Mark Durkan
Main Page: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)
As a Member who is due to give evidence to the commission on the West Lothian question later this week, I am particularly conscious of the fact that this Bill is something of a chequerboard in terms of its territorial application. One of the key elements that obviously applies UK-wide is the green investment bank. I welcome the moves to develop the green investment bank, but I regret the fact that, as the amendment states, it is not as well resourced as it might be. The Bill does not give me cause to believe that it will be as active a driver and supporter of the green economy in the long term as it should be.
My more particular concern is to ensure that when the Bill is processed through the House, the provisions relating to the green investment bank are tested to ensure that the references to the green economy in the UK are not inordinately exclusive in regard to Northern Ireland. Many of the projects there that might seek support from the green investment bank could have a cross-border, cross-jurisdictional character. In offshore wind projects, for example, the geography and topography of natural resources and renewable energy point to it being sensible for those projects to cross borders. The present renewables obligation certificates regime discriminates against and excludes cross-border projects, and we need to ensure that that mistake is not repeated with the green investment bank if we are to maximise its opportunities.
Similarly, a large number of the provisions on competition and markets are UK-wide, and I want to see some aspects of them teased out—and possibly ironed out—not least in relation to their possible application in Northern Ireland. Among those measures is the proposal to take the consumer education role of the Office of Fair Trading and give it to Citizens Advice. Given that the citizens advice service in Northern Ireland operates on a different statutory footing from the one in England, we must ensure that there are no oversights and no inadvertent black holes in relation to that key issue.
The provisions on employment law will clearly apply to Great Britain, but the reality is that changes of that nature are likely to become predictive legislation for Northern Ireland. They set the conditions in many ways, which is why I join my hon. Friends in expressing my profound reservations and objections to some of those unnecessary changes. Given that the Prime Minister seems reluctant to dismiss anyone even when there are compelling reasons to do so, I find it strange that he wants to make it his business to ensure that other people can be fired without any compelling reason whatever.
There is one element that I would have liked to see in the Bill. On this, I disagree with my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby (Austin Mitchell). He called it a “ragbag” of a Bill, but I am asking for a further element to be added. I note that part 3 of schedule 17 contains a small amendment to the Insolvency Act 1986 in relation to early discharge from bankruptcy. It refers to section 279 of the Act, but I believe that the Government should use the Bill to reform section 233. I asked the Minister about this at topical questions: on the subject of administration costs, businesses that are in administration are being held to ransom and put out of business by suppliers.
As it stands, the Insolvency Act fails to give businesses here the same kind of protection that is provided by chapter 11 in the United States. Under chapter 11, suppliers have to continue to supply a business under the existing terms. Here, suppliers are asked to continue to provide, but there is nothing to prevent them from changing their terms. Many demand increased tariffs and ransom payments, and many cut off supplies and create a new contract. Businesses in that situation find it very hard to cope. They also find it hard to persuade the banks to support them through their administration, at a time when they are vulnerable to being held to ransom by such predatory action by suppliers.
When the Insolvency Act was passed in 1986, the concept of on-suppliers—people with whom firms have a contract to supply, but who are sourcing the supply from others in areas such as telephony and electricity—was not clearly provided for. Some of the subsequent court decisions seem to be adding to the confusion. The professional trade body dealing with insolvency, R3, believes that this needs to be dealt with, and that up to 2,000 firms a year could be saved if a legal change of this nature could be made, allowing them to be protected and to trade in administration. Jobs would be saved, as well as firms, if we changed the legislation in that way. It would not be a regulatory change getting in the way of good business; it would be a regulatory reform that supported businesses in the difficult circumstances in which they find themselves, and it would allow them to continue. If one part of the Insolvency Act can be amended through the Bill, I see no reason why this even more compelling case for reform should not be included.
The Minister’s predecessor stated last October that the Government had announced that they would consider the case for updating section 233 of the Insolvency Act and the wider issue of termination clauses. I would say that the case is compelling, and it is supported not only by R3, the professional body dealing with insolvency, but by the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Association of British Insurers and the British Property Federation. Let us have this much-needed reform, not the specious and unnecessary changes that the Bill provides for elsewhere.