Employment Bill [Lords]

For the past decade, businesses of all sizes have had to cope with the steady drip, drip of employment legislation. Since 1997, the Government have introduced some 18 Acts and more than 280 statutory instruments dealing directly with employment, which have often left employers bemused, baffled and bewildered by the negative implications for UK employment. Last autumn, pre-credit crunch, a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses found that nearly 80 per cent. of small business owners handled paperwork themselves, and that a third of those businesses claimed that they would not be hiring new staff because of bureaucratic complexities. It is by that and other means that the Labour Government are continually damaging the flexibility of the UK's labour market. Only a few weeks ago, a further deal was done between Labour and the trade unions to tamper with the laws on agency workers, which could be very damaging for already overburdened businesses. The Government made that massive and costly concession to their Back Benchers. They have fought in Brussels against the European agency workers directive for the past five years, but the sad reality is that they could no longer handle the pressure back at home. It is a testament to the Prime Minister's weakness that Britain's economic interests are being weighed up as less significant than his political survival. I am glad that the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform finally seems to recognise that the Government have gone too far. He recently admitted—of course, this was after the Government had passed 298 employment laws—that there was a"““need to challenge the automatic assumption that the only way to deal with exploitation in the workplace is by passing new laws.””" That is certainly something to support, but judging by the latest trade union wish list that has been floating around the media in advance of the Labour party's Warwick discussions, he will have a big fight on his hands. As we enter this period of economic instability, it is critical that the Secretary of State ensures that flexibility remains a cornerstone of our labour market so that if unemployment begins to rise businesses have the proper flexibility to organise their work forces and can weather the storm. It is with that in mind that I shall examine the provisions of this latest Employment Bill. First, however, may I say that while the Bill's passage through the Lords lasted for months, we were given only a few days' notice of the debate, which was not ideal and not conducive to allowing Members to participate? Additionally, the Secretary of State has pulled out of leading on a Bill that he wishes to push through at such short notice, and we believe that that deserves some explanation from a Minister, perhaps during the wind-ups.