The first reading of the Enterprise Bill took place in the House of Lords on 16 September 2015. The second reading is scheduled for 12 October 2015. The key employment provisions are as follows:

Clause 18 will provide the Secretary of State with a power to set targets for public bodies in relation to the number of apprentices who work for them. The apprentices must be employed under approved apprenticeship agreements.  The public bodies within scope of this clause will be set out in regulations and will cover public authorities or bodies with functions of a public nature that receive some form of funding from public money. There will be a duty for public bodies to publish information annually on progress towards meeting the apprenticeships targets.

Clause 19 creates an offence for a person to provide or offer a course or training as an apprenticeship if it is not a statutory apprenticeship. The offence also includes describing a person who undertakes such a course or training as an apprentice. It will enable them, the Secretary of State, or others with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions to take action if courses or training are offered which are not of sufficient quality as required of statutory apprenticeships.

Clause 26 inserts new provisions into the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 giving the power to make regulations to impose a restriction on exit payments payable to an employee of prescribed public sector authority or holder of a prescribed public sector office as a consequence of them leaving employment or office. The restriction will apply to an aggregate of all exit payments made to the individual within a period of 28 days and the initial value of the restriction will be £95,000. Note that H M Treasury has published its responseto the consultation on the payments cap and Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive outline of the framework for the new legislation.

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