House of Commons
Thursday 8 June 2000
The House met at half-past Eleven o'clock
PRAYERS
[Madam Speaker in the Chair]
PRIVATE BUSINESS
London Local Authorities Bill [Lords] (By Order)
Order for consideration, as amended, read.
To be considered on Thursday 15 June.
Mersey Tunnels Bill (By Order)
Order for Second Reading read.
To be read a Second time on Thursday 15 June.
Oral Answers to Questions
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
The Secretary of State was asked--
Excellence in Cities
1. Mr. Keith Darvill (Upminster): If he will make a statement on progress with the excellence in cities proposals for learning mentors. [123333]
The Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. David Blunkett): The excellence in cities programme has so far seen the recruitment of 800 learning mentors with a further 600 to come in the new extended excellence in cities areas. The mentors work with schools and with parents and help to reduce disaffection and alienation. In the case of the Wales high school in Rotherham, they have cut non-attendance and late attendance by 60 per cent. They also help to reduce the exclusion of children from school by working with them to overcome their problems.
Mr. Darvill: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Does he agree that learning mentors, alongside on-site pupil referrals and other measures, are a vital part of the Government's programme for tackling disaffection and the problems of disruption in schools? Will he confirm that, under the Conservative Government, thousands of young people were excluded from school and were left out on the streets to commit crimes? Does he also agree that the Conservatives are Johnny- come-latelys on this issue and have no ideas to offer?
Mr. Blunkett: Johnny-come-lately is an admirable description of the Leader of the Opposition. He was away at Easter and the spring bank holiday, so he missed the two speeches in which I addressed the issues that he
talked about earlier this week. There are 1,000 learning support units in schools across the country, with proper funding and a full education for pupils in referral units such as the Zacchaeus centre in Birmingham, which was funded by the Government's school inclusion grant. The grant enables schools to buy back in the services that they need at the referral unit and it ensures that children can work with mentors and have places when that is necessary. All that has gone on because the Government have changed from £17 million to £527 million the amount of money that is available. A Johnny-come-lately, who was on holiday when these matters were discussed, has suddenly caught up with them now that he is back from swimming with the dolphins.
Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West): As part of the Government's laudable aim of achieving excellence in cities, they are setting up new private schools, the city academies that are funded by the state. Ministers have determined that the practice of such centres selecting 10 per cent. of their pupils will raise standards in our cities. Will the Secretary of State explain what has led him to the view that 10 per cent. is the correct percentage? Does he not believe that the optimum percentage might be 5, 20 or perhaps even on occasions 100 per cent?
Mr. Blunkett: The initiative has nothing at all to do with mentors or the excellence in cities in programme in general, but it is entirely in line with our diversity programme in which specialist schools have exactly the same opportunity in terms of aptitude not selection. The previous Government were quite happy to use that distinction themselves and it has been dealt with on numerous occasions. No doubt, we shall return to it when I have more time to explain the difference to the hon. Gentleman.
Farm Diversification
2. Mr. Paul Flynn (Newport, West): What estimate he has made of the likely effect on employment levels in leisure and similar pursuits as a result of farming land being redeployed for non-farming uses over the next five years. [123334]
The Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities (Ms Tessa Jowell): We have not made an assessment in the terms that my hon. Friend asks. However, in the past year, jobs in agriculture and fishing fell by 12,000 and jobs in the services grew by 354,000, and some of them will be the result of farm diversification.
Mr. Flynn: It is extremely regrettable that there is a continuing fall in jobs in farming, a process that has been going on for at least 200 years. However, it is encouraging to note that there has been an increase in the population of rural areas--four times the increase in the nation as a whole--and that there has been a similar increase in the number of start-ups in small and medium-sized enterprises in the countryside. Is it not encouraging that certain farms in non-arable areas that employed two or three people on a farm of a couple of hundred acres have diversified to
employ hundreds of people in leisure and other industries? That is good for the environment, good for the prosperity of rural areas and good for jobs.
Ms Jowell: I thank my hon. Friend for his comments; I certainly agree with them. The structure of employment is changing and some of the highest employment rates and some of the lowest employment rates are in rural areas. The role of Government in the process is to enable people to make a successful transition from one job to another and to stay in work.
Mr. Colin Breed (South-East Cornwall): What additional resources may be available to people who work in agriculture and those with businesses connected with agriculture to ensure that the new job opportunities are long-lasting, full-time, well paid and sustainable?
Ms Jowell: There are two sources of help. The first is the labour market programme, for which my Department and the Employment Service are responsible, and the second involves the Government measures being negotiated with the Commission, such as the English rural development plan which, for rural areas, is worth £1.6 billion over seven years. In addition, the new rural enterprise scheme will contribute more than £150 million to rural areas between 2001 and 2006. Much of that money will be available to assist in the diversification to which my hon. Friend the Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) referred.
Mr. Roy Beggs (East Antrim): Does the Minister agree that as employment opportunities in agriculture decline, there may be opportunities for businesses in many farming complexes? Will she make representations and give encouragement to other Departments so that there is evidence of joined-up government and the planning service can seek to accommodate farming enterprises that are diversifying?
Ms Jowell: The figures that I gave in response to the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall (Mr. Breed) demonstrate the level of commitment and investment that the Government are making to help rural communities make the transition to which the hon. Member for East Antrim (Mr. Beggs) referred. Joined-up government, which involves a concerted effort across government, is the key to success and stability in that.
Mr. Tim Boswell (Daventry): Does the Minister accept that the present deep economic difficulty in agriculture hits providers of land-based higher and further education in two ways? It slashes the profits and trading income from college farms and, quite understandably, it affects applications for courses. For example, is the Minister aware that, in the last month, the Berkshire college of agriculture has had to withdraw its course for the two-year national diploma in agriculture because of a lack of take-up? I am not being partisan, but the situation is extremely serious and requires careful consideration from the Department, which should consult with MAFF, the two funding councils and the colleges if the essential infrastructure of education and training in land-based industries is to be maintained.
Ms Jowell: I am happy to examine any individual cases which the hon. Gentleman may wish to raise and am
willing to receive further details of the specific example that he gave. It is important to ensure that people are trained for existing jobs and that work-based training and courses offered by further education colleges equip people with skills for the future labour market.Clothing and Textile Industry
3. Judy Mallaber (Amber Valley): What action he will take on the recommendations relating to education and training in the strategy document for the United Kingdom clothing and textile industry published on 6 June. [123335]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Margaret Hodge): I welcome the report and, with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, was pleased to announce a 12-point plan to support the industry and help it to adapt and meet global changes. The industry has a turnover of almost £18 billion, has exports worth more than £5 billion and employs 277,000 people, so it has a strong future and must respond and focus effectively on its key strengths. We have accepted all the recommendations on education and training in the strategy document and have worked actively to establish and support two national training organisations to encourage more effective education and industry links.
Judy Mallaber: I thank my hon. Friend for her reply. I agree and confirm that textiles and clothing remain one of our largest manufacturing sectors and have a positive future, provided that they are helped to adapt to compete in world markets, along the lines suggested in the report. However, in the past decade or so, tens of thousands of workers in the industry have lost their jobs and many more face redundancy. What are the Government doing to help those workers?
Ms Hodge: There have been redundancies in the clothing and textile industry but, each quarter, 8,000 new jobs in the sector are reported to the Employment Service. In areas where there has been concentrated redundancy, such as that in the William Baird case, we have been able to employ rapid response units to good effect to give immediate assistance to people affected by closures. As well as our existing resources, we have identified £2 million of new, additional moneys for the industry.
We have asked the textile and clothing strategy group to report to us by the end of the month with proposals as to how we can establish a pilot to link people who have been made redundant, or who are in danger of redundancy, more swiftly with job opportunities in their locality. We want to know how we can intervene in a fragmented industry where redundancies have a widespread impact. We are also evaluating the effectiveness of the north-east regional taskforce to see whether that has added value.
Mr. Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield): I welcome the Minister's replies and fully support the views of the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Judy Mallaber). Does the Minister accept that, sadly, the clothing and textile industry will not have a good future unless the large retailers stop pressing down the manufacturers' margins--that would encourage investment and employment--while they themselves operate margins of over 300 per cent?
Will she encourage Departments of State, particularly the Ministry of Defence, to purchase British goods, and not those from overseas? [Interruption.]
Ms Hodge: I am hesitating because I did not know whether I was hearing a contribution from an old Labour market interventionist or a Conservative free marketeer.
Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham): Where does the suit come from?
Ms Hodge: I have been asked where my clothes come from, and I can tell hon. Members that today I represent the European Union, but my fundamentals are well and truly British.
Mr. Winterton: The Minister has not answered my question.
Madam Speaker: Order. I do not think that the Minister attempted to answer the question, although it was an amusing response.
Mr. Winterton: Am I permitted a point of order, Madam Speaker?
Madam Speaker: I am afraid that I do not allow even the hon. Gentleman a point of order in the middle of Question Time. He may return to the point later, if he wishes. The House will realise that I have given the Minister the opportunity to answer the question, and she appears not to want to do so.
Ms Hodge: I thought that in the first part of my response I was starting to answer the question. The serious point is that, as part of the 12-point plan, we are examining how we can impact on the supply chain to ensure that we protect the textile industry. If the hon. Gentleman were to read the strategy document, he would find that that proposal is incorporated in it.
Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover): Does the Minister understand that there is nothing wrong with intervention? The Government may have started out in 1997 with the starry-eyed idea that market forces would ensure jobs for everybody in every part of Britain, but the truth is that we have to intervene, and we always have done. Intervention has recently taken place in Rover and other cases, and there is nothing wrong in that. In mining, too, there has been limited intervention, although some of the money will go into Richard Budge's pocket.
I am concerned about the fact that, in Bolsover, 700 textile jobs have been lost in the last three months, which in a small geographical area is equivalent to the Rover job losses. We all know that there has been a seepage of jobs from textiles for donkey's years, but the Government must understand that there is nothing wrong with intervention; market forces will not resolve the problem in peripheral and coalfield areas. Now that the Government have a chance to move away from the operation of market forces and to understand that, to save
jobs in textiles and other industries, we have to intervene. If we do that now, before the general election, everything will be all right.
Ms Hodge: That is a serious contribution, and there is a real issue about ensuring that, when the Government intervene--this Government believe in active government and intervention--we do so in a way that ensures that jobs are sustainable over time in an economy that is changing and restructuring fast and that we protect and promote not only the interests of workers, but those of consumers who need to buy those products. The intervention has to be of a nature that will ensure that there is strength and sustainability in the jobs. In the clothing and textile industry, we have to focus on the high-quality, well-designed products that we produce here in Britain, of which we are justly proud.
Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire): Tubbs Elastics, Sherston, which is in my constituency and is the largest elastics manufacturer in the United Kingdom, is equally concerned--like the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Judy Mallaber)--about the future of the textile and clothing industry. In that context, like the textile and clothing industry generally, it is worried that the so-called summit held the other day and the 12-point plan are all about spin, PR and gimmickry rather than actual substance. As an example of that, is the Minister not ashamed that, on the day when she knew that she would answer a question about the textile and clothing industry, she should barefacedly come to the Dispatch Box wearing a French suit? Is that not an example of the Government's approach to industry? Knowing that she would talk about the industry, why could not she have worn a British suit, for heaven's sake?
Ms Hodge: I tried--[Interruption.] I am sure, Madam Speaker, that you would stop me presenting each label on every garment that I am wearing today, but I tried to demonstrate that I am a good European by wearing a mixture of European and British clothes. Can I make a serious point? The Conservative party never did anything to support the textile and clothing industry to restructure and ensure that it had a proper, sustainable future. In response to growing redundancies and problems in the area, we have put together a group that has produced a report, and I suggest that the hon. Gentleman read it. This is the start of action. If he is suggesting that we as a Government should be protecting sectors of an industry that are unsustainable, that is a massive shift in Conservative party policy.
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