Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Thursday 4th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

T5. Ministers are aware of the nervousness about Brexit in the creative industries. What assurances can they give that the copyright protections in the European directive will be fully preserved?

[The Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries (Margot James)]

We applauded the decision to pass the EU copyright directive, and I have met with bodies from the creative industries to discuss how best to implement it in the UK. That will take a certain amount of time, but we will be looking to protect the intellectual property and artistic creations of our designers and this country’s brilliant creative industries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Tuesday 7th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Margot James]

The enterprise finance guarantee scheme was exactly designed to enable businesses to borrow when they lacked collateral, with taxpayer support. If a bank is closing down overdraft facilities to claim on the guarantee—as in the case to which I believe the right hon. Gentleman refers—that would clearly be a gross abuse of the scheme. Any evidence of that will certainly be looked at very carefully by my Department.

[Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) (LD)]

Does the Minister not agree that the response to the finding that 92% of the bank’s restructuring group’s small business customers were mistreated has been pathetic and is unworthy of a publicly owned institution?

[Margot James]

I suggest that the right hon. Gentleman hold fire until the Financial Conduct Authority has decided on what action it may still take. It is empowered to take action, and I totally agree with the sentiments behind his question.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Thursday 11th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Both sides of the coalition will be introducing and supporting tougher enforcement measures in the small business Bill. The hon. Lady will already know that, adding to the enforcement regime we inherited, we have introduced not just the naming and shaming procedure but the prospect of significantly tougher penalties and much larger fines.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will know of the previous Government’s poor record on enforcing the minimum wage. Is he confident that with his new proposals we will dramatically improve on that poor record?

[Vince Cable]

We will, and an administrative measure that will help that process is an increase in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ enforcement budget. As my hon. Friend will know, the first stage in the process is to insist that the enforcement authorities address deficiencies in the minimum wage. She is right also to emphasise that the enforcement regime we inherited was a rather weak one.

Executive Pay

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Incentives and rewards are fundamental to the private sector growth that we are all keen to ensure. Does my right hon. Friend accept that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between performance and failure, and that certain companies facing extremely difficult trading conditions might have to hang on to an executive through the incentive of high pay?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, and that is why operational decisions must remain with the company so that it can make a judgment on the matter. Through these recommendations we are trying to ensure that investors are properly informed, and we are, through transparency, giving them the power to make the judgment that the hon. Lady described, and act accordingly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The hon. Gentleman might be confusing the coming year with the year for which fee levels are being announced. However, as I said earlier, there is a wide distribution of proposed charge levels by the universities that have already made announcements—less than a quarter of all universities—and this reflects the policy that we introduced.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that the Government will not attempt to reduce the number of places at universities charging the full rate of £9,000 a year in order to oblige a greater proportion of students to attend universities that charge less?

[Vince Cable]

We certainly wish to encourage providers that charge highly competitive fee levels, but we also wish to encourage high-quality universities of the kind my hon. Friend described. I do not think that the two are in any way incompatible.

Trade and Investment for Growth White Paper

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

We want to help small businesses, but we intend to do so in a more cost-effective way, and in a more effective way overall. The support for trade finance that I have described is specifically directed at small enterprises. As for the other schemes, such as mentoring, which the right hon. Gentleman will know about through my colleague the Minister of State, Lord Green, we are putting in place a whole series of measures that are focused specifically on the SME community.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on extending the remit of the Export Credits Guarantee Department into small business support, but will he review the department’s performance and structure further? I refer in particular to the fact that 90% of the support that it provides goes to the aerospace industry. That shows a real imbalance, and there are other problems with the functioning of that department too.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Thursday 18th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I have been taught to dance “Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick”, and that is what I will be doing, both in my Department and on the Christmas show.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I understand that Lord Young is examining the impact of employment law on the growth of small business. Will my hon. Friend work with Lord Young to identify whether there are ways of modifying employment law for small businesses, particularly those that are family owned, and employ small numbers of people?

Local Growth White Paper

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Thursday 28th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on bringing the private sector into the driving seat of the economic renewal that is very much required locally. The sector will be in partnership for the first time with local authorities, so that private business will have a seat at the table discussing infrastructure and planning matters at last. He has mentioned—indeed, we now have the White Paper—the 24 LEPs that he has approved. Will he say a little about the next steps for future LEP approvals? May I also commend my area’s LEP, the Black Country LEP, for which local business leaders have great enthusiasm?

[Vince Cable]

In terms of private sector participation, the LEPs will have boards that are split 50:50 between business and the local communities and will be chaired by business representatives. They will be driven by business, which has a direct interest in ensuring that growth takes place. It will be a change from a begging-bowl relationship to a partnership; that is the essence of this approach. The Black Country LEP is not on the first list. The assessment made was that there was not a sufficient business input into the proposal, but we hope it will proceed very quickly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Margot James

Thursday 3rd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I hope that it will continue to play a positive role. My right hon. Friend has been extensively involved in supporting the north-east, and I talked to him about these things on the several occasions I visited Newcastle and the region. He knows that one of the early decisions that came to me was to appoint the new chairman of One NorthEast, and appointing someone to manage the transition was a statement of a wish to maintain an element of continuity. I do not pretend that the RDAs will not change: they will, but I recognise that the north-east is a particular case because of its very high dependence on public sector employment and the generally very positive feedback I get about One NorthEast.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend and his team on their new positions. Is he aware of the Richard report commissioned by the Conservative party in opposition? It found that a third of RDA money was spent on administration and that much of the rest was spent on signposting to other sources of information. I beseech him to ensure that in the new policy businesses and locally elected authorities can get together to avail themselves far more directly of all that taxpayer money.

[Vince Cable]

Yes, I am aware of that report. There was a happy coincidence of thinking between my colleague’s party and my own on the future of RDAs. She is quite right to say that there was a lot of administrative waste, some of which we are now removing as a result of the changes that have been made in the last week. There will be parts of the country—including, I think, the part that she represents—where we will have a substantial cutback in RDAs. However, they will be refocused and made more effective.