Charity chiefs have welcomed the Coalition proposals for new arrangements covering public sector staff who are outsourced to the private or voluntary sector.

The reaction follows the publication of a much anticipated Department for Business, Innovation and Skills consultation on TUPE, ahead of laying draft regulations before parliament in December.

However, BIS has not taken forward some of the more controversial proposals and will not repeal ‘service provision changes' as a form of TUPE transfer.

Suggested changes would acknowledge that employers should have freedom to make changes to staff who join following a TUPE transfer and indicate bosses could  renegotiate collective agreements after a year – provided workers would not lose out financially.

Fiona Sheil, public service deliver officer for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations said over 40,000 charities and voluntary organisations help deliver public services and they need the right TUPE information when bidding for government contracts.

‘We have seen many examples of organisations unable to bid because of insufficient TUPE information, and we welcome steps to address this unnecessary barrier,' Ms Sheil said.

She also approved of the decision to double to 28 days the time period at which employee liability information must be shared before transfer.

‘In practice, even this timeframe is still too short and we would encourage commissioners to extend it in order to ensure providers have access to full liabilities information when deciding whether or not to bid for contracts. This stops providers from wasting time on bids where liabilities later prove to be too large,' Ms Sheil added.

Nicola Ihnatowicz, partner in the employment department at law firm Trowers and Hamlins said:  ‘Retaining service provision changes will be a relief for employers providing public sector services, who are regularly subject to re-tenders and who otherwise carry the risk of redundancies at the end of their contracts.'

She added the reforms would give greater certainty for many employers with reasonable grounds for wishing to make changes to their workforces.