Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill

My hon. Friend is being cynical. I think that it is important that we find out all the unintended consequences of any action that the Government might take, even when those actions are well intended, as the Bill clearly is. The Bill's intention is to ensure that the human rights of workers in this country are properly respected, and we must all applaud that, but it is the unintended consequences of well-intended legislation that puts the greatest fear in me. A lot of the legislation that passes through this place is intended to improve people's quality of life, but when the unintended consequences kick in, we often find that it ends up doing quite the opposite. If we are to believe the CBI, the Bill would result in the loss of 250,000 jobs. Clearly, the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston does not want to introduce legislation that will cause the loss of a quarter of a million jobs, but when the CBI says that, we must take it on board. It is a ball-park figure, but I assume that it is based on the implications of the Bill. The Minister said in response to several interventions that that figure is not his but the CBI's, but trying to squeeze out information on how many jobs the Government estimate would be lost if the Bill as it stands became an Act was beyond us. Quite frankly, we failed completely to get the Minister to answer that question.