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Recruitment and Assessment Services Agency
7. Mr. Miller: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the privatisation of the Recruitment and Assessment Services Agency. [15243]
Mr. Willetts: The privatisation of the Recruitment and Assessment Services Agency is proceeding as announced. I expect the sale to be completed in the summer.
Mr. Miller: In the wake of Nolan and now Scott, are not the Government taking actions that will undermine the neutrality of our civil service?
Mr. Willetts: That is complete nonsense. The selection of civil servants will still be in the hands of civil servants and, as now, the procedures will be regulated by the independent civil service commissioners. That is another example of a successful privatisation combined with stringent regulation. It is a great pity that, after 16 years, the Opposition still do not understand the basic argument for privatisation.
Mr. Bill Walker: Does my hon. Friend think that, if the Opposition are concerned about the civil service's neutrality, they may be leaning towards new Labour rather than old Labour? We know that old Labour is still what runs the Labour party.
Mr. Willetts: I do not recognise the terms old Labour or new Labour. We know what the Labour party stands for and we remain opposed to it.
Government Policy (Presentation)
8. Mr. Grocott: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what recent representations he has received on his responsibilities for the strategic presentation of Government policy. [15244]
The Deputy Prime Minister: As I told the hon. Gentleman when I last answered questions to my Department, I have received no recent representations on my responsibilities
- "other than from Opposition Members."--[Official Report, 29 January 1996; Vol. 270, c. 632.]
Mr. Grocott: With all the millions of words have been said and written about the Scott report, is not the irreducible truth that Ministers--I put it in its kindest way--deliberately withheld information from the House? As that is the clearest possible abuse of our parliamentary system, and as it is difficult to see how the system can operate if that abuse is allowed to continue, will the Deputy Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government and without reservation or qualification, publicly apologise to the House?
The Deputy Prime Minister: When the Scott report is considered in its totality, the overriding conclusion will be that the allegations peddled by the parliamentary Labour party for three years were unfounded. We did not arm Saddam Hussein or conspire to send innocent men to prison. The parliamentary Labour party and its spokesmen should apologise unreservedly for those charges.
Mr. Harry Greenway: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Scott report argues in a number of different directions at the same time and that, finally, it is impossible to take it seriously for that reason?
The Deputy Prime Minister: I have read of the Scott report that it is biblical in its judgments--there is something there to suit most people, depending on which quotation they use, but the facts remain that the central charges against the Government have not been proved by the report.
Mr. Skinner: The Deputy Prime Minister now has a newfangled machine in the biggest office in Whitehall and the new titles Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State--which he screwed out of the Prime Minister on the day of the ballot. If he had had that spying machine and that position when the arms sales were taking place, could he have used them to tell all the Cabinet Ministers, "Look, you are going down the wrong track"? Does he think that that would have worked?
The Deputy Prime Minister: As so often with the hon. Gentleman, he is out of touch with his own party. Only one big lying machine has been introduced in modern politics recently and that is in Millbank. It has been put there by the Labour party.
Mr. Stephen: Does my right hon. Friend recall that, in the 1960s, British business man Greville Wynne was arrested by the Soviets, that a Member of Parliament, who should have known better, asked in the House whether Wynne was working for British intelligence and that, on that occasion, the Minister was obliged to lie to Parliament? Does my right hon. Friend accept that there are occasions, especially in relation to foreign affairs and defence, when not only should Ministers not answer the question, but Members of Parliament should not ask the question?
The Deputy Prime Minister: My hon. Friend raises important issues. I very much sympathise with the reply given by the right hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore), who clearly recognised the dilemma that Ministers sometimes face when they have to answer questions giving the fullest possible information to Parliament but also have regard to our security and commercial interests overseas. Every Minister has had to wrestle with that balancing judgment. The right hon. Gentleman had the integrity to answer that question honestly. It is of course apparent that it is long time since the Labour party was in a power and that now it is prepared to disregard totally what its own spokesman said when he was in office.
Deregulation
9. Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the effect of his deregulation proposals on British manufacturing industry. [15245]
Mr. Freeman: As we made clear in our second White Paper on competitiveness, deregulation is central to improving the competitiveness of British industry. Unnecessary requirements stand in the way of market entry, innovation, investment and jobs. We are also ensuring that new regulations are introduced only where really necessary, meet the test of public benefit exceeding cost of implementation and are enforced in a business-friendly way.
Mr. Jones: In that case, why have the Government imposed 294 new regulations since 1992? May I please have a truthful reply?
Mr. Freeman: If the hon. Gentleman is referring to the press speculation about the document coming from the European Commission, I should tell him that I have not seen that document. Early reports imply that the document is substantially flawed because it includes UK legislation that implements European legislation. We introduce about 1,400 substantive statutory instruments each year and a clear majority of them either have no bearing on business and industry or are deregulatory in nature.
Mr. Jenkin: Does my right hon. Friend agree that we are only just beginning to realise the huge magnitude of the regulatory task before us not only in preventing British officials from implementing to the letter everything that is put before them, but in relation to the problem of gold plating European regulations? Not only are some European regulations excessive, but we implement them with excessive zeal.
Mr. Freeman: My hon. Friend is right. For far too long in Whitehall, we have added unnecessary additional provisions to legislation that implements directives agreed by various Councils of Ministers. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister and I have put a stop to the gold plating of European legislation. My hon. Friend is also right to refer to over-enforcement. It is important that, when officials enforce any European legislation in this country implemented under the European Communities Act 1972, they do so sensibly, and in a balanced and user-friendly way.
Mr. Dafis: Does the Sea Empress episode not show the importance of more stringent regulation in some areas? Is that not especially true for the environment, where regulation can stimulate technological inventiveness and therefore produce solutions? For example, is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the work of the Environmental Industries Commission, and of its conviction that Britain needs to recognise the huge importance of environmental technology as a major sector in global industry over the next decade? Will he firmly undertake not to deregulate in the important area of environmental sustainability?
Compliance Cost Assessments
10. Sir Donald Thompson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what guidance has been issued to Ministers on the preparation of compliance cost assessments. [15246]
Mr. Freeman: Following publication of the new guidance booklet on compliance cost assessments on 25 January, I have written to all departmental Ministers asking them to ensure that the new guidelines are observed in their Departments. The guidance includes a requirement for Ministers to sign off personally all compliance cost assessments and to certify that the benefit of the regulatory proposal exceeds the cost.
Sir Donald Thompson: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that he agrees that compliance costs and likely compliance costs must be rigorously examined and the whole of an industry consulted before legislation from either Britain or Europe is accepted without compliance
costs? Often, the cost of compliance to a large firm is negligible, while the cost to a small firm of compliance to the same regulations is relatively huge.
Mr. Freeman: I agree with my hon. Friend and I am happy to say that the European Commission has accepted in principle that it will follow the practice that we have adopted in the United Kingdom and will introduce compliance cost assessments for new draft directives and regulations before the end of the year.
Mr. MacShane: Surely the Minister will agree that one of the most important elements of any compliance cost system is that companies or individuals who are bankrupt are not allowed to continue trading? Do not the revelations yesterday, that No. 10 has spread its protective arm over the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Mr. Thomason) to allow him to keep trading while bankrupt, show that there is nothing but contempt for the normal operations of business at the heart of our Government system?
Mr. Freeman: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his support for general deregulatory measures in company law, auditing and other financial requirements. The Government have an excellent record over the past 24 months in introducing deregulatory measures in relation to auditing and accounting standards for small firms.
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