Education, Skills and Training

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to follow the considered tone of the hon. Member for Darlington (Jenny Chapman), whose speeches I always greatly enjoy.

Every year since I was elected in 2010, I have been overwhelmed by the pageantry associated with the Queen’s Speech, particularly the horses and the evocative sights and sounds that accompany the occasion. For a variety of reasons, however, I have never been able to speak in the Queen’s Speech debate, so I am pleased to do so today.

I welcome the legislative programme, especially the focus on life chances, which has featured so much in today’s debate. The focus on the life chances of the most disadvantaged is widely welcomed across the House. In some ways, it is becoming a competition to see which party can be the most progressive, which is a terrific way to proceed. I particularly welcome the proposed Bill on prison reform. Clearly, time in prison is designed to punish, but just as important is rehabilitation, as we are acknowledging more today than ever before, so that Bill will be hugely important.

The theme of today’s debate is education, skills and training, but because those policy areas are devolved in my constituency, they are not matters on which I want to contribute directly. It is logical, however, that I speak about the Wales Bill, which will cover education in Wales. The House might have observed the growing tradition of having a Wales Bill in every Queen’s Speech—pretty much every Queen’s Speech has had a Wales Bill since I have been here. We do not know what will be in the Wales Bill, but we have a fair idea, because the last Parliament considered a draft Wales Bill in great detail. We can hazard a pretty good guess, therefore, about what will be in this one.

We expect to see the Bill fairly soon—the rumour is that it will be finished before the summer—and that its aim will be to deliver a stronger, more stable and financially accountable devolved settlement in Wales. The journey towards the institution of government in Wales began many decades ago, but the first major step was the 1997 referendum on whether to establish it. I did not support the idea of a Welsh Assembly in 1997—I campaigned against it—mainly because I thought we were being sold a pup: an unstable and illogical institution that, as it stood, was doomed to failure. But Wales voted yes by the narrowest of margins.

I was driving home from the count in the early hours of the morning on 19 September 1997 and I did what Conservatives tend to do; I came to terms with the new situation—something that some of us might find ourselves doing on 24 June. It was decided that there would be a Welsh Assembly elected by the additional member proportional representation system, which virtually guaranteed a Labour or Labour-led Administration. I committed to the Assembly and became a Member. I was a Member for eight years and probably would still be, had it not been for how the PR system works. I sometimes look on serving as an MP as compensation for losing my position in the Welsh Assembly.

I look forward to participating in the debate on the Wales Bill, and I know there will be many differing opinions, including within my own party. Fundamentally, my position on what change is necessary is that we need devolution of responsibility for income tax. That is the main reason why I want to speak in today’s debate. I believe it to be crucial to a stable Welsh Government.

When I first began raising this viewpoint, perhaps two or three years ago, I recall gaining very little support for it and I felt quite isolated, but that is not the case today. My view is informed by my experience as a Conservative spokesman for finance in the National Assembly for Wales. Every year we went through what we referred to as a “budget process”. It was not really that, however; it was a spending plan. A budget needs consideration on both sides of the ledger—how to raise money and how to spend it. That is where I want the devolutionary process to move so that we can reach that position.

One proposal in the Wales Bill will be to rename the National Assembly as a Parliament—“the Welsh Parliament”. I agree with that and I am supportive of it, but it cannot be called a genuine Parliament if it does not have responsibility for raising part of the money it pays in spending. We have just had a Welsh general election, in which parties other than the Conservative party were basing their campaigns on attacking the Conservative Government at Westminster for not providing enough money for what they wanted to do. That is fine, but it is not what a Welsh general election should be based on. Both sides of the ledger need to be available.

My personal view—quite a strong opinion that I have expressed before—is that unless the Wales Bill includes granting the Assembly the responsibility for levying income tax, and a significant amount of it proportionally, the Bill will deserve to fail. Without financial accountability for the Welsh Government, not one iota more of power should be transferred to the Welsh Parliament. That is absolutely my view.

There will be other red lines when the Wales Bill comes before us. I hope that all parties will come together—this will be necessary—to consider positively how to take the Bill forward. We know that significant changes will be made to the draft Bill, and that the number of powers reserved to Westminster will be far fewer than we were expecting on the basis of the draft Bill. The necessity tests that were in the draft Bill and caused a great deal of concern, particularly on the part of the Welsh Government, are now gone. There are two changes, but there will be other disputed areas where we will need good will to come up with an answer.

The establishment of a Welsh jurisdiction is one area. Over the last three or four years, a body of Welsh law has been developed. Do we need a separate Welsh jurisdiction to deal with it? I think not, but all parties will have to come together to decide how to take that forward in the Bill. What of policing? Should it, along with other emergency services, be devolved? There will be a big dispute about that, so we will have to come together to think about how to deal with it. The same applies to broadcasting. Many people think broadcasting should be devolved, but equally, many people do not.

Delivering a new Wales Bill will not be easy. It is going to be a big challenge for a new Secretary of State for Wales. It is going to need Members of all parties to look positively about how to reach a new agreed position. This will mean working positively here in Westminster and indeed in Cardiff Bay if we are to deliver the stable government in Wales that we all want.

Vocational Qualifications

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

Yes, I will. I can tell my hon. Friend that the visit is already in the diary.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

There will be a wide welcome for today’s statement, and for the success that the Government have achieved in spreading and increasing apprenticeships, but nowhere is the success of apprenticeships more important than in Wales. What discussions has the Department had with the Welsh Government about liaison and the spread of knowledge, expertise and experience, so that we ensure success in Wales and, in a general sense, ensure that we make devolution work for Britain?

[Matthew Hancock]

I am grateful for that question. I meet my Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish counterparts regularly. I plan to go to Cardiff later this year to meet them to ensure that we learn from best practice. As my hon. Friend knows, the Education Minister in Wales recently apologised for the state of Welsh education. Wales is working to improve the system and to learn lessons from the education systems in the other devolved Administrations and in England. An important part of our work is to drive up standards for everybody.

GCSEs

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

And he is quoting Keats now. All I would say is that he is not the only person who has an interest in poetry. I was delighted when John Cooper Clarke, one of my favourite poets, said only last week that our approach to the teaching of poetry was absolutely right.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

What discussions has my right hon. Friend had, or does he intend to have, with the Welsh Government on the issue? It is crucial that we retain the integrity and credibility of Welsh pupils in the eyes of employers and universities across the United Kingdom. Has he considered suggesting to the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) that she go to the Welsh Assembly to speak to her political colleagues about a positive way forward?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I respect the devolution settlement, and it means, of course, that the Education Minister in Wales can make the appropriate decisions which he considers to be right for Wales, but I want to ensure that we can work together in future to bolster confidence in all the examinations that young people take. I have already had a meeting with the Welsh Education Minister, which was frank and cordial; I hope that we can have further such meetings.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

1. What progress his Department has made on developing trade links with non-European Union countries.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

We have increased UK Trade & Investment’s focus on growth markets and we are championing ambitious EU trade agreements to help stimulate an export-led recovery. Over three years, our goods exports to Brazil are up by half; to India, by over half; to China, they have almost doubled; and to Russia, they are up by 130%.

[Glyn Davies]

We learned yesterday from Office for Budget Responsibility figures that the eurozone economy shrank by 0.6% in the last quarter, and the economies of the United States and Japan are flat. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we are to return to sustained growth in the United Kingdom, we have to increase the business we do with high-growth economies such as Brazil, Russia, China and India?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, I absolutely agree. The Prime Minister and I, and other Ministers, spend a lot of our time trying to develop exports in these growth markets and to attract inward investment from them; that is clearly where the growth is. That does not mean that the EU market is not important; it clearly is, and that is why we are pressing for improvements to the single market.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Thursday 8th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Jo Swinson]

I am listening; that is the purpose of asking the industry how the current approach is working. There are positive signs, such as the setting up of the Pubs Advisory Service and the Pubs Independent Conciliation and Arbitration Service. PICAS has started to hear cases and two have been found in favour of the tenants. There has been positive action and we need to assess whether that is sufficient. That is what the gathering of evidence is designed to do.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

8. What assessment he has made of the effect on jobs of the extra costs of energy arising from subsidising wind farm development.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

There are 94,000 people employed in the development and construction of wind farms. We are seeking to develop the supply chain to create more jobs. We are separately preparing a compensation scheme for energy intensive industries to offset the higher electricity costs in order to maintain their competitiveness.

[Glyn Davies]

Some businesses in Montgomeryshire tell me that the greatest impediment to their growth and job creation is the rapidly rising cost of energy. Does my right hon. Friend agree that controlling energy costs, including by dealing with the unsustainably high subsidies to the onshore wind farm industry, must be the aim of the coalition Government if they are to achieve their ambitions of job creation and economic recovery?

[Vince Cable]

We do accept that proposition. That is why we have introduced the £250 million programme to provide compensation for energy intensive industries. I may have to disappoint the hon. Gentleman on the wider issue because the coalition Government are absolutely committed to the 30% target for the generation of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Onshore wind is one of the cheaper renewables and its costs are falling. I notice that a few days ago, the hon. Gentleman tweeted that there is a big lesson here:

“If my party loses in 2015 they’ll say ‘It was wind farms wot done it’”.

All parties in the House, particularly mine, may have to brace themselves for the return of Lembit Öpik.

Self-Employment

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Richard Harrington) for his helpful and useful comments. As he said, I will speak about the slightly more tangible and gritty problems facing businesses. Before getting into the meat of my speech, I am struck by how many MPs are in the Chamber and the fact that I cannot see one who has not been in business. It is remarkable that the Chamber is so full, although I am sorry not to see more support for the shadow Minister with responsibility for small businesses. It is incredible to see so many politicians here, all of whom have extensive business experience.

As my hon. Friend said, I want to speak specifically about taxation, regulation, access to finance and cash-flow management. For the purposes of clarity, we are interested today in self-employed people and those who employ fewer than five members of staff—small businesses and micro-businesses. It would be wrong to start my speech without highlighting some of the initiatives that the Government are already taking.

On finance for businesses, the Government are introducing measures to increase the availability of equity finance through venture capital trusts and improvements to the enterprise initiative scheme. They are making regional growth fund allocations for business opportunities and addressing tax initiatives, such as rolling over capital gains into new venture funding. The national loan guarantee scheme is seeking to push debt finance further down the line, and the emergence of community finance organisations, which my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman) highlighted, is providing locally based informal financing opportunities.

On helping businesses with advice, my hon. Friend the Minister has recently announced three new websites. The Business Link website has an information section offering help on a range of business-related issues, including how to start up a new business. The “mentors me” website offers an opportunity not just for new businesses to find business mentors, but for business people to provide mentoring services. My hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (George Hollingbery) made the very good point that setting up a business is tough and that having the benefit of the experience of business people who have learned from their mistakes and can impart their wisdom to new businesses is incredibly important. Websites such as “mentors me” are a way of disseminating that information.

Finally, the improved Business Link website has a wide range of information on how to finance and grow a new or expanding business. However, were I to stand here praising the Government’s glorious achievements, many though they are, as I am sure all hon. Members agree, the Minister would have nothing to say, so I shall turn to some of the problems facing businesses. I hope that he will address some of them and explain how the Government can help and thereby reinforce the process of developing part of the economy that has so much potential for growth and is so liberating for a huge number of people.

I shall start with taxation. No one wants to pay tax, but if we all want to enjoy the wealth of services that the Government provide and to sort out the problems that we inherited, we accept that we must make a contribution to tax. But as we know, it is widely reported that the UK tax system is the most complex in the world. Whether that is true is a moot point, but irrespective of where we are in the ranking of complexity, the fact that we have tax complexity at all is completely at odds with any sort of entrepreneurial spirit that we may want to foster. The last thing a bright, young and enthusiastic business creator wants is to have that entrepreneurial spirit crushed by the dead hand of taxation regulation.

There are various simple answers. On national insurance, for example, the Chancellor has not only put in place a policy to help small businesses by giving employers a national insurance holiday for the first 10 employees, he is investigating doing away with that pointless and superfluous tax. That is definitely a noble direction, but things such as the accounting period for national insurance and PAYE and the fact that two forms must be filled in doubles the bureaucracy facing small businesses. Something as simple as dealing with that would be a quick fix.

We are familiar with the Federation of Small Businesses, which is an incredibly rich source of information on issues facing many small businesses. However, for micro-businesses and the self-employed, there is little specific data. The FSB definition of a small and medium-sized business is one with up to £25 million turnover and 250 employees. I do not know about other hon. Members, but certainly in Wyre Forest anybody bigger than that is quite a large employer locally, and there are few of them.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

I agree from a standpoint of running a micro-business myself: I have been a farmer and my wife has been a restaurateur. Regulation, and the fear of it, is particularly damaging to a micro-business, because the individual running it simply has to have the capacity to deal with all these things. In a larger business, often other people can deal with such matters, but it is typical of the small and micro-businesses that we meet for one person to do so. That is incredibly difficult. Fear of regulation and not being able to deal with health and safety issues are probably more of a deterrent than anything else.

[Mark Garnier]

I will come to the regulatory burden in a minute. My hon. Friend is right. I have seen a turkey farm that has had to comply with huge industrial reporting requirements for toxic chemicals, because turkeys produce ammonia, but it also has to prove that it is not producing a great range of other chemicals. These are the unintended consequences of over-bureaucratic regulation.

The FSB provides a great deal of helpful data on business attitudes. Sticking with the taxation issue, 60% of FSB members—two thirds of businesses—complained that the UK tax system is not only too complex, but has a negative impact on their ability to take on more staff and expand.