that is the most trusted in Africa, rather more so than the EU and other organisations? Does he accept that, for those of us who dreamt of and worked for an East African federation four decades ago or more, this is a time of sadness but also maybe a time of opportunity, which, together with other Commonwealth and African leaders, we should build on? Does he accept, as he also mentioned it, that, based on my own experience in the past few days in dealing direct with individual cases of people in Kenya, the UK High Commission deserves nothing but the highest praise, with a highly efficient and accessible emergency service that has served all those involved very well?
I turn to Pakistan and the murder of Mrs Bhutto, a woman of obvious courage and bravery—almost too much bravery, in the end. Our interest in restoring stability is even more direct. Events in Pakistan and the situation in Afghanistan are completely intertwined, with a permeable border between the two and large numbers of terrorists and fanatics feeding between them, particularly into Helmand province, as anyone operating there knows very well. Pakistan is the perhaps unwilling seedbed of terror—fed, it regrettably has to be said, by militancy often fostered here in Britain with our own ill judged and divisive multiculturalism that has done so much damage. In addition, Pakistan is at the centre of the nuclear debate, having already leaked secrets around the world. If control of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb fell into fanatical hands under a Government not of gentle, wise Islam, the kind we much admire, but of extreme ideological Islam, with its commitment to violence and its neglect of the Prophet, that would be a catastrophe for us all. Finally, as the Minister has reminded us, there are hundreds of thousands of British citizens of Pakistani origin in this country, all of whom must be deeply worried.
What now exactly is HMG’s policy towards that country? It is said that the USA had decided a few weeks ago to “back” Benazir Bhutto—which, if true, was probably her doom. Can we ensure that the Pakistani intelligence service, and indeed the whole formidable Pakistani military machine, are really working for our common aims in ridding Afghanistan of its Taliban nightmare and its terrorist infections?
Do we now welcome the postponed elections in any circumstances, which may or may not leave President Musharraf in complete control? What can we do, if anything, to see that the elections really are fair and
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4.15 pm
Lord Avebury: My Lords, we are also grateful to the noble Lord for repeating the Statement that was made in another place by the Foreign Secretary. We join the noble Lord, Lord Howell, in expressing our dismay at the horrific events in Kenya that have unleashed so much violence and destruction. As the noble Lord has just said, the effects have gone well beyond Kenya. Apart from the 250,000 people who are locally displaced and living in the most appalling conditions, as we have seen on our television screens, the fact that Kenya was the hub of the region, from which so many organisations operated to bring humanitarian assistance to the whole of east Africa, means that their operations may be undermined by the instability that has resulted from these events.
I am grateful for the assistance that has already been sent there, which was mentioned in the Statement, but I wonder whether it is in fact as much of a return to calm as was said in the Statement as to enable aid organisations to operate freely and to deliver their services throughout the whole of Kenya. From what I have seen of the reports, I understand that there are still large areas in which the situation is not stable and where it would be quite dangerous for foreign aid workers to operate. I should be grateful if the noble Lord would say whether we are satisfied that humanitarian assistance can be delivered throughout the whole country and whether any discussions have been held with the authorities about the possibility of providing armed escorts where it would otherwise not be safe for aid workers to go.
The EU Observer Mission found substantial discrepancies between the tallies at the polling stations and the numbers that were subsequently announced by the electoral commission. I gather from a conversation that I had with Nairobi this morning that many of the ballot boxes were not properly guarded and that they were broken into, or stolen, or have gone missing. It will be very difficult, with the best will in the world, for anyone to arrive at a true result. As your Lordships will know, the head of the European Union mission has called for an independent audit based on the reports from the polling stations, if they still exist. I should be grateful for some comment by the Minister on that. Even if the ballot boxes themselves have disappeared, do we still have the records of the individual tallies at the polling stations, which would at least enable the totals to be reconstructed?
The Commonwealth team has suggested a review by an international team of judges to determine who did or did not win. Has that suggestion been picked up? Is it President Kufuor himself who will be the facilitator of any negotiations between the Government and the opposition? Or will he simply be there to
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