Points of Order
Debate between Margot James and Baroness Primarolo
Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for a Labour MP to have joked about appalling death threats made against a female MP on Remembrance Sunday? Would it be in order for that colleague to come to the House immediately and apologise to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and also to the Minister for Employment, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wirral West (Esther McVey)?
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Dawn Primarolo)
I am sure that the hon. Lady will have notified the hon. Member to whom she is referring. As she knows—difficult as it is to chair the Chamber—the Chair is not responsible for what Members say outside this place or for interpreting the spirit in which any comment may have been made. For that I am grateful, given the point that the hon. Lady has made.
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
Debate between Margot James and Baroness Primarolo
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. It is quite true that the hon. Lady gets extra time for taking interventions, but of course that takes time from Members who are waiting to speak. Mr Binley and Mr Smith, you might remember that.
Margot James
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am conscious of that and I will not take all the additional time allotted.
My hon. Friend the Member for Northampton South (Mr Binley) made a good point. The cost in time and money of fighting claims is a huge disincentive, especially to very small companies. That is why I believe we should give micro-businesses special consideration and partial exemptions from some of the measures in the Bill. I hope that the Government will take on board the views expressed by my colleagues and I today, and the concerns voiced by the many reasonable employers who try to do the right thing by their work force. The volume, complexity and, I believe, bias of current law, which allows vexatious and sometimes spurious claims to be brought in the first place, is what needs to be changed fundamentally, alongside the very good measures the Government propose in the Bill.
Education Bill
Debate between Margot James and Baroness Primarolo(13 years ago)
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Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on the amazing increase in apprenticeships that he has outlined. I met my local college, Stourbridge college, and other colleges last week, and they reported a huge increase in apprenticeships over the past six months. Is he aware of another route into apprenticeships, which emerged during a meeting that I had the previous week with Stourbridge jobcentre? It reported that among 18 to 24-year-olds a route in was via two-week work experience placements. In many cases, they were being converted into apprenticeships.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. It is very interesting to hear of the extensive commitment that the Minister has personally to apprenticeships, and indeed to hear the point that the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Margot James) has made, but we are discussing Lords amendments. Although Lords amendment 36 is about securing the provision of apprenticeships in certain regulations, the debate is going a little wide of that. Perhaps the Minister could relate his comments to the amendments.