Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) Bill

Debate between Iain Wright and Andrew Gwynne

Friday 1st November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Wright]

I am glad my hon. Friend has contributed to the debate. I know how much she is passionately committed to giving young people a chance, particularly with apprenticeships. I have fond memories of going to Salford as Minister with responsibility for apprenticeships. We had launched the apprenticeships grant for employers. I met a tree surgeons firm in her constituency—I do not know whether she remembers. It could not afford to take on a young person, but we provided a £2,500 grant. I thought it was to help to pay the wages of that young apprentice, but it provided the equipment to allow them to scale up the tree and do the work required. That small firm wanted to help to bring on young people and to ensure that it gave young people a chance, making a difference—as I recall, it took on a 17-year-old. The Bill can do exactly the same.

My hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish was right to highlight the importance of driving up quality. However, he also mentioned the need to expand opportunity. Often, we do not tell young people of the difference apprenticeships can make. People will be paid more over the lifetime of their career if they become apprentices. I am therefore baffled by the debate on clause 2, which is on the advertisement of work force vacancies. When there are opportunities, we should communicate them as much as possible. That is a no-brainer. Where better to do so than in the jobcentre? Clause 2 is essential. I want the Bill to pass on Second Reading, but, in Committee, we need to widen and expand it to ensure that schools, colleges, teachers and others are aware of apprenticeship opportunities.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is right that we could go further. I struggle to see what the problem is if Stockport, Tameside, Newham, Hull or Salford councils promote public procurement and apprentices through public procurement in their areas. Why should they not advertise those opportunities to young people in those areas?

[Mr Wright]

My hon. Friend is right. We have an enormous opportunity in my patch in the north-east. In Hartlepool, we have the makings of a great renewable energy and offshore wind supply chain. I know that the area my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) represents is in the same position.

We have had public procurement tenders, including for the Teesside offshore wind farm, in which no local firm got the work, meaning no local apprenticeship opportunities. What a scandalous waste of potential. I fail to understand why we should not use the opportunities from the public purse to give young people those chances and why those opportunities should not be advertised locally so that people in Hartlepool, Hull, Stockport and elsewhere can know about them. My hon. Friend the Member for West Ham made an eloquent and passionate contribution about the impact of the Olympics, a major project that should have benefited east London. It did benefit east London, but not as much as it could have. Those benefits should have been maximised.

I was very interested in the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies). I always knew he wanted to take us back to the ’50s, but I did not realise he meant the 1550s and the Elizabethan age. He made an important point. He said that the Bill would undermine best value for the taxpayer because the additional apprenticeship opportunities would make procurement contracts more expensive. I disagree. One of our problems—with the Government, with the country—is this short-term, silo-driven approach. If we spend or save £1 in one area, no consideration is given to the impact elsewhere on the public purse. For example, no one considers the long-term consequences of cuts to local government for access to A and E or social care. We need to take a longer-term view. If, using the public procurement route, we can help to train our work force of the future, we will create many more opportunities and our economic potential will be greatly increased.

[Andrew Gwynne]

In terms of total spend, does not public procurement often make one of the largest contributions, if not the largest contribution, to the local economy, and is it not baffling, therefore, that Statler and Waldorf on the Tory Benches seem to think it falls outside the remit of the public domain to expect more training and skills opportunities?

[Mr Wright]

I found it astonishing too. I was particularly concerned by the 55-minute speech of the hon. Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall). I am sure that those 555 18 to 24-year-olds in his constituency will be surprised to hear that he did not want apprenticeship opportunities advertised in his local jobcentre.