Enterprise Bill [HL]

Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts

Tuesday 15th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mendelsohn (Lab)]

My Lords, I also place on record our thanks to all noble Lords for their contributions. The Bill that now passes to another place is certainly a better Bill than the one that arrived, which reflects the role of your Lordships’ House and the constructive discussions that we have had with the Government and others. On behalf of these Benches, I thank the Bill team for its hard work and its readiness to engage in detailed discussion. I thank in particular a member of the small business team, who made a welcome return to finally sort out a few issues that we had with pubs. Our Benches have been very ably supported by the quite outstanding Nicola Jayawickreme, and I put on record my thanks to her.

Our debates have certainly been wide ranging, covering many detailed issues. Of course on our Benches, my formidable noble friends Lord Stevenson and Lady Hayter have made quite outstanding contributions and taught me everything that I know. It has been exceptionally helpful to have many colleagues from outside add some quite outstanding contributions and raise issues which have helped our discussions—including my noble friends Lady Donaghy, Lord Snape, Lord Whitty and Lord Wills. I also pay tribute to the noble Lords, Lord Stoneham and Lord Teverson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, on the Liberal Democrat Benches. We found a very good way of working with them and with the Government to improve the Bill in relation to a number of measures.

Across the House, the noble Earl, Lord Lindsay, has always been an expert on regulation; the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, made some outstanding contributions on non-domestic rates; the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, raised retentions very ably; the noble Lord, Lord Low, dealt with public sector exit payments and matters relating to whistleblowing. Many other noble Lords contributed, too. I place on record my deep thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, for at least agreeing with me once during the course of our discussions.

Finally, I pay tribute to and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe. It is always a pleasure to engage constructively with her. She is someone with whom you can always find at least some ground to work with, even when her hands are tied firmly behind her back by those in the Treasury and elsewhere. She is extremely inventive and courteous, and we thank her for the way in which she has handled this measure.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

My Lords, I do not wish to detain the House, but I must join in the thanks to those on the Bill team for their patience, particularly on the Green Investment Bank, and all colleagues who have taken part on the Bill. I also join in thanking the Minister for her understanding, diligence, very good communications and patience throughout our proceedings.

[Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for not putting something in the Bill. At one stage, the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, and I supported an amendment concerning the issue of retention and the means of dealing with it. She told us that, if it were withdrawn, she would undertake to establish a review. The manner in which the review has been set up gives us great confidence that it will be conducted in a rigorous and fair way, and we look forward to it proceeding in due course. I thank the noble Baroness not for putting something in the Bill, but for giving us what I hope will be an adequate substitute as a means to address one of the most vexed issues of payment. It was not covered by the Bill, but will now be within sight of being properly and speedily remedied—many years too late, sadly, but now ready to be dealt with in an effective manner.