Oral Answers to Questions

Vince Cable Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for her superb work as Minister of State for Skills over the past few years. Under her watch, the importance of technical education has been raised substantially. She will be aware that sectors in all parts of the economy are now creating apprenticeship programmes, from cyber-security to offshore wind, and more than 61% of starts are now on high-quality industry design standards.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

How does the Secretary of State explain the fact that the Government’s own skill index, which measures the value added from apprenticeships and vocational training, is now 25% below 2012 levels?

[Andrea Leadsom]

The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that in the 2018-19 academic year, despite an overall fall, nearly 60,000 people started higher-level apprenticeships, up nearly 43% on the year before the levy was introduced. It is important that the Government continue to talk to business about how to make use of this, but we are very pleased with progress.

Climate Action and Extinction Rebellion

Vince Cable Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

I cannot disagree with my hon. Friend that the focus on retrofitting is hugely important. He and I put ourselves on the green deal Bill Committee because we believed there was a way to incentivise people—if someone retrofits their home, their energy bills go down, and they often get a higher sale price or a lower running cost.

We have to work in all sectors. There will continue to be an element of Government investment. We are working with mortgage lenders. There is evidence that offering a green mortgage pays for itself, because people can borrow more cheaply and get a better rate of return. There have to be many ways of doing this. In constituencies like mine, many homes are not suitable for traditional retrofit technologies such as cavity wall insulation. That is why part of the £2.6 billion we are spending on innovation over this Parliament has to go into finding solutions for such homes.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

The Minister is right that there are some sectors, such as power generation, in which major progress has been made in carbon reduction, but does she agree that there are others, such as aviation, where virtually nothing is taking place? Does she agree that the Government should re-examine major expansion projects such as Heathrow specifically to look at the climate change implications?

[Claire Perry]

The right hon. Gentleman tempts me into another Department’s area. I have to say that I believe that most of the emissions problems with this specific aviation project relate to transport to and from the airport, and clearly there is much more that can be done on that with the Department for Transport. Equally, however, we have to look at how we try to solve the aviation problem globally. Again, there is no point trying to do something unilaterally that disadvantages the UK economy, when we could be working to solve the problem. One of the things the Department has been doing is investing in alternative fuels, in many cases created from the waste products of other processes, and that is the sort of innovation we need to see because unless we can drop the emissions from aviation substantially, we will not be on track.

Nissan in Sunderland

Vince Cable Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

First, the company sells most of its output into the rest of the European Union so will need to maintain its ability to meet the requirements to which my hon. Friend refers. Secondly, as I said to my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood), Nissan in particular has been among the prime advocates of the drive towards cleaner vehicles. That has often been to this country’s benefit, because the Leaf, which is made in Sunderland, is the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his comprehensive statement. May I follow up on the question from the Chair of the Treasury Committee, the right hon. Member for Loughborough (Nicky Morgan), about the £61 million? In view of the statement apparently made by the Department an hour ago, which contradicts what the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the hon. Member for Watford (Richard Harrington), said this morning, apparently in good faith, will the Secretary of State clarify how much of the £61 million was actually paid to the company and how much is now due to be repaid?

[Greg Clark]

I made it clear that the £61 million was approved by the independent process, with which the right hon. Gentleman is very familiar. To date, there has been a payment of £2.6 million, about half of which was for training of the workforce and the community, and half of which was for environmental improvements to the plant. So £2.6 million has been paid to date.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vince Cable Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I will. My hon. Friend is right to comment on the supply chain. A big part of the automotive sector deal, which we concluded with the sector, is to boost the proportion of components that are sourced in the UK. This is a joint commitment that we make, as part of the industrial strategy, but she is also right to draw attention to the importance of our continued ability to trade with the rest of the European Union, free of tariffs and with low friction, so that we can maintain the just-in-time model, which is so crucial to our automotive sector.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

Following the loss of the Discovery model to Slovakia, which was a decision at least partly influenced by Brexit, what steps is the Minister taking to head off the risk to Jaguar Land Rover’s exports to China where the rules of origin will conflict with the interests of the company in the event that we lose the customs union and we no longer have sufficient UK content in the cars?

[Greg Clark]

The right hon. Gentleman is wrong about the decision that was made. In fact, it is a decision to prepare Solihull for the next generation of the Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport. JLR described that as a huge investment and a technology upgrade in Solihull, so I hope he will welcome that. He knows that the importance of making sure that we are able to continue to trade—this includes recognising rules of origin not just with the European Union, but around the world—is vital for this company.

Sainsbury and Asda Merger

Vince Cable Excerpts

Monday 30th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffiths]

My right hon. Friend is a doughty fighter for his constituents, and I understand that he will be lobbying hard to ensure that there are no job losses. I reassure him that some 330,000 people are employed by this joint, merged organisation. It is a huge employer. It has given us very strong reassurances about jobs in stores. I urge him to engage not only with the CMA in relation to this investigation, but with both Asda and Sainsbury’s to make those points strongly and forcefully, as he always does.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

The Minister referred to the importance of online business in driving this merger. Can he explain how the CMA’s terms of reference enable it properly to take into account competition between domestic bricks-and-mortar businesses and global online corporations such as Amazon?

[Andrew Griffiths]

Very few people know this area of competition policy better than the right hon. Gentleman. As I have pointed out, phase 2 of the CMA investigation will involve drawing together a panel that will consider all the facts about the size of the market and the impact. As part of that, they will use all their resources to ensure that they fully understand not just, as he puts it, the bricks-and-mortar marketplace, but competition from online retailers.

GKN

Vince Cable Excerpts

Tuesday 24th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his comments. It seems to me that when we establish a regime of post-offer undertakings, it is necessary to be active and to apply ourselves to the undertakings that it is important to secure. It is true that there has never been any commitment to own an important business such as that for more than five years, and I think that this will be valuable and welcomed by the employees in his constituency. I recognise his assiduousness in visiting the plant and talking to his constituents who are employed there.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

Further to the excellent intervention from the hon. Member for Telford (Lucy Allan), the Select Committee Chair, does the Secretary of State accept that the role of the short-term investors has been highly destabilising? They acquired 20% of the stock, they forced the takeover through and they are now short selling. If he is not persuaded of the merits of differential voting, how does he propose to deal with this problem?

[Greg Clark]

The right hon. Gentleman was not persuaded either. He commissioned a report, he had a respected and eminent individual look into this, and he gave evidence to the Select Committee to say that he was not persuaded. I have described some of the circumstances involved. Those who bought shares in the latter stages bought them from people who had decided they did not want to back the existing management. He knows that I take a great interest in ensuring that our regime of corporate governance is the best in the world. The fact that people can invest here with confidence forms an important part of our reputation. We have been successful over many years, and of course if the Select Committee wants to review the experience since the report that he commissioned, it has the ability to do that and I would be very happy to participate.

Corporate Governance and Insolvency

Vince Cable Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffiths]

My hon. Friend has hit the nail well and truly on the head. I commend the work that his Select Committee has been doing in shining a light on the realities of the way in which Carillion operated. In the very early days of the Carillion collapse, when the Government were looking to protect those vital services that were being delivered and to protect the 18,500 people employed by the company, it became clear that it was a hellishly complicated business with a hellishly over-complicated structure. It is still proving a difficult job to untangle the web of the Carillion business structure. If it is difficult for the Insolvency Agency to do that, so many weeks on, how much more difficult must it have been to run the business? We need clear, accountable business structures in our businesses today.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

I welcome this sensible set of proposals, particularly those relating to value extraction through complex arrangements. What can the Minister currently do, and what will he be able to do in the future, in respect of companies such as Toys R Us? It had a management team, led by a man called Frank Muzika, which was able to loot the company over a long period of time and load it up with debt using complex instruments and tax havens, leaving behind a legacy of a £580 million pension fund and 3,000 redundancies. What can the Minister do?

[Andrew Griffiths]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. He clearly has a vast amount of experience as a former Secretary of State in our Department. He is right to identify the value extraction element in this document. When a business is taken over, we often see the directors of the purchasing company put in place complicated measures to protect their own backs, to ensure that, whatever happens to the business, they will not be impacted. The powers proposed in this consultation would allow us to recoup and recover the amount of money involved, not just for shareholders and directors but for contractors and creditors in the supply chain. In relation to Toys R Us, he will recognise that some businesses will always fail. However, the Government are clear that this set of measures will put an emphasis on the responsibilities not just of directors but of shareholders. It is an important point that shareholders—particularly institutional shareholders—should have a voice in the way in which these businesses are run.

Taylor Review

Vince Cable Excerpts

1st reading: House of Commons
Wednesday 7th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffiths]

Clearly that is very high on the agenda. The work we are doing in relation to status will ensure that people who are genuinely self-employed are classified as such. Employers who are trying to game the system by pretending that someone is self-employed when in fact they are working will be addressed. The reality is that if it looks like work and feels like work, it is work, and people should be paid in the same way.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

The Minister will recall the Government’s awkward embarrassment when they tried to align national insurance for the employed and the self-employed. Can he explain how the Government propose to deal with that outstanding anomaly?

[Andrew Griffiths]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that question. The Chancellor set out our approach to those matters, and I have nothing further to add at the moment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Vince Cable Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I do indeed. Space is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, and we are world leaders in it. Through the Bill, we will ensure that we have the right regulatory regime to underpin that.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

Since the aerospace sector requires long-term planning and investment, does the Secretary of State not share my alarm at the threatened takeover of the leading tier 1 supplier GKN by a turnaround company specialising in maximising shareholder returns over five years maximum? Is this not a national security issue?

[Greg Clark]

The right hon. Gentleman is a previous occupant of my post, so he knows that the powers that the Secretary of State has over these things have to be exercised in a quasi-judicial way. Therefore, I should not, and cannot, comment on that case. However, he will know, because he has written to me, that I have spoken to both chief executives, and I am keeping it under close review.

Industrial Strategy

Vince Cable Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

My right hon. Friend asks a characteristically acute question. It is true to say that some of the measures of productivity do not do justice to the importance of the issue. We would not, for example, want to substitute our model of very high employment for the model of some other countries, where there is very high productivity among people who are employed, but a large number of people unemployed. That would be the wrong thing to do. We propose in the strategy to set up an independent council, which will set a baseline against which our performance can be judged independently and which will report to the House. I think that that is the right way to apply rigour to the question that he raises.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

I welcome the statement, albeit that it has taken the Government two and a half years to conduct what is, essentially, a rebranding exercise. Does the Secretary of State agree that the essence of improving productivity is skills? If he is going to reverse the absolutely catastrophic decline now occurring in apprenticeships, he should go back to the model that he and I worked on. It would have increased the number and quality of apprenticeships and scrapped the apprenticeship levy, which has been appallingly maladministered.

[Greg Clark]

I had hoped that the right hon. Gentleman would give a more enthusiastic welcome to some things, which I thought he would be in favour of, not least the substantial increase in investment in research and development. When he was Secretary of State, we managed to maintain the level, but this is the biggest increase there has ever been, and I thought that he would welcome that.

Apprenticeships are very important. We have made great strides in improving the number and quality of apprenticeships. The new system is bedding in, and I think most observers recognise that the initial figures are not a guide to the future. The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that we want to encourage the take-up of more good apprenticeships.