Well, we have had a debate (see the link) with some good contributions, except from the Government Minister Lord Carter who says:
“We are monitoring the legislation, as we said we would in our impact assessment, in preparation for the review that we have committed to publicly. The legislation needs some time to bed in so that we can properly judge its effectiveness.”
Oh dear!
Much of the argument is a kind of pseudo “evidence-based” argument. It is not really about rights. But ….. OK, lets ask some questions. What proportion of employees requested to stay on but were refused? What proportion of those received adequate explanation for the refusal? How many of those who requested felt humiliated by having to apply for their own jobs?
And what on earth does the term “effectiveness” mean. I may be naive but I thought that reviews had to have assessment criteria. Can we have some, please?
And what form is this “monitoring” taking? I still cannot find any evidence of it. Happy to be proved wrong.
I see a reference in the Minister’s speech to a consultation which ends on 30 March. Help please in finding the details of this (I suspect it is not really about retirement).
Ed
PS: see Bill’s letter in the Guardian (link)
