Business of the House

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Thursday 15th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. Wildfires obviously pose a great risk to our countryside. Natural England has published a refreshed countryside code to advise us all on visits to the countryside. Everyone should enjoy parks and open spaces as we come out of lockdown, and we should be encouraging people to look after our natural environments and the livelihoods of those who work there. The Government are launching a long-term countryside code campaign to increase awareness of the code through 2021 and beyond. I think that is the right approach: to encourage people to behave responsibly, to educate and to tell people about what is expected of them in the countryside. I am afraid to say I am always more cautious about banning things.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

Nearly a year ago, I warned the Government that if they did not act on fire and rehire when it reared its ugly head with British Airways, many others would follow. Just yesterday, hundreds of British Gas engineers were sacked without redundancy pay because they refused to sign an inferior contract. My Fire and Rehire Bill (Employment (Dismissal and Re-employment) Bill is essentially now dead, but we are aware that the Government received the ACAS report two months ago. I wrote to the Secretary of State urging him to publish the report and make a statement. Had they done so and given assurances that action would be taken in the Employment Bill, perhaps that would have forced the hand of British Gas. Will the Leader of the House give his colleague in the Cabinet a bigger nudge and get him to take action please?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that point, because I think it is in the interests of public companies to behave well to their employees. Bear in mind that their employees are also their customers for a big company like British Gas. The name of British Gas has now been traduced in this House on a number of occasions. People who pay attention to our proceedings may feel that they dislike the way British Gas is behaving and want to get their gas supplied by another firm. There are powers in markets as well as in government, but I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that the Government do take this really seriously. What my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State has said is what the Government mean and the report is quite rightly being carefully considered.