Interserve
Debate between Emma Hardy and Oliver Dowden(5 years, 1 month ago)
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Oliver Dowden
I understand the hon. Gentleman’s frustration with the behaviour of some of the hedge funds concerned, and their failure to agree to this refinancing. However, I reassure him that there will be no change to the delivery of any contracts that Interserve carries out, including the ones that he listed. Those services are being delivered in exactly the same way today as they were on Friday; there has been no change in jobs, no changes in pensions and no change in the delivery of those services.
Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)
Interserve has the contract for the long-awaited bridge across the A63 in my constituency, and Highways England is doing everything it can to ensure that work continues as normal. I am giving the Minister the opportunity to offer me and the people of Hull the reassurances and guarantees that we need, because we will not be very happy if there are any delays to the bridge, after waiting 20 years to have one. Will the Minister offer guarantees that as Interserve goes through administration, there will be no delays to the building of the bridge, no delays to the payment of the people working on the bridge, and no delays to payment of local subcontractors?
Oliver Dowden
Once again, I remind the House that that contract was awarded in September 2018 by Highways England. I absolutely assure the hon. Lady that there will be no change in the delivery of these services by Interserve as a result of the change in the corporate structure. Clearly, I cannot guarantee the whole schedule of the building works and so on, but I can 100% assure her that no change will arise as a result of this change in the corporate structure, because the operating company remains completely unaffected; it is just the ownership that has changed.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Emma Hardy and Oliver Dowden(5 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Oliver Dowden
I will, of course, undertake to read my hon. Friend’s report and will respond directly. It is precisely for this reason of getting good value for the taxpayer that we established the Crown Commercial Service to increase savings for the taxpayer by centralising buying requirements for common goods and services such as photocopier paper.
Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)
FCC Environment has public sector contracts across 160 constituencies, yet it refuses to pay its workers sick pay. The workers in Hull have been out on strike for more than 30 days after one of their colleagues developed cancer and had to return to work after a month because he could not afford to be off work. Will the Minister please look at reforming the rules for procurement so that no companies can exploit workers in this way and not pay them the basic right of sick pay?
Oliver Dowden
Clearly, all suppliers are subject to the general law of the land, which covers many of those points. In addition, we have introduced a supplier code of conduct, which looks exactly at those corporate responsibility points, and we review it continuously, and we will review it with such cases in mind.