Small Businesses: Invoice Payments

Debate between Lord Jones of Birmingham and Baroness Wilcox

Tuesday 26th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

Is there a statutory right? I shall have to come back to that in order to be sure.

[Lord Jones of Birmingham]

I should be grateful if the Minister dealt with the second part of the question. Legislation was brought in to ensure that the major contractor gets paid quickly. However, although he is holding on to the money, that contractor does not pay a small business—that was the second part of the question—and small businesses across the land get caught with this every day. I should welcome an answer to that.

[Baroness Wilcox]

I agree. Previous legislation brought in the five-day payment. I must say that when I looked through these questions and saw that we were paying within five days, and then saw that some of the contractors further down the line were contracting to pay within 30 days, I asked myself, “Where is that money going for those 25 days?”.

UK: International Competitiveness

Debate between Lord Jones of Birmingham and Baroness Wilcox

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

The enterprise finance guarantee scheme has been extended and there will be a Green Paper soon in which we will be looking at all these issues.

[Lord Jones of Birmingham]

My Lords, our international competitiveness depends on producing a value-added, innovative economy. That calls for skilled people. Will the Minister explain how, after 11 years of full-time, compulsory and free education—which is something that 5 billion people on this planet do not have—half the young people who will take a GCSE this month will not get grade C or above in English and maths, and will therefore be unemployable?

[Baroness Wilcox]

The noble Lord will of course be delighted that we are bringing forward the Academies Bill and he will no doubt be supporting it. We want to ensure that British higher and further education are better linked into our economy. Our priorities include an increasing emphasis on adult education, stripping out some of the bureaucracy around further education, and putting an end to the outdated distinction between blue-collar apprenticeships and further education on the one hand and university education on the other. BIS has already redeployed £200 million from Train to Gain to fund 50,000 extra apprenticeships and an additional £50 million towards capital spending on colleges.