House of Lords
Monday, 18 January 2016.
2.30 pm
Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Derby.
Higher Education: Disabled Students
Question
2.36 pm
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps will be taken to ensure that from the start of the 2016–17 academic year all providers of higher education have fulfilled their obligation to provide non-medical provision for disabled students which was previously covered by the Disabled Students’ Allowance.
Lord Addington (LD):My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I draw attention to my declared interests.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con): My Lords, it is not the Government’s intention that institutions are to be responsible for all non-medical provision, and the disabled students’ allowance will continue to supplement institutional provision where students require a more specialist type of support. Officials are meeting with sector partners including the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, the Office for Fair Access and the Equality Challenge Unit to discuss how best to monitor equality and inclusivity. This will include considering the provision of reasonable adjustments by HE providers.
Lord Addington: I thank the Minister for that reply. However, is it not clear that HE providers are taking on a new responsibility which they have not had hitherto? Also, is it not true that BIS in its own equality analysis has pointed out that there is no structure to make sure that the duties which are to be imposed will be carried out? As these are new duties which, if HE providers get it wrong will mean that students fail, why have not the Government got something ready in time?
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: The noble Lord will be aware that higher education institutions already have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students under the Equality Act 2010. We are working hard with organisations to make sure that not only do they share best practice but also, importantly, to enable us to identify a baseline which disabled students can expect as a minimum level of provision in the duties that will be moved over to higher education institutions from this September.
Lord Low of Dalston (CB): My Lords, a Which? report produced last October found that higher education institutions are falling short in providing information on course design, choice and assessment, as required
by law. This suggests that the expectations of BIS about its ability to transfer its responsibilities for disabled students to higher education institutions are not realistic, and that students will be severely disadvantaged and left to implement the Equality Act provisions on an individual basis. In order to hold higher education institutions effectively to account for their performance, would it not make sense for them to be required to report annually on their support for disabled students, and for those reports to be monitored and in turn reported on by the Office for Fair Access in its annual report?
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: I thank the noble Lord for his question. As I have said, BIS officials are working hard with universities and organisations to make sure that disabled students receive the level of support they need. We are certainly going to be encouraging providers to publish data on their provision for disabled students. We have seen an increase in the number of disabled students accessing higher education, a trend that we are very proud of and want to see continue. We are determined to work with higher education institutions to make sure that disabled students continue to get the level of support they need.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab): I do not know what the Government have got against students. They take away their maintenance grant and now they are going to cut some £65 million which has been providing non-medical help for disabled students. What assurances can the Minister give that the smaller institutions, or indeed those like the Open University which have done the most to attract and service disabled students, will be able to continue providing help without that funding? Further, what assurances can she give that students of whichever organisation they go to will get the help they need at a consistent level?
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: As I have already mentioned, our higher education institutions have a responsibility under the Equality Act 2010, and we are working closely with them to ensure that disabled students continue to get the high-quality support they need. We have seen the institutional income of universities go up from £23 billion to nearly £24.5 billion, and it is forecast to go to £31 billion by 2017-18. We believe that it is right that the responsibility for supporting disabled students, whom both we and universities want to encourage to attend, is spread between universities and the Government.
Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD): Following on from the question of the noble Baroness, can I press the Minister on support for disabled part-time students? There are real concerns that these cuts will have a disproportionate effect on them. What safeguards are the Government putting in place to ensure that these students are not disadvantaged from going on to further study?
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: Disabled students’ allowances are not disappearing; they are simply being refocused on more specialist help, with universities taking on some of the responsibility for some help. For the first time, we are instituting an exceptional
cases process so that if a student is in dispute with the university about the reasonable adjustments they believe should be implemented, they are not disadvantaged. That is a new process to make sure that no student suffers.
Baroness Thomas of Winchester (LD): My Lords, has the Minister’s department been in touch with the Department for Work and Pensions and talked to her honourable friend Justin Tomlinson, the Minister responsible for disabled people about this matter? It seems to me that government is not always joined up when talking about disabled people. As the noble Baroness will know, the Minister is in charge of the Disability Confident campaign to get more disabled people into work. This is a very important part of making sure that disabled students are not disadvantaged.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: We are doing a lot of across-government work in this area. In response to the consultation, we received a number of extremely useful suggestions on how our education providers might be able to ensure that they make reasonable adjustments and implement this well. Again, we are talking to university and sector partners to make sure that all these good ideas and best practice are spread.
Lord Addington: With the leave of the House, can the Minister give me a better idea of what exactly the universities will have to do in a formulated way to fill the gap to cover the individual funding package for students? That is the transition we are talking about.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: As I have said, students will continue to have their needs assessed. The disabled students’ allowances will remain. Universities will be responsible for delivering some of that support. We are working with university partners to ensure that they are ready to deliver this and can do so to a high quality. We are looking to them to identify and baseline what disabled students can expect as a minimum level of provision and we are introducing a new exceptional cases process to ensure that where there is a dispute, students are not left without the support they need.
Education: Polish A-level
Question
2.43 pm
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to preserve the A-level examination in Polish.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Nash) (Con): My Lords—or Moi szlachetni Panowie—we remain committed to securing the future of the existing range of language qualifications, including the Polish A-level. We are therefore continuing to work closely with relevant organisations and others to explore how best to enable these qualifications to be offered in future years.
Lord Lexden (Con): Polish is the second most spoken language in our country. Deep historic ties exist between
Great Britain and Poland. Is not the number of candidates sitting A-level Polish increasing, not falling, as is sometimes alleged? Does my noble friend agree that the Conservative Party has given an unambiguous commitment to preserve the Polish A-level exam? Does he also agree that the highly respected Polish Educational Society has put forward effective solutions to the small number of practical difficulties—such as the need to recruit more senior examiners—that have been raised by the AQA and Ofqual?
Lord Nash: Not only are A-levels increasing, but the number of entrants over the last five years for GCSE Polish has gone up by 50%. I agree entirely with my noble friend’s sentiments. We have given a clear commitment. We are determined to ensure that these courses continue. They are very important to us as a trading nation and an outward-facing country, but as my noble friend says they are also particularly important for communities to enable their children to engage with their rich cultural history.
Baroness Ludford (LD): My Lords, of course it is important for immigrants, not just Muslim ones, to learn English, but is it not also important for this linguistically challenged nation to maximise its language resources? Do the Government have a strategy to support the retention and flourishing of what one might call family heritage languages as a source of strength for the economy and trade—indeed, the Minister just referenced that—as well as social, cultural and intellectual enrichment?
Lord Nash: We agree entirely that all pupils should have a rich cultural education. We have made it quite clear that it is particularly important for languages to expose them to a different culture.
Baroness Coussins (CB): My Lords, the Government’s commitment to the continuation of Polish is welcome, but will the Minister also assure the House that the Government’s injection of £10 million into teaching Mandarin in schools will not be at the expense of other languages identified by the British Council as the 10 most vital to the UK for economic, cultural and diplomatic reasons, including French, German and Spanish, as well as lesser-taught languages such as Arabic and Turkish?
Lord Nash: I am happy to give the noble Baroness that assurance. China is obviously a country of huge strategic importance to this country and education is very important in that. A great deal of activity is going on. In addition to the £10 million that we have given to boost Mandarin teaching in schools, excellent work is being done at the IOE Confucius Institute, supported ably by organisations such as HSBC and Swire.
Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury (Con): My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister tell us what progress has been made on teaching foreign languages overall at A-level? In particular, to what extent are we reversing the trend in the teaching of German, which has shown the sharpest decline in recent years?
Lord Nash: My noble friend makes a very good point about the decline in German, but as I said, we
believe that, with our expectation that 90% of pupils will take the EBacc, this will further increase the number of pupils taking GCSEs in modern languages. Certainly, the number of pupils taking languages in the EBacc has gone up by 25% over the last five years. We hope that this will have a compounding effect on A-levels.
Lord Taverne (LD): My Lords, do the Government not agree that, while traditionally our relations with Poland have been extremely close, one or two statements recently made by the Prime Minister have not improved them? Would not the encouragement of the learning of Polish by British, as well as other, students be of considerable importance at a time when our relations with Poland are so important?
Lord Nash: I agree entirely with the noble Lord that our relations with Poland are extremely important. We are determined to ensure that a wide suite of languages is available for students so that they have the freedom to choose whichever language they wish to study.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD): My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, spoke of the deep historic ties between Britain and Poland. I recall that the Poles produced the largest non-British contingent of pilots in the Battle of Britain, and several squadrons in the RAF and at least two armoured divisions in the Second World War. Britain seems almost entirely to have forgotten about that. I understand that the Prime Minister was unaware of it when he visited Warsaw last time. Could we not do something to symbolise the contribution that Poland made to the British victory in the Second World War, for example by encouraging a visible Polish presence at the next Remembrance Sunday commemorations?
Lord Nash: The noble Lord makes a very good point about the deep debt we owe all the pilots in the Second World War, particularly the Polish pilots who fought so ably, especially in the Battle of Britain. I will take back the point that he makes.
Lord Davies of Oldham (Lab): My Lords, most British citizens are likely to respect the Poles who live and work in this country not for having obtained A-levels in English, although that is greatly to be encouraged, but for providing the skill levels in crucial trades—plumbing is an obvious example, but there are many other such trades—which we are clearly not matching. Are the cuts in further education defensible, given that we clearly have low skill levels in this country in crucial areas?
Lord Nash: The noble Lord makes an extremely good point. Of course, we have a lot of Polish labour here, particularly in certain skills where there are shortages—partly as a result of the booming economy—such as construction. However, our apprenticeships programme is very much focused on rectifying this.
Lord Howell of Guildford (Con): My Lords, I do not think our war-time connections with Poland have
been forgotten in any way, and they never will be. On the contrary, I think we are constantly reminded of them. However, in considering the teaching of the Polish language, does he agree that Poland recognises the need for the major reform that Europe is now undergoing, and that, despite some differences over the handling of migrant benefits, our relations with Poland are very close indeed and will form a major force in the reform of the European Union which we are now seeking?
Lord Nash: I entirely agree with the noble Lord, and may I congratulate him on his birthday?
Living with Difference
Question
2.51 pm
Tabled by Lord Harries of Pentregarth
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the report of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life Living with Difference published on 7 December.
Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB): My Lords, on behalf of the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the Order Paper.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con): My Lords, the Government note this report and its contribution to the debate on faith in Britain today. We continue to celebrate the role of faith in society, with a particular emphasis on co-operation between different faiths as a way of breaking down barriers and strengthening communities. The report raises a number of questions for a range of organisations. I will ensure that all government departments consider the recommendations relevant to their individual policies.
Baroness Butler-Sloss: I thank the noble Baroness. I declare an interest as chairman of the commission. Will the Government consider organising, or allowing to be organised, a meeting of senior civil servants from the relevant departments to discuss some of the implications of our report?
Baroness Williams of Trafford: I am certainly happy to volunteer my services, together with officials from different departments, and meet with the noble and learned Baroness.
Baroness Afshar (CB): My Lords, is it acceptable to talk of celebrating differences while, at the same time, Muslims in particular are being demonised at every turn? Is it not a question of celebrating differences but of recognising what all religions have in common and not choosing some as terrorists and others as friendly people?
Baroness Williams of Trafford: The noble Baroness makes a very good point. We can celebrate differences while also celebrating our similarities, particularly the values of faith that unite us in so many ways.
Baroness Whitaker (Lab): Can the Minister say how the Government will respond to the point made by the report that, UK wide, there has been a lack of movement in education policy to implement the Equality Act’s requirement for all schools to foster good relations between people of different backgrounds? The noble Baroness’s fine words do not talk about implementation.
Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, while this is not an official report, I can certainly say that from my own department’s point of view, and certainly from my personal point of view, there are very good examples of schools—particularly faith schools—that do much to foster understanding and relationships between other faiths. I am sure there may also be examples where schools could do that better.
Lord Cormack (Con): My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her comments about faith schools and for reinforcing the point that this report, welcome as it is as a contribution to debate, is not an official report. The Government have no obligation to respond to it, and many people feel that it does not have the balance entirely right.
Baroness Williams of Trafford: I thank my noble friend for that comment. He is right; it is not an official report but I have undertaken to meet the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and officials to discuss it. However, the noble Lord is absolutely right that it is not an official report.
The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, does the Minister agree that the recommendation around religious literacy is of particular note? Does she recognise that, at local and national government levels, there is a serious problem with religious literacy that the Government may seek to help address?
Baroness Williams of Trafford: The right reverend Prelate makes a very valid point, which was one of the recommendations of the report. I am very happy to work with him and other organisations and faiths to see whether we can make progress in this area.
Baroness Brinton (LD): My Lords, the focus of the questions so far has been very much around faith, but the title of the report is about religion and belief. What are the Government doing to ensure that all schools teach a wide-ranging RE and belief curriculum, including academies and free schools?
Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, it is an expectation that at all key stages schools should have a curriculum around religion and belief. I can get back to the noble Baroness in due course on some of the details of that, if she wishes.
Baroness Sherlock (Lab): My Lords, while we are on that subject, when the Minister writes to the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, will she also comment on the fact that it will be quite difficult for schools to tackle the important issue of religious literacy and literacy with regard to belief raised by the right reverend Prelate if we cannot improve access to a significant number of well-trained teachers in this area? What will the Government do to make that issue more of a priority?
Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, I totally agree with the noble Baroness that, unless we have decent teachers, we cannot have high-quality education. I cannot disagree with that point.
Lord Popat (Con): Does my noble friend the Minister agree that the Prayers we have here before our business begins are not just energising but a stark reminder that we are here to represent something bigger than ourselves and our respective political parties? Therefore, the Prayers are not just complementary to other faiths but very much inclusive of them?
Baroness Williams of Trafford: My noble friend makes a very good point. When I stand at Prayers, my noble friend is often there, as are members of other religions and myself as a Catholic. I commend the fact that the Bishops conduct the Prayers in such an inclusive way. That is why I think so many Members of your Lordships’ House attend Prayers, as it is a lovely time of reflection.
Lord Woolf (CB): My Lords, I declare my interest as patron of the Woolf Institute, which promoted the inquiry chaired by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. Does the Minister agree that the inquiry is an excellent example of people of different faiths coming together to discuss critical problems which face this country, as differences between faiths are very complex? The inquiry drew representatives with different views from all sections of the community, who produced an excellent report.
Baroness Williams of Trafford: The credits at the back of the report—if you can call them credits—certainly indicate an incredible number of contributions of people, from across society, of all faiths and none.
Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab): My Lords, would the Minister please care to reply to the question about what the Government are doing to increase the supply of suitably qualified teachers? Among the considerations they ought to take into account is that no member of the Government should run down the many thousands of excellent teachers in all schools, not just free schools and academies.
Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, I hope I have not run down any teachers, or given any notion of doing so. The schools in this country are very well served by teachers. I will certainly be replying to the noble Baroness.
National Health Service: In-Patients with Learning Disabilities
Question
3 pm
Asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of avoidable deaths of National Health Service inpatients with learning disabilities since 2011.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con): My Lords, this Government are committed to reducing the level of avoidable deaths. The learning disabilities mortality review, commencing this year, is piloting local reviews of premature deaths of people with learning disabilities. The Care Quality Commission will also be undertaking a wider review into the investigation of deaths in a sample of acute, mental health and community trusts.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab): My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his Answer. He is clearly aware of the recent reports which have shown that there have been many avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities within the care of the National Health Service. Indeed, some estimates have put it at more than 1,000 deaths per year. He is aware that Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England, has very recently written to NHS and foundation trusts asking them to carry out a self-assessment of avoidable deaths. Given that the NHS seems to have a real problem with providing decent care generally to people with learning disabilities, how confident can we be that this self-assessment will actually identify people with learning disabilities who have suffered avoidable deaths within its care?
Lord Prior of Brampton: My Lords, this is a very important question. The fact that so many people with learning difficulties die much younger than people without them is of concern to everybody in this House. The review being conducted by Sir Bruce Keogh, to which the noble Lord referred, is a self-assessment tool. It is due to report quickly—by April—so is a short-term attempt to get the bottom of this. It is not a long-term effort, which would be much more comprehensive. We have two forms of looking at avoidable or excess deaths. One is the standardised system, which is a statistical basis for looking at the number of excess deaths. The other looks at avoidable deaths and is done by looking comprehensively at a wide sample of case reviews to give us a much more accurate picture of what is really happening.
Baroness Hollins (CB): My Lords, as the noble Lord says, we know a great deal about why people with learning disabilities die sooner than they should. What has been missing so far is a mechanism for taking that learning forward into practice. Such feedback mechanisms, and the fact that their reviews are mandatory, are the strengths of the other confidential enquiries. Will the Minister explain why the new national learning disability mortality review has not been established on the same footing as, for example, the national child death review?
Lord Prior of Brampton: My Lords, the noble Baroness is right. The national learning disability mortality review programme, which is being hosted by Bristol University, does not have the mandatory basis that other reviews have had. I am not sure why it was not set up on the same basis. It is being funded by NHS England, although it has the support of a wide range of different organisations. I will look into that aspect of the review and write to the noble Baroness.
Baroness Browning (Con): Does my noble friend agree that the failure in hospitals to assess the capacity of people with learning disabilities and those on the autistic spectrum is one of the great weaknesses in providing accurate and timely intervention for people who are in hospital and who have a learning disability? Will he make a particular case for assessing the ability of staff to accurately define capacity? Will he also take another look to see that hospital passports for people with learning disabilities and autism are a mandatory requirement, not just an option, for all inpatients?
Lord Prior of Brampton: My noble friend makes a number of very good points. I will draw them to the attention of Mike Richards, the chief inspector for acute care in England, who is about to embark on a thematic review of avoidable deaths. He will look in particular at those with learning difficulties and I am sure that he will take into account the words of my noble friend.
Lord Rennard (LD): My Lords, does the Minister accept that something is seriously wrong when two-thirds of the unexplained deaths of these highly vulnerable people with learning difficulties who die in NHS hospitals in England are not properly investigated? Does he accept that this is a much more serious scandal than that based upon some highly dubious statistics used by the Secretary of State for Health to talk about unexplained deaths in hospitals at weekends?
Lord Prior of Brampton: I tried to explain the difference between avoidable deaths and excess deaths earlier in my answers, without trying to make any political point about it. There is an important distinction to be made, and I hope that I made it. I agree with the noble Lord that this is a very serious issue, and the Government are approaching it in a very serious way.
Lord McColl of Dulwich (Con): My Lords, is the Minister aware that clinicians meet regularly to discuss all their complications, and that these meetings are extremely valuable and relevant? Have politicians considered the possibility that they might meet every week to discuss their mistakes?
Lord Prior of Brampton: My Lords, I am sure that it would be a very long meeting. My noble friend is right that mortality and morbidity meetings are extremely important in hospitals. It would seem that practice is very variable across hospital trusts and I know that part of what Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, is doing is trying to develop, along with Monitor and the CQC, a governance structure around mortality that all hospitals can learn from.
Lord Crisp (CB): My Lords, the new learning disability strategy, Building the Right Support, proposes that people with learning disabilities should get their mental health treatment from mainstream mental health services—which as noble Lords will know are already under considerable strain. Can the Minister let us know what assessment the Government have made of the likely impact that this will have on mental health services and how they envisage that the financial and other implications will be managed?
Lord Prior of Brampton: The noble Lord refers to the paper Building the Right Support, which I think he will be very supportive of. It is designed to treat and look after many more people with learning difficulties outside institutional settings—in their own homes or in special purpose, much smaller homes. Where necessary, they will of course need to receive mental health services. I am not aware that we have done a particular impact study on that, but I will investigate it and write to the noble Lord.
Accessible Sports Grounds Bill [HL]
Accessible Sports Grounds Bill [HL]
Third Reading
3.07 pm
Bill passed and sent to the Commons.
National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2016
Motion to Approve
3.08 pm
Moved by Baroness Neville-Rolfe
That the draft regulations laid before the House on 7 December 2015 be approved.
Relevant documents: 13th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, 19th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) (Con): My Lords, I am rarely surprised by events in your Lordships’ House but I must admit that I was taken aback to be confronted by a regret Motion on the statutory instrument before us, laid by the main opposition party. The policy thinking behind the regulations is to move to a higher-wage, lower-tax and lower-welfare society, one aspect of which requires building on the present national minimum wage. This thinking has been widely explained and debated here and in the other place.
As to the detail, the essence of the regulations before us is to introduce the new national living wage on 1 April this year, initially at a rate of £7.20 an hour for all those aged 25 and over. As has been well publicised, the objective is to reach a rate equivalent to 60% of median earnings by 2020, which is expected to be over £9 per hour. Further steps towards the 60% objective between now and 2020 will benefit from the advice of the Low Pay Commission. Its role going forward will be even more important: consulting and
recommending increases to the national living wage as well as recommending national minimum wage rates for under-25s.
Of course increasing minimum wages makes possible non-compliance a more serious issue. Therefore the regulations also include measures to deal with this aspect, notably by significantly increasing the penalties, which I will come back to. We will also be launching a publicity campaign to run until 24 April to ensure that everyone, employer and employee alike, is aware of their rights and their responsibilities. We estimate that this will cost up to £4.8 million.
These changes require a certain amount of administrative tidying-up. In particular, the Government are undertaking a review to assess the case for aligning the national minimum wage cycle with that for the national living wage and with the tax year. As part of this review we are consulting key employer and worker representatives as well as working closely with the Low Pay Commission, whose good work I remember so well from my time as a private employer. For completeness I should add that a number of measures have been adopted to help employers to adapt to the changed situation, notably via cuts in national insurance contributions and in corporation tax, and by increasing small business rate relief for a further year. That is the background and the contents of the regulations in a nutshell.
I now turn to possible problems which may be of concern to the Benches opposite. Their Motion refers to the 19th report of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. That report drew attention to risk of non-compliance to which the Government themselves had drawn attention in our impact assessment. The committee stressed that the Government should continue to acquire and publish information on non-compliance. The Government accept this principle, and the information will continue to be provided through the Low Pay Commission, which publishes a hefty report alongside its annual recommendations to government.
The wider background is that companies might react to the increase in minimum wages in a number of ways, including by a reduction in profits, by a reduction in the number of hours worked, by a restructuring of their workforce, by an increase in prices or by increasing the productivity of their workers. Of course, theoretically, non-compliance would be another response, but we are taking steps to deal with that. We calculate that by 2020, if the policies I have outlined are followed, then the number of workers on the national minimum wage and living wage will almost double from 1.5 million now to around 3 million. So of course effective enforcement is key.
Here we have done much and propose to do more. Since March 2014, both the penalty calculation and the cap have been increased. The rules on naming and shaming have been relaxed, so more employers are named publicly. We have significantly increased HMRC’s enforcement budget—from £8.3 million in 2009-10 to £13.2 million this year—with commitments from the Prime Minister in September to further increases. All this has resulted in greater enforcement activity and tougher sanctions for those who break the law. Already this year, HMRC has recovered over £8 million in arrears for 46,000 workers—this compares to £3.3 million in arrears and 26,000 workers in the previous year.
Your Lordships will recall that this Government have recently increased the maximum penalty an employer can face when they break the law. We quadrupled the £5,000 cap to £20,000 in March 2014—the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, will remember some of the discussion—and applied the cap on a per worker basis rather than per employer in May 2015. We are starting to see those larger penalties come through. In the next month, we will name a single employer who faced a penalty in excess of £500,000. Under the old regime, that penalty would have been capped at £5,000. As a result of these regulations, a penalty for any similar underpayments in the future would be greater still.
Increasing the calculation of the penalty from 100% of the arrears owed by an employer to 200%, as proposed in these regulations, will further deter employers who would otherwise be tempted to underpay their workers. We are using the power of advertising to ram this home. The Government want everyone to benefit from the economic recovery. That is why we believe that the national living wage is the appropriate step up for hard-working people right across the United Kingdom. I commend these regulations to the House.
3.15 pm
At the end insert “but that this House regrets that the draft regulations may not deliver the expected benefits to employees, in the light of the 19th Report of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which pointed out that the Government accept that business reactions to the resulting increased labour costs are uncertain, and in the light of the continuing need for greater information on actions being taken to reduce non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage so that Parliament can judge the success of new measures”.
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab): My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing this statutory instrument. I also congratulate her on her brilliant sense of timing. She has clearly been having acting lessons—to be able to pause so gracefully to allow those who do not want to hear her to leave is a masterpiece in timing from which we could all learn.
In its 19th report of the current Session, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, drew these draft regulations to the special attention of the House on the grounds that they give rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House. We owe a considerable debt to this hard-working committee, which has once again done your Lordships’ House a great favour in helping us hold the Government to account by drawing this SI to our attention. Therefore, the Minister should not be surprised at the Motion. She should look to the wider context within which this is placed because we are not against the principle, but we think the committee has made some important points.
Statutory instruments have a major impact on people’s lives so it is right that they are given proper scrutiny in Parliament. As a responsible and loyal Opposition, we
take pride in doing this and intend to continue to do so. However, as was made clear by my noble friend Lady Smith in the debate in your Lordships’ House last week, it is important that the Government also act responsibly and do not abuse the trust we should place in this process by trying to slip through substantial and far-reaching changes. Just because the power exists in primary legislation is a necessary but not always sufficient reason. When she responds to this amendment, will the noble Baroness share with us whether the question of using primary legislation for this important measure was considered?
“It will fall to employers to meet the cost of the increases in employees’ pay. BIS puts the estimated total cost of the NLW’s introduction at £1,138.7 million in 2016–17”.
“BIS says that business reactions to increased labour costs can include reducing profits, reducing the number of hours worked, restructuring their workforce, increasing prices, increasing the productivity of their workers, or substituting younger workers aged less than 25”.
As the report highlights, this response raises a number of questions about what work has been done by BIS on whether the benefits of the national living wage to low-paid workers could be offset by any or all of these business reactions. The department’s response—I think this was the reason that the committee picked up this point—was that there were too many uncertainties for a reliable estimate of the cost to be given. The SLSC is surely right to highlight this as a major deficiency in a policy. When she responds, will the Minister give us a bit more detail about what modelling has been done on likely business responses?
I accept, as has the Regulatory Policy Committee, that it is difficult to monetise these options but even so it surely would not be difficult to give a broad-brush assessment of what the department thinks is likely to happen on the ground. A significant trend towards any or all of these options will materially affect the benefits anticipated and if we accept the ripple effect described in the impact assessment it will flow to some 6 million hard-working but low-paid people.
Secondly, the SLSC report points out, as the Minister said, that BIS accepts that non-compliance with the national minimum wage may increase. In the excellent impact assessment—I pay tribute to officials for the work they have done on this—the detail included spells out the measures that are going to be taken by BIS, some of which the Minister mentioned. There are what we might call carrots covering various allowances and tax reductions although it is fair to point out that these will not compensate either in total or in timing for the increased costs being transferred to millions of businesses, particularly those which are small or medium-sized. A very good example of this is the reference on page 29 of the impact assessment which says that, “Funding from the apprentice levy will be put in the hands of employers to support training. This will improve worker productivity”. I invite the Minister to set out for me in writing how the additional cost of the apprenticeship levy, which is intended to be borne by larger employers, translates into a compensating financial benefit for the higher labour costs being transferred to the SME sector.
In truth, the stick, as described by the Minister, is the proposal to double the financial penalties for companies which do not pay the new national minimum wage. BIS has confirmed that extending the coverage of the statutory wage floor and adding complexity may increase non-compliance. Will the Minister set out, in more detail than she has already, how she will comply with the SLSC’s request for the Government to publish more information in future and thus satisfy the wish expressed by the committee that Parliament can properly judge the extent to which compliance with the new rate delivers the expected benefits to employees?
There is a good section in the Explanatory Memorandum on the equalities impact of the new proposals and the duties of the department in this regard. It is demonstrated within the Explanatory Memorandum that low-paid work is most prevalent in some sectors, such as retail, social care, hospitality and cleaning. It also appears to be more prevalent in part-time work, shift work, and among younger and older workers. It affects women more than men, and the largest numbers of people affected live in the north-west, the Midlands and Scotland. Clearly, if the policy works as intended, things should improve in these sectors, areas and groups. It may help to reduce the gender imbalance in pay, and we can hope that a more equal society will gradually emerge.
However, as the SLSC points out, there are real risks that non-compliance will rise and that changes in employment practice will vitiate the policy objectives. The national living wage will have national universal coverage for workers aged 25 and above, and the forthcoming publicity and other measures contained in the SI will help. Does the Minister agree that it may be necessary, and would certainly be desirable, to design additional measures to root out poor practice and illegality in the low-paying sectors listed in Table A3 of Annexe 2, the worst regions identified in Table A4 of Annexe 2 and among the groups identified in Chart A1 of Annexe 1 of the Explanatory Memorandum?
I do not want to suggest or imply that there is not a majority of responsible employers who are always going to abide by minimum wage legislation, but the figures presented in the report which accompanies the regulations are cause for concern and, as I am sure the Minister will agree, more can always be done.
Finally, I challenge the use of the term “national living wage”. As I understand it, the reason for the change from the NMW to the NLW is that:
“The Government believes that the economy needs rebalancing from a low wage, high tax, high welfare society to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare society”.
The impact assessment goes on to say:
“The UK can also do more to raise the wages of the low-paid compared to other countries—22% of UK workers are low-paid, compared to the OECD average of 16%”.
It explains that the OECD defines low pay as less than two-thirds of median earnings, but the initial introduction of the NLW will put those who receive it at 55% of the current UK median wage. Even if the aspirations for a £9 per hour living wage are achieved by 2020, it is estimated that that will get to only 60% of the UK
median wage. In other words, this is more about raising the level of the existing national minimum wage than it is about introducing a genuine living wage. According to the Living Wage Foundation, the current UK living wage is £8.25 an hour and the current London living wage is £9.40 an hour. Will the Minister explain this anomaly? In particular, will she explain why the target for 2020 is only 60% of the median wage and why the Government are not trying to reach the OECD target of 66.7%? I beg to move.
Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD): My Lords, the Minister should not be surprised that we are having a debate of this nature. On this side, we fully understand the reasons why the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, has moved his amendment. There is concern that the Government entered into this policy on the hoof. They did very little consultation or preparation for it. There are also signs that there were was not much cross-departmental consultation within government. The measure is designed, we think, to deflect attention from what was at that time the reduction of the tax credit policy. Like the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, we are very concerned about the looseness of words to describe something that it is not. We have had in the housing area the concept of affordable rents, and indeed affordable housing, when they clearly are not affordable. Now we have the national minimum wage perverted into the national living wage. We welcome the increase but it is a deception to think that we will necessarily be able to reach what is a genuine living wage, as the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, pointed out.
However, if this is the first step—and I accept that it is—to do more for low-paid employees and reduce subsidies to employers, then of course we welcome it. That initial step is acceptable, but there are a number of conditions. Clearly there was a lack of involvement of the Low Pay Commission in drawing up these original proposals. We accept what the Government have said—in future they will use the Low Pay Commission for advice on further increases, and in bringing together the national minimum wage with the so-called national living wage. But as the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee pointed out, this is a big change: it involves £1.2 billion of costs in the labour market, and 6 million employees are affected. I must declare an interest here as chair of Housing & Care 21, which employs people who will be affected by these changes, although we largely pay well above the national minimum rate. The whole area of social care is particularly vulnerable. I know that the Government have made a number of initiatives on this, but obviously we will want reassurances that public sector contracts are seeking to push pay levels up, rather than contain them. Also, young people are excluded from these changes and no recognition is given to the extra costs of actually living in London. Therefore, the higher living wage should apply there.
We have a number of questions for the Government, some of which the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, has already put. In what form will the Low Pay Commission’s advice be sought when it comes ahead of the Budget next year in setting the rates for 2017? What encouragement will be given by the Government to raise productivity, particularly in low-paid sectors?
At the end of the day, if we wish to avoid inflation and unemployment, we have to raise productivity in these areas. What extra resources are going to be put into HM Revenue to deal with the extra policing of a much wider group of employees to ensure compliance? As the care cost cap implementation was delayed for five years at the start of this Government, what reassurance can the Government give that they will not delay that further, given the costs that will obviously be implied by these changes in the cost of social care? Finally, do the Government have any ambition to extend to those under 25 years of age the whole concept of the national living wage?
We cannot vote for this amendment to the Motion, because we set the direction of policy, but we do expect assurances from the Government for the ongoing investigation, particularly regarding the work of the Low Pay Commission. This measure generally supports our own policy of raising tax allowances and making sure that those at the low end of the pay market are paid a living wage.
The Earl of Listowel (CB): My Lords, I am grateful for this opportunity to debate this very important area of government policy, and I would like to ask the Minister about the impact on early years provision. As we all know, high-quality early years provision is vital to improve social mobility and to help many more families into employment. In principle, this policy should increase the pay to those working in early years settings, which are, notoriously, very poorly paid, so in principle this is very welcome. The Government have recently doubled the amount of free hours for families using childcare for two and three year-olds, so that puts a big burden on providers, and the new national living wage will exacerbate that. If the Minister could provide some reassurance about the impact of the national living wage on early years providers, I would be grateful.
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Baroness Neville-Rolfe: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, for his comments. I endorse his comments about the great work done by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee; year in, year out, it does us a great service. I thank him for his kind words about the impact assessment and I shall pass them on.
I sympathise with noble Lords opposite, who were clearly wrong-footed by the most recent Budget, especially the living wage aspect, but then disappointment is part of political life. The strength of the economy means that we can afford to take this important step towards a higher-wage, lower-tax and lower-welfare society. The measures support the Government’s commitment to deliver fairness on pay for working people while being sensitive to the needs of business. By 2020, the national living wage will benefit 2.75 million low-wage workers directly, with up to 6 million in total expected to see their wages rise as a result of the ripple effects further up the distribution chain. I think that this is good news, and the House seems to recognise that.
The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, asked whether we had considered the use of primary legislation. Of course we considered all legislative options, but the
powers are available to do this through secondary legislation and it will ensure that workers get their pay rise much more quickly. That is the reason why we have adopted this approach. I also took note of some of his questions on apprenticeships. I will need to have a look at
Hansard
, and perhaps he and I can have a word at one of our many meetings on other matters.
The rationale for 60% is that the 2014 Resolution Foundation review of the national minimum wage, More Than a Minimum—chaired by the excellent Professor Sir George Bain, who, as some will remember, was the founding chair of the LPC—recommended a national minimum wage at 60% of median earnings as “a reasonable lodestar”—a great word. The report’s expert panel also included Professor Alan Manning, Professor Paul Gregg and Professor Karen Mumford.
I accept that there was no consultation on setting the original rate at £7.20. The background work existed, and of course this was a Budget measure and its announcement was treated as such. I am afraid that that is the nature of Budget measures, but I hope that I have already given some reassurance in my opening remarks on the process in future in relation to consultation. Future national living wage rates will be recommended by the independent Low Pay Commission, which will continue to provide the invaluable advice that it has been giving for many years, firmly grounded in evidence and with public consultation. It seems right that it should have a pivotal role in this.
The noble Lord asked about the double impact of the national living wage and the apprenticeship levy. This will of course mean extra costs for some businesses, but it is right that workers are fairly rewarded for the work that they do. The economy is growing and profits and wages are rising, and we have given businesses some help, as I said in my opening remarks. The apprenticeship levy is equally necessary. It will support the development of a higher-skilled, more productive workforce, supporting greater economic growth in future and the creation of new jobs right across the UK. Employers will of course be able to get back the levy for the training that they are doing.
The noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, asked about how the LPC will seek advice when it is uprating the national minimum wage. It will continue to adopt the sort of process that we have seen operating successfully under the coalition: it will make recommendations to the Government by the end of October 2016, setting out its ideas for rates for the new national minimum wage from April 2017 and looking at indicative rates from April 2018.
Productivity growth is one of the key economic challenges for this Parliament and a route to raising living standards for everyone in the UK in a long-term, sustainable way. Our ambitious plan for this is set out in Fixing the Foundationsand includes the introduction of the national living wage. There is a fair amount of research that shows that increasing wages to the national living wage should result in an increase in productivity in many areas, as people use labour more carefully and capital more efficiently.
As the noble Lords, Lord Stoneham and Lord Stevenson, mentioned, some parts of the economy—for example, the social care sector and retail—will be impacted more than others when the living wage is
introduced. I reassure noble Lords that this Government recognise the particular position of these sectors. In response we are, for example, giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion in new support for social care by 2019-20. Equally important will be enforcement in these sectors. I have already outlined some of the changes that we are making, such as the extra funding and work on bringing the new rights to the attention of workers, and HMRC is taking action against those employers who break the law and underpay their staff. It currently has 155 investigations open with social care employers. These include acting on complaints and extensive targeted enforcement. I know from having worked in business that HMRC is also very keen to make sure that the national minimum wage—and in future the national living wage—is paid in low-paid service sectors.
The noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, asked about early years provision and employing under-25s. It is for the Low Pay Commission to use its consultations and expert judgment to advise on appropriate rates for under 25 year-olds and those aged 25 and over. As with all of its recommendations, should it recommend a change to the differential in the national minimum wage or living wage rates, the Government will want to understand why it thought this was appropriate to ensure that the minimum rates of pay continue to support low-paid working people as well as the economy. The substitution effect will depend on future LPC recommendations. Of course, the underlying reason for the difference between the national living wage and that for under 25 year-olds is that we are extremely keen to ensure that early years provision is employed provision—we really want to make sure that we do not hit employers and that we encourage people to give jobs to the youngsters.
I hope that the comments I made in my introduction and the points that I have been able to make in summing up will go some way to reassuring noble Lords who have put down this regret Motion both in respect of our plans and in respect of stronger enforcement. In the light of that, I recommend these regulations to the House.
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, for contributing to this debate. They raised additional questions that were helpful and useful. I hope that further information will be forthcoming from the department into some of the details the Minister was not able to get to in her response.
The Minister ended by saying that she hoped that noble Lords—there is only one—who put down this regret Motion could see their way to providing some measure of agreement that this regulation is a good thing. Of course, we cannot be against additional pay for the lowest paid and we support the Minister on that. However, I sense a slight poverty of ambition behind the regulations and that is why I wanted to put forward a regret Motion for those of us who feel that this is a step in the right direction but only a very small step. It would have been good if we could have got
from the Government more of a sense of an understanding of the need for pay to go up, for sticky areas in the economy to be addressed very vigorously and for the regulations to deal with those who wish to severely underpay—I think that some do go down that route—as well as, to pick up a point that the Minister made in her opening and closing remarks, an understanding that this is not just a right/left issue.
Many commentators—of which the Resolution Foundation, a non-partisan group, is a very good example—absolutely believe that the basis on which we will see recovery in this country is a real commitment to a proper high-wage and well-rewarded economy, in which people are paid for the work they do in growing the economy and making exports and everything else return to a level that we have seen in the past. I do not think that the regulations, as described, get us all the way there. They are a step in the right direction, but I think that this is something that we may wish to return to.
The reason for putting down the amendment—although not the timing, which was in the hands of the Government and not in our hands—was to get these debates up and running, and we have achieved that. With that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment to the Motion withdrawn.
Immigration Bill
Committee (1st Day)
3.40 pm
Relevant documents: 7th Report from the Constitution Committee, 17th and 18th Reports from the Delegated Powers Committee
Clause 1: Director of Labour Market Enforcement
Baroness Hamwee (LD): My Lords, I also have Amendments 2, 3, 6 and 13 in this group. My noble friend Lord Greaves commented the other day that it has become something of a custom—not as much as a convention—for the early speeches on amendments in Committee to turn into something like Second Reading speeches. I do not intend to make a Second Reading speech, and the comments with which I shall preface my remarks on Amendment 1 could not have been made at Second Reading.
I do not suppose that having to deal with 112 amendments at such a late stage was easy for the Minister or for officials. Indeed, I suspect that the officials who have had to deal in very short order with what is in effect a new Bill as regards the provisions for labour market enforcement have had a particularly difficult time, so I am sympathetic to all of them. However, others of us who have been involved in the Bill have not found it easy and, in particular, those outside this House who are involved in the
sector and whose comments are always so valuable to us have had a really hard time. Frankly, this is no way to legislate.
A member of the Public Bill Committee in the Commons commented on how good the process had been, although he did say, “Pity about the content of the Bill”. The Minister has also commented on the evidence sessions in the Commons, saying that more detailed scrutiny was undertaken than is often the case. However, these new clauses dealing with the role and remit of the GLA affect the structural arrangements and the relationships of actors in the sector. They also introduce new measures and more, and I cannot see that anyone could describe this as best practice.
I apologise to the Committee for the late tabling of amendments to the government amendments—I tabled a number on Friday—but I wanted to look at them, with my own responses to them, at this stage rather than repeat the process on Report, as might have happened had I left it until then. As I said, how can the NGOs and others respond, presented with amendments in effect less than a week ago? It is not just their problem; it is ours as well, because we cannot do our job well if we are in a vacuum. I am sure the Minister will say that the consultation on the labour market sector, which closed in December, trailed the proposals, but it did not; not in the way in which we now see them. We are making law and therefore we have got to make it right, not just have a general narrative discourse on the arrangements.
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Part 1 of the Bill, on the labour market, has no place in immigration legislation. The issues do not apply universally to immigrants and, conversely, are very relevant to many people who are not immigrants. Even without the new version, as I will call it, the Bill would be difficult enough. The Constitution Committee of your Lordships’ House has commented scathingly that immigration law stands out as a particularly byzantine field, saying that the Bill’s complexity is exacerbated by much of it amending existing, already highly complex pieces of immigration legislation which are subject to frequent changes. It comes in the wake—although the wake has not subsided, of course, but we will come to that later—of the 2014 Bill, which itself is substantial and complicated. The Constitution Committee expresses its,
“real concern from a rule of law perspective”,
describing immigration law as inaccessible and not fit for purpose—whinge over.
Amendments 1 and 2 seek an understanding of how the new regime will sit within government. I appreciate that it is quite usual to refer to a Secretary of State without designating a department, for obvious reasons. However, this situation is unusual, which is why I have referred to the Secretary of State “for the Home Department”. That is the sponsoring department for the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, but the consultation to which I have referred was a joint consultation involving the Home Office, which focuses on protection and enforcement, and BIS, which focuses, among other things, on deregulation. Of course, the
Treasury is also involved, and the debate in the Commons suggested that the director will report to the Home Office.
I had better pre-empt any teasing about my criticising joined-up government. I am not doing so. I have argued often enough for that myself, so I do not want to complain about cross-departmental working. However, if the powers are to be exercised jointly, it is important to have an on-the-record explanation of how that is going to operate.
Amendments 3, 6 and 13 would put the involvement of the devolved Administrations on the face of the Bill. I had a look back at the Modern Slavery Bill, which seems to deal with this issue in the way that I have dealt with it in these amendments. I have picked up that progress has been made on this, and I hope it has. It hit my consciousness only last week during a visit to the Scottish Parliament. Although the Governments continue, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly will go into purdah in about nine weeks’ time because of their elections. This adds another dimension to our consideration of the Bill, because clearly these things need to be sorted out quickly, and not just in respect of this clause. I beg to move.
Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB): My Lords, I support the amendments that the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has laid before the Committee of your Lordships’ House this afternoon. In particular, I support her remarks about Scotland and the need for proper and adequate consultation. She is right to say all those things.
The noble Baroness referred to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, an issue to which we will return in the later group of amendments dealing with government amendment 39 and those connected to it. However, it is linked in some ways with these amendments. I will not pre-empt remarks on the amendment by addressing it in detail, other than to note that, as the noble Baroness said, 112 government amendments have been tabled. There has been no pre-scrutiny of this legislation by both Houses, and these amendments have been introduced for the first time here in Committee, which is asking an awful lot in terms of producing good quality legislation. I know that this is not the Minister’s fault, but I raised that issue with him in the excellent meeting that he organised for all Peers. To make legislation on the hoof is always a mistake.
I am not alone in thinking that. The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association has written to us to say:
“The volume of these amendments, the late stage of their introduction and the time available means that both ourselves and the House will be limited in our ability to provide the scrutiny that this detailed legislation requires”.
That was a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, a few moments ago. We simply cannot do our job properly when we are stampeded into having to make decisions on major questions of this kind with so many amendments being placed before us at once. The ILPA also says:
“We note that new clauses introduced by the Government contain a range of new delegated legislation which will not have
been subject to scrutiny by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee which reported earlier on the Immigration Bill”.
That issue will surface again when we come to the question of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
I do not want to be churlish, either, because the legislation that we considered last year—also introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Bates—was classic and admirable of its kind, and benefited from having been scrutinised by both Houses. It was showpiece, showcase legislation and the Government should be justifiably proud of having introduced it—as should Parliament for having enacted it. The danger in some of these amendments, and we will come to this in due course, is that they may undermine some of the excellent legislation that we enacted last year. I hope that when the Minister replies, he will therefore address the concerns raised by the noble Baroness and the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association. The noble Baroness did not describe this as hybridity, but effectively inserting an entirely new Bill inside an existing Bill at this late stage in parliamentary proceedings amounts to that. I hope her amendment will be taken in the spirit in which has been offered, and that the Minister will address all those points.
Lord Ramsbotham (CB): My Lords, I endorse what the noble Lord, Lord Alton, has just said. This is not the first time during the passage of this Bill that a vast number of government amendments has been inserted. The same thing happened in the other place immediately before Report, and the same complaints were made that none of the amendments had been scrutinised properly. Indeed, there was no time to do so before the other place had to vote on amendments in Committee that they had not had time to scrutinise. Remembering my own time in the Ministry of Defence, if I were faced as a civil servant with such a huge and complex piece of legislation, with additional complexities, I would have complained to the Secretary of State and to the Permanent Under-Secretary that legislation was being made so complex that it was simply undeliverable.
We have to realise that the immigration system in this country is currently under stress. There are said to be some 600,000 unrecorded migrants in the country now and we will face not just a flood of people coming here from the Middle East but an additional flood of people from places such as Africa thanks to climate change. Therefore, we should be simplifying our legislation so that it can cope with pressure rather than complicating it in this way.
Baroness Afshar (CB): My Lords, I speak in support of the views expressed. If eminent Members of the House who are familiar with these matters are finding this legislation difficult, what can immigrants do with it? They are not British and many of them are possibly already here. These changing laws will be whirling around their heads just as they arrive. It makes it impossible for them to abide by the law when even this House cannot understand what the law is. Is it not possible to have something simple and clear that immigrants can abide by?
Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab): My Lords, I shall start my remarks by associating myself with the introductory remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, who talked about the unsatisfactory way the Government have handled the Bill so far. I also agree that the first part of the Bill, which concerns the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, has no place in this legislation and is a separate matter. The lack of pre-legislative scrutiny was referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Alton—whose remarks, again, I very much agreed with. This is no way to legislate. It reflects poorly on the process and risks undermining other legislation such as the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
When the noble Lord, Lord Bates, responds to the debate, I think that he owes it to the Committee to give a proper explanation of why we are in this situation. Let us be clear. The Government are in charge of the Bill and of the timetable, and their legislation should be dealt with much better than this. As I say, I hope that he will give a full explanation to the Committee when he responds.
This first group of amendments seeks in the main to improve what is presented here by putting into the Bill clarifications and duties to consult. The noble Lord, Lord Bates, may be suggesting something similar shortly, but that has not necessarily been implied. I am generally supportive of what is being proposed in the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, while Amendment 11 has been proposed by myself and my noble friend Lord Rosser. I will deal with Amendment 11 first. We are seeking to put a clear duty on the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to consult with civil society and voluntary organisations in the preparation of the annual report that he will have a duty to present to the Secretary of State each year. If a proper report is to be prepared for the Secretary of State, information will need to be gathered and assessed, and it is often voluntary organisations and civil society that will acquire the information that will be vital to the production of a report of substance to ensure that the duties of the director remain relevant and can identify the modifications which are necessary to achieve that.
As has been said, the amendments in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, clarify that it must be the Home Secretary who appoints the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, and that the Business Secretary and relevant Scottish and other departmental Ministers must also be consulted. They also place a duty on the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to consult with Ministers in the devolved institutions and various officials exercising powers under labour market legislation on the preparation of a labour market enforcement strategy that will be submitted to the Home Secretary. Again, if in his response the noble Lord, Lord Bates, is going to suggest that this is not necessary, can he please tell the Committee how the Secretary of State will ensure that the report they receive is both timely and relevant to the matters in hand, and give us some direction as to how they should be consulted?
The Earl of Sandwich (CB): My Lords, I was waiting for the noble Lord to mention his Amendment 11 before saying that I am delighted to see it here.
The Government will recognise the role in the Modern Slavery Act of the coalition of NGOs which really helped to put the Bill together. It should be emphasised that we want to see the same thing again with the director in this case. I hope that that will borne in mind throughout the consideration of these amendments.
Lord Harries of Pentregarth (CB): I also rise very briefly to support Amendment 11 in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Rosser and Lord Kennedy of Southwark, for the simple and obvious reason that voluntary organisations are the key players in this. They are the eyes and ears of what is going on, and if they are not consulted, the Government are simply not going to be in a position to understand the realities of the situation.
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The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Bates) (Con): I begin, as I have been invited to, by apologising to the Committee for the late tabling of these amendments, but let me try to explain that a little further. We were faced with a particular challenge. Noble Lords will recall that we had the Second Reading on 22 December, and one issue raised at that point was that the scheduled date for the first day in Committee was 13 January. In the light of the likely publication of our response to the consultation, we agreed to see whether the start date could be put back—which it was until today, 18 January.
We were then faced with a challenge regarding the publication of the report, referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, in response to the consultation document on tackling exploitation in the labour market. We said that we would have a period of consultation, which ran from September through to December, and that we would legislate on the back of that consultation, which seems to me to be general good practice. The question was then: at what stage should the amendments be introduced? There was a little debate—I am looking at the Box, but it is probably best that I do not—as to whether they should be introduced on Report, or in Committee. My noble friends Lord Ashton, Lord Keen and I took the view that if they were introduced for the Committee stage, at least they could receive a thorough airing, which could be reflected on before Report.
There is a large number of amendments. We had a meeting with all interested Peers and again, we tried to listen carefully to the points that were being raised. One was that because the amendments were tabled, it was not easy for an opposition spokesman or any Member of the House, let alone the Minister responding, immediately to correlate the amendment to the specific recommendation. A suggestion was made that we should produce a schedule, which was done within 24 hours of that meeting. That then went out to noble Lords who had attended the meeting, through the usual channels to the official party groupings and to Cross-Benchers, of course.
I am trying to explain some of the thought process. It was not intended to be discourteous to your Lordships’ House but sought to be helpful. The other point is on the nature of these amendments. I think that 59 relate
to the consultation document. There is also a vast swathe—I did not manage to calculate the number—linked to the licensing of private hire taxi companies. We shall be coming to that issue in later groups. I did not realise that it seems as if every locality in the entire country has its own regulation for private hire taxi companies, so one amendment cannot apply across the entire country but needs to amend legislation pertaining to a particular area. That deals with the large tranche of the amendments.
I add to the previous debate on the minimum wage regulations my appreciation and that of the whole House to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee for its incredibly speedy work, even if it did introduce a bit of a riposte by stating that,
“the Government tabled a substantial number of amendments—54 pages’ worth!”.
I think that is the first time I have seen an exclamation mark in one of its reports. The point was made eloquently by symbol on the committee’s feelings on that. I offer my apologies, and hope that this is by some way of explanation. I also express our appreciation to the Select Committee on the Constitution for its very helpful report, which I know we will be coming to in later stages.
With that attempt at setting out the position, which I know is not ideal, I now turn to the amendments before us. The noble Baroness has rightly noted that the Director of Labour Market Enforcement’s remit covers the work of enforcement bodies that sit under two departments: the Gangmasters Licensing Authority reports to the Home Secretary while the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills is responsible for the work of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the HMRC’s national minimum wage team.
The Government have been clear in the consultation that we published and our response to it, as well as in assurances made by my right honourable friend James Brokenshire in Committee in another place, that the director will be a joint appointment by the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. They will jointly appoint the director and receive the strategy. The noble Baroness may have concerns about how the two Secretaries of State will reach agreement, but I reassure her that preventing abuse of labour market laws is a priority for both departments. Subject to parliamentary approval of the role, they will both be looking to appoint a director with the necessary skills and experience to make a difference.
The requirement to consult Scottish and Northern Irish Ministers in Amendment 3 brings me to the territorial extent of this role. Employment law is broadly reserved as the UK operating as a single labour market brings great benefits to workers and employers. Therefore, the director’s remit will be UK-wide. However, there are parts of the remit where the policy is not reserved. To deal with this, we are legislating to ensure that the director can set the strategy to enforce labour market legislation only to the extent that it already applies and is reserved. That is: the whole of the UK in respect of the national minimum wage; Great Britain for the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Gangmasters
(Licensing) Act 2004; and England and Wales in respect of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Therefore, there will be no need for Ministers formally to consult Scottish Ministers or the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.
However, to allow the strategy to be successful, the legislation requires it to be evidence-based and include the director’s assessment of the scale and nature of non-compliance in the labour market. To do this, the director will draw on the widest possible range of sources. This will include the intelligence hub provided for in Clause 6, but will inevitably include engaging non-governmental organisations, as the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, requested, bodies representing employers, bodies representing workers and other organisations to develop the fullest possible picture. These will include charities, the enforcement bodies themselves, and other organisations such as the police.
Amendments 6 and 13 would require the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to engage certain people in the development of the labour market enforcement strategy, while Amendment 11 would require the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to engage with civil society and voluntary organisations in the development of the labour market enforcement strategy. It is not yet clear how the director would be able to discharge the legal requirement to,
“engage with civil society and voluntary organisations”,
which is not defined. I fear that putting this duty on the director would be unhelpful as it does not specify the full range of organisations that the Government expect would need to be consulted as part of that provision. These include non-governmental organisations, bodies representing employers, bodies representing workers and other organisations not specified in the amendment. Therefore, my opposition to it rests on it being unnecessary, while risking unhelpfully to narrow the director’s focus.
Amendments 12 and 14 appear to limit the director’s proposed role by not permitting his strategy to alter the strategies set out by any of the other enforcement bodies, or binding the enforcement bodies to delivering the director’s strategy. The director’s strategy is not intended to undermine the strategies of the enforcement bodies, or to take precedence. Rather, we expect those strategies to be informed by the director’s strategy as they deliver their contribution to tackling labour market exploitation.
On the GLA, the GLA board will continue to be responsible for the delivery of the GLA’s functions. What will change is that the delivery of those functions will sit within a wider vision of tackling labour market exploitation. While I will address this in due course, the Government’s amendments will add the functions of the GLA board to the list of labour market enforcement functions as specified. Furthermore, the GLA board will have a duty to exercise its functions in accordance with the director’s strategy. We believe that this will ensure that the enforcement bodies and the director work together more effectively.
The final amendment in this group, Amendment 38, brings me to the intelligence hub. Clause 6 as drafted gives the new director the duty to lead an
intelligence hub that forms a coherent view of the nature and extent of exploitation and non-compliance in the labour market.
Baroness Hamwee: I think the Minister may have turned over two pages and gone on to the next group.
Lord Bates: Well, I have to say in that respect, I have not turned over two pages, but I may well be on to the next group. If so, and with that helpful prompt from the ever-helpful Baroness, I give way.
Lord Kennedy of Southwark: I thank the Minister for his helpful explanations of his remarks. Will he confirm that, because of the situation we find ourselves in with these amendments coming at such a late stage—civil society will want to look at them again—there will be plenty of time outside the Chamber for noble Lords and campaigners to meet the Minister to discuss these things in more detail?
Lord Bates: I can certainly say that. That is a very helpful intervention on a number of levels. I know that officials found our meetings last week and before Christmas very helpful. I think that that will continue to strengthen the work of the Committee. With that, I will pause my remarks and hope that the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw her amendment at this stage.
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, I certainly will. It would not be profitable to continue the discussion now about the tabling of these quite considerable changes. I. too, am grateful to the officials who have been very helpful in the most difficult circumstances.
It is extraordinary to me how many people outside this House read the report of our proceedings in very considerable detail, particularly those who have an interest in the subject matter. For them, I will say that I checked with the Public Bill Office this morning and it was confirmed to me that, provided we do not divide but merely agree the government amendments, there are no bars to our tabling amendments to what will then be part of the Bill on Report. I apologise to the Minister and officials if that prompts a flood of further amendments—but so be it.
My only other point, with regard to the Minister’s remarks on taxis, is to offer him a piece of advice. He should never tell a taxi driver that he is a Minister in the Government—or indeed a Member of this House—because he will not get out of the taxi without a most difficult conversation.
On Amendment 11, I understand the technical points that the Minister makes, but the third sector is hugely important. As has been said, it is the linchpin of the way in which our immigration service—if that is the right word—deals with asylum seekers and some other immigrants. It is absolutely central. It should not need saying that there will be the contact with the voluntary sector and other organisations that has been spelled out. I think that it says a lot that it was felt necessary to put that down.
With regard to my amendments and which departments do what and how they work together, we are told that the legislation is a priority for both departments, but I
would say that each department has its own distinctive and different priorities. That is where I see problems, perhaps, coming. I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 1.
4: Clause 1, page 1, line 8, at end insert—
“( ) The primary purpose of the Director is to secure the enforcement of labour market legislation, as defined in section 3(3) of this Act.”
Lord Rosser (Lab): Before I start, may I say that I certainly do not wish to comment adversely if the Minister got a little confused as to where he was in his notes, if only because I am pretty confident that that is going to happen to me on probably more than one occasion through the passage of the Bill. It is nice to know that I am already in good company.
As we pointed out at Second Reading, the Explanatory Notes to the Bill say:
“The purpose of the Bill is to tackle illegal immigration by making it harder to live and work illegally in the UK … The intention behind the Bill is that without access to work, illegal migrants will depart voluntarily, but where they do not, the Bill contains other measures to support enforced removals”.
Those two sentences are not tucked away at the back of the Explanatory Notes, almost as an afterthought, but are in the second of two short paragraphs at the very beginning of the Notes that constitute the first section, “Overview of the Bill”.
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Since the clauses dealing with the new post of Director of Labour Market Enforcement, which we are discussing, are the first seven clauses of the Bill, it is not unreasonable to ask the Government what the role of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement will be in delivering the purpose of the Bill in making it harder to live and work illegally in the UK, in increasing the number of migrants who will depart voluntarily and, if they do not, in supporting enforced removals.
In his welcome and helpful letter of 8 January 2016, responding to points raised at Second Reading, the Minister said, on behalf of the Government, that the new director’s role did not cover immigration control, that nowhere in the Bill was he or she given the purpose or power to do that, and that, if they did, they would be acting outside their statutory powers. That clarifies the issue in relation to immigration control, although it begs the question of what activities or roles the Government do or do not regard as being covered by the words “immigration control” and therefore outside the statutory powers of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement.
I appreciate that the Director of Labour Market Enforcement will not have staff at points of entry to the UK making decisions on who can and cannot be allowed to enter, and will not determine asylum claims or applications for extended leave. But that does not mean that the director and his organisation can play
no part in what many might regard as part of the immigration control process. As has already been said, the new post is, after all, being introduced in an Immigration Bill and a Home Office Bill. The director must surely have some part to play in the immigration enforcement system because, if he or she does not, how will they contribute to the declared purpose of the Bill as set out in the Explanatory Notes, to which I have already referred?
The purpose of our Amendment 4 is to seek to ensure that the functions of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement are exercised primarily for the purpose of protecting those vulnerable to labour market exploitation, and to make that clear on the face of the Bill. The Government’s argument against doing this appears to be that Clause 3 defines the director’s role by reference to the legislation and enforcement functions that will be within the remit of the post, including the three enforcement bodies for which the director will set the strategy: namely, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, HMRC’s national minimum wage team and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
That, of course, is correct but it is also a problem since the Bill, in particular Clause 3, sets out a range of functions but does not set out what the primary function should be, which, for a Director of Labour Market Enforcement, one would have thought would be the protection of those vulnerable to labour market exploitation through the enforcement of labour market legislation, with the primary role of this post being a protective one.
In the other place, the government Minister said that the purpose of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement was to tackle labour market exploitation across the field. But he was not prepared, for reasons that are not clear, to say that that was the primary purpose of the director, and to put that in the Bill, in line with our amendment. The need to make clear in the Bill that the primary purpose of the director is to secure the enforcement of labour market legislation and tackle labour market exploitation was further highlighted by the observation of the government Minister in the other place that while the role of the new director,
“was not intended to stray into the separate issues of immigration enforcement”,
if he or she came across people who were here illegally,
“the director would be duty-bound to report that and to pass on intelligence”.—[
Official Report
, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 27/10/15; col. 166.]
It is quite likely, one would have thought, that the director could on this basis prove to be a not insignificant player in finding people who are here illegally. It is precisely because of this, and the fact that the post is being established on a statutory footing in an Immigration Bill whose declared purpose is to tackle illegal immigration by making it harder to live and work illegally in the UK, that it is so necessary to spell out in the Bill what the primary role of the director is if we are to avoid any misunderstandings or wrong assumptions from those who might come into contact with the director’s organisation that the post is also about immigration checks rather than just about labour market enforcement.
There is clear evidence from the Netherlands and the USA of the dangers if there is any confusion over, or merging of, the roles of labour inspection and immigration enforcement. Research in the Netherlands shows that dual labour inspection priorities to identify undocumented workers on the one hand and victims of trafficking on the other have negative impacts on the uncovering of trafficking cases, since victims of trafficking are too scared to come forward and the labour inspectors also fail to identify them.
The Anti-Slavery Commissioner has also made the point that many people have fled from countries where confidence in the rule of law and the authorities is low. If they come here and are exploited, they are going to be fearful of going to the authorities because of previous experience. If we are not careful, this could be an unintended consequence of the Bill as it stands, in relation to the Director of Labour Market Enforcement.
Three other amendments in this group relate to the strategy that the Director of Labour Market Enforcement will set out. Amendment 7 would ensure that the labour market enforcement strategy would include an assessment of the threats and obstacles to effective labour market enforcement and the remedies secured by victims of labour rights infringements and labour market offences. The Bill requires the director to make an assessment of non-compliance in the labour market, but there is no requirement to assess the threats or obstacles to effective enforcement which could, of course, include powers and resources, human and financial, which would impact on non-compliance, or a requirement to examine remedies secured by victims of non-compliance in the labour market which, likewise, could also impact on levels of non-compliance. A strategy is not just about making an assessment of non-compliance and its extent. It is also about looking at how enforcement could be done better and at what actions need to be taken, or changes made, to achieve that objective. The Minister will, no doubt, also wish to say something, either now or in a later group of amendments if he finds that more appropriate, about the resources that will be made available to the new director.
The Modern Slavery Act is victim-focused and victims of labour exploitation ought to be a key focus of this Bill. This is why the amendment provides for the enforcement strategy to cover the issue of remedies. Information on compensation for infringement of labour market standards is currently limited. For example, HMRC does not keep data in a format that provides statistics on the amount of arrears paid—or not paid—to working people. Data on civil claims and damages awarded are, likewise, not available. During the financial years 2010-11 to 2012-13, there were no prosecutions by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority resulting in compensation orders for victims of human trafficking, and data on compensation secured through the criminal injuries compensation scheme for such victims are not recorded. With the present dearth of information, how can anyone know whether progress is being made on meeting the needs of victims of exploitation in the labour market if data on remedies are not being collected, as would be required in future under the terms of Amendment 7?
Amendment 35 seeks to ensure that labour market offences committed against all workers are included within the scope of the enforcement work of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, irrespective of immigration status. That should include all those who may be in the labour market, including undocumented victims of trafficking—hence the wording of the amendment. Finally, Amendment 36 refers to the annual report from the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and is intended to ensure that it links with his or her assessment about non-compliance in the labour market the remedies secured by victims and the threats and obstacles to effective enforcement. This is not provided for in the Bill, as drafted, and nor is linking the director’s strategy with his or her assessment of non-compliance in the labour market. The amendment aims to ensure that the strategy covers everything that it should and that the annual report is tied into the same process.
These amendments were also considered in Committee in the other place. The government Minister maintained that Amendment 7 was unnecessary because the Government expected that the director would feed information of the kind called for in the amendment into the planning and reporting cycle, and that this would be covered by the director’s labour market enforcement strategy. He then went to say that the director’s strategy,
“is about setting out information and issues concerning the work of different bodies and agencies, including some themes of non-compliance”.—[
Official Report
, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 27/10/15; col. 180.]
That seemed a rather less specific commitment that the director would be assessing the threats and obstacles to effective labour market enforcement, including powers and resources. Why not put this clearly in the Bill?
There is an issue with resources, particularly since the Government intend that while the relevant Secretaries of State will take the new director’s proposals on resources into account, the Government will set the overall level of resources devoted to labour market enforcement, and that the director should then recommend how resources should be allocated within the total envelope of funding available to the three enforcement bodies coming under the director, namely the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, the employment standards inspectorate and HMRC’s national minimum wage enforcement teams. A number of independent bodies, including the Migration Advisory Committee, have expressed concern that the resources at the moment for the existing agencies are such that the likelihood of any inspection or action being taken is very low and that, as a result, there is not much of a deterrent to most of those who may be involved in abuse in the labour market. One example is that Gangmasters Licensing Authority investigations dropped from 134 in 2011 to 68 in 2014.
Despite a recent increase in the funding for HMRC to enforce the national minimum wage, it still does not match the scale of the task. For example, the TUC estimates underpayment of the national minimum wage to be in the region of at least 250,000 workers. The number of front-line enforcement staff at the Gangmasters Licensing Authority has been cut by 25% since 2010-11 and the Employment Agency Standards
Inspectorate now has nine inspectors, compared to 20 at its peak. Millions more workers will come within the remit of the HMRC team when the national living wage is introduced.
The Government are also proposing to create a new authority out of the GLA, which will be responsible for prosecuting a new offence of aggravated labour law breach across the whole economy. The Government will need to commit to increasing significantly the funding available for enforcement work if it is to be effective and act as a deterrent. Without providing the necessary resources, any strategy from the new Director of Labour Market Enforcement will not achieve the objectives set out in the Bill. Accordingly, the issue of any threats or obstacles to effective labour market enforcement is one which the director should be required to address in his labour market enforcement strategy.
On Amendment 35, the Minister in the Commons was less than clear in Committee. He said that the labour enforcement agencies would tackle non-compliance by employment agencies, businesses and gangmasters regardless of whether the affected workers had the right to be or to work in the United Kingdom, and that the Government were committed to tackling serious crimes against individuals whatever their status. However, the Minister then said that the amendment was not attractive because it,
“appears to take us in a direction that would apply new rights to those who are here illegally, whereas there are other mechanisms through the linkages, through the rights that the Gangmasters Licensing Authority will have, and through the consultation. It is about the extension of those aspects through other means”.
The Minister in the other place also said:
“The director’s role that we have proposed supports our wider strategy on modern slavery, enhancing the response to labour exploitation”.—[Official Report, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 27/10/15; col. 184.]
It would be helpful if the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Bates, could interpret the seemingly contradictory and complex comments by the Minister in the other place by spelling out what protections, if any, are provided under the Bill to workers irrespective of immigration status, and what role the Director of Labour Market Enforcement will play in respect of labour exploitation and abuse in the workplace of those who do not have the required immigration status to be in this country. I beg to move Amendment 4.
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, my noble friend Lord Paddick and I have Amendments 5, 8, 10, 25, 28, 32 to 34 and 37 in this group. Our names are also put to Amendments 7 and 36, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, like whom I think it is important that the legislation is clear as to the director’s purpose. In other words, what is the point of the director? The director’s strategy is, in my eyes, a mechanism for implementing his purpose, and unless we spell out the purpose in a succinct fashion then we go straight to the strategy and that does not seem to be logical.
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My Amendment 5 would go further than Amendment 4 by saying that,
“The primary function of the Director shall be the protection of workers from exploitation”.
It would not tie their status down to or specify other legislation. I appreciate of course that the director is not going to be able to act unless he is formally able to do so by reference to other legislation, but he should be in a position to see what is going on right across the labour market, so that he can advise on a cross-governmental basis and monitor access to remedies across the labour market. If this approach is attractive it would need other amendments, but at this stage I would simply say that although a single regime is welcome, if the objective is protection from exploitation, the legislation should say so.
I would also ask whether there is a place for a relationship with the Health and Safety Executive and with local authorities, which have duties in enforcing health and safety legislation and the rights of children at work. We also want to make clear, as has been said, that although this is in an Immigration Bill, it is not about immigration enforcement. Employers have duties towards the whole of the workforce, whoever they are, and although immigrants—including legal immigrants who do not understand their rights—may be particularly exploitable, what we must not do, as the noble Lord said, is deter immigrants from seeking help to escape abuse. The Minister in the Commons did agree to continue to reflect on this, and we now have the government extension of functions in the new schedule, but I think, if anything, that might add to the risk of deterrence that the noble Lord and I are concerned about, by associating inspection and immigration.
Our Amendments 25 and 28 would insert a reference to the “protection of workers” in the provisions which allow the Secretary of State to prescribe additional labour market enforcement functions and offences. This is asking for an assurance from the Minister, which I am sure he will find it easy to give, that the provisions are not primarily aimed at immigration enforcement. The question is what enactments or offences are in the Government’s contemplation.
Amendments 33 and 34 are also about which workers are protected. Again, time was spent on this in the Commons, but it is obvious from the briefings that I and, I am sure, other noble Lords have received that there is still some confusion. This is not only about cases where there is no right to be in the UK. Under the Employment Rights Act, whose definition is imported here, a worker is a defined as someone who has entered a “contract of employment” or another contract, which I assume means a contract for services where someone is self-employed. One question is whether, in a situation of exploitation, there is always a contract, but particularly important is that Amendment 33 replicates the definition of a worker in Section 26 of the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act, which includes the fact that a right to be in the UK is irrelevant. Switching from a definition which the GLA has been accustomed to work with raises issues in itself.
As for Amendment 37, Clause 5 says the Secretary of State can remove material from the director’s strategies and reports, on the basis set out, for example if it would,
“be against the interests of national security … jeopardise … safety … or … prejudice the investigation or prosecution of an offence”.
That is fair enough. I have seen that elsewhere in legislation. However, Clause 5(2) says that the Secretary of State must not then put that material back when he lays the report before Parliament. I am puzzled as to why that is necessary. If the Secretary of State has taken it out, is he likely to put it back before laying the report before Parliament? Is this because the Home Office fears a future Secretary of State might lose the plot, or is it to protect against a change of Government or what? I was curious.
Amendments 8 and 10 are on resources, and again I was confused as to where to deal with this. However, the means as well as the ends need to be willed; fine words about objectives are not enough. This has been such an issue throughout discussions not just on the Bill but on the remit of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. Quite rightly in previous debates, the point has been made that it would be very good to extend the remit, but we must make sure that they have the money to do so; otherwise, we risk damaging the good work currently done. It is essential that the director takes resources into account. Otherwise, what is said is effectively meaningless.
Lord Alton of Liverpool: My Lords, these amendments, which I support, raise both the role and resources available, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee and the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, described, to the Director of Labour Market Enforcement. Reading though the exchanges in another place, it is clear that the Government were uneasy at Report stage about the lack of clarity in the Bill. Otherwise, why would the Minister, Mr James Brokenshire, have given an assurance to the House of Commons that they would go away and reflect on the matter? Therefore, it would be interesting to hear today the outcome of those reflections.
Certainly, looking at what was said in another place, there are some contradictions obvious to anyone who reads those exchanges. The Minister said, for instance, in Committee:
“We intend the director’s remit to cover labour market breaches, not immigration offences”.—[Official Report, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 27/10/15; col. 163.]
That is very straightforward. However, at a later stage, he said:
“The provision is not intended to stray into the separate issues of immigration enforcement, but if cases of people who are here illegally are highlighted, the director would be duty-bound to report that and to pass on intelligence through the hub that is being created”.—[Official Report, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 27/10/15; col. 166.]
I would therefore like to know what happens when there is a contradiction between those two roles. Where there is a protective role and an enforcement role, what would be the director’s expected priority in those circumstances? We said throughout the proceedings on the modern day slavery and human trafficking legislation that it should always be victim focused. Is this a derogation from that, or are we simply being consistent with what we did before? The House needs to know before we give this the green light.
I was surprised when the Minister in another place, in refuting the arguments that have been put forward again in your Lordships’ House today, said,
“I simply do not think it is necessary”.—[
Official Report
, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 27/10/15; col. 166.]
I wonder why he came to that conclusion, because clarity in legislation is always highly desirable. Otherwise, why would he have wanted to go away and reflect; why would these amendments have been moved in another place; and why would they be here again today? Clearly, something is necessary. Will the Minister, if he cannot put it right today, be agreeable to doing so on Report?
Baroness Ludford (LD): My Lords, I share colleagues’ concerns about the lack of clarity of the remit and purpose of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and the indications of a lack of resources for the organisation so far. The Migration Advisory Committee has already been cited, but it is worth mentioning the remarks of Sir David Metcalfe in evidence to the Committee in the other place. He said that funding remains an issue, particularly for the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, and that:
“In the low-skilled report, we calculated that you would get an inspection from HMRC once every 250 years and you would get a prosecution once in a million years”.—[Official Report, Commons, Immigration Bill Committee, 20/10/15; col. 20.]
The odds of bad employers being caught, let alone prosecuted, seem slim. It comes to something when the US State Department is moved to mention the lack of resources. In its Trafficking in Persons Report 2015 it mentioned concern that there needs to be an increase in funds for the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. It is a little galling to have to be told by another Government that there are not enough resources, but we could take that to heart. That report also stated that government funding for specialised services for victims of trafficking remains limited. We are judged to be falling down on resources.
I, too, was confused by the exchanges in committee in the other place about the director’s focus outside workers who are here legally. The suggestion seems to be that a labour market offence can be committed only against persons legally in the country, which suggests that others are going to be dealt with through an immigration lens. I add my voice to those who have asked for clarity about whether the director will be focused on employers who most exploit workers, including those without leave to be in this country and to work. Without that wider remit outside legal workers, the director cannot be effective against the worst employers.
I am confused by the number of definitions of worker. We can add to them the definition under EU free movement law, but perhaps that would unnecessarily complicate the matter in hand. However, there seem to be at least three definitions of worker, and it might be sensible to have one.
Lord Horam (Con): I understand the questions raised by noble Lords and the dangers of a lack of clarity in this area, but we may be making a bit of a meal of this issue. In the House of Commons, James Brokenshire made the situation fairly plain. Referring to the comment quoted by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, clearly, offences are matters not for the Director of Labour Market Enforcement but for immigration officers. Equally, the director may well want to look at intelligence arising from offences relating to immigration in the context of the strategy he is trying to devise to
avoid labour market exploitation. There seems to be a difference between people on the ground who are trying to deal with immigration offences day to day, and the director, who is trying to enact a supervisory role on a rather larger scale.
If I am right about that—I may be wrong, and I fully agree that the situation is confusing and difficult and should be simpler—the amendments put down by the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, are mistaken because they tie the director down too much. In practice, we may want the director’s remit to go rather wider and to take into account what he may learn as a consequence of the information he acquires from immigration officers operating on the ground. That is a sensible way to proceed administratively. I may be wrong, and I will listen to what the Minister says, but it seems to me that the situation is rather clearer than we seem to be suggesting.
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The Earl of Sandwich: My Lords, we may be in danger of making a meal of this group of amendments. I quite understand that the noble Lord, Lord Horam, has pointed out a connection between the two, but it is a very serious issue to describe the difference between them. I go back to the Modern Slavery Act, which was an excellent example of pioneering Government and listening Ministers. A welcome number of Government amendments on both that and this Bill shows that the law is constantly in need of review. As many NGOs are actively demonstrating, there is much more to be done on illegal working, as we work through this Bill and beyond. Part 1 does not adequately reflect human rights concerns. The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, pointed out the big confusion here that comes up under several amendments between labour regulation and immigration law enforcement, and the improper use—or potentially improper use—of employers and landlords as immigration officers, making migrant workers especially vulnerable. Some with more legal training than me are concerned about the likelihood that this encroachment is inconsistent with the ILO Convention No. 81, the Labour inspection convention of 1947. I hope someone will confirm that that is a difficulty. Do the Government agree that to ensure protection these two areas must be kept separate?
Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con): I have to say that I have some sympathy with my noble friend Lord Horam about the importance of not narrowing the gateway too much in terms of the work of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement. The wording in Clause 2(2)(a)(i) allows for a very wide remit: it seems to me to be important to preserve this. It is very easy of course to see this only through the prism of the victims—and indeed there are terrible victims who need protection—but the director should surely be able to identify practices, behaviours and trends not only relating to the protection of workers.
I am a keen supporter of employee share ownership. Every year the Employee Ownership Association has a dinner in your Lordships’ House, which I am proud to sponsor. Last year I was sitting next to one of the biggest companies in the field of imports, which brings a lot of stuff across the Channel in containers. He said to me, “Do you know that up to
about a year ago, once a year a container would have people inside it; two or three times a week now, you open the container in Cowley and six or seven people jump out and disappear into the dark. They have a baseball bat and you can’t stop them—and talking to my colleagues in other firms this is an increasingly prevalent practice”.
It seems to me that this is the sort of issue that ought to be publicised and the director ought to be able to raise. It is not about protection of workers, though that is a very important part of his job. It is about what is happening in the labour market generally. It would be a grave mistake if we allowed ourselves not to think about these activities as well, and make sure that the director could comment on them and make suggestions for improvement. It is in the interests of everybody, but particularly those who are victimised, that this should be publicised—and the other side of the coin should be publicised as well. I hope that my noble friend will bear that in mind when he comes to consider his reply to this set of amendments.
Lord Bates: I first thank the noble Lord, Lord Rosser for moving this amendment. I am glad we are on the same page in terms of tracking the amendments. As I do that, let me remove another lever-arch file, with a message from the Box, which I thought was a very timely one: if noble Lords would kindly tell us when they plan to degroup an amendment, then we will try to do better at telling people when we intend to lay an amendment. But I suppose it is the first day in Committee and we are all finding our way through that postbag.
This has been a useful exchange. Under this particular group, as I see it, the Committee is seeking to understand better the nature of the role of the new Director of Labour Market Enforcement and to flesh it out, to understand something more of the resources and to understand where the immigration enforcement boundary and the role of standards in the labour market actually connect. While I appreciate the desire to include upfront a strong statement of the remit of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, a role that has been welcomed on all sides of the House and in the other place, I believe that amendments on the subject are unnecessary. The role and remit of the director are clearly set out already in Clauses 1 to 7. We want the director to bring co-ordination across the whole spectrum of breaches in employment law, from employers who do not know the rules right through to the organised criminal exploitation of workers.
I should say here—this is relevant to the contributions from a number of noble Lords, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich—that we often find that the rogue employers, underpaying employees with regard to the national minimum wage, and the unscrupulous employment agencies that deduct far more than they should from employees’ salaries are often the same people, who will be guilty of abuse across a whole range of different headings. That is the essential value that the information gives us, and the essential value of the overall role.
I will send around to noble Lords a very useful schematic. I know that schematics are not favoured by your Lordships’ House because of the difficulties that
they convey to the
Official Report
in communicating them, but this one is a good way of illustrating that at the moment a number of disparate functions are prosecuted in different silos. We are seeking to be much more effective by bringing those silos together, not just in terms of their strategy but by placing the Director of Labour Market Enforcement above them to ensure that scarce resources are allocated most efficiently, and that we learn the maximum that we are able to about exploitation.
Where we set the director’s primary purpose in legislation as enforcement, as the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, seeks in Amendment 4, we are prejudging the best way to secure compliance. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, seeks in Amendment 5 to give the director the purpose of protecting workers from exploitation. Exploitation is not universally defined and means different things to different people. Concerns have been expressed that the director will get involved in enforcing our immigration laws. I reassure noble Lords that that is not part of the role of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement. I know that there was some discussion about the exchanges in Committee in another place on this, but I am happy to place on record again my remarks in my letter of 8 January:
“I want to reassure colleagues”,
following Second Reading, that immigration control,
“is not part of the role of the Director of Labour Enforcement. Nowhere in this Bill is the Director given the power or purpose to do that … they would be acting outside of their statutory powers”.
It is useful to get that very clear statement on the record in Committee. Concerns have been expressed that the director will get involved in enforcing our immigration laws, and I want to ensure that that is not the case.
I turn to the annual labour market enforcement strategy. The Government’s position is that it will be successful only if it includes an assessment of threats and obstacles by “turning over stones”, telling Ministers where the gaps are and making proposals for how they can be addressed. Similarly, a successful strategy will be based on the evidence of what enforcement has happened in previous years, including what remedies were secured for victims. These are both already covered by the Bill so Amendment 7, in our opinion, is unnecessary.
Amendments 8 and 10 cover the director’s role in the funding arrangements for the enforcement bodies. It is the Government’s intention that Ministers in the Home Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should continue to set the overall envelope of spending available for labour market enforcement and should recommend how best to allocate this between the three bodies and the different activities they undertake, based on their assessment of the likely nature of non-compliance in the following year. I cannot support these amendments. While the Government intend that the relevant Secretaries of State will take the director’s proposals on resources into account in their discussions with the Treasury about funding, it is right that the Government set the overall level of resources devoted to labour market enforcement in the context of the totality of pressures on public spending.
Amendments 18, 25, 28 and 32 relate to the power to change the scope of the labour market enforcement strategy by regulations. While at present we believe that the director’s remit is sensibly defined, it may make sense in the future to extend this if it becomes clear that the risk of abuse and exploitation is changing. It is appropriate for such extension to be made by secondary legislation to ensure flexibility and to enable us to act quickly, subject of course to the appropriate degree of parliamentary oversight.
Amendments 33 to 35 relate to the director’s strategy-making role in respect of offences committed against workers under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The clause or the proposed amendments would not redefine “worker”—as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford—for the purposes of the Employment Agencies Act 1973, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 or the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004. The existing coverage of the respective Acts continues to apply. This means that the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the GLA will still tackle non-compliance by employment agencies, businesses and gangmasters regardless of whether the affected workers have the right to be—or work—in the UK. We see the director’s focus as improving the way we enforce labour market and employment law rules—making sure workers who are properly here are protected better. However, we are committed to tackling serious crimes committed against individuals, whatever their status, as the noble Baroness will know from the work she and others did on the Modern Slavery Act last year—a landmark piece of legislation.
I turn to the contents of the director’s annual report. The Bill already requires the annual report to include an assessment of the extent to which the strategy had an effect on non-compliance in the labour market. There is no need to specify the other details. If the strategy identifies threats and obstacles to effective enforcement and makes proposals to address them, the effectiveness of these throughout the year must be covered in the annual report. Similarly, as the strategy will set out how the enforcement bodies are to exercise their functions, including seeking remedies for victims, the success of this must be covered by the annual report. Therefore, I believe the majority of Amendment 36 is unnecessary.
The point was made that we need to focus our attention on victims. Victims have been protected, for example, by the recovery of unpaid earnings, by making sure that employment agents who persistently abuse contracts or unfairly treat their employees are no longer allowed to register as agents, and by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority not renewing certain licences.
The final amendment in this group concerns the publication of the annual strategy and annual report. The legislation as drafted states that any strategy or annual or other report prepared by the director and laid before Parliament must not contain material that has been removed for very specific reasons. These reasons are where the publication of such material,
“would be against the interests of national security, … might jeopardise the safety of any person in the United Kingdom, or …
might prejudice the investigation or prosecution of an offence under the law of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland”.
These are pretty standard exclusions that we have come across in previous legislation. The Bill as drafted requires the Secretary of State to remove information from a publication if he or she considers it to fall into those categories. The Government believe that this is essential and strikes the right balance between transparency and safety. Indeed, it replicates provisions in Section 42 of the Modern Slavery Act regarding the strategic plan and annual report prepared by the Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner. I hope that my answer will reassure noble Lords on that point.
Finally, we have put on the face of the Bill, in Clause 1(4):
“The Secretary of State must provide the Director with such staff, goods, services, accommodation and other resources as the Secretary of State considers the Director needs for the exercise of his or her functions”.
That is a statutory statement. My noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe announced in the previous debate that the amount of money that has gone into national minimum wage enforcement has increased by £4 million. While it is right to press us to spell out in more detail exactly what is intended for the role, I think that there is a logic there, which my noble friends Lord Horam and Lord Hodgson have reinforced. I hope that, with that reassurance, the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.
5 pm
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, before the noble Lord responds, perhaps I may take some of those comments but in something of a reverse order. On the question of resources, the Minister referred to Clause 1(4), but that relates to provision for the director. Of course, we are concerned not just about the director but about the organisations—if that is the right term for the various entities—which will be implementing the strategy. Whoever’s strategy it turns out to be is the subject of another debate. So, although I accept the point that the Minister has made, I do not think that it goes all the way, as some of us were seeking.
Lord Bates: If it would be helpful to noble Lords, I should be happy to set this out in writing. However, I can tell them that the 2015-16 budget for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate is £0.5 million and it has 8.6 full-time-equivalent staff. For the same period, the Gangmasters Licensing Authority has funding of £4.268 million, including £100,000 for Northern Ireland enforcement, and it has 66 full-time-equivalent staff. The budget for the national minimum wage enforcement team was increased by £4 million to the current figure of £13.2 million, and it has 230 full-time equivalent staff. We are saying that the helpful part of the role of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement will be to look at those three groups and the current basket of resource, which has been increased substantially over the past year, and to see how it can be most effectively deployed to tackle the types of wrongs that we are seeing.
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, the figures are interesting. Nobody is ever content and no one will say, “That’s enough”, but my impression—I say this as
somebody who hears those figures, although they do not really mean anything to me; I am not an expert in any of those fields—is that there are organisations struggling to do the job that they have and which in some cases they do absolutely extraordinarily. Just hearing figures expressed in millions does not advance the argument in the way that I know the noble Lord and I are concerned with.
Lord Alton of Liverpool: Before the noble Baroness leaves the point about resources, she may recall that during the proceedings on the modern slavery and human trafficking legislation we were told that between 2011 and 2014 the Gangmasters Licensing Authority saw a reduction of 17% in its budget—a figure that I think we can all comprehend very easily. I wonder—this is directed at the Minister partly through the noble Baroness—whether the figures that he has just given represent a real increase on those reductions and whether we are seeing a reinstatement of the moneys that were cut.
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, I am looking to the Minister, but he has not received inspiration on that yet.
Lord Bates: I have not received inspiration, but I do not doubt for one minute what the noble Lord rightly observes. He refers to a time when we were having to tackle some pretty sizable problems in the public finances, and that continues to be a pressure. That is one reason why, I think, we are bringing these resources together. It would be helpful—and I will certainly undertake to do this—to set out in one letter to Members of the Committee in your Lordships’ House the situation on resources, perhaps in a way that is easier to assess. However, the point is that when you have different pots in different areas with different groups of people, it makes it all the more important that they are joined up, that there is co-ordination and that we get the maximum effect for every taxpayer pound that is spent. That is, of course, what the remit of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement is envisaged to be.
Baroness Hamwee: But within the budgets set by the two departments, as we have just heard. I do not think that anyone is arguing against efficiency, but those budgets are being spent, I assume, to their maximum now. So it is a discussion that will go on.
With regard to the point about the regulations and the possibility of extending the scope of the director’s work, the Minister mentioned parliamentary oversight. Of course, that is a very current issue, because oversight only goes so far. Indeed, one might say that it is “sight” but not “change”, because we cannot do anything about secondary legislation.
I want to comment on the points that have been made about trends and the work, other than that to which the noble Lord and I have pointed, on the protection of workers. I realise that the way in which I have worded my amendment was perhaps not the most felicitous. I did in my speech mention things such as monitoring and trends, and I meant that in a very wide sense. I understand, for instance, that the GLA—this is a very important part of its work—has been extremely successful in its relationship with employers and runs
a liaison group with employers and agents in the sectors in which it currently works. One might take any survey with a pinch of salt, but a 93% approval rating—I think I have got that right—from employers in their view of their own regulator strikes me as being pretty high, and I for one certainly do not dismiss the points that have been made by the two noble Lords on the other side.
Lord Rosser: My Lords, I will be brief in responding, with just one or two points to make. I have listened carefully to what the Minister has said in response but, frankly, I think that we are making a meal out of not being willing, as far as the Government are concerned, to put the primary purpose of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement in the Bill. I certainly do not accept any argument that it would somehow restrict the functions of that particular post.
I appreciate what the Minister has had to say about his willingness to send a letter relating to resources, and I am sure that that will be extremely helpful. It is certainly my intention to come back to the issue of resources in a later group of amendments.
On the issue of the involvement or otherwise of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement in the immigration system, the Minister repeated the part of his letter that I also referred to: that the new director’s role did not cover immigration control and that nowhere in this Bill is the director given the purpose or power to do that, and if he or she did they would be acting outside their statutory powers. This is a genuine question and not a challenge, but if the Minister is going to send a letter on resources, will he consider adding to it an indication of which clauses of the Bill would preclude the director from being involved in any aspect of immigration enforcement and control? I ask that partly in the context of Clause 2, which states that
“A labour market enforcement strategy … is a document which … deals with such other matters as the Director considers appropriate”.
What happens if the director considers that a strategy relating in part to some involvement in the immigration process is appropriate? Is he entitled under that particular subsection to get so involved? It would be extremely helpful if in his letter the Minister would address that point. With those comments, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
House resumed. Committee to begin again not before 5.45 pm.
Steel Sector
Statement
5.10 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) (Con): My Lords, with the leave of the House I shall now repeat a Statement made in the other place by my right
honourable friend the Minister of State for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise. The Statement is as follows.
“It is with regret that I find myself having to update the House on further job losses in the steel sector. This morning, Tata Steel announced plans to make over 1,000 redundancies across its UK strip business as part of its continuing restructuring plans. The proposals involve 750 job losses at Port Talbot and Llanwern. There will be 200 redundancies in support functions, and Tata has also announced 100 redundancies at steel mills in Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool. This will be a difficult time for all workers and their families. Our immediate focus will be on helping any workers who lose their jobs back into employment as quickly as possible. We will also continue to support the steel industry.
Given the UK’s devolution settlement, much of the support that can be offered both to workers and to Tata in south Wales will come from the Welsh Government. But the UK Government want to ensure that Port Talbot has a commercial and sustainable future, and it is encouraging that the Welsh Government are to launch a task force this week to support those affected by today’s announcement.
I have previously offered our support to the task force chair, Edwina Hart, and will continue to work with the Welsh Government going forward. I therefore welcome the commitment that the First Minister made today to working closely with the UK Government. I can also assure Members that I am working closely with the Secretary of State for Wales, who I know has been in the area today and hence is not here in the House.
It is important to remember that the fundamental problem facing our steel industry is the fall in world prices, caused by the overproduction and underconsumption of steel. No Government can change the price of steel. But we can and are achieving a level playing field for British producers. I can inform the House that the Government have been working closely with Tata to do all we can to ensure a sustainable future for Tata Steel in the UK, both at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe. The Government have offered their assistance to Tata as it seeks to find a buyer for its long products division. It is encouraging that Tata has announced Greybull Capital as its preferred bidder and we remain in close contact with Tata as its commercial negotiations continue. The Government stand ready to play our part to help secure Scunthorpe’s long-term future.
Returning to today’s announcement, the same offer is there for Port Talbot. Tata is currently working with consultants to develop a plan to address the near-term competitiveness of its business at Port Talbot. We and the Welsh Government are in regular dialogue with Tata. This dialogue includes my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for BIS, as well as my officials and me. While the future of Port Talbot must be commercially led, we will help where we can within the parameters of state aid rules.
Last October, the Government held a steel summit at which the UK steel sector set out its five asks of Government. I can report that we have made quick and substantial progress against these asks to ensure a
level playing field for our steel industry. The industry asked for lower energy costs. In December, we secured state aid approval to pay further compensation to energy-intensive industries, including steel, to include renewable policy costs. We have already paid nearly £60 million to the steel industry to help mitigate the costs of its existing renewable policies. The latest state aid approval will now enable us to extend the scope of compensation, saving steel makers hundreds of millions of pounds. But we will go even further and exempt energy-intensive industries from most of these costs.
The sector asked for flexibility over EU emissions regulations, and that is exactly what we have secured. Derogations for Port Talbot have already been agreed by Natural Resources Wales. The Environment Agency has accepted Tata Steel’s proposals for derogations for improving emissions from Scunthorpe, subject to a current public consultation. Once approved, this will give Tata a further six years to improve emissions levels from the coke ovens, and both Tata Steel’s major power plants have been included in the UK transitional national plan which the UK has submitted to the European Union. This gives the company until June 2020, a further four years, to meet emissions requirements. These actions will save the industry millions of pounds.
We have also published and further updated procurement guidance for government departments to allow aspects such as social impacts, job impacts and staff safety to be taken into account when procuring steel for major projects. We are the first country in the EU to take advantage of and implement these new flexibilities. In short, there is no excuse not to and every reason to buy British steel.
I have heard it said that the Government have blocked the reform of trade defence investigations; we have not. I can assure you that the Government have been acting decisively to safeguard the UK’s steel interests in Europe. In July and again in November last year we voted in favour of anti-dumping measures on certain steel imports. It was the UK that lobbied successfully in support of industry calls for an investigation into imports of reinforcing steel bar. The European Commission has taken this forward swiftly, including an extraordinary meeting of the EU’s Competitiveness Council, and has agreed faster action. I will be returning to a follow-up stakeholder conference next month where I will push for further progress. The review on business rates in England will conclude this year. Of course, the Welsh Government have responsibility for business rates in Wales and therefore in Port Talbot.
UK steel has today added to its original five asks with two further requests concerning China securing market economy status and funding assistance for environmental improvements, research and development. We will explore both of these with the sector while continuing to drive forward the original five.
As we have seen today, the steel industry remains subject to unprecedented global pressures. While the immediate causes of these are beyond the Government’s control, I can assure the House that we continue to do all we can to help the industry and will stand by all those workers who face redundancy in south Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom”.
My Lords, that concludes the Statement.
5.19 pm
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab): My Lords, the devastating impact of job losses in the country as a result of Tata’s announcement of more than 1,000 job losses across Wales, Corby and Hartlepool is devastating news for all of the workers, their families and the close-knit communities surrounding the plants. The impact is a double whammy for Wales because steel is an industry which has contributed significantly to the added value of the economy there, adding several percentage points to GVA figures. Of course, this latest news comes on top of job losses at Tata’s Newport plant last year, along with job losses across the UK announced by a number of operators in September 2015, and the complete closure of the Redcar plant.
Steel is the foundation of many of the UK’s most important manufacturing sectors, including aerospace, defence, automotive and construction. However, the industry suffers from a perfect storm. Countries such as China are engaging in ruthlessly uncompetitive practices which are destroying the steel industry, energy prices are too high and emissions regulations are too restrictive. The Government centrally, although they are doing some work on this, still, perversely, do not require their own contractors to buy steel from the UK. The Minister, in repeating the Statement in this House, for which we are grateful to her, mentioned that there is some progress on these matters, but the general view around the country is that although progress is being made, it has sadly been too little and it has certainly come too late.
Central to ensuring that our steel industry survives and thrives is the urgent need for an industrial strategy. The Chancellor declared recently that Britain would be carried aloft by the march of its makers. But manufacturing exports have slumped and manufacturing output is still below its level of seven years ago, before the crash. There is a lot more still to be done.
I have some questions for the Minister. When did she or her colleagues raise the issue of the dumping of steel directly with the Chinese? Can she give us chapter and verse on that? Can she spell out the support from the UK Government that will be made available directly to the families and communities affected by the latest round of cuts? She said that the Government would help where they can, subject to state-aid rules—but there is a humanitarian crisis on our doorsteps and we really need to see action. What work is being done by the department on the supply chain that supports these companies affected by job losses and, presumably, reductions in activity? Many of these are small and medium-sized companies that help to keep the British steel industry going. What work will be done to support the UK buyers of output from these plants who may well now have to seek alternative supplies on the market?
The steel industry is of vital strategic importance to this country and the Government need to safeguard its future. We are very conscious that there are issues in the market of price and overcapacity, but these have been there for a long time and have been raising concerns about the structure of the UK steel industry for most of the previous Government and certainly during this one. Where is the action?
We are keen that the Government support key strategic industries in this country and make sure that highly skilled jobs are not lost. I hope that these sad events will trigger a reconsideration of the Government’s hostility to an industrial policy and strategy. We hope that they will get to grips with this crisis. It would be a tragedy for the steel industry if they did not, not only for those who have lost their livelihoods but for those of us who wish to make the case for modern economic progress.
Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD): My Lords, I am sure that I represent everyone in the House when I say that our thoughts today are with the steelworkers and their families.
A major cause of this, it would seem, has been the dumping of Chinese steel. We are part of the largest trading bloc in the world, and this has been going on for a very long time. What are the Government doing to defend our interests and to fight for British steel in the EU? The noble Baroness said that some things are being done but I think that everyone would agree that we need to do more to mitigate some of the worst problems that we are going through at the moment.
The British Government need to do more, but so do the Welsh Government. My Liberal Democrat colleagues in Wales have called for scrapping business rates and plants in the Welsh steel industry. The Labour Party has criticised the Government in England but seems to have done nothing where it is in charge in Wales.
Finally, one-third of the production in Port Talbot is for the car industry—a highly successful industry. The Minister says that there is no excuse not to buy, and every reason to buy, British steel. So why does she think, given all that she said, it is not being bought?
Baroness Neville-Rolfe: I start by agreeing with how devastating today’s news is, and I agree with the statement made by the First Minister in Wales, Carwyn Jones. Our first thoughts today are with the families, communities and supply chain businesses that are dependent on steel production in Port Talbot, Llanwern and Trostre. This is a severe blow to the community and to steel production in the UK. Indeed, I welcome the task force that has been set up in Wales today, which will meet this week. That follows the model of task forces set up in other areas, such as Redcar. They have done very good work and are particularly good at focusing locally, not only on issues affecting steelworkers, but on businesses in the supply chain, which are obviously vital to future jobs.