§ 3. Mr. Hall-Davisasked the Secretary of State for Industry why, if the disclosure of information might be held to be prejudicial to the interests of an undertaking, he is requiring in the Industry Bill an undertaking to disclose that it is appealing against a direction to furnish such information.
§ Mr. BennWhen a company makes an application that may restrict the information available to its workers their representatives should know of this, and be able to argue their case.
§ Mr. Hall-DavisIs it not more in line with the Maoist derivations of the right hon. Gentleman's philosophy on industrial affairs that a company should be 4 given the right to appeal for the protection of non-disclosure, but to be obliged to disclose, before its case is heard, that it is seeeking such protection? Is not that a negation of British natural justice?
§ Mr. BennThe last great incursion of Mao Tse-tung into British politics was the warm welcome he gave the former Leader of the Opposition when he visited China last May. The Maoist contribution to current debate is to give warm support to British membership of the Common Market.
In our view, people who invest their lives in British industry are entitled to know more than they are now allowed by the shareholders to know about the future of the companies in which they work. It is no good Conservative Members constantly saying that we should tell the truth to the British people if, when we ask industrialists to do the same about the firms in which those people work, they always line up with those in favour of secrecy.
§ Mr. McNamaraIs my right hon. Friend aware that from the interventions from the Opposition on this sort of topic we take it that they approve of such closures as that of the Imperial Typewriter Company, in Hull, where the workers, having been told that there was nothing to concern them about their future, received one month's notice a fortnight later? A total of 1,400 jobs have been lost. The company is up and off with the British taxpayers' money, and there is a great deal of unemployment in my constitutency.
§ Mr. BennI agree with my hon. Friend that it is a public scandal that men who have worked for many years in industry should be laid off by managers who have told their workers nothing about the problems which lead to the closure.
§ Mr. HeseltineWill the Secretary of State tell us which paragraph of the White Paper states that companies will be compelled to disclose information where they have no intention of entering into planning agreements?
§ Mr. BennThe hon. Gentleman must not seek to reproduce at Question Time the debate in the Committee which is 5 going through the Industry Bill line by line. We have made it absolutely clear.—[Interruption.] Does the hon. Gentleman wish to intervene?
§ Mr. BennPerhaps the hon. Gentleman will allow me to answer the question. It was made absolutely clear in the White Paper that the disclosure of information by management to workers and Government was a central part of our proposals.