Olympic Games: Security

Debate between Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Lord Prescott

Thursday 12th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, I share with my noble friend the warm words of tribute he paid to our Armed Forces. I agree with him that the sight of our Armed Forces in London during the Olympic Games, the work that they will do, and that they will be part of the security effort for the Games—it has always been planned that they would be—will mean they are an important element of the welcoming tone, nature and discipline and the kind of effort and efficiency that are necessary.

On my noble friend’s points about the Home Office, of course I will relay back to the department his comments about the need for improved communication. There is always room for people to improve in that area. However, as I have said before, this is a contract between LOCOG and G4S. LOCOG is the commissioning body with regard to the contract. The Home Office has been very closely monitoring the way in which it has progressed and, because we have been doing that and liaising closely with other government departments, we have been able to act, taking the necessary decision that was made yesterday.

On the effectiveness of those who have been recruited, G4S has rigorous selection processes. My noble friend is absolutely right that everybody needs the right skills to do the job. If they are in a role that has contact with the public, they must be able to communicate with them, which of course requires them to speak English.

[Lord Prescott]

My Lords, it is complete nonsense for the Government to suggest that they discovered this problem two days ago. It was two years ago that they realised the deficiencies in the security at the Olympics and transferred private contracts to LOCOG to develop the personnel for security. I have raised in the House of Lords this matter of the deficiencies in contracts and the inability to provide sufficiently trained and well-paid people to do the job. I wrote to the Home Secretary protesting about this matter five weeks ago and asking her to investigate it. She referred me to LOCOG as the body with the responsibility. I wrote to LOCOG in July and it told me that the criterion for contracts is value for money. There was nothing about security or safety, only value for money.

Will the Minister recognise that it is not only G4S that has failed? Other companies at the moment are failing to fulfil their contracts. Will she now review those contracts that exist with LOCOG and see what they contribute? During that review, will she reconsider this whole idea of outsourcing public security to private companies? However eminent they look with their boards of chief constables, eminent people and Members of this House, that does not guarantee that there will be security or safety for the public. It only guarantees the prime responsibility of those companies: to make profits. That is the essential difference here. That is what the Minister needs to look at if she is really concerned about the security of the Games.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, as I have already said, the arrangements for security at the Games involve a combination of different participants—the police, the military and the commercial provider, G4S. The noble Lord talks as if only G4S had been commissioned to provide security. That is not the case. As I said, the approach involves the police and the military. That has always been the case.

On the point he made about the other company, about which he wrote to the Home Secretary following the Jubilee weekend, that is a separate matter. The people he referred to in that contract are not part of the security arrangements.

[Lord Prescott]

They bid for the same Olympic contracts.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

But they are not part of the security arrangements. I restate what I have already said because it is important: the Home Office has been reviewing the way in which things have developed. As issues started to develop over the past couple of weeks that made it necessary for us to be ready to act, we took the necessary steps so that we could act. We acted yesterday. The security of our Olympic Games is not compromised because of that.

Voluntary Sector and Social Enterprise

Debate between Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Lord Prescott

Thursday 21st June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prescott]

I take advice and I only take the advice of the advice.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

I am sorry to interrupt the noble Lord but this is a time-limited debate. As it makes clear on the Order Paper, Back-Bench contributions are limited to six minutes.

[Lord Prescott]

I apologise. I took advice; obviously I got the wrong advice, but I will not exploit that situation. This whole business now means that a massive pool of cheap labour is going to be exploited, and now G4S even wants to buy the police and replace them with this kind of labour. We had better start looking at what is happening with the exploitation of people. I hope we can have a public debate about it. We have started it thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and I am obliged to her, but I would like to get into the details of the issue perhaps when there are fewer people here and I can have a longer time to develop the argument.

Police and Crime Commissioners

Debate between Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Lord Prescott

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

I agree. Indeed, I am delighted that, after such fierce opposition to elected police and crime commissioners, senior Labour politicians are now embracing this opportunity to increase public accountability. I think that the noble Lord, Lord Prescott, put it as clearly as I can when he said in some of his recent media interviews:

“The public should have much more of a say in determining the force’s priorities and responsibilities”,

and,

“That’s never been done before. That’s quite a radical reform”.

[Lord Prescott]

My Lords, this is a scandalous decision to deny 7 million people, according to the Electoral Commission, the right to vote simply because they do not have access to the website. In my area, Humberside, where I may well have an interest in the future that I perhaps should declare, that will mean 170,000 people, mostly elderly, will be denied their democratic right to information about the candidates. Will the Minister tell me why there appears to be two departmental positions? In the same elections, department for employment says that it will finance the mayor and exercise all democratic right to information, but then the Home Office comes along and says, “No, we will not fundamentally say that”. What is the Government’s position when there are two different departments in the same election denying democratic rights?

Climate Change: Durban Conference

Debate between Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Lord Prescott

Tuesday 22nd November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

It is a great privilege to be asked a question by my noble friend. I would like one day to be able to provide an answer that will not disappoint him, but I think that on this occasion I will have to. The Government are very committed to achieving the targets that I have already outlined and want to show leadership in this area. The Government are not signing up immediately to Kyoto 2 and want to make sure that before they commit to that, all countries are signed up to and agree to the need for the 2-degree target.

[Lord Prescott]

My Lords, the Minister may well be aware that I have tried to convince this Government that the negotiations for Kyoto 2 will not be completed at the end of Kyoto 1 in 2012. In those circumstances, is she prepared to support the European principle of “stop the clock” when negotiations have failed to meet the timetable and not join with the rich countries, as was almost suggested by the previous speaker, which want to destroy Kyoto, which is not acceptable?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

The noble Lord is far more experienced in negotiating climate treaties than I am. On his specific question, I have to limit my answer to restating the fact that there are two separate things going on here: Kyoto 2 and a globally binding treaty by 2015. The Government are absolutely committed to the latter. We would be willing to sign up to the former but will not do that until everybody agrees that they will sign up to that 2-degree climate change.