Draft Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2018 General Committees

[Andrew Griffiths]

The hon. Lady makes a good point. It is not just in private business that we see good behaviour. My hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield alluded to John Lewis, but there are lots of examples of local authorities where there is pay restraint, accountability and transparency. That is very important. It is not for me at this stage to dictate what multiplier is good or bad, but I think we have all been astounded by some of the sums that have been paid to chief executives of local authorities—incredible sums that would make even a premier league manager blush.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

In the spirit of the previous interventions, I rise to acknowledge the work of John Spedan Lewis, who set an early trend for having women at the top and in corporate governance roles by talking about the importance of a woman being the financial secretary of a company and keeping everything in check. I also support the points that were made about the importance of a multiplier. Will the Minister clarify what the draft regulations mean by “employees” in comparison with workers?

[Michael Fabricant]

On a point of order, Mr Sharma. This is not really a point of order—it is a sort of helpful intervention—but I am going to say it is one. I just want to point out that Andy Street, who was the managing director of John Lewis, nominated a woman to run that company, not just to be secretary.