Clause 57 - Intervention by Secretary of State
Enterprise Bill
6:45 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 260, in page 40, line 10, leave out ''special''.
This probing amendment raises a narrow point. The clause is a discrete little regime for dealing with mergers that basically involve defence contractors who may, in the course of business, have access to secret information. We accept that there are grounds for vetting those companies, perhaps more carefully than
other companies. However, we are slightly puzzled that what is called a ''special merger situation'' is defined by reference to the normal definition but omitting the thresholds—25 per cent. UK market share or £45 million turnover—set out in clause 20 that we debated earlier.
The problem that we are trying to deal with under this clause is entirely divorced from competition, or any other issue that might legitimately be called enterprise. I am trying to probe the Under-Secretary on exactly how the clause is engineered, to confirm that it is simply a matter of being able to prohibit a merger on the grounds of secrecy of information. Can she confirm that there is no intention to have issues of competition and enterprise involved in what I accept is a discrete regime to deal with that particular group of contractors?