Lord Howell of Guildford
Main Page: Lord Howell of Guildford (Conservative - Life peer)
The Earl of Courtown
No, my Lords, I have not read Mr Haldane’s speech, but I will pass it on to my colleagues in the department. However, there is something that the noble Lord should acknowledge regarding the ONS statistics on productivity: he will be aware that the Bean review reported in March 2016, that the Government supported its recommendations, and that the ONS has so far made good progress in acting on them, to ensure that we have proper productivity figures available for our examination.
Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that in the digital age and in a predominantly service economy, as the UK is, it is increasingly hard to measure accurately the notion of productivity? Does he therefore agree that all these discussions and comments need to be treated with great caution and balance?
The Earl of Courtown
My noble friend is quite right, as always. He mentioned the digital age that we are in, and of course noble Lords will remember that we have the £400 million digital infrastructure fund, which is unlocking £1 billion for full-fibre broadband to connect more homes so that they can act upon this digital age.