Oral Answers to Questions

Lincoln Jopp Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Georgia Gould]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this critical issue. The Employment Rights Bill will introduce new measures that will give staff and their chosen trade union a meaningful shot at gaining statutory recognition. I hope those provisions will ensure that GMB Union members across the country can have their voices heard in their workplaces.

[Lincoln?Jopp?(Spelthorne) (Con)]

T7.???In?a speech in December, the Minister said that he wanted to put bureaucracy on more of a �start-up� footing with a Silicon Valley vibe, and that in order to achieve that he was going to send teams�indeed, not just teams, but crack teams�to Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Essex in order to test, learn, and fix by Friday. I have a simple question: in those three months, how many of those crack teams have gone in, what have they tested, what have they learned, and what have they fixed by Friday?

[Pat McFadden]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for reading my speeches so closely, but what he has misunderstood is that the teams are on the ground, and the process is to learn every week. I am glad to report that I have already visited a couple of those areas, and good work is under way. The whole point is that this will develop, it will adapt, and perhaps it will be different from the record of the Conservative party, which saw a growth of 131,000 public officials over the last�