Companies House: Filing of Annual Accounts by Small Companies
Baroness Kramer Excerpts(1 week ago)
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Lord Leong (Lab)
The noble Viscount is absolutely right. We obviously do not have jurisdiction on foreign companies or companies registered outside the UK. Let me share some facts with the noble Viscount. Since 4 March 2024, Companies House has made significant progress in tackling false and misleading information on the register, using the new powers under the Act. Companies House has removed some 220,000 false and inappropriate addresses, some 52,000 people named on incorporations without their consent, and over 13,000 documents from the register, including something like 800 false mortgage satisfaction filings that previously required a court order. So we have come some way, but there is still a lot more to do, and Companies House is getting on with it.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, perhaps the Minister can help me, because I have become very confused. Like the noble Lord, Lord Sikka, I understand from the Financial Times and others that the Government have decided to shelve the reforms in filing for small companies, even though most of those companies have upgraded their software already in order to meet the requirements of Making Tax Digital, so there is very little additional cost to a proper filing. Could he explain that, and also pick up on the pt made by the noble Lord, Lord Sikka, which is that there is broad evidence now that organised crime is increasingly using tools such as AI so that it can front various scams and sanctions-busting by using small companies?
Lord Leong (Lab)
The noble Baroness has obviously read various newspaper reports. I suggest to her, “Don’t believe everything you read from the papers”. As it stands now, most companies have to file abbreviated accounts, which, as the noble Baroness will know, is just a balance sheet. We are asking under this Act for them to file accounts. As I said earlier, we recognise the concerns raised by various stakeholders and we will set up next steps to address those recent concerns. When this happens, a statutory instrument will be placed and noble Lords can debate it.
UK Modern Industrial Strategy
Baroness Kramer Excerpts(2 weeks, 1 day ago)
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Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
My Lords, I genuinely admire the intent of the industrial strategy. The sectors that it highlights are sensible. I like the aspiration to focus on all regions and to nurture clusters. All that is very good, but it is a list of aspirations; it is not a strategy. A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim, and this is not that. All the aspirations in it are good and no one could reasonably argue with them, but the economy and the growth we need will not be delivered by this, or by fine words and noble sentiments.
Growth is not a slogan, it is a result. Indeed, the introduction to the industrial strategy says that
“the Government’s priority mission is to deliver strong, secure, and sustainable economic growth”,
but the Government continue to mistake the former for the latter.
Despite the Chancellor’s triumphant declarations that growth is the number one priority, the harsh reality confronting British businesses tells a starkly different story. The Governor of the Bank of England has delivered a sobering assessment that should give this House pause. He has categorically dismissed the Chancellor’s claims that Britain’s economy has turned a corner, warning instead that growth is slowing precisely because high taxes are biting deep into our economic foundations.
The Governor’s analysis is both precise and damning. What the Chancellor has hailed as evidence of economic recovery is nothing more than a temporary blip driven by fleeting factors that will not be repeated. British businesses, rather than preparing for prosperity, must now brace themselves for an economic slowdown of this Government’s making.
The employment figures alone should shame any Administration who claim to champion working people. Unemployment has risen every single month—all nine months—since the Government took office. This is not coincidence; it is consequence.
Perhaps most telling is the collapse in Britain’s international standing as an investment destination. The number of foreign direct investment projects has plummeted to the lowest level since records began 18 years ago. According to EY, the Government have made the UK a less attractive place to do business than Oman, the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia. Before the Chancellor’s Budget last year, a PwC survey ranked the United Kingdom as the second most attractive place for investment in the world. That is our record: their record is destroying that competitive advantage in less than a year.
The human cost of these policy failures is becoming increasingly apparent. The British Chambers of Commerce has revealed that almost one-third of small and medium-sized employers have made redundancies or are actively contemplating job cuts as a direct consequence of the Government’s decision to hike employers’ national insurance contributions. Its survey of over 570 member firms found that 13% had already wielded the axe, while 19% were sharpening it for future use.
In times of global uncertainty, businesses look to their own Governments for stability and support. Instead, this Government have chosen to pile domestic chaos upon international volatility. They have created a perfect storm of their own making. They speak eloquently of cutting energy costs while systematically pursuing policies that guarantee the opposite outcome. Their obsession with net zero has created an energy regime that punishes British businesses with costs five times higher than those faced by their American counterparts.
The introduction to the strategy says on page 33:
“There can be no plan for economic stability or sustainable growth that does not include a credible plan for net zero”.
That is obvious nonsense: of course there can. This is a choice, and publishing elegant explanations about how they are going to alleviate the worst effects of their own policies is simply baffling, but it is not strategy.
While pouring billions of pounds into subsidies for renewables, they steadfastly refuse to end the windfall tax on oil and gas companies or to issue new licences for drilling in the North Sea. They have turned their backs on our own North Sea resources, preferring instead to import energy from abroad rather than harness the secure—that word deserves repeating—and reliable supplies beneath our own waters. The result is an energy policy that reads like a masterclass in economic self-harm, and also puts us at a strategic disadvantage in a dangerous world.
It would be remiss of me if I did not acknowledge credit where it is due. The commitment to free trade principles offers a glimmer of hope, and recent trade agreements suggest that the Government have not entirely abandoned the opportunities that Brexit provides. However, if we are truly to harness these benefits, we need comprehensive free trade deals, not the minor economic agreements that currently pass for trade policy.
Their promise to reduce regulatory burdens by 25% reveals another layer of the Government’s duplicity. This sounds precisely like telling businesses what they want to hear, while doing the exact opposite in practice. The Employment Rights Bill alone, which they proudly champion, will impose £5 billion—the Government’s own impact assessment number—in administrative costs on British businesses and introduce a new agency, which is a regulator by any other name. How is that part of a strategy to reduce regulatory burdens?
I suspect that this £5 billionfigure will represent only the tip of the iceberg. What the Government have failed to factor into their calculations is the true cost of empowering trade unions to constantly disrupt business operations, of making it infinitely riskier and more expensive to hire workers, and of creating a labyrinth of legal obligations that will tie employers in knots for years to come. Small businesses, already struggling with the highest tax burden in a generation, will find themselves drowning in compliance costs that will inevitably dwarf the Government’s modest £5 billion estimate.
The impact on young people seeking employment is particularly troubling. At a time when youth unemployment demands urgent attention, the Government are making it more expensive and riskier for employers to take a chance on inexperienced workers. The Employment Rights Bill, whatever its intentions, will price young people out of the job market at the very moment they need opportunity most.
We have also witnessed a hat-trick of U-turns from the Prime Minister, including on welfare reform. We were told that these measures were necessary to get people back into work. I suspect that the Government are not that interested in that after all. What is the point of an industrial strategy if there is no industry left? Will the cost of this U-turn simply mean more taxes, or will the Minister unequivocally rule out further tax rises today?
The Government have shown they do not understand how wealth is created and how economies grow. You cannot tax your way to prosperity, you cannot regulate your way to competitiveness, and you certainly cannot lecture businesses about growth while systematically undermining the conditions that make growth possible. The question before us is simple: will the Government recognise that their approach is failing, or will they continue down a path that leads inevitably to economic decline? The evidence is mounting, the damage is spreading and time is running short.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, we on these Benches remember how powerfully business welcomed the industrial strategy produced by Vince Cable during the coalition years, and the shock and dismay with which it greeted the Conservative decision, when that party was in government alone, first to weaken it and eventually to scrap it. Such a strategy is vital to drive business investment, good jobs and prosperity.
It was notable that the Conservatives not only scrapped the industrial strategy but sold off the Green Investment Bank. How different our energy position could have been today, had that not happened. They also readied the British Business Bank for sale; I remember direct conversations with Sajid Javid and his relief that it was to be done away with. It survived only because Covid struck and it was needed to distribute Covid loans.
Those constructive moves were pure ideology: in essence, it was private good, public bad. So I listened with interest to the Conservative Front Bench today and there is a change of tone but—my goodness—this country would have benefited had that change started a few years ago.
We find some common ground in one area. The Conservatives did not exactly name it, but we have talked about it in the past. Raising employers’ NICs, especially SME employers, was the wrong way to start the revival of business and enterprise.
We support core elements of the strategy, but we still have questions. My noble friend Lord Russell, if he has the opportunity to speak on this Statement, will talk much more about energy prices, because we welcome the help of a wider range of energy-intensive industries. But why would we wait another two years to find out who will qualify? What about the burden of electricity prices on service industries such as hospitality?
If the Government want to see a quantum growth in exports, the answer is surely to negotiate to rejoin the EU customs union. By comparison, everything else is small beer. Have the Government noticed today’s FT article charting the decline in productivity—especially in London, which is key to the economy—since Brexit? It played such a significant role, with its impact on business investment and the opportunity to participate in supply chains. This Government are keen on U-turns, so why not make a U-turn that would actually bring money into the country and the Treasury and work to find our way back into the EU customs union?
A business in rural England involved in agribusiness and farming would be asking, “Why does this strategy have so little for me?”, especially in an era of food insecurity, climate change and tariffs. Can the Minister elaborate and provide some reassurance? A business looking for skilled staff would welcome the funding boost for skills but ask, “Why not the fundamental reform of apprenticeships that we need, and where is lifelong learning?” Today’s report of a sharp drop in entry-level jobs surely underscores that need. Can they have a place in the strategy?
A creative reading the importance of data as an asset—in fact, the industrial strategy is quite good on the creative sector, but not on the importance of data as an asset—would ask why the Government have refused to strengthen copyright transparency rules to prevent the US mega-techs scraping intellectual property without recompense. Where is the logic and the justice, particularly when data is identified as critical?
An innovative small business would welcome the Government’s intention to use procurement to drive enterprise, but why do the rules still mean that the Government can then take the intellectual property of that small business and, on the grounds of transparency, give it to its competitors free of charge? This is an issue that my noble friend Lady Bowles raises often, and it still needs an answer.
One issue in particular grates with me. The Government have simply not grasped the need for access to finance for the whole breadth of small businesses, not just priority sectors such as high tech. To build our communities and make sure that good jobs and prospects are available everywhere, we cannot be in a position where small businesses grow from retained earnings only. We need a genuine community banking sector. The high street banks and most alternative finance is not interested in meeting the need. The British Business Bank has a small £150 million pot over the next two years to support community banking, but it is minimal compared, for example, to the $300 billion in community bank financing that is the backbone of small business finance and growth in the United States. Does the Minister understand that this is a missed opportunity?
In many ways, we see this industrial strategy as a positive and strong step forward, but we will not be in a full position to judge it until we see practical support and solutions. Implementation and delivery are key. I hope that, by the time we have such clarity, my noble friend Lord Fox, whose knowledge in this area is so much greater than mine, is back on these Benches. I can tell your Lordships that he will expect answers.
Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Leong) (Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, and the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, for their contributions, but I am bitterly disappointed by the noble Lord’s remarks about the industrial strategy. He said that we should listen to business; I can safely say that we have.
Let me quote some of the comments from businesses. The Institute of Directors said:
“The Industrial Strategy is an important step towards the development of a positive and coherent plan to drive growth, and will enable businesses to see a sense of direction for the UK economy. For businesses to be able to plan for investment, it is crucial to have a stable policy environment. This whole-of-government approach is encouraging, not least as it draws together new and existing strands of activity into one cohesive strategy”.
Make UK, whose chairman is the noble Lord, Lord Harrington—a colleague of the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe—says:
“The Government has listened and the Secretary of State has acted decisively with a joined up strategy which reflects a wider commitment from the Prime Minister and Cabinet alike. The strategy announced today sets out comprehensive and well funded plans to address all three of these structural failings. Clearly there is much to do as we move towards implementation but, this will send a message across the Country and around the world that Britain is back in business”.
Furthermore, the leaders of the British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI and the Federation of Small Businesses said that:
“The Industrial Strategy … marks a significant step forward and a valuable opportunity for the business community to rally behind a new vision for the UK—boosting confidence, sentiment, and enthusiasm for investment. From start-ups and small businesses to large corporates, businesses need a more attractive, stable environment that enables faster, easier, and more certain investment decisions. We welcome the Government’s engagement with businesses across the UK. Much of what we’ve shared has been heard and reflected in this strategy. While there’s more to do, we are ready to support the next steps. We encourage businesses nationwide to get behind this strategy and champion the UK as the best place to live, work, invest, and do business”.
The UK is a thriving global economy, founded on stability, fairness and the rule of law, and propelled by world-leading sectors and companies. We have a record of extraordinary research and innovation. We are champions of openness and free trade, and we continue to be a magnet for international talent and capital. But, in recent decades, the pace and magnitude of global change have escalated, and the UK has been short of the dynamism it takes to stay ahead. The global trading environment has become more unpredictable, the fragility of the global supply chains more apparent, and our economic competitors have been more assertive and destructive in promoting their national industries. British workers and families have paid the price through the cost of living crisis.
Now more than ever, businesses are seeking out countries that can provide them with the confidence to invest and grow. As we set out in the plan for change, the Government’s priority mission is to deliver strong, secure and sustainable economic growth. The modern industrial strategy is a 10-year plan to kick-start an era of economic prosperity—the central mission in our plan for change—by investing in our comparative advantage and forging a new relationship between business and government.
It is a new economic approach that brings together every bit of government to drive investment. It will create a more connected, high-skilled and resilient economy where every person, place and business has the chance to flourish. Our plan will make it quicker and easier for businesses to invest, provide them certainty and stability to make long-term decisions and ensure they benefit from the UK’s openness to the world.
In order to do this, we are backing eight growth-driving sectors where the UK is already strong and has potential for faster growth: advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries; creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services. With those globally competitive industries spread across the nation, there is potential to make the whole country more prosperous as they grow and become more successful. The deep partnerships developed with mayors and the devolved Administrations, support for city regions and clusters and investment in local transport networks will enable the delivery of real growth to local communities.
Our formal Invest 2035 consultation, published last year, identified a list of inputs from foundational industries—including electricity networks, ports, construction, steel, critical minerals, composites, materials and chemicals—that are important to unlocking growth in the key growth sectors. The industrial strategy will support the whole economy, including businesses outside the eight growth-driving sectors through an improved operating environment, long-term stability and greater dynamism for entrants to emerge.
Supporting growth sectors will also have spillover benefits for the rest of the economy, from innovation pull-through to technology diffusion. For example, gains from AI innovation alone could add up to some £47 billion a year for the UK in productivity gains over the next decade.
Regional growth is a core objective of the industrial strategy. Higher national growth and the success of the IS eight will come only from unleashing the potential of places across the whole of the United Kingdom. The industrial strategy and our sector plans include interventions that will grow our city regions and clusters and help them attract private investment. This includes: bringing together more investable sites with over £600 million for the strategic sites accelerator; helping places to land game-changing private investments with support from the Office for Investment, the National Wealth Fund and the Business British Bank; growing high-potential innovation clusters for the £500 million local innovation partnership fund; making a new £500 million mayoral recyclable growth fund available to invest in growth projects; and much more.
On access to finance, we are unlocking billions in finance to innovative businesses, especially for start-ups and scale-ups, by increasing the British Business Bank’s capacity to £25.6 billion. That includes an additional £4 billion for growth capital for industrial strategy sectors, crowding in billions more in private capital. By investing largely through venture funds, the BBB will back the UK’s most potential growth.
To conclude, I reiterate the words of my noble friend, the Secretary of State:
“We are creating a prosperous, proud and outward-facing but self-reliant, independent and high-skilled nation; a country where opportunity, skills and wealth are spread fairly, and where every person and every business have the chance to flourish. That is what our modern industrial strategy will deliver. Our future, in our hands, built in Britain: that is what the strategy will achieve”.
Employment Rights Bill
Baroness Kramer ExcerptsMonday 16th June 2025
(4 weeks, 1 day ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Employment Rights Bill 2024-26 View all Employment Rights Bill 2024-26 Debates Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 81-IX(Corrected)(b) Amendments for Committee (Supplementary to the Corrected Ninth Marshalled List) - (16 Jun 2025)
Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (Lab)
My Lords, I oppose this group of amendments. I have to say that it is with deep regret, because my assessment of them is that they are trying to stir up a spectre of trade union intimidation, which reminds me strongly of the initiative going back in history—not quite as far as the noble Lord, Lord Jackson—to 2014, when the Government commissioned Bruce Carr QC, as he was then, to conduct an investigation of intimidation in workplaces. As it transpired, Mr Carr declined all opportunities to make any recommendations whatever on the basis of the evidence that he received. For the TUC’s part—and I was at the helm at the time—we described it as a party-political stunt and said that, frankly, the then Conservative Party in government should have repaid the taxpayer for the significant cost of conducting that investigation that led to zero—I repeat, zero—recommendations for changes in the law. In fact, Mr Carr went on just a year or two later to oppose the then Conservative Government’s Trade Union Bill as “a threat” to industrial relations and to civil liberties.
That brings me to safe and secure e-balloting. It seems to me that anybody who was a true democrat would be looking to increase opportunities for participation in safe, secure, secret and electronic balloting. Any boost to democracy should be welcome. I have to say that it is disappointing that those who oppose the right for trade unionists to cast their vote safely, securely and secretly by electronic ballot apparently believe that there is no threat of intimidation in respect of political parties. Therefore, it is fine for political parties to use modern methods of balloting; it is not fine for trade unionists. I would ask what view that gives us of the perception of trade unions from the Benches opposite, when, on the contrary, we should be proud of trade unions. We should tackle the causes and not just the symptoms of industrial action. We should be proud of constructive industrial relations in this country, which are vital for productivity and growth.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, Amendments 247, 248 and 250 would introduce further requirements in relation to trade union ballots, particularly concerning the risk of intimidation, the use of workplace locations and the information that unions must provide to members. While the intention to ensure that ballots are conducted fairly without pressure is understandable, I question whether these proposals are justified. They appear to introduce new procedural barriers for trade unions, with little evidence that safeguards are failing. There is a broader concern that measures of this kind may tilt the balance even further against workers attempting to organise and exercise their rights. I would be grateful if the Minister could set out whether these amendments are proportionate and necessary, and how they align with the broader approach to employment and industrial relations.
Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, for introducing these amendments tabled by his noble friend Lord Sharpe of Epsom. I thought that, with the contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, we were starting the history lessons a little early today—early in terms of this being the first group and in going back to the 1830s. I bend to no one in enjoying anecdotes about the Tolpuddle Martyrs, so I thank the noble Lord for his contribution, although I am not sure what it added to the debate.
Amendment 247, although well intentioned, is unnecessary. We all share the concerns outlined by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, about interference in balloting around industrial action. We understand that no worker takes a decision about voting for industrial action lightly—whether it is strike action or action short of a strike—and that they understand the consequences, because if action is voted for, they will be the ones who suffer directly by losing pay. We must ensure that when we talk about this, we talk about both sides of the ledger.
The amendment is well intentioned, but it is unnecessary, because Section 230 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 already requires that every person entitled to vote in an industrial action ballot must be allowed to do so without union interference. Furthermore, recognition and de-recognition ballots under Schedule A1 are already subject to provisions prohibiting unfair practices whereby the Central Arbitration Committee can order that a ballot is re-run if an unfair practice claim is found to be well founded. To introduce a new voting method to statutory trade union ballots using Section 54 of the Employment Relations Act 2004, the Government must already consider that the new method would allow the ballot to meet the requirements under Section 54(12). Specifically, the Government must consider that those entitled to vote have an opportunity to do so, that votes are cast in secret and that the risk of any unfairness or malpractice is minimised. Therefore, safeguards are already provided for in Section 54(12)(c) that cover intimidation if it takes place in the workplace or elsewhere. The noble Lord’s amendment is therefore not required.
I thank my noble friend Lady O’Grady of Upper Holloway for reminding us of the outcome of the inquiry by Bruce Carr QC, as he was then, about the absence of intimidation within workplaces. It is important that we bear this in mind. The question was asked. It was tested by independent opinion and the proposition that underlies the spirit of these amendments was found to be wanting.
Amendment 248, also in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe of Epsom, would prevent the Secretary of State using the power in Section 54 to allow workplace balloting as a new means of voting in trade union ballots and elections. Unfortunately, the amendment fails to take into account the fact that workplace balloting is already an option for statutory trade union recognition and derecognition ballots. The existing legislation permits workplace ballots conducted by independent scrutineers appointed by the CAC. One wonders why this is deemed acceptable by the Front Bench opposite but other sorts of workplace balloting are not.
Furthermore, as I said earlier, any new voting methods introduced under Section 54 of the Employment Relations Act 2004 must enable a ballot to meet the requirements of Section 54(12). The Government are committed to updating our industrial relations framework and aligning it with modern working practices and technology. This includes allowing for modern and secure balloting for statutory trade union ballots.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, I speak to Amendment 251C through to Amendment 252, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe. These amendments would introduce a wide range of limitations to the new right not to suffer detriment for participating in protected industrial action. The amendments seek to define and restrict the scope of protection, introducing exclusions based on business continuity, public safety, union membership status and compliance with employer instructions. They propose new requirements around compensation, such as proof of financial loss, statutory severity bans and caps on awards.
Although I understand the desire to ensure clarity and prevent misuse of these protections, I am concerned that, taken together, these amendments risk hollowing out the underlying right. They would place significant hurdles in the way of workers seeking redress and could undermine confidence in the fairness and accessibility of the system. I would be grateful if the Minister could clarify whether the Government support this overall direction of travel and how they intend to ensure that the core principle of protection from unfair treatment during lawful industrial action is preserved in practice.
Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Leong) (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her contribution, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe of Epsom, for tabling these amendments. I ask noble Lords to bear with me as I respond to each of them.
I want to be clear about why this clause is required. Clause 73 inserts new Sections 236A to 236D into the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. New Section 236A is required because the Supreme Court ruled in April 2024 that Section 146 of the 1992 Act is incompatible with Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Amendments 251C, 251F, 251H and 251J are unnecessary as their purpose is already covered in existing legislation. In the case of Amendment 251C, Clause 73 already requires a ballot compliant with Section 226, as specified in Section 219(4) of the 1992 Act, and makes it clear that protection is limited to cases where the action is compliant. Furthermore, in the case of Amendment 251J, secondary action is already prohibited under Section 224 of the 1992 Act, and the new protection of Section 236A will not apply where the industrial action was unlawful secondary action.
With regard to Amendments 251F and 251H, Section 240 of the 1992 Act allows for criminal prosecution of those who intentionally and maliciously endanger life or cause serious injury to a person by going on strike. Furthermore, if an act of an employer is motivated primarily by health and safety concerns, not for the sole or main purpose of preventing or deterring the employee from taking protected industrial action or penalising them, they have a defence from detriment claims, and the tribunals will consider whether the employer’s act or failure to act constitutes detriment.
Amendments 251D and 252 seek to prejudge a full and open consultation on this issue by setting out circumstances in which the detriment protection will not apply. We will prescribe detriments in secondary legislation only once we have conducted a comprehensive consultation seeking views across the public, including those of workers, employers, trade unions and all other stakeholders.
With reference to Amendment 252, that protection from prescribed detriment applies only where the sole or main purpose of subjecting the worker to detriment is to prevent, deter or penalise the worker from taking protected industrial action; for example, if a worker is subjected to detriment solely or mainly because they have harassed or bullied non-striking workers, the protection will not apply. I can be clear that criminal law will continue to apply to pickets.
Amendment 251E would be an unnecessary limitation on the protections from detriment. The prohibitions that new Section 236A places on an employer are clear: the sole or main purpose of the action must be to deter or penalise industrial action, which would not apply in the case of genuine maintenance of critical operations. Amendment 251G would be an unreasonable restriction to apply to detriment protections. Non-union members have the right to participate in official protected industrial action and, where that is the case, must be afforded the same protections from detriment as union members.
Amendments 251L and 251N would place a burden on individuals to prove that they had suffered financial or economic loss as a result of detriment, and would limit the circumstances where they were eligible for compensation. These hurdles and limits would potentially deter them from engaging in industrial action, limiting compliance with the Supreme Court ruling and Article 11.
Amendments 251M and 251P seek to restrict compensation with regard to business deeds. I want to be clear that an employer’s action or failure to act in relation to prescribed detriments will be a legal obligation that cannot be breached proportionately, and there is no legitimate business interest defence for seeking to deter or penalise an employee for taking protected industrial action.
Amendment 251K seeks to establish bands of detriment severity of “minor”, “serious” and “extreme”, and would require the Secretary of State to specify maximum compensation limits for each, which tribunals would have to comply with. New Section 236D is already clear that employment tribunals must have regard to any loss sustained by a claimant that is attributable to the actions of, or failures to take action by, an employer. Therefore, tribunals will award compensation based on what the tribunal considers to be just and equitable and will be able to proportionately determine the amount of compensation, taking into account all the relevant circumstances. I hope I have reassured the noble Lord. I therefore ask him to withdraw Amendment 251C.
Baroness Lawlor (Con)
My Lords, I support the amendments from my noble friends Lord Sharpe of Epsom and Lord Hunt of Wirral to require an impact assessment on the effect on the emergency services. That is proposed in Amendment 254, which seeks to insert proposed new subsection (4) to Clause 75; and in Amendment 255, on the ability of the services listed in the 1992 Act to provide minimum service levels with a new Section 75, requiring an impact assessment.
As noble Lords will remember, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 enabled the Secretary of State to set minimum levels of services in essential services, so that employers could give notices to trade unions that their employees must comply with Section 234B. Specified services included health, fire and rescue,
“decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste”
and border security. These are vital areas of the public services and, indeed, often incorporate private sector services too.
The noble Baronesses, Lady O’Grady and Lady Coffey, both pointed out that the Act was not drawn on, but it is my view that it acted as a leverage, as has already been pointed out. I support also what the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, said: given time, the Act would have come into its own. It was not given time, partly because the Opposition, who were then in pole position to take over from the Conservatives at the next general election, made it clear that they would repeal it and fought tooth and nail against the Bill throughout the debates.
Clause 75, to repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 for minimum service levels in these sectors, will appear, as has been said, to many people in this country as an irresponsible act of Government. They see that, every time the Labour Opposition is about to come to power or has the chance of coming to power, the trade unions ramp up their campaign, often calling strikes and causing chaos in the public services—some emergency services included—thus providing the Labour Government with the springboard to measures such as the present one, and indeed the present clause.
However, even if it served as leverage, the chaos was mitigated as a result of the 2023 Act, with schools kept open, rail services running reliably, if not quite as frequently, and hospital treatments taking place. Given the militancy of the unionised workforce mainly in the public sector, employers there may not particularly relish serving workplace notices, but there may be an incentive, and it may be necessary to give employers in the public sector an incentive or an instruction to do so. Right now, the issue we and the public face is, will we have our emergency and essential public services for which the country as a whole pays handsomely through its taxes for such services? Will people have a right to the benefit of the service they pay for?
Being an employer is not an easy job; it is a hard one: one of constant interaction and agreement with employees on whom the success of any enterprise depends, be it a business or charity or the public sector. It may be necessary to have such a requirement, as was stipulated under the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, to bring employers who are not minded to go that extra mile to find an agreement to some dispute. It might be necessary to have that if there is no other incentive in place, and very often, in publicly paid for services, there is no incentive for an employer to go that extra mile.
Moreover, the prevalence of industrial action, with the disproportionate impact on the public sector and emergency services, must owe something—and does, in my view—to the prevalence of a proportionately large group of the public sector being unionised: almost 4 million, 3.9 million, in 2025 and 3.8 million in 2024, of the 6.4 million trade unionists.
This figure indicates that we are dealing with a potentially militant public sector union membership of around 50% who can hold our country to ransom if there is not a requirement for minimum service levels. This is not a very fair deal for employers who may want that extra muscle which the law has given to reach some agreement, and for the employees to reach an agreement also.
By inserting a requirement for an impact assessment, we shall at least be encouraging information to be supplied to taxpayers and the public, so they too can lend their voice to the need to mitigate the damage done by the lack of availability of treatment in hospitals and the damage done to children’s education, to border controls and to fire services, not to mention basic rail travel to go to work and earn a living, which is perpetuated by Clause 75. I therefore support my noble friend’s amendments, and I urge the Government, even if they are determined to bring forward this unnecessary clause, to allow the public to judge the impact by producing an impact assessment.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, I shall speak briefly to this group of amendments, which introduce various review provisions linked to the operation and impact of measures in the Bill. Amendments 254 and 255, in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Sharpe and Lord Hunt, seek to ensure that the consequences of key provisions, particularly around the repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act and the content of Clause 75, are properly assessed after implementation. While post-legislative scrutiny can be helpful, there is a balance to be struck between evaluation and reopening the substance of the reforms.
I shall also speak to Amendment 258, tabled by my noble friend Lord Fox, who is unfortunately unable to be here today. His amendment would require a review of the impact of Part 4 on small and medium-sized enterprises within six months of Royal Assent. I am sure he will be delighted by the number of voices that have joined in support of that approach today, because this is an important proposal. Small and medium-sized businesses do not have the legal departments or HR infrastructure that larger organisations enjoy. Clarity, simplicity and practical support are essential if those firms are to understand and comply with new duties under employment law, particularly where industrial relations are concerned. This amendment would help to ensure that legislation worked in practice for the full range of employees it affected, and I hope that the Minister will give it due consideration.
Corporate Liquidations
Baroness Kramer Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Lord Leong (Lab)
My Lords, of course these are disappointing figures, but six months after launching Get Britain Working we are seeing real results, with economic activity at a record high, half a million more people in jobs since we took office and real wages having grown more since July than at any other time in the last decade. It is also worth noting that the latest GDP figures tell a very different story, up 7% in Q1 of this year, showing the UK economy’s resilience and potential. These indicators suggest a labour market that remains robust and responsive, not one that is being held back.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that what was worrying about the liquidation numbers in 2024 was the increase in compulsory liquidations? That came ahead of the NICs increases, so it is a real red flag. The businesses that I speak to are desperately depending on the industrial strategy to restore their prospects. Can the Minister assure the House that the IS will include a focus on small businesses, including opportunities for government procurement? Will the Government reverse their policy of demanding that SMEs cede ownership of their intellectual property if they enter into even a small government contract?
Lord Leong (Lab)
My Lords, I assure the noble Baroness that we will publish our industrial strategy very soon, and it will definitely cover SMEs. As I mentioned earlier, compulsory liquidation is not something new. Companies go bust. We have seen big companies fail. Failure is a reality of business. Even major firms such as Ted Baker, The Body Shop and Wilko have collapsed. We should be thinking about how to support these corporate failures. We must have a more robust system, whether it is the credit system that needs reforming or even British banks. We must incorporate the American culture. Yes, we have to address failures, but more important is how we get up, dust ourselves down and get on to the business market again.