Clause 13
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
6:00 pm
Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative)
I have two points. The first we touched on briefly in the last debate and it focuses on the people who are going to be transferred to CMEC. Many of the problems that have been experienced by parents and families in the maintenance process have not been caused by Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations. In some ways, the staff of the agency are as much victims of the process. It came up during the evidence-taking session with the Minister and the chief executive of the agency that the morale in the agency was quite high and the staff were looking forward to this process taking place. It was worth getting that on the record.
I have one specific question for the Minister, in light of our debate on clause 8. He was keen not to fetter or limit the scope and flexibility of the commission, which is why clause 13(3)(a) amends the TUPE regulations to change the trade union recognition procedures that are standard in TUPE recognition, and removes the limitation that is normally there. That seems to fetter the role of the commission slightly and make it more difficult for it to take a different position in relation to trade union recognition. It would be helpful if the Minister could explain the logic behind that as TUPE regulations do not normally require that to be the case.