Enterprise Bill [HL]
Debate between Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan and Baroness Byford
Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan
My Lords, I am very pleased to come in on this point. The problems of small businesses can very often be summed up as that they spend a lot of time financing bigger businesses. They do so because they are not getting paid and the bigger businesses have the money which they should have been paying further down the supply chain. We all recognise that this is an issue and, in some respects, the establishment of the Small Business Commissioner is evidence of that. However, it is equally significant that we have got to give the commissioner a chance from the very start. He has powers and teeth and he has support. Big businesses will not be allowed to set aside their responsibilities in respect of payment. This group of amendments covers both public and private sectors. In many instances, we have supply chains where the initial payment for work done comes from the public sector but there are many casualties going down the chain. The 30-day rule may be applied by some, but not by all. We do not need to wait on the commissioner asking for powers. We need to be able to say that this is the arena in which you will be operating and these are the powers and weapons you will have with which to take on the recalcitrants.
The amendments are a bit imperfect at the moment, but the principle is there. It is up to the Minister to come to us and say that the Government think, like noble Lords on this side of the Room, that something needs to be done. If this is not adequate, then by all means let us look at it again at subsequent stages, and in the other House, if necessary. Without this kind of clear backdrop, the Small Business Commissioner will be disadvantaged and will not be able to make the significant take-off, in respect of payments, that everyone would like to see right from the word go.
Baroness Byford
My Lords, I have a couple of questions for the noble Lord who moved these amendments. The theme of our discussions in the Room today has been that the powers in the Bill are felt to be ineffective. That made me think back to the discussions we had when we set up the Groceries Code Adjudicator not so many years ago, when the powers and effectiveness of that role were discussed fully. My first question, which is also for the Minister, is whether we learnt anything from that adjudicator that might have a bearing on the issues raised in our discussions. Secondly, in light of that, might a transitionary scheme be an advantage in the long term? It seems a shame not to learn from things we talked about in great detail in the past. One of these was the question of whether the powers were sufficient and would bring reward.
I know there is a slight difference between the Groceries Code Adjudicator and the commissioner we are setting up here. A lot of the adjudicator’s role was trying to solve the problems between suppliers and the people they were supplying. Fines and enforcement were nearly a last resort, but it was very important that they were there. My question, to both the Minister and the noble Lord, is about whether lessons have been learned, or whether there are other schemes out there which would give us more guidance on what the Bill proposes.