I HOPE that Mark Harper will support the HOOF Campaign as enthusiastically as he supported the application for a woman Freeminer. We shall see whether his post as a junior minister in the coalition Government will colour his judgment on this.
Referring to last week's column on why he advised the Deputy Gaveller that it was legal for a woman to become a Freeminer; well, I have full copy of the letter to him from the Solicitor General, Vera Baird (which was not classified as private or confidential) with a complicated summary of the relevant Acts by her officials that includes their opinion that Section1 of the Employment Act, 1989 provides that an Act passed before the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 "shall be of no effect".
Now I had to read this advice several times before understanding it and reading the relevant parts of the 1975 SDA and 1989 Employment Act, it certainly seemed to point that way. But there is another Clause in the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act that doesn't appear to have been considered and that is – Mines and Quarries Act, 1954. Amendment Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
21.(1). "No female shall be employed in a job the duties of which ordinarily require the employee to spend a significant proportion of his time below ground at a mine which is being worked."
I have found out online the reason why women could now be allowed for a short period of time underground in a working mine was to enable female doctors and nurses to take part in rescue operations and not as part of a mining workforce; so it wasn't until 1989 that the "powers-that-be" legally allowed women to work underground in a mining capacity. Also, the Solicitor General's advisers seemed to think that nobody could work in a Forest mine unless they were a Freeminer, thus discriminating against women in particular, which is, of course, not so. Thousands of men worked in the Forest pits in their heyday who were born in the Dean, but never registered as Freeminers even if they were entitled to. So women can quite happily take up the pick and shovel without any discrimination against them.
At the end of her advice to Mr Harper, the Solicitor General states that: "I should emphasise that I cannot advise how your constituent should proceed, but I do not regard this letter as private or confidential and I hope she will find it helpful." Not a definite affirmative then.
John Belcher
Joyford Hill