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

When we discussed the TUPE ideas many years ago, when there was a Tory Government and there were all sorts of privatisations and so on, there is no doubt that the net result was that most workers felt that they at least had a say in what happened when a takeover took place. However, there is no doubt that now there is a gap in the market. Since the private equity people have come in, there has been danger. Perhaps the most startling example of what I mean was one of the early ones. Private equity people moved into the Automobile Association and changed its whole dynamic. That resulted not only in a third of workers losing their jobs, but in the organisation becoming more of a franchise than it had been hitherto. That is a startling example. There is no doubt at all that a gap is growing in the market. That is why my hon. Friend is right to introduce this Bill—on a Friday; usually such Bills are discussed and Governments do not take action. But one thing is certain: the Government have to step in at some point.