Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Debate between Lord Popat and Baroness O'Cathain
Lord Popat
My Lords, of course the Government will address them. The same argument always comes out when a new form of transport is developed—as it did with trains, cars and aeroplanes. It comes down to two questions. First, do the benefits of the new industry, economic and otherwise, outweigh the possible negatives as regards safety, security and privacy? Secondly, are we confident that we are regulating enough to ensure safety but not regulating too much so that we harm the new industry, which is very lucrative?
Baroness O'Cathain (Con)
My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, knows, the European Union Select Committee is currently doing a study on the situation as regards drones. Only yesterday and the day before we took evidence on this in Brussels from various people; and we have already taken evidence from the CAA and BALPA. The noble Lord is right to say that the situation is fast developing. I am sorry—I am not asking a question on that, I just want to put this in context. What is being done at the moment is to safeguard Britain’s position on safety regulation and pilot involvement, and I think that it is slightly too early to make any statement.
Lord Popat
I agree with my noble friend and pay tribute to the good work she does in chairing that important committee. I believe that its report is due in January. Once we get that report—which will address things such as safety, control, security, insurance and so—we should be able to analyse and establish what further regulation or control we need to bring in to make this industry safer.
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Funding
Debate between Lord Popat and Baroness O'Cathain
Lord Popat
My Lords, my answer is no different from that to the previous question about awareness. Yes, we are doing everything possible through the Bank of England and the clearing banks to make their customers aware of the different schemes available to SMEs to borrow money through government incentives.
Baroness O’Cathain
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Sharkey is absolutely right: knowledge of the funding available does not seem to be percolating through. That is a real shame, because SMEs account for some 98% of all businesses in the UK and internal market. They also account for so much activity, and there could be a huge opportunity for growth and for employment, because if every SME in the UK, and where possible in the internal market, took on one extra employee, there would be no unemployment. The combination of getting the banks to let go of some funding for SMEs, plus trying to encourage more employment by the SMEs, could get us out of trouble very quickly.
Lord Popat
My Lords, since the banking crisis in 2008, the banks are a little risk averse. They do not want to have excessive lending. At the same time, the SMEs are risk averse too; 61% do not actually borrow money for their businesses, mainly because they have retained profits to run their business but quite often because they use their own capital. However, I agree with the noble Baroness that awareness is key. This is where we have partly failed, and we are taking steps to ensure awareness. Having said that, we launched the Funding for Lending scheme this time last year, and so far we have lent £16.5 billion through it. That is a pretty good record for the Government.
Small Businesses: Late Payments
Debate between Lord Popat and Baroness O'Cathain
Lord Popat
My Lords, government departments are obliged to pay 80% of their invoices within five days. We are promoting a culture of prompt payment. We would not like to bring this in as part of legislation. In many ways, we inherited this particularly important and good legislation from the previous Government. We will now further enhance it by taking the European directive to make sure that UK suppliers are paid by member states of Europe.
Baroness O'Cathain
My Lords, I ask my noble friend whether it is a great thing that 75% of the FTSE 100 who actually pay have subscribed to this code. First, a code is a code, not a law. Circumstances are such now, with austerity in such a state, that we ought to look at this seriously. If 75% of the FTSE 100 pay on time, that still leaves one in four of our major companies that do not. I also support the point that my noble friend raised: is the Minister able to give us details of which government departments actually pay on time, not the ones that do not?
Lord Popat
My Lords, at least 80% of invoices are paid within five days by government departments. In March 2013, the biggest paid 97.1% of its invoices within five days. Although 75% of FTSE 100 companies have signed this code, we are doing everything possible to encourage and support the other 25% who have not signed. However, there is a good chance that these companies do not supply that many goods and services in the UK, even though they are FTSE 100 companies listed in the UK.