The Growth Plan

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Friday 23rd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Beth Winter (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

As the TUC has pointed out, the Chancellor has said that we have been far too focused on redistribution and not on growth; yet here he is this morning making announcement after announcement that redistributes to the wealthy, lining the pockets of the bankers and the fossil fuel companies. People in my constituency—indeed, millions of people up and down the country—in receipt of public pay, social security benefits or pensions have never benefited from any form of redistribution under this Tory Government. All they have experienced is pay freeze, benefits cap and a freeze on the triple lock. Is it not the case, as the overwhelming evidence shows, that the only thing growing is people’s debt, people’s energy bills and—

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

Give way!

[Beth Winter (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

Sorry?

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

We all have to operate with fixed budgets—that is news to the hon. Lady—but there have been record Barnett settlements for Scotland of £4.5 billion a year. Beneath that, however, are the choices that Governments make. On the Conservative side of the House, we choose to support the NHS and public services; in Scotland, they are choosing to impose austerity on public services. That is the difference between us and the SNP.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

Following the welcome launch of Help to Build yesterday, fulfilling a commitment that the Chancellor made to me when he was still Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the early part of 2020, does he agree that making it easier for more people to commission their own houses will result in more, better, greener and cheaper houses that cost less to run, thus making a significant contribution to battling inflation?

[Rishi Sunak]

My hon. Friend is without doubt the House’s expert on that matter. I am pleased that the Government have listened to him. I still have the brochure he first gave me with the marvellous pictures of the custom self-build—in Switzerland, I think. There is a £1.8 billion fund, I believe, within the home building programme, and a good chunk of that will go to support exactly what he said: more homes, quicker homes and cheaper homes for all our citizens.

Draft Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2022

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2022 General Committees

[Lucy Frazer]

I will conclude my remarks, because I have now answered that question twice.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

I am delighted that my right hon. and learned Friend has given way. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. I have listened with attention to hon. Members’ interesting questions—although so far only from the Opposition Benches, so I thought we should hear from Conservative Members as well. The Minister mentioned that there are only about 1,000 of these people and that they are a cohort who do not think that they will be excluded, therefore there is no need to write to them. Is not the reverse at least as likely to be the case: that they did think that they were excluded? Indeed, MWRR stands for married women’s reduced rate, and that group of people were eligible for it in a way that others were not, so if they were to think anything, if they were to get up in the morning and think, “Does this thing that I have just heard about on Radio 5 affect me or not?”, their first reaction would surely be that it did not, because they know that they are in an exempt class. However, that is not my question—although the Minister is welcome to comment. Given that there are only 1,000 of them, does she know who they all are? Does she have the names and addresses of the women?

[Lucy Frazer]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Those women are not excluded; they just pay a lower rate, so they are included in the NICs scheme. I do not think that they would think that they are excluded. There is nothing to suggest that they were excluded, or that a particular category of women, men or anybody were excluded, so I do not think they will believe they were excluded. Payroll systems are set to include them, and the Government have said on gov.uk that the system is coming in, so the expectation is that they will be included.

As for who the women are, they will be identifiable through various payroll systems, and payroll operators will have to ensure they pay the right amount. If we did not bring in the draft measure, it would be difficult, because we would then have to instruct payroll operators to change their systems, because they are now set up to include that category of women, so it would be more administratively difficult to take them out than to include them.

I should also highlight that this measure is for only a year, because they will be automatically included next year in any event, when the levy appears on people’s payroll.

All that we are doing with this measure is ensuring that this group of women, who were excluded through an inadvertent error, are now included, as we had always intended.

Downing Street Parties: Police Investigation

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Tuesday 25th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Ellis]

No, I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

Does the Paymaster General agree that compared with being interviewed under caution for flogging peerages, as Tony Blair was, trying to prosecute a former First Minister of Scotland despite being told that there was no evidence or taking money from Chinese spies, eating a piece of birthday cake is a relatively minor offence?

[Michael Ellis]

My hon. Friend makes his point powerfully and eloquently.

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

The most important thing to recognise is that last year was the first year on record in which renewable energy constituted more of our energy mix than fossil fuels. We also need to recognise that oil and gas support many thousands of jobs in the United Kingdom, and we must be careful not to jeopardise economic growth during the transition.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

The best way to reduce carbon emissions is not to produce carbon when building houses. Given that the Conservative manifesto proposes to extend Help to Buy to people who wish to build their own homes, which the Chancellor of the Exchequer knows all about, will he meet me and the Right to Build taskforce to see how it can implement this excellent policy as quickly as possible?

[Mr Clarke]

I thank my hon. Friend, who is very persistent in this area. I would be delighted to meet him to discuss following up on this issue.

Spending Round 2019

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My right hon. Friend has made an important point. I thank him for his welcome for the extra £400 million for Northern Ireland, and also for his reference to levelling growth across the country. In my statement, I referred a number of times to the need to ensure that we have growth in every part of our great United Kingdom. That will require infrastructure investment and I hope that, when I set out the infrastructure strategy later this year, he will welcome it for those reasons.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

Will the Chancellor tell us when we can expect an announcement on funding for serviced plots of land?

[Sajid Javid]

Let me take this opportunity to thank my hon. Friend for all the work that he has done in relation to self-build homes and more generally, in promoting easier access to homes for everyone. We are discussing that issue with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, but I will pursue it further and get back to him.

Draft Capital Requirements (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 Draft Bank Recovery and Resolution and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Wednesday 12th December 2018 General Committees

[John Glen]

I acknowledge how it sounds, but this is a regulatory change to enable the discretionary power. The Government’s intent is to make prudential assessments in a non-politicised way.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

May I say how delighted I am that the Government are taking an approach that allows discretion? That was one enormous problem at the time of the financial crash, which was also a sovereign debt crisis. The hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde forgot to mention who was in charge at the time. That crisis was exemplified perhaps most clearly by Gordon Brown standing outside the shiny new Lehman Brothers office when it opened, shortly before the crash. The capital regime was so inadequate at the time under that regime—

[Jonathan Reynolds]

In America?

[Mr Bacon]

In London. The point I was going to make, and why I am so glad that the Minister is introducing provisions for discretion, is that part of the problem of the sovereign debt crisis was that—

[The Chair]

I urge the hon. Gentleman to remember that interventions should be brief.

[Mr Bacon]

Yes indeed. Part of the problem with the sovereign debt crisis—perhaps the biggest problem—was the equal treatment of lots of different kinds of sovereign assets, such as Greek Government bonds, when in fact they were nothing like equal. That led to the distortion that helped to cause the problem.

[John Glen]

The Government and regulators are clear on the imperative to work closely with industry to ensure that change is not disruptive for firms. UK regulators will be given the ability to phase changes in over the next two years. We will treat all third countries similarly, which means, to answer the point made by the hon. Member for Glasgow Central, continuing to co-operate through international crisis management groups to plan and resolve issues with cross-border firms. The UK’s participation, and enthusiasm to participate, in such forums will be undiminished. Nothing in the draft regulations will change how the UK co-operates with third countries.

The hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde raised the bank recovery and resolution SI and concerns around the appearance of disengagement. There is no intention whatsoever for the UK Government or regulators to be isolated in any way. We will continue to participate. However, these steps are necessary to domesticise our regulations in the context of a no-deal scenario.

The hon. Member for Glasgow Central has on several occasions, and perfectly sensibly, mentioned the regulatory burden and additional costs. She is right to draw attention to the £1.7 million assessment for the capital requirements SI and the £400,000 for the bank recovery SI. I point out to her that those are one-off familiarisation costs. For the 1,000 companies she mentioned, they are one-off costs of around £1,700 and £1,200 for some of the very biggest institutions. I accept that it would be desirable for them to not have those costs, but it will be necessary in a situation in which we do not secure a deal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I hear the hon. Gentleman’s point, but I repeat what I have just said. We have to remember that people coming into national insurance at a lower rate also means people coming into entitlement to contributory benefits at that rate. We have a contributory principle in our benefits system, and national insurance is the key to it.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

When income tax was first introduced, it was supposed to be temporary. Can the Chancellor of the Exchequer update us on his plans finally to get rid of this tax, or will it, like the backstop, be with us for the next 200 years?

[Mr Hammond]

When I was in Brussels the other day, I was reliably informed that the kingdom of Belgium was originally intended to be a temporary construct, but it still seems to be with us. The world has moved on since the Napoleonic wars, as my hon. Friend may or may not celebrate, and I have to tell him that the Government have no plans to abolish income tax.

Draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Claims Management Activity) Order 2018

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Monday 19th November 2018 General Committees

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bailey. I have two or three questions for the Minister. First, in relation to cold calling and the general consensus that there is a great deal of mistrust of CMCs—even though, as the Minister said, there is a place for the CMC model—can the Minister explain what the current status of a person making a cold call would be? I speak from personal experience, because for some reason they have recently started targeting me. Not having experienced it much before, I must have had six or a dozen calls in the past five months, and for some reason, they always refer to an accident on 24 January or a date in early March. I remember thinking at the time, “Is the person making that call currently committing an offence and, if not, will they be under these regulations?” If they refer to an accident that did not take place, some sort of misleading or fraud is plainly going on. Is a crime being committed, or will a crime be committed, either by the person who makes the telephone call or by the promoters or owners of the business? If not, perhaps the Minister can explain why not.

Secondly, I refer the Minister to the BBC magazine programme “You and Yours”, which had an item today—perhaps not coincidentally, because this instrument is before the House today—that included the director general or executive director of the trade body that represents CMCs. They pointed out that many banks were misleading their own customers when they inquired directly whether they had payment protection insurance claims. Those people were told categorically by a series of high street banks that they did not have claims, but discovered subsequently that they did. In one case, a listener had phoned up asking whether he had a claim, knowing full well that he had PPI because he had the piece of paper from 20 years ago, and was told by the bank that he did not. He later got the obligatory apology from the high street bank. My second question is this: to what extent, if at all, does the instrument cover the banks? I assume that they are covered separately by the FCA, but perhaps the Minister could confirm that.

Thirdly, I was interested to hear that solicitors are exempt from the regulations. I was particularly prompted to think about this when the hon. Member for Oxford East mentioned the figure of £16 million, which I understand to be the cost of the scheme. The reason is that some years ago, when the coalminers’ compensation scheme was going on, there was a solicitor in Doncaster, in Yorkshire, who was heavily involved in processing claims for people who had been made medically unfit for work or had become ill in one way or another through working in a coalmine. That solicitor was paying himself a salary of £16.7 million a year. I remember that well, because I got the permanent secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, as it then was, to confirm on the record that the Government’s policy in managing the scheme was not to make multimillionaires of solicitors in Doncaster, although that was its effect.

[Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)]

I feel that I have to intervene. The hon. Gentleman is right; not just in Doncaster but in other coalmining areas solicitors took advantage of the situation. Even though the Government were paying them for their services in handling the claims, they took compensation money from the individuals concerned. Does he agree that it is important that the Government look at every possible scenario where such loopholes can be found? If we do not think about loopholes ahead of the game, I am afraid that some of these characters will find them.

[Mr Bacon]

That is precisely my concern. In my latter years on the Public Accounts Committee, where I was sent to the salt mines for 16 years, the right hon. Lady—I will call her my right hon. Friend for these purposes—served alongside me. Indeed, we went jointly to Commonwealth workshops overseas.

[Caroline Flint]

We don’t need to go into that.

[Mr Bacon]

Especially not the Blue Lagoon nightclub. The right hon. Lady has an exceptional grasp of nightclubs overseas that host good live music. I will go no further than that.

[Caroline Flint]

For the record, will the hon. Gentleman confirm that I left rather early and that he stayed until the early hours of the morning?

[The Chair]

Order. I could never have believed that a debate on claims management companies could get so interesting. However, I feel that the debate is moving off the core issues. If we could return to them, that would be helpful.

[Mr Bacon]

I agree, Mr Bailey. I will make one further point, to which the right hon. Lady alluded. We cannot assume that the solicitors who continue to engage in the process and are exempt because, in the words of the Minister, they are regulated separately through the Solicitors Regulation Authority, will all be as high-minded as one would hope they would be as solicitors of the Supreme Court. They might not be. My concern is not that we have dual regulation. Like the Minister, I very much hope that we avoid dual regulation. My concern is that we avoid creating opportunities for regulatory arbitrage.

[Sir Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) (Con)]

For my sins, I think I served in Committee for both the Compensation Act 2006 and the Legal Services Act 2007. The point is that claims management companies were brought under regulation in 2006. Solicitors got a hefty improvement, or increase, in their regulation the following year.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Bacon]

I understand my right hon. and learned Friend’s point. He speaks with authority as a former Solicitor General. I hope that the Minister can reassure us that any regulation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or by the Financial Conduct Authority for what is essentially the same activity but carried out by different parties—whether solicitors or others—should mirror and match, so that opportunities for regulatory arbitrage do not emerge.

I endorse the earlier point about a five-year review period, which seems to me to be generous, if not naive. We should keep a close watch on it. With that, I will make no further remarks.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Glen]

The Government believe that claims management companies fuel speculative claims for redress, that consumers struggle to understand the services that they offer, that there is a lack of transparency around how they operate, and that they offer poor value for money.

[Mr Bacon]

That is an answer to a question, but not the question, “Why aren’t they just banned?” I mentioned not the ICO, but the Solicitors Regulation Authority—

[John Glen]

I will come on to that.

[Mr Bacon]

Good, because I would still like to hear an answer to whether, in making the phone call, the person, who plainly has my name and number and who refers in the opening sales pitch of the conversation to an accident that did not take place, is committing a crime now, or will be under the new regulations.

[John Glen]

I will move on sequentially through the points made.

On the question about why the Government are not banning all cold calls, which I think is behind all this, we are determined to tackle CMC cold calling and pensions cold calling, but a balance needs to be struck between ensuring that consumers are adequately protected and providing the right conditions for the legitimate direct marketing industry to operate. I recognise that there is a debate about the extent of the coverage and which sectors should be covered, but we took a view about what should be included at this time so that we could make progress and lay the order. We are actively prepared to consider further sectors that should come under the order.

The hon. Member for Oxford East raised the issue of the interim regime’s funding. The FCA is making a one-off levy from April 2019, and it will continue to collect fees from industry. Having recently closed a fees consultation, it will release a policy statement later this year about the funding mechanism for that transition period.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Bacon]

On the Minister’s previous point, when he said that calling would be an offence, he did not say whether it would be a criminal or a civil offence. Could he do so?

[John Glen]

It would be a criminal offence, but I will be happy to clarify the situation exactly in a letter to my hon. Friend subsequently. I think that I have covered the point about the SRA and regulatory arbitrage.

A point was raised about other sectors—this point came through a lot in the passage of the main legislation —by the hon. Member for Garston and Halewood. The Government are actively examining the extent of the coverage. According to my initial statistics, in 2017-18 financial products and services claims made up 79% of CMC turnover and personal injury made up all the remaining turnover. A point that has often come up is about coalminers. If they do not already come under personal injury, we will be able continually to observe, and possibly extend, coverage, based on whether a discrete additional category is needed.

In relation to the next steps on this regulation, if the Committee approves the order today, the regulation will transfer to the FCA on 1 April 2019. The FCA regularly updates its rulebook. It is a robust regulator, which I have frequent dialogue with, and is subject to scrutiny.

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Bacon Excerpts

Tuesday 6th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mel Stride]

As the hon. Lady will know, under this Government income inequality is far lower than it was under Labour. I am not going to start getting involved in a running commentary on the negotiations and the various impacts thereof, as that would not be helpful, other than to restate that a full and appropriate analysis will be provided to the House prior to the meaningful vote.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

Will Ministers consider moving the trigger point for the application of the zero rate of VAT for new build dwellings as defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which would end the unintended discrimination, both before and after we leave the EU, against self-build and custom house building projects, while not harming Government revenue?

[Mel Stride]

That is possibly the most ingenious question I have ever heard in this House, and it is indicative of my hon. Friend’s passion for and commitment to this matter. I recognise the issue he raises on the zero-rating of new builds, on which he wishes to extend the scope somewhat. I believe that my office has now arranged a meeting with him, and I look forward to it taking place within the coming days and weeks.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Elizabeth Truss)]

As the Chancellor pointed out, we have already put an additional £1.3 billion into schools’ budgets, which means that they are rising in real terms, and it is entirely proper for Education Ministers to appear in front of the Select Committee to discuss those issues.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

T10. Some people are worried about the end of Help to Buy in five years’ time. Given that it is a subsidy on demand, why not soften the blow with a subsidy on supply through a help to build programme, which would help more ordinary people bring forward their own schemes at prices they can afford?

[Mr Philip Hammond]

I have heard my hon. Friend’s representations on behalf of self-builders; twice in one sitting is probably a record. I will treat them as representations for the next fiscal event and will look at them accordingly.