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Companies Bill [Lords]

The next group will have to be voted on at 3 pm as well, and the principle is exactly the same—the publication of information by companies so that markets and the authorities know what is going on. That applies to amendment No. 820, which deals with the publication of the highest and lowest annual earnings by employees, the number of UK-based workers and the gap between male and female earnings. All the years of pressure to equal up pay and to take action against low pay have not succeeded to the extent that is socially necessary. If we require companies to report on what they are doing, it may well prove a way of bringing pressure to bear on them in the face of a glaring scandal. There are massively high pay levels at the top in comparison with exploitation and low wages at the bottom. Between 1997 and 2004, the average FTSE 100 chief executive’s total annual pay rose by 80 per cent. to £1.7 million. Pay at the bottom did not increase in anything like the same way, so the gaps are becoming ever more glaring. The only way to deal with the problem is to let people know what is going on and for companies to report on what they are doing. If companies want their enterprises to be run as a body, co-operating in order to advance the company and achieve greater shareholder value, they should be proud of their pay record and proud of what they are doing to provide incentives for their lowest-paid workers, particularly women. Unfortunately, I do not have time to deal with all the amendments in the group, but many of them deal with a growing trend, discernible in America, whereby companies want to report on their achievements. Massive public relations campaigns are taking place and millions of dollars are being spent in America on publishing that information, yet the Conservative Opposition in this country are niggling that any further obligations on companies will bring them crashing down around our ears, sending them into tax havens overseas and causing them to fire large numbers of workers. Those are ridiculous accusations to launch against what amounts to a simple principle of social justice and open government—that companies should be open and should be required to publish information, as Government Departments, public authorities and everybody else in our democracy has to. They are part of the fabric of society, and they must maintain their responsibilities to the fabric of society. That is my purpose in highlighting these amendments, and I hope that the Minister will make a difference when she replies to this fascinating debate.