Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and David Rutley

Thursday 16th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

8. It is good to be able to ask this question, so thank you for the opportunity, Mr Speaker. I welcome the steps the Secretary of State is taking to improve broadband services across the country and in communities across our borders—I am very grateful for that work. Will the Minister tell the House more about the full-fibre connection vouchers that were detailed in the Budget Red Book? How will they assist businesses in our rural communities?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I can. In the Budget we announced that we are going to have a full-fibre business voucher. This means that businesses will be able to access a voucher to help provide a full-fibre connection, giving gigabit speeds. The first wave of projects will be towards the end of this year or the start of next year, and I look forward to working with my hon. Friend on implementing that deal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and David Rutley

Thursday 6th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Matthew Hancock)]

Today we published our annual energy statement, which shows the action we have taken to deliver a secure supply of energy while reducing bills and carbon emissions, meeting the needs of households and businesses.

[David Rutley]

Given the approaching winter and the increasing uncertainty in our international relations, will my right hon. Friend tell the House what steps he is taking to secure energy supplies in the face of possible extreme weather and other external threats?

[Matthew Hancock]

Of course, secure energy supplies are the most critical part of our responsibilities in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. We have taken steps to ensure that the market operates better, through the electricity market reform programme. We have also taken steps to ensure that there has been £45 billion of investment in energy infrastructure since 2010. This winter, we have worked with the National Grid Company to make sure there is additional capacity so that energy needs are covered no matter what the winter throws at us.

Apprenticeships

Debate between Matt Hancock and David Rutley

Thursday 14th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

I certainly agree that ensuring that everyone reaches their potential through apprenticeships and increased skills is vital. An apprenticeship involves learning and doing a job, and encouraging companies to come to the table is vital if we are to make this happen. Through the reforms and the principles set out in the Richard report, to which we have responded today, that is exactly the direction we want to take.

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

On Tuesday, I was fortunate enough to go to the annual Macclesfield apprenticeship fair, where I saw a wide range of organisations offering apprenticeships. They included McCann Manchester, Siemens and Cheshire East council, as well as the local hospital. What steps is my hon. Friend taking to increase the number of quality apprenticeships in the widest possible range of industry sectors?

[Matthew Hancock]

The whole report is about doing just that.

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Matt Hancock and David Rutley

Tuesday 16th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

I have found no evidence of that. If my hon. Friend can point any out to me, I would be extremely grateful.

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

I welcome the direction in which the Minister is taking the debate and the policy. I will never forget a conversation that I had in Macclesfield marketplace, a place with which I know he is familiar. A lady told me how disturbed she was that the perception of health and safety was giving it a bad name. I asked who she worked for and she said the Health and Safety Executive. The situation is going too far. Does the Minister agree that it is important to move to a common-sense approach, which I think is the direction in which he is taking Government policy?

[Matthew Hancock]

It is important to have a health and safety framework in which responsible businesses act in a way that supports and enhances the safety of the people who work for them. Indeed, it is vital that we all have a duty to behave reasonably on questions of health and safety.

I hope that making negligence a requirement before a health and safety case can be brought will mean that those who behave reasonably have no reason to fear health and safety legislation and that those who think carefully and responsibly about the businesses that they run will know that they are behaving not only reasonably, but lawfully.

Banking Reform

Debate between Matt Hancock and David Rutley

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

They were not used, and that is the problem. A massive, heavy and expanding rulebook distracted the attention of regulators away from the big picture.

My third point about why discretion rather than rules is the best way for the future concerns the importance of the macro-economy, because we cannot separate monetary policy from banking policy. The size of banks’ balance sheets is crucial to regulating the supply of money in the economy. Having counter-cyclical rules rather than pro-cyclical capital rules, as we had under Basel II, is crucial. The exercise of judgment over a bank’s balance sheet is best done in the same place as the exercise of judgment over the macro-economy. Bringing those two things back together in one institution—the Bank of England—is a better long-term way of trying to wrestle with such difficult judgments than having them in separate organisations, which, as we heard in an earlier, eloquent speech, ended with the tripartite system, in which nobody was in charge.

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

I do not know whether my hon. Friend is aware of this, but last week the deputy Governor of the Bank of England appeared before the Treasury Committee and said that he felt that the new twin peaks approach would be a much better model. He felt that the advantage was that it would remove the problems of underlap that were so obvious in the previous system. Whereas there might be some overlap under the current proposal, that has to be much preferable to the previous arrangements.

[Matthew Hancock]

That is a valid and important point. Central to that point is the judgment of people who look forward and have a broad view, looking after the health not only of the banking system, but of the macro-economy, while also having the ability to change the way they regulate according to changes in the economy, so as to take into account new developments, which is critical. Far from being the simple renaming of the institutions, bringing together macro-prudential regulation with regulation of the economy and monetary policy more broadly is central to restoring the ability to prevent the build-up of credit, as happened over the past 15 years.