Finance: Loan Guarantee Scheme

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Tuesday 24th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, again, I am happy to put the record straight. The noble Lord, Lord Davies of Oldham, may not have noticed that this package includes £6 billion worth of facility available to public/private partnership projects that are ready to start in the next 12 months.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, would the Minister care to help the House by confirming or denying that there were discussions with the relevant Administrations in advance of the scheme being announced—and not announced to Parliament?

[Lord Sassoon]

I cannot confirm or deny it. All I say is that this is good news for the whole of the United Kingdom and has been widely welcomed.

EU: Economic and Financial Issues

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Monday 12th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, as I have already said, there is a remorseless logic that has to take monetary union towards closer fiscal co-ordination, if not union. That is what the latest intergovernmental agreement is one step towards.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, why did the Minister not answer at all my noble friend Lord Tomlinson’s question?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I believe that I did.

Taxation: Healthcare Insurance

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Thursday 9th June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I am always happy to see evidence on any matter that could save the public purse considerable sums of money. The study has not been done but I am happy to look at any evidence that my noble friend has. However, I caution him that our general thrust is to get rid of reliefs and to simplify the tax system. That is why my right honourable friend the Chancellor announced the abolition of 43 reliefs in the recent Budget. The latest figures indicate that 2.3 million employees are still provided with private medical insurance by their employers. That would probably cover 4.3 million people in total, so the benefit is still widely offered.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the noble Lord the Minister, if his noble friend provides the additional information, have regard to the fact that, to my knowledge, no private healthcare system provides totally comprehensive cover? Will he bear in mind the anger that a consultant in an intensive care unit expressed to me at the fact that people coming in from the private sector for intensive care were blocking his beds? He accepted their right to do that, but people cannot opt out of the National Health Service, so the proposed measure would not necessarily save the money to which the Minister’s noble friend referred.

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I am happy to confirm the position, which is quite clear and obviously will not change. As I say, we are not looking at this, but I never say no to ideas that would save considerable sums of money, however remote the possibility that the scheme would work. However, individual choice is the issue around private medical insurance. There is no plan to alter the role of private medical insurance in healthcare provision and there is no loss of entitlement to NHS care for those who take out private medical insurance.

Equality

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Tuesday 8th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

I am grateful to my noble friend and I agree completely with his analysis. That is why we have introduced the £2.5 billion pupil premium to increase the emphasis on the educational development of children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds; that is why we are introducing the £150 million per annum national scholarship fund; and that is why my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is working on the most complex and important reassessment of welfare and benefits that has been attempted for two generations in order to get away from the overcomplex system of means-tested cash benefits and the dependency of far too many families who are trapped in welfare.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, would the Minister care to answer the question put by the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Clifton, who asked not about the taxation of banks but about bankers? Does he agree with me that if I received a bonus of £100 million and were to lose even half of it, that would not be the same as being in poverty and losing £10 a week?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, the subject of the Question this afternoon is what the Government are doing about the gap between the rich and the poor, which is something that we take extremely seriously. The best thing that we can do is to set the stable conditions for sustained growth in the economy, because that is what will improve the lot of the poorest in our society.

Health: Private Medical Insurance

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Monday 15th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I do not pretend to be an expert on the precise ways in which medical insurers carry out every aspect of their business, but clearly, as I said, it is critical that people understand what policies they are buying and that the policy terms are met. That is the critical interest of the Financial Services Authority in this matter.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, would the Minister care to comment on the complaints from National Health Service consultants that, when there is a failure by the private healthcare system, patients are put into the National Health Service in front of other people? Would he also care to comment on my view that there is no comprehensive healthcare policy through private insurance and that everyone in the country is dependent on the NHS?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I am happy to confirm the really critical point, which is that the National Health Service is available to the population as a whole and that this is therefore an area in which the nation has access to the best-quality healthcare. If, on top of that, people wish to invest their money in private healthcare policies, it is important that those policies work effectively. However, as the noble Baroness points out, it is critical that the health service is there for everyone. As she raises the question of complaints, it is worth pointing out that the complaints that are relevant to this Question are those that go to the Financial Services Authority or the Financial Ombudsman Service. The latest figures that I have are for 2008. There were 514 complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service in that year, of which 170 were upheld, and that represents one complaint upheld for every 8,000 people treated under private medical insurance.

Comprehensive Spending Review

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Monday 1st November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

I am struck by the contrast of the optimism that we have heard today from businessmen in this House and those who are not businessmen but have clearly been talking to business people on the one hand, and the pessimism on the other hand of the academic economists and others who, even though we have had three quarters of strong growth, want to see disaster coming round every corner. I do not make any judgment about who is responsible for the growth, but I think we can agree that we have had three quarters of strong growth. Yes, the recovery will be choppy, but we have heard from my noble friend Lord Bates just how business in the north-east of England is looking forward and generating jobs for the future. We have heard similarly from my noble friend Lord Plumb about how agriculture will play its part. My noble friend Lord Allan of Hallam has explained how the use of data and technology will assist the recovery. These are the pointers that show us how the economy is going to generate sustained growth. The noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, keeps saying that nobody knows. It is the businessmen of this country who write letters to the papers, urging us on with the deficit reduction we are set on, who know how the recovery is going to be sustained for the future.

While I do not agree with the doubts of noble Lords opposite about the overall judgments made by the Government, I do agree with some of the noble Lords opposite in a lot of what they said—the noble Lords, Lord Myners and Lord Haskel, for example, on the need for better infrastructure. That is precisely why we added nearly £9 billion of expenditure on infrastructure in this spending review. I agree with them on the need for investment in innovation, which is why we are investing £220 million in innovation centres and why we are investing £1 billion in the critical new technology of carbon capture and storage. Similarly, my noble friend Lord Newby identified science and apprenticeships as critical to growth. That is why we are protecting science spending in cash terms and why we are significantly gearing up on the number of apprenticeships compared with the plans of the previous Government.

Overall on growth, I was particularly struck by the contributions of my noble friends Lord Lamont of Lerwick and Lord Stewartby. They remind us that Conservative Governments have been here before, that Conservative Governments have taken us out of recession and rebalanced the economy, and we will do it again. For example, in the early 1990s, the public sector was reduced not by 490,000 but by 690,000 employees. At the same time, in the 1992 to 1996-7 period, the private sector generated 1.7 million jobs. I have every expectation—Members opposite may not—that the private sector again will rise to the challenge.

The second principle that I set out at the beginning is that our choices should be fair. We have heard some powerful speeches today, particularly from the noble Baronesses, Lady Hollis of Heigham and Lady Campbell of Surbiton, reminding us just how difficult it is to reshape the welfare system in the radical way that we intend at a time of considerable retrenchment in the public finances. I shall take away the points that they and others have made. In particular, I note carefully the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, about the mobility component of disability living allowance.

The spending review focuses support on those who need it most. It shifts the focus from welfare payments to services that improve social mobility in the longer term and to work incentives. The Government have sought to protect the most vulnerable. Working-age women, for example, tend to benefit disproportionately from health spending, which we have protected, and older women also benefit from additional resources for social care.

The universal credit will clarify and increase work incentives. Work will pay and will be seen to pay, but we must not rush the universal credit. As the noble Baroness said, it will take us two Parliaments to do that, because it is a difficult project and we must get it right.

We have also heard a lot on how young people will progress from care to university—points were made in different ways by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, and the noble Baroness, Lady Nye. The Government are concerned to make sure that young people from the most disadvantaged homes get every opportunity. We are encouraging social mobility through maintaining Sure Start and extending early-years care. From 2012-13, we will introduce for all disadvantaged two year-olds substantial school premiums. The Government are also protecting the ability of those on lower incomes to go into higher education, including through a scholarship fund of £150 million by 2014-15.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister care to fill in a little gap concerning the 16 to 19 year-olds?

[Lord Sassoon]

As I have said, we are coming forward with a £150 million fund that, by 2014, will enable those on lower incomes in that 16-to-19 age group to transfer into higher education.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

Will the pupil premium be taken from funding for those young people aged 16 to 19 in schools?

[Lord Sassoon]

The pupil premium will be used to ensure that those schools that have a particular proportion of disadvantaged children will get a premium to ensure that there is an appropriate rebalancing.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Sassoon]

I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Myners. He had great trouble keeping a straight face. I have to say that I took extremely seriously my noble friend Lord James of Blackheath’s suggestions that there were people who could help us out with our financial difficulty. The noble Lord, Lord Myners, thinks it is all a joke. I have been in detailed discussions over the past number of weeks with the noble Lord, Lord James of Blackheath, and of course we take seriously anyone who wants to invest in our economy. I know many people believe that there will be great opportunities in our infrastructure programme to invest in rebuilding our networks to underpin growth.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

On a minor point of information, were any of the Minister’s Liberal Democrat noble friends present at any of these meetings?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, if we start getting into who was present at which meetings at this hour of the night, we will never get home. I do not start counting off who is a member of which party in coalition Government meetings. That seems to be an obsession of the opposition party.

I will conclude briefly. It has been a very difficult and challenging spending round but we have made sure, as far as we possibly can, that everyone pays their fair share. We have taken the country back from what was—I am happy to say it—the brink of bankruptcy.

Taxation: Deficit Reduction

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Thursday 28th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I have already explained to the House that we are targeting considerable extra resources where it matters in order to get in extra revenue. That is critical. The noble Lord talks about the calamitous position, but where did the calamitous position arise from? This is the result of an exercise to bring forward and modernise the reconciliation systems in our income tax system, which has been sorely needed for quite a few years.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister comment on the fact that the latest growth figures are based primarily on the previous Government's policies rather than those of the current Government? Will he also comment on the widespread concern that the figures that the Government give for growth—for example, the per pupil figures in the education budget—are at times slightly deceptive? The Government take no account of the increase in pupil numbers, and therefore the amount being spent per pupil is actually being cut in real terms.

[Lord Sassoon]

In answer to the first question, no. In answer to the second question, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility will be presenting its updated assessment of the numbers post the spending review on 29 November.

Bank of England: Economic Forecast

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Wednesday 6th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

It is a question principally for the Bank of England, which has a clear inflation target, as to what further measures should be taken. I note that the recent IMF assessment is that the current monetary stance and data dependent approach to next steps is the appropriate one.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister give a guarantee that when the comprehensive spending review statement is made information will be given to the House on the likely impact not only on employment in the public sector but in the private sector as cuts in public spending have been greeted with concern by the CBI and small businesses because of their impact on that sector of the economy?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I think we are straying a bit from Bank of England forecasts but I remind the House that the new independent Office for Budget Responsibility will publish updated forecasts on a regular basis, expected to be twice a year, so that in due course we can expect updated forecasts to reflect all the government policy announcements up to that time.

Health: Private Insurance

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Wednesday 30th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. On the information I have here, I am not able to go through the sanctions, but clearly those will be judged by the ombudsman in relation to the complaints received.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister comment on whether the code includes the information that, in the event of serious complications, the patient may be transferred to National Health Service provision? The Government apparently intend on insisting that those coming from abroad to work—non-EU migrants—have private healthcare insurance. Will he also take into account that they and their employers should understand that many of us have been in NHS facilities to find that patients are being transferred from the private sector, to the annoyance of consultants?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I have the 15 pages of guidance in front of me. It requires disclosure of a range of issues and it may be helpful if I send the noble Baroness a copy. I point out that the ABI is about to start its triennial process of consulting on any updating of the code and she might like to contribute thoughts during the consultation process.

Economy: Growth

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for drawing attention to the regional growth package in today’s Budget announcement. It is intended that the regional growth fund will pump prime investments into projects with significant growth potential. There will be a consultation later in the summer about how we plan for sub-national growth, which will include local economic partnerships. A White Paper will follow.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister please tell the House how many jobs in the public sector, particularly in local government, the Government anticipate will be lost as a result of the cuts in public expenditure? How many jobs in the private sector will be lost because those private sector companies offer services to local authorities and to the public sector?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I have given the total employment numbers, which will rise in every year of the forecast period. The issue of jobs in the public sector, and indeed in the private sector, has to be put in the context of the enormous deficit-reduction programme that we have. For example, by the end of this period, on the new projections resulting from my right honourable friend’s Budget today, there will be an annual saving of £4 billion in interest payments alone by the end of the period, so you can see how that will translate into increased jobs in the public and private sectors.

Public Expenditure: Review of Commitments

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Sassoon

Thursday 17th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Noakes for taking us back to what is in fact the basis of this and I share completely her analysis of how important it is to get a grip on the deficit. Let me try to help her with some of the numbers. The total of spending decisions that have been found as a result of this exercise to be unaffordable and bad value for money is £10.5 billion. Those have been put into either the “cancelled” or the “suspended” category. We have cancelled projects with a total value of just under £2 billion, so the rest—approximately £8.5 billion-worth—have been suspended and will go into the process that I have described. I hope that this helps to reconcile the numbers.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister go into more detail about the cancellation of BIS’s loan to Sheffield Forgemasters and any implications that that may have for future development? Can he also give us a guarantee that, by the time we have the details of the impact assessments, he will be able to tell us what the implications are, in particular for the construction industry and the many small firms that will now not have work to do?

[Lord Sassoon]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for that question. On Sheffield Forgemasters, the problem with the loan is simply that it is unaffordable. In the context of tighter resources, we have had to focus support in areas where market failures are clearest and, where we can, we need to look to the private sector and private investment to provide solutions. I know that my right honourable friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has spoken to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills about this project and we hope very much that there will be a private sector investment solution.

The noble Baroness made a point about the connection between jobs and investment. There is a particular connection between Sheffield Forgemasters and the nuclear industry and we are of course continuing to support collaborative projects such as the nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, which is led by Sheffield University, so we remain absolutely sensitive to the job creation priority to which she referred. She also talked about the construction industry. In respect of all industries, I go back to where we start on this, which is that we have to keep interest rates low and show that we are getting a grip on the deficit. We also have to provide a basis on which the private sector can lead the economy forward.