2. The ICE regulations and who is covered

The purpose of the ICE regulations is to establish machinery for information and consultation in undertakings with 50 or more employees. ICE arrangements apply “where there is sufficient interest”, as the main enforcement body, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), has put it. They have to be triggered, rather than applying automatically as some other information and consultation arrangements do (see Chapter 12).

The regulations are complex, as cases heard by the CAC confirm. However they are also “flexible”, in keeping with the voluntary tradition of British employment relations. That means they leave plenty of room for employers and employees to try to get what they want out of them.

Many of the terms used in the regulations and referred to in this booklet are defined in regulation 2, but other definitions can be found elsewhere in the regulations. The regulations are supplemented by government guidance published in 2005 by the forerunner of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (then the DTI).

Although the guidance like the regulations is more than ten years old, it is still taken into account at enforcement hearings. However it has no special status, it does not have to be followed, and in at least one case (Bournemouth University, see page 33) it has been directly contradicted by the CAC.