House of Commons
Friday 19 November 1999
The House met at half-past Nine o'clock
PRAYERS
[Madam Speaker in the Chair]
Orders of the Day
Debate on the Address
[Third Day]
Order read for resuming adjourned debate on Question [17 November],
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, as follows:
Question again proposed.
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament.--[Dr. Jack Cunningham.]
Trade and Industry and Social Security
9.33 am
The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Stephen Byers): The Queen's Speech has one central theme, which is to build a Britain of enterprise and fairness for all our people. That is a theme that reflects the mainstream of British politics.
For generations, the electorate faced an artificial choice--either to support enterprise, be pro-business and encourage wealth, but say and do nothing about social exclusion; or to support a command-and-control economy, and a policy of tax and spend in order to help those in poverty, but at the expense of building a strong economy.
The Queen's Speech shows that we can combine enterprise and fairness, and put behind us the artificial approach which for so long has dogged British politics and the British economy. The Queen's Speech is a radical and reforming programme, containing modernising measures to ensure that we can meet the challenges of the 21st century. However, we will be able to do so only if we maintain economic stability as well as steady growth. That will involve, and already has involved, taking difficult decisions.
We gave independence to the Bank of England over interest rates. That was criticised by some, including the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning) who leads for the Conservatives on these matters. As I was flicking through back copies of The Mid Devon Gazette the other day, I came across a comment from the hon. Lady that some may find interesting. She stated:
Mr. Byers:
That did go through Parliament. The extract from The Mid Devon Gazette to which I am referring does not go on to state that. Clearly, I am quoting from edited highlights of The Mid Devon Gazette.
The real issue is the hon. Lady's views on the matter. Does she believe that the Bank of England should no longer have the independence to establish interest rates? I know that her personal view is that it should not. It would be good if she confirmed that officially to the House today. The fact that she fails to do so speaks for itself.
The Government took the difficult decision to take politics out of the setting of interest rates. We believe that that is the best way to establish a sound economic framework. We combined that with ensuring that we had sound public finances, taking another difficult decision--that, in the first two years of government, we would not increase public spending, but would agree with the spending profile put in place by the previous Government.
As a result of the comprehensive spending review taken through by my right hon. Friend, now the Secretary of State for Social Security, who at the time was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, we were able to identify funding for our essential programmes, particularly in schools and hospitals. We freed up £40 billion to be spent in education and health--once again, spending that was opposed by the Conservatives. They said at the time that it was reckless, but in reality it was money that the country could afford. The money is now going into our schools and hospitals, and is widely welcomed by parents and patients throughout the country.
The best chance of ensuring that we do not return to the days of boom and bust is to maintain economic stability and steady growth. It is worth reminding ourselves that, less than 10 years ago, we had interest rates at 15 per cent., inflation at 10 per cent. and the national debt doubling. We have put those days behind us and, as a result of the sound economic platform that we established, there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a real difference.
The measures in the Queen's Speech that are sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry show clearly how we can combine the two themes of enterprise and fairness. Of the 28 Bills contained in the Queen's Speech, seven are from the Department of Trade and Industry. To assist the House, I shall quickly run through those measures.
The first, and perhaps one of the most significant measures, is the Electronic Communications Bill, which was introduced in the House yesterday. Bill Gates called it a model for Europe. The Bill is an important part of the Government's policy to make Britain the best place in the world for electronic business by 2002. The Bill will also underpin the "Modernising Government" agenda by helping to meet the Prime Minister's target of 25 per cent. of Government services being available electronically by 2002, rising to 100 per cent. by 2008.
The Bill reflects the views expressed by business. We have changed it, and we make no apology for having done so: we said that we would consult and listen, and the result is that we now have a Bill that reflects the changing world of e-commerce. It will introduce a light-touch regime that gives the degree of flexibility needed to enable us to move with the times and adapt to developments in the months and years ahead.
Mr. Ian Taylor (Esher and Walton):
I welcome the fact that the right hon. Gentleman has filleted from the previous draft of the Bill various aspects of the statutory trusted third party regime. I have recanted proposals that I made when I was a Minister, when the technology was at an earlier stage of development. However, will the right hon. Gentleman assure the House that, the provisions having been removed from the Bill and the matter left to the industry to sort out, the Home Office will not make an attempt to sidestep that process by inserting a statutory regime in its legislation?
Mr. Byers:
I am sure the hon. Gentleman knows from his own experience the importance of refining the Bill to reflect the needs of business. I am not trying to make a cheap point--the hon. Gentleman himself will concede it--but, when I became Secretary of State, I inherited some baggage from his time at the Department. We had to make changes made necessary by the changing nature of the industry, and we were pleased to do so. We introduced a light-touch regime after discussions with Home Office colleagues; they understand the need for such an approach, agree with the line that we have adopted in the Bill, and will not take steps in other legislation that run counter to the direction we have set out. We all realise how important that industry is to British business and the United Kingdom economy in general.
Our second major piece of legislation will be a utilities Bill, which was published in draft form earlier this year. It reflects the fact that water, energy and telecommunications are among the essentials of modern day life. Consumers must have a sufficient supply of such services on fair terms and, wherever possible, from their own choice of supplier. The Bill will demonstrate our commitment to consumers and to competition by giving regulators a new primary duty to protect the consumer interest by promoting effecting competition. We believe that that is the only way in which we can protect consumer interests in the long term. Creating effective competition among utilities is especially important, given that it does not exist at present.
The third Bill is a measure designed to modernise and reform postal services. Earlier this year, we published a White Paper in which we outlined how we could create a world-class postal service network in the UK, one fit for the 21st century. The Bill will deliver on the commitments contained in that document. The Post Office will remain in public ownership but, while it maintains an effective postal service, based on high standards and quality, that meets the social and commercial needs of our country, it will have greater commercial freedom.
We shall introduce a limited liability partnerships Bill to allow firms to incorporate with limited liability while retaining the organisational flexibility of a partnership.
The Bill will take account of the changing commercial environment by adding to the choice of business organisation available to all firms. That demonstrates our commitment to maintaining an up-to-date legal framework for business.
We shall also introduce an insolvency Bill that will complement our determination to encourage enterprise. The intentions behind our proposals are twofold: first, to assist the rescue of businesses that are experiencing short-term difficulties but are otherwise viable; and, secondly, to improve the procedure for disqualifying directors who have shown themselves to be unfit to run a company--a matter about which hon. Members on both sides have expressed concern.
"People should look at the way New Labour is unravelling the British constitution. The first thing it did was to hand over control of interest rates to the Bank of England."
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton):
I should be grateful if the right hon. Gentleman would complete what I said. I said that Labour gave control to the Bank of England without consulting Parliament. Perhaps he would be genuine enough to quote the full sentence.
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