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Crown Employment (Nationality) Bill

There are certain rites and annual events of this House that mark the passing of the seasons, and one of them is the Second Reading of the Crown Employment (Nationality) Bill on behalf of the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore). I find it unbelievable that we are still discussing, in this groundhog day way, exactly the same Bill year after year, when it is perfectly obvious that its provisions are sensible. It makes a very minor change to the enactments that affect the civil service, and there is no adequate reason why the Government cannot accept it. They might wish to do so with amendment, but the principle behind it must, I am sure, be agreed on both sides of the House. I and some other Members from both sides of the House have argued for a long time that we should have a civil service Bill. We have been repeatedly promised such a Bill, but it has never transpired. We have been told that its principal features will be subsumed within the Constitutional Renewal Bill, but we have not seen that yet, of course, and some of us have our doubts as to whether it will actually encompass the provisions of a draft civil service Bill, which we have discussed on previous occasions, which the Public Administration Committee has been involved in, and which so many Members have advocated. Even in the absence of a more comprehensive piece of legislation, it does not seem to me to be beyond reason for the following absurd anomaly to be addressed. If a citizen of Mozambique—I always seem to use that country as my example in these cases, perhaps because it is the most recent member of the Commonwealth, but also perhaps because it has no historic links with the United Kingdom—can have employment, why cannot someone from Montana? Where is the logic in that anomaly in terms of the proper running of the civil service and the interests of the country? Of course some posts must be restricted, and the hon. Gentleman's Bill makes provision for that, but if it is right and proper that any citizen of a Commonwealth country or of the European Union, or any spouse of a citizen of the EU, can be employed in the civil service, why not extend that to others who do not come from those countries, but who are well qualified and who could, I am sure, provide the same level of loyalty to the Crown, if not by nationality then by contract? That is the crucial point. I welcome the Minister to her new post. I hope she will set aside the attitude of her predecessors for seven years, or however long it has been—I am unsure on how many occasions this Bill has been brought forward—and welcome the Bill. Moreover, I hope she will welcome it with a determination to take it forward. If at the end of the day it is better for its provisions to be subsumed within the Constitutional Renewal Bill, and if we have that Bill and it makes progress in this parliamentary Session, so be it, but, for heaven's sake, let us get on with this. Let us get rid of these anomalies and make our legislation make sense—and please can we not have to sit through another Friday morning with exactly the same speeches being made on both sides of the House supporting exactly the same measure, because it really is not a sensible use of our time?