Steel: Preserving Sustainable Jobs and Growth in Europe

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2017 General Committees

[Mr Hurd]

While we are a member of the EU, we play by the EU rules, and we try to be as creative and intelligent in playing that system as anyone else. As I said in my statement, we have managed to release funds in quite a strategic way. I make no comment on the past, because I was not involved in that process. Looking beyond Brexit and at the Government’s approach to using public money to support the competitiveness of key industries, that is work in progress, but the industrial strategy Green Paper is the first step.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

Of course, the question is not only what gets done, but how speedily those actions are taken. One problem with the EU is that it is lamentably slow. The document that is the source of the debate talks about

“Additional efforts to accelerate the process”.

May I ask the Minister some questions on progress? Will he advise us of any progress that he and the Commission have made? For example, the document says:

“The Commission will further optimise its internal procedures, follow a stricter approach when dealing with requests for deadline extensions of questionnaire responses”

and

“streamline hearings by grouping them together.”

Those are all very obvious things.

The Commission also says that

“additional reforms need to be considered, taking into account the inter-institutional debate”.

Will the Minister advise us on what progress there has been on streamlining inter-institutional debate to assist the steel industry in the EU since May last year?

The document also talks about

“intermediary deadlines such as those for sampling of interested parties or parties’ reaction to the disclosure of the essential facts”.

Again, that refers to efforts to speed up any progress that is being made. Finally, the document says that

“the Commission will propose a prior surveillance system on steel products.”

I ask those questions because an important consideration during the debates was that the EU had been slow off the mark compared to the United States, and it is obvious that that is recognised in the document. It sounds to me that some fairly basic, fairly sensible steps were meant to be taken, but quite a few months have passed. Will the Minister update us on any progress that has been made on those issues?

[Mr Hurd]

I thank my hon. Friend for his questions. I do not think it is any secret: anyone who has dealt with the EU emerges from that process frustrated about the pace of action. That is perhaps not surprising, because getting agreement between 28 countries is convoluted. That is the reality of it; it is slow. The UK has played an honourable role in putting pressure on the system to improve. I would make a couple of observations in response to his questions. Whether the EU has been slow or not in responding, I am reasonably satisfied that we have made significant progress within that response. I cited the 41 trade defence measures that have been put in place, but more important is the impact of those measures, in terms of reductions of 70% to 90% in the level of dumped products. Slow or not, what has been put in place has clearly had an impact.

There has been some suggestion from Members on the Opposition Benches that the UK has been a drag anchor in the process, but that is not the case. We were in the lead in pointing out that provisional duties on products such as rebar and cold-rolled flat products were too low. We pressed for higher definition on that and got that. Higher duties were put on rebar from China. On 29 July, an increase from 9% to 13% was announced.

My hon. Friend talked about pace. Again, we were instrumental in pressing the Commission to conduct its investigations into cases more rapidly than usual, and there is some evidence of response to that. Driving pace continues to be a challenge for any UK Minister involved with the EU, but let us be clear about the context. There is widespread recognition across the EU, not least by the UK, that the sector has a deep structural problem with overcapacity, and it is no secret where most of the problem comes from. In that context, I doubt the EU scores anywhere near 10 out of 10, but it is certainly not at the lower end of ones and twos. There has been significant progress, and the policies put in place have had an impact.

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Tuesday 31st January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Margot James]

I am sorry; I did not follow all the hon. Gentleman’s question. However, I know that the Treasury is looking into the fairness of taxation as between self-employed people and the rest of the workforce. I will read the hon. Gentleman’s question in Hansard and write to him accordingly.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

The ranks of self-employed people are being expanded by an increase in independent working. Will my hon. Friend ensure that labour market regulations are updated so that employee rights are maintained?

[Margot James]

I very much agree with the thrust of my hon. Friend’s question. The Prime Minister has appointed Matthew Taylor to undertake a review of employment practices in the modern economy to ensure that while we embrace new technologies, we also protect workers’ rights.

Industrial Strategy Consultation

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

The decision to back Sunderland and to build the two new models here was a significant moment for the hon. Lady’s constituents and for the country. It is true that all investors, whether domestic or international, constantly look to make sure that they are competitive, and what every page of the Green Paper does is show our determination to make sure that this economy is competitive now and into the future and to take the actions that will make it so.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I welcome this wide-ranging discussion of Government policies at this time, even if the broad buffet of good things outlined will unleash a torrent of insatiable demands, not least from the Davos business leaders jetting back with their Government advisers to barge their way to the table. Will my right hon. Friend therefore assure me that his agenda will be set by entrepreneurs? Will he be honest about the fact that, for every sector that is favoured, other sectors of the economy will be shunned? Will he assure me that he understands that there are no magic levers in his Department saying “raise productivity” or “improve skills”? Those things eluded his predecessors, and they will likely elude him.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his industry. He has published an excellent report for the Centre for Policy Studies, which makes for very good reading. He knows that I am considering it with my colleagues, and I commend him for writing it and putting it forward.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

As my right hon. Friend develops his industrial strategy, may I give him some friendly advice? Drop the word “industrial” and drop the word “strategy”, and replace them with the words, “competition, innovation and skills policy”.

[Greg Clark]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. He will see that one of the differences between our approach to industrial strategy and policy—it is important to note that industry, for this purpose, means the services sector as well as manufacturing—and previous approaches is that our approach will not be about simply addressing the needs of incumbents; we want to make Britain the best, the most competitive and the most contestable place for business to locate. I would be grateful if my hon. Friend contributed to it. I think that he will find that it is music to his ears.

Corporate Governance

Richard Fuller Excerpts

1st reading: House of Commons
Tuesday 29th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I can confirm that. We had it in mind that small businesses will be the beneficiary of these reforms, because, as suppliers to big companies, they are a group whose important voice should be reflected. That point was made in our conversations with small business organisations, which is why small suppliers are specifically referenced in the proposals on which we are consulting.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

A common theme at British Home Stores and Sports Direct was that someone who was directly or indirectly a dominant shareholder also acted as chief executive officer. In the corporate world, Mike Ashley and Philip Green are outliers-become-outcasts, but the risk remains in those situations. Will my right hon. Friend, in his review, pay careful attention to that combination of dominant shareholding and chief executive powers?

[Greg Clark]

I will indeed. The Green Paper considers such matters. The responsibility that companies have through the privilege of limited liability status extends to employees, customers, pensioners and others, and that is part of the understanding under which good businesses operate to ensure that they are good for all those groups.

Industrial Strategy

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

Thank you for that guidance, Mr Deputy Speaker—I need to have a productivity improvement of about 20% immediately.

It is a real honour to follow the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White). I think we have exactly the same principles, motivations and objectives when it comes to having an industrial policy. He is a fantastic member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. I thank him, other members of the Committee, and the Backbench Business Committee for allowing this important topic to be debated today.

I welcome the Prime Minister’s rhetoric about having a “proper” industrial strategy. We on the Committee have embarked on an inquiry into industrial strategy to assist with the development of policy. A number of fundamental questions need to be addressed to ensure that we have a modern, competitive, productive, sustainable and profitable business base in this country. What is the correct and optimum level of state intervention in economic and business policy? It would be ludicrous and naive to suggest that the Government do not intervene every single day through legislation and regulation that affect the prospects of hundreds of thousands of businesses.

How can that intervention be done in as strategic and co-ordinated a manner as possible? The primary consideration for business in any industrial strategy, or indeed any Government policy, is long-term certainty—something the hon. Gentleman has already mentioned. How can we ensure that the broad sweep of industrial policy transcends Parliaments and can withstand changes of Government? We have to acknowledge that there is a mismatch between the long-term requirements of business and short-term political pressures. Ministers of all Governments and of all persuasions are prone to the temptation of announcements, initiatives and reviews. Governments are keen to give the impression of action and activity, even if that is not often matched in reality. How better to give an impression of zeal and purpose than to announce a review of something?

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about the importance of the long term as he yet again stumbles into the same mistake that politicians make generation after generation—believing that they know what industrial strategy is but do not bother to ask their colleague for whom it might be something different. My experience of business has been in technology. The only long-term thing in technology was the knowledge that tomorrow will be different from today. How on earth are the Government, with their lumbering, slow way of manoeuvring, supposed to keep up with the entrepreneurs who have created so much progress in society?

[Mr Wright]

We can have many debates on industrial policy—we have and we will.

The hon. Gentleman touches on the second big theme of my speech, which is: What do we mean by picking winners? Let me go back to the notion of long-term business considerations and wishes for policy stability at the expense of short-term political culture. We have seen this already with the new Government. The new Prime Minister has announced that we need to have

“a proper industrial strategy”.

In doing so, she seems to have jettisoned much of what has gone before. In a letter to me this week, the Secretary of State said that there needs to be

“a much stronger relationship between Government and business. For that reason, now is not the time for the Government to set out its approach in detail”.

Although that provides clear blue water between the current Government and what went before when David Cameron was Prime Minister, it hardly provides the reassurance of certainty for business. At a time when the process of Brexit is leaving business with unprecedented uncertainty and giving pause to future inward investment into this country, greater detail should have been provided. It is a cause for concern that over three months after the new Department was formed, the Secretary of State is still insisting that he cannot set out the Government’s industrial strategy in any kind of detail. Equally, important steps on large strategic matters such as airport expansion and new energy generation are taking far too long, especially when Britain needs to demonstrate to the world that we remain open for business.

Another key principle of what we need for a successful industrial strategy is effective cross-Government co-ordination. Industrial strategy will be a failure if it merely resides in No. 1 Victoria Street. As previous Administrations have demonstrated, unless the relevant Department—the Business Department, the DTI, or whatever it is called—is headed by a big beast, whether a Heseltine or a Mandelson, the notion of effective co-ordination across Whitehall turns into dust. Early signs from the new Administration are encouraging. Most importantly, the new Cabinet Committee on Economy and Industrial Strategy is chaired by the Prime Minister herself. This should ensure co-ordination and effective leverage from No. 10 and demonstrate to other Departments that the Prime Minister is very interested in this issue and will be pushing to bang heads together if they do not demonstrate due respect to an industrial strategy.

That said, the Cabinet Committee still has to combat a silo-based and defensive approach from Departments. I think that the Secretary of State recognises that. As he said in his letter to me,

“to be successful, the industrial strategy will need to deliver an upgrade to our infrastructure”,

and yet the Treasury will not relinquish control over infrastructure spend. He also stated that a successful industrial strategy will need to

“improve our education and training system to provide the skilled workforce that will be needed in the future”,

and yet the Department has lost control over skills policy. Lord Heseltine, giving evidence to our Committee last week, said that

“industrial strategy starts in primary schools”,

and yet when we met the Permanent Secretary this week and asked, “To what extent does BEIS have influence over the design of primary school policy in order to link it with industrial policy?”, he conceded that the Department had no such influence. I am yet to be convinced, based on experience of successive Governments, and having had the privilege of serving as a Minister myself, that Whitehall Departments will have as a primary objective the effective implementation of an industrial strategy. I hope that the Minister can demonstrate otherwise.

A further key way in which effective Government co-ordination can be demonstrated is through smart procurement. There may often be a tension between Departments in securing goods and services at the cheapest cost, and in considering the use of British-based and British-made products, which may sometimes be more expensive. I would contend, however, that it is often a false economy to buy off the shelf from overseas at the long-term expense of an effective British manufacturing sector. This month’s announcement that the hulls of the replacement Trident submarines are to be built with French steel, at a time when the British steel industry has been pushed to the brink of extinction, shows vividly an acute failure of industrial policy. I am not for one moment endorsing the idea of protectionism. That approach insulates domestic companies from the harsh realities of having to compete in the global economy on cost, innovation and quality, and it ultimately dooms them to obsolescence. However, given the great success story of many parts of British manufacturing, why is not every single public organisation’s fleet using Nissan cars built in Sunderland or Vauxhall vans built in Luton? How is the procurement process nurturing British industry, and how will a proper industrial strategy ensure that that becomes the case?

[Richard Fuller]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way a second time. He said that he was not talking about protectionism, but then he outlined, chapter and verse, a protectionist position that we should buy British products. How is that not protectionism?

[Mr Wright]

I think that smart procurement can engineer proper prosperity, but I warn the hon. Gentleman that what I have to say next will give him spasms. It relates to the link between a proper industrial strategy and foreign takeovers, and how the state can intervene to perhaps limit the range of foreign takeovers.

In her speech launching her campaign to be Conservative party leader in July, the Prime Minister said:

“A proper industrial strategy wouldn’t automatically stop the sale of British firms to foreign ones, but it should be capable of stepping in to defend a sector that is as important as pharmaceuticals is to Britain.”

I welcome that approach. One of Britain’s virtues is its openness and the fact that that openness lends itself to dynamism and a willingness to consider new ideas and innovate new products. That ultimately leads to better competitiveness, yet there is a risk that this country will sell off the crown jewels, which would be detrimental to the long-term success of British business. We are at the heart of a dynamic and connected global economy, but we are at greater risk of investment in capital allocation decisions that affect British industry being made far away from these shores by parent boards headquartered overseas.

Indeed, within days of the Prime Minister entering No. 10, it was announced that SoftBank was buying Cambridge-based Arm Holdings for £24 billion. That was not an old-fashioned, obsolete, loss-making businesses, and it did not require a bail-out from the state. It was a successful British company in the growing global tech revolution. If the tests for stepping in to defend a sector that is important for Britain were not at work in that instance, it is difficult to see when they would be applied. Indeed, what would those tests be? For every instance of a welcome takeover, such as Tata’s purchase of Jaguar Land Rover, there are numerous examples of takeovers where industrial capacity was moved offshore, such as Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury. What are the criteria for stepping in and intervening?

--- Later in debate ---

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman) and to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) on securing the debate. May I apologise to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to other Members for not being here for a number of speeches? I hope I do not repeat what has been said.

[Mr Baker]

That is not likely.

[Richard Fuller]

I know that there is little chance of that.

George Brown, the noble Lord Heseltine, the noble Lord Mandelson, Vince Cable—to this hallowed series of greats we should now add the names of the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation and the Secretary of State as the people who will champion industrial strategy for our country. There are no two better minds in this House that we could apply to the task, but my concern is that we are sending our best brains in pursuit of a nonsense.

As the hon. Member for Aberdeen North has just said, we do not know what industrial strategy is—no one has defined it. When I heard earlier that the Minister had not yet published what the industrial strategy was, I raised my hands in prayer. As long as the Government continue not to define their industrial strategy, they will keep themselves out of a great deal of trouble. As soon as they define it, people will start to disagree with them, because the phrase “industrial strategy” is a wonderful grab bag of good ideas. There are loads of ideas in industrial strategy, every single one of them good. Ne’er a one is a bad idea, because a bad idea will not be allowed into the industrial strategy. In industrial strategy, all are winners, because no industrial strategy will pick a loser. The Minister will always say yes, because with an industrial strategy, one can never say no.

I hope that the Minister will maintain his rather reticent approach to industrial strategy so that he can continue to be friends with all Members across the Chamber and not upset anyone. In the phrase “industrial strategy” it is, first of all, hard for him to define industry. Is financial services an industry? The word “industry”, as my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington conjured up in his opening speech, is about manufacturing. What is strategy? Strategy is the pursuit of a goal, but what is the goal for an entire economy and, if there is a goal, how on earth is it the Government’s role to tell everyone what it is? That went out in the 1940s and ’50s with Soviet planning. I know that my friend the Minister has no interest in returning to those days, but unfortunately he may unwittingly, in his endeavours, encourage Opposition Members to think that the good old days of centralised socialism are back. He would not wish to be a fellow traveller on that journey to despair.

Industrial strategy, we are told, is positive because it enables us to think about the long term, but that is what shareholders do. We think about the news cycle and we think about the election cycle. We have to make sure that, in five years, we are re-elected. When we talk about consensus in other countries, we have to recognise that consensus in this country is built differently; it comes from the competition of ideas, and from one set of new ideas being subsequently accepted by the opposing party. The promotion by the Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher of a reduction in the power of trade unions and a liberalisation of markets was accepted by the subsequent Labour Government. The Labour Government’s introduction of the national minimum wage and regulation against discrimination in the workplace was accepted by the coalition Government. That is how we build consensus, and that is not compatible with the expectation that one can set an industrial strategy that stands for all time. The Minister will be here, I am sure, until he gets promoted, but at some stage—perhaps in 20 years’ time—the Opposition will get ready to take over power, at which point the long-term plan may be picked apart.

To be slightly more helpful to the Minister, I will point to some areas that he and his colleagues might like to look at. Although I would not call these things an industrial strategy, they might be good ideas. If we are to be successful, as my hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr Mak) mentioned, we have to promote innovation. Innovation is promoted by lowering taxes, ensuring that our markets are flexible, and looking carefully at regulatory sunsets to ensure that incumbents cannot use regulation to defend themselves against insurgents. Corporate governance also needs to be looked at seriously, as we discussed in the previous debate.

I commend my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne) for his productivity plan, not because it was about projects, but because it for the first time concentrated on what the Government can do regarding strategy, which is the implementation of things that are helpful, particularly for infrastructure. We need only look at the difficulties with the expansion of airport capacity in the south-east to see that we are very poor at implementing the decisions we make. I commend the productivity plan to the Minister for him to look at again.

The Prime Minister has rightly said that the United Kingdom is at the forefront of free trade. That is something on which the Minister and I clearly agree. Free trade is what the United Kingdom does best. We need to make sure we have appropriate protection against dumping, but we also need to be on the front foot in lowering our tariffs.

We are leaving the European Union, which is a major event for the whole of our economy. I understand that the Government want to form a view on that and know what actions they should take in the short term to assist us through this transition to a better and stronger future. However, each of these are things that the Government would do anyway. We do not need a Department for industrial strategy to do them; we do not need such a Department to improve our skills. We do not need one to change the law regarding the governance of our boards, although I agree with the hon. Member for Livingston (Hannah Bardell) that the Government should do that. We do not need the phrase “industrial strategy”. I am worried for the Minister in that, as he pursues it, he will set the Government up for a fall. I, for one, want to support the Government in their endeavours so that that does not happen.

BHS

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I beg to move an amendment, at the end of the Question to add,

‘; and, noting that Philip Green received his knighthood for his services for the retail industry, believes his actions raise the question of whether he should be allowed to continue to be a holder of the honour and calls on the Honours Forfeiture Committee to recommend his knighthood be cancelled and annulled.’

I am fortunate to follow such a gracious speech by the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Frank Field), and to move the amendment standing in my name and the names of 113 other Members of this House.

I took part in the inquiry into British Home Stores not only as a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee but as someone who believes passionately in the good that business can do. I have seen in my own life, and in countries around the world, that the force of market economies helps everyone. It helps people who want to earn a living and build a future for themselves and their families, and it creates a stable basis for broader freedoms in society to take hold.

However, in the course of our weeks of inquiry it became apparent to me that when we look at British Home Stores in particular, and at corporate governance in this country more generally, we see that all the rules that help set the stage for our market economy presume that with the freedoms given to people who have enormous power over thousands of their fellow citizens, when times are tough, or when push comes to shove, those people will do not just the legal thing but the right thing—the honourable thing. To some people, “honour” may seem an unusual word to use with regard to business, but in an effective business, ultimately, honour is all that one has. A person can amass a great fortune, but in such turbulent times for the market, they can lose it in a day, and all they are left with is their honour. Underpinning the amendment is the need to gauge, from the specifics of our parliamentary inquiry into British Home Stores, not whether Sir Philip Green’s actions were legal but whether they were honourable. That is pertinent because he received his honour for services to retail.

In the course of our inquiry, a core issue was pensions. The right hon. Member for Birkenhead spoke in detail, as will other Members, about the shortcomings that have led to British Home Stores pensioners facing the prospect of lower pensions and the taxpayer facing the prospect of having to pick up the tab for the difference.

Another issue was the role of advisers. It was bizarre that among a fleet of well-paid advisers on a transaction, apparently the only voice that mattered was that of the adviser who said they were not an adviser. That may be okay if a person is dealing with just themselves and their family, but when they are dealing with people who are going to get up on Monday to try to earn a living in a shop, advice is important. We saw many times that the role of advisers was not just in giving advice; it was also in conveying an impression that this person was a person of substance. In an enterprise with £600 million of revenue, 11,000 employees, and responsibility for putting money into the pensions of 20,000 people, surely those running it should be people of substance—people with experience. What goes through the mind of a knight of the realm in saying that those livelihoods and those futures should be consigned to a three-time bankrupt? What goes through the mind of the owner of such a substantial business in thinking that the problems that he has faced, and found quite challenging, can more easily be solved by someone with zero experience of the industry that they are about to take on?

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (SNP)]

I was contacted by email by a constituent, Irene, who shared the following:

“I have two friends that worked in BHS in Glasgow and they are devastated at what has happened to them and their pensions. They worked there for years and don’t have much chance of getting another job or being able to build up works pension...This has happened to my friends and their colleagues all because he risked his worker’s pensions while he made huge profits. I feel that we most certainly should not be honouring people like that.”

Does the hon. Gentleman agree with Irene, and me, that this man does not deserve his honour after what thousands of hard-working people across the UK have endured?

[Richard Fuller]

I am very grateful for the hon. Lady’s intervention, and I absolutely agree. I would say to people who worked for British Home Stores and want to be sure that we are dealing with issues that are tangible for them, and who are perhaps worried that the knighthood is a separate question, that we are debating those tangible issues. We are talking about what happened to their pensions and the fact that many people lost their jobs. Nevertheless, a symbolic, but still quite tangible, step that we can take in this House is to conclude that, as the hon. Lady says, such behaviours do not merit the continuation of an honour.

In their response this week, Lord Pannick and his colleague talked about governance issues. We were shocked to see that the response said that it was technically not the responsibility of the board of a holding company to attend even a meeting that disposed of a subsidiary, with all those livelihoods attached to it. Not doing so may not have been illegal, but for Lord Grabiner not even to have attended the meeting where the business was disposed of to a three-time bankrupt strikes me as calling into question the character of the members of the board. What went through their minds so that they did not think that was the right thing to do? They were not supposed to sign people into the wilderness with the brush of a pen, and for a Lord to do that points again to the fact that honour has to mean something in the behaviour of our businesses.

I want the Government to consider some further points. I do not have an answer on the question of the payment of dividends when there are pension deficits, but we need to look at it. Another issue to consider is transparency in large private companies, compared with that in public companies. Should the role of chairman continue to be precisely the same as that of other directors, or should the chairman have a greater role and responsibilities? What are the responsibilities of advisers?

Colleagues in the House have spoken to me privately and said that they may well agree that Sir Philip Green is no longer deserving of the knighthood, but they are not sure that the House has a role to play in that. Respectfully, I disagree. We are here to assert a view on the opinion of the people, and I think it is perfectly valid that we should consider the issue in the context of our report. It is on our work that we are expressing a view. We do not make the final decision, but it is worthy and honourable for this House to have a view about Sir Philip Green. Over the summer, Sir Philip has had the opportunity to find his moral compass and do the right thing. In the absence of that, the House has no option but to support the amendment and the motion.

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[Amanda Milling]

The hon. Lady makes an interesting point. She has a lot of personal interest in looking at RBS and the banking industry. From my perspective, the Government have been very quick in responding to the collapse of BHS and in recognising that there is a need to review corporate governance. I will come on to that in a bit more detail shortly.

The devastating events that resulted in the tragic collapse of BHS raise several questions about whether the framework of corporate governance is satisfactory, especially in relation to large private businesses—those with large workforces and large pension liabilities. This is about protecting our economy, protecting the taxpayer from picking up the bill and, most important, our responsibility to do everything we can to protect employees.

Many right hon. and hon. Members have discussed the consequences of the collapse of BHS. They have looked at the employees and the members of the pension scheme. I would like to focus on the employees. Eleven thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the collapse of BHS. But for those people it was not just about losing their job; it was about the impact on their lives and that of their families. Many of those people have mortgages to pay and are worried about whether they can keep a roof over their head and that of their family.

[Richard Fuller]

May I echo what my hon. Friend is saying? My right hon. Friend the Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills, who cannot be here today, mentioned to me that the BHS store in his constituency was for many years one of the most profitable BHS stores, but no due regard was given to those employees or pensioners. They were essentially cast aside, as everyone else was. The impact is being felt throughout the country—in town after town, store after store.

[Amanda Milling]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. He makes an important point. The stores are across the country. I do not have one in my constituency, but many right hon. and hon. Members do. Hundreds of people were employed at each store.

As I said, this is not just about the employees; it is also about their families. Far more people than the 11,000 employees have been affected by the collapse of BHS. As the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier) mentioned, the effect has been devastating. This has been a horrid period for the people who no longer have jobs at BHS and are facing difficulties in finding new employment.