Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme
Alan Mak Excerpts(6 months, 4 weeks ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Alan Mak)
The shipbuilding credit guarantee scheme is a finance instrument that provides guarantees to banks in respect of loans made to vessel owners and operators seeking to place orders at UK shipyards. The scheme was launched in July 2023 and the Department for Business and Trade is the accountable Department.
The export credits guarantee department—operating as UK Export Finance, or UKEF—acts as service provider to the Department for Business and Trade via a memorandum of understanding. UKEF manages inquiries and applications under the scheme, as well as assisting with the set-up and implementation of the scheme, and DBT covers resource and other costs. In order to have the necessary approvals to progress actual transactions, or potential transactions, on behalf of DBT, ECGD must apply for a Contingencies Fund advance to cover the vote on account period in financial year 2024-25. This Contingencies Fund advance of £90,000 was made over recess, and I am notifying Parliament at the earliest opportunity.
Parliamentary approval for additional resource of £90,000 for this new service will be sought in a main estimate for the export credits guarantee department. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £90,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.
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UK Trade: Aviation
Alan Mak Excerpts(7 months, 3 weeks ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office (Alan Mak)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) for introducing this debate, and for his work in establishing and leading the all-party parliamentary group for the future of aviation. I was glad to hear him refer to the report by Manchester Airports Group and WPI Economics, which have done some important research. I wish them well for the launch of their report. My hon. Friend gave an excellent speech, and he is right on so many counts.
The air transport sector is critical to the UK’s success as a trading nation. Its speed and efficiency gives our exporters the edge and connects this country to the world, enabling the face-to-face meetings that are the lifeblood of our world-leading services sector, as my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Sir Robert Syms) rightly highlighted. I entirely agree that the Government must keep striving to ensure that this vital sector thrives and continues to act as an enabler of global trade.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley points out, the world is changing fast. To succeed tomorrow, the UK’s aviation industry needs the right fundamentals in place today. That is why my colleagues at the Department for Transport have developed “Flightpath to the Future”, which is the Government’s 10-point plan to ensure that the UK continues to develop aviation as part of our critical national infrastructure. It is our blueprint to make sure that we have the skills, technology and infrastructure to deliver for aviation over the next 10 years. It will ensure that the UK maximises the benefits of aviation, delivering economic growth, increased trade and improved services for businesses and passengers.
I also highlight that aerospace as a major export is, in its own right, integral to the UK’s achievements as a trading nation, as my hon. Friend rightly said. It adds some £11 billion a year to our economy and employs over 100,000 people across the country. Factories in north Wales, Bristol, Derby, Prestwick and Belfast deliver critical components for the world’s airliners and air freighters. Almost every aircraft that hon. Members have flown on relies on British engineering. I always find it inspiring that roughly half the wings of all new commercial airliners are made in the UK and that a third of global aircraft seats are made in Northern Ireland. Here again, we are striving to ensure that we keep our leading edge and seize the advantages of a jet zero future, which my hon. Friend has so rightly highlighted.
That is why the Government and industry together have created the Aerospace Technology Institute and the ATI programme, delivering long-term and predictable funding that allows industry-led mid-stage R&D projects to get off the ground. The ATI’s objective is simple: grow the UK’s share of the global aerospace market while reducing aviation emissions. The results have been nothing short of transformative. Consequently, the UK’s aerospace industry’s productivity has soared.
Thanks to the ATI co-investment alongside industry, the UK is leading the Airbus Wing of Tomorrow programme, exploring radical new approaches to aircraft wing manufacture and design. We are also powering ahead in the field of engine manufacture, with the world’s most efficient jet engine—the Rolls-Royce UltraFan—on the horizon. The ATI has supported over 400 R&D projects worth £3.6 billion since it was founded, helping some incredible innovations developed by industry disruptors to take flight and attracting foreign investors to these shores, including Boeing and Safran. Given these achievements, it is only right that we continue to strengthen the UK’s position in the global aerospace manufacturing sector, and in the Government’s most recent autumn statement we extended the ATI programme budget for a further five years.
In addition, our jet zero strategy sets out our plan for achieving net zero aviation by 2050. It includes the new aircraft technologies developed in partnership by industry and the ATI programme. There is clearly a bright future ahead. Last year we got a glimpse of this promise—as my hon. Friend mentioned, he got more than a glimpse—when the first net zero flight crossed the Atlantic powered by Rolls-Royce engines and using 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
I turn next to airports, the beating heart of the UK’s trading economy. Already, the UK—and therefore its businesses—boasts the third largest aviation network in the world after the USA and China. As my hon. Friend knows, Gatwick continues to demonstrate incredible innovation with its existing assets, with the busiest and most efficient single runway in the world. I know that there have been various proposals over the years to construct another runway at Gatwick, and I understand that Department for Transport Ministers will be looking carefully at the latest proposal.
All our airports are supported by our world-leading supply chains, which are at the forefront of digital innovations and sustainable technologies when it comes to developing airports ready for the future. For example, NATS, the UK’s air navigation services provider, leads the way in providing next-generation solutions to enhance airport capacity and performance.
I reassure my hon. Friend that my Department fully recognises the importance of airports in underpinning the connectivity that is so vital to trade. We will continue to work closely with other Departments, particularly the Department for Transport, and airport stakeholders to encourage investment into the sector, while supporting our supply chains to export their expertise to the world. I also commend to the House our recent “Future of Flight” action plan, which provides a strategic plan to deliver the economic, environmental and social benefits that could be unlocked by exciting technologies such as drones and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
I want to thank my hon. Friend again for his work as a passionate advocate for the aviation sector. I reiterate my thanks to him for providing this opportunity to celebrate the achievements of aerospace and aviation in the UK and to discuss how this Government can even better support the sector and our exporters. The Government have a clear vision for the future of aviation in the UK. We see it as a critical enabler of trade long into the future, allowing communities across the country to benefit from the prosperity it brings. From Crawley to Havant, from Poole to Uxbridge via the Hamble Valley and across the entire United Kingdom, the future of aviation is bright. I thank my hon. Friend for his leadership in this sector.
Question put and agreed to.
Lithium: Critical Minerals Supply
Alan Mak Excerpts(7 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Alan Mak)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Gary. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) on securing this debate. He is a long-standing advocate for his home county of Cornwall and for the UK’s minerals industry. He has spoken powerfully about the importance of critical minerals to our economy and the role that Imerys, British Lithium and Cornish Lithium play in his community. He told us that he established the all-party parliamentary group for critical minerals. He is too modest to say this, but he is the driving force behind all those Hansard mentions of critical minerals, and I congratulate him on that. He speaks with great authority on the subject and I am grateful to him for giving us the opportunity to discuss it today.
I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Cherilyn Mackrory) and the hon. Member for Gordon (Richard Thomson) for their contributions to this debate, and I thank the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Croydon Central (Sarah Jones), for her kind words of welcome as I take up this post. I also wish to recognise the work of my predecessor in this role, my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Ms Ghani). As we have heard, she worked extensively on this issue, and I know that she will continue to support it in her new role in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
My predecessor recently visited three key mining projects in Cornwall, including two lithium mines in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay. Since I started this role four weeks ago, I have spoken to several UK mining companies, including Cornish Lithium and Johnson Matthey, with Pensana to come. I look forward to seeing for myself more growth-spurring, job-creating projects in the future, and I look forward to visiting Cornwall as soon as I can.
As my hon. Friend rightly notes, we are moving to a world powered by critical minerals. As we heard, we need lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite to make batteries for electric cars; silicon and tin for our electronics; and rare earth elements for electric cars and wind turbines. These critical minerals are characterised by having the highest levels of economic importance and the highest levels of supply risk. We know that they will become even more important over time as we seek to bolster our energy security and domestic industrial resilience, while pursuing cleaner, green forms of energy production. As my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth indicated, the world in 2040 is expected to need four times as many critical minerals for clean energy technologies as it did in 2020. However, we know that critical mineral supply chains are complex and vulnerable to disruption.
Traditionally, production is highly concentrated in certain countries. For example, China refines close to three quarters of the world’s lithium carbonate for batteries and around 90% of the world’s rare earth metals. State intervention in these markets is high. Supply chains are often fraught with environmental, social and governance issues and the market does not fully differentiate products on their ESG credentials.
All these issues present challenges to the UK’s security of supply, because UK industries and jobs, our energy infrastructure and our defence capabilities all rely on minerals that are vulnerable to market shocks, geopolitical events and logistical disruptions, at a time when global demand for these minerals is rising faster than ever. The Government’s view is that it is imperative for us to make our supply chains more resilient and more diverse. We need to support British industry now and in the future. That work is inextricably linked to both our energy security and our national security. For all these reasons, this Government have acted decisively to ensure that we have resilient domestic supply chains that give our businesses the long-term certainty they need.
As my hon. Friend said today, back in July 2022, we published our first ever critical minerals strategy, setting out our approach to improving the resilience of critical mineral supply chains. Above anything, it is a strategy that recognises that critical minerals are a multifaceted issue. It provides an overarching framework for accelerating our domestic capabilities, promotes closer collaboration with international partners and seeks to enhance international markets.
We always said that we would need to monitor global events and recalibrate our approach as necessary. That is one of the reasons we published the critical minerals refresh in March last year, reflecting the changing global landscape, highlighting progress to date and setting out our approach to delivering the strategy for UK businesses. Working closely with industry, we are already making good progress with the strategy, which I will say more about later, but we recognise that there is more to do.
I reassure my hon. Friend and all Members that we take a comprehensive and strategic cross-Government approach to critical minerals. While the Department for Business and Trade leads on critical minerals strategy, the delivery and evolution of the strategy and many of the policy levers lie outside my Department, and therefore we co-operate with Departments across Whitehall. I also reassure him that officials from my Department engage closely and regularly with officials in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero where necessary.
It is also important to note that we support UK industries, especially those that depend on a steady flow of critical minerals, to seek resilience and diversity in their own supply chains. That is why last year we launched the independent task and finish group on industry resilience for critical minerals—a first-of-its-kind initiative for industry-Government engagement on critical minerals supply risks. The task and finish group has raised the importance of critical minerals with key industrial sectors, helping them to manage the risks in their supply chains. It has also given us insights about the UK’s dependencies and vulnerabilities, and published a report containing a series of recommendations on how to best guide the delivery of our strategy. The Government warmly welcome the group’s report and our full response to those recommendations was published last month. I encourage Members to read that report if they have not already.
As my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay will be aware, the Government launched the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre in 2022, in partnership with the British Geological Survey, to monitor risks in supply chains and assess just how critical different minerals will be over time. Their first assessment identified 18 critical minerals, including lithium, rare earths, tungsten and tin, and an update is due by the end of this year.
These are vital efforts but we know that our work is not yet done. That is why we continue to work with industries across the board to support resilience and diversification in their supply chains. We re-emphasised that commitment in our critical imports and supply chains strategy, published by my Department at the beginning of this year. As my hon. Friend mentioned, the Critical Imports Council is a key part of that work. I was proud to chair its inaugural meeting earlier this month and I welcome that the Critical Minerals Association and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining are key parts of it. I look forward to working with them, as I know my hon. Friend does.
Here at home, we are supporting UK critical minerals producers to take advantage of the opportunities right along the value chain, including in Cornwall. While we will always rely on international supply chains, we have to maximise what the UK can produce domestically; my hon. Friend made the case for that powerfully. We need to make sure this is done where it is viable for businesses, and where it works for communities and our natural environment, as my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth rightly mentioned. I agree with her that the UK is perfectly placed to lead on midstream processing, including refining and materials manufacturing, building on its globally competitive chemicals and metals sector.
My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay is absolutely right that we have the capabilities to mine or refine enough lithium in the UK to satisfy more than our demands by 2030, but that is not true of all critical minerals. We have more than 50 projects at various stages of development to mine, process and recycle critical minerals domestically, and we want every one of those to be set up for success. That is why, to accelerate the growth of our domestic capabilities, the Government are investing big in critical minerals programmes. Our automated transformation fund, for example, is supporting projects in automotive supply chains, such as British Lithium, Green Lithium and Pensana. Meanwhile, as my hon. Friend will know, the UK Infrastructure Bank has invested over £24 million in Cornish Lithium. I was pleased to meet both the chief executive and the chief financial officer of that company in my second week in this role, which I hope underlines the importance of that company and his county to me and the strategy. They are part of a growing ecosystem, which includes gigafactory footprints that are getting bigger by the week.
At the same time, the Government are taking decisive steps to reduce the price of energy, as my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth mentioned, to ensure competitiveness with other major economies across Europe, including through the British industry supercharger, which she will know comprises a series of targeted measures to bring energy costs for key industries into line with our major competitors.
As my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay knows, the UK is also a pioneer in recovering critical minerals from waste, and we are ensuring that we stay ahead of the pack through Innovate UK’s circular critical materials supply chains programme to build and develop resilient supply chains. We are also exploring regulatory mechanisms to promote battery, waste-electricals and equipment recycling, which is an opportunity for this country.
The Government have a clear vision for the role the UK can play in critical minerals supply chains and we are throwing our full support behind business to harness and grow our competitive advantage, but we know that Britain cannot go it alone on critical minerals. International collaboration is key to building more resilient, diversified and responsible supply chains both here and around the world. The UK therefore has a role to play as an international deal maker, leveraging our extensive multilateral engagement and our strong relationships with mineral-rich producer countries and consumer markets.
Jim Shannon
In my contribution, I asked what could be done to increase technological advances in Northern Ireland, so that we can be a part of the great progress as we move forward. The hon. Member for Gordon (Richard Thomson), the spokesperson for the SNP, referred to some lithium deposits in Fermanagh and Tyrone, so there are possibilities—although that was not originally known, so I am very interested to find out about that. Will the Minister have discussions with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland to ensure that we can be part of this great vision for the future of the United Kingdom?
Alan Mak
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I will come shortly to the possibilities for Northern Ireland, and I will certainly cover the point that he makes. As ever, he is a great champion for Strangford and for Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom, and I very much welcome his contribution to this debate on the topic of how we can co-operate, both among the home nations of the United Kingdom and with our international partners.
I want to reassure the hon. Gentleman that we are making real progress when it comes to co-operation with our international partners. For example, we have agreed bilateral partnerships on critical minerals with Australia, Canada, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Zambia and Japan, with more to follow. The UK has also been represented at major multilateral forums, including the Minerals Security Partnership, which I attended in my second week in this role, and we are involved in the International Energy Agency, the G7 and other such forums. All this work means that we are collaborating closely with our partners to improve the resilience and security of the critical minerals supply chain.
My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay asked about the EU dimension, and I want to reassure him that the opinion on EU regulation is owned by the Health and Safety Executive, which is part of the Department for Work and Pensions. I will be very happy, if he would like me to, to assist him in following up with the HSE and the DWP to find answers to his queries, while respecting the scientific independence of those organisations.
That brings me to the question of Northern Ireland. I want to let the hon. Member for Strangford know that I will be visiting Northern Ireland before the summer recess—hopefully in the coming weeks—and I am looking forward to meeting my counterparts and exploring the opportunities for the UK Government to support businesses in Northern Ireland. I will certainly make lithium and minerals part of the agenda, and I look forward to any support he can give me in making sure that we cover those topics. Northern Ireland is a crucial part of the United Kingdom, its economy is thriving, and I want to ensure that we seize any opportunities we find there. I also say to the hon. Member for Gordon that, when I am next in Scotland, I will do the same there. I thank him for raising the possibilities north of the border.
A core element of our international engagement, beyond the multilateral partnerships I have mentioned, is helping like-minded resource-rich countries to develop critical minerals resources in a market-led way that aligns with our shared sustainability, transparency, human rights and environmental values—I am glad that they were mentioned in the debate. That is how the Government are ensuring that the UK is leading the way on critical minerals, driving up industry resilience, ramping up domestic production, and fostering closer international collaboration on the world stage.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay for securing the debate. I am grateful for the work that he and other hon. Members across the House do in supporting us in the mission to ensure that our critical minerals supply chains are strong, sustainable and resilient now and for many years to come.
Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)
I call Steve Double to have the final say.
Critical Imports Council
Alan Mak Excerpts(8 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Alan Mak)
Today the Department for Business and Trade convened the first meeting of the Critical Imports Council. This forum brings together experts from industry, academia and government to help ensure the resilience of those critical supply chains essential to the UK’s economic prosperity, national security and essential services. This meets the commitment made in the UK’s Critical Imports and Supply Chains Strategy, published in January this year.
The council is central to delivering one of the strategy’s priorities, forging and strengthening the relationships with business and academia that will help the UK adapt and thrive in an evolving global economy. This is part of our plan to improve Britain’s long-term economic security and opportunity.
The council, chaired by the Minister for Industry and Economic Security, includes representatives from the UK’s cutting-edge manufacturing, technology, logistics and transportation industries, and the world-leading supply chain expertise in our universities. The council is responsible for:
providing a forum for industry to identify barriers and other issues preventing the reliable and efficient importation of critical goods into the UK;
enabling cross-sectoral collaboration and best practice sharing on approaches to build supply chain resilience and test potential policy interventions; and
where appropriate, enabling joint government/industry development of interventions and allowing the sharing and discussion of evidence and insights
This first council meeting builds on the considerable work done by the previous Minister and officials in developing the Critical Imports and Supply Chains Strategy and subsequent implementation. The link to the strategy can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-critical-imports-and-supply-chains-strategy
We have published the membership of the council on gov.uk at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-ramps-up-work-to-secure-supplies-of-medicines-and-smartphone-chips
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Oral Answers to Questions
Alan Mak Excerpts(2 years, 5 months ago)
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Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Alan Mak)
The Treasury carefully considers the equalities impacts of policy on those with protected characteristics, in line with both its strong commitment to promoting fairness and its legal obligations under the public sector equality duty. In May, the Government announced over £15 billion of additional support targeted at those with the greatest need.
Jessica Morden
Single parents—nine in 10 of whom are mothers—are among those most exposed to the cost of living crisis, particularly those aged 25 and under, who get a reduced rate of universal credit. What are the Government doing to evaluate the impact of soaring prices on that group, and why have they not taken steps such as ending the age-related universal credit limit?
Alan Mak
The Government’s support package targets the most vulnerable households, including single parents, providing a £650 cost of living payment. I would certainly urge her constituents to contact the local council to see whether the household support fund can also be of assistance.
Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) (Lab/Co-op)
Today’s report from the Resolution Foundation shows that our economy is over a decade into a period of stagnation after 12 years of Tory rule, yet all we see from the Government Benches is a chaotic Tory tombola of tax cuts, and no plan for the more secure economy that women need. The impact on women has been stark, with 115,000 fewer women in employment now than before the pandemic. Does the Minister have any plans to halt that fall?
Alan Mak
The Resolution Foundation has actually praised this Government’s handling of the cost of living pressures. The cost of living support package, totalling £37 billion this year, is in line with our international competitors and more generous than France, Germany and Japan.
Anneliese Dodds
There we have it: there is no Conservative plan to support women’s employment. Women are being hammered by the Conservative cost of living crisis, which is getting worse by the day. After 12 years of economic failure, it is little wonder that Tory leadership candidates are trashing their own record. How else can the Minister explain the fact that by next April, average real pay for full-time women workers will have fallen by £670 since the Tories came to power?
Alan Mak
There are more people in employment and on payrolls than pre-pandemic levels, and women are driving that growth in our economy. The support programme this Government have introduced is helping women back into work, and I hope that will benefit the hon. Lady’s constituents as well as mine.
Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)
According to the Women’s Budget Group, the UK Government’s erosion of the social security system is a key contributor to the current Tory cost of living crisis. Women—particularly those with disabilities or caring responsibilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds—are disproportionately impacted by that crisis, which is a crisis unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. Knowing that, what specific steps has the Minister taken to make sure those equalities impacts are properly taken into account in the UK Government’s response to the cost of living crisis?
Alan Mak
As part of our cost of living support package, we have introduced a very specific disability cost of living payment, worth £150 per person. I would add that in the spending review, the UK Government gave the Scottish Government £41 billion a year as part of its settlement: the biggest since devolution, and a 26% increase compared with the average across the UK.
Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)
Oral Answers to Questions
Alan Mak Excerpts(4 years, 6 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
Of course, we do not normally continue with free school meals over the summer holidays, and I am sure that is right, but we are aware of the particular difficulties faced by vulnerable families. That is why we are announcing a further £63 million of local welfare assistance to be used by local authorities at their discretion to help the most vulnerable families. This Government have put their arms around the people of this country throughout this crisis and done their absolute best to help—[Interruption.] I may say that this is not helped by the wobbling and tergiversation of the Labour party and the right hon. and learned Gentleman. Last week he said that it is not safe; this week he says we are not going fast enough. We protected the NHS, we provided huge numbers of ventilated beds and we are now getting the disease under control, but we will do it in a cautious and contingent way.
Today I will be announcing further measures to open up and unlock our society, but only because of the huge efforts and sacrifice that this country has made. We are sticking to our plan of 11 May. It is a plan that is working and will continue to work, with or without the assistance of the right hon. and learned Gentleman.
Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)
The Prime Minister
Yes, and I thank my hon. Friend; he is absolutely right. We will be funding the Advanced Research Projects Agency to the tune of £800 million, and it will be tasked with supporting really revolutionary breakthroughs in this country. It is the UK—from the splitting of the atom to the jet engine to the internet—that has led the world in scientific research, and under this Government we intend to continue.
Oral Answers to Questions
Alan Mak Excerpts(4 years, 10 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
I certainly will make that undertaking to the hon. Gentleman. I am glad that he has raised this matter. We should not tolerate crimes of violence against shopworkers or indeed anybody else. I therefore find it paradoxical that the leader of his party is soft on the deportation of serious violent offenders.
Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)
The Prime Minister
Our new Office for Veterans Affairs is helping veterans to transition to new jobs and to secure homes. A discount railcard will be rolled out by Armistice day, and veterans will get guaranteed interviews for civil service jobs so that we have more veterans bringing their talents to government.
Preparations for Leaving the European Union
Alan Mak Excerpts(5 years, 2 months ago)
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Michael Gove
The first thing, of course, is promoting a deal. The second thing to say is that there are tried and tested alternatives that we can use to make sure that we keep people in this country safe. The third thing is that, once we leave the European Union, there are a number of things that we can do, which the Home Secretary has outlined, that will allow us to be even safer. There are steps that the Border Force can take, steps that we can take on the border to no longer recognise ID cards, and steps that we can take to increase the criminality threshold for entry.
Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)
Hampshire’s local resilience forum is playing a key role in preparations for Brexit. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that it has the right resources and support to make a success of those preparations?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend is right. Hampshire LRF attended a meeting of the EU Exit Operations Committee last week, and I was incredibly impressed with the work that it is doing. We will continue to work closely with it.
Debate on the Address
Alan Mak Excerpts(5 years, 2 months ago)
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Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bradford South (Judith Cummins).
I rise to welcome today’s Queen’s Speech because it lays the foundations for delivering Brexit and ending some of the uncertainty that has affected our country over the past three years. Speaking as a Member who voted to trigger article 50 and against delays, that is what the country needs. The Queen’s Speech also outlines investment in the public services that my residents in Havant rely on—our police, our schools and our health service—which is why I am pleased to support it today.
I congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for North East Derbyshire (Lee Rowley) and for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) on moving and seconding the Loyal Address eloquently and powerfully.
As this new Session begins with a new Government and a relatively new Prime Minister, it is important to re-emphasise that investment in technology and science is how this country will secure its prosperity and security after we deliver Brexit. Contrary to the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), I think that the Queen’s Speech looks to the future and offers something for communities across the whole country.
Looking at Brexit specifically, the seven pieces of legislation in the Queen’s Speech will create a new regulatory framework for agriculture, fisheries and financial services, and it is right that this Queen’s Speech gets our statute book ready for Brexit.
I welcome the new environment Bill, which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford) rightly said, will enshrine in law important measures to cut air pollution, to reduce plastic usage, and to improve the quality of our water.
I am pleased that the Domestic Abuse Bill was carried over from the previous Session. Charities such as Stop Domestic Abuse in Havant do important work in this field, and the new Bill will help them.
The police covenant is also being put into law, rightly recognising the bravery and commitment of our police. When I went out with a local response unit in Havant, it was humbling to see the commitment and hard work that they put in day in and day out to keep our communities safe.
On an extremely positive note, I was pleased to see the medicines and medical devices Bill, which will give the NHS access to the most innovative medicines. The Bill follows a trend of innovation and the adoption of innovation started by my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt) and continued by the current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, because ensuring that our health services are on a proper, strong footing when it comes to technology is incredibly important.
All the measures that I have mentioned help to tackle some of the challenges we face today in our public services, in our economy and in delivering Brexit. However, I also support the Queen’s Speech because it is forward looking, helping the UK to stay prosperous and competitive after Brexit, particularly by seizing the opportunities offered by science and technology, artificial intelligence, big data, precision medicine, robotics and machine learning. Those technologies are already transforming our society and our economy, and the Queen’s Speech takes that agenda forward.
Speaking as the founder and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the fourth industrial revolution, it is important for the House to know that there is an exciting agenda beyond Brexit, supported by the Government, to ensure that prosperity and the advantages of technology are spread to communities across the country. I therefore welcome the commitment to make the UK a global science and technology powerhouse after Brexit, making us a magnet for talented innovators, inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and businesses from around the world, encouraging them to come to this country to invent, manufacture, design and export.
The Queen’s Speech sets out plans significantly to increase public R&D funding, providing a framework that gives long-term certainty to our science community. The Government have already increased public spending on R&D by £7 billion over five years—the biggest ever increase in public R&D funding—which is welcome, because R&D is vital to creating a productive economy. The productivity of firms that invest in R&D is around 13% higher than those that do not, so R&D investment is key to our future. The plans in this Queen’s Speech will help to accelerate the UK’s position in the world and to reach the target of spending 2.4% of GDP on R&D by 2027. This big boost in funding will allow us to invest strategically in cutting-edge science, while encouraging the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs and businesses to invest in the UK, but this country also needs to go further. The Queen’s Speech sets out a path to 2.4% of GDP, but the world leaders, such as South Korea and Israel, reach 3% of GDP and we must match them in time.
The Government also announced today that the UK will accelerate efforts to realise fusion energy through investment in a new UK fusion reactor design programme, which aims to deliver the world’s first commercially viable fusion power plant by 2040. I have visited First Light Fusion, a company in Oxfordshire that is doing incredibly exciting and important work in this field. Fusion energy has the potential to power most of the country, so it is right that the Government invest in it.
Bob Stewart
My hon. Friend says we aim to spend 2.4% of GDP on R&D. If that is correct, it is an enormous amount of money. To put it in context, it is way more than our defence budget.
Vicky Ford
Of course, the 2.4% will come from both public and private investment, so it is not all Government spending. The key element is to make sure we encourage investment from outside sources, as well as from domestic and public sources.
Alan Mak
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In fact, every £1 of public expenditure on R&D typically leverages around £1.40 of additional private sector investment, so it is a powerful tool. If the Government can turbocharge and accelerate investment in R&D, the private sector will follow.
To answer my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), I very much hope the defence budget will also increase in time. There have been significant advances in defence technology, and the Ministry of Defence has led the way in helping small and medium-sized enterprises and incubators to develop products for the defence sector. I hope that increases in the future, as it has been a good model in America and other NATO allies for ensuring their armed forces have access to the latest technology. I hope our armed forces do that, too.
Returning to the Queen’s Speech, not only is there an increase in public investment in R&D but there is a commitment to fusion energy, which holds the possibility of driving forward our energy market and our energy capabilities in the years ahead. As I mentioned, First Light Fusion in Oxfordshire is doing exciting and interesting work, and I hope it succeeds.
The Queen’s Speech also establishes a new space council and launches a comprehensive space strategy. Our space capabilities are increasingly central to our day-to-day lives, whether civilian or military. These important capabilities underpin a range of technologies, from smartphones to navigational devices, so this new national space council and space strategy will help us to lead the way in creating high-value, high-skilled, high-wage jobs across the country. My Havant constituency is already leading the way in this area, with firms such as Lockheed Martin doing excellent work.
This Queen’s Speech will help our world-leading science and technology base to grow even further. Science and technology will be the foundation of our prosperity after Brexit, and it will help us to tackle some of the big challenges facing society, such as ending the UK’s contribution to climate change, managing the adoption and adaptation of fourth industrial revolution technologies, transforming our transport systems and tackling the challenges associated with an ageing population.
The grand challenges and the Government’s industrial strategy, to which I had the privilege of contributing in a small way when I was at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, are already helping the country to secure our position in the world, but this Queen’s Speech takes us even further and faster, which is why I will be pleased to support it in the Lobby next week.
Priorities for Government
Alan Mak Excerpts(5 years, 4 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
I have the fullest admiration for the Home Secretary’s policies on law. I do not support the death penalty, but what the people of this country want to see is proper sentencing for serious violent and sexual offenders—[Interruption.] I am glad to see some nodding from those on the Labour Benches. There are Members opposite who know where their constituents truly are on some of these issues, and they are right, unlike the current leadership of the Labour party. That is what we will do, but of course, we will also be pursuing all the preventive measures necessary to reduce our prison population and to pursue a humane and liberal approach at the same time.
Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)
I congratulate the Prime Minister on his election. Britain is establishing itself as a world leader in the new technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. Will he support our small businesses and start-ups that create the wealth that funds our public services?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for all the good work that he has done to promote investment in such start-ups. I look forward to further conversations with him about ways that we may encourage that investment.