Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
Debate between Lord Marland and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
Lord Borrie
My noble friend Lord Whitty has made a most useful point. There is no doubt at all that this Bill, and this part of the Bill, is a convenient vehicle. Governments often look for convenient vehicles to do things that they have already decided to deal with. In this case that may not be so, but I suggest that if it seems convenient to the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, I have no doubt that it will seem convenient to some members of the Government.
I think that what we on this side of the Committee this afternoon are saying is that we are not worried about particular words in an amendment, and we are not expecting the Minister to accept these particular amendments. However, we are expecting the Minister to take this back to his people with higher pay rates than he has, and indeed to the Ministry of Justice and all the other departments that are probably interested in this subject, because plurality of the media is vitally important. It is a public interest concept beyond competition. It is subsidiary to competition, in a sense. We want competition because we want plurality. We want plurality because we want diversity of opinions throughout the industry. The Bill is a convenient opportunity to deal with an aspect of Leveson which, I am sure, is not the most controversial at all—but it happens to be with us, and it happens to be on the Government’s agenda. There also happens to be a Report stage and a Third Reading at which he can take this further.
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, knowing the nature of this Government and the fact that not everyone in it is paid, I wonder whether before my noble friend the Minister gets up, he could tell us whether he has a pay grade at all. If he does not then, quite clearly, he has an all-inclusive alibi against anything which is said to him from the opposite side.
Lord Marland
As I was about to say before I so rudely interrupted the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, for which I apologise, I thought that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, made a brilliant speech. If he wants to go into the Chamber I will do a deal with him: he can dump the rest of his amendments and he is very welcome to go.
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
Debate between Lord Marland and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
Baroness Brinton
It would be very helpful for other Members of the Grand Committee to be able to see the Minister’s letter to the noble Lord, Lord Monks, and any other replies that are circulated.
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, before the noble Baroness rises to make her final decision, I intervene to make the point that there is sympathy around the Grand Committee for the case that she has been putting forward. I have only once been involved in legal proceedings. It was an industrial tribunal. I was advised that once the person who was taking us to the industrial tribunal had instituted proceedings, I should not be involved in giving her advice, against the possibility of misunderstanding, but I was very strongly of the view that she was making a mistake. Our barrister was the noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine of Lairg, before he ascended to that role, and his pupil, who accompanied him, was the future Prime Minister. They were effective in arguing our case, and the tribunal found that there was no proper cause for compensation to be offered. The irony of the whole thing was that the fees of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine of Lairg, and whatever he provided to the former Prime Minister exactly equalled the money that we had been prepared to give her before she instituted the proceedings against us.
Lord Marland
My officials have suggested that I clarify as I was not perhaps as clear as the noble Lord wanted. They have passed me a note saying that the clock stops when the claim is received by ACAS and starts again when the certificate is received by the claimant. Is that as clear as mud?
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, on this occasion, I have considerable sympathy with the amendment moved by the Official Opposition. I do not know whether there are particularly reasons why the words “or constructively” are unacceptable to the Government. No doubt they will emerge, but I can understand that there might be circumstances to which this clause would be relevant where unfairness and constructiveness were mutually exclusive. Something might not qualify as being unfair, but could be interpreted as being constructive dismissal, so I have sympathy for why this amendment has been put down.
Lord Marland
Of course we all have sympathy with this issue, but we are seeking to ensure that the balance is rebalanced so that the employer has some protection and unfair dismissal is not one-sided, as we and the bulk of employers believe it currently is. We are going over quite a lot of ground that has already been covered.
In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Dean, there is a very clear safeguard for employees. There is a very clear procedure that protects them. She made out that a poor person comes into the room and is told for the first time in his or her life that he or she is going to be put out of work, or that there was potential for that, because you cannot do it the first time. It is three strikes, as the Committee knows. The fact of the matter is that often there is justification. The employee is no longer fulfilling their role, and the employer has come to the conclusion that they cannot carry on fulfilling the task that they were employed to carry out. We have to understand that there has to a balance or the employer is not going to carry on employing.
I have been a significant employer and have seen huge—and correct—changes in the balance in favour of the employee and that there has not been indiscriminate behaviour from the employer. I note that the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, was more concerned, not about the big companies to which the noble Baroness, Lady Dean, referred—big companies that can prepare the way and will have had all the legal advice before they call that employee in—but the smaller companies that do not have that advice. They are the ones which do not consult and do not handle the whole programme properly. They are the ones we are all concerned about. Indeed, they themselves should be concerned because they have not prepared in the decent and proper way employers should in handling this very important issue in someone’s livelihood.
As such, we must get the balance right. We must understand that we have to be balanced in our rhetoric and that there are two sides to this, as fundamentally we all do, because all of us in this Room want people to employ more people, do it decently and create livelihoods. All we are trying to do here is establish a slightly better balance. With that understanding I hope the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment.
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
Debate between Lord Marland and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, I have a short technical question for the Minister and, conceivably, for the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson. It is concerned with the final word in Amendment 5: “she”. My recollection is that when we moved to having Secretaries of State as the title of those people who headed departments, it was so that “Secretary of State” in legislation could be interchangeable between departments. My interest is whether if you use the word “she” you run the risk of fracturing that particular arrangement or whether there is a convention contained in the use of the words “Secretary of State” that allows the gender to be circumscribed in that way.
Lord Marland
I thank noble Lords, especially the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, for their words. The Government agree that there must be parliamentary scrutiny of the bank’s statement of objects and particularly in terms of its green purposes as part of the process of designation of the bank. That is why in another place we tabled an amendment to that effect. However, we do not believe that there is a need to separate out the statement by the Secretary of State. I will try to respond to the question asked by my noble friend Lord Brooke on the Secretary of State in a minute because with his years of experience in government—I am playing for time now—he knows far more about this particular thing than I would ever dream of knowing, but I will come to that in a minute.
The Secretary of State is satisfied that the bank’s objectives are consistent with the green purposes because Clause 2(2) already provides that he cannot lay a draft order before Parliament unless he is so satisfied. I am also happy to give noble Lords the commitment that the Government will make available to Peers and to Members of the other House a copy of the bank’s articles of association when the draft order is laid so that all can be made transparent.
The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, asked about the sale of shares. This Government are committed to not selling the relevant shares but, unfortunately, this Government cannot legislate for a Labour Government, for example, if they wished to sell the shares. I am sure the noble Lord knows that better than I do. It would therefore be wrong to try to impose things on future Governments. We will be in power for a very long time, but just in case we are not, the Opposition may choose to change the law if they come to power.
As a general point on outside investment, one of the things I have noticed as I have travelled the world is the clear desire of international companies to come in alongside the Green Investment Bank as co-investors because the integrity of the board that has been set up, its skills and knowledge and the leadership Britain has shown under this Government and the previous one in terms of green credentials and green expertise has meant that we are seen as a centre of excellence. If the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Kelvin, were standing here, I know he would say that there is huge scope for involving international companies to invest in the bank. I really do not think that that is a problem.
I have no idea what the response to the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, is, so, if I may, for once, I shall request the pleasure of writing to him about something which is not to do with cricket. I hope that with that explanation—
Lord Marland
I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Jenkin of Roding for explaining that. In fact, it coincides with a note that has just been passed to me affirming it. There are two issues, of course. First, our current Secretary of State is a he, and, secondly, we refer to each other as, “My Lords”. I hope that that means I do not have to write to the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, on the subject—although I am always delighted to do so.
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lord Jenkin of Roding. I was, in fact, previously aware of that. I was raising the question of why the word “she” had suddenly appeared. I did not wish to embarrass the Official Opposition by directing the question at them, so I directed it at my noble friend.
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, I have a small technical question. The Official Opposition indicated, in the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, a clear understanding that it was the Bank of England that was consulted on quantitative easing, but I have a question for my noble friend. If he were so minded as to grant this amendment, would we need a consequential amendment in the context of the reference to the consent of the Treasury in subsection (4)?
Lord Marland
I am very grateful for this probing amendment, which goes back to the creative thinking on how we can get more money into the Green Investment Bank. The point is that we have committed to invest £3 billion up to 2015. That is a set figure and we have set out our stall. It has been agreed by the Commission and any change would require state aid, which is a pretty significant process and which would take time. So the allowance of bonds or ISAs, which are incredibly valuable things, will not, I am afraid, be achievable within the timetable up to 2015. For the purposes of clarity, however, we are interested in exploring this—and why would we not be? We will be looking at this and debating it further. Clearly, we are not going to get investment into this bank unless it starts to get a track record, which most bond and ISA investors would want to see. When the bank has its track record up and running, we will carry on with this.
Of course, we would need another amendment in terms of Bank of England quantitative easing and so forth. We would need an awful lot more than that, let us be fair, because it is way beyond my pay grade to start discussing such figures and such immense subjects of finance. I am grateful for the suggestions. We recognise that they are constructive and we would like to carry on the dialogue over time. With that, I hope that the noble Baroness will withdraw her amendment.
Energy: Voltage Optimisation
Debate between Lord Marland and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
Lord Marland
The Government are not here to take on all sorts of design that come in, although we are obviously keen to promote any reduction in electricity demand or supply, particularly in demand—and voltage optimisation is one such thing. It is already in existence. We have led by example, as I have indicated, in our department and No. 10. We encourage all people to look at it on a commercial basis because it saves on electricity demand. I hope that that answers the noble Baroness’s question. I repeat for her benefit that I am not entirely clear whether it is of benefit in domestic situations. I have asked my department to organise a workshop on the Green Deal in the next month to study it carefully.
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that in 1757, after the unfortunate death of Byng, a French admiral wrote to Voltaire and said that in similar circumstances he would have done exactly the same thing as Byng. I hope that my noble friend is pleased to have French support in these matters.
Lord Marland
I am sure I echo the sentiments of the House when I say that to have French support for anything is rather unusual but extremely valuable. I thank my noble friend very much.