---

Companies Bill [Lords]

That is the case, and a future Government may have to consider the issues and impose a legal framework for the requirement to consult employees. It is entirely possible that that will be a secondary consequence of legislation passed by the European Parliament and the European Commission, but it would be much better if we were willing to debate the matter now, so that we could form our views before that time comes. The issues will not go away while the experience of workers is so drastically different and is growing increasingly different from that of the directors of the company, who form part of the extraordinary world in which new investment vehicles, such as private equity companies, are radically transforming even the things of which we speak. It is clearly right that employees have the right to express a view about their directors’ remuneration and length of service. It would be entirely wrong for the House to put itself in the position of saying that it will leave the matter to others, in the European Parliament or the European Commission, to impose on us at a later date. We ought to be thinking it out for ourselves.