Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

That seems to me a very good point—yes.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to improve digital services across Government.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Michael Gove)]

The pandemic must be a catalytic moment when we use digital transformation to sharpen up how we deliver services to citizens and drive leaner, more efficient and, indeed, more insightful Government.

[Andrew Jones]

The past year has accelerated the digital marketplace very significantly and people are much more familiar and comfortable with doing business online. From a Government perspective, the efficiencies and service resilience have been obvious, so will my right hon. Friend ensure that all Departments across Government focus on improving digital access wherever possible, focusing not only on simplicity and security for users, but in the back office where significant savings may be made?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is spot on. He is absolutely right that the digital transformation of Government should make it easier for citizens to interact with Government, and to receive services quickly—everything from the renewal of passports to making sure that they can book appointments—but it is also the case that back-office functions in Government can be made even more efficient through the effective deployment of GDS’s superb cadre of civil servants. He has championed this quite rightly and I hope to work with him in future to make sure that we do even more.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Gove]

The broad public inquiry that we have set up—with, of course, consultation with the First Minister of Scotland—will, I hope, look at every aspect of our pandemic response. Although I did not hear all the evidence history, I understand that I was mentioned and the point was made that I got some things wrong. I have got lots of things wrong, but of course we will all reflect on those in due course.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend highlighted earlier how levelling up is central to the Government’s agenda. I have seen it portrayed as a north-south question, but it is not: there are left-behind communities right across the United Kingdom and there are left-behind pockets within communities such as towns and cities that would equally qualify. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that he is working right across all Government Departments to ensure that the commitment to levelling up is reflected in their policy agendas right across the UK?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We heard earlier from my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) about the particular challenges in Cornwall. Challenges exist across the United Kingdom, and as part of our levelling-up drive we are committed to meeting them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 25th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to increase the opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

What steps the Government is taking to increase the opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)]

Each year, the Government spend some £290 billion on public procurement. Now that the EU transition period has ended, we aim to make it simpler, quicker and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to bid for Government contracts, as set out in our ambitious procurement Green Paper. We received over 600 responses to that consultation and the submission from the Federation of Small Businesses welcomed our drive to simplify and diversify public procurement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Julia Lopez]

I completely agree. We want to see a much greater variety of companies deliver contracts from every corner of our country, not just because it benefits local economies and communities, but because we think it helps to diversify our risk, creates a more resilient supplier base and delivers some of our critical priorities.

[Andrew Jones]

Small businesses are often the source of innovation, particularly in the digital economy. It is often through digital investment that productivity is boosted, so how is my hon. Friend ensuring that those responsible for Government procurement and implementation have the skills that they need to take advantage of the opportunities that small businesses are creating?

[Julia Lopez]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point. Along with our procurement reforms, the Cabinet Office has also created a new Central, Digital And Data Office under expert leadership, and through that, we want to improve digital capability and expertise across Government. We also want to create many more opportunities for tech start-ups and other dynamic digital SMEs to bid for Government work, and the CDDO team is closely engaged in how we can do that through the forthcoming procurement Bill.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Can I just try and push us through to get through the list?

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

On 3 May, Wembley is scheduled to host the finals of the FA Vase and FA Trophy—not from this season, but delayed a year from the last one. But that date means that no fans can go, even though a trip to Wembley to follow their team is like a holy grail, especially for the smaller clubs. The MPs for the clubs involved—the right hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones), the hon. Member for Jarrow (Kate Osborne), my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Rebecca Harris) and myself—have raised this with the Football Association. Will the Prime Minister join us in encouraging those scheduling the matches to do all they can to move the date, so that the fans can attend?

[The Prime Minister]

I hope very much that the Football Association will have listened carefully to what my hon. Friend has said and that they will do what they can. I look forward to 17 May, when spectators, according to the road map, may return.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

The Chancellor has one of the hardest tasks that any Chancellor has faced in decades, with economic circumstances more typically associated with wartime, but with this Budget, he has shown vision and I congratulate him.

The first key theme was the welcome and necessary extension to the support given to families and businesses. It is huge in scale and I would like to put on record the fact that I am very pleased that this support will continue. The extension of furlough, business rates holidays, self-employed grants and universal credit are all very welcome.

Harrogate and Knaresborough has a significant hospitality and tourism sector, which has been badly affected by the pandemic. High-quality businesses have been utterly unable to trade, so I was very pleased to see the VAT cut to 5% extended to 30 September and will then be down at 12.5% for a further six months after that. That reduction will boost demand. Boosting domestic tourism will certainly help, but there is also significant pent-up local demand that the measure will help to unlock, thereby underpinning thousands of jobs.

Rather than comment on the Budget as a whole, I wish to comment on just two areas. First, I was pleased that the north has been chosen as the base for a UK first: the national infrastructure bank, the creation of which is very positive. We knew it was coming, but I did not know it was going to be based in Leeds. It is great news for the city and will bolster its established financial services and legal hubs. As the bank will serve the rest of the UK, we need the eastern leg of HS2 to connect to Leeds and must make sure that can happen more easily. As the Chancellor said, the bank will have an initial capitalisation of £12 billion. We will see investment in public and private projects and it will be a driver of green growth, which leads me to the second area on which I wish to comment.

On environmental initiatives, I like the Budget’s continued focus on offshore wind and the investment hubs in Humberside and Teesside, but what also caught my eye was the launch of a green savings product—a retail product of which we can all take advantage—and I look forward to the detail on that. The people of Harrogate and Knaresborough want to see progress on the environment.

I conclude by commending the Chancellor on his Budget. The scale and speed of the response to the crisis has been astonishing—£407 billion is a remarkable figure—but I also welcome the clarity on the longer-term position of our public finances. Conservative Members know that the Chancellor is in a position to respond as well as he has done because of the repair work done over the past decade. A moment ago, my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) highlighted the fact that we have had two supposedly once-in-a-century events in just over 10 years. The lesson is that financial responsibility allows Governments to respond to crises, and to respond at scale. It will be a tough job to repair the public finances after this pandemic, so it was good to see the focus on growth in the short, medium and long term.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Mr Speaker, you should summon him back—he seems to have vanished.

While the right hon. and learned Gentleman tries to work out what his position is, we are getting on with the work of government. As he says, it is a year since this people’s Government were elected and I am very proud that we are delivering on the people’s priorities: 6,000 of the 20,000 police officers; 14,800 of the 50,000 nurses already; and we are getting on with building every one of the 40 hospitals—it is about 48 hospitals—that we are going to deliver, along with the biggest programme of infrastructure investment in this country for a century. We are uniting and levelling up across the whole of the UK. Whether the outcome is Canada or Australia, we will be taking back control—we have already taken back control—of our money, our borders and our laws and we will seize all the opportunities that Brexit brings.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

Today is the 60th anniversary of “Coronation Street”, the world’s longest running TV drama series. This is an amazing landmark, so congratulations to it. Sometimes it feels as if we have been discussing infrastructure in the north almost as long. However, we have had the Oakervee report, which recommended that the Government committed to HS2 and its full y-shaped network serving both sides of the Pennines. We have had the positive decision to proceed with it. As the plans for the eastern leg of HS2, phase 2b, are developed, will my right hon. Friend consider starting construction from the north? That would be good for jobs in the north and for connectivity with the east midlands, all of which, of course, drive my right hon. Friend’s levelling-up agenda.

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a big expert in this field and a great campaigner for transport. He is right about the massive impact that these programmes can have on jobs. [Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 25th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

Our focus is on making sure that we are helping women during the coronavirus crisis, through the furlough scheme, through making sure that there is flexible working and childcare support available and through making sure that we get more women into jobs. My view is that we need to address the causes of the gender pay gap, including getting more girls and women studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, so that they are able to earn higher amounts in their careers.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

The impact of the pandemic on unemployment is being felt in every constituency. It is more important than ever to ensure that those living with disabilities are treated equally in the recruitment process, so what steps is my right hon. Friend taking to ensure that protections that support equality throughout the recruitment process stay prominent as we focus now on recovery?

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Justin Tomlinson)]

I thank my hon. Friend who is a real champion for disability employment opportunities in his constituency. As part of our £30 billion plan for jobs, disability provision is embedded throughout our schemes, including in kick-start, the job entry targeted support scheme, sector-based academies, apprenticeships, the health and work programme, intensive personalised employment support and access to work. We remind employers that, under the Equality Act 2010, they must focus on ability, not health or disability.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

The Prime Minister was asked—

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 4 November.

[The Prime Minister (Boris Johnson)]

The whole House is talking about the result of a heavily contested election—and indeed it is a year ago to the day, Mr Speaker, that you were elected Speaker. May I, on behalf of all Members, wish you therefore a very happy anniversary, and thank you, Mr Speaker, for making the speakership great again? [Interruption.] Thank you, Mr Speaker.

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Andrew Jones]

The city-wide testing trial starting in Liverpool on Friday using the new lateral flow tests will cut the time to get results, cut the spread of the virus by identifying people who are infected but not showing symptoms, and vastly reduce both the number of people and the time involved in isolating, so the benefits to the NHS, to schools and to business are profound. When does the Prime Minister think the results from this trial will be available and its benefits extended across the UK?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend. He is absolutely right. I can tell him that the pilot is planned to last for approximately two weeks and we will keep the House updated on the results as they are evaluated.

Covid-19 Update

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I understand the point that the hon. Lady makes, but she will also understand that the schemes that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has announced go on until next spring. We should not forget that the original furlough scheme has yet to elapse.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

The Nightingale hospital in Harrogate has been stood up ready for full-staff readiness. That 500-bed hospital was built in 18 days by 600 people—staff from the NHS, our armed services, Harrogate Borough Council and colleagues from the private sector. It was an example of local and national working together. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that that combination of local and national, public and private is the way to bring all the resources we can to tackle this pandemic?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, indeed. I can assure the people of Harrogate and elsewhere that we are stepping up preparations across the country, but the Nightingales, as I think Stephen Powis of the NHS has confirmed, are being stood up in the north of the country as well.

Covid-19 Update

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The second point is, of course, a matter for you, Mr Speaker, and it is for the House authorities to establish how to proceed, but I would encourage as much progress to be made as possible. For businesses the guidance is there and will be published later today. I hope they will take advantage of that guidance, and that it will make those businesses more manageable.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I welcome this statement. Harrogate and Knaresborough is in the top 10% of constituencies in this country for the hospitality sector, as measured by the number of people employed in it, which is almost 9,500 in our case. Many local authorities are looking to use streets and pavements for cafes and other hospitality businesses, which I support. Does my right hon. Friend agree that councils should be encouraged to use available spaces to help the hospitality sector reopen, while of course ensuring social distancing?

Transport Infrastructure

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We will get it going as soon as possible.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

May I congratulate the Prime Minister on this statement? He is so right when he says that the economy of the north needs both east-west and north-south connectivity. Does he agree that the challenge we face in transport is not, as sometimes articulated, between local and national investment—what we need is both?

[The Prime Minister]

Absolutely. We cannot have the gains of one without the other. Local productivity will not be boosted unless we improve national connectivity up the spine of this country, and that is what HS2 is all about.