Economy: Infrastructure

Debate between Baroness Sharples and Lord Deighton

Tuesday 23rd July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deighton]

I thank the noble Earl for drawing attention to the importance of flexibility in the workforce, the way that it relates to our policies in the area of welfare and its reform and the support that we are giving to get valuable members of the workforce back into being productive members of this economy.

[Baroness Sharples]

Can my noble friend say whether ministries are paying all their small business suppliers on time?

[Lord Deighton]

This goes back to the noble Lord’s earlier point about being creative about finding every possible way to get finance into smaller businesses. The noble Baroness is right: getting everybody to pay on time, including the ministries, is a critical part of that, and we have a programme in place to ensure that we perform in the same way as we are encouraging the rest of business to.