Queen’s Speech

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harrison (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Flight, who, like the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, who spoke earlier, has been a dedicated and engaged member of Sub-Committee A with our inquiries into European Union financial and economic regulation. I join in the praise of the noble Lord, Lord Davies, who is a more recent recruit to that committee.

I hope that I will give some comfort to the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, on one of the subjects that our committee has tackled: the financial transaction tax and our potential alienation from the wider European Union. To his credit, the Chancellor of the Exchequer indicated that the health of the UK economy depended on the health of the eurozone. To his discredit, now that the eurozone has recovered under the decisive leadership of the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, George Osborne has claimed that the faltering UK recovery was all his own work. However, a faltering UK economy it was and is, and the ambition of the Chancellor to rebalance that economy has palpably failed. Those are not just my words but those of the European Commission. In its recent pronouncements on the European Semester process, with which members of Sub-Committee A are all too familiar, it identified some of the shortcomings within the United Kingdom’s economy: for example, the public finances still being in excessive deficit, as mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Flight; the failure to broaden tax breaks; and the distortions in property taxation.

As regards the financial sector, I welcome the Bill on small businesses, which I hope we can explore further. The distortions of the housing market most recently were criticised on the “Today” programme by the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, who described the Help to Buy measure as simply a sticking plaster. As the European Commissioner rightly said, we need a further boost to housing supply. Let us remember those golden days when Lord Macmillan was Housing Minister and we built 300,000 homes a year, as well as the house price increases that have happened in the United Kingdom.

Unlike the Prime Minister, who appears, in the word of Lady Thatcher, frit to tell us the nature of the proposed reforms of the European Union, the CBI has come out with some very clear statements. One concerns the failure in trade, as illustrated earlier by my noble friend Lord Adonis, and our ability as the United Kingdom to succeed in increasing trade. Recently, in a debate in this Chamber, I discussed the imbalanced economy because of our failure in trade; I will not repeat that. However, the siren voices of UKIP suggest that leaving the European Union will somehow return us to cheap butter and lamb from New Zealand: that will not be so. The truth is that the UK trades more with Belgium than with China.

The single European market is the great opportunity for the United Kingdom. It is not just a single market in which we can trade but the incubator for making us more competitive to sell our services and goods in the world outside and to achieve new markets. As for the idea of leaving the European Union, all those massive trade deals—one of which was concluded by the noble Lord, Lord Green, with the WTO, following the Doha round, or the TTIP, which is the great broad alliance of the two major economic continents bestriding the Atlantic and is with us at the moment—would not be achieved for the benefit of British people if we were not part of the European Union. That is not just what I say: President Obama said that, were we to leave in 2017, he did not have the stomach to have a separate trade deal with the United Kingdom.

The CBI’s second point of what we should be doing to reform the European Union is to complete the single market. After all, it was the inspiration of Arthur Cockfield in this House—when he was Mrs Thatcher’s appointed commissioner—which, inspired by Jacques Delors, created the single market, which was the biggest cutter of red tape and bureaucracy throughout the European Union. How nice it would be to hear from a Minister of the Crown that they too believe in the worth of the single market. Mr Cameron has often said that the single market is important but he has done nothing to further United Kingdom domestic and economic interest by extending it. Can the Minister name three examples in the past four years where the United Kingdom working with others has extended and broken down barriers to free and fair trade within the European Union? We have failed to make friends and influence people. As I said earlier, in Sub-Committee A we often talk to the ministries of the United Kingdom Government and ask them not just to block other people but to work and combine with other member states to open up the paths to the freedom of the single market.

The third element that the CBI talked about is the protection of non-eurozone interests and this is where the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, comes in. We have severely criticised the financial transaction tax. But the Government, in their first reply, said that they were for the financial transaction tax, as long as it was applied globally, which was never possible. It would be a huge imposition on the City of London. We have fought that, united, on Sub-Committee A, and I am glad to say that we have finally woken the Government up to take action on that distinct threat to the prosperity of the City of London as the European Union’s—not just the UK’s—premier financial market.

The Liberals are still in confusion. The other day, Danny Alexander said, “Oh yes, the financial transaction tax—that’s fine they can go ahead and do that”. However, the worry that has been expressed by the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, is that gradually we will have 18 members of the European Union out of 28 who are part of the eurozone. As more and more join—and they will and they do—our protection, which has been secured by this Government, will fail as the number goes down below four.

Incidentally, colleagues may have heard the other day that Angela Merkel was called up to be on a quiz show in Germany. As we know, she carries around her Blackberry. She was called as part of the quiz where you can phone a friend for help. It was not clear whether the caller was David Cameron, but that seems to be the United Kingdom’s approach: phone a friend. Phone Angela Merkel. She is friends with us and she will see us all right on the night. But the world is changing and we had better wake up. There are more and more members of the European Union’s single market and we had better ensure that when we speak we make friends with everyone, not just Angela Merkel.

Important decisions are shortly to be made about the European Commission’s President. We have taken against Mr Juncker. He is not my favourite person, but there we go. I proposed Pascal Lamy, who recently retired from the WTO, or Christine Lagarde, who of course has been associated with the IMF. They will go before the European Parliament to be interrogated by MEPs as part of the democratic process. Andrew Lansley has possibly been identified as our potential commissioner. Why should he not come before a Select Committee of the House of Lords? Why should he not, as part of his learning process about the European Union, come before us? We have been saying on the Select Committee that we should increase the work of national Parliaments in the scrutiny of the European Union. There is a ready example. Perhaps the Minister would like to reply to that suggestion.

The European parliamentary elections have been broadly misread. The two major pro-European Union blocs will remain in the European Parliament—the EPP and the Socialists and Democrats group. Apparently the socialists are now democratic, although that was not the case when I was there: we were simply socialists. I thought that would be of interest.

I hope that we can ask the media to put the spotlight on the lazy UKIP Members of the European Parliament. I want to pay respect to and say something light about the Liberal Democrats, which happens so rarely in this House. Some outstanding people have been lost in the European parliamentary elections, including Sir Graham Watson, and of course Sharon Bowles is to retire. I hope that they both find a place here. Perhaps I may also mention Cathy Ashton, who has been absolutely outstanding despite the rubbish printed in the press. She has been working hard behind the scenes, just as she did when she was the Leader of this House. She has highlighted a problem for Andrew Lansley. He will not get any sort of economic brief; he will just be given something such as culture, which is fine. However, too few Brits, only 4%, are aspiring to and getting major positions within the European Union, although it is worth noting that some 12% of those positions should be occupied by British civil servants. What can the Government say about that?

I have little to add to the excellent speech of my noble friend Lord Adonis, which set out what Labour will do. One of the things we will not do—I am so pleased that our leader has said it—is have this absurd referendum in 2017. Did no civil servant advise the Prime Minister that 2017 is the next time that the presidency of the European Union will be held by the United Kingdom? Imagine being President of the European Union and saying, “Oh, by the way, we are just voting to leave”. That will build confidence enormously.

I did say that small businesses are to feature in a Bill, but I want to conclude with a few words about local authorities. I was a member of Cheshire County Council for a decade, and was very proud to be so. I was also involved in Merseyside. The noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, gave inspiration to ensuring that we develop more financial and economic centres in Britain than just those in London. I know of the Labour Party’s proposal to set up two banks to help small businesses and the regions. These are areas that need promotion and it is right that we should do so.

In the single market of the European Union we have a golden opportunity. We need to find friends and to speak some of the languages they understand. We need better co-ordination between this Parliament and the European Parliament and the UK Members of it. In that way, we will be able truly to rebalance the economy, which as yet we have failed to do.

Disabled People: Blue Badge Scheme

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Thursday 25th October 2012 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Harrison]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the results of the consultation on the workings of the blue badge scheme for the disabled.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the consultation on the personal independence payment and eligibility for a blue badge closed just three weeks ago. The responses are currently being read and analysed. This is an important decision to make and Ministers will take the time needed to ensure that all the relevant issues are taken into consideration. The Government will announce their decision shortly and will publish a summary of the responses.

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords, given that general practitioners know best the mobility and medical capabilities of current blue badge holders, was it not a bureaucratic and costly folly to vest within overpressed and understaffed local authorities the sensitive task of assessing eligibility for a blue badge, especially when that task was so often assigned to box-ticking junior staff with absolutely no medical knowledge? When will this Government respond to this semi-detached Prime Minister and do something about those who deserve blue badges getting them?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the only thing I agree with the noble Lord on is his point about box-ticking. Applicants’ GPs act as patients’ advocates and are not always best placed to assess mobility or to advise on badge eligibility. In 2008, the Transport Select Committee reported that using an applicant’s own GP to assess eligibility,

“is likely to produce a bias in favour of approving the application”.

Cycling: Accidents

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Harrison]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many accidents have been caused by cyclists riding on pavements and how many cyclists have been charged with riding on pavements in the past year.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, in 2010, there were 680 reported personal injury road accidents involving cyclists on the footway on GB roads. The Department for Transport does not hold data on who caused such accidents. In 2010, 342 defendants were proceeded against in a magistrates’ court for the offence of cycling on a footway. However, this offence is normally dealt with by a fixed penalty notice and we do not collect information centrally on the number issued.

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords, one evening recently my wife and I stepped out to go to our local Chinese restaurant in Chester to be met by a young man on a bicycle advancing at speed. When confronted and challenged, he told us with an entirely straight face that, as he had no lights on his bike, he was obliged to ride on the pavement. Will the Minister first strengthen the powers of the police and community support officers to intervene where these cases happen? Will he intervene to improve the primary education of our young people learning about the art of cycling? Finally, will he improve the road environment for cyclists who mistakenly believe that it is legitimate to ride on the pavement as a result of the number of deaths attributable to the problems of cycling on the roadway?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I know that all noble Lords are very concerned about these issues and I come to the Dispatch Box with some trepidation on this Question. PCSOs, like constables in uniform, can issue fixed penalty notices in respect of an offence of riding a cycle on the footway contrary to Section 72 of the Highways Act 1835. I do not know about their powers regarding lights. Youngsters may be more susceptible to a word in their ear rather than a fixed penalty notice. Education is an extremely important part of the process.

EU: Financial Stability and Economic Growth

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Thursday 3rd November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords, in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Newby, for so cogently introducing this debate, I don my hat as chair of the sub-committee of your Lordships EU Select Committee which concerns itself with economic and financial affairs and trade. We are dealing with a number of reports on financial stability. We look forward to the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, responding to our report on sovereign credit rating agencies and a further report on the new EU financial supervisory framework under three new EU supervisory authorities. Our current inquiry is looking at how a single mortgage market might be established throughout the European Union. A future inquiry will look at the topical financial transactions tax. Among our regular scrutiny items are the EU prudential regime and the reaction to Basle III and CRD4.

However, the most important reports that we have produced recently, in March this year, was on the future of economic governance in the EU and the euro. We are now producing a follow-up report, which involved interviewing Sharon Bowles, the excellent chair of the European Parliament’s Economics Committee, and the German Ambassador Boomgaarden. On a cultural point, the ambassador spoke absolutely fluent English and showed a grasp of British history that I do not think any British spokesman or politician could match if they were to address a German crowd in such a way.

In considering the future of economic governance in the EU, we looked at the Commission’s proposals for the so-called “six pack” in achieving enhanced economic co-ordination. We think that it is going in the right direction. We believe it is essential that the political authorities of the EU take that seriously and abide by the rules. That is even more true of the situation now than it was when we first published our report in March. The UK has a strong interest in seeing the euro area stable and prosperous. The European Stability Mechanism, which in 2013 will take over the tasks carried out by the EFSM and the EFSF, will be compulsory only for members of the euro area. However, we recognise that it might be in the UK’s interest to contribute to rescue packages for member states in difficulties, as happened with Ireland. Our follow-up inquiry looks at what fiscal union might look like and includes a consideration of euro bonds, the implications for the European Union and the UK of the Greek default and the write-downs of Greek debt, the role of the EFSF, the case for recapitalisation of European banks and the position of United Kingdom banks.

I doff my chairman’s hat and return to the other side of this matter—the growth aspects. I rebut the notion of the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, that our interest is different from that of the European Union. The two interests may well coincide. I encourage the Government to stop deluding others regarding some of the good work that they do. We should not disguise the fact that we had a self-interest in helping out Ireland. When we contribute to the IMF fund, we should not say—as the Chancellor did—that we are just one of 80 countries that have done so. We have a purpose in supporting the IMF and we may need to do the same with the ESM in the future.

The noble Lord, Lord Newby, spoke of the problem that will emerge for us if we find that more and more of the European Union 27 member states join the euro, as they are destined to do. Three countries in the western Balkans already attach themselves to the euro. We may be like the children at birthday parties in the Harrison household who always wanted a place at the bottom of the table, away from where all the adults sat. We may end up at that table, supping with a couple of others who are excluded from the adult conversation taking place higher up the table.

Finally, the secret to growth—I was interested to hear the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, in this respect—is the single market. In this we can find a political consensus. As the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, has illustrated, if we secure the single market it will bring the prosperity, growth and jobs which we can all enjoy.

Building Regulations (Review) Bill [HL]

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Friday 4th March 2011 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Harrison]

1: Clause 2, page 1, line 12, leave out “No person shall” and insert “It is an offence to”

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords, I apologise to the Chair for taking my glasses off in order better to read my speech. I hope that the Bill and its amendment also will be live music to the Government’s ears, although I fear not.

The Government’s first duty is the safety and protection of its citizens. The Bill and its amendment today are a simple, good and effective measure. The title “Building Regulations” conceals the ambition for sprinklers to be inserted into new-build residences under 30 metres in height. I emphasise, though, that we are asking for better research to be produced so that we can make that claim and implement the hope and ambition of introducing sprinklers in this way.

This is not new legislation but an extension of existing legislation, as the measure is already in place for new buildings over 30 metres in height. What are the Minister’s concerns about the current legislation that is in full operation?

I believe that the Bill will save lives. We have computed that something like £7 billion is lost every year to fire, and of course lives are tragically lost. With regard to firefighters, and I think that all of us in this House have unstinting admiration for those who fight fires on the public’s behalf, the Bill would cut injuries not only to them but to the public, who can be maimed as a result of unexpected fire. It would save property; of the £7 billion that I said would be saved if the Bill were implemented, we may compute that one-third of that, £2.5 billion, is from the saving of property. This measure would also save the environment, since there is concern about excessive run-off water from appliances putting out fires that pollutes the drainage system and causes other environmental degradation.

It is right to give a bit of the narrative of the progress of the Bill. Some 15 months ago I had the pleasure of introducing a Bill that asked the Government to implement forthwith the application of sprinklers in new residences under 30 metres high. In the course of time and conversations, this changed and the emphasis moved to having secure and better research in this area. I am grateful to the former Minister, my noble friend Lord McKenzie of Luton, who responded to our desire to have a meeting with all those who had contributed to Second Reading. We got around the table; the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, was there from the Conservative side, while the noble Lord, Lord Best, who I see in his seat, contributed with his experience, and we had representation from the Liberal Democrats. We resolved to go forward with the idea of improving our knowledge and the research associated with the ambition to change, develop or extend the Bill in the way that we have accepted. It is this Bill that I have now brought back as a result of the change of Government, and it comes before us today with an amendment.

--- Later in debate ---

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the Government recognise that the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, has in his amendment extended the period for commencement of a review, as prescribed in his Bill, from 12 to 30 months. However, our reservations remain the same as those I set out at Second Reading. We must focus on the priorities at hand, and it would be difficult to find any Government who would be willing to support a statutory commitment of their resources in the way that the Bill proposes. I must gently remind the Committee that the question it must consider is: for how long do the Government need to consider this review?

Therefore, I will not be drawn into some of the technical issues that I have recently studied. The noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth, raised some of the plumbing issues, which I have discussed with the House Builders Federation. I did sanity-check some of the advice that I received. I asked, “Can you plumb sprinklers into the central heating system?”. I was advised that it was much more complicated than that. If you want a sprinkler system, you need a separate pressure supply that bypasses the house’s water meter. I also challenged why it costs £3,000 to £5,000 to install a sprinkler system.

We recognise that work is in hand, sponsored by industry, to refine and update the available evidence base that exists on the costs and benefits of sprinkler protection in residential premises. Clearly, we would need to consider any new information as and when it becomes available. Indeed, I have personally undertaken to read and understand the report currently being prepared by the Building Research Establishment for the Chief Fire Officers Association. I do not know how big that report will be.

I am grateful for the comments of many noble Lords, including my noble friend Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, who made a very useful contribution, and those of the noble Lords, Lord Hunt and Lord Best. The noble Lord, Lord Best, talked about design problems and design flexibility. The building regulations already include the facility to vary the design of buildings where sprinklers are provided.

The noble Lord, Lord Harrison, asked me what I was worried about with regard to extending sprinklers to all houses. We are not aware of any problems with this provision, and the recent review of building regulations concluded that the excellent provisions for fire safety did not need to be changed. I am advised that the cost of carrying out a detailed review, as set out in the Bill, would be in the order of £250,000 and that it would divert departmental resources away from other government priorities. If you keep spending £100,000 here and £100,000 there on every single problem, eventually you run out of money, and that is more or less what has happened.

The noble Lord asked me what items under paragraphs (a) to (i) of Clause 1(1) caused me anxiety. I cite as an example paragraph (f), which refers to,

“the evidence for and experience of automatic fire suppression systems already available both in the UK and internationally”.

I am sure that my officials would enjoy going round the world looking at the international experience of fire suppression sprinkler systems, because that is what they would have to do.

Just before Christmas, my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the department, Andrew Stunell, published his plans for taking forward the outcome of a recent review of building regulations. The review included looking at any changes that might be necessary to ensure that the regulations continued to operate effectively in the future. During the review, a number of respondents called for the introduction of regulation to increase the provision of sprinklers in buildings. However, the review did not produce any significant new evidence of the benefits of greater sprinkler provision.

Sprinkler protection is recognised as a highly effective measure, and provisions for its use have been in place in building regulations for many years for buildings where the fire risk is high. However, when you consider that all new homes are already provided with hard-wired smoke alarms, it is difficult to justify further increasing the regulatory burden with a measure that will impact only on new buildings.

The noble Lord, Lord Harrison, and perhaps others asked about the recent vote in the Welsh Assembly. Parliament has given the Welsh Assembly the power to adopt such a measure if it chooses to do so. By the end of the year, it will also have the necessary powers to set its own building regulations. However, this debate is about England, and what the Welsh Assembly does is a matter for the Assembly.

The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked about the review of Part B, relating to the fire safety building regulations. We have made no plans to review the fire safety aspects of building regulations. No doubt they will be reviewed at some point when it is considered to be necessary.

The noble Baroness, Lady Smith, mentioned reducing spending on the fire service, suggesting that sprinklers could help. However, if building regulations changed tomorrow, only homes built after that point would be affected, and it would take decades for this to have a meaningful effect on the building stock. If there was a real concern that the service was under-resourced, I think that a more rapid solution would need to be found.

The noble Lord, Lord Knight, made several interesting comments, some of them relating to technical matters. I should have liked to engage on them if I had known that he was going to ask those questions. He suggested that Ministers and policy are controlled by officials, but I assure the noble Lord that Ministers determine the policy with advice from officials, not the other way round.

Prevention is much better than cure and an example of a more effective and innovative approach is the introduction of fire-safer cigarettes, a point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Best. We have actively supported the European Commission’s efforts in developing a safety standard for reduced-ignition cigarettes. We estimate that this standard, once introduced, will save with almost immediate effect between 25 and 64 lives per year in England alone, not just in new buildings but across the board.

The noble Lord, Lord Harrison, asked why the Conservative Party has changed its policy now that it is in government. I gently remind the Committee that I answer for Her Majesty’s Government, not for the previous Opposition. Where noble Lords have raised wider issues, I will write if I have something valuable to add to my comments.

In summary, while we agree with the desire to answer the questions set out in the Bill, we must express strong reservations about the provisions in it for a statutory commitment for the Government.

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords, that was a lame reply to all the contributions that have been made to the debate this afternoon. I know that colleagues who have been here today to support the Bill have other urgent things to do so, in thanking them, I take the opportunity to say to the Minister that we will return to this issue; we will write to him and point out where we believe the deficiencies are in his reply. I still hope that we can make some changes but, in the interim, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment withdrawn.

Building Regulations (Review) Bill [HL]

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Friday 22nd October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords, this has been an excellent and wide-ranging debate, and I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Tope, for bringing his experience of local authorities and London to the table. I am pleased to have heard once again the noble Lord, Lord Best, who asked pertinent questions and who was prepared to avail us of the information from the housing association that he is associated with, as well as the consumers who are affected by any changes that might be made.

I am grateful to my noble friend Lord McKenzie of Luton, who brings with him his own expertise, having wrestled with this in the past. Clearly the mantle has been passed well to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, as her contribution shows.

I noted that the noble Lord, Lord Hoyle, went five minutes over time in making his contribution, which would have given Manchester United ample opportunity to score more goals. However, it is relevant to point out that in the past, as many of us will remember, incidents such as the dreadful fire in the Bradford football stadium led to legislation and work with the industry to ensure that spectators were not incinerated in future. That is why it is important that again we wrestle with these issues.

I will not give a deep analysis of the Minister’s reply. I will say, though, that he talked about an absence of new evidence, and we are happy to bring that new evidence forward. I congratulate him on, and I am grateful for, the proper sense of inquiry that he has shown today. He is cautious, but we will attempt to persuade him, to ensure that we can achieve the aims of the Bill and to put a time limit on action, because we think that these things are urgent.

Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.