DOCSLIB.ORG

Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Wednesday Volume 527 27 April 2011 No. 148 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 27 April 2011 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2011 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 155 27 APRIL 2011 156 recently awarded under the Department for Work and House of Commons Pensions Work programme will go to organisations from the voluntary and charitable sector. We believe Wednesday 27 April 2011 that that will be worth in excess of £100 million a year. The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): Will the Minister take this opportunity to name and shame those Government Departments that are doing well in PRAYERS opening up to small businesses and those that are currently doing less well? [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Mr Maude: I certainly do not want to shame the ones that are doing well. We have found a number of examples of procurement processes that are not meeting the new Oral Answers to Questions requirements. For example, Durham police recently issued an invitation to tender for a £50,000 leadership training contract. The pre-qualification questionnaire alone was 38 pages long and contained a request for 163 separate CABINET OFFICE items of information plus a security vetting form. That is unacceptable, because it causes many smaller businesses The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked— to lose the will to live, and they simply do not apply. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con): I am the former owner of a small business supplying products to the public 1. Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): What steps he is sector. When applying to be added to a new tender list, I taking to increase access to Government contracts for was often frustrated by the amount of red tape required. small and medium-sized enterprises. [52583] Will the Minister confirm that in future fewer company policies and statements will need to be provided to 6. Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): What participate in the tendering process? steps he is taking to increase access to Government contracts for small and medium-sized enterprises. Mr Maude: We want to strip away all that nonsense. [52588] Under the last Government, there were 6,000 pages of guidance for some kinds of procurements. It is not 7. Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con): What steps he is surprising that smaller businesses just did not bother to taking to increase access to Government contracts for apply; they knew that they were going to be excluded. small and medium-sized enterprises. [52589] There were turnover requirements and requirements for a track record of doing exactly that kind of work. The 8. Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con): What steps truth is that that is very bad for small businesses and we he is taking to increase access to Government contracts want to make things much better. for small and medium-sized enterprises. [52590] Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con): During a The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster recent meeting, small and medium-sized enterprises in General (Mr Francis Maude): On 11 February, the Prime Hastings raised with me the difficulties not just of the Minister and I announced a package of measures, paperwork, but of getting the capital requirements in including launching our Contracts Finder website, this climate for procurement contracts with the Government. eliminating burdensome and unnecessary pre-qualification Will the Minister reassure us that that aspect will also requirements from the procurement process, and introducing be considered, as we try to make it easier for small and new ways to allow small and medium-sized enterprises medium-sized enterprises to engage with the Government? to challenge contract procedures when they operate in a way that makes life difficult for them. In addition, from the end of April, all Departments will be required to Mr Maude: My hon. Friend makes a good point. We publish a set of specific, targeted actions to increase are concerned that the working capital requirements their business with SMEs. should be proportionate and sensible and that the turnover requirements should be proportionate to the needs of Robert Halfon: Will the Minister set out what steps he the contract. All ridiculous requirements such as those is taking to increase access to public contracts for that existed under the old regime—for example, always smaller, grass-roots charities as well? Does he agree that requiring three years of audited accounts, which for the big society to work properly, we need to build automatically excluded huge numbers of new and innovative the little society too? businesses—will be swept away. Mr Maude: My hon. Friend makes the point very Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): Does the well. All the measures that we are taking to enable small Minister accept the macro-problem? In south Yorkshire, and medium-sized businesses to participate more fully a large number of private sector enterprises depend in in Government contracts will, of course, apply to the whole or in part on public sector contracts. So much voluntary and charitable sector as well. Indeed, it is demand is being taken out of the economy, because of estimated that 35% to 40% of the value of the contracts the deficit reduction plans, that such businesses face 157 Oral Answers27 APRIL 2011 Oral Answers 158 serious challenges. Does he accept that small enterprises “Conservatives can win the poverty debate but not if face a real problem because of his Government’s macro- the Big Society is our message”? Is the big society more economic policy? accurately described as a label for a collection of policies rather than a policy itself? Mr Maude: I acknowledge that there is a problem—and it is one caused by the Government of whom the right Mr Speaker: I hope that the Minister will answer with hon. Gentleman was a member and supported. They particular reference to private sector applications and left Britain with the biggest budget deficit in the developed the big society bank. world. I am waiting for the right hon. Gentleman to apologise for that; that would be timely. Mr Letwin: I am grateful for that guidance, Mr Speaker. My hon. Friend is right to point out that the big Tessa Jowell (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab): In society is an idea with a very wide application. The big looking at an increased role for small and medium-sized society bank is a fund that will have a very wide application, businesses, will the Minister let the House know when because we believe it is extremely important that it his Department will publish the public services reform should be able to foster all sorts of voluntary and White Paper? It was commissioned last October to be community enterprise which, in one way or another, published early in the new year. January became February, enormously support the alleviation of poverty—the and the Prime Minister said that it was only two weeks subject of the article to which he refers. away. Two weeks have become more than two months and there is still no sign of the White Paper. Is that the Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) (Lab): The idea of such a Government’s biggest pause, or have they just given up bank to help to develop the centre of civil society is a on public services? good one, but effective government requires a mix of big ideas and getting the details right. In this connection, Mr Maude: I am thrilled that the right hon. Lady is has the Minister seen today’s report by the National waiting for the document with such obvious excitement, Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, which and I can assure her that it will be well worth waiting suggests that if the big society bank lends purely on for. This Government are committed to breaking up the commercial terms, it will be old public sector monopolies and providing diversity, “failing to support those that it is set up to support”? particularly with the growth of public service mutuals. What can he say to ensure that the lofty rhetoric of the The document will be published later this summer, and big society bank does not founder on the rock of I can promise her that she will be delighted with it. inadequate administrative detail? Big Society Bank Mr Letwin: The hon. Gentleman is of course right to say that the big society bank could not operate as it is 2. Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) (Lab): Whether private intended to operate if it were lending, or investing, on sector organisations will be able to make applications purely commercial terms. It will have what is often to the big society bank. [52584] described as a double bottom line: it will seek to achieve the highest possible social returns alongside reasonable The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr Oliver financial returns. Indeed, part of the point of the big Letwin): The big society bank will provide finance for society bank is to show that there is no conflict between the voluntary and community sector through funds to achieving high social returns and achieving modest but social lenders and investors. It will provide funds only reasonable financial returns. to bodies that are onward lending or investing in the Big Society voluntary and community sector, charities and community groups.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 'The Future Is Bleak': a Comparison of Recent
    ‘The future is bright’ versus ‘The future is bleak’: A comparison of recent documentaries on land reform in Zimbabwe. Blazio Mavedzenge, Felix Murimbarimba and Ian Scoones (producers), Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Voices From the Field (Harare, 2011). Simon De Swardt (director), House of Justice (Harare, 2009). Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey (directors), Mugabe and the White African (Stroud, 2009). Introduction In 2011 Blasio Mavedzenge, Felix Murimbarimba and Ian Scoones produced a series of eight short documentaries entitled Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Voices From the Field to accompany the book Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Myths and Realities.1 The findings and conclusions of this book have generated a great deal of controversy for their positive assessments of the fast track land reform programme (FTLRP) and this documentary series does nothing to dampen the enthusiasm with which they portray the benefits of land reform. The series follows closely on the heels of two other documentaries about the land reform process and the effect it has had on peoples’ lives: Mugabe and the White African and House of Justice. Mugabe focuses on the SADC Tribunal case of Mike Campbell and Others versus the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) and what Campbell and his son- in-law, Ben Freeth, endured in taking the case to the Tribunal. House looks at continued abuses in the rural countryside after the SADC Tribunal’s rulings against the GoZ, which ordered the government to protect the rights of the white farmers and allow them to continue to occupy their land. These documentaries cover the three main groups at the centre of the land reform process: the white farmers, the farm workers and the resettled farmers.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Mugabe's Africa
    Robert Mugabe’s Africa: Zimbabwe as a Failed State Giannina A. Murphy INTRODUCTION Independence, equality and freedom: these democratic ideals were at the heart of the revolutionary rebellion of Black Zimbabweans against the British colonial power of Rhodesia. The rebellion leader, Robert Mugabe, was initially thought to embody these ideals as a revolutionary hero and became Zimbabwe’s first President upon independence in 1980 (CIA Factbook 2011). However, the state is now fully incapacitated due to rampant government corruption and economic failure. This paper will define a “failed state”, concentrating on the Zimbabwean economy and political dictatorship under Robert Mugabe. The democratic spirit of rebellion has not been quelled in all Zimbabweans, as evidenced by the courageous actions of Mike Campbell and Ben Freeth against Mugabe’s Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP). In spite of the indisputable failure of economic reforms like the FTLRP, the Indigenization Act of 2008 has condemned the utilization of Foreign Direct Investment to rebuild the economy as a means of stabilizing this failed state. THEME ANALYSIS: THE FAILED STATE State failure encompasses a wide variety of characteristics, affecting the social, economic and political spheres of a nation. Zimbabwe’s classification as a failed state is indisputable, for the country ranks #4 globally on the Foreign Policy’s Failed States Index of 2010 (Foreign Policy 2010). This comparative index ranks 177 countries based on multiple categories that signify a “failed state” (Foreign Policy 2010). The index rankings are determined by an analysis of various indicators across all aspects of state function. Pervasive government corruption, de-legitimization of the state, persistence of violence, ineffective rule of law and uneven economic growth all contribute to the state becoming “governmentally empty”, the most universal feature of a failed state (The Fund for Peace 2010; class notes 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • Racial Discrimination in Zimbabwe: a Systematic Program of Abuse
    11 November 2012 Racial Discrimination in Zimbabwe: A systematic program of abuse “Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, they must tremble…. The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans…. The white man is part of “an evil alliance.” President Mugabe, speaking at the ZANU PF Congress in December 2000 Commercial farmer Terry Ford Murdered on Gowrie farm, Norton, in March 2002 “The only language that the mabhunu (white man) will understand is the language of the gun. The more you kill, the nearer you get to your objective.” President Mugabe, 14 June 1986 White farmers are “hard‐hearted, you would think they were Jews”. President Mugabe, 1992 "They (white farmers) will not be treated like special creatures. Why should they be treated as if they are next to God? If anything, they are next to he who commands evil and resides in [the] inferno." President Mugabe, 2001 “Whites are not human beings” Vice‐President Joseph Msika, August 2001 “Yes there are hardships but if they (white industrialists) leave, it’s a good thing, because we will take over the companies. To those of you who support whites, we say down with you.” President Mugabe, Bulawayo, September 2001 1 PRESIDENT MUGABE’S RUTHLESS STRATEGIES TO RETAIN POWER Historical Context Robert Mugabe rose to prominence in 1976 during the liberation war when Rhodesia’s neighbours, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola and Botswana, known as the front‐line states, agitated for unity between the ZANLA1 and ZIPRA2 forces, urging that they be united as the Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA).
    [Show full text]
  • Bronx Princess
    POV Community Engagement & Education Discussion GuiDe Mugabe and the White African A Film by Directors Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson and Producers Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock and David Pearson www.pbs.org/pov PoV Letter froM the fiLMMAkers We have worked together for 10 years — and much of that time has been spent filming in Africa, for which we have a huge passion. We’ve recently been working on short films in Africa; we have been privileged to tell the stories of people who are so poor that they would never have “mattered” otherwise. We have been in many life-or-death situations with the people we’ve filmed and have cried and laughed with them as we shared some of the most intimate moments of their lives. Because of that, for some time we have been developing and work - ing on ideas for longer-format documentaries set in Africa. The story of Mugabe and the White African is a story that we feel the world should hear. Much has been reported about the eradication of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe and the deterioration and subsequent col - lapse of the country. We have all seen news images of beaten farmers and seen the desperation in people’s eyes as they live in hunger, hopelessness and fear. We wanted to make a film about a big issue like the land reform program policy in Zim - babwe, but in a very intimate and personal way. our subject was Mike campbell, the Zimbabwean commercial farmer who made legal history when he took President Robert Mugabe to the international court of the southern African Development community (sADc) in 2007 and won his case a year later.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright © and Moral Rights for This Phd Thesis Are Retained by the Author And/Or Other Copyright Owners
    Brett, Peter (2015) The judicialisation of political order in Southern Africa. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20390 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. 1 THE JUDICIALISATION OF POLITICAL ORDER IN SOUTHERN AFRICA Peter Brett Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS, University of London 2 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination.
    [Show full text]
  • Bronx Princess
    POV Community Engagement & Education Discussion GuiDe Mugabe and the White African A Film by Directors Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson and Producers Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock and David Pearson www.pbs.org/pov PoV Letter froM the fiLMMAkers We have worked together for 10 years — and much of that time has been spent filming in Africa, for which we have a huge passion. We’ve recently been working on short films in Africa; we have been privileged to tell the sto - ries of people who are so poor that they would never have “mattered” otherwise. We have been in many life-or-death situations with the people we’ve filmed and have cried and laughed with them as we shared some of the most intimate moments of their lives. Be - cause of that, for some time we have been de - veloping and working on ideas for longer-format documentaries set in Africa. The story of Mugabe and the White African is a story that we feel the world should hear. Much has been reported about the eradication of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe and the Directors Lucy Bailey (l.) and Andrew Thompson (r.) deterioration and subsequent collapse of the Photo courtesy of Arturi Films Limited country. We have all seen news images of beaten farmers and seen the desperation in people’s eyes as they live in hunger, hopelessness and fear. We wanted to make a film about a big issue like the land reform program policy in Zimbabwe, but in a very intimate and personal way. our subject was Mike campbell, the Zimbabwean commercial farmer who made legal history when he took President Robert Mugabe to the international court of the south - ern African Development community (sADc) in 2007 and won his case a year later.
    [Show full text]
  • Reforming Microfinance to Suit Developing Economies: the Right Way and the Zimbabwe
    Washington University Global Studies Law Review Volume 14 Issue 2 2015 Reforming Microfinance ot Suit Developing Economies: The Right Way and the Zimbabwe Vincent D. Baumann Washington University in St. Louis, School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies Part of the Banking and Finance Law Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Finance and Financial Management Commons Recommended Citation Vincent D. Baumann, Reforming Microfinance ot Suit Developing Economies: The Right Way and the Zimbabwe, 14 WASH. U. GLOBAL STUD. L. REV. 337 (2015), https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies/vol14/iss2/8 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Global Studies Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REFORMING MICROFINANCE TO SUIT DEVELOPING ECONOMIES: THE RIGHT WAY AND THE ZIMBABWE I. INTRODUCTION There are few countries in Africa that possess as much economic potential as Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has an impressive trade portfolio including exports of nickel, diamonds, tobacco, and gold; annually, each of these commodities brings hundreds of millions of dollars into the Zimbabwe economy.1 In 2001, Zimbabwe had a trade surplus of approximately 323 million U.S. dollars.2 Because of its abundant natural resources, Zimbabwe has been dubbed “Africa’s Breadbasket.”3 In the early 2000’s, Zimbabwe’s economy took a sharp downward turn. By 2003, Zimbabwe had Africa’s fastest shrinking economy and there were several contributing factors.4 The first was Zimbabwe’s involvement in the Second Congo War, which was prohibitively expensive for a country of its size.5 Zimbabwe President Mugabe, who still holds office, led a controversial land reform program that took farmland owned by white Zimbabweans and placed it in the hands of the Zimbabwean 6 7 government.
    [Show full text]
  • Mugabe and the White African Press Release-Final-3
    Contacts: POV Communications: 212-989-7425. Emergency contact: 646-729-4748 Cathy Fisher, [email protected], Jillian Ayala, [email protected] POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom One White Family Defies Terrifying Odds to Keep Their Farm in Zimbabwe In POV’s “Mugabe and the White African,” July 26, 2011, on PBS On Land and in Court, the Campbells Incur a Dictator’s Wrath; In a Tragic Epilogue, Family Patriarch Mike Campbell, 79, Dies From the Terrible Beating Recounted in This Film “A potent mix of suspense, pathos and indignation. .” — Ronnie Scheib, Variety The Campbell family of Zimbabwe — Mike Campbell, his wife, Angela, their daughter, Laura, and their son-in-law, Ben Freeth — may have been white people determined to hold on to their farm, but they were not in the mold of colonialists hanging on to land extorted from blacks. They were among the native-born whites who did not flee in 1980 when Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, achieved full independence and black majority rule. Embracing the new country, Mike and Angela expanded their small farm that same year, buying additional land to create a game preserve, with the full approval of the newly elected government led by independence fighter Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party. Twenty years later, the Campbells found themselves in the crosshairs of a brutal land redistribution program enacted by the same Robert Mugabe. Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s Mugabe and the White AfriCan is an inspiring and chilling account of the Campbells’ efforts to fight the government.
    [Show full text]
  • Environmental Law and Policy in Namibia
    ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY IN NAMIBIA TOWARDS MAKING AFRICA THE TREE OF LIFE Fully Revised Second Edition Edited by OLIVER C. RUPPEL & KATHARINA RUPPEL-SCHLICHTING Environmental Law and Policy in Namibia TOWARDS MAKING AFRICA THE TREE OF LIFE Edited by Oliver C. Ruppel Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Katharina Ruppel-Schlichting Director, Legal Research and Development Trust of Namibia (LRDT) Fully Revised and Updated Second Edition 2013 Hanns Seidel Foundation Legal Research and Development Namibia Office Trust of Namibia Dr. Frans Indongo St. 70-72 P.O. Box 11334 P.O. Box 90912 Windhoek Klein-Windhoek Namibia Namibia Tel. +264-61-237373/4 Fax. +264-61-237375 [email protected] http://www.hsf.org.na Ruppel & Ruppel-Schlichting (eds.) Environmental Law and Policy in Namibia Second Edition 2013 First Edition 2011 For additional materials and information see www.environment-namibia.net ISBN 978-3-939886-03-7 (Germany) ISBN 978-99916-849-9-4 (Namibia) Copyright Hanns Seidel Foundation (2013) and authors The content of the articles, including any final errors or omissions that remain, is the sole responsibility of the individual contributors. The editors have made every effort to acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should any infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the editor, and every effort will be made to rectify omissions or errors, in the event of a reprint or new edition. Language editing: Graham Hopwood and Frederico Links Co-published by OrumbondePress.na Welwitschia Verlag Dr. A. Eckl, Essen Printed by John Meinert Printing (Pty) Ltd TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD V PREFACE VII PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XI THE EDITORS XIII THE CONTRIBUTORS XV EXECUTIVE SUMMARY XXI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS XXV CHAPTER 1 - NAMIBIA AND ITS LEGAL SETUP 1 by Oliver C.
    [Show full text]