Economy

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet (Lab)]

My Lords, I am going to be the 20th person to congratulate my noble friend Lord Haskel on the superb subject that he has raised. I echo what my noble friend Lord Soley said. The passion and resolution in my noble friend Lord Haskel’s speeches are always inspiring. This debate is closely linked with the debate in this House on Tuesday on productivity. I am not the first person to say this, but when one is 20th on the list it is difficult to say unique things, but I will do my best.

For me, some elements of productivity in the UK are absolutely tied in with British growth. I want to concentrate on the difference that well-led and well-trained staff, at all levels in businesses, make to the success of those businesses and how they consequently make a difference to the British economy. This is even more important following the period of austerity. Indeed, some of us would say that this period still pertains.

The Labour Government set rigorous goals for apprenticeships. I am delighted that the Conservative Government, like the coalition Government, are carrying on with this vision and, in fact, starting to deliver. The Labour Government worked closely with employers and trade unions, and I was delighted at the time to be heavily involved in the setting up of what was really the kernel of all this: the sector skills councils. Many of those councils, including SEMTA, led the way in working with employers to understand and value the difference that trained staff could make to their bottom line. Many of these businesses contribute hugely to the GDP.

In my view, the British economy still struggles in many ways to benefit fully from the contributions of small and medium-sized enterprises. The Government struggle with how to support these businesses and recognise the contribution they make to growth. Many issues still prevent SMEs growing as they would want to.

Some noble Lords who spoke today also spoke in Tuesday’s debate on productivity. They may well think that what I am talking about should have been said in Tuesday’s debate. However, I make no apology for focusing on it. As my noble friend Lord Soley and other contributors today have said, without good productivity, British growth will not happen and certainly will not be increased. Higher apprenticeships and apprenticeships really belong in the productivity area but, as I have already said, make the difference between a business being very successful or mediocre—and mediocre businesses sometimes fail, and certainly do not contribute for employers or the UK economy.

I am not worried at all about focusing on the overlap between a productive United Kingdom workforce and the British economy beyond austerity. That is the link I am making in this debate. Will the Minister assure us that the apprenticeship numbers the Government have suggested they are going to achieve will be achieved? The emphasis the Government have put on the employer paying towards this is absolutely superb. It was not what the Labour Government did, but the ownership of apprenticeships has become much more valuable because the employer feels that they are in charge and will benefit from recognising what that skilled workforce brings to their bottom line.

Finally, I want to talk about the gains that such a workforce makes through its contribution not only to business and the economy but to the overall nature and culture of our country. I echo what a number of my colleagues have said already: when people are in work that gives them satisfaction and they feel that they can make a difference; the whole culture of the business, and consequently the whole culture of the UK economy, changes.

Queen’s Speech

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, would like to congratulate the noble Lord on his entrance into this House, and know that he will play a major role. As somebody who comes from the other side of the north-west divide, I was delighted to hear his rich south Manchester accent is still prevailing. It is really important that we keep the flag flying for the north-west.

I want to focus my contribution in this interesting and wide-ranging debate on important policies on an issue that some businesses are succeeding in and some are trying hard to do so, while many still struggle to understand the value that it would have for their business and, importantly, to many of their staff of both genders. I refer to getting the balance right—women in business. It is a fact that women play a vital role in business across all sectors, not least in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sector, and in all the STEM roles. Manufacturing is an important component for a balanced economy, and women are a vital component for a balanced workforce. We need 1 million more women in STEM roles by 2020 to meet the skills shortage and to achieve 30% critical mass of women carrying out those STEM roles. WISE has been very helpful in providing me with information to put this speech together; that organisation is very anxious about the state of science and engineering, particularly from its own aspect.

In 2014, there were 14.2 million women in the workforce overall, representing 46.5%. However, in STEM occupations there are only 689,000, representing only 12.8% of the STEM workforce. Currently, fewer than one in five, or 13%, of those working in STEM occupations in the United Kingdom are female, with fewer than one in 10 STEM managers who are women. In some areas, such as ICT and science and engineering, the percentage of women is actually falling.

I am keen to discuss what works. By taking positive action to support their female workforce, companies can target improvements in their recruitment of women, in reducing their resignations and holding on to them as important members of society, and increasing the number of women in senior executive roles. Many leading companies in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sector are implementing diversity strategies to ensure that they can recruit, retain and, very importantly, progress their female talent to deliver business growth.

A number of companies use Skills 4, which I support. Its career development programme to support female talent to progress their careers is usually successful. It is now offered as an open programme in partnership with WISE to allow smaller companies and individual women to access the rights and opportunities to grow. A number of companies are focused on improving their gender balance across a range of activities. For example, Atkins supports a women’s professional network and a women’s leadership council which guide women and act as role models and mentors. The Skills 4 career development programme and returners programme support women returning to the workforce following maternity leave or carer leave. They also offer a wide range of part-time and flexible working schemes. If businesses are serious about aspiring to have 30% of women on boards, they must take serious action to support and progress women to the top of their careers to ensure that they will be there when the places need to be taken up.

My noble friend Lord Davies of Abersoch, working collaboratively with business, agreed and got co-operation from business to set a target of 25% of women on the boards of businesses. There has been good progress in the FTSE 100, and it is believed this target will soon be achieved. However, this will be difficult to achieve in the STEM sector due to the small percentage of women in that sector, which means that the pipeline is not there and we need to create successful role models. There have been a number of key successful government initiatives to support women in STEM, but we do not have a real strategy across the key government departments—the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills—to ensure long-term success.

The right honourable Nicky Morgan, the returning Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for Education, is in a good place to influence this. She stated that, looking forward, the Government have ambitions and plans which include continuing to close the gender pay gap, increasing the number of women on boards and in public life and increasing free childcare to 30 hours for working parents of three to four year-olds. This is all key, nobody would disagree with it and all of us would support it, but it has to happen rather than be talked about. There is a need for a joined-up government strategy across education, skills and businesses that we all want to succeed to make gender balance an integral part of mainstream policy rather than what often seems an add-on programme, particularly in apprenticeships where there is a chronic gender divide.

Who benefits? The compelling business case is clear and well researched. Diverse teams help drive customer insight, a further reach into new markets, team working, safety and risk management. It is well known that teams involving people from different backgrounds make better decisions than homogenous groups. Companies with three or more women in senior management perform better on nine criteria of organisational excellence, including leadership, accountability and innovation.

We urgently need young women to consider a career in STEM. This is the only way we will have that future and that pipeline will be filled. I congratulate the Minister on her dual role, which is obviously onerous but I am sure she will do extremely well. I urge her to work very hard with the new Minister to make sure that we have joined-up government. We need to stop saying the right things and start taking the right decisions.

Employment

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deighton]

I absolutely agree with my noble friend that the good news on employment leaves us no room for complacency. Of all the segments of unemployment, youth unemployment remains just a little under 1 million, even though it has been coming down in the past quarter. Remember that about one-third of young people who are classified as unemployed are in full-time education. However, I absolutely endorse the point that my noble friend makes that the work done by the voluntary sector—supporting not just the unemployed youth back into jobs but, frankly, anyone for whom it is difficult to get back into the workforce, such as prisoners needing rehabilitation—is enormously valued and will get this Government’s support.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet (Lab)]

What amount of money has been put in to ensure that apprenticeships provide a way for the employment figures to reduce and for meaningful employment to be the way forward? The current Government’s commitment to apprenticeships is good but the continuation of payment is a real issue for us. Can he assure the House that that will continue?

[Lord Deighton]

My Lords, I will apply that question to youth unemployment. In particular, we have tried to get young people into apprenticeships. The youth contract did that by providing additional support for up to 500,000 young people. Jobcentre Plus will provide support for 16 and 17 year-olds who want to find an apprenticeship or traineeship scheme. That is being phased in from this April. We are doing good work on apprenticeships. I spent yesterday in Liverpool talking about how we can use the HS2 project as a way of defining future work opportunities and to line up training and apprenticeship schemes in anticipation of the work that will flow. I absolutely accept the noble Baroness’s points.

Queen’s Speech

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, I, too, will quote from Her Majesty’s gracious Speech, even though when you are almost 40th on the list, I guess there is nothing new that one can say. I quote in particular the statement:

“My Government’s first priority is to strengthen Britain’s economic competitiveness. To this end, it will support the growth of the private sector and the creation of more jobs and opportunities”.

I want to focus on what that really means for businesses operating in a global economy, be they large companies or small and medium-sized enterprises.

Manufacturing is still the third-largest sector of our economy and generated £126 billion in gross value added in 2012. The United Kingdom is still the world’s ninth-largest manufacturer and, despite some popular misconceptions, still makes things that the world wishes to buy. However, I suggest that not only will any amount of expansion in manufacturing depend on the success of British manufacturing in designing new products and continuing to increase productivity—both of which are hugely important—but that there is a role for government to play in creating the environment for manufacturing to grow and prosper.

Like other noble Lords, I am going to quote from the interesting report of the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, No Stone Unturned: In Pursuit of Growth, in particular the chapter in which he refers to his vision for a new business support infrastructure. He says:

“Each country provides support in its own way, but what is striking is how unusual the UK is amongst advanced industrial countries in not having a strong and stable business support infrastructure. We should address this deficiency”.

I understand that the Government have welcomed this report, to which many other noble Lords have referred, so I would be interested to know, in addition to what the noble Lord, Lord Deighton, said at the beginning of this debate—many hours ago—just what the Government are intending to do to address the deficiency referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine.

This is still work in progress but the Government should aim to address the concerns of the businesses that I visit and support. One is that all government departments should have the same focus on “Made in Britain” that BIS does, and should have a culture of checking every policy they work with by asking: will this support businesses to grow and prosper? The UK cannot and indeed should not hide from international competition. What manufacturing businesses want is a levelling of the playing field, an understanding of the challenges that UK manufacturers face, policies to ensure that, wherever possible, manufacturing is supported in government policy, and for policymakers to heed the Hippocratic oath—which exists in my other interest, the health service—“First, do no harm”.

Many businesses are striving to sustain their market share in a still-fragile economy, but those businesses that have really grasped the well quoted saying that the workforce is the most important component in a successful business are those that despite—or perhaps because of—these difficult times have focused on skilling and re-skilling their valued employees. They realise that doing this ensures that they have the talent and skilled workforce to seek out opportunities—as few as they are in some sectors—and to be in a fit state to take on challenging contracts in pursuit of growing their businesses.

The understanding of the need to keep manufacturers competitive has also been recognised by the British trade unions. My noble friend Lady Turner, who I worked with for many years in the trade union movement, referred to this. Many trade unions have worked closely with employers to support business competitiveness, by achieving flexible working patterns, encouraging and supporting the apprenticeship programmes and by constructive resolution to any disputes between business and their employees.

I am sad that my noble friend Lord Hanworth is not in his place. He bemoans the privatisation of many companies but I can give him examples of companies —BAE Systems, part of the aerospace industry he referred to, Jaguar Land Rover, Siemens and others—that have had this successful relationship, employing many thousands of people in the UK and further afield, all of whom are getting great skills and advancing their own individual opportunities.

I congratulate the Government on continuing and re-emphasising the focus on skills, in particular apprenticeships. This was started by the Labour Government, who put several millions of pounds into getting this off the ground. I was employed for many years in a major chemical company in the north-west where having apprentices was a way of life and the whole business was surrounded by young men, very often carrying the can for tradespeople. Nevertheless, apprenticeships were a way of life. We are now getting back to what I think is the best of all worlds by having apprenticeships revived. The evolution of apprenticeships is exciting and necessary for business services.

The level of skills required by UK manufacturing businesses has increased. According to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, by 2017 the percentage of manufacturing jobs that will be in the employers’ “high end”—mostly degree-level employment —will rise from 27% today to 37%, meaning that there will be about as many people in high-end occupations in manufacturing as in low-end occupations. That is aspirational; it is wonderful; and we should all aim to support those who want to rise from the low end to that high end in all their businesses.

The recent focus on higher apprenticeships is making a huge difference to large businesses. As well as recruiting graduates to their management training programmes to carry forward talent and leadership skills, as they have in the past, they are focusing on expanding this talent pipeline by offering existing skilled employees the opportunity to gain additional leadership and management skills, thereby bringing them along that same route to senior management and senior supervision positions. Many businesses doing this say that those employees who have already served skilled apprenticeships will have the added bonus of knowing the business from the shop floor to the boardroom.

It was feared that SMEs would not see that higher apprenticeships were for them. However, many of them—when supported, for example, by Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering, manufacturing and technology with which I work—are realising that they add huge value to their business opportunities, particularly in the supply chains within which they operate. Having people with skills, vision and leadership gained through the higher apprenticeships ensures that they stay competitive and, very often, punch above their weight.

Government must not let this visionary and sustainable policy be just another flavour of the month. They should continue to support employers to recruit more so as to retain the true value of the whole apprenticeship programme and not allow it to be diluted, leading to the devaluation of these important levers. Although the increase in the number of apprenticeships and the money that is brought with it are welcome, I ask the Minister to reassure us that the quality of apprenticeships is hugely valued.

The funding allocation from government via the Higher Apprenticeship Fund, which was created to develop a range of higher-level apprenticeships and fund 10,000 apprenticeships, was enthusiastically received. However, as I have identified the pressing need for advanced skills in our economy, the Government need to consider doubling or trebling this level of support so that the quality of our apprenticeships increases as numbers rise. Employers need to support that by providing matched funding in many cases.

There is a growing momentum and ambition across the manufacturing business world to get out of this recession. Government must capitalise on this moment and on the consensus among political parties about the importance of manufacturing. The consensus, too, around the importance of apprenticeships must not be wasted. We must take this opportunity to reshape our economy and put it on a more sustainable footing.

Public Service Pensions Bill

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Tuesday 15th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharkey]

My Lords, I rise to speak in support of Amendment 56. I also have great sympathy for Amendment 54 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy. As the noble Baroness has so eloquently said, the working conditions and physical requirements of ambulance service staff who are 999 responders are very similar to those of the other exempt categories. However, the problem may be that there are quite a few other occupations whose members feel there is an equally strong case for inclusion within the exempt categories. Some of these occupations were discussed when this issue was debated in the Commons. I have heard Northern Ireland prison warders and staff in secure psychiatric institutions mentioned in this context and I know there are other claimants, too.

It is obviously very difficult to make judgments about which groups, if any, should be included alongside the uniform groups recommended by the noble Lord, Lord Hutton. I am not at all certain that it would be appropriate to add one particular category to those groups without considering, in detail, the claims of the other groups. That is not to say that there are no other groups that should be exempted from the standard state retirement age. In fact, I am personally convinced of the case put forward for ambulance service staff who are 999 responders. I think a sensible approach to this is contained in the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, to which he has spoken so forcefully. It is surely sensible to give the Secretary of State the power by order to include other occupations in the exempt groups if he thinks the case has been objectively made and thoroughly examined by a scheme-specific capability review.

A very similar, or perhaps even identical, clause to that of the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, was put forward by Chris Leslie in the Commons. I have read Hansard carefully and the Government’s response did not seem entirely convincing. I am glad that our different rules of procedure in this House will enable the case for Amendment 56 to be put once more and I am glad that the Minister will have the opportunity to reply in full. I hope that when he does reply he will find himself in sympathy with Amendment 56.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, I, too, would like to support in particular Amendment 53 and to some degree Amendment 54, especially with regard to the front-line staff in the ambulance service. I am sure the Minister is aware that in the private sector the task of the job and the onerous nature of that task is always directly related to age regarding how pensions are dealt with. Very often there is mood music around that says the public sector wants to be treated differently from elsewhere. As I know from my work with ICI, there were always certain jobs that were absolutely prescriptive in the task of the job and the risk of the job being associated with the age of individuals. We are really asking for that responsibility to be taken by employers in that context.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, although these amendments all have a common theme, they are quite specific, so I will start with Amendments 52, 55 and 57. It is important to note that the link between the normal pension age and state pension age in most schemes is not the only provision in the Bill which is designed to manage the longevity risk. The link between the deferred pension age and state pension age in all schemes is just as important. This link is universal, with no exceptions. It therefore applies to former members of the police, firefighters and Armed Forces schemes with deferred pensions in those schemes.

There are two reasons why the Government have not extended the exemption from the state pension age link for these workforces to apply to the deferred as well as their normal pension ages. First, it would not be fair to other former public servants whose deferred benefits would not be payable until state pension age. We have been clear that exceptions to normal pension age have been made for police officers, firefighters, and members of the Armed Forces because of the unique nature of the work they do, which we value very much. Once police, firefighters and Armed Forces personnel leave their jobs and no longer carry out those unique duties, there is, in our view, no justification for them to be able to take their deferred benefits earlier than anyone else.

Secondly, there would be cost implications. As we are all aware, increases in—

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 29th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, it is a very sensible approach for large companies to provide credit down the supply chain. It is not just Rolls-Royce—many other companies are doing the same, and I think that they should be encouraged to do more of it.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, I agree with the Minister that the banks are lending to small and medium-sized business. However, they cannot get the money for progressing their businesses where they are situated. I have recent experience in visiting a number of small engineering companies which are being offered money to move and establish bigger premises but not to develop where they are. It is becoming quite a problem for such companies.

[Lord Newby]

I do not think there is any general principle involved in that. The new products being designed under Funding for Lending would enable SMEs to get additional capital where they are. For example, RBS has introduced a new scheme under this programme that will cut the rate of lending by between 1% and 1.6% for small businesses and abolish arrangement fees for new loans. Those are not limited to companies that are moving but apply equally to companies which want to expand where they are.

Financial Regulators: Examinations

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, one of the things that is very striking about the FSA is the speed with which it put in place an inquiry into what had gone wrong on Northern Rock. It was very frank about its failings and has changed an awful lot of things already. One should be fair to the FSA and recognise that it acknowledged the failings of its supervisory regime, which is already reflected in differences to its approach to training and continual assessment.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords—

[Lord Elton]

My Lords—

[Noble Lords]

This side!

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

Would the Minister like to hazard a guess as to why the FSA, unlike many other professional organisations, feels that it is not important for the public to recognise the skills of those individuals by the qualifications that they hold, particularly in such an important area?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, as I have said, I understand that the FCA is thinking about whether its training could be externally accredited. So it is indeed thinking ahead to whether that could be a possibility.