Parliamentary Standards Bill

One of the many muddles that the Bill is getting Parliament into is the muddle over how staff will transfer and when the body will be established. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Alan Duncan) has tabled this new clause suggesting some clarity over the data controller aspect. However, it is not possible to put a time on when that could take place unless we know how long it will take to set up the body and to appoint all the relevant staff. I hope that the Justice Secretary will use this opportunity to say something to our staff, who are in need of reassurance or some statement from their employer about how they are going to be treated. Does he know when the Bill might be enacted? Is it possible that we can do this quickly, perhaps within two months? It will be easier to do it if the current arrangements for staff transfer, under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 or some similar arrangement, apply and if staff have been told that they will transfer so that the system can continue much as it has up to this point. If that is not the intention, a good employer would warn staff and start consulting on what the arrangements will be, and it might be quite difficult to hit this particular deadline. Although I welcome the spirit of my hon. Friend's new clause—it is right that we need clarity over the data protection aspects—I am worried about the general issue of whether this body can be set up quickly and whether the Justice Secretary thinks that its staffing arrangements will be more competent and better than those that we currently have, and if so, why he thinks that. Above all, he owes to our staff, now—it should have been done some time ago—proper procedures for informing and consulting them.