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Employment Rights Bill

My Lords, it is a pleasure to begin this Committee day on the Employment Rights Bill. This is probably the most straightforward of the amendments I have on the Order Paper this afternoon; it simply seeks to bring clarity, consistency and fairness to this whole area. What does the amendment

do? It simply states that employment businesses participating in employment arrangements must be subject to a licensing authority.

The fairness this brings is across both employment businesses that operate in this country and those that may be outside this country but involved in employment arrangements in this country; thus a licensing authority would bring them into the same regime as businesses in this country. It also reflects the situation in other sectors of the economy, so it has an element of consistency and is thus easily understandable to people who come to this from other domains within our economy. It is simply a question of clarity, consistency and fairness in employment businesses. I beg to move.

12.30 pm