Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Damian Hinds and Seema Malhotra

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

We work closely with the Ministry of Justice on numerous joint initiatives locally and nationally, and we are supporting the development of the MOJ’s new offender employment strategy, but I recognise that we need to improve opportunities for ex-offenders, so I welcome the continued attention of my hon. Friend and his Committee, as well as the Work and Pensions Committee report, to which we will respond in due course.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Her Majesty’s inspectorates of prisons and probation found that not a single prisoner had been helped into employment by the Through the Gate provision, which is the Government’s flagship programme for achieving a step change in rehabilitation. Did that surprise the Minister, and what is his response?

[Damian Hinds]

First of all, my response is that this has been a challenge for successive Governments for many years. We do need to do better, but there is good work going on. Ultimately, to improve the situation, we need more prisoners to be work-ready, and we need more employers to be willing to take the plunge and take on a prisoner. Having governors controlling skills provision in prisons will have a beneficial effect on work-readiness, but we all need to encourage more employers to step forward. Initiatives such as the See Potential programme can play an important part in that, as can Ban the Box and the Employers’ Forum for Reducing Re-offending, but of course we need to do more.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Damian Hinds and Seema Malhotra

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of engineering. The evidence of that was shown in the spending review and the autumn statement, with enhanced support for science as well as the apprenticeship levy, which is an important structural change in the way we invest in our skills base.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Five years ago, the Chancellor said that he would rebalance the economy towards manufacturing, exports and the regions. The director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce recently said:

“None of those things have actually transpired in practice yet.”

Will the Minister tell me why not?

[Damian Hinds]

We are rebalancing the economy, but it is a long-term and sustained programme—indeed, it is our long-term economic plan. We have talked already today about some of the enhanced support for science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the skills base, the apprenticeship levy, and the catapult centres, which give British business access to the best in leading- edge technologies. Of course there are some things in international trade that we cannot control; for example, there was bad news again today from China. Nor can we control the world exchange rates. However, we are absolutely doing the things that we can when it comes to supporting British exporters.

[Seema Malhotra]

There we go again—it is everybody’s fault but this Government’s. Here is the truth: the Chancellor promised to boost manufacturing, but instead it is in recession. Manufacturing output is now 6.1% below its pre-crisis peak and falling. The British Chamber of Commerce’s survey of firms found manufacturing close to stagnation, with export sales and orders falling. Instead of helping the sector, the Chancellor closed the Manufacturing Advisory Service in November without so much as a mention. Is it not true that British businesses and families are now paying a heavy price for this Chancellor’s failures?

[Damian Hinds]

That is not true. The enhancement of manufacturing is absolutely at the heart of this Government’s approach, but we should not forget that services are also a very large part—in fact a bigger part—of the economy. The overall performance of the British economy is such that we had the highest growth rate in the G7 countries in 2014 and the joint highest in 2015. We have rising real wages and more people in jobs than ever before.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Damian Hinds and Seema Malhotra

Tuesday 27th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

I agree with all that. It is rising productivity that underpins rising real wages and therefore improving living standards.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Mr Speaker,

“We don’t export enough; we don’t train enough; we don’t save enough; we don’t invest enough; we don’t manufacture enough; we certainly don’t build enough, and far too much of the economic activity in our nation is concentrated here in the centre of London.”

The Chancellor may recognise his own words from his Mansion House speech in July. Why was he so damning of his own record?

[Damian Hinds]

My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been absolutely consistent in identifying the need to rebalance the economy and export more. I am afraid that this country’s productivity gap has existed for a very long time—I am not even going to try to pin the blame entirely on the previous Labour Government; it has existed for longer than that. We need to fill that gap and address the shortcomings that our economy has had over a long period. The productivity plan that this Government are bringing in is doing just that.

[Seema Malhotra]

I thank the Minister for his answer. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has said that his productivity plan is “fatally undermined” by insufficient measures to improve the skills of the workforce. Could that be just one reason why the UK’s productivity gap compared with other G7 countries has widened to the largest on record since 1991?

[Damian Hinds]

The hon. Lady is right to identify the importance of skills, and that is why human development is absolutely at the heart of the productivity plan. The apprenticeship levy is a really important structural reform to help the delivery of 3 million apprenticeships. Then there is the network of institutes of technology and all the excellent work being done in the Department for Education, working on basic skills, including English and maths, which we know are vital and of such high value in the marketplace to both employers and employees.