Black Lives Matter

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg [V]]

I thank my noble friend for that question. I agree with him; he is absolutely right that we need to understand what these issues are, so that we are able to act on them accordingly. I will take back his suggestion on the census to the relevant department.

[Lord Boateng (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, systemic racism is a fact of life in the US, the UK and the world over. Combating it requires not just words but concrete actions. In seeking re-election to the UN Human Rights Council this year, will the UK support an investigation by the special rapporteur into systemic racism and deaths in police custody, with recommendations for action and the promotion of best practice? If not, why not?

[Baroness Sugg [V]]

My Lords, I apologise but I do not have that information, so I will have to come back to the noble Lord in writing.

Gavi: Covid-19

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg]

My Lords, in practical terms, our aim is to raise at least $7.4 billion to fund Gavi’s work over the next five years. That will save millions of lives. I encourage our international partners to follow the UK’s lead and step up their support to Gavi.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, Gavi does an excellent job, as I have seen for myself, but if it is to make the impact that it deserves to make, African Governments must act to bridge the $66 billion per year gap in fund- raising. There is a great need for better internal resource mobilisation and enhanced investment in healthcare systems, research, laboratories and the local health industry. Will the Government look at how they can support UK academic research and financial institutions to help bridge that gap?

[Baroness Sugg]

My Lords, yes, the UK is working very closely with international financial institutions such as the World Bank to bridge the gap in funding.

Planned Deportation Flight to Jamaica

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, all those who will be on the charter flight are foreign national offenders convicted of serious offences. They have had their cases fully reviewed to ensure that no outstanding legal barriers would prevent their removal from the UK. Careful assessment is made of the Article 8 claim of a foreign national offender who is subject to deportation to a family and/or private life, including the length of time that they have lived in the UK, which is an important consideration, but not the only one when weighed against their offending.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, the UK Borders Act 2007, which relates to foreign nationals, is subject to the European Convention on Human Rights and other treaty obligations. The National Audit Office has found, and Ministers have accepted, that the quality of the Home Office’s decision-making has at times been less than satisfactory. Can the Minister assure the House that in each and every one of these cases, consideration has been given to the UK’s responsibilities under the Human Rights Act? Can she assure us that Ministers have personally reviewed each and every one and taken into account the known recommendations of both the National Audit Office and the independent reviewer as to the importance of making sure that care is taken in these decisions, given that more than 40 British children will be deprived of parents as a result of the Home Office’s decision in this case?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I assure the noble Lord that all those considerations will be taken into account. Each case will be gone through to ensure that the right decision is made, because we are making life-changing decisions for these people. This is not a flippant decision to make. The noble Lord is absolutely right to raise that issue to ensure that we are rigorous in making decisions on who we will deport. Do not forget that these are serious criminals.

Illegal Seaborne Migration

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Wednesday 5th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I do not have the actual number for how many asylum claims have been successful but, as I said to the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, most of the people who arrive claim asylum and we attempt to determine those claims within six months. On the Dublin regulation, clearly we will meet our obligations on asylum for people who claim it in this country. Returns under Dublin actually make up a relatively small proportion of the people who we go on to return, but we will continue to work with the French and other European partners on returns. In terms of safe routes, at the heart of this issue is that people should claim asylum in the first safe country where they arrive and not make dangerous journeys across the Channel, which is of course one of the most congested shipping lanes in the world. It is an incredibly dangerous place in which to be in a small boat.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, I happen to know this part of the Kent coast very well and, as a former Excise Minister, have some knowledge of two of the cutters recently deployed in the Channel. I have two questions for the Minister. First, the people of Folkestone and the surrounding towns and villages are well known for their hospitality to refugees. The churches have played a particularly important part in recent times. However, the reality in this part of Kent is that social services and the health service are extremely stretched. What additional assistance is being given to social services and the health service in order for them to cope with the impact of people rescued from the seas in this way? They have real needs, and the social services and the health service are stretched.

Secondly, the tasks we ask of the men and women who do such excellent service on the cutters are difficult and dangerous. What additional help is being given in relation to their welfare and training to enable them to do this?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I recognise exactly the point made by the noble Lord about the welcome that refugees and asylum seekers have had and how welcoming organisations such as the Church have been. Starting with the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Church has been very generous in terms of community sponsorship schemes for new arrivals, for which we commend it. Throughout our debates, we have been clear—and I think that Parliament has recognised it—that in respect of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, for example, we will ask local authorities to take only the number that they have the capacity to hold. In places such as those talked about the noble Lord—for instance, Folkestone—the national redistribution scheme has been in place for some time, because it cannot be incumbent on one single local authority to take all the new arrivals. Local authorities have been very generous to this end.

Gender Pay Gaps

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Wednesday 8th May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right to point out that accurate reporting is crucial to understanding what organisations are doing to reduce the gender pay gap and crucial to ensuring that there is no gaming of the system, as she points out. Based on our research with employers, we know that the majority were able to understand the gender pay gap reporting system and are correctly reporting their data; 95% are reporting ahead of the deadline, which is very good news indeed. As she knows, the EHRC is responsible for enforcing the regulations and is looking at any statistically improbable data. The Government Equalities Office has already implemented some of the recommendations from the Royal Statistical Society’s report—so I thank the noble Baroness for raising the issue—including improvements to the guidance and the statistical sanity checks.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

Will the Government, in the interests of fairness and equality, make the same demands of employers in relation to ethnicity as they do in relation to gender? There is plenty of evidence to indicate that black and ethnic minority people suffer equally, if not worse, from disparity when it comes to employment pay and prospects.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the noble Lord very much for raising that. I do not disagree with him that BAME representation, not only in organisations but also on things such as FTSE 100 boards and FTSE 250 boards, is diabolical. We always saw gender pay gap reporting as a start on this journey—which is absolutely not to dismiss the noble Lord’s point that we have an awful lot further to go.

Windrush

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Tuesday 1st May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank my noble friend for making that point. I heard her points at lunchtime about the hostile environment, so I am glad that what I have said chimes with her. She is right about common sense in decision making; she makes an insightful point about cultural considerations, as opposed to the facts before us. However, it is vital that the compliant environment protects vulnerable persons. Appropriate safeguards are built in and the right to redress exists, including the ability to exercise discretion when there are genuine barriers to people leaving the UK or measures that would be deemed unduly harsh. We need a humane approach to this, but we must not forget that, within the compliant environment, it is necessary that people who are not here legally should be removed from this country, not least because of the vulnerability that goes with it.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, the Home Secretary’s appointment is to be warmly welcomed. His is a remarkable achievement. However, there are two factors that I would ask the Minister to take into account. The first is the age and vulnerability of many of the victims of the Windrush scandal. I hope that will be taken into account in the scheme that is to be set up and, in particular, in the imposition of any deadlines. There has been a lot of talk about deadlines for making applications and claiming compensation. I hope that people’s vulnerability, age and natural reluctance to come forward, given their previous experience of hostile Administrations, will be taken into account. I seek the Minister’s assurance on that.

Secondly, how are our overseas posts being kept informed about the development of this situation? It will be necessary to make sure that information is put out to potential claimants and victims in the various Commonwealth countries which are affected—and not just in the Caribbean.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

Both the previous Home Secretary and the new one have made it absolutely clear that this scheme has not been put in place to trip people up. The noble Lord talked about people having a certain amount of time to make deadlines. We will consult on this scheme and I hope the noble Lord will put his view forward. To put bureaucratic restrictions into it, however, is not in the spirit of what the Home Secretary wants. I totally appreciate the noble Lord’s point about age—I presume he means older age—and particularly people who might have been stung by the system previously and feel reluctant to come forward. This is a scheme to help people, not to restrict them.

The noble Lord also makes a good point about overseas posts being informed. He may remember that the previous Home Secretary talked with Commonwealth representatives during CHOGM to engage and spread the word. I know that officials have been engaging, not only with other Commonwealth countries, but widely in British society in areas where there may be Commonwealth citizens who can be helped. We are taking a very proactive approach.

Commonwealth Development Corporation Bill

Lord Boateng Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords & Report stage (Hansard): House of Lords
Thursday 9th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. As such, I have had the opportunity to see the work of the CDC in support of agribusiness in Africa and renewable energy. I am bound to say that I welcome this Bill; I welcome, too, the Minister’s championing of the CDC within the department. I think that it will benefit from his attention. Frankly, if truth be told, the CDC has not in the past benefited from any ministerial champion at all, which has been part of its problem. The noble Baroness, Lady Northover, happily gave it some of her attention but, certainly in my time in government, it must be said that it did not have any champions.

We must also recognise that, at one time under the Labour Government, the CDC was being fattened up to be privatised—that was the reality. It was therefore given a mandate of making as much money as it could, but no target at all in relation to its contribution to the eradication of poverty or to development. We have to be frank: we need to learn the lessons of the past in order to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past in the future. The good news is that, for the past five years, a process of reform of the CDC has been under way, which has seen a renewed focus on the reduction of poverty and is to be warmly welcomed.

My noble friend Lord Judd, whose knowledge of these matters is, in my experience, unparalleled, was exactly on point when he suggested that, going forward, it is absolutely vital that the CDC continues to focus on empowerment and enablement on the African continent; ensuring that small and medium-sized business can grow and link to global markets; and improving value chains across the continent. This is about saying that we will stand alongside Africa as it develops its own agribusinesses and manufacturing capacity, because it is in these areas that there is currently a marked deficit on that continent.

Real gains have made in the past decades in terms of economic growth—six or seven of the top 10 fastest-growing economies in the world now are to be found in Africa, which is a tribute to entrepreneurs there. There have been vast improvements in terms of governance—the recent successful transitions of power in both Nigeria and Ghana are examples. Across the continent, there has also been a renewed focus on the part of African Governments on creating enabling environments in which it is possible for business to flourish.

This creates a real opportunity for the CDC to get alongside those businesses. One particular aspect of Africa’s development on which I seek to concentrate—including the potential role of the CDC—is the role that small and medium-sized enterprises can and must play in the continent’s development. In Africa, they contribute to around 40% of GDP and to some 50% of employment overall. In some sectors, their level of job creation can be even higher. For example, informal and formal SMEs together account for about three-quarters of total employment in manufacturing. However, the reality is that it is very difficult indeed for small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa to obtain funding from the banks. That is because in the main the banks are risk-averse and do not understand the sectors—the agrisector in particular—in which SMEs are emerging. Significantly, SMEs also suffer from very high interest rates. That is the fact of the matter on the ground, on the continent.

To address that, the CDC has seen it as part of its mission to support those businesses through supporting banks. So, taking the example of a recent investment it has made, it has supported the dfcu Bank in Uganda, which focuses on tackling the lack of long-term funding for SMEs in a country—Uganda—where they contribute around 70% of GDP. A bank such as that could not hope to obtain on the open market the sort of funding that the CDC can give it, on the terms that the CDC can give it. If you were simply applying market judgments and the bottom line to support for banks that work with SMEs, you would not be able to raise capital. The CDC, with its focus, is able to do so.

The CDC needs to be encouraged to focus on and address market failure. That, after all, is the justification for putting public money into it—I cannot think of any other. We are putting public money into something that addresses the failures of the market so that markets can work better for the poor, and to support development. As all sides of the House agree, the long-term and medium-term solution to Africa’s problems does not lie in overseas development assistance but in the development of a sustainable private sector and the capacity within Africa to generate, through tax revenues, sufficient money to do all the things that we expect the state to do in our own country. We want enabling states; we certainly want states that encourage and support a private sector that can create wealth and provide employment. That ought to be the focus of the CDC in the future.

I ask the Minister to ensure that this House has an opportunity to discuss the future strategy of the CDC—that an investment strategy is not adopted without consideration of views from all sides of this House—because, as today’s speakers list shows, there is real expertise in the Chamber. That expertise can encourage, support and spread the word about the importance of investment in this area, and all that investment can do.

I end on this note: we are in a challenging time for global security, and the best protection for any of us in the world is job creation. Africa has the fastest-growing population of young people in the world, and if there are young people in Africa who do not really have an opportunity to gain sustainable livelihoods, whether in urban or rural areas—Africa also has the fastest rate of urbanisation in the world—they will fall prey to those who would exploit them for their own purposes.

In northern Nigeria we see a classic example of this. Boko Haram exists because young people feel disaffected, cut off from relevant educational opportunities and the prospect of getting sustainable livelihoods. The great work that the CDC is doing in that area—creating real job opportunities with real employment and providing real added value—is a classic example of the sort of response that we ought to be making to today’s challenges. I wish the CDC all the very best with its task and hope that the Minister will continue to champion it in his department.

Aid Reviews

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Friday 2nd December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Flather (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Featherstone (LD)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Bates]

I can certainly give that assurance and will write to the noble Baroness with the details. I already have a letter for her in my in-tray on the CDC, so I will add a paragraph to that, if I may.

[Lord Boateng]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. Does the Minister agree with me that the surest route out of poverty is jobs, that the surest defence of peace is jobs and that the surest guard against forced migration is jobs? Will he therefore give the House the reassurance that bilateral programmes, like the one that used to exist in Burundi and others in fragile areas such as the Great Lakes, Somalia, Somaliland and South Sudan, will continue to be supported under this review, because they are making a huge difference?

[Lord Bates]

I pay tribute to the work the noble Lord has done for the organisations he is involved with in promoting that. Economic development is at the heart of eradicating extreme poverty. We cannot do it through aid flows alone: there has to be the wider context.

The lifting of people out of poverty, including the 50% reduction in the number in extreme poverty, has come largely through major economies such as those of India, China, and Brazil increasing trade and economic development. The same applies to sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa: European Union Economic Partnership Agreements

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Thursday 17th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, for his continued championing of the cause of Africa in this House. I declare my interest as chairman of the African Enterprise Challenge Fund. I have an immediate and continuing interest because in many ways I owe my education to African agriculture. As a boy in the Gold Coast and then in Ghana I was the recipient of a cocoa marketing board scholarship. I was christened in a rural village in eastern Ghana. My paternal grandparents were farmers of cassava and cocoa. I saw at first hand the significance and the importance of agriculture in Africa. It accounts for 32% of Africa’s GDP. It is Africa’s most inclusive employment sector, employing some 65% of its labour force, 60% of whom are women. My grandmother was a cassava farmer and they are to be found all over Africa—women toiling in the fields but not always the beneficiaries of the product they produce. But that is a familiar story the world over.

Despite the fact that Africa has agriculture so very much at the heart of its economic, social and cultural life, the reality is, I fear, that farmers’ yields are among the lowest in the world. Per capita, Africa’s agricultural output is only 56% of the world average. When we look at the continuing reliance of Africa on imported food, the story is even worse—1.7 times the value of exports and rising, to feed the appetite now of a growing middle class. Africa is now importing so much more than it exports and paying so much more for that—upwards of $40 billion every year. That is the cost of failing agriculture in Africa.

The issue raised by the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, about the impact of the EPAs is essential, because they provide the policy context within which African Governments relate to the agricultural community. Smallholder farmers in particular need a policy environment that encourages them to modernise and scale up production, encourages improvements in access to higher-yield seeds and quality fertilisers, thus enabling agribusiness to thrive. It needs to address issues around research and development, infrastructure and transport logistics. All these things are necessary if African agriculture is to be a driver of development on the continent.

EPAs therefore have to be judged, I would submit, in the context of the extent to which they help or hinder this process—and I fear that the jury is out on that point. There is little evidence to suggest that the forced liberalisation of markets in Africa actually works or that it enables support to be provided for indigenous African agribusiness, processing and manufacture. On the contrary, EPAs could well hinder them, and there are many examples where they have. So countries in Africa have understandably been cautious in their approach to EPAs. Some, like Tanzania and Uganda, have used Brexit as an opportunity to stall the process altogether, for they see little that benefits them and much that may well do harm. In west Africa, Nigeria has stood out specifically against EPAs because it fears the impact on its nascent manufacturing industry. Again, Nigeria has good cause to do so because when we look at the progress of the tiger economies of south-east Asia, we see that they have benefited from a process that would actually have been hindered by EPAs.

I would argue that Brexit provides an opportunity for us to take stock and to build a trading relationship with Africa that puts development at the heart of that relationship. It should draw on the best of existing and global practice and build into our new trading agreements the sort of arrangements that will enable Africa to develop its own processing sector, that will enable links to be developed between smallholder farmers and both regional and global value chains, and that will recognise that a degree of protectionism for local industry is probably necessary in order to promote the development of agribusiness on the continent. That in turn will provide opportunities for British companies. They will have an opportunity to assist in the development of capacity in Africa, to improve R&D and yield, and to provide the machinery and know-how that will enable Africa to grow its agribusiness and enhance its own value chains.

Ethiopia provides a classic example of how that can work in practice. The Ethiopians have resisted the imposition of external agendas and external solutions to their challenges. They have targeted science and innovation alongside support for rural farmers through nurseries, as well as the development of co-operatives. They have supported agri-industrial parks for the production of leather goods and other products related to agriculture and they have brought enhanced and added value to their own specialist coffee brands. All of this has been done in a way that has assisted smallholder farmers.

It has also been done in a way that has provided real opportunities for British business. Diageo is a classic example of that. It has developed its processes in both Ethiopia and in South Africa in a way that links smallholder producers of sorghum and other contributors to beverages directly to its factories. That has enhanced and added value and has enabled smallholder farmers to become stakeholders, and it has added shareholder value to those who invest in Diageo by increasing foreign direct investment in Africa. That is the way forward for Africa and for the UK.

In conclusion, I make a simple request—well, it is not simple, because it is quite a complicated process. I hope that the Minister will respond in a way that gives us heart, as I am sure he will, because DfID and the Secretary of State, to their credit, have been in the forefront of bringing some reassurance to Africa in this area. I ask that Britain continues to provide EBA—everything but arms—and GSP trade benefits for Africa; that we seek to conclude duty-free and quota-free market access arrangements at least with non-LDCs and in particular those that have long-standing trading links with our country; and, most importantly, that we maintain MFN WTO tariffs on sensitive products of particular importance to African countries and exclude such products from preferential trading arrangements with other regions that are low-cost competitors—for instance, in South and central America. The classic example here is Brazil and sugar. It is likely that the Brazilians will be up there on the list for early trade negotiations. If they are given preference at the cost of sugar producers in Malawi and in Swaziland, the consequences for smallholder farmers will be disastrous.

So there are challenges ahead, but there are opportunities. One should have no doubt about that when one looks at DfID’s increasingly high-profile investment in agriculture, when one looks at the interests of the Secretary of State in promoting a private sector role in development, and when one looks also at this House, where friends of the African smallholder farmer are to be found on all Benches—I do not think that there is a legislative body in the world that contains more friends of the small African farmer than this one. I hope that the small African farmer, who is at the heart of development and of Africa’s search for dignity and success, will continue to find friends and solace in this place.

Ebola: Sierra Leone

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

In this case—investigations are ongoing, so we have not yet come to some concluding outcomes—the woman did not demonstrate the usual symptoms of Ebola. The practice of taking swabs is something that we in the UK have encouraged, which is why we were able to pick up that this lady died from Ebola.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, since the outbreak of Ebola there has been investment flight from Sierra Leone. Sustainable healthcare systems demand locally generated revenue, and DfID is playing an important role in this respect, too. But what more can be done to persuade our partners in the European Union and, indeed, the United States, to add their voice and, importantly, resources, to the important task of regenerating the economy of Sierra Leone, without which there can never be sustainable healthcare?

[Baroness Verma]

The noble Lord raises the point about funding for the recovery of Sierra Leone, and Liberia as well. We want to ensure that, as a country, we play our part by pledging and by encouraging our partners. So we will continue to play our part and encourage our partners. We have very much supported the UN Secretary General’s high-level panel also to encourage that we do much more collectively and globally. Just to give the noble Lord some assurance, the World Bank has committed $650 million to make sure that, over the next 18 months or so, the reconstruction of those three countries affected by Ebola takes place.