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

I agree with my hon. Friend. It seems to me, having listened to the debate so far, that a Bill has been presented that was perhaps drafted by others, and that the amount of thought that went into it before it was presented was not as much as should have been the case. I regret that, because the implications of the provisions for British business are very significant, and because of the upset that the Bill has caused among business organisations, for what I see as very little benefit for employees' and workers' rights. For those reasons, I think that it would have been better if it had not been presented. The scope of the Bill is uncertain. Although it claims to address issues of job insecurity following private equity takeovers, the fact that it leaves it to the Secretary of State to give a definition of ““private equity”” makes that an impossible task. Private equity is a highly problematic area to define, and—as my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) pointed out—there is much dispute, even within the industry, on its parameters. For example, there is much debate on whether it includes venture capital or small innovation businesses, let alone business angels investing alone. The hon. Member for Nottingham, East's famous explanatory notes—which I have now had a look at; I thank him very much—confuse the issue even more. Paragraph 4 defines private equity organisations as"““companies whose shareholdings are not listed on a recognised stock exchange””." I do not understand the sense of that, not only because there are listed private equity companies, but because it was this Government who put in place the tax measures to encourage people to invest in them. I shall be interested to hear the Minister talk his way round that one. The uncertainty surrounding the definition of private equity leads to a very real danger that other UK companies will be caught by the Bill. If that happened, the ability of such companies to conduct business in the UK would be extremely inhibited. Again, businesses would be driven abroad, which could be extremely damaging to our economy. TUPE law is highly complex and frequently misunderstood. Extending it to share sales would create uncertainty that, in turn, would erode buyer confidence that profitability in a takeover target's business could be restored and value derived from its investments. The trade unions must be prevented from slowing up the UK's mergers and acquisition transaction process and wrapping up our flexible labour market in red tape. Only two weeks ago, a huge union-led Labour Back-Bench rebellion in this place forced the Government to review their previous opposition to increased employment rights for temporary and agency workers. Since 1997, and having taken on the EU social chapter, the Government have introduced some 18 Acts and more than 280 statutory instruments that deal directly with employment regulations. Despite business representatives increasingly speaking out against the growing burden of regulation and the resulting erosion of Britain's competitive advantage, the process of reducing our competitive advantages is now actually accelerating. The impact has been to increase the complexity and burdens on employers while strengthening both trade union and employee rights. This Bill represents a further attempt by unions to push the Government—the Labour party now receives more than 70 per cent. of its money from the unions—into passing laws to make the UK's labour market significantly less competitive. That is a further turn of the Warwick agreement ratchet and we had all better wake up to what is going on before that process kills innovation and job creation in our country. This Bill is a further example of unnecessary meddling in business practices. It is technically unsuitable and economically misguided. If passed, it would be hugely burdensome for UK companies and would bring unlikely benefits to employees. Accordingly, we shall oppose the Bill today.