Debbie Abrahams
Main Page: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)Department Debates - View all Debbie Abrahams's debates with the Cabinet Office
Interserve
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Oliver Dowden
I thank the hon. Gentleman for both of those questions. Let me deal with each in turn. Interserve will make decisions as to employment and other things on an ongoing basis. Nothing has changed between Friday and now; none of those job changes will be as a result of this change in the corporate structure, as the operating companies are wholly unaffected. Clearly, I cannot, from this Dispatch Box, give commitments on the future employment decisions of a private company going forward, but I can assure him that none of those will arise from this change in the corporate structure. He made a point—a pedantic but an important one—in relation to a contract being accepted. Essentially, that happens when the relevant Department, the Foreign Office, has signed the contract, because, at that point, it is legally obliged to enter into it and deliver on it. There may be a gap between the contract being agreed and it actually being entered into. That is the point at which the assessment is undertaken, which was in August.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
When Carillion collapsed, 30,000 small businesses lost, on average, £141,000. For one business in my constituency, the figure was over £176,000. I appreciate that it is not exactly the same, but may I urge the Minister to look at my Bill for project bank accounts, which would have protected the small businesses that lost that money in Carillion? Project bank accounts would also protect businesses that must be worried about their future in Interserve, and other companies, and would ensure that late payments are prevented.
Oliver Dowden
I welcome the hon. Lady’s acknowledgement that this situation is different to Carillion. She rightly raises the point about project bank accounts, and I know that she has been a strong campaigner on that issue. I agree that there is an important role for project bank accounts to play, particularly in the construction supply chain. That is why last year I hosted a roundtable at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy with suppliers to understand their experience of project bank accounts and to consider how we can use them more widely across the public sector.