Enterprise Bill [Lords]

Lady Hermon Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is correct about that. We want to see more and more investment in our local pubs, and I hope that these measures, taken together, will help to achieve just that. Let me also take this opportunity to commend him for the work he has done for pubs ever since he joined this House, not just on this code, but the huge amount of work he did to get the first cut in beer duty in almost 50 years.

[Lady Hermon (North Down) (Ind)]

The Secretary of State began with the words, which I endorse, about being a one nation Government. The Wetherspoon chain, whose interiors I am not familiar with, has 10 pubs in Northern Ireland and also believes that the United Kingdom is one nation. Does he believe that the pubs code should extend to Northern Ireland, where that chain operates pubs?

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady raises an important point about the pubs code, specifically wanting to know whether we can apply it to Northern Ireland. I will discuss that with my Northern Ireland counterparts to see what can be done and to review what is currently being done to see whether there is any way we can assist.

The Opposition have a renewed enthusiasm for seizing control of the means of production, distribution and exchange. I think it is fair to say that Conservative Members do not share that enthusiasm, but we are committed to delivering the best possible value for money from those assets where the taxpayer retains an interest.

Last May, the Chancellor announced plans for a new company, UK Government Investments Limited, to better manage taxpayer stakes in businesses across the economy. This Bill contains a provision on UKGI, ensuring that the necessary funding powers are in place so it can carry out its vital work. That will include overseeing the sale of government assets in a way that will benefit the taxpayer—that will include the sale of the UK Green Investment Bank.

Established in the previous Parliament to address a failure in the market, the GIB has demonstrated to the wider world that investment in green projects makes good business sense. In fact, that bank has proved so successful that it has outgrown the need to be financed by the taxpayer. Moving the bank into private ownership will give it access to a much greater volume of capital, mobilising more investment and getting more green projects financed. The Bill contains provisions that will ensure that that move to the private sector can take place effectively and transparently. That will mean the GIB can continue to go from strength to strength, delivering its ambitious green business plan. It is that expertise and that green business plan that private investors will be buying into. As the name suggests, green investment is what the Green Investment Bank does—it is what has made the bank such a success. No sensible investor would look to change that.

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[Alberto Costa]

The hon. Gentleman is more than welcome to intervene and comment on its benefits if he wishes to do so.

The Bill will extend the business impact target to include the actions of statutory regulators, and will ensure that they must carry out assessments of the economic impacts on business of any changes in their regulatory practices or policies. That will provide a wider focus for the Government to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, thus enabling them to free up resources and boost productivity. It will ensure that there is even greater transparency in relation to the impact of regulation on business, as opposed to the opaqueness that we saw during the 13 long years of Labour misrule. It will enable regulators to contribute to the Government’s deregulation target of £10 billion of regulatory savings during the current Parliament, and—very importantly—it will give regulators more incentives to design and deliver policies that better meet the needs of British business.

Bringing the activities of regulators into the scope of the business impact target will ensure that the impact imposed on business by regulators is routinely measured and reported on—a move that was scorned by Opposition Members a matter of hours or even minutes ago. It will increase the clarity of the system, and give businesses greater assurance that any costs and benefits that are imposed on them will be thoroughly assessed. Legislating to extend the business impact target will most comprehensively achieve the increase in transparency that I have mentioned, and will bring about the reduction in burdens on businesses that Conservative Members wish to achieve. It represents not a small ambition, but a significant ambitious development of previous policies designed to improve the ways in which regulations are enforced.

This Bill will help to make sure that our United Kingdom is the best place in Europe to start and grow a business, and that people who work hard and start and run a business have the opportunity to succeed without inappropriate regulatory burdens suffocating their much needed enterprise.

[Lady Hermon (North Down) (Ind)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Alberto Costa]

No, I am going to wind-up. [Interruption.] I did offer many Members on the other side of the House the opportunity to intervene, but they chose not to do so.

This Enterprise Bill will help to promote a real reduction in red tape, which the Members opposite simply do not seem to understand, and it will encourage businesses to expand and in so doing create more jobs and help people in our country thrive. That is the key to a successful Enterprise Bill. This Bill will allow British enterprise to flourish in my constituency of South Leicestershire as well as across our United Kingdom.

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Question agreed to.

[Lady Hermon (North Down) (Ind)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. The House must be quiet, as I am trying to hear a point of order.

[Lady Hermon]

I am most grateful to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for accepting this important point of order. I think that this is the first time that this has arisen. I am in no way challenging the certification by the Speaker of provisions in this Bill as exclusively English or English and Welsh only. The guidance I seek relates to the Order Paper published for today’s business, which on page 6, under the title “Enterprise Bill [Lords]: Second Reading”, gives a note of Mr Speaker’s certification. At the very end, it states:

“The Northern Ireland Assembly decided not to approve a Legislative Consent Motion in respect of this Bill.”

That unfortunately gives the impression that the Northern Ireland Assembly has considered the whole Bill. Since we are in a three-month trial period, I wonder whether I might have some guidance.

I will stand corrected if this is wrong, but it is my understanding that as of this evening the only provision of the Bill that the Assembly actually considered was considered on 7 December 2015. In a letter dated 9 December, the Clerk to the Assembly wrote:

“I am writing to notify you”—

that is, the Clerk of the House of Commons—

“that…the Northern Ireland Assembly did not consent to the provisions dealing with public sector exit payments contained in the Enterprise Bill”.

To the best of my knowledge, the Assembly has not yet fixed a date to consider whether to pass a legislative consent motion on the rest of the Bill. I am simply looking for guidance on the notes that appear in the Order Paper.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for drawing her concerns to the attention of the House and to my attention, and I will, of course, pass that on to Mr Speaker.

The hon. Lady is correct about the wording of page 6 of today’s Order Paper, and I appreciate what she says about what has actually occurred in the Northern Ireland Assembly, about which I have no information, but I will take it that the hon. Lady’s description is correct, in which case there might be a discrepancy between what has occurred in one place and what has occurred through this Order Paper in this place.

As the hon. Lady rightly said, we are still in the experimental stages of this type of consideration of legislation—[Interruption.] Order. The House must be quiet when I am dealing with a point of order. As I said, the hon. Lady is aware that we are still in an experimental period, and the point which the hon. Lady has made is one that ought to be taken into consideration, and it will be taken into consideration, first, I am sure, by Mr Speaker—I will draw his attention to it—and also, I am sure, by the Procedure Committee, when it looks at how this new procedure is working. I am grateful to the hon. Lady for drawing this matter to the attention of the House.