Order, orrrrderrrr!

Cooperative Support Reorganization and Revitalization Bill

A

B I L L

T O

Repeal the KONSUM act, repeal subsequent secondary provisions in bills, and provide for more direct support to cooperatives, right to buy, etc.

BE IT ENACTED by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Section 1: Redistribution of KONSUM Property

(1) Within a week of this Act achieving Royal Assent, KONSUM must put out an order that will begin redistribution of all of its affiliated property, with a plan to have this process completed within 3 months of the issuance of said order.

(2) Any employees in a facility operated by KONSUM directly will have the right to acquire the facility first and at no cost, so long as they do the following.

(a) Organize it as a co-operative as defined by the Cooperative Funding and Grant Support Bill 2017
(b) Present to KONSUM a full financial audit of the firm and a formal request for any needed subsidy.
(c) Any other guidelines the Secretary of State may require of new cooperatives.

(3) Only after 3 months or after employees have transmitted in writing their formal rejection to run the property or firm as a co-operative enterprise, then the property may be put up for general sale.

(4) All obligations, contracts, etc established with the firm as affiliated with KONSUM are to be transferred to the new firm upon the completion of the transfer of ownership.

Section 2: Establishment of the Co-operative support fund

[(5) Sections 2 and 3 of the Co-operative Funding and Grant Support Act are repealed.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MHOCCmteVote/comments/17nsihy/b1620_cooperative_support_reorganization_and/)

(1) The Secretary of State shall establish a new Co-operative Support Fund, hereafter the Fund.

(2) The Fund is made to give support to cooperatives who are struggling to continue an essential community service at its present condition. The available funds should help the cooperative with:

(a) Unexpected economic shocks harming the short term sustainability of a firm.
(b) Not losing any jobs to the local community.
(c) Causing a community to retain an essential service
(d) Allowing a failing business to be bought out and turned into a co-op by workers.

(3) The Fund may make avaiable either bailouts, interest free loans, or low interest loans to co-ops as needed with regards to their health and needs as a firm.

Section 3: Misclaneous Provisions

(1) The Following Acts are repealed in their Entirety

(a) Konsum Act 2022
(b) Konsum Clarafication Act 2023

(2) Local Food Communities Act is amended by the following

(a) Section 2 subsection 1 is repealed
(b) Section 2 subsection 4 is repealed
(c) In Section 2 Subsection 9 replace KONSUM with The Ministry
(d) Schedule 1 is repealed
(e) Delete every other mention of the word KONSUM

(11) This bill shall apply to the whole United Kingdom

(12) This act will come into force immediately upon receiving Royal Assent in England.

(13) This act shall not extend to Scotland until a motion is passed by simple majority of votes cast by the Scottish Parliament resolving that this Act should extend to Scotland.

(14) This act shall not extend to Wales until a motion is passed by simple majority of votes cast by the Senedd Cymru resolving that this Act should extend to Wales.

(15) This act shall not extend to Northern Ireland until a motion is passed by simple majority of votes cast by the Northern Irish Assembly resolving that this Act should extend to Northern Ireland.

(a) a motion put forward by the Northern Irish Assembly may be subject to the Petition of Concern mechanism as defined under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and may supersede the requirement under this paragraph.

Section 4: Short title, commencement, and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Cooperative Support Reorganisation and Revitalisation Act.

(2) This Act comes into effect upon Royal Assent.

(3) This Act applies to England only, unless—

(a) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Scottish Parliament, in which case it shall also apply to Scotland, or
(b) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed by the Senedd Cymru, in which case it shall also apply to Wales, or
(c) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly, in which case it shall apply to Northern Ireland.

This Bill was written by /u/Phonexia2 on behalf of the Liberal Democrats.

Deputy Speaker

This is a bill that aims to simplify the bureaucracy of our cooperative system, which is currently governed by 2 organizations, the ministry itself and KONSUM. KONSUM itself is a project that was born out of trying to make the pub nationalization act palatable, when the whole idea was a farce to begin with. The idea is a strange one to me, where you create a whole public company to provide expertise and the like, guidance that can easily be provided in the existing bureaucracy or an organization with a much smaller scope that doesn’t nationalize anything for a year.

This is part of my efforts to clean up government. I want to put this out here because it is reasonable, and it is about empowering co-op employees to take charge of the business themself, rather than letting a government corporation continue to exist to hoover up tax money and do very little in the end. The funds should go to the people who know best, afterall, and given previous governments wanted to make a point about decentralizing bureaucracy I think this is a noble endeavor.

This division will end at 10pm on the 19th November.