Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) Bill

Debate between Andrew Gwynne and Richard Burden

Friday 1st November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. One of the consequences of the provisions in my Bill will be a snowball effect. If public bodies, in particular, demand higher and advanced level qualifications as part of the apprenticeship deal more often, the greater the likelihood that higher education institutions will offer the qualifications that are relevant to the industries concerned. I think that from small things big things will grow. I am encouraged that my hon. Friend is in the Chamber today, because she speaks passionately about the job and work opportunities for her constituents. Like me, she represents a deprived community where educational opportunities are often the best route out of poverty. We know that in our communities public procurement is often the big spender. Using that money more wisely to help lift the job opportunities, skills and ambitions of young people in Newham and in Denton and Reddish is the best way of giving them opportunities for the future and of boosting the local economy.

As I said, many local authorities are already leading the way in their use of procurement to boost apprenticeship numbers. Not only my council, Tameside, but Knowsley, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and many others are developing strategies to use procurement contracts to create local apprenticeship opportunities for young people. Other authorities such as Plymouth, Bury—the authority of the hon. Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) —Reading and Stockport are engaging actively with local employers to boost apprenticeship opportunities more generally.

[Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a very powerful case. Would he also pay tribute to the work that Birmingham city council is doing with its 1,000 apprenticeships in 100 days initiative, which has had a major impact? But it is really important that all these initiatives reach those areas where the young people, who are often excluded, do not know these opportunities are available and target those areas as well as areas where racking up economic activity is already going on.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right and I commend the superb initiative in Birmingham. He is absolutely right that we must ensure that those who are the hardest to reach and who most need such opportunities have access to them. My Bill requires that those opportunities be advertised in the local jobcentre, because that is the only way to ensure that those hard-to-reach groups have the opportunities to access their way out of poverty, and to develop the skills and education that so far, sadly, they have missed. I am extremely pleased that my hon. Friend is here today to support these measures, because they will have a big impact, in cities like Birmingham, in driving up the ambitions and the skills of young people.

The hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) asked why, if this work is already taking place, there is any need for the Bill. In my discussions with a variety of public bodies, local councils, companies large and small, and training organisations, they have said that for all the good practice that exists, far too many public bodies still do not regard public procurement as a way to drive up skills. Perhaps that is because they do not have the ambition to do that, or because they have unfounded fears that some bogeyman in Brussels will say that it is not permissible. If the hon. Members for Bury North and for Shipley are fearful that my Bill might fall foul of Brussels, I invite them to join us in the Aye Lobby later, because I know that they both love nothing more than a scrap with those bogeymen in the Berlaymont.

I do not believe that Brussels is a problem, but others are looking to Government to provide them with the certainty that they need, so that local authorities, public bodies and Government Departments may require certain public procurement contracts to include a commitment to skills training.