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The Employment Law Simplification Review Practitioner Panel ("the Panel") is established by the DTI to assist the Government in conducting the simplification review announced in the publication Success at Work: Protecting vulnerable workers, supporting good employers (DTI, March 2006). The Panel is an ad hoc advisory body with no statutory role or status. Its secretariat will be provided by DTI.
The Panel's members (including the chair) are appointed by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Members are appointed in a personal capacity. In the event of a member being unable to attend a meeting, a substitute will not normally be permitted. The attendance at meetings of any person other than an appointed member will be at the chair's discretion.
The Panel will be expected to assist the review in accordance with the principles set out for the review in Success at Work (page 40):
"The aim of this work is to make progress on the areas of employment law set out below and to identify any other areas, which are difficult to understand or administer, or cause confusion. We want to help both employees and employers get on with the business of doing business … We will do this without in any way diluting employee and trade union rights and protection. The bulk of the costs of employment law are the costs of providing the necessary minimum protection to workers and trade unions. We make no apology for these. We are committed to making sure that the law has the effect we intended while ensuring compliance with it is as clear and easy as possible … Our ultimate goal is to reduce the compliance costs and complexity for business while continuing to deliver excellent regulatory outcomes."
A) To advise on issues put to the Panel in respect of the projects making up the Employment Law Simplification Review (ELSR). This advice is intended to supplement and help to focus the detailed consultation with experts and with the wider public that the Government will undertake on each of these projects. The Panel will not be required to reach a collective view on the issues that are put to it. The Government does not expect the Panel to mount its own consultations.
B) To advise on whether there are any other areas of employment law where simplification and clarification could be achieved, within available resources and in a manner consistent with existing Government policy on employment law and with the principles of Success at Work. As part of this work, the panel will be asked to provide advice on suggestions made by third parties on potential simplification measures.
We expect that the Panel will be appointed in December 2006, begin work in January 2007 and be wound up by June 2007. At its first meeting the Panel will be asked to agree to these terms of reference and to set out its forward work programme. During the period of its operation, the Panel is likely to meet together in London approximately once each month. The Panel will also be invited to consider papers and comment on them in writing during this period.
Membership of the Panel will not be remunerated, but members will be entitled to claim reasonable travel and subsistence expenses from DTI in connection with their attendance at meetings.