Government responds to consultation on proposed TUPE changes
The government has published its response to the consultation on the proposed changes to the TUPE Regulations. It has been confirmed that the current provisions relating to service provision changes will remain with a supposed clarification on the meaning of a service provision change. It is suggested that for there to be a service provision change, the activities carried on after the change of service provider must be fundamentally or essentially the same as those carried on before it. This will mean that TUPE will continue to apply when services are re-commissioned.
In addition the obligation to provide employee liability information about the staff that are transferring to the new service provider will remain with a timeframe longer than the current 14 days.
Finally change of location as to where the services or staff will be located will be a permitted change under TUPE.
While the government has indicated that the wording of the legislation has not yet been finalised it hopes to lay the draft regulations before Parliament in December. BIS has confirmed that the changes are likely to come into force in January 2014 subject to transitional and savings provisions.