Carer’s Leave: Government Departments

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

The noble Lord, Lord Jones of Cheltenham, is contributing remotely.

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I do not think I was meant to come in on this Question but on the third Question.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, may I therefore say something?

Money Laundering

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats. The noble Lord, Lord Jones of Cheltenham, wishes to speak virtually. I think this is a convenient point to call him.

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

My Lords, the Royal United Services Institute suggests that the scale of money laundering in the UK is “too big to measure”. Transparency International has had a stab at it and says that the problem may be causing £325 billion-worth of harm to the UK economy each year. Why has the UK become such a magnet for this illegal activity, which damages the vital financial services sector and our reputation as a safe place to do business?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, as I am sure the noble Lord will be aware, the City of London is one of the largest financial centres in the world and therefore the flows of money going through our economy, particularly in the City, are enormous. However, we lead the world in our attempts to reduce bad activity. I refer the noble Lord to the Economic Crime Plan, which lists some 48 action points to tackle the whole spectrum of money laundering and financial crime. We are in good shape in implementing those, and we are committed to an economic crime plan 2.0 that will be announced this autumn.

Post-Brexit Financial Settlement

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Thursday 15th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, I do not think that any of us on this side of the House feels particularly comfortable paying large sums to the European Union, but it is an agreed outcome in the withdrawal agreement and we stand by it. There are differences in the calculation methods between the EU arrangements and ours. For example, their figure does not include all the receipts we will receive in future, there are different ways of forecasting and so on. We are not surprised that there are some differences. What matters is our own calculations and that we are comfortable with the bills when they arrive, which we are.

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

Does the Minister accept any responsibility for failing to negotiate this bill properly, or are he and the Prime Minister unfamiliar with how divorce works?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

This is one of the occasions when I can disclaim direct responsibility for that particular part of the negotiation in the previous withdrawal agreement. I have been known to be a little uncharitable at times about every aspect of the work that was done by my predecessors but, in this case, on the withdrawal agreement, they did a good job. Given the legal framework and commitments, it was always likely that the outcome would be in this broad area.

National Science and Technology Council

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, there is some truth in what the noble Lord has said, which is widely acknowledged; it is one of the many reasons why the Prime Minister has given such a strong personal commitment to lead this new Cabinet committee. The purpose of the council is to set the overarching strategy on how to use science and technology to boost the United Kingdom’s prosperity, security and well-being. Specific policy levers still fall under the purview of relevant departments; thus, Trade covers international trade, and BEIS the R&D ecosystem, including innovation and access to finance. On the second strand of the question, as demonstrated at the G7, our international partners recognise the need for collaboration across science and technology. The office for science and technology strategy will establish centre-to-centre dialogues to ensure that our decisions are both realistic and load-bearing. Existing engagement through wider fora will continue, to enable the UK to spot opportunities for mutually reinforcing partnerships internationally.

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

My Lords, some years ago, when I was a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee in another place, we held an inquiry into why it was that we invented things here but the Americans made money out of them. How will this new council solve that problem?

[Lord True (Con)]

Solving that problem is a total challenge for every part of the broad science and investment infrastructure. It is far more likely that those problems can be resolved if the entire resource at the highest level of Her Majesty’s Government is put behind achieving that objective.

UK–EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Meetings of Bodies

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, the TCA provides for a civil society forum. It has to be balanced between UK and EU business and civil society groups to discuss the implementation of the agreement. We are in touch with the EU about how this will work. We will work very much to facilitate its first meeting this year. We are engaging actively with business and civil society domestically, and I am happy to write to the noble Baroness about the detail of where that has got to.

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

Is the noble Lord making any progress on negotiating a new deal for the creative sector on touring in Europe? While he is thinking of a plausible answer to that, can he tell us whether, when he decided to reject the EU’s generous offer in the negotiations and throw touring musicians under a bus, he anticipated, is surprised by, or accepts any responsibility at all for the humiliation of our country scoring zero—nul points—in the Eurovision Song Contest?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, I am happy to accept responsibility for many things but I do not think I can reasonably accept that I affected the result on Saturday night. As regards creatives, of course we work to support all our creative industries in the situation that now prevails under the TCA. We made proposals in the negotiations that would have largely solved the difficulties faced by our great creative industries. The proposals made by the EU would not have done so, so we would be in this situation. We are now working as hard as we possibly can with the member states to establish the facts about visas and to support our industry in moving forward.

SolarWinds Cyberattack

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Monday 25th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

I agree with the noble Lord on the importance of sustaining and improving that capability. The Government are certainly giving attention to that—seeking to promote cyber skills and to encourage a sustainable pipeline of homegrown cybersecurity talent, and protecting our critical infrastructure. That is a key part of the strategy going forward. The noble Lord is quite right that, currently, the demand for cybersecurity skills outstrips supply. We must mend that issue.

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I used to write encryption software. Why does the trade and co-operation agreement recommend using encryption and hashing algorithms, which are both outdated and vulnerable to cyberattacks? It makes us look silly in the eyes of the technology world and just encourages hackers.

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, sadly I do not share the technical capacity of the noble Lord, but I will ensure that he has a reply adequate to the level of his much higher understanding.

EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I will ask the Minister to answer some very simple questions about musicians wishing to tour in Europe, because the deal document is far from clear. A friend of mine, Robert Henrit, is a drummer who honed his technique in the 1960s and 1970s playing with many rock stars who became household names, including Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, Jimi Hendrix, the Kinks, Argent and Don McLean. He still performs today, more than 60 years since he first started playing the washboard.

Robert remembers what things were like touring Europe before we joined the then Common Market. In those days you never knew how long it would take to cross a national border. It all depended on the customs officials. Robert tells me that, if they did not like the look of you, they could take several hours, or sometimes a day or more, to process your passports and inspect the carnets specifying what equipment you were carrying. If they really did not like the look of you, they would unload your equipment and take it apart to make sure there was nothing inside not listed on the carnet. He recalls his precious drum equipment being unloaded into the snow on one occasion. On those occasions, once the customs officers were satisfied, you were free to go, but you had to reassemble your own equipment.

Once we joined the EU, everything was different. There were smiles, and the stars and their equipment were just waved through the border. Sometimes they stopped for a comfort break and to sign a few autographs. I and Robert would like to know how things will change now we have left the European Union. How much will a carnet really cost? What about insurance? What other costs will be imposed? Together, these could make touring economically unviable. Will there be a limit on how many countries bands can visit during a tour? Often a tour takes in several countries. Will touring be as easy as it was when we were in the EU, or will we be back in what Robert calls “fiasco land”?

Economy

Lord Jones of Cheltenham Excerpts

Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jones of Cheltenham (LD) [V]]

I want to ask about our valuable music industry. The Government have been interested in getting theatres open and getting bums on seats, but they have given little thought to the people needed on stage in front of those bums. Does the Minister understand that the music business is a pyramid, with stars at the top, and that the bottom of the pyramid is in dire trouble? I refer to the pubs and clubs, where, without exception, musicians, including the Rolling Stones, Michael Bublé and the Kinks, get their break and learn their trade. The Musicians’ Union says that 38% of musicians are considering quitting the industry entirely. What are the Government going to do about it?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, the Chancellor has consistently said that his interventions have to be macroeconomic. However, we have tried to create safety nets to protect as many people as we can in the economy. I share the noble Lord’s concern for the music industry. My own father read music at Cambridge before the war, and I completely agree with the noble Lord that it is a very important part of our culture.