Enterprise Bill [HL]

Lord Cope of Berkeley Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cope of Berkeley (Con)]

My Lords, any Bill called the Enterprise Bill starts with me prejudiced in its favour. I think that everyone who has spoken is in favour of enterprise in principle, but experience also makes one look at the detail. After all, many enterprising business men and women, when asked what the best thing the Government can do for them, say, “Keep out of our way”, and start from that point of view. Every change in legislation or regulations, even if it is in favour of the particular businesses concerned, needs to be looked at by them to see what it says and does.

As many have pointed out, this Bill is full of variety. It has eight quite different parts, not counting the general provisions at the end. I am not sure what dictated the logic of their order, but I notice that, broadly speaking, the odd-numbered parts help SMEs directly while the even-numbered parts are directed primarily at the public sector.

Part 1 sets up the Small Business Commissioner, charged with changing the culture of late payment of debts by large companies. This is a hoary problem, but it is still very much with us despite successive Governments’ efforts over many decades. The noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, referred in some detail to the problems of the construction industry. If anybody doubts that such problems are serious, they should look at the business section of the Times today, where there is a very long and interesting article explaining exactly what they are.

The title “Small Business Commissioner” sounds wide, but, as has been pointed out, the role is limited. The Bill’s provisions ensure that they concentrate on this one matter of late payment. It will require a very special individual—as has already come out in the debate—to change the culture through the voluntary means that are at the disposal of the commissioner. They need, after all, to overcome the forces generated by the relentless pressures of cash flow which lie behind the problem. I think that the concentration of the commissioner on this one issue is right at this time, because it is a very important issue which we have failed to solve, but perhaps in time, if the commissioner succeeds with late payment, the remit might be extended by statute to cover other sources of concern to SMEs—but that is for the future.

However, one limitation on the commissioner’s role concerns me now. Under the Bill, the commissioner cannot deal with problems or complaints against local authorities and other public bodies over late payment. This can be a problem also for SMEs—I had several cases mentioned to me not so long ago. My noble friend Lord Patten referred to the Groceries Code Adjudicator, but I see that that office itself is being criticised for late payment. Whether the criticism is valid I cannot tell, but it is an example of where there seem to be problems.

Clause 3(1), read with the definition in Clause 3(11), limits the commissioner’s advice specifically to problems with larger businesses and excludes problems with public authorities that pay late. This limitation applies also to the complaints procedure. Clause 3(10) includes public authorities in the definition of “supply relationship”, but rules it out again in the next subsection—but that is a matter for Committee. I understand that the reason for excluding public authorities is that it is regarded as creating double jeopardy because of other mediation mechanisms that are available. However, given the limitations on direct action by the commissioner, I would like to see him or her at least able to give general advice and information under Clause 3: for example, about the mediation available in the case of public authorities and its efficacy, just as the commissioner can do in respect of larger companies.

The other odd-numbered parts of the Bill are welcome: Part 3 on the extension of the primary authorities scheme; Part 5 on the new implied terms for insurance contracts; and Part 7 on the extension of industrial development grants to electronic matters—we all know about broadband speeds in rural areas, for example.

The even-numbered parts are also welcome. The extension to regulators of the impact targets from last year’s small business Act in Part 2 seems an entirely positive development. One learns something every day in your Lordships’ House. I did not appreciate until just now that there are 70 national regulators. It is an enormous number which had not been borne in on me before.

I welcome also the extension in Part 4 of apprenticeship targets. The protection of the definition of “apprenticeships” may sit a little oddly in the Bill, but it is done by an insertion into the apprenticeships Act 2009, which itself built on John Major’s Government’s Act of 1994. The noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, referred obliquely to a television programme, but the Bill protects the word “apprenticeship” but specifically avoids protecting the word “apprentice”, so I do not think that there will be any trouble with the popular television show of that name, started by Donald Trump in America but obviously taken up by our colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Sugar. I strongly support apprenticeships as a method of training for work and, indeed, for life. I became a chartered accountant through an apprenticeship scheme—in England, we were called articled clerks, but in Scotland they were called apprentices, rather more accurately.

Part 6 permits the disclosure of HMRC information to local government on non- domestic rating valuations. Many of us who have served in the Treasury know how very closely HMRC guards all the personal tax information that it collects, even from Ministers. It is deeply embedded in its culture. We understand its reasons and respect it greatly for doing it, and it is a principle that we should uphold. Yet there is duplication at present, with the same or similar information being given by businesses to the Valuation Office Agency and to local authorities. The Bill states that the VOA can share its information with a local authority. I am not sure exactly what the extra information might include. The valuations, agreed for every property, are already fully public knowledge—the size in square metres and that sort of thing—but no doubt we shall hear more about that in Committee.

This is a useful Bill. It is necessarily technical and acceptably miscellaneous. In short, it is a kind of legislative herbaceous border full of interesting flowers, but no doubt some will detect some thorns or maybe even some weeds as we progress in our discussions.