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

My hon. Friend makes a good point. The Bill's promoter might be able to clarify some of the points that he makes to try to reassure him. I am not entirely sure that I would be reassured, but my hon. Friend might be. The hon. Members for Lewisham, West and for Manchester, Central, who seems not to have had the patience to wait—[Interruption.] He is here; he was hiding behind the Chair. I thought that he had gone to the Library to pick up some information, as I suggested earlier. The main thrust of my argument is that because there is no change of employer in a private equity transfer, existing employment legislation applies, so in terms of employment rights, an employer cannot unilaterally vary a contract of employment. Changes to individual terms and conditions, such as pay, hours and holidays, can be achieved only by agreement with the employee. Legislation also protects employees from being incentivised to opt out of collective agreements by accepting more generous terms. Any existing recognition and collective agreements remain in force following a transfer of substantial shareholdings. Where there is a works council or an employee representative committee, employees have a right to be informed and consulted about any significant changes to their business. If no such body exists, employees in businesses employing more than 50 people can, I think from the next financial year, initiate procedures to require the introduction of such a staff council or committee. That is all part of existing legislation, which would not be affected by any private equity transfer and share sale. Where more than 20 redundancies are envisaged, legislation already requires collective consultation of at least 30 days in advance, and 90 days if more than 100 people are affected. That consultation has to be meaningful and cover the reasons for the dismissal as well as the consequences. All those provisions already exist, so even given the laudable objectives of the hon. Member for Nottingham, East, the Bill is not necessary. The Bill would simply allow employee representatives to delay transactions, possibly indefinitely in some cases, making the UK a less attractive place to do business. Therefore, it would not have the benefits that the hon. Gentleman seeks. I suspect that its only consequence would be to make private equity firms, which I have sought to point out make such a valuable contribution to the UK economy, less likely to invest in the country and more likely to do what they are already doing, which is to invest increasing amounts overseas to the benefit of other countries, not ours. I want to arrest that decline in the proportion of private equity money invested in the UK and instead see an increase. Such investment greatly benefits the UK's economy, employment, innovation, productivity and the skills base, which results in increased taxes for improving our public services. I fear that the Bill would undermine all those efforts, and that is why I oppose it.