Private Equity (Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employment) Bill

I agree completely with my hon. Friend. [Interruption.] I have just realised that I have found a copy of the explanatory notes for my Bill; if somebody did not mind making a copy, I would happily pass it on to the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope). I started out by spelling out simply what I thought the problem was. Certain workers are not protected by TUPE regulations, but they should be. To those who ask why, I say, ““Why not?”” The hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) mentioned unforeseen consequences. I remember having conversations with lots of people very early on. I asked them what drastic consequences there would be if the Bill went through. Almost no one I spoke to suggested any. Let us be clear: I am a serial loyalist. I would not want to put the Government in a position in which there would be drastic consequences. I would not want to put private equity firms in such a position. I envisage no drastic consequences from the proposal. The current Bill might contain some drastic things, which I want to remove—as I have said, I will take them out. I do not expect any unforeseen drastic consequences. I can see only good coming from the proposal. I end as I began. I am grateful to the Minister and the Department for entering into dialogue with me about the Bill. I am grateful to the BVCA and the venture capital people for entering into dialogue. At last, it is starting to be commonly accepted that there is an issue. Private equity takeovers are here to stay, and we cannot allow workers in such transfers to be in a different position from workers in non-private equity takeovers. We must have some mechanism to rectify that. It will not be the end of the matter when the Bill goes into Committee. I want to pare down the Bill to the point at which we might get consensus in the industry and among employees. I hope that hon. Members will approve the Second Reading of the Bill and allow me to take it into Committee and take the issue forward.