Oral Answers to Questions
Simon Wright Excerpts(10 years, 7 months ago)
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Sajid Javid
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. He will know that more than 70,000 soldiers from the Indian army made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of Britain in the great war. With respect to Northern Ireland, I have not had any discussions so far in my new role, but I will certainly raise the matter at the earliest opportunity.
Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
4. What steps he is taking to reduce homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (Jenny Willott)
This Government are committed to tackling all forms of bullying in schools, and have provided advice to schools on how to tackle this harmful behaviour. However, we know that homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying persists and we have therefore recently awarded the contract for a new project to identify the best ways to help drive out this type of bullying.
Simon Wright
I am pleased that the Government have this week announced the contract for the review of evidence of what works in tackling such bullying. Can the Minister explain how she expects the outcome of this work to be taken forward and how the findings will be made available to schools in a way that will easily and practically help to inform their approach?
Jenny Willott
I welcome my hon. Friend’s support for this important project. This type of bullying is completely unacceptable. It must be addressed and we must learn the best way to do that. NatCen Social Research, to whom the contract has been awarded, has already started looking at the evidence for the most effective measures to tackle such bullying. It will report in the summer and we will use its report to develop and pilot interventions in schools. The learning from those pilots will be consolidated into a single package of guidance on what works, so that we can share that experience widely across all schools. That will help to ensure that the outcomes of the project live beyond the funding that is available and that they are embedded in future support for schools.
Oral Answers to Questions
Simon Wright Excerpts(10 years, 8 months ago)
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Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
10. What steps he has taken to reduce the cost of living for people on low incomes.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The coalition Government have taken decisive action to support families on low incomes. Increasing the personal allowance, for example, will take 3.2 million individuals out of income tax altogether by 2015-16. We have helped to freeze the council tax, frozen fuel duty and reduced energy bills, providing universal free school meals for infant schools and introducing tax-free child care support of up to £2,000, all on top of the most important thing, which is an economic plan that is delivering strong and sustained growth for this country.
Simon Wright
This month more than 3 million low-paid people have been taken out of paying income tax altogether since 2010, as a result of delivering the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment of a £10,000 tax threshold. Can my right hon. Friend say how the impact of this policy on low-income workers compares with the previous Government’s policy of abolishing the 10p tax rate?
Mr Osborne
The last study on the impact of zero-hours contracts was undertaken by the previous Labour Government, who concluded that they wanted to retain the flexibility that such contracts offer to business. However, we are not satisfied that all the work has been done on this, which is why the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is consulting on what changes potentially need to be made to zero-hours contracts. We have received a lot of representations, we are looking through them and of course we will come forward with a response shortly.
Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
T9. Within a few months, Norwich will no longer be the UK’s largest city not to be connected to the dual carriageway network. Can the Chancellor confirm that the excellent progress of the coalition’s A11 dualling scheme in Norfolk is meeting Treasury expectations, and will he keep this in mind when considering destinations for further infrastructure investment?
Money Transfer Accounts and Remittance Sector
Simon Wright Excerpts(10 years, 11 months ago)
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Rushanara Ali
Yes, of course we need a long-term solution as well as an interim solution. My hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West set out brilliantly the background—how we got here. Barclays made its decision, following on from decisions that other banks had made, which has led to virtually no opportunities for money transfer companies to use banking facilities to carry out their business, and as a result, many have gone out of business. At this rate, there will not be many left if we do not get our act together and find an interim solution, as well as a long-term solution that involves coming up with an international framework.
Britain has led on these issues in the past and I believe that it can do so again. That is my appeal today to the Minister—that he will work with the Secretary of State for International Development and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and put genuine effort in during the short window of time that we have managed to gain, thanks to the injunction achieved by the company based in my constituency, Dahabshiil, led by Mr Abdirashid Duale. As a result of that, although other companies have closed, it is still going. It is virtually the last one standing, but it is also the biggest company that supports remittance to developing countries.
We have until October, and if a solution—an interim solution as well as a long-term one—is not found, we may see devastation in Somalia, because there are almost no other routes to get money in apart from physically carrying cash, which I am sure no one wants people to be doing, because of the dangers of criminality, terrorism, extremism and many other things. We cannot have a situation in which people must physically transport cash and place themselves at risk of being criminalised, not to mention being the target of criminals, as they try to get money to their communities because of the desperate situation.
Let me remind hon. Members of the context particularly of Somalia, but also of many other countries—we have seen this in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other countries. At times of crisis, people need to get money into remote places, so even countries with a banking system struggle to enable people to get support—to get remittances—in. That is where money transfer companies play a vital role. They have intimate—close—networks and trusted relationships in remote villages around the world, whereby people can get money to those who cannot travel easily because the infrastructure is not good enough in those countries or because they live in remote places.
Money transfer companies are also vital in times of disaster, as we saw during the humanitarian disaster in east Africa, which affected Somalia, the floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the cyclones, and disasters in many other countries. We need to ensure that there are ways in which remittances can be given, so that the pressure on humanitarian assistance does not increase further, which undoubtedly it would do if remittances were prevented from getting to people quickly and safely. Global remittance flows are greater in value than all the international aid budgets put together. We need safe and legal—legitimate—mechanisms whereby people can get help to their families.
In the previous debate, the Minister himself said that his elderly family members had received remittances in the past and continued to do so. I have a similar experience, because my family do the same. It is a critical way in which people support each other. The British Muslim community donate millions of pounds in zakat, which also takes the form of remittances. All those contributions build a vital lifeline for people in developing countries who might not qualify for development aid, but who none the less receive support for education, health care and other costs that enables them to live a decent life.
Remittances contribute greatly to economic development, as I have seen in my constituency, where communities have come together to raise money. I attended a recent event at which some 500 people from the British Somali community got together to raise money. It was organised by some of my constituents who are here today: Ayan Mahamoud, Abdi Rashid Gulaid and many others. They raised nearly £1 million in one evening by calling on the community to act to rebuild their country, to rebuild roads and to rebuild infrastructure.
That is a case in point of communities helping themselves to rebuild their country, rather than depending on aid. We have heard a lot from Ministers from the Department for International Development about the need for self-reliance. I passionately believe that that is what people want in their own countries, and the best way to encourage that is to build a system of remittance through which people can send money legitimately to help rebuild their countries and lift the inhabitants out of poverty. Such a system can work alongside the important international aid effort to which we contribute.
My hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West set out the background and described the inconsistencies inherent in the decision by Barclays. The Government must act to provide a medium-term and a long-term solution to this serious problem. The fact that 130,000 people got behind the campaign and tens of thousands more signed petitions—teenage Somali girls even went around markets and visited people’s houses to get them to sign up to the campaign—shows how much people believe this matters because it affects their lives. People talk about communities feeling disfranchised, but that is an example of a community that led the way because the bank’s decision affected their families and friends so directly.
If we can find a solution to support a country and a community that historically have felt let down by politics—international politics as well as our politics—we will show that we care passionately, as the Prime Minister has said, about countries such as Somalia and support their transition towards peace, stability and economic development. The best way to do that is by supporting legitimate ways to help people help themselves and their families through remittance.
The most urgent of the challenges we face is time. Thanks to the campaign, the support of Members from across the House and the engagement—with some pressure—of Ministers in the Treasury and the Department for International Development, we now have a framework. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West said, the action group on cross-border remittances needs urgently to meet and identify a chair. I hope that the Minister will set out in detail what will happen. We have a window of opportunity that nobody would have believed possible last summer, thanks to the work of the campaign, MPs and the media, and not least the support of double Olympic champion Mo Farah. His foundation, which uses Dahabshiil, has been directly affected because it will find it difficult to send money back to Africa. He said:
“I just cannot see how cutting the remittance lifeline squares with British foreign policy in the Horn of Africa. It will undo all the good work the government has achieved in the region”.
I echo his comments.
The Government have done good work in championing the cause of Somalia and Somaliland, and the Opposition have supported that effort through the Somalia conference. Whether a solution to the problem is found in the coming months—both an interim solution, to ensure that people can continue to remit to countries such as Somalia and places such as Somaliland, and a long-term solution—will make a critical difference to whether Somalia can avoid further conflict and devastation.
I hope that the Minister will push for the action group to come up with a solution that addresses the decision made by Barclays and other banks. Such banks need to feel that the regulatory framework allows them to provide banking facilities to money transfer companies without fear of big fines. There must be consistency and transparency in the decisions made to remove banking facilities from certain companies. The Government must learn lessons from the past, and look at what was done in cases where concerns were raised about money laundering.
Most importantly, as several experts have highlighted, the decision not to provide legitimate banking facilities to money transfer companies will simply drive the whole industry underground. We will return to the bad old days of money flows going into countries without regulation and without their Governments knowing how much money is going in. Some of that money will absolutely end up in the wrong hands, which is dangerous for those countries and for our security. That issue must be confronted. We need a solution that addresses issues of security and counter-terrorism. The withdrawal of legitimate banking facilities will open the way for such forces and present bigger dangers for us, particularly in countries such as Somalia and the surrounding region where there are major concerns about extremism and terrorism.
Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
Does the hon. Lady think that as part of the solution, more might be done to promote mobile money transfers? According to a survey by the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup, more than one in three adults already use mobile money in Somalia. Might that be an important part of the solution?
Oral Answers to Questions
Simon Wright Excerpts(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)
6. What fiscal steps he is taking to encourage job creation in the private sector.
Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
14. How many jobs have been created in the private sector since 2010.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
Private sector employment has been growing robustly, with 1.3 million jobs created in the sector since the start of 2010. At Budget 2013, we announced the £2,000 employment allowance, which will support businesses aspiring to grow by hiring their first employee or expanding their work force. Businesses will be able to employ four adults or 10 18 to 20-year-olds full time on the national minimum wage without paying any employer national insurance contributions at all.
Simon Wright
The 2010 autumn statement confirmed the dualling of the A11, raising investor confidence in Norwich as a destination for growth. May I urge Treasury Ministers to be similarly bold in their spending review in relation to the A47, where investment has the potential to create up to 10,000 more jobs for the region?
Mr Gauke
I am grateful for that question, and I am sure that my hon. Friend will be listening attentively to any announcements made later on in the week. His constituency is another example of where private sector growth has been very strong, reflecting the national pattern.