Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)]

8. What plans he has to ensure the financial viability of the Post Office network.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)]

We have been clear that we will ensure that post offices are allowed to offer a wide range of services in order to sustain the network. We are working with Post Office Ltd to develop new sources of revenue, including considering the case for a Post Office bank.

[Simon Wright]

I thank the Minister for his response. He, like me, campaigned tooth and nail against the previous Government’s mass post office closure programme, which proved so damaging to communities such as mine in Norwich South. Can my hon. Friend give an assurance that over the next five years of this Government he will do everything he can to make sure there is no further post office closure programme?

[Mr Davey]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the work he has done in his constituency campaigning against the closures proposed by the previous Government. This Government recognise the important social and economic role played by post offices in communities throughout the United Kingdom. That is why we have secured £180 million in the next financial year for the social network payment and why I give the House my commitment that I shall work night and day to avoid the mass closures of post offices that we saw under the previous Government.

[Stuart Andrew]

In addition, I handed in a petition to Downing street, with more than 5,000 names of people who were trying to save four post offices in my constituency. Sadly, it fell on deaf ears. Is my hon. Friend concerned that Camelot’s proposed plans to allow bill payments through its terminals may adversely affect the 7,500 post offices that do not have such terminals?

[Mr Davey]

Again, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s work campaigning for his constituents and their post offices. I must say that Camelot’s proposal to provide commercial services through lottery terminals is still subject to the regulatory approval of the National Lottery Commission. If the commission consents to Camelot’s proposals, Post Office Ltd will carry out an assessment of the impact on sub-post offices and we will take that into account.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

I welcome the Minister’s commitment to the continuation of the provision of postal services in a wide range of communities. Given the difficulty of maintaining counter and, indeed, banking services in our poorest communities, can he give us an assurance that, in ensuring that such services can be maintained in such communities, public safety and staff safety will be a paramount consideration in finding suitable outlets?

[Mr Davey]

The safety of staff and the public is always a major consideration as we go forward in modernising the network. I think the fact that the Government are committed to looking for new services and new ways of doing things, and to seeing whether we can increase the financial services that go through the network, will be widely welcomed. That will enable the network to be more financially viable and therefore to meet even better the concerns that the hon. Lady has voiced.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

The Minister knows full well that one of the determining factors as to which post offices remained open during the two or three-year period when we lost 2,500 outlets was the access criteria. Can he give the House an assurance today that we will not see those access criteria interfered or tampered with?

[Mr Davey]

The hon. Gentleman can have my assurance that I am working very hard with Post Office Ltd to make sure that we have the new services that will generate the revenue, so that we do not have to see the mass closure programme that precipitated the access criteria that the hon. Gentleman’s Government had to introduce.

[Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises to economic recovery.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)]

This Parliament will have a chance to examine properly the free trade agreement with Peru and Colombia. We expect that member states will need to ratify the agreement formally in 2011, but we will confirm that when the final texts are issued later this year.

[Chris Bryant]

I do not know whether it is because the Minister is a Lib Dem rather than a Conservative, but that is a much better answer than I got to this question on Tuesday from the Minister for Europe. Can he ensure that that happens? There are other countries that would like to slip past the fact that Colombia has a poor human rights record. There are more trade unionists killed in that country than in all the other countries in the world put together, and an enormous problem with displaced people. It is therefore vital that this House gets to choose whether to sign up to that free trade agreement. Will he ensure that every other country signs up to that and, if necessary, use his veto?

[Mr Davey]

I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister for Europe gave an excellent reply to the hon. Gentleman. In any event, I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman, because when he was Minister for Europe he negotiated one of the strongest ever human rights clauses in the FTA with Peru and Colombia, and he deserves the credit on behalf of many people in Colombia. He will know that legal advisers are now looking at the draft text and will have to decide whether it is known as a mixed agreement or a union-only agreement. Our belief is that it will be a mixed agreement and therefore that not just the European Parliament but all Parliaments will have to consider it. That will create the debate that the hon. Gentleman seeks.

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

14. When he last met representatives of Universities UK; and what matters were discussed at that meeting.

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[Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

17. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on health and safety regulations affecting businesses.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)]

No discussions have as yet taken place between Ministers and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to health and safety regulations affecting businesses. However, Ministers met Lord Young of Graffham on 1 July. Lord Young is leading the Government’s review of health and safety laws and regulation, their implementation, the compensation culture and the associated litigation process.

[Ann Clwyd]

I hope that the Minister’s bosses in the House can persuade him not to work night and day, as he said earlier, because that sends a bad message to a lot of people. Since the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974, the number of fatal accidents at work has fallen by 75%. Can he assure us that there will be no return to the bad old days?

[Mr Davey]

First, I am not going to apologise for working hard. My right hon. and hon. Friends are working extremely hard. However, I can assure the right hon. Lady that the UK’s excellent health and safety standards will not be compromised as a result of this review. It will focus on unnecessary bureaucracy. I wonder whether she has spoken to businesses in her constituency—I have spoken to them in my constituency—who complain that, in order to comply with some of the complex bureaucracy of some of the health and safety rules, they have to employ consultants. We need to ensure it is easier to comply, but that in no way should undermine the importance of health and safety.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

18. What recent steps he has taken to increase access to finance for small businesses.

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[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

What assessment has been made of the impact of front-line services in local citizens advice bureaux, such as my own in Makerfield, of the £2.5 million cut to Citizens Advice?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)]

I have met representatives of Citizens Advice England and Citizens Advice Scotland to discuss any difficulties they might have in implementing in-year cuts, as I have with all partner organisations of the Department. They have given me their assurance that they are managing, and they are working with my officials to try to ensure that those cuts can be made without hitting the front line in the way that the hon. Lady describes.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

T6. Learners at colleges across England such as Great Yarmouth college have contributed something like £28 billion to our economy over the past 15 years. Does the Minister agree that those colleges need the support of our Government? What freedoms can we give them to ensure that they develop even further in the future?

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[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

Will the Minister assure me that in the lifetime of this Parliament he will not cut the budget of a vital part of his Department, the companies investigations branch, which does vital work to protect front-line services and consumers?

[Mr Davey]

All partner organisations and all parts of Government have to look very closely at their budgets as we approach the comprehensive spending review. We will ensure that key parts of the Department, which I often refer to as “the plumbing”—the parts that uphold company law and competition policy and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, for example—get the resources they need, as they affect key areas of our economy.

[Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con)]

May I say that the announced 50,000 new apprenticeships are hugely welcome in my constituency, as Rossendale and Darwen has many young people working in the manufacturing sector? Given that an apprenticeship should be only the start of a journey of lifelong learning, what steps have been taken to encourage those who have completed an apprenticeship to go on to university?