Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I am not going to take any lectures on leadership and Big Society Capital from the Opposition, because they talked for 10 years about setting it up but did not actually do it. We are doing it because we want to make it easier for social entrepreneurs to access capital. It is on track, and we are very proud of it.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to encourage employee mutuals to develop and run central Government services.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

As we set out in the “Open Public Services” White Paper, we are committed to an ambitious programme of mutualisation, allowing staff to break free of bureaucracy and to spin out from the public sector. To support that, we have put in place the mutuals support programme, the mentoring of mutuals by groups such as John Lewis, the mutuals task force chaired by Professor Le Grand and the mutuals information service, and we are increasing the “right to provide” scheme.

[Ian Murray]

The Minister for the Cabinet Office expects there to be an extra 1 million workers in organisations taking over the running of public services by 2015. Will he update the House on how many he expects to be doing so by the end of this financial year?