Pickstone v Freemans

16.14An indication that the courts were moving towards a relaxation of the rule excluding parliamentary proceedings arose in 1988 in Pickstone v Freemans1 concerning an appeal against a ruling from an employment tribunal that female workers were not entitled to rely on provisions within the Equal Pay Act 1970 to secure equal pay settlements with male employees engaged in work of equal value. The provisions the appellants sought to rely on were inserted into the Equal Pay Act by Regulations seeking to give effect to rulings of the European Court of Justice, and were consequently made under powers within s 2 of the European Communities Act 1972. To assist in interpretation, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords consulted the speech of the Minister during the debate which preceded the approval of the Regulations. Lord Templeman quoted the Minister's remarks from the Official Report at length, stating that ‘it is clear that the construction which I have placed upon the Regulations corresponds to the intentions of the Government in introducing the Regulations’.2 Lord Keith of Kinkel stated in endorsement of this approach that the ‘draft Regulations were not subject to the Parliamentary process of consideration and amendment in Committee, as a Bill would have been. In these circumstances and in the context of s 2 of the European Communities Act 1972 I consider it to be entirely legitimate for the purpose of ascertaining the intention of Parliament to take into account the terms in which the draft was presented by the responsible Minister and which formed the basis of its acceptance’.3