I apologise for the fact I’m running a week behind at present; hopefully I’ll be able to use my day off tomorrow to catch up.
Private Equity (Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employment) Bill
“A Bill to extend the application of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 to the acquistion and disposal of substential shareholdings by private equity companies; and for connected purposes” (BD).
When the man moving the Bill says “I am certain that I know very little about [private equity takeovers]” (HA), you know that you’re in trouble. From what I can gather from the Hansard records, the Bill is designed to extend protection of workers and business (that’s what the TU(PE)R 2006 do) from applying only to normal takeovers to applying to “a transfer of equity—a transfer of shares that gives a controlling interest” (HA). Unsurprisingly, the CBI seem to be against this, from the words of Tony Lloyd (Labour, Central Manchester) (HA).
The Bill was introduced for its Second Reading on the 7th of March 2008; it was withdrawn (HB).
Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill
The child of Tim Yeo (Conservative, South Suffolk), this Bill would, from October 2009 to October 2012, place the United Kingdom (with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland having opt-outs) in Central European Time, GMT+1. This would ‘move’ one hour of daylight from morning to evening, or, as Mr. Yeo puts it, “move that daylight to the time of day when people are up and about rather than when they are asleep in bed” (HA). The Bill would, by his words, reduce accidents on the road (for which reason it is supported by the RoSPA), save energy, and generally be a Good Thing. There are, however, fairly obvious problems. The Bill would adversely affect the north of Britain, and the opt-out for Scotland would not be sufficent to protect the north-west of England, according to Nigel Evans (Conservative, Ribble Valley) (HA). The Bill would also adversely affect those who worked early in the mornings, such as farmers and postal workers, incurring the opposition of the Communication Workers’ Union – Mr, Yeo’s response was ” I wish my post arrived during the hours of darkness” (HA).
The Bill underwent its Second Reading with little incident; due to time constraints, the debate was adjourned to the 14th of March 2008 (HA).
Copyright in Sound Recordings and Performers’ Rights (Term Extension) Bill
We’ve seen this mouthful before. Usually then I’d say something interesting (cough cough) about the debate that happened, but, as the debate consisted of the single word “Object” (HA), I can’t.
The Second Reading debate on this Bill was postponed to the 14th of March 2008 (HA).
There was also a Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill read for the first time on the 10th of March 2008 and the second and third time on the 11th of March before being sent to the Lords, but from what I can gather (BD) there’s no debate or indeed voting involved, so I won’t cover the niceties.
Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Amendment) Bill
“A Bill to amend Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in relation to the duties, powers and functions of waste regulation authorities concerning the unauthorised deposit of controlled waste on land; and for connected purposes” (BD).
This, it seems, is a Bill about fly-tipping. It “has the support of the Country Landowners Association and the National Farmers Union” (HA), and is fairly simple: illegally dumped rubbish on public land (ie roads) is the responsibility of the Environment Agency to remove, whereas that illegally dumped on private land is the responsibility of the landowner, and it is a criminal offence for them not to remove it, which is a costly process. The Bill would extend the responsibility of the Environment Agency to those instances where controlled waste is dumped on private land without the landowner’s consent. It would also create a responsibilty (for councils, I think) to investigate instances of fly-tipping and, where possible, bring a prosecution.
The Bill was read for a first time on the 11th of March 2008 and the Second Reading was scheduled for the 25th of April 2008.
European Union (Amendment) Bill
Oh dear. David Miliband (Labour, South Shields), as ever, led the charge for the Bill, opposed, as ever, by Hague (Conservative, Richmond), Cash (Conservative, Stone) and Heathcoat-Amory (Conserative, Wells) (the “unconvincing accent” so tactfully referred to by Ann Apolis earlier). The arguements will be familiar by now – the Conservatives arguing that the constitutional concept was still as present as ever and that this was another slab on the crazy paving path to a European superstate, Labour arguing that the Conservatives were again displaying knee-jerk Euroscepticism that was out-of-touch with people and that the Treaty was good for Europe and the UK, and the Liberal Democrats not arguing at all. The debate was only brightened up by damning references to The Sun and The Daily Telegraph, the statistic of Patricia Hewitt (Labour, Leicester West) that “three quarters of [young people] support Britain’s membership of the EU” (HA) (a straw poll suggests that this is about right among the more intelligent members of my circle of acquaintance, the less intelligent not knowing what the EU was aside from a few platitudes about frogs’ legs and sieg heils), the assertion by Keith Vaz (Labour, Leicester East) that “the British people are not worried about legal immigration” (HA), and the amusing name of the constituency of Angus MacNeil (Scottish Nationalist Party, Na h-Eileanan an Iar). As ever, I recommend to the interested parties that they read the debate on the Treaty.
The Bill underwent its Third Reading on the 11th of March 2008, and passed the same by a vote of 346 to 206. Mr. Cash then made a snide comment about the scrap value of the Mace.
Aaaaaand that’s it.
Tags: CSRPR(TE), EPA1990(A), ES(D), EU(A), PE(TUPE)
