Economic Crime: Planned Government Bill

Debate between Mike Wood and Paul Scully

Wednesday 26th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully]

First, we need to do lots of work on awareness of scams and those kinds of areas, which fall into my direct remit. Action Fraud is taking more and more of a position here to support victims and—the hon. Gentleman rightly referred to this—to tackle the immediacy after the event and to make sure that it cannot happen again.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

Cyber-criminals prey on vulnerable people in all our communities. Yesterday’s launch of the very first cyber security strategy was an important step forward, but will my hon. Friend the Minister continue to work with Ministers on further measures that will strengthen the UK’s resistance to cyber-fraud?

[Paul Scully]

I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming the Government’s cyber strategy. He is absolutely right to highlight the importance of this area, which the Government are tackling. We will continue to do more as time allows and as we get more and more information. The legislation needs to be right for the 21st century. It needs to keep up with the areas—cyber, the dark web and so on—that criminals are using.

Post Office Update

Debate between Mike Wood and Paul Scully

Wednesday 19th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully]

To be fair, the accountability of managers will absolutely be in the inquiry, because that is part of the expansion of it. Sir Wyn can now look right the way out to the settlement of the group litigation and ensure that it is not just about the wrongs of the 20 years, but the lead-up to that civil case as well. I have answered the question about compensation in as much as an inquiry, statutory or not, cannot determine liability in itself. That needs to go through the courts, but I dare say that postmasters giving evidence will share their experiences of their financial losses, as well as the emotional impact on them and their families.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

The behaviour of the Post Office and the failures of Fujitsu have destroyed the lives of many hard-working and innocent postmasters. The Minister is clearly right to put this inquiry on a statutory footing, but what will he be able to do to ensure that, whatever the inquiry concludes, the Post Office acts on those recommendations and the report is not simply allowed to gather dust in a drawer?

[Paul Scully]

Part of the inquiry is to measure whether the Post Office has put into place the things that it has promised to do as a result of the civil litigation and the many, many pages of evidence and comment by Mr Justice Fraser. There are many areas there that should put the Post Office on a firm footing for the future relationship with its postmasters. This part of the inquiry is testing whether they have done so already.

Greensill Capital

Debate between Mike Wood and Paul Scully

Tuesday 13th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully]

The Chancellor and other Ministers have spent many, many hours speaking to lenders and to businesses of all sizes to make sure that we can best reflect on and flex the support that is given to them. The system worked when the Chancellor was asked to change the scheme inappropriately, because, rather than having the banks involved in the CCFF, it was a Government-backed scheme with the Bank of England. That is why he rejected that approach, which meant that the procedure went well.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con) [V]]

Businesses in Dudley South want support to go to the businesses that need it as quickly and effectively as possible rather than just falling back on how things have always been done when the times are far from ordinary. Can my hon. Friend assure them that, while processes will be transparent and due diligence will be done with taxpayers’ money, his Department will continue to look at all the options to make sure that the necessary support is getting to where it is needed rather than just going with traditional processes of distributing funds?

[Paul Scully]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. What the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and other Ministers have done throughout is to make sure that, rather than just reacting to events, we can flex and respond as best we can by speaking to businesses large and small and by speaking to stakeholders to try to smooth out those cliff edges of support. As we get to that road map, as we start to reopen and recover our economy, it is as important as ever to make sure that we have that flexibility within our support.

Uber: Supreme Court Ruling

Debate between Mike Wood and Paul Scully

Wednesday 24th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully]

As I say, it is now for Uber to respond to that judgment. It is there, and it is final: it was a Supreme Court judgment, so there is no further right of appeal for Uber. It must adhere to its legal responsibilities.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con) [V]]

Flexible contracts can work well for some employees, but they must not be used by firms to avoid their responsibilities. Does my hon. Friend agree that all workers should have the right to request a more predictable contract, so that the balance of power does not lie exclusively with the employer?

[Paul Scully]

As I said, we have extended the right to a written statement of core terms of employment to all workers, to make sure they understand the conditions they have and their status. We need to do more work in that area, which I am looking forward to doing, as we speak to people to make sure our labour market is fit for purpose.

Arcadia and Debenhams: Business Support and Job Retention

Debate between Mike Wood and Paul Scully

Wednesday 2nd December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully]

We are working with the retail sector itself, including online businesses like Amazon and Asos, and bricks and mortar businesses providing the retail brands that we all know and love, to make sure that we can get the whole gamut of retail together as one and look at the long-term prospects, including digitisation and increasing the skills of retailers and those wanting to go into the sector.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

Workers at Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Burton, Top Man and Top Shop in Dudley South face a really worrying time, but the challenges facing retail go much wider. Can my hon. Friend therefore confirm that the £1 billion future high streets fund will be accelerated, and will he join me on a visit to Brierley Hill so that he can see for himself how much our bid will transform the town centre and help to support retail jobs in my constituency?

[Paul Scully]

Owing to the restrictions it is nice to be offered a trip anywhere, so I will be more than happy to take that up. Yes indeed—the future high streets fund is a really important initiative along the way of tackling the issues in retail and our high streets as a whole. I wish my hon. Friend well in his bid. The results will be announced shortly.

Lifting the Lockdown: Workplace Safety

Debate between Mike Wood and Paul Scully

Wednesday 6th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully]

By consulting as many businesses, unions and representative organisations as we can, we have been able to work through the guidelines in our own times. Whereas at the beginning we were having to react to the closure of the economy, this timeline is for us so that we can be well prepared and give as few surprises to businesses as possible so they can plan. That is why we want to have a flexible situation so that they can prepare and operate a safe environment for their employees, but, as I mentioned before, employees can approach the Health and Safety Executive or their local authorities if they feel that they are not operating in a safe workplace.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con) [V]]

[Inaudible.]

--- Later in debate ---

[Mike Wood [V]]

Second time lucky, Mr Speaker, although some would prefer me on mute, I am sure.

As the Minister will know, many of our workers have been working throughout this outbreak. As well as thanking them for all their efforts, will the Minister assure us that the Government are making sure that employers are aware of their responsibilities and are keeping their workers safe?

[Paul Scully]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for giving me the opportunity to thank those people who have kept our economy going through this difficult time. We rightly say a massive thank you to our key workers—our emergency workers, and especially those in the NHS, but we must also thank those who have been feeding the country and supplying the shops, the delivery drivers, the construction workers, the warehouse operatives and the retailers who have been out there doing that crucial work. We must make sure, as I said earlier, that we can give employees coming back to the workplace the confidence that they are working in a safe environment. We will certainly be able to do that if we can continue to work with as many businesses, unions and organisations as possible. We need to get this right and get our message right that the economy can be opened and that we can get back to work.