Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Ann McKechin

Wednesday 25th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The change to which the hon. Gentleman refers simply makes clear what was already the case. There will be considerable concern about whistleblowing, and we will do whatever is needed to ensure that we continue to be much more open about things that have gone wrong. Things are much less suppressed than they were when the Labour party was in power.

[Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

5. What progress he has made on promoting digital inclusion.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Ann McKechin

Wednesday 19th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

We have enabled suppliers who suspect that a procurement is being done in the old-fashioned way that we inherited to raise it directly with my officials in the Cabinet Office, who can then intervene with the public sector procurer-commissioner to ensure that it is done in the modern way, which does not exclude small businesses from supplying to government in the way that was routinely the case in the past. We have made a huge amount of progress, but we still have a long way to go.

[Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

5. What his policy is on the deduction of trade union subscriptions from payroll in the civil service.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

The policy is delegated to individual Departments.

[Ann McKechin]

I am interested in the Minister’s response because I understand that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has been writing e-mails and letters to other Secretaries of State, asking them not to write off. Will the Minister confirm whether that is correct, and will he make clear all correspondence between him and other Liberal Democrat Ministers concerning their opposition to this Tory attack plan on worker representation?

[Mr Maude]

I can do no better than quote a member of the Public and Commercial Services Union—she is just identified as June—who said that direct debit is

“the easiest way of paying my union subs. You know then that it’s going to get paid because you’re not dependent on your employer taking it from your wages. I think it’s better.”

I agree with June.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Ann McKechin

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

T7. It has been reported that half of charities are planning to cut their work force or expenditure in the next 12 months. What real steps will the Minister take to help those charities to carry out the valuable work that they do throughout our country?

[Mr Maude]

The hon. Lady will know that, to give one example, my right hon. Friend the Justice Secretary is proposing to open up the whole of rehabilitation services so that particularly charitable and voluntary organisations and social enterprises will be able to bid on a payment-by-results basis to win that business. We have created a growing social investment market, supported by big society capital, which will enable those groups to get for the first time access to capital to fund those projects.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Ann McKechin

Wednesday 8th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

We want 25% of the value of Government contracts to be awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises, and we have made significant progress towards that. This has so far led to a more than doubling in the amount of direct spend awarded to SMEs in the first half of the current year.

[Ann McKechin]

The Minister will be aware that his own commercial representatives of SMEs have said that it will take up to two years before SMEs stop being excluded from Government contracts. Does he agree that that is utterly unacceptable? What is he going to do to make better use of EU exemptions that protect local economies?

[Mr Maude]

I fully accept that it will take a little time to get things fully sorted out following the mess left after 13 years of the hon. Lady’s Government, so rather than chiding us for the progress that we are making why does she not congratulate us on our progress and start apologising for the mess her Government left behind?