Vol. 741 Thursday No. 80 6 December 2012

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT

ORDER OF BUSINESS

Questions UK-Israel Life Sciences Council Department of Health: Budget NHS: Hospital Services NHS: Hospital Beds Police (Complaints and Conduct) Bill First Reading Business of the House Timing of Debates Scotland Act 1998 (Modification of Schedule 5) (No. 2) Order 2013 Public Bodies (Water Supply and Water Quality Fees) Order 2012 Motions to Refer to Grand Committee Foreign Affairs: Global Role, Emerging Powers and New Markets Motion to Take Note Ugandan Asians Motion to Take Note Economy: Growth Question for Short Debate Written Statements Written Answers For column numbers see back page

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we feel it is necessary, but we also enjoy a close and House of Lords productive relationship with Israel. It is this very relationship that allows us to have the frank discussions Thursday, 6 December 2012. that are often necessary between friends. We believe that imposing boycotts would lessen that influence, 11 am not increase it.

Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Guildford. Lord Palmer of Childs Hill: My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that joint business initiatives between Palestinians and Israelis could play UK-Israel Life Sciences Council a valuable role in encouraging diplomatic engagement Question between both peoples? What role does the Minister consider that the Government can play in supporting 11.07 am such efforts, very much within what the noble Baroness, Asked By Baroness Deech Lady Deech, has said about the UK-Israel Life Sciences Council’s work? To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the UK-Israel Life Sciences Baroness Warsi: As the noble Lord will be aware, Council. the UK-Israel Life Sciences Council is a group of top scientists from both countries and includes Members The Senior Minister of State, Department for of your Lordships’ House as well as, I think, four Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Nobel Prize winners. I think that all noble Lords Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi): My Lords, would agree that we are at a very delicate stage in the the UK-Israel Life Sciences Council is an excellent Middle East peace process. As I have said from this example of the opportunities for successful collaboration Dispatch Box on many occasions in the past few between our two countries. Since its launch in 2011, weeks, 2013 will be a critical year. It is therefore funding has been raised for five major research projects important that we use whatever avenues we have to in regenerative medicine as part of the British-Israel strengthen those diplomatic relations to achieve a research and academic exchange programme. peaceful resolution to a two-state solution in the Middle East. Baroness Deech: I welcome the Minister’s reply. She is aware, I imagine, that this work could produce great Lord Hannay of Chiswick: My Lords, does the advances in stem cell and regenerative medicine, which Minister accept that I would have no difficulty in may make a major difference in the treatment of answering my noble friend’s Question? I oppose diabetes, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Does she fundamentally any boycotting of co-operation between therefore agree that this sort of work, and the search academics and researchers in this country and those in for cures, should rise above politics? Will she condemn Israel. However, does she not also agree that when the the politicisation of academic exchange—for example, Government of Israel pay absolutely no respect to the boycotts of scientific work—which could have so much views of the British Government on crucial issues of potential for cures in this country? international policy, such as the legality of settlements, that is bound to have an effect on government-to- government relations, even if it should not have an Baroness Warsi: My Lords, regenerative medicine, effect on co-operation between scientists and academics? such as stem cell treatments, has the potential to play an increasingly vital role in delivering the next generation Baroness Warsi: I am a firm believer that when of healthcare, offering treatments or possible cures for matters are most difficult to discuss, that is the time to areas of unmet medical need. Where there are areas of strengthen relationships further. We have never managed expertise, both in this country and in Israel—or in any to resolve any matter by walking away from relationships. other country around the world—it is important for It is because we have strong relationships with Israel that collaborative work to continue. When we are on a variety of issues that we can be so robust in our collaborating with countries that we consider to be engagement. I hope noble Lords will agree that we friends and there are disagreements, we still have those have been robust in that engagement in the past week. discussions, for it is important that this work continues. Noble Lords will be aware that on Monday the Israeli ambassador was called in by the Minister for the Lord Anderson of Swansea: My Lords, does not the Middle East to express our grave concerns about pre-eminence of Israel in this and so many other illegal settlements and the comments made by the fields, and also the academic freedom enjoyed by Israeli Government. universities in Israel, make nonsense of any attempts by our academics to boycott their counterparts in Lord Turnberg: My Lords, the medical field is a rich Israel? Will the Minister, as the noble Baroness suggested, source of interaction not only between the UK and roundly condemn any such attempts at a boycott? Israel but also, and perhaps more importantly, between Israel and the Palestinians. When I go round hospitals Baroness Warsi: My Lords, the UK Government in Israel I see many Palestinian patients from both have made their position on boycotts clear. We do not Gaza and the West Bank. Is the Minister aware of hesitate to express disagreement with Israel whenever this? 749 UK-Israel Life Sciences Council[LORDS] Department of Health: Budget 750

Baroness Warsi: It is not something that I am Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, in asking the directly aware of, but I am grateful for the noble Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I Lord’s information. remind the House of my health interests.

Lord Howarth of Newport: If academic effort ought The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department to be collaborative across international frontiers, and of Health (Earl Howe): My Lords, the department that is surely right, why do Education Ministers so underspent against its budget by 1.7% in 2010-11 and frequently speak of British universities being in by 1.3% in 2011-12, or by 1.5% combined across the competition with universities elsewhere in the world? two years.

Baroness Warsi: I am sure that noble Lords will Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, I think that agree that British universities are some of the best in is about £3 billion; perhaps the noble Earl will confirm the world. We therefore have to praise our competitiveness that. This Government promised to protect the NHS and competitive edge. Whenever I and my ministerial and to cut the deficit. In fact, they are cutting the NHS colleagues are in places around the world we say that and the deficit is rising. How can the department we are in direct competition with other academic justify handing back so much money to the Treasury institutions, because we are trying to encourage citizens when large parts of the NHS are under great financial of those countries to choose Britain as a destination pressure at the moment? for study.

Lord Kilclooney: My Lords, the Minister said that Earl Howe: My Lords, the deficit is not rising. the Israeli ambassador was called in to the Foreign The Government are putting £12.5 billion extra into Office about the seizure of Palestinian land by Israel. the NHS over the course of the spending review. The What was his response? noble Lord, Lord Hunt, will know from his ministerial experience that government departments have an absolute requirement to manage expenditure within the financial Baroness Warsi: My Lords, that is probably slightly controls that are set by Her Majesty’s Treasury and beyond the Question on the Order Paper. However, I voted on by Parliament. For the Department of Health can inform the noble Lord that the Minister made that means that the net expenditure outturn, which very clear to the Israeli ambassador Britain’s real incidentally stems from around 400 organisations, all concerns about the comments made about further of whose accounts have to be consolidated, must be settlements. I think that the ambassador was left with contained within the revenue and capital expenditure no doubt about the British Government’s strength of limits. Given those circumstances, it is sensible to plan feeling on this matter. for a modest underspend to mitigate against unexpected cost pressures. Lord Dykes: Further to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, does my noble friend the Minister Lord Mawhinney: My Lords, why does my noble agree that one of the main reasons why the Israeli friend believe that he will be able to tell your Lordships’ Government—much to the disappointment of many House that all the PFI hospital projects undertaken Israeli citizens—repeatedly ignore the representations under the previous Administration, some of which are made by the UK and other western Governments on in a serious financial mess, will be deemed to be their action in the Occupied Territories is that the financially sustainable? How many of them are likely United States has exercised more than 30 vetoes since to require extra expenditure from his budget to achieve 1967 to stop Israel following international law? What that desired end? do the UK Government think of American veto-itis in this matter? Earl Howe: My noble friend raises a very important Baroness Warsi: The Government have made it issue. The analysis that we have done on hospitals clear that real progress has to be made next year, and financed by private finance initiative has indicated that progress cannot be made without the US taking a that there are seven trusts that are basically unsustainable lead. It has to get behind the initiative for next year. As as a result of their PFI commitments. The Department I have said before from this Dispatch Box, this is a of Health has therefore undertaken to support those president in his second term, where it is right that he trusts to enable them to make up the shortfall which is should prioritise these matters. beyond their control. It would be wrong to suggest that PFI was a solution that did not deliver benefits. Clearly it did, but I am afraid that some of the sums Department of Health: Budget that were done initially were sadly wanting. Question Lord Warner: My Lords, what consideration was 11.15 am given by the Government before they repatriated, as Asked By Lord Hunt of Kings Heath my noble friend said, £3 billion to the Treasury? What consideration was given to using some of that money To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion to buttress social care, which makes great demands on of the Department of Health’s budget for the 2010-11 the NHS and which has suffered on average a 7% cut and 2011-12 financial years was unspent. in each of the past two years? 751 Department of Health: Budget[6 DECEMBER 2012] NHS: Hospital Services 752

Earl Howe: My Lords, we did, as the noble Lord Lord Flight: My Lords, will the Minister say how would expect, look at the anticipated surplus this time much NHS spending has risen in the past 20 years in last year and we channelled an extra £150 million into cash and real terms? I believe that in cash terms it is of social care then in the near-certain knowledge that the the order of about £11 billion to well over £100 billion. department would generate a surplus during the year. However, as he will know, it is an inexact science to Earl Howe: My Lords, I would be happy to write to predict in December what the outturn will be in April, my noble friend. I do not have the figures for the past and one has to be prudent at that stage. 20 years in front of me but I can tell him that, unlike the party opposite which promised to cut NHS Lord Alderdice: My Lords, my noble friend gave a expenditure had it been re-elected last time, we are reassuring Answer a week or two ago about the balancing protecting the NHS budget. It is now well over of expenditure and resources between mental health £100 billion. As I said earlier, it will be increased by services and physical health services within the NHS. £12.5 billion over the course of this Parliament. Is it possible for my noble friend’s department to look to the possibility of any surpluses in the future being NHS: Hospital Services used to achieve greater parity between mental health Question services and the rest of the NHS, given the decisions made in your Lordships’ House regarding the Health 11.23 am and Social Care Act 2012 and the mandate for the NHS Commissioning Board that has flown from it? Asked By Lord Warner To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress Earl Howe: My noble friend makes an extremely they are making with the reconfiguration of NHS important point. He will know that the Government hospital services. have made it clear that mental health problems should be treated as seriously as physical health problems. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department That commitment has now been made explicit in the of Health (Earl Howe): My Lords, the Government’s Health and Social Care Act 2012. As he mentioned, policy is that front-line NHS reconfigurations should the Government’s mandate to the NHS Commissioning be locally led and clinically driven. Changes to services Board explicitly recognises the importance of putting should be led by those who know their patients’ mental health on a par with physical health. It tasks needs best. That is why we are empowering clinical the NHS Commissioning Board with developing a commissioners to design the services that will make collaborative programme of action to achieve that and the greatest difference to improving healthcare and it will be held to account accordingly. improving people’s lives.

Lord Laming: My Lords, does the Department of Lord Warner: I am grateful to the Minister for that Health and its Ministers monitor the number of people reply so far as it goes. In the light of yesterday’s who today are in hospital and whose treatment is Autumn Statement, will the Minister and his colleagues being completed, but who are there because alternative study carefully the recent Nuffield Trust report, which arrangements have not been made for them? cogently suggested that we are facing a decade of austerity within the NHS with the need to secure 4% Earl Howe: Yes, my Lords. As the noble Lord will efficiency savings on a yearly basis, not just to 2015 know, the problem of delayed transfers of care is not but up to 2021-22? Will Health Ministers engage in a new. We have seen a drop in delayed transfers in terms serious dialogue with the Academy of Medical Royal of the number of days but there has been a levelling Colleges whose new chairman, Professor Terence off in recent years. However, it is up to the NHS and Stephenson, suggested in July that we had far too social care services to collaborate to ensure that proper many acute centres trying to provide 24/7 services and appropriate community services are available to across too wide a range of medical specialities? Will he patients when they are discharged from hospital. That accept, particularly in the light of the Answer that he planning process begins the moment the patient enters gave to the previous Question, that we should be doing hospital. more to take money out of acute hospitals that are performing indifferently and putting it into community- Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton: My Lords, the based services? Minister very unusually failed to answer my noble friend Lord Warner’s question as to why the money Earl Howe: My Lords, I think it is common ground that has gone back to the Treasury could not have between the noble Lord and the Government that we been used to meet the needs of the patients to whom need to see care delivered more in the community and the noble Lord, Lord Laming, referred. less in acute settings; that was a policy that his Government espoused. I agree with the noble Lord and with Terence Earl Howe: My Lords, I apologise. I addressed part Stephenson that we need to deploy clinical leadership, of the noble Lord’s question in relation to the issue evidence and insight as a driving force behind service around social care. The important point to make change. Service change is not new; it has happened about the surplus is that none of the underspend is all the time throughout the NHS’s history. Clinical lost to the NHS. Under Treasury rules, the NHS is commissioning groups on the ground will be the driving allowed to carry forward all underspends to the next force for this, but the NHS Commissioning Board will year. It is not a case of the NHS having to give up any be there in support and the wisdom of the royal money and thereby depriving patients of treatment. colleges will clearly need to be tapped to provide the 753 NHS: Hospital Services[LORDS] NHS: Hospital Beds 754

[EARL HOWE] under the previous Government under PFIs, and even board with expert clinical advice. Indeed, that is the more of them will get into financial trouble than there theme behind the board’s aim to establish clinical are already? networks and senates to help build the clinical evidence for change. Earl Howe: I do not anticipate that there will be widespread closures of hospitals, and it is important Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, is the Minister to reassure people about that. The NHS has always aware that too many patients are still being admitted had to respond to patients’ changing needs and advances to hospital solely to undergo investigations and tests in medical technology. Reconfiguration that ensues that could perfectly well be carried out on an out-patient from that is about modernising the delivery of care basis? Is it not therefore time to reconfigure out-patient and facilities with a view to improving patient outcomes services so that individuals will be in a position to and developing services, as I have mentioned, in a way attend hospital in order to have a clinical consultation that makes them available closer to people’s homes. and all the relevant tests on a single visit? That would While we will see changes in service configuration, I avoid a great number of unnecessary hospital admissions. trust and hope that we will not see widespread hospital closures, although the possibility of a hospital having Earl Howe: My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord. to downsize can never be eliminated. He is right to say that many hospital admissions prove to be unnecessary, wasteful and expensive and we need NHS: Hospital Beds to ensure that those who do not need to go to hospital Question can be appropriately looked after in the community. We also need to reduce the level of unplanned, emergency 11.30 am admissions to hospital. There is huge scope to do this. Many trusts are already succeeding in bringing more Asked By Lord Turnberg services into the community, but we need to accelerate To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the process. they have made of the analysis of hospital bed availability in the report Dr Foster’s 2012 Hospital Baroness Williams of Crosby: Does my noble friend Guide. agree that one thing that emerges very clearly is that real difficulties arise from not having a 24/7 primary The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department care service, which means that figures for weekends of Health (Earl Howe): My Lords, Department of and holidays are of course much worse than they are Health data show that the average bed occupancy rate for the normal level of health service provision? Does for all beds open overnight has remained stable, at he agree that it is well worth looking at bringing into between 84% and 87% since 2000. Rather than being the work of CCGs the contribution that can be made a cause of concern, this indicates that hospitals are by ancillary services to medicine, in order to move making efficient use of beds. NHS hospitals need to towards a 24/7 primary care service? manage beds effectively in order to cope with peaks in demand. We expect to see higher occupancy rates in Earl Howe: I agree with my noble friend and that is winter, when these demands are at their highest. why work is currently being done under the leadership of Sir Bruce Keogh in the Department of Health to Lord Turnberg: My Lords, in thanking the Minister examine the scope for greater 24/7 working. She is for his response and his endurance, I believe that we right that this is important, not just for the benefit of owe a debt of gratitude to Dr Foster for the report, patients but also to make the NHS more efficient and which shows so clearly how severe the stress is that our effective in deploying its staff and assets. hospitals are suffering under. With bed occupancies of 95% to 100% for much of the year for many of the hospitals, there are too often no beds available, staff Lord Campbell-Savours: If services are carried forward are rushed off their feet, patients are not cared for as the noble Earl suggested, how does that influence properly, infection rates rise and mistakes occur. Given estimates? that almost one-third of the patients now in hospital do not need to be there and would be better off cared Earl Howe: We have reverted to the previous Question, for in the community, and given that the community if I am not mistaken. The departmental expenditure services cannot provide that care because they are so limit is set by the Treasury. My own department is in underfunded, where are we to get the money from? the fortunate position of knowing that it has real-terms Simply saying that we can close a hospital or two and increases every year of this Parliament; however, if the slide the money across from a cash-strapped NHS department has an underspend that cannot be carried before those services are available will just exacerbate forward, yes, some money has to be returned to the the problem. Would it not be better to use those Treasury. end-of-year surpluses that we have been hearing about instead of returning them to the Treasury? Lord Hamilton of Epsom: Does my noble friend accept that if he takes the advice of the noble Lord, Earl Howe: My Lords, as I mentioned earlier, NHS Lord Warner, and moves resources from acute services underspends are not lost to the NHS—they can be to other services in the NHS, that will lead to the carried forward from year to year. But on his central closure of many general hospitals that were built point, I should make it clear that we are struggling to 755 NHS: Hospital Beds[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 756 reconcile the Dr Foster bed occupancy figures with Baroness Finlay of Llandaff: Given the report’s those that we have. Dr Foster has stated that bed figure that 6% of beds are occupied by patients who occupancy is at a dangerous level, at over 90% for are readmitted within a week, costing almost £8 million 48 weeks of the year. We are looking closely at that per annum, what guidance is the department giving to analysis and methodology, but we cannot agree with clinical commissioning groups to ensure that support those conclusions at the moment, given that the is available in the community so that patients discharged department monitors the position on a daily basis from hospital with multiple comorbidities and frailty during the winter and on a quarterly basis at other do not tumble back into the admissions system? times. However, I agree with the noble Lord that there are too many people in hospital. We need to ensure Earl Howe: The noble Baroness has identified a that we move more care into the community. I do not very important issue. The causes of emergency see this as insuperable within the current budgetary readmissions are, of course, several. Some of them are expenditure limits. not the fault of the provider but some are. Therefore, we have given an instruction to commissioners to build into the contracts that they have with those The Earl of Listowel: My Lords, I want to ask providing services that penalties may be applied to the about community midwifery services and avoiding bed provider should emergency readmissions occur which use by that means. Is the Minister aware of the great are the fault of the provider. I would be happy to write value to children in terms of outcomes of promoting a to the noble Baroness with further details. good relationship between midwives and parents, increasing the rate of breast-feeding and reducing Police (Complaints and Conduct) Bill episiotomies? In his reconfiguration, when he is thinking about not using so many bed spaces, will he recognise First Reading the value of local community midwifery services? 11.38 am The Bill was brought from the Commons, read a first Earl Howe: Yes, my Lords. That is the precise time and ordered to be printed. reason why there are currently 5,000 midwives in training, which is a record number. The noble Earl is absolutely Business of the House right to identify the midwifery service as key to enabling Timing of Debates children to get a healthy start in life and parents to ensure that children get into good eating and exercise 11.38 am habits. Moved By Lord Strathclyde That the debate on the Motion in the name of Baroness Barker: My Lords, the Dr Foster report Lord Howell of Guildford set down for today shall identifies those hospitals which have a high level of be limited to three hours and that in the name of inappropriate referrals of older people. Will the Lord Popat to two hours. department do further research in those areas to see whether there is a correlation between out-of-hours Motion agreed. GP services, and the work that they do, and a high level of inappropriate referrals of older people to Scotland Act 1998 (Modification of acute hospitals? Schedule 5) (No. 2) Order 2013 Earl Howe: My Lords, it is questions of that kind Public Bodies (Water Supply and Water that we expect the clinical commissioning groups to Quality Fees) Order 2012 examine because they will become responsible for Motions to Refer to Grand Committee out-of-hours primary care. Therefore, it is incumbent on them to ensure that that service is not only a good 11.39 am one but does not lead to unwanted consequences in Moved By Lord Strathclyde terms of unplanned admissions to hospital. That the draft orders be referred to a Grand Committee. Lord Tomlinson: My Lords, does the Minister accept that his usual clarity has deserted him somewhat today Motions agreed. as he has indicated that money which is underspent is returned to the Treasury but on the other hand he has Foreign Affairs: Global Role, Emerging said that it is not lost to the National Health Service? Powers and New Markets Does he agree that this gives a completely new meaning Motion to Take Note to double-entry bookkeeping? 11.39 am Earl Howe: I shall be happy to write to the noble Moved By Lord Howell of Guildford Lord to explain why my answers have been absolutely That this House takes note of the United Kingdom’s correct and the situation that I have described is new global role, emerging powers and new markets nothing new. However, we are in a new situation in the sense that it appears that the supplementary questions Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, it is an honour can be extended at will over any other Question on the to open this debate, and I am particularly delighted Order Paper, but I am happy to take questions from that our energetic Trade Minister, my noble friend the noble Lord at any time. Lord Green, will respond to it. 757 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 758

[LORD HOWELL OF GUILDFORD] first took office. By soft power, I do not mean just the After 11 years of dealing with foreign affairs issues British Council and the BBC World Service, although from the Front Bench in this House, and the past they are of course extremely important. I mean the two-and-a-half years as Minister, this is my first chance whole network of relationships that we luckily possess, to thank your Lordships most warmly and properly but hopelessly underuse, with the Commonwealth for tolerating so generously my often inadequate and, countries, which now contain many of the world’s I fear, repetitious answers to your Lordships’ penetrating fastest-growing states. Foreign direct investment into questions. In fact, my wife claims that more than once the Commonwealth nations, which cover a third of she has heard me murmuring in my sleep and sitting the world’s population, has quadrupled in the past up in bed, saying, “We are deeply disturbed by the decade. deteriorating situation in Wonderland. We urge all More than that, several of them are generating the parties to enter into constructive dialogue”. However, sovereign wealth fund that we need to finance our own that period is past and I would now like to use my time infrastructure improvements. That is a complete reversal to put forward a few propositions about our situation of what we were taught in our school books and what in this nation, which I hope will gain your Lordships’ history tells us—that we provided the capital to the support. developing world. It is now the other way round. My first proposition is that in the past few years, Many of the access links that we have into the the international landscape has totally and utterly Commonwealth network—which, incidentally, in turn changed. Huge new markets have emerged, and new provides a gateway to even bigger markets beyond—lie economic powers and new centres of political power below and outside government-to-government relations. have arisen. The ongoing task has been to reposition By that I mean not just a common language but an Britain in this transformed milieu. It is in these new amazing criss-crossed web and flow of common practices markets that our economic destiny lies—and I was and standards in everything from the law and judicial very glad to have a small part in helping this repositioning administration to accountancy, medicine, education, process. Of course, in this new scene are some familiar the arts, architecture, museums, science, chartered old elements. The United States remains our close ally, surveying, local government systems, school links and, although possibly more as a partner than as a leader of course, growing business flows between Commonwealth and lone superpower. Europe remains our location, in countries. which we must find a settled position in a reformed I think that there is a great longing in this country, and modernised European Union. We will be debating as in other leading Commonwealth countries such as that more fully in 10 days’ time, although it will no Australia and Canada, as well as in the smaller island doubt come up in this debate. states, especially in the Caribbean, to make much Meanwhile, most of the world’s economic growth more of these common Commonwealth soft-power in the next decade will be outside the West and the links. At one stage, I called this the “necessary network” north Atlantic area, with the exception of the very of the 21st century, by which I meant that it was dynamic Canada, which I have just visited. I do not necessary for such a thing to emerge in the new internet want to exaggerate the shift to Asia and Africa, which age. I am very grateful to my right honourable friend a lot of people talk about. Most of the emerging the Secretary of State for giving me the chance to powers, while growing at envy-making rates, are of contribute to its strengthening and development. Of course starting from extremely low levels. While sections course, it is not the only route into the emerging of the Chinese population, particularly in the coastal markets but it is certainly one which ought to give us a cities, are as rich as anywhere in Europe, the average major advantage, as our competitors keep enviously per capita income in China is still less than $5,000—miles noting from time to time. behind the comparable figures of $48,000 dollars in My third contention is that here at home we have to America and $38,000 here. A lot of the fashionable adjust our institutions and practices to these new talk about the so-called BRICs is highly misleading, conditions still further. For a start, we have to upgrade because Russia and Brazil have little in common with our trade and export machinery. Later this evening, India and China, or South Africa. Anyway, a new your Lordships will hear from my noble friend Lord wave of fast-growing economies is overtaking them— Heseltine on his proposals for reform in this area. He countries such as Mexico, Turkey, Korea, Vietnam, points out—and I strongly agree—that we need a far Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan stronger system of chambers of commerce in this and the Caspian powers, and a new wave of African country with enhanced legal status as a basis for a far states whose prospects have been immeasurably enriched stronger overseas impact, particularly for small and by the third energy revolution now unfolding, due to medium-sized businesses. The typical German chamber horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The UK of commerce has 30,000 members; our biggest ones must adjust if we are to survive, let alone prosper. have 5,000. The German branch chamber in India Most of this was obvious anyway 20 years ago, but the has 6,000 contacts; we, as the report of my noble commentariat, having been pathetically slow to grasp friend Lord Heseltine says, have no chamber in India what was happening, has now just about cottoned on. at all. As for Whitehall adjustment, I can testify to Better late than never, I suppose. your Lordships that the Foreign and Commonwealth My second contention is that these new markets are Office is a fine machine, where, for me, it was a going to be conquered by, as much as anything, privilege to work and where there have recently been networking and soft power, as my right honourable great changes. However, it, too, needs to move further friend the Secretary of State, William Hague, has forward. I think it is wrong that our Commonwealth repeatedly reminded us in his speeches from when he connections, which are so vital to us, are bundled in 759 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 760 with other international institutions in the Foreign My fifth and final point is that the latest energy and Commonwealth Office. There should be a separate revolution, driven by already mentioned shale technologies Commonwealth division and, of course, a separate and the approaching self-sufficiency in gas of the US Minister, as there used to be. leading to it becoming an exporter before long, looks set to bring benefits all around the world and A month ago in New York, Commonwealth Foreign the prospect of enrichment to a stream of countries Ministers signed a kind of new Magna Carta—I call it from Ukraine to Indonesia, Poland, Greece, Mozambique a “Maxima Carta”—reasserting the commitment of and Tanzania—both Commonwealth states—and member nations to human rights, the rule of law and even to Argentina and Japan, which has found some democratic principles in all their varied and developing shale gas offshore. In short, vast new energy-related forms. It is a new type of commitment in the internet markets are opening up, all of which we can help and cyber age. I believe that this charter, once endorsed develop with our own immense oil and North Sea gas by Heads of State, should be validated in both Houses experience. We are uniquely well placed as a good of Parliament. I shall certainly do my best to see that customer for gas supplies, both piped and shipped. the values in this new charter thrive and are reflected Norway wants to sell us much more. Russia would like in practical actions and pressures by and on the to pipe gas directly to us, although we have to be Commonwealth nations—all 54 of them—as well as careful about the volumes. Numerous new suppliers of on those aspiring other states, of which, interestingly, frozen LNG lie ahead all round the world in addition there are quite a few, which want to join the new to the ones we have already. We also have our own Commonwealth. For them, the magnet equation—the North Sea supply which is by no means finished, quite obvious beckoning, if you like—is that the Commonwealth aside from whether we decide to develop our own badge equals, and leads to, jobs, investment and prosperity, onshore shale gas. and that is increasingly obvious. All this gives us a valuable stepping stone to low Finally on the institutional front, dare I suggest carbon—gas being cleaner than coal in CO2 terms—as that your Lordships’ House might do a bit of adjustment well as a path to lower and not higher energy bills, as well? There are huge new areas on the international which we need to compete, more competitive industries scene which the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, and exports, and therefore more jobs. As we were which I had the privilege of chairing for 10 years, does reminded in yesterday’s Autumn Statement, we cannot not have the time either to get round to or to follow up. afford to be left behind and ignore tumbling energy I have in mind aspects such as the rise of Chinese costs and rising competitiveness the other side of the investment and political activity across the globe, especially Atlantic. In the long run, nuclear power and, we hope, around the Indian Ocean, or the detailed reinforcement cheaper renewables are the only ways to decarbonisation or latticework of Commonwealth connections, which and improving on the weakness of the present low-carbon I have already referred to and on which the Foreign strategies, which are not working very well, plus vastly Affairs Committee in the Commons has just reported. increased energy efficiency. Japan’s and Hitachi’s support We badly need an international affairs committee in for our own nuclear programme is very welcome but your Lordships’ House to make our contribution to we can also play a global role in new nuclear-power this new scene effectively. building, working, for example, with South Korea, My fourth contention is that a new international which I have just visited and which is tooling up to pattern has also led to and created a new Middle East. build a string of new nuclear stations round the world. Regional powers such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and It is already building one of the world’s largest in the Egypt, if it can stabilise itself internally, and maybe UAE. eventually Iraq—the same—have arisen, are struggling Our nation is talented and it is innovative. In some to arise or are already playing a central role as new surprising areas we are doing increasingly well—for partners in addressing the intractable issues of the example, as part of the global motor manufacturing area, such as the Syrian horror, the continuing deadlock supply chain. Our exports to the growth economies on the Middle East peace plan, the Islamic civil war have doubled in the past two and a half years. But raging across the whole area and how to contain Iran. overall, frankly, we are not doing well enough. Europe A point much missed is that the bulk of hydrocarbons is our neighbourhood, with which we must work and exports from the Middle East and the Gulf in fact go make the single market prosper; America is our ally east to the rising powers of Asia, not to the West at all. and our friend; but the Commonwealth is our family This means that China, Japan and others in the Asian- and where our best economic hope lies. I conclude that Pacific area have just as much of a stake in preventing we should spend more time with our family. Middle East chaos as have the western powers, perhaps even more so. They will have to be involved constructively 11.55 am in seeing that the whole Arab spring does not turn sour or spread further instability, and in ensuring that Lord Anderson of Swansea: My Lords, I begin by Iran is diverted from its mad nuclear path. Their formally proposing the noble Lord as chairman of the interests are at stake just as much as those of the West, possible international affairs committee. I had the and we need to remember that. privilege of following him as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I have enormous respect for him Energy factors are playing a huge part in transforming and the work that he did on the Front Bench, when he the Middle East and global politics. The Levant basin, was always courteous and on top of the subject. He with trillions of cubic metres of gas, is promising always answered questions, which is not always the Israel a new energy resource and it may yet benefit case with those on the Front Bench. I fondly welcome Cyprus and even hard-pressed Lebanon as well. him to the Back Benches. 761 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 762

[LORD ANDERSON OF SWANSEA] An audit of relations with the EU has been ordered Lest this should appear to be an obituary, I detected by the Foreign Secretary in an effort to placate anti- at least one blind spot in the noble Lord’s analysis, on Europeans. I understand that the Foreign Office recently which I shall focus. I agree with him that we need to met Professor Sejersted of Norway to discuss the seek markets for our goods and services worldwide methodology and conclusions of his similar audit in and to be ever ready to respond to global trends. Norway. He concluded that Norway’s relationship However, I stress that our core area is our own region amounted to integration without representation—hardly here in Europe, which accounts for 50% of our trade. a model for others. It is manifestly not a case of either/or. Recent surveys Of course the EU may now develop a tighter inner predict a slower growth of our exports into the European core. We are likely to find ourselves, albeit with variable market. Clearly the dominance of the City of London— geometry, on the exterior. However, our policies seem which can, I hope, look after itself—has recently been designed to lose good friends such as Poland. Surely challenged by the governor of the Bank of France, the Government should recognise that to leave the EU which is the penalty of our choosing to be outside the or to seek unrealistic objectives would be a major blow euro. Of course we need to increase our exports to the to our trade, not only with the EU but with third BRICs and elsewhere but there is evidence of slower countries. I cite the recent reply in the European growth in those markets. For example, the projected Parliament given by Commissioner De Gucht, who said: growth for Brazil this year is just under 1%; the “The Commission takes the view that if a Member State were projection for India in the financial year 2012-13 is to leave the European Union it would no longer benefit from 5.5%—the lowest for a decade; and in the third quarter, preferential arrangements included in EU trade agreements. In growth in Russia fell to 2.9% and in China to 7.4%. such circumstances, a Member State would not be subject to the Our starting point is surely the wisdom of the Union’s common commercial policy and could no longer benefit from agreements negotiated on that basis. Moreover, a third Oracle at Delphi: know thyself. We need a realistic, not country offers concessions to the EU on a reciprocal basis, a nostalgic, analysis of our strengths and weaknesses expecting market access to the Union as a whole. Third countries and the global environment in which we trade—know would be unlikely to offer as generous concessions to a Member thyself. Of course, as the noble Lord said, we emerged State which has activated Article 50 that could only offer access to with many advantages from our history, not least of its own market”. which is the English language, our centres of excellence, We should quite properly look at a free trade agreement our military, our diplomacy and our universities. However, with the US. There will be better prospects for that the Government should be worried about the self-imposed after the likely failure of the Doha round. We should threat to our economic prospects posed by the sharp remember that it is the European Union which will decline in student applications from India. negotiate on our behalf as I hope we move step by step Our history has made us members of key international towards a free trade agreement. If any state were to organisations: the UN Security Council, NATO, the leave the European Union, it would lose bargaining EU and the Commonwealth. The last, in my judgment, power and would receive less generous concessions is surely the blind spot of the noble Lord’s presentation. from third parties. I consider myself a Commonwealth man, having chaired My conclusion is that we should seek to boost trade the UK branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary throughout the world, both in the Commonwealth Association for four years, but I do not recognise the and elsewhere. In the debate on the future of the EU picture painted by the noble Lord. Recent CHOGMs we have natural allies, but currently the Government have raised hopes of deep institutional change, but seem to be doing their best to irritate them. Even very Commonwealth institutions are now in some considerable strong Anglophiles such as Mario Monti publicly disarray.Successive Governments in the UK have worked state their exasperation and despair at UK policies. He hard to develop relations with India, a key emerging says, in effect: “Make up your minds. Do not marginalise market. Frankly, however, India has little interest in yourselves by your actions, which will make planning the Commonwealth and is very hard-nosed on commercial more difficult for us”. In short, we should know matters, as we have seen on the Typhoon purchase. ourselves and avoid ideological illusions. In a lecture on 19 June 2007, the then Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, gently but effectively 12.03 pm undermined much of the thesis of the noble Lord. I certainly do not accuse the noble Lord of this, but Lord Alderdice: My Lords, I, too, thank my noble some in his party use Commonwealth enthusiasm as a friend for securing this debate, and for the great service cover for their anti-Europeanism. The Commonwealth that he gave to your Lordships’House, to the Government that they favour is mainly the old dominions. That and to the country during his time in government. His leads to symbolic and often silly gestures such as the answers were always thoughtful and conscientious. recent agreement on the co-location of embassies with They were a service to your Lordships’ House and we Canada at a time when our foreign policy formulation all appreciated them. He continues that service not is increasingly based on close working relationships only by securing this debate but by pointing us to the with our European partners. This is on a par with the kind of strategic thinking to which your Lordships’ threat by former Defence Secretary Liam Fox to leave House is particularly suited. I am privileged to participate the European Defence Agency, with its pooling and in the debate and to follow him and the noble Lord, sharing—happily, the Government now appear to be Lord Anderson. rethinking this—as well as with the severing of relations My noble friend pointed to the fact that we are with their natural allies in Europe, the European People’s experiencing an extraordinary period of global change. Party. We discussed this briefly in a debate earlier this week. 763 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 764

He is absolutely right. The enormity of the change has to have access to commodities. If we look around, scarcely been understood, partly because the implications though, the evidence shows that mere population size, are so great that people are panicking in their response market size or access to commodities do not by themselves to it rather than thinking reflectively.This is an opportunity provide power, influence and significance. forustodoso. Last night I listened to a Member of your Lordships’ We are moving into a series of centenaries over House, as I know some other colleagues did, talking the next few years, including the centenary of the about how size mattered. Of course that is true, but it commencement of the First World War. The changes is not the only thing that matters and it is not even the that we are undergoing now, while of a very different decisive thing. Many countries are much larger in type, are of a similar order to those that took place in population and in geographical terms than this country, the early part of the previous century, where empires and have greater access to resources that this country. that had been profoundly significant and powerful The continent of Africa has an extraordinary resource subsequently dribbled away over a period of years. base, but that has not made it politically powerful, Indeed, the role, power and significance of our own significant or a leading place. country in that regard, moving from being the centre It seems to me that it is much more about our of the largest empire that the world had ever seen, culture. I do not mean the expressions of our culture which is still the case, gradually found that empire in terms of art, drama and so forth, although they are being unzipped over a period of years. Some of us in important, but the way of being that we have as a Ireland think that that started with the partition of country and a community. I mean the values, principles, Ireland. the things that drive us and give us a sense of confidence, During that period there was a great struggle for our history and background, our language, our our country to come to understand what its new educational system and the way that we encourage our possibilities and opportunities were. Many other countries young people to think for themselves and search out that in the past had been the centre of great empires the truth of the way that things are, rather than merely simply had a long period of subsequent decline over totting up the number of degrees that happen to be many decades, and sometimes centuries. Some people passed at universities. have taken a similar view in respect of the United That culture is something that is appreciated by Kingdom, which is misguided and unnecessary. I will every other country in the world when they look at us. explain why. We did not become powerful in the past because of During that first period of time there was the size but because we looked at what we needed to do in remarkable development of the Commonwealth. That the context of the time. Now we have a new context so many countries that had been colonies wanted to and we can play a significant role. Just look at how remain in relationship with United Kingdom is remarkable well we did with the Olympic Games—not only in and largely unprecedented—I will come on to talk organising them but in competing in them—not because about the Francophonie later. My noble friend has we were big but because we focused and had confidence. referred to this extraordinary development, and perhaps We should be able to have that confidence because this we could have made rather more of it over the years. country is not frightened by a global world. It does not feel intimidated by the fact that we have to have Then we came to the period after the Second World relationships, not just in our local area in the European War and the European Union moved into the field. It Union, but right across the world. That is what we was a peace process; it was an attempt to ensure that have always done, not just in trading but in relationships. Europe did not again return to the terrible disasters of Our language is a global language. the First and Second World Wars. Now, though, we have a generation arising—my generation and certainly As we look to the future, we should not be saying to those coming after me—who do not really think of the our young people, “Let’s look at the inevitable decline European Union in that way. They think of it in of our country”, but rather saying with confidence, economic and political terms. Indeed, most of the “Let us look at what we and our country can contribute political leaders of Europe do not see the European in a leading way to our new world order”. Union in terms of ensuring that there is no war: they see it as a platform for themselves, their parties and 12.11 pm their countries to play a global role. Lord Thomas of Swynnerton: My Lords, I, too, That is a serious mistake. I do not think that that is express my regret at the passing of the noble Lord, what the population of the European Union think is Lord Howell of Guildford, who has given a good the function of the European Union. The population example to us all; of passing from power, that is to say. do not particularly want to rival China, the United I think I first met him 50 years ago in Washington at States and other powers; they want to get on with the time of the missile crisis. I cannot now remember having a productive, peaceful, stable and prosperous whether it was before or after 13 October, but it was life. That is what our people want. certainly at that time. That has led to disenchantment—a big split between I sometimes think that we would all be served if the the elite of Europe and its populations. It is not what Government were obliged to make an annual statement the European Union was for or about. Instead, our on foreign policy, along the lines of the command world has begun to change further, with extraordinary papers characterising our defence, which for many developments in technology. There are some who think years we looked forward to receiving. The Foreign that the key things for us to aim for are size—to be Office would have to consider carefully exactly what it part of somewhere that is big—and resources—that is, was doing and why. The statement would point out, 765 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 766

[LORD THOMAS OF SWYNNERTON] Sixthly, we should recall—and not be shy about perhaps, that Britain’s foreign policy is the experience it—that our literature is overall our greatest export, of someone who has membership of about six clubs. especially, I think, our poetry. Once the governor of No other country in the world, not even France, has Oaxaca in Mexico asked for my approval in advance such a diversity of loyalty. for a speech that he was about to make at a lunch in We are members of the UN and of course of the honour of the noble Lord, Lord Carrington. The Security Council. We are the essential brooch in the governor wanted to say, “We admire England for two chain of the Commonwealth countries. We are a member reasons: Portland Cement and John Milton”. “Yes,” I of NATO, whose charter was drafted by British public said, “but put it the other way around”. “You are servants. Fourthly, we are a member—if now a rather right,” said the governor, and he did so. reluctant member in many cases—of the European Union, which promises to turn eventually into something like a federal state; a new Holy Roman Empire. As the 12.16 pm noble Lord, Lord Owen, pointed out in a fine speech The Lord Bishop of Worcester: My Lords, I am in October, that likely development demands careful grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, consideration as to our right course by both sceptics for securing this debate. I will concentrate my remarks and by enthusiasts such as myself. Fifthly, we have on an aspect of Britain’s role in the emerging world separate, deep friendships with a number of countries: order, which I believe to be extremely important. the United States of course, France, Portugal and In July, the Foreign Office Minister, Jeremy Browne, many countries of Latin America, which very often gave a speech to Chatham House on how Britain glow with enthusiasm at the thought of us, because of should respond to the rise of emerging powers. He the assistance we gave them during the 19th century. It spoke powerfully about what had enabled Britain to is true that we fought Argentina in the late 20th century, become great, pointing out how remarkable it is that a but it remains in most people’s minds as: nation with less than 1% of the world’s population “The purple land that England lost”, should have such continuing influence. What was implied in the words of the great writer WH Hudson. That we in his speech but was not articulated is that it is not have to balance so many commitments partly explains just our wealth that has made us great in the past; it is our occasional difficulties. There are moments when our values, as the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, has that balance seems impossible, such as when Mr Blair reminded us. In looking to the future, it is important, decided to support the United States in the war in it seems to me, that we should of course look towards Iraq. becoming more effective in our trade and have an eye to our prosperity. However, we should not neglect that We know that our membership of all these great other side of what made this country great. clubs assists us in selling our products but there is one aim in foreign policy that is probably more important The noble Lord, Lord Sacks, has written that we than anything else, as the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, have at our disposal a resource of unparalleled power has pointed out on several occasions. That is to control with which to confront the problems of a new age, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons and, if we fail to that resource, neither mysterious nor difficult to secure that, at least ensure that they are not used. understand, is morality—specifically, the Judaeo-Christian What we are currently seeing in respect of the civil tradition. That is not to underestimate the importance war in Syria perhaps gives some lessons as to how of other faiths, but it is to say that the values that we should conduct ourselves. The use of nuclear, derive from the Judaeo-Christian tradition are the not chemical, weapons—horrible though the latter bedrock on which our wonderful culture is built. At undoubtedly are also—would lead to a catastrophe of the centre of that tradition is the belief that all are unprecedented dimensions, and there is no more important created equal in the image of God, with inherent aim facing humanity than to prevent such a thing at dignity and infinite worth. That tenet, I suggest, should all costs. continue to be at the centre of what informs our actions on the world stage. A third preoccupation, naturally, is to prevent local problems such as might occur at any time in the near We live in a world of unprecedented wealth, and East or Middle East from becoming a war that could yet, despite all our technological advances and the draw us in, either by the extension of terrorism or by vast resources at our disposal, the scourge of extreme some ramification of it. poverty remains humanity’s most pressing challenge. Today 1.4 billion people suffer from the injustice of Fourthly, we should promote the emulation of our extreme poverty. During the course of this year I have democratic political system, as opposed to the oriental visited diocesan links in Peru and Tanzania and met despotism that still characterises so much of Asia and just a few of those suffering terribly. I witnessed, too, Africa, although the experience of Germany in 1933 the magnificent work of the Anglican Church to address shows that the rule of law is just as important as the their suffering. Poverty robs people of their dignity right to vote. and denies them access to their rights of shelter, food, Fifthly, we should tell the world that the only healthcare, education, safety and a life of fulfilment. It economic system that works well, in our opinion, is renders them powerless, unrepresented, oppressed and one where the state leaves a lot of economics to itself. vulnerable to harm and abuse. In his excellent book That is what Hernando de Soto, the brilliant Peruvian, Good Value the noble Lord, Lord Green, has reminded preaches in his famous book, The Other Path,aswell us that as long as we are involved in injustice, exclusion as what was done by the noble Baroness, Lady Thatcher, and exploitation we are under judgment. I am delighted all her life. that the Chancellor yesterday recommitted Her Majesty’s 767 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 768

Government to the 0.7% proportion of GDP to be rich world, as well as in the poor world. Only if we do directed towards aid, but for the sake of the poor we so will we continue to have that soft power—that need to address the following key challenges as well. moral authority—for which this country is rightly First, we need to listen to the voice of the poor. As celebrated. economic and political power shifts from the US and Europe to the nations of the east and south, and as the 12.25 pm shift in power from the G8 to the G20 goes on, it Baroness Morris of Bolton: My Lords, with the represents a broadening and diffusion of power. The fast-moving world of political and economic change addition of South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and India to in which we live, there is a great need for the United the G20, in theory at least, brings the voices of millions Kingdom’s experience, not least our well developed of the poorest to the table. While there remain serious soft powers, as my noble friend Lord Howell so powerfully questions about the legitimacy of such self-appointed observed. Soft power was the subject of an excellent bodies, I suggest that the UK should look to exploit debate in your Lordships’ House last year, led by my the opportunities of new political and economic footballing friend, the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of configurations to champion a pro-poor discourse in Bolton, and answered by my noble friend Lord Howell new global interactions, identifying progressive allies of Guildford. Then, as today, my noble friend Lord and seeking greater inclusion of the voices of the poor. Howell demonstrated why he is such an effective advocate Secondly, there is inequality. Almost all societies of the role the UK must play in an ever more complex are becoming much more unequal as the world economy and competitive world. I, too, thank him for all he has expands. Simplistic talk of the rich north and the poor done in the service of this House and our country and, south no longer makes any kind of sense. The majority in particular, for this important debate today. of people living in poverty today are in middle-income It is clearly true, to pick up on the point made by countries such as Brazil and India; it is in such countries my noble friend Lord Alderdice and the right reverend that we are also seeing the greatest increase in inequality. Prelate the Bishop of Worcester on size, that as a As we confront the new age, we should confront also country, we punch above our weight across a range of long-standing forms of inequality and discrimination diverse areas—from language and education to culture that continue to blight the lives and opportunities of and arts. As has already been mentioned, the roles of billions. the BBC World Service, the British Council and other Thirdly, there is caring for the environment. With organisations are rightly credited for the part they play the World Bank predicting progress towards more in our international prominence. than 3 degrees of global warming on current global This soft power, however, is becoming increasingly policy, levels of climate unpredictability, constraints hard in its impact. The continuing growth of English on water resources and increased extreme weather are as an international language has not only cultural inevitable and, significance but real value for British companies. The “tilted against many of the world’s poorest regions”. standing of British universities in the top rank of worldwide higher education league tables and their At the centre of what we do should be an argument for excellence in research and teaching have real value that and an insistence upon sustainability, resilience to can provide competitive advantage to British companies. climate change and fair rights over resources. Those I declare an interest as chancellor of the University of things should underpin our nation’s engagement in Bolton, which is one of the world’s leaders in teaching global affairs. and research in advanced materials. In fact, if you fly Fourthly, we need to pay attention to the effects of anywhere in the world on any aircraft that has a seat global connectivity. That can create new and wonderful made of cloth, the fire-retardant property of that opportunities for people all around the world but it cloth is the intellectual property of the University of can also squeeze cultural diversity, with an individualistic Bolton. consumer ethic taking the place of traditional collective The global popularity of our culture and the arts values. Many of these changes potentially threaten the has a realisable value. British films are now not only ability of vulnerable communities to claim their rights critical and artistic successes but worldwide commercial while, at the same time, many can be exploited to help successes as well, as we have seen from the latest James in the battle against poverty. Technology is transforming Bond film, “Skyfall”. In another branch of entertainment, the way we interact, trade, create communities and another quintessentially British product—“Doctor Who”, build political movements. Geography matters less; which is 50 years old next year—has become a growing online access more. We need to pay attention to the commercial success for the BBC. It has been sold serious divide opening up between digital haves and around the world and last year topped the American digital have-nots. iTunes chart for the most downloaded TV series. All global actors are seeking to adapt to this changing Our heritage, rich countryside, diverse cities and environment but we are very well placed to do so by unique visitor attractions, including the one that virtue of our traditions and culture, and the values accommodates your Lordships’House, are iconic symbols that underpin them. The continued impact of the of Britishness that draw in visitors who contribute to a UK’s development co-operation will rely on tackling tourist economy worth more than £100 billion a year. the above challenges and seizing the opportunities In seeking to illustrate the monetary value of these presented. Success will depend on building a wide things, some may think I am fulfilling Oscar Wilde’s range of partnerships that have the leverage to make a definition of a cynic. The point I am making, however, major impact on the scandal of mass poverty in the is this: the things that make the UK such a great place 769 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 770

[BARONESS MORRIS OF BOLTON] centre of economic and political power is increasingly to live and to visit are also the things that help us moving to Asia, in particular to south-east Asia and strengthen our international role and take advantage China. That is a terrific challenge which we must meet. of new markets. He was also right to emphasise, as he always does, I was honoured last month, along with other interdependence. I always put it that the first reality of parliamentarians from across the political divide, to life is that we are born into a situation in which we are be appointed one of the Prime Minister’s trade envoys. totally interdependent with people right across the My responsibilities are Jordan, Kuwait and the Palestinian world. As I have said before and will say again, I am territories—countries with which we have strong links convinced that we as a generation of politicians will be and long-standing friendships but where the changes judged by history by the success we make of belonging they are undergoing present great opportunities for to that international community, contributing to its British businesses. I am looking forward greatly to strength and understanding the challenges of being working with my noble friends Lord Green and Lord part of an international community. Neurotic insularity Marland, UKTI and the Foreign and Commonwealth will do us no service whatever. We must engage and we Office to help promote the UK and our commercial must belong, and by being seen to engage and to sector. belong, we will bring our influence to bear. Of course we want efficiency and cost-effectiveness in all the I also see it as our job, however, to promote the institutions, not just in Europe, but in the UN and virtues of trade itself. Promoting trade is a British elsewhere, but we bring greatest influence in achieving tradition. As an island nation, our prosperity and that if we cannot be questioned in our commitment to global influence were built on commerce and exploration. international co-operation and in our belonging to That prosperity has never been limited just to us. those institutions. The trouble is that we too often play Opening up economic relations benefits both sides of to a short-term populist gallery in trying to suggest the transaction; many countries have benefitted hugely that somehow we are battling for little England—little from opening themselves up to new markets. Free “England”, too, very often—against the real awful trade also serves as one of the most effective ways to world out there instead of realising that it is by making build trust and co-operation between countries and a success of international work that we will look to the underpins the development of civilised, peaceful relations long-term interests of the British people. I thank the between them. Since markets require fairness and the noble Lord for having introduced this theme and I rule of law to function properly, the existence of apologise if I have expanded it a little emotionally in a significant trading relationships provides a powerful way that he might not have done. incentive to root out corruption. The pacifying and benevolent effects of trade have been espoused by I know the Commonwealth is dear to the heart of many in this Chamber and in the other place over the the noble Lord, Lord Howell, and it has a part to play. past two centuries, with the anti-protectionist Richard It is a family in the best sense. It has evolved. When it Cobden among the most prominent. He once observed: meets, it is usually a meeting of friends, but in this “The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance context my noble friend Lord Anderson is right that of peace and the spread of commerce and the diffusion of we have to face up to the fact that the Commonwealth education than upon the labour of Cabinets or Foreign Offices”. has been overtaken in a lot of the real cut and thrust of In truth, the efforts of government should advance making a success of international relations and global those aims and in doing so, we can make a lasting security. difference, securing the benefits we all want to see for I always listen with fascination to the noble Lord, British companies while supporting the development Lord Alderdice. He is right to have reminded us of the of peace and good will with and between our friends value of the underlying psychological dimensions of overseas. our part in the world. They are crucial. We have to face the fact that when you have been an imperial power, it is difficult to adjust. We have to play the 12.30 pm game of influence. It is no good playing a power game. Lord Judd: I join noble Lords who have paid tribute Our game is a game of influence, and that relates to to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, not only for having my point about being seen to belong and to engage. introduced this debate so well but for the terrific This affects the work of the Foreign Office. I am contribution he has made on international relations getting a bit worried that when I go anywhere, one of throughout his political life. Forty years ago, I was the first things in an introductory talk from the working with him and with young politicians from the ambassador or the high commissioner is a long, rather United States on facing up to the issues that then defensive speech about all they are doing on trade. In faced us in the global context, particularly the fears the economic realities we face, trade is, of course, vital about Africa and the Middle East. I formed a very and our missions have a part to play on trade, but in high regard for the noble Lord, Lord Howell, which this highly complex world, we should not throw away has stayed throughout my political career. There have the baby with the bath water. We need expertise, been big differences between us, irreconcilable differences insight and analysis to understand the situation in sometimes, but there has always been respect for his which we are operating and advice to inform the wisdom and his approach. quality of our decision-making. Sometimes it may get The noble Lord, Lord Howell, was right to start by a bit marginalised in the constant pressure to put trade challenging us to face up to the realities of change first. It is not either/or. We must treasure that traditional over recent years and the situation that we now face. role of the Foreign Office and make sure that it is He is right that one of the biggest challenges is that the nurtured. 771 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 772

I feel strongly that soft diplomacy, as it is sometimes recognise that mankind does not change entirely. The called, is crucial. That is where we cannot emphasise political situation may change but the impulse to use often enough the role of the BBC and its Overseas force to promote a country’s interests is still a danger. Service. We must not let that become diluted. When In my humble judgment this country has a global role, changes take place, I sometime worry. The quality of which can best be exercised by playing a constructive news in this country is improving because we are part in the work of the European Union. That was getting more international input into ordinary news manifestly missing in the World Trade Organisation broadcasts. That is good for British people to understand discussions at Doha and the climate change discussions the issues, but it must not be at the expense of the in Copenhagen. I believe that we did not act as a union expertise, depth of knowledge and analysis that used on those two occasions, and as a result we have seen to be in the old Overseas Services. Sometimes what we great delay and inadequate responses to these very big are beaming to a country with a very small audience challenges. may have disproportionate significance because that We also have a second role to promote the values small audience will be crucial in the future building of that this country holds and which it has translated that country and its stability and well-being. We have into a way of life. In that respect, we should particularly to keep that role of the BBC in mind. regard our history of adherence to public international I have time for two more observations. First, in our law as something of which to be proud. I was somewhat debates about universities and overseas students, I get dismayed the other day when the noble Baroness, exasperated at the way we talk about them in terms of Lady Warsi, would not disclose her view about the what they mean to the British economy now and in the public international law situation with respect to a future. What matters is the quality they bring to the pre-emptive strike against Iran. If we are to expect higher education experience. I do not understand how others to follow the rule of international law, we must you can have a relevant, world-class university if it is animadvert to it in the context of international disputes. not a thriving, vibrating international community. You Our other attractive values, mentioned a great deal need that international mix in the quality of the education in this debate, include education, the development of that is taking place. That matters in every discipline. science and technology and our adherence to human We have not been taking that point seriously enough. rights. I must say again that I find it appalling that The other issues are, of course, very important—I there has not been an instinctive positive response to declare an interest as someone involved in education—but the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights that essence is the crucial quality. on the right of prisoners to vote in our elections. If Finally, as we go into the year ahead, we should all prison is to be seen as a reformatory, being instructed make a resolution that we are going to lead the country in citizenship and the purpose of voting must be in understanding interdependence and in determining helpful to that end. that this country is to be second to none in constructive We have had remarkable cultural achievements, internationalism instead of insularity. and many in our country have recognised this, in promoting our wide global view of culture. The British 12.38 pm Council is probably a more effective organisation in Lord Maclennan of Rogart: My Lords, it is a privilege promoting Britain’s interests than those who control to follow the noble Lord, Lord Judd, with whose immigration. That is something that we should certainly views, not unusually, I find myself in complete agreement. build on. I would like to see the budget of the British I, too, express admiration and gratitude to the noble Council strengthened and increased. Lord, Lord Howell, for the work he has done over Our identity is clear, and is not put at risk by being decades in promoting international communication. members of European Union. It is now time that His wisdom has assisted this country. I do not entirely Members of Parliament and members of the Government agree with him in giving primacy to the Commonwealth began the task of explaining the crucial importance of in the time we are living in. the integration of the European Union and why that is My first experience of politics when I was elected to not inconsistent with our identity and with playing a the House of Commons was as the Parliamentary global role, and that indeed the two are absolutely tied Private Secretary to the last Commonwealth Secretary, to each other. Lord Thomson of Monifieth. Consequently, I am much more familiar with Commonwealth countries 12.46 pm than I might have been. The late Lord Thomson later became one of our first European Union commissioners. Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, at the outset, I apologise That was not in any sense a demotion. He was a most to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, as I was not in the enlightened man who promoted development within Chamber when he started this debate. It is such a pity the European Union and saw from the beginning that that he is no longer a Minister because he did such a Britain could play a more effective and powerful brilliant job at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office international role if we were closely integrated with and it is the Government’s loss and ours that he is no that body of countries that are not just neighbours but longer there. have shared our history through hundreds of years—a Just over six decades ago Britain had the largest history we should not forget. empire the world has ever known. Today, that empire I know that there is wisdom in my noble friend has gone and yet this tiny country of just 60 million Lord Alderdice’s view that the public are more aware people, making up not even 1% of the world’s population, of the present demands than they are of the history of is still one of the 10 largest economies in the world. It warfare. I do not dissent from that but we have to still sits at the top table of the world and still holds 773 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 774

[LORD BILIMORIA] because the potential of emerging markets is phenomenal great influence. All this is despite the dramatic rise and we are just scratching the surface. However, while over the past three decades of countries such as China, we talk about emerging markets, we must recognise and more recently India as an emerging global economic that our principal international partner will be, and superpower. There, at the other extreme, we have two always has been, the United States. It always will be countries that together make up one-third of humanity. one of the most powerful nations in the world and we Looking ahead, we will not be able to compete with have stood side by side for more than a century, and these countries head on. We can only compete on our that will not change. strengths, many of which are historic. We have amazing Partnering with countries means working together institutions in every field, whether it is in the City of not just on a business level but within our civil services, London, cultural institutions such as the British Academy the Armed Forces carrying out exercises together, and and the Royal Society of Arts or the traditions that are in research and development. I chaired the Cambridge part of this nation’s fabric. There are the traditions of University India Partnership Advisory Board and we our Armed Forces expressed through the esprit de are working more closely with India. The UK-India corps—which is amazing—and the traditions of the Education and Research Initiative has been so successful, Royal Family, shown so marvellously in Her Majesty’s with hundreds of research interactions between the Diamond Jubilee this year, and in the traditions of UK and India. We need to encourage this and to do a this Parliament and in our very Chamber here, which lot more of it. Importantly, to maintain our influence is the only self-regulating Chamber in the world. we must maintain our competitive edge. I do not think Then there are institutions such as Lloyd’s of London that we are investing anywhere near enough in research and our great universities, with Oxford and Cambridge and development. We invest a fraction of a country being more than 800 years old. The noble Baroness, such as the United States as a proportion of our GDP. Lady Morris, spoke about our creative industries. Our Most importantly, as a country, we must always be design firms are the best. The designer of Apple, the seen to be fair and just. Historically, as a nation, we most valuable company in the world, Sir Jonathan Ive, have never followed the herd. We have always led our is British. Our law firms are the best of the best, as are own way and done our own thing. Even in Europe, our courts and, although only 7% of our children where we are, whatever anyone says, one of the most attend them, our private schools are the best in the prominent members of the EU, we sensibly stayed out world. The BBC for all its recent problems is, as the of the euro. Despite everything that is going on, we are noble Lord, Lord Judd, said, a source of soft power, in still seen by many businesses around the world to be particular the World Service. the gateway to Europe. The noble Lord, Lord Howell, spoke powerfully Again, importantly, our role in the world will be about the Commonwealth. It is such a huge asset and based on respect and trust. We have to continue to we are at the centre of it. There is even the possibility earn that respect among nations today. Despite all our of a free trade zone within the Commonwealth, from economic woes, we need to be ahead of the game. We the tiny islands at one extreme to a 1 billion population need to be best friends and partners to countries such country such as India at the other. The Commonwealth as India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey, has done so much with so little money. Just imagine quite apart from our longstanding partners such as how much more it could do if it had a proper budget. the United States, which I have mentioned, Canada, Can the Minister say that he will encourage this to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. These emerging happen? markets cannot switch on in an instant, or even in a The City of London is still the world’s leading few decades, the competitive edge that this country financial centre. We still have a flexible and open has built up, as well as its institutions, over the centuries. economy that welcomes foreign investors such as the As the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, said, our foreign Tata Group. It is an economy where we will now have policy must be based on the confidence that we can a Canadian as the governor of our central bank. maintain this competitive edge with integrity through Despite the awful cuts that have been made to our mutual trust and respect. In that way, we will be able Armed Forces, where we temporarily lack aircraft to bring mutual benefit and security to our economies carriers and the number of our troops has fallen to as countries partner together. To conclude, our foreign critically low figures, we still have one of the highest policy, our global role and our global influence go levels of defence spending in absolute terms in the hand in hand with our competitiveness. We cannot world. We talk about soft power but soft power cannot have one without the other. exist without the hard power to back it up. In tourism, we have one of the most attractive 12.52 pm destinations in the world, with London being the Lord Bates: My Lords, it is a privilege to take part greatest of the world’s great cities despite our awful in this debate and I join many others in paying tribute weather, particularly this year. However, it dismays me to my noble friend Lord Howell for securing it. Many when we talk about trade. As founding chairman of years ago, I had to complete an essay question which the UK-India Business Council, I regularly speak to was to explain the difference between a politician and business audiences around the country and I ask them a statesman, and to give examples. I often think that how many of them do business with India. To this day, had I known the noble Lord at that point, my answer among hundreds of people, only a few hands go up. would have been so much better illustrated. Undoubtedly, I am delighted to hear that the Government have he is one of our great statesmen and it is a privilege to increased funding to UK Trade & Investment. We continue to hear him dispense his wisdom from the need constantly to encourage businesses to look abroad Back Benches. 775 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 776

Another thing I learnt from essays was that you are 7% of the land mass. Therefore, it is heavily dependent supposed to look at the question before answering it. I on importing commodities from around the world. note that the noble Lord has been very careful in That has led it to have a—some would say paranoid choosing the title for this debate. He has used the word but others would say very natural—national interest “new” twice and the word “emerging” once, thereby in developments around the energy rich waters of the suggesting that there is a passage from an old order, an South China Sea. Its defence budget is growing old world view, to something new. I very much share dramatically. It is already the second largest in the the view of my noble friend Lady Morris of Bolton world and will overtake the United States in another and the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, that in going into 20 years. that new world we should have great self-confidence However, our approach to China has often been and self-belief. characterised by a degree of suspicion and perhaps We are very much in a global race, as the Prime even a little distrust. When we look at some of the Minister illustrated and set out in his speech to the agreements that we have had, such as the transfer of CBI last month. I would contend that we are not so powers over Hong Kong, most people would recognise much in a single global race but that we are in a that those undertakings given in 1997 have largely number of global races for key markets and that we been honoured and adhered to. Hong Kong retains a are engaging with key powers. In my time today, I shall distinctive and vibrant economy and a large degree of focus on one of those new markets—China—and will autonomy. Of course it is right to raise human rights make the argument that we need to engage in some concerns but I would argue that that should be done in fresh, new thinking and to shift from an old paradigm proportion. view of Chinese conduct in the world to a new view. I How do we respond to China? We need to respond do so with some trepidation, knowing that one of the by recognising that there is a great market out there. foremost authorities on these matters, my noble friend When Wen Jiabao visited this country last year a Lord Green, will respond to the debate. I look forward target was set to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion to hearing his response. by 2015. When Wen Jiabao went on to visit Germany, The scale of the Chinese miracle has been well he and Chancellor Merkel announced that they were rehearsed but it bears repeating for a few moments. going to increase their trade to $284 billion. If we are First, China has not gone through a period of boom engaged in a global race, let us start racing with our and bust, as some countries have. In fact, it has friends in Germany to tap into that market in China. delivered 30 years of uninterrupted growth, averaging Yes, we are in a global race, but it is one not only with 10% per annum. When people talk about the Chinese China but also for China, so we need to engage in miracle perhaps beginning to slow, they are talking some fresh thinking. about it slowing to 7.5% per annum for the next The current policy document which underlies the decade. It is the second largest economy in the world. UK’s approach to China was published in January By the end of this decade, it will be the largest economy 2009 under the previous Government. Perhaps it is in the world. time that we looked at that again. When we approach What is more interesting is what China has used China and try to encourage it to take a new and that new wealth for. It has invested in infrastructure. constructive role as a major global superpower, let us Before 1988, it had no motorways whatever. By 2010, recognise that we need to engage with it not only with it had 74,000 kilometres of motorway. China has more a new policy but with a new mindset and, more kilometres of high-speed rail lines than the rest of importantly, with a new relationship. the world put together. In the three years that it has taken us to debate whether we should have another 1pm 200 kilometres of HS2 in this country to be completed by 2026, China has added 8,000 kilometres of high-speed Lord Parekh: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, rail lines. Sometimes, we need to have a little sense of Lord Howell of Guildford, for securing this debate. It humility as to what people are doing and how they are was really nice to see him shed the constraints of office going about it. and reflect creatively and independently on some of the larger issues of the world today. As he rightly Secondly, we should look at what China has done pointed out, the international landscape is undergoing for its people. It has lifted more people out of poverty profound changes. It is undergoing profound changes than any country in history. According to the World at a superficial level in the sense that there are more Bank, 600 million were lifted out of poverty between economic, political and military players than there 1981 and 2005. A new self-confident middle class is used to be—China, India, Brazil, possibly Indonesia emerging, the numbers of which are open to some and Turkey, and a few others. I would suggest that, debate but roughly settle around the figure of 200 million although this is an important change, it is not a people. There are 400 million internet users and 700 million decisive one. A really decisive change is taking place at mobile phone users in China. The Chinese savings rate a different level; not just increasing the number of is one of the highest in the world at 38%, compared to players in the game of international politics, but the 7% in this country. way in which the game is going to be played. In other China’s foreign currency reserves dwarf anything in words, the real change is taking place not simply in the world at $3 trillion. They are the largest in the terms of how many players there are, but how power is world and amount to three times those held by Japan. acquired and maintained and what is the nature of In that sense, China is keeping the global ship afloat. that power. I want to say something about it because China has 20% of the world’s population but only the subject has been largely neglected. 777 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 778

[LORD PAREKH] terms of acquiring the kind of moral authority that I All over the world there is a very profound change am talking about. We once had it, but we lost it—or at taking place in the sense that people are extremely least weakened it—partly because of the second war suspicious of the political class and the way it has on Iraq, partly because of the way we behaved in dominated and tried to monopolise political life. People Libya, saying one thing and misrepresenting what the want to make their own decisions and to assert themselves. UN resolution was about, and partly because of actions The Arab spring is only a tiny footnote to history; such as abstention in the recent United Nations vote there are lots of things like this, even in China. Through on the Palestinian demand for observer status. the Communist Party and through independent sources, If we really want to acquire moral authority and hundreds of protests are taking place every week in influence the way the world thinks about us we will China, with people wanting to assert themselves and need to do a number of things. I want to mention, in questioning the official line on a number of issues. All the minute I have left, four important points. First, this seems to indicate a groundswell of enormous, our foreign policy will have to be principled and value popular, raw political energy, wanting to take control driven. I am not talking about an “ethical foreign of the world. They do not trust the political class, they policy”—we know how we got into trouble—I am are tired of the way in which the political class has talking about a foreign policy which is seen by the made a complete mess of the world around them, they world as giving voice to sanity and justice and representing want to form their own opinions and, having formed independence and impartiality. Secondly, we need to their opinions, they want to make their impact felt. be more hospitable to students coming from the rest of They have formed these opinions on the basis of a the world. These are the people who will go back to variety of sources, thanks to the internet, thanks to their country and shape their part of the world. Remember, global connectedness, thanks to the fact that they are this is how the United States acquires its power. It is able to link up with powerful forces all over the world very striking that 73 current and former prime ministers and form a global opinion within a local context. That and presidents in the rest of the world were educated is a profound change. in American universities. This means that if we really want to acquire power, Thirdly, we will have to think of the BBC as a we will have to influence how people think and how central vehicle through which our views are circulated. their opinions are formed. In other words, political Although cuts might have been necessary, we need to power today does not lie in military weaponry, although be careful that it is not required to cut down its that is important in times of crisis. If it were that audience or its programmes. Finally, we need to play important, Syria would not have got out of control to our strength. We have succeeded in this country in and Iraq would have been brought under control a building a fairly cohesive multicultural society. The long time ago. Economic strength by itself does not rest of the world is moving in that direction and we take us very far either. I suggest that power is changing have something to tell it. We appear to be very resentful in a profound way because, once people begin to want about our multicultural society. We appear to be carping to take control of themselves, power really consists in in our criticism. It is very important that we present a our ability to shape their thinking. profile to the world such that we are seen as a society This is sometimes called soft power. The inventor of at ease with itself. This will mean more senior diplomatic soft power, Joseph Nye, is a friend and I have debated staff drawn from ethnic minorities. As of now, I do this concept with him. I told him that I think it is a not think that this numbers more than 1.5% to 2%. It hazy concept. Soft power is simply a softer version of also means that we should be saying more about how hard power and that is how it has sometimes been different religious and cultural groups can live together understood, the assumption being that what military and what lessons can be drawn from our experience. weaponry has obtained, we will now obtain by softer means. Soft power is no longer soft, because once you 1.08 pm are able to grip people’s imagination and shape their Lord Dykes: My Lords, it is always a great pleasure thinking, your hold is far firmer than military weaponry to follow the very wise words of the noble Lord, Lord would give you. I would rather talk in the language of Parekh, and his enlightened expression of the need for moral authority. countries, particularly those going through very severe A country is able to shape other people’s thinking if periods of austerity, as we are and as are other countries it carries a measure of moral authority in the eyes of in Europe and elsewhere, to maintain civilised values the world. Moral authority comes from two sources: in their external links with the outside world. It is also the belief on the part of others that this country is a pleasure to follow the equally wise words of my forming its views independently; and that it is a country noble friend Lord Bates and his justified idealism which is worth emulating and admiring. In other about the need for a proper definition of politician words, moral authority comes from intellectual and and statesman. He did not have time to elaborate but I moral sources and that is what our foreign policy hope that he will not mind that I mention a rather should be aiming at. Unfortunately, if we look at all cynical definition of a politician. Fifty years ago, a the documents from the Foreign and Commonwealth former US Defence Secretary, whose name I have Office, the emphasis is almost entirely on commerce forgotten, said to one of his friends, “Listen, honey, and trade. Important as these are, I do not think that I’m a politician. That means that when I’m not kissing the Foreign Secretary was right to say that he should babies I’m stealing their lollipops. Never forget it”. I turn the FCO into “a commercially focused”organisation. thought that rather harsh working definition of a I think the Economist rightly called it a form of politician should have been overtaken by events—and zealous mercantilism. We should rather be thinking in indeed that has proved to be the case in certain countries, 779 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 780 and in Britain, too, which unlike the United States has cutting back theirs. The Foreign Office has put up a gentler view of the important requirements of a with this for many years. It does dent morale if people capitalist economy, but a modern, welfare capitalist constantly say to diplomats, representing this country economy, as the Germans have been so adept in creating, overseas with great pride, that they must just think and the French in their own way. about trade and commerce and nothing else. That is I declare an interest, as I live in France. It does not not the job of a diplomat; it is an important component, mean that you have to be emotional and bombastic but it is not the exclusive job of a diplomat, and I about your own country. We are all European countries, think that other noble Lords have alluded to that. and we can be proud of every single level of our I endorse the views expressed on the role that attachment, down from the individual street to the Britain can play in the Middle East, as a particular village and town, the county, zone, region and country. example of where we need to exert ourselves more. I am intensely patriotic about Britain, but I see plenty There was an incipient sign of this recently, but then it of faults here as well, as one does in other countries. became rather gentle again, with the usual obfuscations But I am even keener that we resume our place as a that personally I find very depressing and unnecessary. legitimate and modern member of the European Union. This country needs to assert itself, with others, including I thank particularly the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, Germany, which has always had that problem after the at the beginning of the debate, and the noble Lord, nightmare of the Third Reich, in dealing positively Lord Judd, who also referred to this in very strong vis-à-vis the Palestinians in the search for a proper, terms. There is a need for this country to resume and genuine and just settlement between Israel and Palestine. It reattach itself to its political maturity, of which we is a most important issue. The present Israeli Government were very proud for many decades. Why have we are not a particularly attractive Government—and I become so insecure and immature about our European am sad to say that, because I am a great admirer of link, a very precious thing that we negotiated with Israel. It is a wonderful country, with many outstanding great pain and difficulty over many years? We took achievements. But to some extent the geopolitical 12 years to get in because of two French vetoes, then wisdom of yesteryear, as with the United States, has two years afterwards the then Labour Government left it a bit at the moment, and I regret that. Israel decided that they wanted to renegotiate a substantial needs to understand that it cannot be defiant all the portion of the terms. No wonder our colleagues, patient time, so that in the end the Palestinian territory is the as they are, begin to get very exasperated sometimes only one in the world without civic and voting rights with our EU membership, particularly with the antics as a genuine entity and country. The UN charter of what is admittedly still quite a small minority of cannot allow that. Therefore, that would mean the end Conservative MPs in the other place. They are going of the Zionist state as we know it. I personally would through a charade, partly because of UKIP but also prefer there to be two states, side by side, including a for other reasons, of attachment to a pretend sovereignty Zionist state with perhaps not too much religion—because that no longer exists in any country—not even in the a lot of Israelis are a bit worried about that as well—but United States, in the end, a country that is regarded by an adequate, normal or normative amount. Then they some people as being in decline. could reach that solution with Palestine that would mean shaking hands and getting on. I was an official I thank warmly the noble Lord, Lord Howell, as observer for the EU Commission in the South African others have done, for launching this debate. It is always elections, and the day after you saw the scales fall away a great problem when you are talking about the whole from people’s eyes as the nonsense of apartheid was world, but he did it very effectively, because he focused demolished and destroyed—although not immediately. quite rightly on a number of things, particularly the It takes time. But it has happened, and it can happen Commonwealth. You can sound like one of those between Israel and Palestine. If any two countries can terrible travelogue films from the cinemas in the 1950s, work together in future, it is those two, and it is up to which would say at the beginning, “As the sun pulls Netanyahu and Lieberman to see that, I hope with the away from the jetty and the ship sinks in the east, we advice in future of the British Government, who have say goodbye to such and such a territory”. He did not been a little too hesitant. do that; he focused on some of the modern requirements in this country in the sense of the Commonwealth, If the United States is in decline and ceasing to be a which is a very important body in every way. It is leader of the western world, it must at least in this developing, as someone said, with an inadequate coming period, working on the global basis that the budget—but I hope that that will be changed in future. noble Lord, Lord Howell, has advocated for this country, I appreciate, and have always been glad about, the make sure that it reaches the solution necessary in the attachment of the Commonwealth entity into the Middle East. It would be the greatest tribute that there Foreign Office, as it is a more modern position and could be to Barack Obama. He was given the Nobel configuration for the modern world. Peace Prize in advance of this achievement. I hope that that prize was justified. I, too, praise, as the noble Lord, Lord Howell, and others have done, the Foreign Office for the work that it has done over the years. I have always been distressed 1.16 pm at the demoralisation of the Foreign Office by what is Lord Hannay of Chiswick: My Lords, I very much coming up to 15 years of cutbacks in expenditure, welcome today’s debate, and the initiative of the noble budgets and so on, in two or three phases. Yet another Lord, Lord Howell, in securing it, not just because it is phase is now threatened by the Treasury, which is not the first occasion that the House has had to conduct a so keen so often to cut back its own establishment in wide-ranging discussion of foreign policy issues since physical terms, as it lectures other departments on the debate on the Address in May but because it offers 781 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 782

[LORD HANNAY OF CHISWICK] the UN, the IMF, the WTO, the G20, NATO and the an opportunity for me to continue a dialogue with the EU will lose political backing, be underresourced and noble Lord about some aspects of the Government’s decrease in relevance. If that were to happen, I believe external policies, which was cut short on that occasion Britain would be one of the main losers. So by all through lack of time—even if his own position has means let us pursue strong bilateral relationships but changed, to my regret. not at the expense of those multilateral, rules-based I have to say, and I hope that the noble Lord will organisations in which we have hitherto invested so forgive me, that I will remain completely baffled as to much effort with some considerable success. the significance of the phrase “network world”. In the Nothing is more difficult than achieving coherence interim, I have reflected a bit and am reminded of the in a Government’s external policies and in one important character in the Moliere play who said that he had sector I believe the UK is currently falling far short of some difficulty in distinguishing between poetry and that. I do not imagine anyone will dispute that the prose, but who was assured that prose was what he had higher education sector in this country is a world been talking all his life. I think that I have been doing leader and that over recent years it has been a rapidly networks all my life; it is not something that has been growing source of invisible exports of great benefit to discovered in the past three or four years. our universities and to the country as a whole. Incidentally, If the debate also reminds us of the lacuna that it is also a hugely growing source of employment in exists as a result of our not having a foreign affairs many parts of this country where that is lacking. The committee, or an international affairs committee, in potential for even greater benefit in both ways in the this House, which could periodically report to the years ahead is there but the Government’s own House on key issues, it will have served a genuinely immigration policies are putting all that at risk. Last useful purpose. Before addressing a few general issues, week we had the Minister for Immigration at the I just wish to say how deeply I regret the Government’s Home Office, Mr Mark Harper, rejoicing at the latest decision to abstain on the UN resolution giving the immigration statistics, which showed a sharp drop in Palestinians a modestly enhanced status at the UN. It net migration, the lion’s share of which was attributable was the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, who in 1980 to a substantial reduction in the number of students first persuaded the European Community, followed coming here. These are not people coming to take jobs some years later by the United States, to back a but people coming with ready cash to purchase services two-state solution. I believe that we should have followed which our colleges and universities can provide, people that logic in voting for the resolution, not have pursued who in future years, when their studies are completed, some non-negotiable conditions to give ourselves a will often become a part of that worldwide network of quasi-alibi for an abstention. It may have seemed bilateral contacts which the Government are trying so ingenious, but it was certainly not principled. hard to build up. What on earth is going on? What are the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, The general criticism that I would make of the the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Treasury Government’s external policies are that they are a little doing about this truly aberrant state of affairs? I hope too narrowly focused on the cultivation of bilateral that the Minister, whose work in encouraging British relationships and are a little too mercantilist in their exports, both visible and invisible, I very much admire approach to trade policy. The Foreign Secretary’s actions and support will have something to say on this when to strengthen and extend our bilateral diplomatic network he replies to the debate. and, in particular, to build up our representation in the main emerging powers, is to be applauded. But the I have one final point. A debate on this subject objective should not be exclusively to promote British would not be complete without a word on the European exports and inward investment, but every bit as much Union and the European dimension of Britain’s external to influence the policy decisions of countries whose policies, although we will have an opportunity to increasing role in the major multilateral organisations discuss that more fully before the Recess. If Britain’s will make them essential partners in shaping a rules-based influence in Brussels becomes marginal—even more set of solutions to the global challenges that we all so if we were to withdraw from the European Union—our face, whether in trade policy, climate change, development, influence worldwide in Washington, Beijing, Delhi, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation or in nurturing Brasilia and elsewhere would suffer too. We should peace and security more generally. That second part of have no illusions about that. Nor would our exports or the narrative often seems to be missing. our inward investment benefit—quite the contrary. It is, after all, not membership of the EU which can Then there is the mantra du jour that we are in a explain why our exports to China in recent years have “global race”. There is some sense in this as a means developed so much less buoyantly than those of Germany. of galvanising the energies of business and of bringing So we need to take a more imaginative, constructive home the fact that we live in a highly competitive approach to that European dimension than we have world where we have fallen some way behind our main done recently, and to regard it as an essential and competitors, but it misses out totally the concept of integral part of our external policies, not something international co-operation which is every bit as important that dare not speak its name. a dimension of a world in which Britain, a middle-ranking power which needs partners and allies to achieve its objectives, can hope to thrive. There is a real risk that 1.24 pm the aftershocks from the great financial and economic Lord Naseby: My Lords, I concur in congratulating crisis of 2008 will undermine the gains made since the my noble friend on the initiative of holding this debate. end of the Cold War in international co-operation, I do not want to embarrass him but, frankly, he is the and that the major multilateral organisations such as best Foreign Secretary that we never had. I couple that 783 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 784 with the role that the noble Lord, Lord Marland, why we are backing anyone. It never was our sphere of plays as part of the team with the noble Lord, Lord influence; it was a French one. Why did we not leave it Green. He is probably the most energetic ambassador to the French? Who are we really backing? We have for British trade and commerce overseas that I have formally recognised a group but the stretch of the ever witnessed. I saw him in action in Sri Lanka in power base of that group is pretty illusory and does April and that visit was a whirlwind success. I do not not seem to have too much basis as far as I can see. I know how many other countries he visited on that ask myself: is the real risk that we are going to change occasion but I congratulate him and the team behind from the Ba’ath Party autocracy to the Islamic jihadist him. movement? Certainly, we need to reflect on that. That Forty-five years ago I wrote a pamphlet for the Bow is why two weeks ago I wrote to the Prime Minister, Group entitled Helping the Exporter. I was one of which I rarely do, saying that in my judgment there three authors, all of whom had worked overseas for was absolutely no case for the British military to go in two or three years prior to writing that pamphlet. It on humanitarian grounds; that is the role of the was based on the fact that in the previous 10 years this international Red Cross. Those of us who work in and country’s percentage of world trade had dropped from know those areas should not forget that there is also 20% to 13.5%. That is what prompted us, as young the Red Crescent, which is as powerful and objective men aged around 30, to take an initiative and try to as the Red Cross, and it is a facility for some, but not move the then Government to think creatively about all, of the UN agencies. how we should export and how we could improve our I turn lastly to an area that I know well, south and exports. We looked particularly at what the Government south-east Asia. I have lived and worked in three of of the day did and at the agencies that were quasi- the countries there: India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I government at that time. One of the areas that we think that I have visited every other country in that looked at was the Plowden committee report, which region with the exception of Burma. Today, apart was basically about part of the structure of the Foreign from in India, the infrastructure and influence in that Office at that time. I venture to suggest to my noble region is Japanese and Chinese—and now we have the friend Lord Green that he should dust down that Obama vision moving into that part of the world. As report and have another look at its conclusions. I had the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, said, that part of the a look at them and many of them are very valid today, world used to be very close to us but, whether we like it as they were then. or not, over time we have alienated many of the I shall pick out two of the 28 recommendations in countries there for all sorts of reasons. Even today we the pamphlet. One concerned the Queen’s Award. If I sometimes show little understanding of them. am absolutely frank, I think that it is pretty tired at the When the then Foreign Secretary, Mr Miliband, moment. Here in this jubilee year we have a wonderful went to India in 2009, he drew the allusion that the opportunity to relaunch that award, and I venture to problem of Mumbai terrorism was associated with suggest that we might look at that creatively. Secondly, Kashmir. Not only was that wrong—in fact it was the personnel within the Foreign Office that I meet categorised as a diplomatic disaster—but so were the overseas are, frankly, too young in terms of trade and nuances that went with it. I shall quote from the business. They are too inexperienced and do not have Independent, which said: the relevant knowledge, depth or contacts. That needs “To make matters worse, he”— to be looked at. Mr Miliband— I turn to the other half of the Motion: the United “kept addressing India’s septuagenarian Foreign Minister by his Kingdom’s new global role. We should be realistic: we first name and putting his arm around him”. do not really have a global role. We do not have enough There are certain traditions and methods of greeting of a defence facility and we do not have enough and understanding people in that part of the world stretch in terms of contact on the ground. Therefore, that are very different from what we do in the United we have to prioritise and select. We have to be brave Kingdom, and it is no credit to any of us if we forget enough occasionally to say no to certain ventures that that. we might morally think we should be involved in but With the Commonwealth conference coming up do not have the resources to do properly. With regard next September in that part of the world, in Sri Lanka, to the Arab spring, north Africa and that area, we which is greatly welcomed by the rest of the thought that Tunisia had undergone a relatively easy Commonwealth countries, we should remember Kipling’s transition. However, demonstrations are now bubbling epitaph, which states: up, mirroring what is happening elsewhere. The recent “A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East”. murder of the US ambassador in Libya brings into question whether we were right to intervene there. I 1.32 pm thought from the beginning that we were not, and Lord Soley: In endorsing the comments about the I question whether the £1 billion or thereabouts that contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Howell, to this we spent on that venture was good value for money. House, I would simply add that he is a great loss to the It has taken the Muslim Brotherhood some 84 years Government’s Front Bench. I also thank him for the to get power in Egypt. Those of us who know Egypt a way that he introduced the debate. However, following bit need to reflect on that. Are we confident that we his description of the “repositioning”, as he called it, backed the right side in getting rid of Mubarak if we of the world, I have had to reposition my speech very end up with the Muslim Brotherhood? I am not at all slightly and adjust it accordingly. The essence of what sure. Jordan, you could say, is another country, but we he said is that whereas we used to live in a unipolar are very silent on Jordan. As for Syria, I ask myself world, and prior to that a bipolar world, we now live 785 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 786

[LORD SOLEY] published in Arabic. It is in this sort of area where we in a multipolar world—and that will last for a long are able to do far more. I have now talked to about half time. He linked that to the emerging powers and new a dozen other countries about this sort of approach. markets. It is about that issue that I want to say a few The Minister may know—the noble Lord, words. Lord Howell, certainly knows, because he has been When the phrase “British Empire” is used—it has helpful on this—of the work that I am currently doing been used only a couple of times today—we then with Burma, which is sometimes known as Myanmar. talk, quite rightly and with some pride, about the There is an argument within Burma as to which name Commonwealth. However, I sometimes think that the to use, but I will use Burma for the moment. We are phrase “British Commonwealth” holds up a distorting now talking to Burma about similar options on the mirror to Britain’s past. It was of course an empire but rule of law. The opportunities are therefore great. We it was actually the world’s first power that, because of in this House underestimate our strength which we the industrial revolution, had a global reach. It is that can use in conjunction with such efforts. I am currently which makes the difference. It was that global reach trying to arrange for people with suitable experience that resulted in the English language being the world’s to go to Burma to help form good governance because, premier language. It is that, together with a whole too often, that country receives visits from people range of other things—including education, rule of from all over the world who will look at what the law and the BBC; I could name them all—that forms Burmese need and then go back to their own country the basis of our influence today. Notwithstanding the and talk to other people there. We need a more in-depth insightful comments of the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, and continuing involvement. about the nature of soft power and how it trips over We have in this House people who have run the into hard power, we have to build on what we have Civil Service, others who know about the relationship here, because it is important. between a Secretary of State for Defence and the I want to talk about how we link up these things in armed forces and police force, and, above all, people relation to the “new markets”, which is the other who know about the rule of law. We have many phrase that the noble Lord, Lord Howell, used in ex-Lord Chancellors in this House and, indeed, more introducing this debate. It is an area in which I have lawyers than I can count. I hasten to add that I am recent personal experience. I had great help from the not a lawyer. However, the depth of the contribution noble Lord when he was a Minister, and I continue to that we can make is far greater than we envisage, get such help. I hope that I will continue to get it, not and we should have a structure to do it. That is what only from his successor in the department but from I am trying to do, particularly in Burma. Zayed University the Minister who will answer this debate, because it in Abu Dhabi is already involving us in more areas, relates to this issue. I felt some time ago that Britain and I want to continue and expand that process. We had an enormous contribution to make in terms of rightly talk of our use of soft power, but many of the soft power. It was not just the BBC, education and so emerging nations mentioned in the title of the debate on; it was also that this country is seen as important in also represent a vast opportunity as new markets—because terms of the rule of law and good governance. the new market is for good governance. However you I must declare an interest because I set up the Good dress it up, good governance is a very wide phrase. It Governance Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation— is not just the law or the relationship between the which is just as well because it does not look like it will armed forces and a government; it is also education, make a profit at any time soon—which is designed to health and a host of other areas where people are use our experience and knowledge with emerging willing to learn from what we have done. It is not a countries, which is the other issue that the noble Lord, case, nor should it be a case, of us telling them what to Lord Howell, put in the title of his debate. As the do. It is a matter of us working with them to deliver result of an argument that I had with the authorities in that change. I hope the Minister will address that in Abu Dhabi about the treatment of a Palestinian family his comments. in 2010, I said to those authorities, “If you do not do something about the rule of law you will have big 1.39 pm problems”. To my surprise and, I must say, my pleasure, they asked whether we could help in some way. The Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: My Lords, I thank the result, as some noble Lords know—the noble Lord, noble Lord, Lord Howell, for securing this debate. I Lord Howell, certainly knows of my work there—is also congratulate him on the style and stamina that he probably the first postgraduate course of law at Zayed showed on the Front Bench, sometimes under grave University in Abu Dhabi. I was over there the other provocation—sometimes from me. I thank him very weekend and was introduced to probably the first two warmly. female judges in the Middle East. I was suitably impressed I had intended to say a word about China but my by their confidence, ability and training. I have yet to fox has been elegantly shot—it could not have been check whether any other Middle Eastern country has better shot—by the noble Lord, Lord Bates. I shall a female judge, but I have not heard of any yet. therefore say a word about Korea and make one general In May this year I gave the first annual Sheikh point. Zayed Memorial Lecture on the rule of law. Initially I Korea is the world’s 12th largest economy—larger proposed setting up the annual lectures to promote the than the whole of ASEAN. Last year, it grew faster idea of the rule of law but I was then also asked to give than any other OECD country and it has the greenest the lecture, and I did. We hope that, as a result, the late growth strategy in the OECD. It is a major inward Lord Bingham’s book on the rule of law will be investor here. It is a country that the Minister knows 787 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 788 very well and, as he knows, Korean markets are now directives, we need to be at the table with an open, constructive more open to British exports than ever, thanks to the and thoughtful approach. The UK voice needs to be firmly but free trade agreement that has come into force. constructively heard”. That is the authentic voice of the City, unlike what the I need to declare an interest. I am the UK president mayor was telling us this week, although his motives of the UK/Korea Forum for the Future—a role I may be slightly different. He may have personal ambitions inherited from the noble Lord, Lord Richard, when I rather than the ambitions of the City at heart, and I came to this place. I had inveigled him into doing it do not want to go into any piffle. when I was Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, and the moment I arrived here he passed the role to I now want to make a half point and will then make me with all the dexterity of a Welsh fly-half. In that my final point. My half point is about our global role semi-official capacity, I congratulate the Minister on and the fact that rhetoric is no substitute for resources. the Opportunity Korea initiative, in connection with What one needs for a global diplomacy is diplomatic which events will take place in Birmingham, Manchester, boots on the ground: local knowledge, linguistic skills, Edinburgh, London and Bristol in February. Creating a real understanding of local markets, and sensitivity greater interest in this country in the Korean market to national customs and history. It would be an illusion and in Korean culture is an extremely good idea. to pretend that one can be global on the cheap, yet I fear that that is what the Foreign Secretary is being In that context, I hope that the Minister can persuade asked to do. If the noble Lord, Lord Howell, were ever his colleague, the Foreign Secretary, that it is high time to bump into the Chancellor of the Exchequer—as I that a British Foreign Secretary visited Seoul. The last suppose is conceivable—this is a point that he might British Foreign Secretary to visit Seoul was Douglas want to make to him. Hurd—now the noble Lord, Lord Hurd of Westwell— who did so 20 years ago. Frankly, that is not good My bigger point about our global role is as follows. enough when we are talking about a relationship with When I was a young member of the Diplomatic Service, a country which takes us as seriously as the Koreans I witnessed daily battles between the advocates of a do, which has such a difficult political environment in blue water diplomacy based on the United States and its immediate neighbourhood and which is such an the Commonwealth and the advocates of being at the important market for us. heart of Europe. By the time I became head of the service, the battle was long over. All had recognised People in Korea have a real respect and affection that the dichotomy was false. It was accepted—not for this country. The foundations of that are partly least because our American and Commonwealth friends historical, with the valour of British forces 60 years had gently and persistently reminded us—that we best ago, and partly due to recent partnerships, such as the advance the interests that we have in common with fact that in Brussels the British were the most powerful them when we exert maximum influence in the EU. supporters of the Commission in securing the free The obverse, by the way, is also true. When in Washington, trade agreement. The Koreans know that. They would I discovered that we are heard with greater attention be delighted if we took more interest in them but they there when it is thought likely that we will be able to would be disillusioned if we took less interest in Brussels deliver EU support for deals that we strike with the and therefore were able to exert less influence on Americans. behalf of the interests that we have in common. Therefore, We do not have to choose—indeed, we must not the last point that my noble friend Lord Hannay made choose—between a blue water and a continental strategy. today was very important. I know that Koreans are They are mutually reinforcing and we need both. If we puzzled at our present stance on the European Union. punch above our weight—in the uncharacteristically I was in Australia last week. Friends there also belligerent words of the noble Lord, Lord Hurd of expressed some puzzlement about our stance on Europe Westwell—it is not because of any innate diplomatic but I was not able to provide an explanation. They skills but precisely because our foreign policy is woven asked me why, alone with the Czechs, we chose from from the twin, mutually reinforcing strands of worldwide the outset to play no part in new EU mechanisms reach and continental heft. That is why I can give only to reinforce the very fiscal discipline which the two cheers for talk of a new global role. It will deliver Chancellor was again preaching yesterday, even though among emerging powers and new markets only if they no intra-EU fiscal transfers were envisaged. They have perceive that we are at the heart of all key Brussels noted that this time we alone—without even the Czechs— debates, building alliances in support of common, and chose from the outset to stand aloof from proposed Commonwealth interests, and that we are set to remain arrangements for improved banking supervision in their natural influential and permanent point of entry Europe, arguing that they were relevant only for eurozone into the 500 million-strong EU market. If we lose member states, even though all other non-eurozone influence in Europe, we shall find it hard not to lose member states will be arguing this week in the European influence with them; and if we lose interest in Europe, Council for arrangements that will permit them to join we may find that they lose interest in us. and even though our self-exclusion is causing real concern in the City. Noble Lords will have noted the 1.47 pm important article by Gerry Grimstone, chairman of Standard Life and TheCityUK, in this week’s FT.I Lord Selsdon: My Lords, I have always had great quote: respect for my noble friend Lord Howell because he “British practitioners, politicians and officials need to engage was head boy at my prep school, where he exercised a more at the European level and to do so at an earlier stage—building certain amount of soft power when we stepped out of alliances, and proactively informing and shaping the EU … line, as the noble Lord, Lord Fellowes, whom I see in agenda. Whether it is on banking union or on particular markets his seat, may well remember. Apart from that, as I 789 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 790

[LORD SELSDON] elsewhere—for example, the mining skills of Australia have listened to him, he has taught me many things and the fishing skills of some of the smaller territories. over time. He has a quiet approach, behind which lies Look at how the world has begun to become global in greater knowledge than I could ever wish to have. thought and concerned about energy, power and natural In preparation for speaking to your Lordships today, resources. I have taken advantage of my position as a member of I have always been a great friend of the the Information Committee by asking the Library to Commonwealth. One of the things that I was made to produce a really good note on this debate, and it has do in earlier days was to be able to recognise the flags done so. If your Lordships are going home for the of the world. The only value that has given me is as weekend and cannot find a suitable newspaper, the secretary and treasurer of the House of Lords Yacht report that it has provided is quite remarkable, although Club, which of course carries a certain influence. Your I shall not quote from it today. Lordships will be aware that every vessel floating on the face of this earth that has a British flag has the right to I was always in trade and I sat below the salt, as I the protection of Her Majesty’s plenipotentiaries— have pointed out. I love the Pink Book and I love the ambassadors’ ships or whatever they may be. We are a balance of payments. I look at the £100 billion deficit maritime nation; we are also British. that we have on visibles and at the fact that with every country of the EU we have a deficit that grows and I have a feeling that the debate today will have done grows. We have a surplus of £6 billion or so with the a bit of good, but I now turn to the noble Lord, Lord United States and a surplus with Ireland, much of Green. After the last debate I wrote him a nice letter which is in trans-shipments. Therefore, in visible trade and gave him the history of the Board of Trade, which we are failing dismally, whereas in invisible trade or I had rewritten. He did not reply because he was busy services there is a balance of about £200 billion on on his travels and his footfall was extending everywhere each side. However, it is our role in the world that we from Everest down to the Antarctic, but his officials need to think about. swiftly rang me up and said, “What about the other three volumes?”. I said, “Could we get rid of this word I was brought up in the Navy as a navigator. I was ‘BIS’, which is what my dog does?”—although I must very junior and therefore I always had the middle not mention dogs’ business. Anyway, I got no reply. watch. I would look at the stars and try to study and Then I thought I would go on in the same vein and say, learn. I found that as you look at the world, you ask, “Let us look at the priorities”. I thought I would see if “What is it?”. I think of it geographically. One of my I could have soft power. heroes is Harrison, with his connection to chronometers, I was not going to mention this but I am obliged to Greenwich, 0 degrees and the centre of the Earth. because I have to declare an interest. I have pointed With a globe, it is quite difficult to look laterally, so out before to your Lordships rather light-heartedly you need Mr Mercator, who produced the Mercator that if no one else would do it, I would launch my own projection and the flat chart, so wherever I have been satellites for surveillance. I have done that twice and in all my time dealing with trade, I have put the United declared it in the House. The company has now been Kingdom right in the middle and looked to the left or formed. It is a limited company and I am told that I the right. have to point out that I am the sole director. It is called Some 70% of the earth is water. Is that blue-water Evening Star; it has the greatest satellite technology policy? The remaining 30% is land. What has this got the world has ever seen; and it was all started by the to do with trade? Well, our trade was always maritime university of the city where my noble friend Lord and 20% of all vessels floating on the surface of the Howell was a Member of Parliament. earth have a Commonwealth flag. Everyone these days is nervous about piracy but the Navy will say that 1.54 pm 80% of all our trade comes by sea. These statistics may Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe: My Lords, I not seem relevant but they have a relevance to me. It is congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Howell, on the all about the water. Take the economic exclusion zones, timeliness of this debate. Yesterday’s Autumn Statement where each territory has a 200-mile limit around it. sets a powerful context for it. There is no question that That makes the UK pretty big. In fact, with the we have to develop a strategy for growth for the short Commonwealth it is enormous—36 million square term in the light of disappointing economic prospects, kilometres. That constitutes more of the sea than the but the longer term challenges are far more profound, area round the whole of the United States, the rest of as the wise and comprehensive introduction to this our NATO allies and the next biggest zone, France. debate by noble Lord, Lord Howell, underlined. Does that matter, though? Looking over land and In a recent speech, referred to earlier by the right sea, we see natural, or God-given, resources and we reverend prelate the Bishop of Worcester, Jeremy Brown forget that most of our own development involved the MP talked about the revolution taking place in the exploitation, if that is not an unacceptable word, of world order and of the scale of the task facing the UK those natural resources through fishing, mining and if we are to preserve anything like our current level of agriculture. The Sudan was to be the bread basket of influence in the world. I am grateful to the Library for the Middle East and still could be. It is in this field of drawing this speech to my attention. It had several soft power and knowledge that the United Kingdom interesting themes and I enjoyed it. He pointed out can play a great role. I think of the term “common that we have a very strong position on which to build. wealth” not so much politically but as describing the Our history of openness and the strength of our combined natural resources of these countries and cultural, diplomatic and educational ties go towards any skills that they may have which can be applied giving us a great advantage in emerging economies. 791 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 792

But he also pointed out the dangers of complacency. As others have said, the UK occupies an enviable Just because the UK has been in the lead in the past position in terms of its soft power. An annual survey two revolutions—the industrial and the information recently published by Monocle magazine put the UK revolutions—that is no reason to assume we will remain first, ahead of the US, based on a methodology which in the forefront of the next. He said: includes the UK’s attractiveness to business. The “Britain needs a big wake up call. We have no pre-ordained international links our universities help us to build are, right to be wealthier, more successful and more influential than I believe, critical to our future success in emerging other countries. We earned that status in the past through invention, markets where we have traditionally performed poorly. adventure and enterprise, and we need to earn it again for the It is not surprising, then, that a couple of weeks ago future”. CBI supremo John Cridland joined a growing chorus In describing this competitive advantage, he said, of business leaders in saying that Britain was losing a “No part of our Government or public life should be exempt massive business opportunity with a policy that was from this national task”. turning away the brightest foreign students. Four Select I will restrict my comments to one issue that I see as Committees have recommended that the Government a real competitive advantage. We are a major force in change their policy on student visas. The noble Lord, the provision of international higher education. I declare Lord Hannay, is also leading an inquiry which has an interest as a member of the council of UCL. The touched on this issue. All the serious newspapers have Government should be congratulated on identifying supported the call for international students to be higher education as a key strand within its industrial removed from the Government’s net migration target. strategy. Doing so recognises that universities play an The Prime Minister has said: increasingly important role in the UK’s export success. “We must support all sectors of the economy where we have a This role is both direct and indirect. In direct terms, as comparative advantage”. this House is well aware, universities earn the UK I believe that the Government, in many ways, have £8 billion a year as a result of their recruitment of EU done that in respect of higher education, except, that and non-EU students and the number of globally is, in their immigration policy.Here, there is a fundamental mobile students is growing rapidly, so projections suggest inconsistency between the Government’s desire for the UK’s export earnings in this sphere could rise to short-term and long-term economic growth, and a £17 billion by 2025. policy that few outside the Home Office support. But universities also support other aspects of UK In conclusion, I ask the Minister what steps he is international trade. Their international character taking to advance the cause of international students contributes to the education of UK-domiciled students in his discussions with colleagues. Will he personally who have the opportunity to learn alongside students ask the Prime Minister, on behalf of the many of us in from the countries which will, in future, be of the this House who feel strongly on this issue, to reconsider greatest economic importance to the UK. International their policy on net migration to exclude explicitly graduates clearly make an important contribution to international university students and support growth UK business, through language skills and contacts as in this hugely important area? well as their professional competencies. Our own Science and Technology Committee, chaired by the noble Lord, 2pm Lord Willis, has drawn attention to the importance of Lord Williams of Baglan: My Lords, like others, I international students in STEM disciplines, but it is thank the noble Lord, Lord Howell, for his initiative important to point out that the links we are building in calling this debate. I also pay tribute to his contribution are important across the whole range of subjects. to discussions on international affairs in this House, in The creative industries are one of the sectors of the the House of Commons and in other institutions over economy where we have the strongest potential for many years. Just over a month ago, we were together future growth. Our cultural and creative output is one at one such institution—Wilton Park, in Sussex—for a of the great draws for talent to this county—one of conference looking at the enormous changes now the reasons good people will move here to work, and taking place in Burma. One thing that we discussed, therefore one of the reasons major multinational and that I hope we can see in the future, was that companies will locate here. It is likely to be the foundation Burma might take its place in the Commonwealth. of many of our export successes in the future. I think After all, it is one of only two former British colonies—I there is an argument that our strength in these areas think the other is South Yemen or Aden—which did flows from our inter-connectedness, our openness to not join the Commonwealth on its independence. new influences and ideas, the exchange of cultures and The noble Lord, Lord Howell, spoke of the reform histories which takes place in all our major cities, and of the EU. I think we all wish to see a more efficient our intellectual culture of challenge and criticism, and modernised EU, but I caution that we need to which is not innate in all cultures. So I would argue take care. Many foreign companies from the United that, although there may be particular issues about States, Japan, China, Korea and India have invested in our dependence on international postgraduates in certain the United Kingdom because they see the UK as one STEM disciplines to maintain the viability of these of the most liberal countries in Europe and as a areas, there is no doubt that we should look to encourage gateway to Europe. We can ill afford to lose their the international character of all our higher education. investments, economically and politically. We also need This will be obvious to those in this House who have to take care in talking about reform of the EU in the been involved in international diplomacy, and I warmly wider sense of reform of international institutions. endorse the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, This country has a great stake in the United Nations, in this respect. in the IMF and in the World Bank. After all, we are 793 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 794

[LORD WILLIAMS OF BAGLAN] but I hope that, in the age of austerity, he does not do one of only five countries in the world with a permanent it too expensively, although I am confident that he seat on the Security Council, despite the fact that we does it productively. It is good to welcome him to the are a nation of 60 million souls, whereas India is a debate. country of more than 1 billion. Talk of reform needs I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Howell, for to be taken forward with great caution as regards introducing the debate. I will not join in the obituaries discussion of international institutions. because there is plenty of life left in the noble Lord To my mind, the heart of change with regard to yet. However, I regret that he is no longer on the Front global affairs lies very much with the rise of Asia, Bench. As a new boy to this place, I found him one of China, Japan, Korea, India and Indonesia, whose the most reflective of our Ministers, who always tried president, Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono, was here as a to deal very conscientiously and carefully with points state guest only a month ago. We have to recognise made to him. In that sense, he is a loss. these realities and think whether we would do better to deal with them in the EU or decoupled from the EU. I agreed with the vast majority of what the noble President Obama has made it clear where he thinks Lord said in his introduction. He told us about the the United States’ future direction should be. Just over great transformation in the world, which the noble a year ago, he spoke of the US’s pivot towards Asia Lord, Lord Bates, illustrated very well in his speech and we need to be mindful of endeavouring to intensify when he spoke about China and its huge pace of further our relations with such an important part of transformation, which is something that we all the globe. If the US saw a UK decoupled from the EU, neglect. I agree with the noble Lord that we should and France and Germany more dominant in the EU, I make the most of our networks. I am rather more with believe that that would accelerate US involvement and the noble Lord, Lord Howell, than I am with the commitment to Asia at the expense of its longstanding noble Lord, Lord Hannay; I think that networks commitment towards Europe. matter in this world, and the UK is fortunate and well positioned in that. I only wish that the Government In the debate, much talk has been made of soft and paid more attention to the higher education network, moral power, concepts with which I always feel a little about which the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, spoke, uncomfortable. However, there is no doubt that such because it is key to our future. I also agree with him things have been critical over the years, over the decades about the chambers of commerce, as recommended in and perhaps over the centuries to Britain’s international the excellent Heseltine review. I agree that the Lords role. Here I declare an interest as a trustee of the BBC should do more in international affairs; I would love and as a trustee responsible for the World Service. I the Lords to have a proper foreign affairs or international appreciate the concerns expressed in the debate about committee. the World Service. Like the rest of the BBC and like all British institutions, the World Service has suffered The points that he made about the Middle East and from diminished budgets in recent years but I can energy are very valid. I also agree about the strengthening assure noble Lords— of Commonwealth ties. I support what my noble friends Lord Judd and Lord Anderson, and the noble Baroness Northover: I apologise for interrupting the Lord, Lord Maclennan, have said. I think that the noble Lord but I would like to remind him that those soft-power ties of the Commonwealth are very important who are given permission to speak in the gap have, at but that it will not act as one as a political and most, four minutes, so he might wish to conclude his diplomatic force—at least, I do not see that happening speech. very much—still less as a single economic unit. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, was not talking about going back to a world of imperial preference Lord Williams of Baglan: I can conclude by assuring but I see very little prospect of a kind of free trade noble Lords of the robust and rude health of the arrangement within the Commonwealth. The interesting World Service. We broadcast in an array of languages, thing about the Commonwealth is the way in which its from Azeri and Burmese to Persian and Uzbek. In all economic interests have moved away from those of the those countries we still have an impact and a reach United Kingdom. One of the most striking things that is much greater than anyone else. about the emerging world is the growth of south/south trade, as opposed to south/north, between Commonwealth 2.05 pm countries. Lord Liddle: My Lords, in speaking for the Opposition The fundamentals of what the noble Lord, Lord in response to the debate, it is a pleasure to welcome Howell, said, were right. Trade with the emerging the noble Lord, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint, to the world is crucial to our success in what the Prime Dispatch Box for one of his relatively rare appearances Minister and Chancellor rather irritatingly refer to as here. I do not say that in any spirit of criticism; all the “global race”. However, the danger in such talk is sides of the House appreciate the huge amount of that we convince ourselves that there is some great work that the noble Lord does on behalf of UK trade choice to be made between the rest of the world and promotion around the world. He brings to mind a Europe. As my noble friend Lord Anderson said, it is conversation I had with Chris Patten, as he was then, not a case of either/or—and as the noble Lord, Lord when he was in Brussels. I asked him what life was like Kerr, said, it is not a case of a blue-water strategy or a as a European Commissioner and he said, “I spend all continental one. There was a lot of hullabaloo recently my life expensively circulating the globe”. I am sure about the fact that for the first time we were trading that the noble Lord, Lord Green, does a lot of circulating more with the rest of the world than with the European 795 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 796 single market. That is a perfectly natural development, this week—and end up sleepwalking towards our exit given the pace of growth in the rest of the world. It from the European Union when it is our membership should not become a political point. of the EU that will be our strength in this emerging Membership of the single market remains crucial world. to our ability to compete with the rest of the world because of its size, its proximity and its relative stability. 2.16 pm It is highly integrated. The noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and I were at a dinner last night where a Foreign and Skills & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Office official made the very good point on the subject Green of Hurstpierpoint): My Lords, I thank my noble of exports to China that France includes Airbus exports friend Lord Howell of Guildford for initiating an in its figures but 17% of each Airbus is made in the extremely important debate that has attracted a great UK. We benefit from our partners’ success as well as deal of interest. My sense is that we have covered an our own. enormously broad range of issues. I assure the noble Size matters. Being part of the EU single market Lord, Lord Liddle, that although I travel a lot around gives us clout. On trade with China we worry about the world, I hope I travel economically. I turn right, intellectual property challenges or the dumping of not left when I get on a plane. I do not know what the solar panels, but we try to secure fair competition and travel policy is in Brussels. open up markets. Having that clout behind us is much Many issues have been raised. I hope noble Lords better than being the United Kingdom on our own will appreciate that if I do not succeed in responding because—I think that I am right in saying this—the to every one of them, I will write in respect of the UK is smaller than the smallest Chinese province. issues that I do not cover. I start with the point laid Europe matters a lot—and it matters in another out by my noble friend Lord Howell that we are in sense. When the rest of the world thinks about us, it a new era. The context is worth rehearsing briefly. thinks about us not as Britain but as part of Europe. It One could argue that there have been only two periods thinks of Europe as an entity in the world. Britain has in human history when there was a single global great strengths of its own—many noble Lords talked superpower. One was between 1815 and 1871; the about them—such as the BBC, the World Service and other was between 1989 and about now. We are entering the British Council. However, Europe, too, has strengths a phase where there is no longer one global superpower in this emerging world. It is regarded highly for its —or indeed two—but a series of actors on the world culture, civilisation, science and engineering. The European stage. model is greatly respected as one in which we have We are also moving out of a period of history that achieved democracy and the rule of law, and a model was unusual in the wider context of human experience. of capitalism that combines innovation and dynamism For most of human history, a country’s share of with social justice. The European model is a strength global output roughly equalled its share of the world’s for us, and in this multipolar world it will matter even population. In 1800 the second largest and largest more. economies were those of China and India. We are moving towards a situation where that sort of balance Lord Spicer: How long can we go on trading at a of economic output on the world stage will be true loss with Europe? again. We all know what happened in the mean time. The industrial revolution enabled Britain, then other Lord Liddle: The question about our competitiveness European countries, then America and—after the war— applies not just to Europe but to the whole world. The Japan to move ahead and take up a far larger share of House will debate later the excellent report of the world output than their populations would support in noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, which addresses these terms of their share of the world market. That time is issues. The problem is not with Europe but with UK now receding and we have to get used to a position in competitiveness. the world where a number of actors on the world stage In the new world, Europe matters more, not less. are competing with us. In that sense there is indeed a Trade policy matters. There is a very ambitious EU global race. trade agenda, as well as a transatlantic agenda and an Over the past 20 years or so we have seen the agenda for trade with the Mercosur countries, with opening up of China, with the extraordinary consequences India and now with Japan. I would like to hear from that my noble friend Lord Bates sketched out for us, the Minister about these possibilities. There seems to and substantial reform in India. It does not always be a tremendous route to opening up more growth seem that India’s economy is very open, but the reforms potential. introduced in 1992 by the present Prime Minister If we want to be an effective force, we have to put launched it on what is now, by its earlier standards, a more emphasis on our European commitment. We significant growth path. We have also seen the collapse should look at how the Chinese are buying up Africa; of the Soviet Union. These three major changes brought at how Europe has been ineffective in dealing with some 3 billion people into open markets and more into Russia on energy questions; at how as a continent we the financial and economic mainstream of the world. do not seem to be taking advantage of the opportunities That has now spread through other continents as well. of the Arab spring. Together, the European Union We have seen the emergence of powerful economies in could do so much in these areas that it is not doing. Latin America, the Middle East of course, as the The biggest risk that this country faces is that we supplier of hydrocarbons to so many of those emerging give in to the pressures for a pared-down Europe—the powers, and now Africa. It is worth reminding ourselves kind of pressures that Boris Johnson talked about that six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the 797 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Foreign Affairs 798

[LORD GREEN OF HURSTPIERPOINT] we have been talking about. But I want to focus most world over the past five years are African. Ghana, of my remarks on the direct commercial challenge for Nigeria, Ethiopia and Mozambique are all growing at the UK. I want to persuade the House that I see the more than 8% a year. commercial challenge as extremely important to us, The G20 is a key sign of this change. Global but as one that goes inevitably and inextricably with a institutions are evolving in response. The G7/G8 has a positive cultural engagement. role to play, but its central role in determining the I begin with the raw matter of trade. We have had economic issues of importance to the world as a whole some rather disappointing statistics this morning on has essentially now been taken over by the G20, which the trade account for last month. Overall, the Office is a much better balanced grouping of nations to for Budget Responsibility report yesterday showed reflect the state of the world’s economy in the 21st century. that trade was a drag on growth in the first three This reflects the macroeconomic reality of today, which quarters of this year. This is a disappointment to us is that the global centre of gravity has shifted from and a reminder of how far we have to go. What is west to east and from north to south, and that change absolutely clear is that, as we work to rebalance our is irrevocable. economy, trade has to play a central role. It is not in The growth performance of China is remarkable. my view a matter of mercantilism: it is a matter of The numbers are extraordinary: anything times 1.3 billion understanding where growth will come from on a looks like a very large number. It can be compared to sustainable basis in this economy. the performance of Japan in the 1950s, 1960s and We must engage effectively with the international 1970s. If we look at Japanese growth rates at that time, markets if we are to pay our way in the 21st century they were not dissimilar to the extraordinary performance and find sustainable growth. That growth has to be that we have seen in China in the past 20 years. That based, as the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, reminded us tells us that as countries go through the process of very importantly, on competitiveness. We have a lot of urbanisation, growth rates take off at a remarkable work to do on that and I believe that trade itself is an rate. This is a reminder that this transformation is only important driver of competitiveness. There is ample halfway through, or thereabouts. China’s level of evidence that particularly smaller companies that get urbanisation now is at about 50%. India’s is at about into the international markets become not marginally 30%. It will probably move up in both cases to something but quite significantly more efficient, and quite quickly like 80% over the next generation. too. The more that we are successful in engaging more The year 2008 marked the point at which more than companies in the international markets, the more we half the world’s population lived in cities. By 2050, will strengthen the backbone of our own economy. that will be at least three-quarters, maybe 80%. Never We should recognise the importance of the European before have the two largest nations of the world been Union. A number of noble Lords drew attention to urbanising at the same time and at such a pace. the importance of the single market. It is an affluent All of this poses substantial challenges for us in this market of 500 million people. It may not be growing relatively small country. I am not sure whether we are significantly at the moment, but half of our exports go indeed smaller than all the provinces in China, but I to the European Union. We need to remind ourselves am sure that we are smaller than most of them. I am that, if you look at incremental import demand over not sure whether “punch above our weight” is the the next few years, Europe will produce as much right phrase, but at the moment we certainly have a incremental demand as China. I could put that point larger share of output than our population would around the other way of course: China will produce as support. We are at about 3% to 3.5% of world output much incremental demand as will Europe over the and our population is slightly less than 1% of world next few years. The real point is that, as a number output. We must reconcile ourselves to the inevitable noble Lords stressed, this is not an either/or issue implications of that for market share over time. between the EU and the rest of the world or between We also face many other challenges, which indeed the EU and the Commonwealth. This has to be both/and. the world faces collectively. The implications of all the We cannot afford to turn our backs on any of the development that we have been referring to and the important markets, whether the rich ones on our urbanisation that I have alluded to for such matters as doorstep across the channel or the Atlantic, or the climate change, environmental impact and claims on fast-growing ones further afield in Asia, the Middle water resources, food and energy are all profound. East, Africa and Latin America. Greater prosperity and a burgeoning middle class We need to recognise that the emerging markets will in so many of these countries do not translate be the main drivers of growth for the next generation. straightforwardly into greater peace and harmony on This is not a flash in the pan. People talk about the the world stage. slowing down of some of the key emerging markets in However, this rebalancing neither can nor should the past year or so, in Brazil, India and China. But, be reversed. We must recognise that in the energy first, the slowdown is clearly relative. Slowing down to markets of the world we will be competing for sources 7.5% in the case of China is a growth rate that anyone of energy that are reliable, affordable and sustainable. in Europe would rejoice to have. Secondly, we should We will have as a country to mobilise significant certainly not see this as an implosion. The best central investment to deliver energy to the economy and to forecast is that they will continue to grow significantly our consumers. We will have to play our part in for the next generation because there is quite a long ensuring that the world’s institutions of governance way to go in the transformation, urbanisation and evolve in a way that makes sense in this new era that social transformation underway there. 799 Foreign Affairs[6 DECEMBER 2012] Foreign Affairs 800

This is important to us for all sorts of reasons. One year, if we can, on the negotiation of a transatlantic is that their growth paths will not be automatic. It is partnership will be even more significant. There is a very clear that as these countries grow and as their large agenda, quite apart from the existing work on an middle classes develop in number and spending power, Indian free trade agreement and with Canada, Singapore we discover that they want the same things that everyone and now Morocco. In terms of looking at the impact, else wants. They want air conditioners, fridges and and showcasing, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, mopeds first and then cars, fashion, overseas travel for drawing attention to the importance of the Korean and good healthcare. The opportunities from the free trade agreement. emergence of these countries with significant purchasing We will keep at this. The importance of the trade power are tremendous for international suppliers. The agenda in Brussels cannot be overestimated; nor, as an opportunities are there for Britain as they are there for aside, can the importance of the single market. One of all our obvious competitors. the things that we have to achieve as a major member As I mentioned, in terms of our own economic of the European Union is a full-blooded implementation needs, we have no choice but to engage internationally of the single market, and there is clearly work to be and to do so competitively and energetically. That is done on that. Out of 12 dossiers currently on the table why we set a challenge last year of getting 100,000 more under the Single Market Act I, only one has been fully companies into the international markets over the implemented. In particular, with the services directive, next few years and focusing more on the non-traditional digital broadband and the digital single market, there markets for British business. The fact is that our is a huge terrain of activity that will bring significant current market share in these newer markets is benefits to the whole of the European Union, including disappointing. We have lost market share in virtually Britain. all of them. We have not merely lost market share to newer competitors such as China and Korea; we have However, trade liberalisation, crucial though it is, lost market share to our more obvious competitors is only one prong of any meaningful strategy. Trade just across the Channel in the shape of Germany, promotion, through UK Trade & Investment, UK France and Italy. Export Finance and posts around the world, is critical. I note that some noble Lords have reminded us not to Specifically, we have a minimal market share in throw the baby out with the bathwater and that our many of the 19 priority emerging markets for UK posts have other roles to play, but I believe that nothing Trade and Investment—that is to say less than 2% in they do is more important than promoting British 12 of them. We are behind Germany, France and Italy commerce in their respective markets. We need to in 12 of them and we have lost market share in 18 out ensure that they are trained and equipped with the of the 19. We have work to do in order to encourage right kind of people, with energy, competence and and support British business into these markets. experience. We will continue to work on that. The good news is that we have the underlying capability. I think I have mentioned this to the House Furthermore, trade is a major driver of economic before, but I repeat it because I go on rediscovering it. development. Turning to the comments of the right I travel not only around the world but around this reverend Prelate the Bishop of Worcester, I am pleased country. In every region of the country and in every to be able to report that we have reaffirmed the 0.7% of sector of the economy, you find businesses of all GNP target and indeed have committed ourselves to shapes and sizes—traditional and high-tech, old and getting there next year—the first G8 country to do so. new—that are taking on the world. They are aggressive, Within the commitment on development finance, I entrepreneurial, dynamic, growing and engaging draw particular attention to trade facilitation, in which internationally. The second piece of good news is that we now invest about £1 billion a year. The gains from our brand, if I can use that phrase, stands in very high effective trade facilitation, particularly in the continent regard around the world, not only for our reputation of Africa, will be very significant indeed to the Africans— for integrity in the way business is done—the Bribery which is of course a great good in its own right—but Act is widely admired—but for the quality of the also have resonances for opportunities for British products and services that we offer. The boost provided businesses. We will continue to be very active in trade by the Olympics to that brand is of incalculable value. facilitation through the work of the Department for International Development. The Government need to do the best possible job of promoting this endeavour. We need to do it through There is one other crucial point. However well the active work on trade liberalisation, which takes me Government do trade facilitation and trade promotion directly to the very constructive engagement with the work among British businesses, and however well we Trade Commissioner in Brussels, as the Commission prosecute the case in Brussels for open trading has the competence for the negotiation of free trade relationships between the EU and the rest of the agreements. As the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, mentioned, world, it is very important that there is lively, active the agreement to start discussions with Japan is important. support for businesses both here and overseas. The We should not be naive about how smoothly those House will be having a short debate later, introduced discussions will go or how quickly we will reach a by the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, on his report. I am conclusion but the obvious point is that a serious working with chambers of commerce around the opening up of the Japanese markets, not merely in international markets to upgrade the support that we terms of tariff barriers but, almost more importantly, provide for businesses, particularly incoming smaller of non-tariff barriers, will have a huge and healthy businesses into these markets. There is also a good impact on Europe as a whole and on the UK in deal of work to do domestically. As we would all particular. The US and the EU pushing forward next recognise, the quality of business support for business 801 Foreign Affairs[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 802

[LORD GREEN OF HURSTPIERPOINT] Let us hope that over the next few years, is very varied around the country, and is certainly very “it will do us no end of good”. varied around the world. This is a major agenda item for the next number of months. Motion agreed. Finally—I apologise that I am coming under some time pressure—I stress the importance not only of Ugandan Asians trade but, in that context also, of what we have variously Motion to Take Note called moral authority or soft power. A number of noble Lords have drawn attention in particular to 2.40 pm the importance of education. I strongly believe in the Moved By Lord Popat importance of education, both as a significant earner That this House takes note of the contribution in its own right but, equally importantly, as an indirect made by the Ugandan Asian community in the United supporter of British relationships for generations. If Kingdom on the occasion of the 40th anniversary you get that right, at the right stage of people’s lives, of their expulsion from Uganda. you build relationships that last a lifetime with people who become the leaders in their societies. We have a Lord Popat: My Lords, it is an honour and a great story to tell in many respects with strong privilege to move the Motion standing in my name on universities—and a strong higher education sector in the Order Paper. This debate means a great deal to me general—many of which are actively engaging around and my fellow Ugandan Asians, and I am very grateful the world. I note, as one example, the work of the to the powers that be for granting government time for Open University in Vietnam and also fully endorse this debate. the comments made by more than one noble Lord In 1997, on the 25th anniversary of the expulsion, about the importance to British students of the the great businessman Manubhai Madhvani—sadly internationalisation of our domestic higher education now departed—said of the Ugandan Asians: offering. That is a strength that is very hard to put any meaningful value on. “We came here 25 years ago full of anxiety to an unknown land. The British people extended a welcoming hand enabling us The whole House will be aware that student visas to make this country our home. Very few people tend to say thank are part of a wider issue where there is a difficult you. We intend to be different”. circle to square. We have a commitment to reduce This debate gives me a chance, on behalf of so many, the amount of net migration into the country but we to say thank you. want to remain open for business. I believe we have a This story begins long before the expulsion in 1972. good story to tell on inter-company transfers and Indians started moving to east Africa in large numbers entrepreneurial visas. It is worth noting that there is in the 18th and 19th centuries to build railways on no limit on student visas for those that pass the tests, behalf of the British, and others followed. Some of including the English-language test, and where the them became very successful entrepreneurs and established institution is a sponsoring institution. We are looking themselves among the business elite. One company at the way student numbers, and ins and outs, are alone, the Madhvani Group, accounted for 12% of monitored. If I may, I will write to noble Lords with Uganda’s national output, and many other firms excelled. more details on that. Uganda was granted independence in 1962, and the I stress that we have a warm welcome around the Ugandan Asians set about working with the Government world. Soft power is very much about education, the to build the economy further, including constructing role of the British Council and the role of the BBC. It schools and hospitals. Yet, as we all know, things did is also about well recognised brands and is, as I not progress smoothly. mentioned earlier, about the Olympics. Which other I remember the rise of Idi Amin particularly well. country in the world could have made fun of itself, in a On 25 January 1971, I was at Entebbe International gentle way, on the opening night ceremony by having Airport as my sister was due to travel to Britain for her Rowan Atkinson send up “Chariots of Fire” and by studies. At the stroke of midnight, confusion spread as having Her Majesty the Queen accompanied into the the army moved in and seized control of the airport. Olympic Stadium by James Bond? I can promise the The flight was cancelled, and at three in the morning House that this was noted and appreciated all around we were asked to vacate the airport. The 21-mile the world. We have a great brand to build on but have journey from Entebbe to Kampala was the longest of a lot of work to do. Finally, I thank my noble friend my life. The radio told us of the coup, and I will never Lord Howell for such an important and interesting forget the harrowing sight of bodies scattered along debate. the roads. Relations between the Ugandan Asians and the new regime continued to sour. Many of us, including 2.38 pm myself, knew that our time was up and left before we were pushed. Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, it remains for me to thank your Lordships for your kind remarks During Uganda’s independence, Ugandan Asians and my noble friend Lord Green for his excellent and had been given British protected passports, and in realistic summing up. We have had one Kipling quotation May 1971 my father sent me here to Britain as a so I will just end with another: student. Others who stayed were not so lucky. On 4 August 1972, Idi Amin announced that he had had a “Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should”, dream in which God had told him to expel the Asians, that over the past five years of financial crisis, and he issued a decree ordering almost all Asians—some “We have had no end of a lesson”. 60,000 of them—to leave. At the hands of this brutal 803 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Ugandan Asians 804 dictator, who murdered and tortured hundreds of closed on weekends. It was the Ugandan Asians who thousands of people, these 60,000 people were forced introduced late night shopping and Sunday openings. to leave behind everything but the clothes on their Within the Ugandan Asian community, and east African backs. They were brutally evicted and given only three Asians in general, we have a large number of eminent months to leave. doctors and surgeons, and I am proud to say that The expulsion led to a global game of political members of our community are serving today in the football. India made it clear that the 60,000 were Armed Forces and the police. Britain’s responsibility. Kenya closed its borders to Our community is often at the top of the education them. Advertisements in Leicester warned us not to go league tables, and we have a new generation of British-born there as there was no housing and no jobs. Friends and children who are excelling. A large percentage of our family ended up far afield in Canada, India, the US children study at Russell Group universities, and many and many other places. Yet the then Conservative of our British-born youngsters are now reaching the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, and his Government higher tiers of their professions, perhaps most notably rose above the rhetoric of Enoch Powell and others in the City. and demonstrated the compassion that I have come to The Ugandan Asians in Britain are philanthropic; associate with Britain. He ruled that Britain had a always giving back to the society that has given so legal and moral responsibility to take in those with much to them. I was very proud this year to see our British passports. community celebrating Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Over 28,000 homeless and scared refugees arrived Jubilee and to hear of so many Ugandan Asians between August and November at Stansted Airport. giving up time to volunteer for the Olympic and In an age when flights are now so regular, it is difficult Paralympic Games. to appreciate how organised the British were to ferry In a moment, I wish to reflect on why I feel we have 28,000 people across two continents in 90 days. It was been so successful in Britain. First I want to reflect on, a great testament to those involved and to British and praise Uganda for, the journey that she has been organisation that the operation went so smoothly. on since we left. I returned to Uganda earlier this year Those arriving were greeted at Stansted by a large as a member of our delegation for the Inter-Parliamentary number of charitable and voluntary organisations, Union assembly in Kampala. I was staggered by the which gave them food and shelter. The then Home progress made in 40 years in so many fields. It is Secretary, Robert Carr, established the Uganda remarkable that a country Winston Churchill once Resettlement Board, and 16 temporary camps were set referred to as the “Pearl of Africa”, that went through up across the country on old military bases. The Idi Amin’s dictatorship and a brutal civil war in its resettlement committee did fantastic work and we are first 25 years of independence, is now such a friendly very grateful to them, including Praful Patel, who was and outward-facing country. the sole Asian member of the board. Unfortunately, the Ugandan economy under Idi It was a very difficult time for those who came Amin fell apart; yet Britain and Uganda now do across. Many of us encountered racial tensions, jobs almost £150 million of bilateral trade every year—a were not always plentiful, and life was very difficult number that I am confident can grow substantially. I initially. My great friend and colleague in the other am delighted that the Ugandan high commissioner place and fellow Ugandan Asian, Shailesh Vara, has has been able to join us today. Her Majesty the Queen, said in the past of the Ugandan Asians: who is and always will remain a great inspiration to “Rather than looking at their expulsion as life-destroying, the Ugandan Asians, visited Uganda in 2007, and they saw it as a setback. They didn’t stay downcast, got up, and organisations such as the Commonwealth Parliamentary started over again”; Association and the Inter-Parliamentary Union continue and start over again we did. The Ugandan Asians have to support the building of democracy there. helped to transform the fabric of British society, and So much of this improvement is down to President the children and grandchildren of those who came Museveni, who in 1997, to commemorate the across are now excelling in so many fields. Today in 25th anniversary of our expulsion, came to Neasden Britain, Ugandan Asians play a sizeable role in the Temple and invited back those who had been forced to national economy. While exact figures are not easily leave in 1972. This brought closure to so many of my available for the impact of this one community, Britons friends, and a small few even chose to return. Today in with south Asian roots today make up 2.5% of the Uganda, the Madhvani Group is once again the largest population but account for 10% of our national output. private sector enterprise, showing how time really can The number of Ugandan Asians on the rich list is also be a great healer. sizeable. The influence of the Ugandan Asians has So why have the Ugandan Asians been so successful also spread to British politics. Within this House we in Britain? The answer, I believe, lies in our values. have four Ugandan Asians—the noble Baroness, Lady Ugandan Asians have always believed in aspiration, Vadera, the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, and myself, as enterprise and the importance of family—three of the well as the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of values that Britain holds most dear. We have also York; and in the other place we also have Shailesh come to understand the importance of hard work and Vara. education, which are things that we have learnt here Perhaps our most notable achievement has been to rather than imported with us. We believe in self-reliance come to the nation of shopkeepers and transform the yet understand, perhaps because of our ordeals, the shopping experience for British consumers. When we need for a strong community and to support those arrived, shops shut at 5pm on weekdays and were most in need. Yet we are also fiercely patriotic. We 805 Ugandan Asians[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 806

[LORD POPAT] The element I am most proud of is how we have believe in Britain: its values, its tradition and its ability integrated into British society and become a values-led to act as a beacon on the international stage. We are community. The expulsion was difficult on so many proud to be British; we are the embodiment of people levels and we cannot forget those who lost their lives, who have found a home that we love and where we but we are a strong community and better people belong. because of the challenge we had to overcome. Our values mirror those of the society around us. On the 40th anniversary of our expulsion from We have integrated into British society and adopted Uganda, I wish to conclude by saying thank you to many new customs along the way, but we have managed everyone who has helped to make Britain our home: to combine the maintaining of elements of our roots to the volunteers who met us at the airport; to Ted and heritage while ensuring that we are British through Heath and his Cabinet, who took such a courageous and through. As a community, we owe a great deal to political decision; to Her Majesty the Queen, who has the Jewish population and to the Board of Deputies of been inspirational; and to the hundreds of thousands British Jews for helping us to develop. In researching of people who have helped us to develop as a community. for this debate, I came across an article from the Chief Thank you. We are so incredibly grateful. Rabbi, the noble Lord, Lord Sacks, in which he said: “Many Jews of my parents’ generation owed their lives to this 2.54 pm country. It took them in when they faced persecution elsewhere. They loved Britain and deeply internalized its values”. Lord Parekh: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Popat, for securing this debate. He is himself an The parallels with my own community are, to me, excellent example of the subject of our discussion. He obvious. came to this country traumatised and penniless, and is So often, our national debate on immigration comes now a successful businessman and a member of your down to numerical details. I would argue that integration Lordships’ House. Over the centuries, Britain has is a more important element. If you are willing to welcomed and given a home to many persecuted work hard, learn the language and give back to this minorities. It is striking that Ugandan Asians have great nation, most people do not mind about your skin come to occupy a special place in our national narrative. colour or where you come from. My noble friend Lord Indeed, they have become a term of art for referring to Tebbit, who sadly could not join us today, wrote to me all east African Asians. That has to do with the way in ahead of this debate. He originally opposed the arrival which the Ugandan Asians came and settled, and the of the Ugandan Asians but said in his letter: way in which British society responded to them. “It is clear that the Ugandan Asian community has become There were about 75,000 Asians in Uganda, integrated into Britain and upholds British values and standards”. constituting about 1% of the population. Around They have, he went on, 35,000 of them had British passports. They became a target of hostility and tribal politics and were subjected “made a remarkable contribution to our economy and the Chancellor’s tax revenues and a below average call on his expenditure”. to expropriation and brutality. About 8,000 families, numbering about 28,000 people, arrived in Britain We do not want a multicultural society in which over a period of 90 days. It is important to bear in different communities and religions are encouraged to mind that, unlike the way in which we have dithered live separate lives under different social structures. about responding to Kenyan Asians, Britain welcomed That form of multiculturalism is not how we build a them, honoured their British passports and made strong and stable nation. In the same article, the Chief provisions for their settlement. Enoch Powell moved a Rabbi concludes: motion at the Conservative Party conference condemning “Without shared values and a sense of collective identity, no government policy but the Young Conservatives and society can sustain itself for long”. the Federation of Conservative Students saw to it that I could not agree more. Britain is a different place the motion was defeated by 1,721 votes to 736. from the one that I arrived in. It is more tolerant of The Heath Government was unbending; not only ethnic minorities and the glass ceiling that prevented that, they gave leadership to British public opinion. It their rise in many professions has, I believe, been is very striking that this was more or less the first time smashed. It is not difficult to imagine Britain continuing since the Second World War that ordinary British to become a more ethnically diverse place and, as long people had offered their homes and hospitality to as we can maintain the values that have made Britain people whom they had never seen, as they did with the great, this is not a cause for concern. Ugandan Asians. In the first three months, 2,000 private The tale of Ugandan Asians in Britain is one that individuals had offered their homes, and within about makes me proud, particularly when I see how much a year that figure had risen to 5,000. Among them, the new generation of British Indians has excelled. In several political and religious leaders had offered 40 years, we have come far and I hope that our their homes. I gather that one Member of this House community continues to pay Britain back for what she whom I know quite well—the noble Baroness, Lady has given us. At the launch of the Conservative Friends Bottomley—and her husband Peter Bottomley were of India in April of this year, the Prime Minister said: among those who offered their home to a Ugandan Asian family. “The East African Indians have been one of the most successful groups of immigrants to any country anywhere in history”, Of course, there were cases where some local authorities panicked, not being quite sure what was in store for and that they, them. The fine city of Leicester was one of them; it “give so much to this incredible country”. put a notice in a Ugandan newspaper saying, “Please 807 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Ugandan Asians 808 do not come here”. To its credit, it must be remembered They have also profoundly transformed our shopping that that notice—I have a copy of the advertisement— culture, living on top of the shop, opening until late referred to the fact that they should not come, as and serving exotic items, with all family members advised by the Uganda Resettlement Board—in other joining in to look after the shop, ranging from the words, the decision was taken by the URB, not by the grandfather to the grandchild of seven. They provide city of Leicester on its own. The city acted in that a kind of shelter—a lively, vibrant place—in inner way because it was not quite sure how many of the cities. 75,000 people would be going there or what the central They have also thrown up a prosperous middle Government’s policy would be. It was only a few months class, giving the utmost importance to the education later that central Government introduced Section 11 of their children. It is very striking that their children of the Local Government Act 1966. To its great credit, tend to be high achievers at GCSE and A-level; many Leicester—in spite of that advertisement, which in a of them are finding their way into some of our great historical context is fully understandable—welcomed universities. them and provided them with a home where they The third generation of Ugandan Asians—and they could flourish. That was Britain at its best, and it goes are what we are now talking about—has continued to show how immigration, if wisely handled, can this trend. Ugandan Asians, in short, are continuing become a source of great public support and strength. to make an invaluable contribution and to provide a To their credit, the Ugandan Asians reciprocated in great pool of commercial and professional talent. I the same spirit of gratitude and self-help. Many of join the rest of your Lordships in saluting this country them refused to accept the help that the Government and in welcoming and celebrating the contributions were extending to them, while some who accepted made by Ugandan Asians to this country. financial help returned it. Within 15 years, all 28,300 of the Ugandan Asians who had come here had settled 3.02 pm down. Never before in British history has a persecuted group established itself so well in such a short time, Lord Steel of Aikwood: I congratulate the noble without recourse to public resources. That is a wonderful Lord, Lord Popat, on introducing this debate today example to all minorities and that is the Ugandan and warmly thank him. I have to begin with an apology, Asians’ first contribution—one to be measured not in because when I put my name down, I thought the terms of their monetary and professional contribution debate was going to start at 2 pm and I have to attend but in terms of the historical example that they have an engagement in my former constituency this evening set to other minorities. over snow-covered roads. I hope the Front Benches will acquit me of discourtesy for not being here at the The second contribution is no less important. I wind-up and transgressing the Companion in that way. hope you will forgive me if I concentrate on non-tangible I did not want to withdraw my name because of my aspects of their contribution; after all, I am a philosopher own personal background in this matter. My father by training. This contribution has to do with the fact was a minister of the Church of Scotland, ministering that in spite of being persecuted and harassed, they for eight years to the Scots population in Kenya and did not bear a grudge against the Ugandan Government. Uganda officially, and Tanganyika unofficially. As a They did not become an anti-Ugandan lobby, as they boy, I drove with him on his preaching tours during could have easily done. They blamed Amin but not the the school holidays throughout those three territories. country and its people. As the noble Lord, Lord Popat I have used every excuse and opportunity to go back said, they took great pride in returning to the country and visit those places whenever I can, and I will be from time to time. That spirit of forgiveness and again during the February Recess. reconciliation is their second great contribution. The problem for the Asians in east Africa started While many Ugandan Asians came to Britain, some not in Uganda but in Kenya, with the Africanisation of them went to Canada, Australia, the United States programme of the Kenyatta Government. At that and even India. Family members were scattered all point, the Asian population of Kenya was less than over the world and formed a vibrant trans-national 2% of the whole. They had come there from 1895 onwards network. As a result, there is hardly a Ugandan Asian to build the railway and develop a considerable role in family that does not have one branch in Canada, one trading in the colony. Sadly, in 1967-68, when they in the United States and one in India. This not only started to come to Britain because of the Africanisation makes them a transnational network; it also gives programme, there was a great controversy in this them a unique global and cosmopolitan consciousness. country about what should be done about it—against That is the third great contribution: a way of looking the wishes of people like Iain Macleod and Hugh at the world that is grounded in global interconnectedness. Fraser, who had been the Ministers responsible at the time of independence of these territories. They had The fourth great contribution of the Ugandan Asians given the Asian—in fact, the whole expatriate—population is at the level of culture. They have built temples and two years in which to opt either for local citizenship or community centres. Sadly, not many noble Lords can to retain British citizenship. Many had retained British read or write the language, but many of them have citizenship, but the Government of the day decided to written wonderful short stories and poetry in their introduce the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, language, which also happens to be my language—namely, which withdrew that fundamental right of entry into Guajarati. In fact, they are the only minority I know this country. It was something to which we in the who have produced a rich, vibrant literature on their Liberal Party at that time were very much opposed, experiences in Uganda and in Britain. and I was very proud of my party that we divided the 809 Ugandan Asians[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 810

[LORD STEEL OF AIKWOOD] Looking back to the time of the expulsion, I recall House of Commons against the Second Reading of the arrival of disorientated people with little more that Bill. We only had 10 Members at that time, but we than the clothes they were wearing. I was struck by attracted 62 others from the major parties into the both the resilience of the Ugandan Asians and the Lobby in protest against that decision. Interestingly extraordinary generosity of the British people. There enough, I looked up what the vote was in this Chamber, were some noisy, ill informed protests against the and it was much closer. With the influence of the decision of Edward Heath’s Government to welcome Bishops and other sensible people, the vote in favour bewildered refugees who, in some cases, had been of the Bill was carried narrowly by 109 votes to 85, thrown out of the land of their birth. Edward Heath which shows again how this Chamber was perhaps rightly earned the lasting gratitude of Ugandan Asians, rather more principled than that of the Commons. and his humanitarian stance was, as we have heard, Anyway, I wrote a book about it at the time and widely supported by many others. that much neglected work I discovered in the Library Following the end of the First World War, here cost £2 at the time. I could not find my own copy, immigrants from India, mainly Gujarat and Punjab, so I went on to Amazon and I found that I could get were encouraged to bring their enterprise and skills to one for £44. I wish that everything I have done had newly developing British east Africa—to Kenya, Uganda risen at the same rate. That is slightly irrelevant, because and Tanganyika. Life was tough, and they endured the impact of that Act clearly had to be withdrawn many hardships. My father was a medical officer there when Idi Amin’s Government in Uganda started to for some years, and he would tell us about the difficulties expel the British population by force. In 1971, I went the early pioneers had in establishing themselves in a on a visit to Kampala to meet a member of Idi Amin’s new country. Over the years, they gradually became Government who had been at university with me in the industrial and commercial backbone of the country, Edinburgh; later I had to flee the country. The British with their own schools, places of worship, clubs and high commission was not very happy to have a Member community centres. Then, suddenly confronted with of Parliament on its hands, and insisted that I be Idi Amin’s cruel and erratic behaviour, they were forced driven back to Entebbe Airport for 21 miles—to which to leave their settled life behind and seek a new future the noble Lord, Lord Popat, referred—in the daylight, in Britain. getting there at 6 pm, when the plane from Nairobi Well educated and previously reasonably wealthy was coming through at midnight. For six hours, I sat people had to leave their homes, assets and African in the airport, accompanied by the noble Lord, Lord friends for the uncertainty of life in a new country. Kirkwood, who at that time was my assistant. We Some spent a brief period in resettlement camps watched the exodus of the Asians: we watched their and from there sought cheap, crowded accommodation baggage being looted and dumped on the tarmac; we and worked all hours of the day to feed themselves watched their jewellery and watches being taken off and their families. However, their extraordinary resilience them. I wrote at the time: and spirit of enterprise stayed with them. They worked “I have never witnessed such scenes of unbridled abusive long hours running corner shops or in low-paid power and virtual anarchy”. employment. By dint of hard work, some slowly moved It was a terrible episode. into the food and clothing warehouse businesses. I will be brief because I am not able to stay. Winston Others, as we know, moved into wider branches Churchill visited the colonies in 1908; he was Under- of industry and commerce, bringing trade and adding Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time. He wrote: value to the country that had given them refuge in “It is the Indian trader who, penetrating and maintaining himself in all sorts of places to which no white man would go, or their hour of need. The same spirit of enterprise in which no white man could earn a living, has more than anyone soon took them and their children into medicine, law else developed the early beginnings of trade and opened up the and other professions. I remember a young lad in a first slender means of communication. It was by Indian labour local corner shop who used to do his homework in that the one vital railway on which everything else depends was between serving customers; today, he is a university constructed. It is the Indian banker who supplies perhaps the professor. largest part of the capital yet available for business and enterprise, and to whom the white settlers have not hesitated to recur for Noble Lords have heard of some of the individual financial aid”. achievements and successes, and I want to focus on That was written in 1908 and it was that spirit of another very important achievement that has lessons enterprise and adventure that these people brought so for us all today. One of the criticisms of immigrant commendably to this country, and for which we thank communities is that they are sometimes reluctant to them. integrate into the life and norms of their adopted country, instead leading parallel lives in what are sometimes termed ghettoes. It is a two-way thing. On 3.08 pm the one side, some immigrants tend to fear the Lord Singh of Wimbledon: It is a pleasure to follow hostility of others and therefore keep together. the noble Lord, Lord Steel, who has done so much Unfortunately this itself increases suspicion, and over the years to assist not only the Ugandan Asians sometimes a measure of actual hostility, in the host but many others on these shores. I, too, would like to population. We see a little of this today in some parts thank the noble Lord, Lord Popat, for securing this of Yorkshire, where even those born here sometimes important debate celebrating the tremendous contribution seem to lead separate lives. None of this applies to of Ugandan Asians to the life of this country following those who came here from Uganda 40 years ago. their expulsion from Uganda by Idi Amin 40 years Many in Britain understood and sympathised with ago. their plight, and the new arrivals enthusiastically adapted 811 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Ugandan Asians 812 to their new environment where they have since gone adapt to and adopt British ways. They are a remarkable on to reach the highest level in local and national example to which only one other community can government, including a much valued presence in your perhaps be compared. They have already been referred Lordships’ House. to—the Jews who came here, not necessarily expelled, As I said, successful integration is a two-way process, but forced to flee the tyranny of Nazi Germany before and I want to end by paying tribute to the British the war. people for their kindness and generosity in welcoming As a very young Member of Parliament I was Asians forced out of Uganda. It is truly a remarkable already aware of what it was like to live in a country success story which has important lessons for us today where, because of your colour or your religion, you in a world of increasing movement of populations and were persecuted. In this context I am delighted that I cultures. am to be followed in this debate by my friend—and I use the word very advisedly—the noble Lord, Lord Janner of Braunstone. He and I in 1970—another 3.14 pm founder member, the noble Lord, Lord Dykes, is also Lord Cormack: My Lords, it is a great pleasure here—helped to found the Campaign for the Release once again to follow the noble Lord, Lord Singh. I did of Soviet Jewry. They were people in Soviet Russia so a few weeks ago. I speak in this debate for two who were not allowed to worship or to live normal reasons. The first is that towards the end of March last lives but for whom there was an opportunity, if they year, I sat by my noble friend Lord Popat shortly could get a visa, to get out of the country. The noble before he made his maiden speech. There was an Lords, Lord Janner and Lord Dykes, and I and others—I exchange on the Floor of the House on prayers. I shall think of our friend Sir Ivan Lawrence who was a never forget it because he said to me, “I can’t say Member of Parliament at that time and was part of anything because I haven’t made my maiden speech”— our group—worked very hard to draw attention to and, of course, he could not—“Could you let it be their plight. known that those of us who are not Christians but are That was the underlying reason why, in many ways, of other faiths attach great importance to the established I felt that it would be utterly inconsistent and totally church in this country and to the ritual of daily wrong, working as we were on that front, to do anything prayers in this Chamber?”. I was very moved by that, other than give the most unequivocal support to Edward and I did indeed quote my noble friend and make Heath in the difficult but principled stand he took those points on the Floor of this House. I was moved when it came to the Ugandan Asians. Although he is by it because it was indicative, in a few sentences, of far too modest to say this, my noble friend Lord Popat what the noble Lord, Lord Singh, has just said: the is a living example of the rightness of that decision. way in which this community has become part of He came to this country, put much into it, prospered Britain in every possible sense. My noble friend, in his as a result—I am delighted to say—and is a valued admirable opening speech, made that very plain. Member of your Lordships’House. What greater example My second reason for wanting to say a few words in can there be of progress from exile—a member of a this debate is that I was elected to the House of repudiated and expelled community obtaining a position Commons in 1970. I was one of the Conservatives of leadership and influence in his adopted country, of who helped to create the majority for Edward Heath which he is rightly and so movingly proud? by defeating the late Lady Lee—Jennie Lee, as she Over the years, all of us in politics make many, then was—in the Cannock constituency. I represented many mistakes. We are all guilty of missing opportunities a seat that was adjacent to Wolverhampton. I am but in this case the British Government of the day held proud to say that I was until his dying day a great fast to that which was good. They did not render evil friend of Enoch Powell. Indeed, I had the privilege of for evil but said “Welcome” and, as a result, they have giving the address at his funeral. He was not right on been richly rewarded. I should like to conclude by everything but then, nor is anyone else. echoing the words of my noble friend Lord Steel of I was proud to be in the House of Commons when Aikwood. It is very splendid that my noble friend the Conservative Prime Minister said, “This is our Lord Popat has said thank you to this country but we duty. There can be no equivocation. These are British owe a big thank you to him and to his community for subjects with British passports. They are being expelled all they have done. from their country which in many cases is the land of their birth. They are entitled to come here and they 3.22 pm will be welcome here”. I was one of those Conservative Lord Janner of Braunstone: My Lords, I thank the Members who was proud to support a Prime Minister noble Lord, Lord Cormack, especially for his kind who was doing what was right. Although it was not words about me and about the Jewish community, of desperately convenient and there was very understandable which am part. I praise my noble friend Lord Popat on concern at the numbers of immigrants coming into this remarkable and important debate on the occasion this country, here was a special category—a group of the 40th anniversary of the exile of the Ugandan who did not deserve to suffer from that 1968 Bill of Asian community from their home by Idi Amin. My which my noble friend Lord Steel of Aikwood spoke noble friend was right that there similarities between so movingly a few moments ago. his community and my Jewish family who were They came here and we all know what has happened immigrants. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, since. They integrated into our country. They infused for his very kind words. He has long been a friend of a new life into the economy in many parts of the land. mine and I only regret that he sits on the wrong side of They worked. They prospered. They learnt how to the House. 813 Ugandan Asians[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 814

[LORD JANNER OF BRAUNSTONE] races and backgrounds work together. I am delighted I remember all of this so well and I am delighted to have worked for Leicester and I still remain a to share my memories with the House today and to supporter of that wonderful city. speak of my experience with the unique and wonderful We can look around this House and see the diverse Ugandan Asian community from 1970, when I had Asian communities, who are first, second, third, or just become an MP for part of Leicester. We could even fourth generation and who have contributed to ask why the Ugandan Asian community chose our country. We all should praise my noble friend Leicester. The first immigrants went to the city by Lord Popat, who moved from Uganda after being chance and the rest by recommendation. My Jewish exiled because of his own race. At the young age of 17, family had fled intolerance and discrimination, and he put himself through night school. During his career had moved to Britain, as did many Asian families who he has worked to advocate community cohesion between moved to live with their relations who had already different faiths. He became a brilliant businessman settled in Leicester. and, sadly, he joined the Conservative party—the wrong In 1972, in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, an party. He is the first Gujarati Member of the House of advert in its local newspaper declared that Leicester Lords and he stands in this Chamber with many other was full up and that emigrating Asians should look for distinguished Asian Members. It is truly remarkable somewhere else. However, just like all other communities, and so is he. the Asian immigrants were intelligent people and the For me, the key to acceptance and to sensible families already in Leicester contacted other family immigration can be summed up in one word—integration. members in Uganda to make sure that they hurried up You retain your pride in your culture, customs, religions and moved before it was too late. In that year, an even and traditions but you adapt to the place where you larger influx from Uganda arrived in Leicester. have chosen to live. Integration takes time. Over the Sadly, as you would expect, as proud as I was of past 40 years, the Ugandan Asian community in Britain Leicester—I still am—for welcoming the diverse has demonstrated how it can keep its individuality but communities, they were not accepted by everyone. The also identify itself as part of our country. Our friend is local National Front and other fascist organisations the leader. encouraged more “white” people to join their campaign We congratulate here today our Ugandan Asian to fight against the immigration. Thanks to the Leicester community on its contribution to our country. Here in Mercury, the local newspaper which is still running Britain, we must always recognise and celebrate our today, and the local police, we kept the fascists at bay. true diversity, and continue to ensure that we work In 1977, I won the next election, but I only just with all minorities in our very fine country to keep made it. Britain a unique place in which to live. One of my most unique and touching experiences was when I first met the Asian community at a meeting 3.29 pm in Leicester. A mix of Ugandan and Indian people attended this meeting. Having spoken to Apa Pant, Lord Dykes: My Lords, the fact that I am following the Indian High Commissioner at the time, I stood up the excellent speech of the noble Lord, Lord Janner of and declared with passion how I wanted to help their Braunstone, gives me the opportunity to say that some community, and how happy I was that they were years after we had the great dramas which centred not bringing diversity and new culture to Leicester. only on Leicester, but on the London Borough of Harrow, where I was a Member of Parliament—in Immediately, a young man wearing traditional Indian those days in the Conservative cause—we had the dress stood up. He said: “Mr Janner, you have no right great privilege, right in the centre of the borough in to lecture us on how we should live. You do not Harrow, of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the understand the problems we face. You have never been second and third exodus of the Kindertransport children spat at because you are a different colour. You have coming to the railway stations in London. They had never been cursed on a bus or sworn at because of been saved and rescued and taken to various parts of your accent. Go away Mr Janner”. He sat down and the country, and been given good, kind homes where the room was absolutely silent. they were welcomed as Jewish children fleeing from I replied, “You are wrong, sir. I am a Jew and half Nazi tyranny. I had, of course, to remind them that my family were murdered by racists; destroyed because British Rail had asked me to pass on a message saying of their race. Sadly, I am an expert on discrimination. that there was still a bill outstanding for 950 scones, I know far too much about it. We must work together 475 cups of tea, 725 cups of coffee and could someone to fight racism. We have the same enemies. We have eventually pay the bill, which, with interest would be the same friends. We have many of the same ideas”. about £19,000? I did not bother with that. From that moment, my relationship with the Asian I was very proud of the fact that Harrow, my community blossomed and developed from respect to borough, where I was the MP for one of the two friendship. constituencies, represented the multi ethnic, multiracial, The Ugandan Asian community has brought so multicommunity philosophy that had already begun. much to this country. Its determination to survive and We had a very substantial Jewish community of various to create a home in Britain is evident. It helped to save groups, kinds and origins, as the noble Lord, Lord Leicester’s economy by bringing in new ideas. It built Janner, will know—he came to Harrow quite often I up wholesale and retail sectors. Today, Leicester is one think. In an informal, colloquial sense I was honorary of the first non-white majority cities in Britain. It is a member of at least four synagogues and I went to truly remarkable place where communities of different synagogue as much as I went to church, which I was 815 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Ugandan Asians 816 very proud of, and I always enjoyed them, even if the Lord Popat, of Harrow. That has given me, just as a service was a bit longer than the Christian one. It was personal example, a wonderful picture of the success a great joy for us to welcome them and to remember of what this community has done for this country and what that meant for people. what it meant for them to be saved, along with their Harrow had other groups as well. We had 190 Ismailis families, children of all ages and older people, too. centred in a complex of about five different roads, They have made such a contribution, which is unbelievable with their pictures of the Aga Khan on the mantelpiece for a community that is quite small in comparison and so on, and I kept in close touch with them. In with other influxes over the decades. So we say thank 1970, when I was first elected, having been very close you to them for what they have done. to Edward Heath as his campaign assistant for the As the noble Lord, Lord Popat, said, it is a matter general election in 1964 and a candidate in 1966, he by of great delight that a reconciliation subsequently then having become leader of the party, it was rather occurred, with Uganda becoming a totally different difficult for the local Conservative Association to say country. I am glad to see that the Ugandan Government no to me when I was presented as possible choice of are represented in the public seats today. That, too, candidate and so I fought Tottenham. The courage he means a lot to us. I often feel that historically each showed was immense. He was not always an easy continent has its turn. I remember the stark poverty person to work with—I hasten to add that I worked at and abject conditions in Asia after the end of the a very humble level and he was the famous Prime Second World War and the old empires, with the Minister by then—but when I was elected in Harrow French, the Dutch and so on leaving those territories he had not forgotten that Enoch Powell had issued his in great poverty and distress. Good things have been venomous remarks on several occasions just before done in the economies of various countries, but Asia that election. was transformed by business acumen—by entrepreneurs, We tried to take action in Harrow because it was business people and investment. Who is to say that in such a sensitive subject, with our multiethnic groups some decades’ time, with more education and investment, and so on. Edward Heath, with his characteristic dark, not only will the Chinese come to Africa but other gothic humour said, “Now that you have become an people will, too? Perhaps the British and other colonial MP I want to punish you by making you a PPS at the powers will come back with their companies and Ministry of Defence, dealing with all the Ministers, invest more as well, not just in mining and extraction but in the mean time we are also going to do something but in other things. They will help to build up Africa, else”—this was slightly later—“we are going to make as will the existing and emerging bourgeoisie in Africa— Harrow a red-star zone for receiving Ugandan Asian the business community that is in many different African refugees”. We therefore promulgated this locally. countries, and I am sure in Uganda as well, which I have not had the pleasure of visiting. That reconciliation Noble Lords can imagine that the scenes were a bit is important, because we are all in the global village stormy in some of the local political groupings. In my now, and it means that Africa could be the next own association there were some indigenous characters continent to develop—with more investment in education, from the original community who were not so keen on and more of the air-conditioning that is needed in very this, but we insisted and Edward Heath, with great hot climates. As those things gradually come, they will courage, and Alec Douglas-Home as well as other mean a great deal to those who experienced the bitter members of the Government ensured that legislation past and later a glorious future, and arrived here to was passed, as referred to by the noble Lord, Lord help this country to become one of greater justice and Cormack. I thank him for his remarks. We insisted on fairness and multiethnic tolerance. that and we never looked back from the original reception when two sets of families, I think, came in. I am not exaggerating when I say that the borough of 3.36 pm Harrow was already a dynamic area, thanks to the Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, over the over the centuries local MP—that is exaggerating, of course—and a very communities have had to flee persecution, drop everything successful business area in terms of the people who they owned and the connections they had built up, resided there, but the philosophy, ethics and business and flee. Over 1,000 years ago my own community, the acumen of the borough was transformed not only by Zoroastrian Parsees, had to flee their homeland of the original Jewish communities whose members were ancient Persia and settle in India. Fast forward to resident there and sometimes working there, but by today and I would say that the Parsee community, in the arrival of the Ugandan Asians. terms of per capita achievement, was one of the most It had an extraordinary, tangible effect over a few successful communities in the world, in spite of the years. The borough was transformed; it was electrified way in which they had to leave their country. into becoming an interesting, riveting place, not only I thank the noble Lord, Lord Popat, for initiating because the local corner shop stayed open until midnight this debate. Forty years ago, as we have heard, Ugandan or even 1am, but for all the other contributions that Asians had to drop everything and flee due to the this remarkable community has made. Some time after, cruel actions of a brutal dictator, Idi Amin, and came doing my rounds as the Conservative MP for Harrow to this country with nothing. Fast forward 40 years East in our main residential area of Stanmore where and look at what they have achieved. There is the we had our most important ward committee, I noticed Madhvani family, of whom the noble Lord spoke; the arrival of a very distinguished, very courteous, Anuj Chande, my friend, who is a member of that family, very polite young Ugandan Asian gentleman who is a senior partner in Grant Thornton. The noble Lord, slightly later became the ward chairman. I am referring, Lord Popat, himself has been an enormous success of course, to Dolar Popat; now the noble Lord, himself, and then there is my friend Shailesh Vara in 817 Ugandan Asians[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 818

[LORD BILIMORIA] This country has been built on good immigration, the other place, and the Jatania family. I could go on the kind that we have seen from the Ugandan Asians, with the numerous examples of Ugandan Asian business but the way in which this Government are dealing with people who have been successful in this country, all in immigration, with their immigration cap, is crude and the space of a few decades. blunt—they are using a carpet-bombing technique. When I first imported Cobra beer to the UK, I The Government’s policy is not just addressing bad knew that Indian restaurants were going to be my immigration, it is also stifling the good immigration base, but the first case I sold was to my local corner that, quite frankly, this country has been built on over shop, owned by east African Asians. Today I am a the centuries. The immigration cap is affecting businesses, senior independent director of Booker, the largest not only in the signals that it is sending out in general wholesale company in Britain, and we supply over but in very practical terms. For example, as I mentioned 70,000 independent retailers, many of whom are east earlier, the foundation of my business is the Indian African Asians. I have seen first-hand how hard these restaurant industry, where I know from the Bangladesh families work and how every member contributes to Caterers Association—the leading industry body—how the success of their businesses. I know so many stories much the industry is suffering because it cannot bring of children coming home from school to work in their in the skilled staff, and chefs in particular, that it parents’ shop, who then work late into the night on desperately needs. I am all for “curry colleges” being their homework. This embodies for me what it is like set up in Britain in the way that the University of West to be an Asian in Britain. London, where I was proud to be Chancellor for five years, is doing. However, these initiatives take time to When I am asked about Asian values, I say that it is produce the skilled individuals that the industry so very simple—it is down to the importance of hard badly needs. In the mean time the restaurants, which work, of family and of education. The noble Lord, are already suffering a huge recession, are, on top of Lord Popat, also spoke of these values. Nobody embodies that, being deprived of skilled staff by the Government’s these Asian values more or better than the Ugandan ill-considered Immigration Rules—and we as consumers Asian community. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord are suffering because we are a nation of “curryholics”. Popat, on securing this debate and highlighting the I have spoken many times about how the Immigration achievements of this wonderful community. However, Rules are affecting higher education. Britain has the the success of the Zoroastrian Parsees in India was best universities in the world, alongside those in America. possible only because the Indians, starting with the Now the Government have removed the two-year Gujaratis on the west cost of India, allowed the Parsees postgraduation visa for students, which was such an to come in and settle, practice their religion and keep attraction to foreign students, who brought some £8 billion their culture and customs—and not just exist but of revenue into this country. Quite apart from that, co-exist with the local Indian community. Similarly, foreign students enrich our universities; they enrich the success of the Ugandan Asian community has our home students, giving them wonderful experience been possible only because of the generosity of this of interacting with international students as well as great country that took them in and gave them the building generational links across the world. I am the opportunity to flourish. The noble Lord, Lord Popat, third generation of my family to have been educated in has thanked this country; I always thank it for giving this country. me and the Asians here that opportunity. We have seen a dramatic fall in the number of Let us put this in perspective. As the noble Lord, applications from students around the world, particularly Lord Janner, said, in the 1970s this was a country full from India, because the Government are sending out of prejudice, when the glass ceiling was not just still signals that Britain does not want foreign students. I there but was double-glazed. Even when I came from know that this is not the case but that is the perception India as a 19 year-old in the early 1980s, Britain was a that has been created. Some 30% of academics at very different country from what it is today. Today, we Oxford and Cambridge, for example, are foreign. Even have improved in leaps and bounds as a nation that is they are suffering in terms of getting the brightest and not just an opportunity-for-all country but a multicultural the best because of what I believe is a retrograde country and a meritocracy, where people from any government policy. religious or racial background can reach the top in I have spoken before about the UK Border Agency every field. It is a country where entrepreneurship was abruptly taking away the licence from London looked down upon three or four decades ago. Today, Metropolitan University to sponsor visas for foreign entrepreneurship as demonstrated by the Ugandan students and telling the existing students that they had Asian community is celebrated in this country. 60 days to find another university. It claimed to have In fact, those corner shops started by this community found irregularities but the vast majority of those are the cornerstone of our economy—the entrepreneurial 2,500 to 3,000 students were completely innocent of success stories of these individuals, who went as complete any wrong-doing. This is without regard to the finances strangers to every high street of this country, opened of the university, which will be short of £30 million a up their shops, won customers, made friends and, year. Not only does this jeopardise the university but it more often than not, put back into their local communities. sends a signal to foreign students around the world To this day, in spite of the proliferation of the giant that if they come and study in Britain there is no supermarkets, the Ugandan Asians who own the two certainty that they will be able to complete their corner shops near our house know the names of all of studies at their institution. That is damaging and my children, as they know the names of the children short-sighted. Again, I ask the Minister if she will of all their customers, and they work really hard. request the Government to remove student figures 819 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Ugandan Asians 820 from the immigration figures, just as the United States, As such, they arrived on British shores completely Canada and Australia have done. Why do we have to penniless. General Amin took everything from us except include them? our knowledge and what we had in our heads. In conclusion, we are a tiny country of 60 million I think that I speak for most, if not all, of those people and we are rightly worried about excessive who came to this country during this time when I immigration. We need to clamp down on illegal express my gratitude for Prime Minister Edward immigration, but why are we doing it in a way that is Heath’s honourable decision to allow those of us with harming our economy, our universities and our British passports to settle here. Others went to places competitiveness—the very fabric of our nation? As such as Canada, Australia and Europe, but I am the noble Lords, Lord Popat and Lord Janner, said, grateful that my family was able to come and enjoy the the Ugandan Asian community has shown the wonderful opportunities that the UK provided to us and thousands way that it has integrated. The Asian community of others. Upon their arrival, many Ugandan Asians makes up 4% of the population of this country and were able to open corner shops and other small family yet is contributing more than double that percentage businesses that proved to be highly successful in serving to its economy. The Ugandan Asian community has the needs of local communities. Many of them also shown clearly and brilliantly that good immigration took jobs in various sectors. This provided them with always has been, and always will be, great for this a solid base on which to raise their families and country. rebuild their lives. The children of those families have since grown 3.45 pm up and been educated here in the UK, serving only to Lord Sheikh: My Lords, I am extremely thankful advance their family lines through the high quality of for the opportunity to speak in this debate, and I am learning that we so celebrate in this country. While most grateful to my noble friend Lord Popat for some have taken over the family corner shop or followed calling it and for his excellent speech. That is not least in their mother’s or father’s footsteps, others have because members of my family were among the 28,000 moved into different professions that in many cases Ugandan Asians who came to the United Kingdom in were not accessible to their parents. the 1970s. Thus, the personal resonance of this subject for me holds no bounds. Today, the sons and daughters of Ugandan Asians are visible in every walk of life, from medicine to I also believe that this 40th anniversary provides us banking and from writing to manufacturing. They with an opportunity properly to reflect on just how make valuable contributions to our workforce, pay significant a part this movement has played in the their taxes and help us to compete on the international cultural and social development of the UK, and how stage. It should also be noted that the crime rate much better off we all are because of it. Ultimately, among this community is very low. Their influence can the UK gave asylum to around half of those exiled even be felt in this very House; I know that my from Uganda, including many from a cross-section of colleagues, the noble Lord, Lord Popat, and the noble different religions. Such a considerable and complex Baroness, Lady Vadera, share my proud heritage, as movement of people brings with it personal stories of do Shailesh Vara and Priti Patel in the House of triumph and turmoil. Commons. My father originally came to Uganda in the 1920s and quickly carved out a name for himself in a wide Perhaps the most notable example of where Ugandan range of industries including cotton, hides and skins, Asians have thrived as a community is in Leicester and coffee and property. He was president of the Indian in the London Borough of Harrow, where, despite association in our home town for more than 30 years much resistance at the time, a number of the immigrants and represented all the communities of Asian origin. chose to settle. In the short term they helped to He also helped to pioneer the Ugandan education breathe new life into the economy of these areas, system, benefiting thousands of children. He can be mainly through regenerating the manufacturing base described as a man of vision, an entrepreneur and a and establishing new businesses. philanthropist. He died in the 1960s, before my family There are many specific examples of individuals were expelled the following decade, but I had already and families who have thrived and become successful learnt much that has inspired me to do well in this in their own right upon coming to the United Kingdom. country. I should like to mention the inspirational example of a I brought that hunger and enthusiasm with me good friend of mine, Mr Jaffer Kapasi, who was one when I came to this country. This culture is typical of of those who moved to Leicester in 1972. He arrived many other Asians who came here from Uganda. in the United Kingdom at the age of 22 with nothing. Although the ancestors many of the Indian families After university, he trained as an accountant and, were originally brought over in the 19th century to several years later, set up his own business. He chaired help build the railway system, they had since become a housing association for elderly and vulnerable people successful in businesses and professions. The community in the Midlands. When he took over the chairmanship prospered in every walk of life. By the 1970s, they were in 1992, the association had 280 homes, and when he the backbone of Ugandan economy. There was peace stepped down last year it had 1,900. He was awarded and harmony between people of various religions and an OBE in 1997 for services to business in Leicestershire. racial origins in Uganda. When the Asians were expelled, This year, the Meiji University in Tokyo published his their properties, businesses and almost everything else life story and I highly recommend that noble Lords was taken from them by Idi Amin and his Government. read it. 821 Ugandan Asians[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 822

[LORD SHEIKH] of the course that they took. I have no doubt there The contributions of Ugandan Asians to the United were queries within the Government. The late Lord Carr, Kingdom can be acknowledged on many levels and in a former Member of this House who is not spoken of many circles—economic, cultural, social and professional. much, was the Home Secretary. The proudest part of It is a testament to how homogeneous a community his political career, he told someone later, was the time they are that they have integrated so well into the that he spent persuading the Cabinet to do the right British way of life. Wherever they have gone, they have thing—which they clearly did—and do its duty to dual earned respect, maintained a strong work ethic and passport holders. The Government were pressed by forged successful relationships with other communities. their own supporters during the course of that year This is a land of opportunity and tolerance, and we and it is to their credit that they saw off those opponents have always found the environment highly conducive on this matter. They also had to face the appalling to success. These qualities have allowed the Ugandan National Front in taking the brave decision to allow Asian community to flourish and, in turn, its members the refugees in, a decision for which they are still have served only to enrich our society further. I believe remembered today. that this anniversary should remind us of the opportunities At local level, Leicester City Council’s famous that there have been for members of that community advertisement, placed in a Kampala paper, encouraging to live well and flourish. people not to come to Leicester was not, perhaps, Uganda’s loss truly has been Britain’s gain. The its proudest moment. However, I think it is worth Asian community that came here and its future generations repeating what the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, said: will, I believe, be good British citizens and help in the that particular advertisement appeared because the advancement and well-being of this great nation. Thank Ugandan Resettlement Board had made it clear that it you, Britain, for accepting us when we arrived here. was designating areas that it was trying to dissuade You have certainly lived up to the name “Great Britain”. people from coming to. In fact, the advertisement told people to accept the advice of the Ugandan Resettlement Board. Thankfully, that advice was not taken. In fact, 3.53 pm it may well be that many Ugandans were encouraged Lord Bach: My Lords, I congratulate the noble to come to Leicester by the advertisement. Whatever Lord, Lord Popat— who, along with me, is a member the reason, the effect has been very advantageous of the all-party group on India and whom I have come indeed for the city of Leicester. It is worth pointing to know through that organisation—on obtaining this out that there was no extra government money at that debate and particularly on the quality of his opening early stage when the advertisement appeared. speech. It is a subject on which I think the whole The truth is that this country can be pretty proud of House can be united and I look forward to what the the way in which the authorities, whether at local or Minister has to say in due course. national level, dealt with this issue. Grants were eventually I am delighted to be making a guest appearance on made available; they were wisely spent, and sensible the Front Bench. Like my noble friend Lord Janner, policies were adopted. I am immensely proud that for my experience is based on what I describe as “God’s many years now Leicester has had a reputation for own city”; others call it Leicester. For a number of having people from many backgrounds and cultures years I was a ward councillor for St Margaret’s ward—part living and working together in harmony. Much of that of the noble Lord’s old constituency and part of is down to the good sense and decency of both the which is in the Belgrave area of the city. A very large indigenous population and the newcomers, to the number of my constituents were Ugandan Asians. sensible pragmatic policies of Leicester City Council Even today my links with the city remain strong. I over the years and to the Leicester Mercury and BBC have spoken to both the executive city mayor, Sir Peter Radio Leicester. I know it is not fashionable at the Soulsby, and to Sundip Meghani, a young Labour moment to praise the press or the BBC but they have councillor born in Leicester of Ugandan Asian parents done a lot in their own way to ensure that the culture who came to this country as refugees—Councillor of the city grew up and that the new Leicester was Meghani started the debate in Leicester to celebrate supported. the 40th year—concerning the Motion of the noble Those early days cannot have been easy for the Lord, Lord Popat. I thank all other noble Lords who Ugandan Asians who came to this country. Many of have spoken in the debate. We have had some remarkable the men had professional jobs in Uganda but had to speeches. I very much enjoyed the account by the go on to the factory floor while many Ugandan Asian noble Lord, Lord Steel, of what must have been a women, who I understand were used to staying at really awful experience of watching people being forced home, had to find jobs in the hosiery industry. In out of their own country. Leicester, the tradition is that the factories are very Looking back at that time 40 years ago, it is easy to close to the residential areas due to the history of be critical of some of the early responses from this women having worked there for many years. It was country to the crisis that was caused suddenly and through working together that barriers began to be solely by President Amin. It represented a brutal act broken down. When looking back, it is important not with no regard for generations of Ugandan Asians to fall into the trap of thinking that things were easy who had been a vital and successful part of Ugandan for those who arrived. The National Front targeted life, particularly where business and commerce were the City of Leicester and, after a brief burst of popular concerned but also in a much wider context than that. support but not electoral success, thank goodness, it The noble Lord, Lord Dykes, talked about the Heath was seen off by the good sense of the city and its Government, who have to be praised for the courage citizens. 823 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Ugandan Asians 824

The Ugandans’ homes had been forcibly taken from they were met with on arrival—of the charities waiting them and this was a strange new country. Forty years at Stansted and those who supported them, put them on, it is the unanimous view among sensible people of up and helped them get back on their feet. It was good will across party, race or culture that Ugandan fascinating to hear from my noble friend Lord Dykes Asians have, as the debate has made clear, contributed about his role as a local MP at that time, and it was enormously to the British way of life. Their commitment interesting to hear from my noble friend Lord Popat to family life and to entrepreneurial spirit has benefited about the late Conservative Prime Minister Edward this country immensely. Their ever-increasing role in Heath’s photograph proudly hanging in the living public life enhances our political system too. From rooms of Ugandan Asians. I wonder how many recent Members of Parliament and Ministers to senior officials Prime Ministers can imagine that their image hangs in national and local government, through the arts, on people’s walls and is held in such esteem. fashion, food and sports, those with a Ugandan Asian I thank my noble friend Lord Cormack for his background have become an essential part of British contribution both today and at the time, when he life. Long may that continue. supported a Prime Minister who was, as he said, This coming Saturday I hope to be having my lunch “doing the right thing”. While many Ugandan Asians on Belgrave Road in Leicester at a very well known were forced to leave everything behind, Amin could landmark, a vegetarian restaurant called Bobby’s. Some not force them to relinquish their strength, their skills noble Lords will have had very pleasant experiences and their flair as entrepreneurs. They brought them there. That restaurant is owned by a Ugandan Asian. here in abundance and we see the evidence every day. When I come out from lunch at about 2 pm—it gets These qualities were referred to by my noble friend dark at that time these days—the Diwali lights on Lord Steel of Aikwood. Belgrave Road will be on. Later on, those lights will become Christmas lights. I do not think that there is a Just three months after the refugees had begun better symbol of how Ugandan Asians, Asians in arriving, 1,000 employers had offered jobs to the general in Leicester and the indigenous population newcomers. By 2002 it was estimated that Ugandan have managed to find a way of living together in Asians had created 30,000 jobs in Leicester, which was harmony. one of the main cities where they settled in the early 1970s. In fact, Ugandan Asians now make up about 4.03 pm 11% of employers in the city. The noble Lord, Lord Bach, referred to Leicester as “God’s own city”. I The Senior Minister of State, Department for come from Yorkshire, which—I have it on good Communities and Local Government & Foreign and authority—is God’s own county, so I may not be able Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi): My Lords, I to agree with the noble Lord in his assessment of congratulate my noble friend Lord Popat on securing Leicester. However, we can both agree that the positives this debate and on his moving and personal speech. of Leicester, created both for and by Ugandan Asians, The noble Lord clearly embodies the Motion he is far outweigh what may have been some early mistakes. moving as he highlights the contribution of the Ugandan Asian community. Perhaps I may start where he finished. Today we see Ugandan Asians making their mark I say thank you to the noble Lord, Lord Popat, for in every corner of society: in politics with my noble allowing me an opportunity to respond on behalf of friend Lord Popat and the honourable Members in the the Government to such a timely debate. I thank the other place Shailesh Vara and Priti Patel, who was the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, for an informative and first Asian woman elected for the Conservatives and enlightening contribution, teaching me much that I whose parents came from Uganda; in journalism with did not know. Few people alive in Britain 40 years ago the likes of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Rupal Rajani; will forget the scenes of thousands of Ugandan Asians in sport with Mohamed Asif Din playing cricket for being uprooted from their homes and arriving in Warwickshire; in public services with Tarique Ghaffur Britain. In August 1972, 60,000 people were given just becoming Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan 90 days to leave their homes, their businesses and their Police; and of course in business with entrepreneurs country after a senseless decree by a brutal dictator, such as Zul Virani of Cygnet Properties & Leisure plc, Idi Amin. Rumi Verjee, chairman of Thomas Goode & Co, who Looking back at that fateful time, we know that the established Domino’s Pizza in the UK, Naseem and UK acted swiftly. Amin announced on 4 August 1972 Moez Karsan of Jordans Cereals, Rupin Vadera, CEO that there would be no room in Uganda for British of First International Group, and many others, including Asians. Preparations began immediately in the UK for Jaffer Kapasi, to whom my noble friend Lord Sheikh receiving those Ugandan Asians who had British referred. passports. By 18 September the first 193 British Asians In 1997, recognising the vitality lost to Uganda, the from Uganda had arrived at Stansted Airport. By President invited the Ugandan Asians to return 17 November more than 27,000 Ugandan Asians had home. While some families did, most chose to remain arrived in the UK. In the first year—1972-73—a total in Britain as integrated British Ugandan Asians—one of 38,500 Ugandans Asians came to Britain. I learnt of this country’s greatest success stories. Their story about this event as history. It has been fascinating is a lesson to us today about the successes of today in your Lordships’ House to hear of it as an integration. I recently spoke about the barriers that event that so many noble Lords lived through. stop people integrating. I highlighted how much My noble friend Lord Popat touched on the huge Britons miss out on by failing to utilise the talents of efforts to bring thousands of people to this country in the ethnic communities. The figure was estimated at that short period. He also mentioned the kindness that £8.6 billion a year, but I believe it could be a lot higher. 825 Ugandan Asians[LORDS] Ugandan Asians 826

[BARONESS WARSI] Separately, we continue to work with the Church I argued that ethnic minority communities were vital Urban Fund on the Near Neighbours programme, to our future. My noble friend Lady Thatcher once taking advantage of the existing infrastructure and said that, experience of the Church of England. We have invested “a new resilience derived from diversity can only strengthen £5 million over three years to support local projects in Britain”. four areas of high deprivation, which bring people of Today we are in a global race and Britain has a different faiths together to improve understanding secret weapon: the races from around the globe that and improve neighbourhoods. So far, more than 300 local make up our diverse nation. These people have ingenuity, projects have received grants of up to £5,000 and there resilience, determination and links and networks around are also training programmes for community activities the world. As my fellow Minister Don Foster said in and faith leaders. his speech in another place earlier today, the Government We recognise that English language skills are are committed to promoting and supporting successful fundamental to people’s ability to participate in our integration, and to unleashing all that untapped talent society, to break down barriers and do all the everyday by giving everyone the opportunities they deserve. things that we take for granted. We have already provided more than £8 million to 35 ESOL providers— So what is the Government’s approach to integration? mainly further education colleges—in 19 areas of England Our aim is robustly to promote British values such as with the highest demand for English language training, democracy, the rule of law, equality of opportunity and we plan to do more to support those who most and treatment, freedom of speech and the rights of all need to improve their English skills. men and women to live free from persecution of any kind—values that are clearly apparent in the Ugandan The noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, referred to the Asian community. It is these values that make it possible issue of students. Let me be clear: there is no limit on for people to live and work together, bridge boundaries students coming into this country. If you are a genuine between communities and play a full role in society. student wanting to study a genuine course in a genuine When there are also opportunities to succeed and a university, this country is open to any such applications. strong sense of personal and social responsibility to The noble Lord also asked about the Asian cuisine the society that has made success possible, the result is sector. I can inform him that we are taking forward the a strong community. Asian cuisine policy specifically to encourage home-grown culinary talent. We are offering support through the We must ensure that all sectors of our diverse Department for Communities and Local Government society are contributing to the economic vitality of and BIS to support training and scholarships to bring our nation. We want to create the conditions for bright young people from all communities together to everyone to play a full part in national and local life. I support this industry. have said before that the things that stop people getting on are the same things that stop people getting on with The noble Lord makes an important point, but I each other. The noble Lord, Lord Singh, spoke of am sure that he would also agree that we sometimes integration as being a two-way street. I agree, but we find that the people coming to work in the communities must also tackle the barriers to integration, and afford where this demand is needed are the same communities everyone the opportunities and values that we all take where there are the highest levels of youth unemployment. for granted. It is therefore absolutely right that we invest in our own young people to take up these opportunities. The noble Lord, Lord Janner, gave a reflective I am delighted to see so many events taking place to account of what he understood by integration—to recognise the contribution of our Ugandan Asian hold on to religion, culture and where you came from communities. The India Overseas Trust and the British but adapt to the place where you now are and consider Uganda Asians Core Committee have arranged a number to be home. We recognise that integration is a local of commemoration events that have been taking place issue and the Government’s role in this approach is to since September in London and Leicester. There was a facilitate and set the tone. I want to give you a flavour speech by Shri Praful Patel in east London on 13 October of the 30 or so projects we are supporting. and a thanksgiving event in Leicester on 16 October. People of faith—Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs Many further events are planned for the full year up to and others—are called by their religious beliefs to September 2013, as well as an exhibition organised by serve their communities and neighbourhoods, and as a the New Greenham Arts Centre. I would urge noble Government we are committed to promoting and Lords to participate. celebrating this record of service. We also want to help I end my remarks by praising my noble friend link up the social action undertaken by different faiths Lord Popat for securing this debate. He has given us to maximise the impact on those in need. So this year, the chance to reflect on the enormous contribution to celebrate the Queen’s 60 years of service to the of his community—our community—which turned country, we facilitated the Year of Service programme, dispossession into opportunity and tragedy into success; with each faith in turn hosting a day or days of a community whom we proudly call the British Ugandan volunteering and inviting people of other faiths to join Asians. in. Around 500 projects around the country have been part of the Year of Service and I pay tribute to all 4.15 pm those who have taken part. We are looking for ways to harness this enthusiasm and help ensure that there are Lord Popat: My Lords, I am humbled by the Minister’s further opportunities for faith-based volunteering in excellent summing up and her comments about the future. Ugandan Asian community. This 40th anniversary is 827 Ugandan Asians[6 DECEMBER 2012] Economy: Growth 828 always going to bring mixed emotions: sadness, regret of local leaders and use competition to attract additional, and a wonder of what might have been, but also pride, non-governmental funding. As envisaged, most of the delight and inspiration. I was very proud to tell my localist agenda should be led by the local enterprise story about the success of my community in your partnerships. The Government have now made available Lordships’ House and am delighted and inspired to sufficient funding to ensure their ability to do this. If have heard today from so many Peers with such a wide any local authorities are still uncertain about this range of experience of the Ugandan Asian community. partnership with the private sector, I believe that the Britain is an amazing country. It has been a wonderful need to bid from a single fund will persuade them to home to the Ugandan Asians, who are—and will participate, although my own view is that most of always consider themselves—proud to be British. I beg them will need no such encouragement. Against that to move. background, their local people would not be impressed by the failure to seize such an opportunity; and, of Motion agreed. course, such a failure would strengthen the case of those who, at every turn, argue that only central Economy: Growth quangos or departments can be relied on to deliver Question for Short Debate quality of service. 4.15 pm I had, then, to consider the response of the private Asked By Lord Heseltine sector to a localist initiative. We talked to each of the groups that represent the private sector. We also looked To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their overseas at the support available in competing economies. response to the Report No Stone Unturned in Our findings were published in an annexe to the main Pursuit of Growth. report and our conclusions were as bleak as those first reached by Lord Devlin, who conducted a similar Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, this is a time- exercise in 1972. At home and abroad, other countries limited debate and the limit for Back-Benchers is three have developed different but comprehensive support minutes. I respectfully remind the House that this for their small and medium enterprises. This Government means that when the clock shows three minutes the have set out an ambitious target to increase our exports speaker has already reached their permitted limit. to £1 trillion by the year 2020. The Prime Minister, on Lord Heseltine: My Lords, it is eight months since I recent visits to Brazil and India, two of our target set out my remit from the Government to comment on markets, found that there were no British chambers of their national agenda for growth. A team of officials commerce there at all. Led by my noble friend Lord across Whitehall provided unlimited access to any Green, this Government have moved swiftly to remedy department. No attempt was made to constrain or this problem. In the first instance he is working on censure my comments. I thank the Government for 20 key markets, and he has appointed a number of that unique privilege. I am greatly indebted to the new trade envoys. I think that is excellent, and I am talented and dedicated team of officials who enabled very much in agreement with the remarks of my noble me to produce a report regarded, even by those who friend Lord Howell of Guildford and of my noble disagree with its conclusions, as professional and well friend Lord Green himself in an earlier debate in this presented. House today. It has been suggested to me that my report should However, we need the same sense of urgency at have been more focused on a limited number of targets. home. Chambers of commerce, as they are now I do not accept that. The challenge we face is too constituted, represent only a fraction of our companies. immediate and too comprehensive. Any adequate response Let me give just two examples: Birmingham has fewer must involve the broad range of our institutions and than 3,000 members; Milan has 350,000 members. As our people. That is why I stress the leadership of the the noble Lord, Lord Haskins, knows, as he was Prime Minister, the need for a comprehensive growth present at the meeting in Humberside, where I discovered agenda, the involvement of every government department these figures, the chamber there has 1,000 members. as appropriate and, critically, a central capability to The Federation of Small Businesses has 1,000 members. ensure the delivery of the promises involved in such a There are 70 entrepreneurs who have formed a breakaway strategy. group; that is 2,070 firms. There are 40,000 firms on Yesterday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer directed Humberside. most of his response to my central theme of localism. An important route to the export market is to reach I am most encouraged by this and by his promise of a out to the overwhelming majority of companies that full response in the spring. actually do not export. The British Chambers of Uniquely, of all advanced economies, this country Commerce’s own analysis revealed that 58% of exporting relies on central government and its bureaucracies to companies did so because overseas customers approached initiate, determine and administer economic policy. I them in the first place. This is not exactly what we believe there are consequences from this: the minimum might call entrepreneurial salesmanship. of local initiative, the almost total absence of incentive It is my belief that we need to provide more for localities to add to government funding from their sophisticated services to support our small and medium own or from outside resources, and a conformity of enterprises across the range. They need to be private practice that ignores the diversity of local economies. sector-led. Membership of chambers should remain My report outlines an alternative concept. I argue voluntary, but it should be sufficiently attractive to that our local economies should be more driven by draw more members. They should signpost advisory local factors. They should engage a wider involvement services, they should be involved in the provision of 829 Economy: Growth[LORDS] Economy: Growth 830

[LORD HESELTINE] are acting, as far as possible, in harmony; pump-priming mentoring opportunities, they should encourage local with additional government resource where the market procurement and they should provide a vehicle for the is failing to provide adequate finance; doing some of delivery of central departments’ services. the heavy lifting in attracting foreign investment in The simple test is to ensure that our companies are R&D and building domestic supply chains based on supported by the same quality of services that our this activity; or helping British manufacturers and competitors enjoy overseas, whether it be the Small service providers to enter global supply chains. Business Administration in the United States of America The kinds of frustration that the noble Lord will or the more state-orientated proposals on the continent experience in achieving his report’s implementation of Europe. The British Chambers of Commerce and are, I suspect, the same that I faced. I want to comment its associated member chambers have now communicated briefly on them. Broadly, they are of three kinds. First, to the Government their enthusiastic endorsement of there is lethal short-termism—the bane of British such an approach in this country. I very much hope government and corporate life, neither of which have that this will be reflected in the Government’s response a sufficiently long-termist view inculcated into their in the spring. perspective and working methods. When I embarked The Chancellor was good enough to say that the on my own policies of industrial activism, I am afraid report has attracted wide support, and much work was that the policy horizon of many in government seemed already under way in the localist agenda. Greater to stretch from the day of policy announcement to Manchester has pioneered the concept of a combined around a couple of months before interest was lost. authority. Liverpool negotiated the first city deal. The The hope of those who never signed up to the policies noble Lord, Lord Adonis, is working in the north-east in the first place seemed to be that the policies would on how to make progress there. More specifically, die through indifference. It therefore requires strong Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis and political will in government to counter this. I regret chairman of the West Midlands and Solihull LEP, and that such stop/go short-termism kicked in again when Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham City Council, the change of government came. The coalition, rather have asked the Prime Minister whether I can work than building on what I started, decried Labour’s with them to develop proposals along the lines of my growth policies and pinned all its hopes on deficit report, which the Government could consider as they reduction instead. reach conclusions. Such work would obviously include The second obstruction lies with the Treasury. Its and involve the Birmingham chamber of commerce in long-held attitude is that smart, strategic, interventionist exploring a wider role. I hope very much that the policies do not work because, in principle, Ministers Prime Minister will agree to this suggestion and I fully and markets do not mix. This is coupled with deep recognise that it would involve no commitment to scepticism about public borrowing for extra investment accept any proposals that arose from such an initiative. which, in its view, simply adds to the country’s borrowing The Chancellor’s response yesterday seems to have requirement without delivering anything of very much one novel feature. Most government reports are targeted value. Its approach, I am afraid, is to kill the policies at specific policies, activities and groups. It is easy for at birth when it can. Then, if this fails, it severely most people to feel that it is someone else’s responsibility cash-limits the measures and makes access to them by and has little to do with them. The announcement of businesses so difficult that they are soon shown to the single fund for local economic development and have failed. This inbred Treasury attitude simply has competitive bidding changes that. There are now to be conquered in order to make any progress. 39 teams—the LEPs— of talented, motivated local The third source of obstruction is more latent than people with the opportunity to attract public money malign, and possibly the most difficult to overcome. It in a way that serves their places, encourages them to is the sheer lack of experience and capability inside raise additional resources and binds the public and government to design and implement the sort of market- private sectors together in a common cause. If I may based interventionist policies and instruments we need, borrow a phrase, we are all in this together. especially in the financial area. We need to prioritise this capability and recruit it with government—by 4.26 pm which I do not mean, incidentally, collecting further Lord Mandelson: My Lords, I warmly congratulate centrally based Whitehall officials. the noble Lord on securing this debate and on his In conclusion, we can and should learn from others, report as a whole. It will not surprise him that I so if I had one piece of advice for my own party, it strongly agree with the bulk of it. When I returned to would be to spend its time while it can looking at the Government when the financial crisis struck in others’ experience internationally and, at home, be 2008, my eyes had been opened by my continental inventive; build on what exists rather than returning to experience to what most other sensible Governments ground zero and be prepared to take a major leap in do in placing their weight behind the growth of new ambition, intervention and organisation in government. markets, sectors and technologies in their economies. Nothing short of that will be needed in the huge This is not, or need not be, dirigisme of the clumsy economic battle we have to continue to take on. and counterproductive kind. It is about identifying an economy’s comparative advantages and then maximising 4.31 pm the public and private investment in those advantages; removing unnecessary barriers to new and growing Lord Shipley: Every time I cross the Gateshead businesses; making sure that all the available national Millennium Bridge I think back 25 years to a polluted and local instruments or interventions of government River Tyne with little economic activity. The 831 Economy: Growth[6 DECEMBER 2012] Economy: Growth 832 transformation has been inspirational. It is the result Eleven words in this report are vital, although every of public sector intervention through urban development word is important; that, corporations, led largely by local people triggering “there are some things only government can do to drive growth”. private sector investment. Those corporations were, of This report shows us how. course, the creation of my noble friend Lord Heseltine, who had a compelling vision of what could be achieved 4.36 pm in our cities. That vision is here again in this report: England is Lord Skidelsky: My Lords, the best thing about the too centralised and faster growth cannot be delivered report by the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, is that it by Whitehall. The Government have taken several reflects a broad agreement that something more steps to address this: city deals, the Localism Act, and than deficit reduction is needed to get the economy enabling local authorities to share in business rate growing again. The noble Lord’s enthusiasm to get growth. They now need to go a step further so that things done is the thing I have most admired about local enterprise partnerships, the private sector and him over the years. There is a good cartoon on the local authorities working together and empowered by front of his report, No Stone Unturned. Noble Lords central government can drive growth in their localities. have probably all seen it, but the rock the noble Lord needs to push away ought to have the image of the Most of Whitehall operates in silos and my noble Chancellor graven on it. The noble Lord proposes a friend Lord Heseltine is right to say that the Government Whitehall pot of £50 billion to be bid for by voluntary need to think more in terms of places outside London partnerships between local authorities and businesses and how to build on their unique strengths. The abolition over five years but, as far as I understand it, and I of government offices in England was a mistake. I do stand to be corrected, the Government are making not advocate government offices which centralise public no extra resources available. Rather, this is a way of service delivery in their regions, but I do want government getting local responsibility for the spending of money offices which bring key Whitehall departments into a already available to local authorities so there is no single place with a duty to drive growth and unlock assurance of any additional simulative effect. That is barriers to growth. an important defect. Such a government office would work as a partner of the private sector, local authorities and LEPs. I The noble Lord has been anxious not to breach the agree entirely with my noble friend Lord Heseltine Chancellor’s deficit reduction programme. In fact, the that LEPs must become engines of growth and I report explicit states: welcome the Chancellor signalling yesterday that a “I believe the Government’s economic strategy is right”, greater proportion of growth-related spending would but it is precisely this that needs to be questioned. We be devolved to LEPs from April 2015 in transport, are in an extraordinary position. The main international skills and employment. organisations now all agree that austerity is having a Central to this are enhanced roles for FE colleges chilling effect on the economies of Europe, yet they and the private sector. Recently I was at an event in the also say that there is no alternative. That seems much new creative quarter in Nottingham. The event was too passive. The Chancellor alone denies that his held in New College, Nottingham, a founder member deficit reduction policy has any responsibility for the of the Gazelle Colleges Group formed last year by five weak performance of the economy. It is all blamed on leading FE colleges in England: New College, North head winds. I regret to say that the OBR has helped Hertfordshire, Gateshead, City College Norwich and him massage his figures to show that the deficit is Warwickshire College. There are now 20 of them, all coming down and therefore that he is on track, even seeking to reshape FE colleges by putting entrepreneurs through the track is five years longer than he thought in a more strategic position and focusing on self- it would be in 2010. As Chris Giles notes in today’s employment and new business development. They are Financial Times, working to align local growth clusters to support “had the OBR shown teeth, Mr Osborne would have failed on all business formation and the delivery of appropriate his fiscal targets”. skills. They should be commended for this. The only thing worth talking about today is the This report has attracted strong support from the validity of the targets themselves and the theory of the private sector, but there was a hint, initially from the economy on which they are based, but that is the last British Chambers of Commerce, that the report focused thing this House seems to be willing to discuss. I hope too much on institutions. I do not think that is valid we will soon be given more than three minutes per because institutions matter. We need our chambers of speaker to address the larger issue. commerce to be delivery partners of the LEPs in business support and training, and if the chambers 4.38 pm maintain a voluntary membership structure, as they Lord Baker of Dorking: My Lords, the essence of seem to prefer to do, we should create a one-stop shop the Heseltine report is the growth and wealth of the through the chambers which businesses positively want economy over the next 50 years. We all know that it to join. will not come from banking services and real estate A local structure is now emerging composed LEPs but from technological innovation, inventions and the with authority and resources, enhanced private sector capacity to make goods and services that the rest of support for business, as outlined by my noble friend the world wants to buy, but there is a massive skills Lord Heseltine, and local government leading the shortage. The Royal Academy of Engineering and the growth agenda, with all three partners being supported Engineering Employers’ Federation have recently forecast by central government, that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 1.25 million 833 Economy: Growth[LORDS] Economy: Growth 834

[LORD BAKER OF DORKING] He wants to help the education system to create the professional scientists, engineers and technicians in STEM graduates the noble Lord, Lord Baker, has just this economy. If we have that, we cannot meet any of told us about. He wants to do something about the the targets that the Chancellor set yesterday. one in four adults who are functionally innumerate. The only educational institutions that are trying to Who could not agree? We are again reminded that we meet that demand are the colleges that I have been enjoy the fruits of investment in science and technology pioneering for four years, which started under Labour, and research planted by earlier generations. Of course, as the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, will remember: we have a similar obligation to the generations that university technical colleges. They are for 14 to 18 year- come after us. olds. There are 600 students. They are employer-led, The noble Lord speaks of localism. He wants to university supported, and the youngsters do up to two bring back the importance of place and the Government days per week practical work. have responded with money for the LEPs. It is a pity The first one, which has operated for two years in they did away with the RDAs because then it would December, was the most successful school in the have happened a lot more quickly. country. Every youngster at 16 or 18 got a job, an He explained why he wants to strengthen the local apprenticeship or a place at college or university. We chambers of commerce but society now plays an even have five colleges open; 33 approved and 21 applied more important part in industrial strategy. It plays an for. We need masses more of these colleges—seriously important part in getting people to work together. a large number. They accord very much with the spirit During the past 20 years, we have developed clusters of the Heseltine report as they are employer led. where we can stimulate and support each other and Hitachi wants one in Durham because it is building a speed things up. We have developed knowledge transfer factory for 700 staff to build rolling stock and there networks. Publicly funded science is becoming open are simply not enough skilled technicians in that area source. The minimum wage is developing into a local to fill the factory. living wage. In Salisbury the LEP, the agency my noble friend is Some employers have kept people in work by reducing quite rightly using, came to us and said there was a working hours to see them through the hard times skills shortage there because of the redeployment of instead of sacking everybody. We have some highly the Army from Germany and the building of new productive factories, not only because of investment, maintenance depots, so together with the local employers, but also because employers and workers see themselves the University of Southampton and local people it as one instead of two sides of industry. was going to apply for one. Business now has to be socially responsible because society rejects clothing from sweat shops, it prefers My point is that if we do not fill this skills shortage, products and services that are environmentally friendly you can forget all the targets because we will simply and fair trade, and it rejects those firms whose tax stagnate. This is the single most important thing we arrangements are seen to be unfair. Marks & Spencer have to do. Matthew Hancock, the Minister for Skills wins prizes for its Plan A. in my noble friend’s department today issued a statement setting out the policy for the next two years. In particular, We probably have to shine more light under this he said that the LEPs should be given a strategic stone better to understand how society has to play its policy for skills policy.That is going to be very important. part in our industrial strategy. I think that goes beyond I hope that they will bid for some of the money that localism. has been suggested and have some money of their own. This is singly one of the most things we can do. Without those skilled people, unless we import from 4.45 pm overseas, we will meet none of our targets. Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, has always been known as a man of action. 4.41 pm From the day of his long-awaited maiden speech—after more than 10 years’ patience on behalf of your Lordships, Lord Haskel: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord to be precise, and when I had the privilege of paying Heseltine, has form on industrial policy and I am the tributes to him—he has hit the ground running. delighted to see that he has carried it with him into Within barely seven months, he has produced his this report. Instead of just market forces, he speaks No Stone Unturned—In Pursuit of Growth report. The about all aspects of industrial strategy and what it Economist teasingly referred to it as “Tarzanomics”. should look like. I particularly welcome his emphasis To his credit, the noble Lord is absolutely right to on co-operation—Government, business, technology, conclude that: education, finance and society all working together “There are no easy or short term ways to beat the world’s most and all interrelated, aligned in a trajectory directed competitive economies”. towards growth, leaving no stone unturned. At least I The suggestion to create a huge pool of money, endorsed think that is what the cover says. by the Autumn Statement yesterday, to be devolved He calls for all government departments to develop locally is, in theory, very good. The promotion of a growth agenda. He wants the Government to help public-private partnerships is excellent. I am proud to industry to create winners. He wants the Government be the founding chairman of the UK-India Business to tilt business towards British industry. I absolutely Council, which is funded by UK Trade & Investment agree. He wants the financial sector to play its part in and the private sector. I know that the strength of the this to serve business and industry rather than itself. I UKIBC is that, as a public sector organisation alone it agree. would not be effective, and as a private sector organisation 835 Economy: Growth[6 DECEMBER 2012] Economy: Growth 836 alone it would not be effective. It is effective only lack of opportunity for investment; we have identified because of the collective efforts of the public and 1.2 million square feet of shops that we would like to private sectors—from British and Indian business to open and we would like to employ 5,000 more people. UKTI and Foreign and Commonwealth Office teams The problem is that all too often the Government in the UK and across India. are getting in the way. Next year, of that 1.2 million My worry is that, in spite of what the noble Lord, square feet, we will open barely 250,000 square feet. In Lord Haskel, has said, the RDAs created by the previous the vast majority of cases, the problem is the planning Government were not considered to be that effective. system. The issue is not just that it says no but the time The Learning and Skills Council, which was created at that it takes to say yes. In one shop, it took nine great expense, was disbanded. These were great ideas months just to get planning permission to build storage in theory but difficult to implement in practice. They for stock. We then had to wait three months to see if simply resulted in the creation of another layer of we were going to be judicially reviewed. That is one bureaucracy and another opportunity to waste money. year in which 100 people did not have jobs because of In building a business from scratch, I have seen that our planning system. ideas are one thing but execution is what makes it The problem, it seems to me, is that, while we have happen. Will the Government confirm whether LEPs some great councils in this country, there are far too are local enterprise partnerships or, as the report refers many people involved in our planning system who to them, local economic partnerships? I hope it simply do not understand wealth creation. They do means both. not understand that building new shops and creating new jobs and new services for local communities actually I was very worried about the report’s approach to creates wealth. Far too often they say to me what one foreign investment. Just look at what Tata has done council official I was talking to said. We have a £2 million since 2006. It has invested more than £10 billion and shop in the town centre and we wanted to put an has performed a miracle in turning around Jaguar additional shop outside the town. He said, “Surely Land Rover, which now has made a profit of more you’ll just spread the same amount of trade over the than £1.5 billion. This is in spite of the previous two shops”. The shop outside the town centre will Government turning it down for the funding that it so take, conservatively, £20 million. He did not understand desperately needed in the depths of the recession. I the potential. Oddly, he did understand the inverse. He hope that the Government will not take up the insinuations understood that to close shops is to destroy wealth in the report. We have always been one of the most and deprive people of local services. open economies in the world and we need constantly and desperately to attract foreign investment. That imbalance of perception courses through the veins of our planning system. It means that we have a In the report, I was delighted to see the Government planning system driven by people who are profoundly being asked to deal with illegal immigration, which pessimistic about the ability to create wealth. Their they have failed to do so far. UKBA has been absolutely belief that one cannot create new wealth by opening failing. However, will the Government also rethink new shops, for example, means that they stop us their immigration policy, which is damaging British opening new shops. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy and business and higher education? extremely dangerous. In particular, it has lead to a In conclusion, I congratulate the noble Lord, hugely damaging zoning system that puts houses in Lord Heseltine, on his report but will it really get this places where people do not want to live and shops in Government creating institutions that are as effective places where they do not want to shop. as the American Small Business Administration, to Noble Lords will all see an example of that if they which the noble Lord referred? It has been instrumental drive down a motorway over the next week; if they in supporting small businesses, not just with advice look to the side they will see, at some point on their but by providing finance to the tune of billions of journey, a brand new housing estate; neat new-build dollars a year in a sustained manner for decades. Will houses, built where the planners have put them. The it be as effective as the German chambers of commerce, planners cannot see, because they do not understand to which every business in Germany belongs? If not, I wealth creation, that by building houses in horrible fear that this report will be another well intentioned, places they destroy wealth. half-way step when what we as a nation desperately If we are to have a thriving economy, my belief is need is a giant step forward. that there is enormous pent-up energy in the private sector that can be released. All the planning system 4.48 pm needs to do is let us build homes where people want to Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise: My Lords, I congratulate live, and of the type they want to live in, and build the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, on his excellent and shops where they want to shop and offices where they energetic report. However, I should like to add a want to work. If the planning system were driven by different perspective. In doing so, I declare an interest: those principles, we would have a far more vibrant and I am the serving CEO of a FTSE 100 retailer that effective economy. employs around 46,000 people. Our problem is not cash or the availability of funds; we generate £240 million 4.52 pm more than we need to invest in the business or to pay Lord Hollick: My Lords, on page 17 of his excellent our dividends. Our problem is not finance. Along with report, the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, sets out in many large companies, we are able to raise finance on graphic detail the persistently poor level of UK the bond markets at prices that we have never seen productivity compared with our main competitors. before—4% for 10-year money. Nor is the problem a His response is, characteristically, to lead from the 837 Economy: Growth[LORDS] Economy: Growth 838

[LORD HOLLICK] 4.55 pm front. He has demonstrated that one energetic and Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts: My Lords, in the open-minded person who believes that the state has a three minutes available to me, I begin by congratulating key role to play in promoting economic growth can, in my noble friend on his remarkable tour d’horizon and six months, come up with a telling analysis of our its 89 recommendations. I want to focus on just two growth crisis—and it is a crisis—and recommend issues: the malign impact of regulatory overlap, in his 89 generally sensible and practical proposals to address recommendation 44, and the role of the Government as that crisis, a task that has eluded a platoon of business a commissioner and purchaser in recommendations 36 Ministers for two and a half years. and 37. Investment in infrastructure, plant, equipment and First, on regulatory overlap, during the two reports skills are, as the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, points that I have done for the Government, in particular out, essential to improving our productivity. Yesterday Unshackling Good Neighbours, which focused on the the Chancellor made welcome moves in that direction, regulatory burdens on smaller firms, charities and but far more ambitious measures are required in order voluntary groups, it became clear that there is a great to meet the estimated £350 billion infrastructure investment tendency for regulators to take in each others’ dirty needed over the next 30 years, according to McKinsey. washing. Ofsted asks about the frequency of testing Such measures include an infrastructure bank which electrical appliances, the Charity Commission about can benefit from record low long-term borrowing CRB checks. Both those issues are very important, but rates. Road pricing, long advocated across this House, they are the subject of separate statute law and have would spur large-scale investment in our aging motorway their own enforcement procedures and authorities. networks. These measures as well as the proposal of Firms, especially smaller ones, are vulnerable to repeated the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, to help public and questions about whether they have checked this or private pension funds, insurers and banks to finance that—questions that very often are not set in context, infrastructure instead of buying gilts must all be do not need to be asked and are not accurate. They energetically pursued. leave the firm feeling that, to be on the safe side, The noble Lord is surprisingly reticent about additional everything should be checked. As a result, the default measures to stimulate demand, which is the key to option becomes, “If in doubt, check everything”. Per growth and investment. The failed efforts to promote contra, if my noble friend’s ambitions are to be realised, lending will continue to fail unless and until businesses we need more judgment and less process. can see increased demand to justify taking on more On commissioning and purchasing, of course we debt or, preferably, raising more equity. There are have to ensure value for money for taxpayers, but fiscally neutral ways of stimulating demand. Is using purchasers and commissioners need to consider how the proceeds of the 4G auction to pay down debt the many tenderers need to be invited against the size of best strategic use of this windfall during the worst the contract. There can be only one winner, and the economic crisis of modern times? Why are the economic frictional costs of many losers are considerable. Government still taxing houses on the basis of 1991 Purchasers and commissioners also need to consider valuation when the proceeds arising from a modest the cost of tendering in relation to the value of the revaluation at the top level would finance the reduction contract. In Unshackling Good Neighbours, we suggested of VAT on home refurbishment or a further £200 on 2% of the value of the contract up to £500,000 and the income tax threshold? 1% thereafter. When a service is being provided, commissioners also need to consider the annual cost The noble Lord’s call for empowered localism to to the provider of the monitoring. Again, we suggested replace the inefficient and bureaucratic Whitehall is 4% up to £500,000 and 2% thereafter. welcome and was warmly embraced by the Chancellor. The history of local versus regional versus central Further, commissioners should not change their delivery is littered with disappointment and failure, all methods of measurement midstream. To do so adds too often driven by political fashion rather than by exponentially to the costs of SMEs. All this may proven performance. Recommendation 7 hits the nail appear very nitty-gritty but, unless the Government on the head when it calls for LEP boards to have, are able to agree centrally and locally and stick to some performance yardsticks, much of the potential “the necessary skills and expertise to deliver their expanded benefit of their purchasing power will be dissipated. functions”. The recent excoriating report by the Public Accounts 4.57 pm Committee into the competence of the Regional Growth Lord Giddens: My Lords, there was quite an Fund provides a stark and timely warning of what can amusing headline in the satirical magazine Private Eye go awry. recently, which touches on the point made by the The noble Lord rightly highlights stability as an noble Lord, Lord Skidelsky. It went something like, essential precondition to economic transformation and “After four years of intensive study, the IMF has goes on to cite our relationship with Europe as a prime concluded that austerity leads to austerity”. We can all example of the need for stability. Now that the noble agree that we now need to focus on growth, but not Lord enjoys the warm embrace of both the Prime just any old growth—it has to be environmentally Minister and the Chancellor, we can be more confident sustainable and evenly spread. There is no point if it that a rational voice in support of developing a sustainable benefits only the top 0.1% of income earners. relationship with the European Union, our major There is much to agree with in the outstanding economic and trade partner, will be heard and, hopefully, report from the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine. We should heeded. think in a radical and adventurous way about our 839 Economy: Growth[6 DECEMBER 2012] Economy: Growth 840 economic future. Something utterly dramatic is happening apparently shrinking from bigger issues and slipperier at the cutting edge of manufacture, perhaps equivalent customers. Similar generic shortcomings, dual standards to or much more than Arkwright’s spinning Jenny all and ignorance occur downstream in every aspect of those years ago: computers have crossed the line from business life. the digital world and are intervening in the world of On the plus side, though, is the growth in reality itself. This is perhaps one of the most momentous microbusinesses. Many are home-based and rural-based, changes ever to happen in human productive activity. outsourcing much of what they need and requiring Although it is in its early stages, 3D printing can little direct employment, and thus avoiding workplace already make an enormous range of items, from pitfalls. Many are not VAT-registered or incorporated. engineering parts to dental crowns. At MIT, Neil The internet facilitates this virtual world of micro- Gershenfeld is working on computers that will be able commerce. West Sussex, where I live, apparently has to fabricate not just single items but complete functional 27,000 of them, but no one knows quite how many systems. For example, his aim is to make a plane that make up this major element of local GDP. Is this can fly right out of the computer, as he says—and he simply opting out in favour of lifestyle choices? Is it a does not regard this as a Utopian project. consequence of obstructive and ephemeral laws and This might be thought to be fanciful but much of it regulations? Is it a desire to keep beneath the radar? is already here. It is documented in a very detailed Or is it a new economic dawn? What might it mean for book by Chris Anderson called Makers: The New national economic policy? Industrial Revolution. Crucially, it reverses the assumption I applaud the efforts that the Government are already that manufacture will inevitably be outsourced to low-cost making to cut red tape. The UK remains a great place countries. to start a business. It also needs to be a great place to In Barcelona, where youth unemployment is more grow one on. This splendid report shows that we need than 50%, the city is setting up digital fabrication a revolution in regulatory attitudes and I hope that the workshops across different neighbourhoods, encouraging Government are listening. young people to train in them. The aim, in Gershenfeld’s words, is for the city to be, 5.03 pm “globally connected for knowledge but self-sufficient for what it consumes”. Lord Sheikh: My Lords, the United Kingdom finds itself at an economic crossroads. This is due not just to This, to me, is the cutting edge of what could be a the current financial crisis but also to the fact that tremendous global revolution. Why should we not changes need to be taken in our business and industrial think along the same lines for Manchester, Birmingham landscape. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Heseltine and Liverpool, which brook so large in the noble on the submission of his excellent report. A renewed Lord’s report? focus on overseas trade is severely overdue as we cannot continue to buy so much more than we sell. 5pm Our industries must be world leading and globally The Earl of Lytton: My Lords, this is an enormously competitive, thus attracting inward investment and important report. It sets sheer practicality in a potential for us to increase exports. philosophical context, and I hang my hat on that. I was pleased that this report placed an emphasis By virtue of my professional business and chamber on the long-term stability of our science and research of commerce interests, I have spent much of my life, sector, and how we market it. We need to better like Voltaire’s antihero, Candide, noting both cause support and stimulate the creativity we hold within, and effect while observing that current times are not and ensure that this is better promoted to the rest of the best of all possible worlds. The elephant in the the world. room is the unnecessarily adversarial nature of much I would also draw attention to the report’s focus on of our national politics, legal system and regulation. the need for our government departments to build This creates risks and, in public administration terms, better relationships with the private sector and with the response often seems to be inward-looking and each other. So much can be gained from government protectionist, sometimes as turf wars but primarily in embracing private sector business in a way that works defence of systems rather than outcomes for growth. with it rather than alongside it. We must give businesses This has consequences. The Federation of Small confidence that the Government understand their concerns Businesses surveys support my own long-held view that and share their aims. I agree with my noble friend small businesses in particular still bear disproportionate Lord Heseltine that wealth creation should be the burdens in terms of regulation, employment and tax business of all government departments. BIS and the treatment. For example, nobody wins by turning Treasury cannot capitalise on every opportunity for employment rights into a legal battlefield and the growth and wealth creation without the help of those general costs to small businesses are, I believe, in other fields. I am therefore in favour of departments unsustainable. contributing to a wider growth strategy through which The informer network of HMRC has been likened they could join up their thinking and complement in this week’s press to the Stasi. The taxman’s reputation each other. for aggressive treatment of small businesses is well The notion of localism is also extremely important known. While this department formally accepts some and we must capitalise on the progress that the tax avoidance schemes—it has a box for it on its Government are already making on this. I was pleased forms—it is an avid player in a game of catching out to hear the Chancellor accept the recommendation the ignorant, weak and unwary, even if honest, while that more of the funding for locally tailored schemes 841 Economy: Growth[LORDS] Economy: Growth 842

[LORD SHEIKH] inclined to help themselves to a disproportionate share will go into a general pot for which local enterprise of company profits. They guide unions in the right partnerships can bid. True innovation is released when direction, too. it is free from central constraints, and it is the job of The nation owes much to the long period of public central government to promote and support this. service of the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine. I think of Competitive bidding for such funds will encourage Docklands in the 1980s, Manchester in the 1990s after local communities to raise their game, give the successful the bomb, and especially Liverpool over a long period, bidders freedom to spend in ways that better support as well as many other matters, some of which have their local areas and, ultimately, build a nation of been mentioned. With this report, we are in his debt more ambitious and creative communities. There needs once again, and I urge the Government to act on its to be a greater level of co-ordination between government central recommendations. and the private sector, and indeed within the Government themselves. There also needs to be full recognition of 5.10 pm the benefits of allowing strong, independent and dynamic local economies to flourish, supported but not controlled Lord Haskins: My Lords, as the chair of the Humber by national government. local enterprise partnership, it would be remiss of me not to say that I entirely support this proposal from In conclusion, I agree that we should think hard the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, and I congratulate about our industrial approach, with a fresh examination him on it. It was a very interesting symbolic moment of a wider economic landscape and a reshaping of our when he chose to launch it in Birmingham Town Hall, education system. We also need to take a creative look which many noble Lords will recall was where Joe at the skills agenda. Chamberlain made all his speeches. While the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, was giving his speech, the figure 5.07 pm of Joe Chamberlain was standing over him, reminding us of the past. Lord Monks: My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, rightly says in chapter 7 of his report: The talk of the erosion of local government and the move towards central government is one aspect that I “If there is an upside to the worst … crisis of modern times, it should like to mention. I can also point to the talk of is the emergence of an audience for deep seated and radical proposals”. the erosion of corporate Britain away from the provinces and towards the centre, into London. In 1906, some Indeed, we cannot just go back to business as usual, 85% of the headquarters of the top 100 companies pre-2007. We know that we must rebalance our economy were outside London. Today, I guess that there are less towards innovation, manufacturing, infrastructure and than 10. We have seen over a period great companies the weaker regions. We must save more and invest such as Rowntree’s being devoured by Nestlé, an old more. We should not continue to treat the City of international company, and the local identity of Rowntree’s London with exaggerated reverence, adopting an almost has gone. Aviva thought that Norwich Union was not protectionist zeal that we do not apply to any other a great name, so it chose something else. Above all sector. The City can be an asset but the banks can be else, the banks have devolved local power to the centre. near-lethal to the country, as they were in 2007-08. In the job that I do, it is difficult to make sense of all The noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, details measures that. Contrast that with BMW in Munich, Volkswagen that aim to get the UK economy match fit. For starters, in Saxony, Microsoft in Seattle, Coca-Cola in Atlanta this has to be done up to the level of our neighbours and McDonald’s in Chicago. Corporate Britain must on the other side of the North Sea—Germany, the learn to let go. Netherlands, Flanders and the Nordic states. They There is a huge attraction in localism. There is have high productivity, positive balances of payments, better accountability—a case of Whitehall versus City strong social states, excellent training systems, scope Hall, and I have no doubt where the accountability for local and regional initiative, and influential trade lies—as well as local knowledge and local experience. unions. Those neighbours are savers and investors. The noble Lord, Lord Baker, mentioned the skills We have covered our lack of match-fitness in the problem. It is very important that that is dealt with at past, sometimes with North Sea oil revenues and then a local level and that local needs are met. Localism with the boom in the financial services sector. There also means a speedy response, ownership and civic are no further windfalls in view and no more short-term pride. I believe that the LEPs will develop into something fixes except, perhaps, devaluation, of which we have called city regions, which will probably have more had seven against the deutschmark or the euro since credibility than the regional development agencies the end of the war. We must surely not rely on devaluation because people identify with cities. If people identify for our future strategy. By the way, the last thing we with cities, there is a chance. Apart from in Yorkshire, need is a self-imposed exile from the EU unless it people have never identified with regional development bends to our model. That would be, in effect, a sort of agencies. voluntary Dunkirk—and that was a defeat. However, the LEPs have to demonstrate that they Many of the recommendations of the noble Lord, are competent to take greater responsibility, getting Lord Heseltine, nod in the direction of Germany and talented people into public life once again and getting the lessons that that country provides for the UK. I local authorities to pool their resources—something add one more: the advantage of codetermination over that is not very easy in my part of the world. Getting adversarial relations at work. These codetermination local business associations and local authorities to principles seem outlandish to many in the UK, but work together is, again, not very easy. Big businesses they keep managements more long-termist and less must devolve much more authority to the local level so 843 Economy: Growth[6 DECEMBER 2012] Economy: Growth 844 that people such as me can get answers on big economic 5.15 pm decisions at the local level, rather than having to go Lord Desai: My Lords, the Heseltine report is not back to daddy. just for Christmas and not just for austerity; it is for a much longer period than that. Some of the things that 5.12 pm the noble Lord has pointed out have been constant Lord Northbrook: My Lords, I welcome this and I have been hearing about them ever since I opportunity to debate the important report produced arrived here 45 years ago. We are too centralised and by my noble friend Lord Heseltine but I regret that there is too little power in the regions and local authorities. the usual channels have not allowed the opportunity There is too much regional inequality and London is of a full three or four-hour debate. To limit too powerful compared to the regions. You can see contributions to three minutes makes each contribution that in the noble Lord’s diagrams. only a speed-dating effort in addressing such an important The noble Lord is a paradox. He is a centralist who publication. wants to decentralise by using central power and he is The Government gave only the briefest of initial strongly in favour of state intervention to encourage responses to the report until yesterday, so I look private business. It is an interesting model. If we are forward to hearing what the Minister has to say. The serious about decentralisation the first thing to do is Government are planning to strip Whitehall of about to decentralise Whitehall. There is no reason why all £58 billion of business support funding and place it in the ministries should be in London. There is no reason the hands of local enterprise partnerships, LEPs, in why Local Government, Transport or Business, Innovation the biggest act of financial devolution ever seen. The and Skills should be in London. Once upon a time the CBI has commented: technology was such that they needed to be near each “LEPs have so far lacked the power and resources to impact other. Now with cyber technology none of them needs local growth”. to be near the others. We can completely decentralise Given that this review highlights a number of key government and delocate it. That would be a great areas in which LEPs can support private sector activities, step forward in making the regions more powerful and it is pleasing to hear that they have been given appropriate generating more employment in the regions. resources to help them to meet this challenge. Does As my noble friend Lord Hollick said, if we are the Minister believe that they have the powers and the serious about local government, we have to give local skills? government income which is independent of central The British Chambers of Commerce generally government. The best way to do it would be to do welcomes the report: what has been long delayed and revalue property. “Lord Heseltine’s analysis of the state of the UK economy is Property values have not really been revised since the compelling”, early 1990s. We got into the whole poll tax/council tax it says, yet his report for action, dilemma because of the reluctance to revalue properties “focuses too much on institutions, rather than on the fundamental quinquennially or periodically. If we could do that, barriers to business growth. Ministers should think carefully given council tax rates, we would generate buoyant before committing to a restructuring of government, and focus incomes for local authorities. They would not need to first on the key restraints facing the real economy: the availability come to central government for their income and that of growth finance, practical help for our exporters, our creaking would allow central government to cut central taxes. If physical infrastructure, and an education … system that responds we are serious about localism, we should break up to businesses needs. Government can best support enterprise by Whitehall into the regions. collaborating with business to get the basics right”. Does the Minister agree with its observations? Lastly, this is a wonderful opportunity. As we are considering the refurbishment and repair of the Palace The Federation of Small Businesses also welcomes of Westminster, let us move Parliament out of London. the report by the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine. It suggests, however: “The boards of LEPs must represent all sizes and sectors of 5.18 pm local businesses. Otherwise they will fail. The FSB does not Lord Paul: My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman believe that the chambers should be legislated as they do not of Caparo Group, an industrial manufacturing company. represent all businesses, particularly self-employed and micro firms”. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, for initiating It concludes: this debate and add my voice to the plaudits he has received for his report. I have been actively involved in “To create a stable environment for businesses to thrive, the Government should look to the success of the US Small Business UK industry for more than 40 years. In this time Administration—SBA—to coordinate small business policy, such dozens of reports, documents, policy briefs and plans as lending, procurement and exporting”. have come and gone. No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of I will end by congratulating the Government on Growth is an outstanding and comprehensive report three measures in the Pre-Budget Report that I believe that reflects the noble Lord’s rare depth of experience will encourage growth. First, the increase in capital in both commerce and public life. allowances from £50,000 to £250,000 is an excellent I am glad that the Chancellor has announced that signal to manufacturers and has rightly been praised the Government are taking action on the report, although by key industrialists such as Sir Anthony Bamford of he will respond formally in April. It is a happy coincidence JCB. Secondly, the cut in corporation tax of 1% is that today’s debate is timed to follow the Autumn equally welcome to increase UK competitiveness. Finally, Statement. I am glad that the Chancellor is to take the extension of the empty property rate relief is a some immediate action. Speed is of the essence and I measure to be much welcomed. urge the Government to implement the report quickly 845 Economy: Growth[LORDS] Economy: Growth 846

[LORD PAUL] are trying to pump £50 billion into long-term loans in its entirety because decentralisation of power to the which do not get spent, but that should make the regions is long overdue. However, we must be careful kick-start. They should work for national or regional not to create more layers of bureaucracy, more quangos investment banks. After all they cannot all wind up as and more consultants which will produce more inertia, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The heart of the classic of which there is too much already. Keynesian paradox is that we are spending too little We need to bring together the education and business and yet are told every day that we are spending too sectors. Education has been a lifelong interest of mine much. The noble Lord, Lord Skidelsky, rightly continues and I have been active in several institutions of higher to remind us of that. education. When I was a student at MIT, I was most My final point is on Europe. I will set another impressed by the strong collaboration between business, challenge to the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine. I would government-sponsored projects and universities in the like him to look at how much truth there may be in the United States. Universities get their funding while notion that Europe is getting in the way of industrial government projects and industry benefit from first policy. I think that there are a lot of myths about this. rate research and technology. We in the UK have There are many things that you can do within the first-class universities and we need to encourage more rules of the European Community on industrial collaboration along those lines. I have spoken on this interventionism, finance and so on. We ought to nail subject many times. Innovative technology will help to once and for all the idea that we cannot co-operate in build a more dynamic economy that will attract more Europe and also have an active industrial policy, including foreign investment than public relations exercises or a national investment bank. Everyone else is doing it; cash incentives. why cannot we? I echo what my noble friend Lord This report has the potential for a dramatic impact Mandelson said in that regard. on the economic crisis so I strongly endorse it. I hope that the Government act today to pursue its 5.25 pm implementation with the same energy, commitment Baroness Wilcox: My Lords, I thank the Minister and determination that has been shown by the noble for allowing me to speak for a moment from personal Lord in producing it. I was planning to ask for this experience in support of the call from my noble friend debate in my name but, true to his reputation, the Lord Heseltine for empowering the chambers of noble Lord beat me to it. commerce. In the 1990s, I went to France to take over the largest fish-canning factory in France, on the 5.21 pm docks of the port of Boulogne. I took a new landing Lord Lea of Crondall: My Lords, we are living and processing method from Britain, and some of our through a period of the worst economic situation people to work with us. I also took a small fleet to add since well before the recession of the 1930s, if one to the very large fleet that there was already in Boulogne- looks at the loss of potential output. We need a sur-Mer. massive kick-start. I am 100% in favour of what the As many noble Lords will know, it is a very busy noble Lord has done, particularly as he challenges us port for ferries. I was catching pelagic fish that had to all in our cultural assumptions. Where will this massive be processed within hours. In docks such as those kick-start come from? there is a high-pressure atmosphere. When I got there, We have a catastrophic imbalance and there are so I was amazed to see that the most important building many ways of looking at that imbalance: north-south in the docks was the chamber of commerce, because divide, the City of London versus the sticks, and even the chamber there has statutory power. It ran—and the plebs versus the 0.1%. Indeed, someone has described runs—the docks. It made an enormous difference. It it as a Wimbledon economy.As long as the multinationals meant that we could go somewhere to fight our cause. have their headquarters here and their wives and The smallest voices tended to get the biggest listen, husbands—they are gender neutral these days—they because the port was always looking for new businesses can be within spitting distance of Wimbledon, that is to come forward in case it lost control of the movement fine. Transfer pricing and taxation all comes within of any of the cargo that it was dealing with. that package. So the political radicalism that one When I came back to London, Plymouth and wishes to bring to this is a matter of taste. Cornwall, I saw our chambers of commerce struggling I start from the position that we need a national with volunteer members in that lovely amateur way in investment bank. The City of London has some of the which we like to run the world. It made me realise that best brains in the country. According to the Office for we cannot do this any longer. Our chambers of commerce National Statistics, if value-added equals wages and must be empowered to promote British business. We salaries, then the City of London must be hugely must be able to take our place in continental Europe. productive and have high value-added because it pays It would love us to do so. It cannot believe that our itself a lot. There is something wrong with the measure chambers of commerce have no power—and neither of the economy in that sense of value added. They are should we. not laying golden eggs; they are laying hand grenades and that is not value added in anyone’s book. 5.27 pm My thought is that the City of London ought to Lord Wood of Anfield: My Lords, the excellent provide the best brains, if that is what they are, to report of the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, paints a make the national investment bank transfer a lot of vivid picture of some of the problems that have our savings. Every time you open a newspaper, they characterised our economy for decades, such as low 847 Economy: Growth[6 DECEMBER 2012] Economy: Growth 848 productivity, poor translation of basic research into The final principle, which is at the heart of this goods and services, and technical skills gaps. However, report, is the belief that active government, far from for me the issue that his report brings most to light is being the enemy of enterprise and growth, is indispensable the staggering scale of regional inequalities in growth to it. The noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, had the intellectual and income. Britain has bigger disparities between and political courage to stand up for this idea when it regions than any of our major competitors. It is the was deeply unfashionable under a Tory Government most regionally unequal country in the EU. GDP per in the 1980s. My noble friend Lord Mandelson stood head in the richest region is nine times greater than up for it in the last few years of the Labour Government, that in the poorest region—and the regional gap is when it was also unfashionable. If there is one legacy widening, not shrinking. Since the 2008 recession began, of this excellent report for us all, I hope that it is that poorer areas have seen income per head fall twice as we rid ourselves of the prejudice that an active industrial quickly as in the wealthiest areas. In London alone, strategy is bad economics, and rid ourselves of the the richest 10% have 273 times the wealth of the error of believing that a laissez-faire approach is good poorest 10%. This is not just unfair and corrosive of economics. social solidarity; it is holding our economy back. The impact affects us all. 5.31 pm What can be done about this? There are 89 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department recommendations in the report, but at their heart are for Business, Innovation and Skills (Lord Marland): My three central principles that the noble Lord, Lord Lords, this has been a magnificent debate and I am Heseltine, is urging on us all. The first is the indispensable very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, need for a growth strategy. The noble Lord says that for initiating it. It must have been wonderful for his this strategy, grandchildren to witness this great debate. “must send a loud and unequivocal message to the country that When the thud of this arrived on my desk and the the Government takes growth seriously and has a credible strategy”. noble Lord gave us a briefing on it, the words of I think that it is fair to say that so far the coalition has Caesar came to mind: “Veni, Vidi, Vici”. He came, he sent not so much a loud and unequivocal message as saw and he conquered, as he produced this excellent something that has oscillated between a mumble and document. It is a capable landscape of the issues and total silence. problems that we all face. The most important thing is that it has answers. So often we criticise in society The noble Lord’s second principle is the importance today but we do not have answers. of devolving policy responsibility to the regions and localities. His report details a familiar story of excessive I will restrict my remarks in this very short time to a centralism and Whitehall silos. Some imagination on response to his document on behalf of the Government. getting funding streams both rationalised and decentralised I hope that noble Lords will forgive me for not dealing is clearly needed and we are keen to work collaboratively with their individual questions. I am sure that we can on any proposals with that aim. But what a shame that deal with those later. It is fair to say that the Government the bodies that would have been best suited to bear the do not agree with everything the noble Lord said—it weight of this agenda, the Regional Development would be a rare world if we did—but I was much Agencies, were hastily scrapped two years ago in a heartened when he said that the Chancellor’s words move that the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, himself yesterday were as much as he could have hoped for on said was a mistake last year. the report. Of course, a great deal of what the noble Lord Yesterday, we heard that the Government are minded wrote in this report is also happening within to make some progress towards single-pot funding for government. In particular, he wants to put in a test LEPs, which could be promising. But as the noble case in Birmingham where he is looking for a response Lord, Lord Northbrook, said, for devolved funding to for the Prime Minister. I have no intention of shooting work, the bodies that power is devolved to must have the Prime Minister’s fox on this one because the noble the capacity to do the job properly. I am not convinced Lord is waiting for him to reply, but I have a slight that LEPs have this capacity and I am not alone, indication that he may be disposed to that as the right because concerns about their governance, their ability thing to do. to leverage funding, whether they have procurement contract management skills, under-representation of The noble Lord talked about a national growth SME’s and other worries are widespread and feature strategy in this fine document, as did the noble in the noble Lord’s report. Building up this capacity is Lords, Lord Wood and Lord Mandelson. It is a crucial precondition for any serious attempt to have absolutely fundamental that out of all of this we have a regional growth policy. Will the Minister say what a national growth strategy. That is what the Government the Government intend to do about that? are working to at the moment. Part of that strategy relies on the chambers. The report says that we Concerns about LEPs seem positively minor compared should enhance the legal status of the chambers. The with the concerns about the Regional Growth Fund. chambers are indeed at the heart of a British-led This fund aimed to create 330,000 jobs in its first year. recovery. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, It created 40,000. Two years into its life, only £60 million remarks, the chambers themselves are in, at best, a of the £1.4 billion allocated has reached the front line. pretty feeble state. They need boosting up. We will The PAC said that its value for money was scandalous. return in the spring to his comments on that with an Again, I would like the Minister to tell us how the official response, but clearly the direction of travel in Government intend to respond to those criticisms. boosting the chambers, which we are doing abroad at 849 Economy: Growth[LORDS] Economy: Growth 850

[LORD MARLAND] Government have set up a number of skills training the moment, needs to happen very extensively in this programmes and mentoring programmes, such as Get country, because we have a serious breakdown at the Mentoring, which has 15,000 mentors throughout the moment. country supplying help to businesses starting up. It is Strategic relationship management was referred to. all part of reducing that skills gap, as my noble friend We have established 38 strategic relationship partnerships Lord Heseltine suggested. with big companies to lead ourselves out of the mess The noble Earl, Lord Lytton, referred to red tape. that we are in. Our ambition is to have 150 relationships The one-in, one-out regulation reduction that we have by 2015. Rationalisation of trade associations is another has already saved £850 million of regulation costs to issue. Having been the Minister for Intellectual Property businesses. We must build on that, and we support the and been on the receiving end as some 100 associations recommendations that the noble Lord has made. bombarded me with information in relation to intellectual In addition, the Government have adopted several property, I cannot help but agree with the noble Lord. key initiatives. We have set up the Green Investment That has of course to be led by the industry, but this Bank with £3 billion of funding. We have announced a gives a very helpful nudge. business bank with £1 billion of new funding. We have The noble Lord refers to procurement strategy and set up catapults with an investment of £200 million to procurement specialists within government. He is transform some of the new advanced technologies. We absolutely right. I was one of the five Ministers who have set up the Business Finance Partnership. We have were responsible, under Francis Maude, for renegotiating the Enterprise Capital Funds and the Funding for all government contracts and establishing strategic Lending scheme, as well as a whole raft of infrastructure relationships and partnerships with government suppliers. projects that the Chancellor has announced not only That will be critical, not only for saving costs but in recently but in the past two years. So the Government terms of building relationships. The Government’s are trying their very best to force business and industry commitment to 25% of government contracts going to to respond to the challenges that the economy now small and medium-sized enterprises is absolutely key faces. to helping the SMEs forward. Strategically, we have identified some of the economies I am on the Civil Service reform board so am much that we want to back, such as advanced manufacturing taken by the reference the noble Lord makes to improving in aerospace, motor and science. The Chancellor management information within government. We have announced great support for science and technology to improve management information, which has not yesterday in the Autumn Statement. We also want to changed since the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, was support knowledge-intensive industries such as education, in government. We are still deluged by paper, which, in IT and business services—all key things in which we a modern world, should not be the case. There are have tremendous skills. In addition, we want to enable communication issues within the Civil Service, but it is some of the construction and energy companies to working hard to find a way forward with that, as start rebuilding infrastructure. indeed it is in commercialising the Civil Service, which At the heart of this is trade. Unless we start to trade is going to be critical to any reform. as a nation, we will not have growth. Our initiatives for A lot of the meat of what the noble Lord says trade include investing more funds in UKTI, a department relates to LEPs. I am glad that he feels that LEPs, that I am proud to be involved with. We have reformed working alongside stakeholders, are absolutely key to UKTI as a much more outward-facing unit than it has development through our regions. I do not think there been. The Prime Minister has led several big trade is much argument in this House about that. The delegations; there have been more than 280 missions Government have committed £1.5 billion of funds this year alone through UKTI. We have had Export which LEPs can apply to borrow. We have established Week, we have had ExploreExport, and as of late I am 35 LEPs and a wave of city deals—28 already—which pleased to have taken on the chairmanship of the should increase employment by 175,000. A lot of work Prime Minister’s trade envoys. is going on there. If there is one thing that I think sums up this debate A number of noble Lords have referenced local and the admirable concerns of all noble Lords in this government, while the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, Chamber, which were echoed by the noble Lord, it is referred to planning and getting a much clearer path the notion that we are definitely all in this together. in that respect. That is very important, especially Through the trade envoys—which involve Labour, coming from a top entrepreneur like the noble Lord, Liberal Democrat and Conservative Peers—and through who understands it as well as anybody. It is absolutely our business ambassadors, we will be able to take the fundamental that we simplify some of the methods of trade out to the world as UK plc. That is how we will local government. get out of this mess—by all being in it together. I On skills, I am a great fan of the UTCs, and we all admire the words that the noble Lord used, because pay huge tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Baker, for his they are the icing on the cake on what I think is an part in devising them. I have had the privilege of excellent document and a good reference point for our working with him on a few things to do with UTCs Government. and where they could be. They will be part of the regeneration in various areas. In addition to that, the House adjourned at 5.42 pm. WS 73 Written Statements[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Statements WS 74

In the report, I have considered the two key principles: Written Statements that those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether regular or reserve, those who have served in the past, Thursday 6 December 2012 and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services as a consequence of that service; and that Agriculture: Single Payment Scheme special consideration is appropriate in some cases, Statement especially for those who have given the most, such as the injured and bereaved. Since the coalition Government The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department came to office in 2010, we have: for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De doubled the operational allowance for service Mauley): My honourable friend the Minister of State personnel who deploy on operations overseas, such for Agriculture and Food (David Heath) has today as in Afghanistan; made the following Statement. launched the community covenant, supported by a I am pleased to be able to make a statement about £30 million community covenant grant scheme; the opening of the window for payments to farmers in England under the EU Common Agricultural Policy implemented a range of improvements in mental Single Payment Scheme (SPS) for 2012. health care, including an additional 50 mental health professionals conducting outreach work with veterans On 3 December 2012 the Rural Payments Agency in England, a 24-hour helpline and a support and paid more than £1.38 billion to more than 95,000 farmers, advice website. meeting its target for the end of December 2012 on the first banking day of the payment window. This equates Specifically, over the past 12 months, we have: to 84.6% of the estimated fund value and 91.4% of doubled council tax relief again, for those serving customers, and represents the best ever performance on operations overseas, to around £600 for an on the part of the agency. This is excellent news for average six month tour; English farmers and for the wider rural economy. altered the schools admissions code to allow all As last year, the agency shortly will be contacting schools in England to allocate a place in advance farmers who are unlikely to be paid during December of a service family arriving in the area, and to to explain what additional work must be done to enable infant schools in England to admit service validate their claims and to clarify the arrangements children over the class size of 30; for payment. opened the £17 million Jubilee Rehabilitation Complex The agency is working to a Ministerial commitment, at the Headley Court Defence Rehabilitation Centre set out in its business plan for 2012-13, to pay 84% of and announced the investment of a further £5 million payments by value and 91% of customers by number to refurbish wards and accommodation.; by 31 December 2012, and 97% of payments and 97% of customers by end March 2013. launched a new defence discount service, which for the first time offers a privilege card entitling members of the Armed Forces community to a range of Armed Forces: Covenant Annual Report discounts on goods and services; and Statement transferred £35 million from fines levied on the banks for attempting to manipulate the LIBOR The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry interest rate to the Ministry of Defence for use in of Defence (Lord Astor of Hever): My right honourable supporting the Armed Forces community, mainly friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Philip through service charities. Hammond) has made the following Written Ministerial Looking forward to the year ahead, this Government Statement. will among other things: The Armed Forces covenant is the expression of increase the service pupil premium to £300 from the moral obligation the Government and the nation April 2013, and extend its scope to children of owe to the Armed Forces community—those who service personnel who have died in service; serve, whether regular or reserve, their families; and fully disregard war pension or other guaranteed veterans and their families. The Armed Forces Act income payments through the Armed Forces 2011 enshrines the principles of the covenant in law, Compensation Scheme in calculating entitlement and places an obligation on the Defence Secretary to to universal credit, when it is launched in 2013; and report to Parliament each year on the effects of membership of the Armed Forces on serving personnel, invest a further £131 million to purchase new service veterans and their families. family accommodation to become available for use The Government are today publishing the first in 2013. annual report to be produced under this legislation. The report has been compiled in consultation with The report addresses seven specific groups within the the Covenant Reference Group, which brings together Armed Forces community, recording what we have representatives from government departments; the done since the last report in 2011 and what we plan to devolved Governments in Scotland and Wales; and do. It covers the full scope of the covenant, including from external members, including the three Families the fields of health care, education, housing and the Federations, the Confederation of Service Charities, operation of inquests. the Royal British Legion, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen WS 75 Written Statements[LORDS] Written Statements WS 76 and Families’ Association, the War Widows’ Association evidence to contribute to our analysis of the issues. and Professor Hew Strachan. Our EU partners and the EU institutions will also be Observations on the annual report by the external invited to contribute evidence to the review. We aim to members of the Covenant Reference Group are published reach a wide range of interested parties to ensure a as part of the report itself. Their observations are high yield of valuable information. broadly supportive, but highlight a number of areas The result of the report will be a comprehensive, where work remains to be done. The Government will thorough and detailed analysis of how the EU’s actions take careful note of these and will work to address in the fields of development co-operation and them during the period leading to the next annual humanitarian aid impact the UK and our development report. We are very grateful to the external members objectives. It will aid our understanding of the nature for their continued involvement and assistance. of our EU membership; and it will provide a constructive and serious contribution to the wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU: Balance of Competence Review EU. The report will not produce specific policy Statement recommendations. I am placing this document and the call for evidence Baroness Northover: My right honourable friend in the Library of the Houses. They will also be published the Secretary of State for International Development on the DfID website and accessible through the balance has made the following Statement. of competences review pages on the Foreign and I wish to inform the House that, further to the Oral Commonwealth Office website. Statement by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs launching the review of the balance of competences in July and his Written Statement on the progress of the review on EU: Foreign Affairs Council 23 October 2012, the Department for International Statement Development (DfID) has published its call for evidence for the Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid Report. The Minister of State, Department for Business, This report will be completed by summer 2013 and Innovation and Skills & Foreign and Commonwealth will cover the ways in which the European Union uses Office (Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint): The EU Foreign its powers to act in the sphere of development co-operation Affairs Council (Trade) took place in Brussels on and humanitarian aid. Nearly 20% of DfID’s budget 29 November 2012. is managed through the European Commission, making I represented the UK on all the issues discussed at the EU our biggest multilateral partner in terms of aid the meeting. A summary of those discussions follows. volume. Two legislative items were discussed: the Commission’s The report will deal with the range of development two trade omnibus proposals which bring common co-operation and humanitarian aid issues. The call for commercial (trade) policy regulation into line with evidence also outlines the interdependencies between post-Lisbon decision-making arrangements, and the the Development and Humanitarian Aid Report and proposal relating to financial responsibility for investor- other related reports in order to clarify as far as state disputes arising from EU investment protection possible the range of evidence we will be considering. treaties with third countries A legal annex outlines the legal base for the current Member states noted that Omnibus I has an agreed balance of competences, drawing chiefly on Articles council position and will now go to trilogue negotiations, 208 to 214 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the while Omnibus II is still being discussed in working European Union (TFEU). group. The Commission urged member states to seek The call for evidence period will be open for 12 weeks. agreement on both by the end of the Irish presidency. DfID will draw together the evidence and policy analysis Member states broadly agreed with the general into a first draft, which will subsequently go through a principle of the Commission’s proposal on investor-state process of scrutiny before publication in summer 2013. disputes. I intervened to say that the Commission DfID will take a rigorous approach to the collection should only assume a role in any legal defence where and analysis of evidence. The call for evidence sets out strictly necessary. I also called for greater transparency the scope of the report and includes a series of broad in deciding who should bear any financial responsibility. questions on which contributors are to focus. Interested The issue will continue to be discussed in working parties are invited to provide evidence relating to group. issues of competence in the fields of development There followed four substantive non-legislative items co-operation and humanitarian aid. The evidence received each relating to bilateral trade negotiations: (subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act) the launch of formal negotiations between the EU will be published alongside the final report in June and Japan on an economic partnership agreement 2013 and will be available on the new Government (a free trade agreement in all but name); website: www.gov.uk. negotiation of the EU-Canada comprehensive DfID will pursue an active engagement process, economic and trade agreement (another FTA); consulting widely across Parliament and its committees, the devolved Administrations, multilateral organisations state of play on the EU/Singapore FTA; and such as the UN, and civil society in order to obtain potential EU-southern Mediterranean trade negotiations. WS 77 Written Statements[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Statements WS 78

The EU-Japan negotiating mandate was agreed concerns on human rights and democratic standards; after some discussion and negotiations should begin and a more effective partnership for modernisation. in the new year. Western Balkans On the EU-Canada free trade agreement, there was Ministers will review the situation in the countries a discussion on the state of play in the negotiations. of the western Balkans, in advance of the discussion Outstanding issues include agriculture, investment and of EU enlargement at the GAC the following day. This intellectual property. Negotiations are continuing and will be an opportunity to consider the latest developments the Commission noted that there is commitment on in the EU-facilitated dialogue between the Prime Ministers both sides to conclude an agreement as soon as possible. of Serbia and Kosovo: the UK welcomes the leadership There was also a discussion on the state of play in of Baroness Ashton on this and is keen to see further the negotiations on the EU-Singapore free trade improvement in the relations between the two sides. agreement. Progress has been made on outstanding There may also be some discussion of the situation in issues and there was broad support from member Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the pace of reform states for an agreement to be concluded rapidly. has recently slowed and renewed progress is badly Member states welcomed progress towards opening needed, as well as consideration of the situations in negotiations with southern Mediterranean countries Macedonia and Albania. I do not expect conclusions. and, in particular, the decision of the Trade Policy Southern Neighbourhood Committee to launch negotiations with Morocco. The Commission noted that scoping discussions were There will be a discussion on Syria. Further to a underway with Tunisia, with the aim of launching UK drive to increase EU support to Syrian civil negotiations in 2013. society, I anticipate that the EEAS will present its vision on how the EU can support civil society in Under AOB, the Commission was asked by some coping with the consequences of the ongoing conflict member states to reconsider its decision not to extend and better prepare it for political transition. We also prior surveillance for steel imports when the current expect discussion on the relationship between EU system expires at the end of 2012. The Commission member states and the newly formed Syrian National was reluctant, arguing that the evidence did not support Coalition. Having successfully amended the EU arms an extension. I intervened to support the Commission. embargo (and sanctions package) by setting a three-month The EU’s trade relationships with Russia and China renewal period, we will make fresh arguments in support were discussed over lunch. of amending the arms embargo ahead of the March 2013 deadline in a way that offers sufficient flexibility to increase practical support to the Syrian opposition. EU: Foreign Affairs Council and Ministers may also take stock of recent events in General Affairs Council Libya, including how to support the priorities of the Statement new Prime Minister, Ali Zidan, and his Government which have now taken office. There will be an opportunity to discuss the provision and co-ordination of international The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities assistance to the new Libyan authorities. and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth The council may discuss events in Egypt following Office (Baroness Warsi): My right honourable friend President Mursi’s 22 November constitutional declaration. the Minister for Europe has made the following Written The situation on the ground is changing rapidly, but Ministerial Statement we will argue for the EU to respond appropriately to My right honourable friend the Secretary of State the latest developments and clearly underline support for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and I will for continued progress towards democracy. attend the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) on 10 December, Middle East Peace Process and I will attend the General Affairs Council (GAC) on 11 December in Brussels. The Foreign Affairs The discussions on the Middle East peace process Council will be chaired by the High Representative of will focus on follow-up to the 29 November UN the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security General Assembly Resolution, including the EU’s response Policy, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, and the General to the Israeli decisions to build 3,000 new housing Affairs Council will be chaired by the Cypriot presidency. units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, to unfreeze planning in the area known as E1 and to withhold tax Foreign Affairs Council revenue from the Palestinian Authority. EU Ministers EU-Russia summit will also discuss facilitating a rapid return to credible Ministers will discuss the EU-Russia summit which negotiations in order to secure a two-state solution. will be held in Brussels on 21 December. Whilst I do We will reiterate our condemnation of the Israeli not expect conclusions to be issued, we will aim to decision, underlining the threat this poses to the two-state ensure that this meeting, the 30th such summit, delivers solution, and stress the need to continue work to build concrete results for the EU in its relationship with on the May FAC conclusions. We will also emphasise Russia. The discussion provides an opportunity for the the need for the US, with the strong and active support UK to steer the EU’s objectives for the summit and to of the EU, to do all it can in the coming weeks and ensure discussion focuses on concrete achievable outcomes, months to take a decisive lead and push the peace such as: resolution of the Siberian overflight charges; process forward urgently. Additionally the UK will movement on market reform; positive developments in stress the need to build on the Gaza ceasefire and to the energy relationship; underlining member states’ address the underlying causes of the conflict including WS 79 Written Statements[LORDS] Written Statements WS 80 more open access to and from Gaza for trade as well Preparation for the December European Council as humanitarian assistance, and an end to the smuggling The agenda for the December European Council of weapons. The UK will support conclusions covering will cover: economic policy, including economic and these points. monetary union and banking union; defence; enlargement; EU-US and foreign policy. The last two items are covered by the separate sections of this Written Ministerial Statement This item has been re-scheduled from November’s on enlargement and on the Foreign Affairs Council. FAC. Ministers will have the opportunity to discuss the EU’s priorities with the US following the US The bulk of the European Council meeting will presidential elections on 6 November and the re-election focus on agreeing a legislative framework for banking of President Obama. I expect the discussion to cover a union and an agenda for further economic and monetary spectrum of leading international issues, including the integration in the Eurozone. global economy and a possible EU-US free trade deal. At the December European Council the Prime Minister will seek to ensure the integrity of the single market at Ukraine and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 27, including in the context of the banking union and We also expect Ministers to agree conclusions on the European Banking Authority. We will also press Ukraine and the DRC. for further progress on growth and ensure that the timetable for further integration in the eurozone progresses General Affairs Council at the right pace and in the right way. I will argue that There is a substantial agenda for the GAC in December. these concerns should be addressed prior to the December There is a legislative deliberation on the Statute of the European Council so that solutions to these issues can Court of Justice of the European Union; a presentation be put to leaders on 13 and 14 December. by the Commission on the Annual Growth Survey; The December European Council agenda item on preparation for the European Council on 13 and defence will pave the way for further discussion in 14 December; endorsement of the 18 month programme 2013. I will argue for a focus on developing capabilities, for the presidencies of Ireland, Lithuania and Greece; enhancing operational effectiveness and strengthening and a discussion on enlargement, covering all potential the European defence industry. candidates and including the adoption of EU common positions for the accession conference with Iceland. The 18-month programme for the presidencies of Ireland, Lithuania and Greece Due to the large agenda, I expect many of these The GAC has been asked to endorse the 18-month items to be brief and I expect most of the discussion to programme of the council. This sets out the combined focus on the preparation for the European Council on programme for the Irish, Lithuanian and Greek 13 and 14 December and on enlargement. presidencies of the European Council covering the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European period January 2013 to June 2014. I expect the programme Union to be published shortly. The Cypriot presidency hopes to secure agreement Enlargement on a selection method for additional judges at the Ministers will seek to agree conclusions taking stock General Court of the Court of Justice of the European of progress on EU enlargement, and on the stabilisation Union: we have not yet received the final proposal for and association process in the western Balkans. The this. I remain concerned at the current backlog at the Commission released their annual enlargement package General Court, which is damaging to the interests of on 10 October. In this communication, the Commission British business. My priorities in the discussion will recommended: (i) opening accession negotiations with be: to ensure that there is proportionate common law Macedonia; and (ii) granting Albania candidate status representation among any additional judges; that the subject to the completion of three specific measures costs of additional judges are covered within existing and evidence of continued commitment in the fight budgets; and that the selection method provides the against organised crime and corruption. We believe court with the stability it requires to function effectively. the communication to be a broadly fair and balanced assessment. European Semester and the Annual Growth Survey We will seek conclusions reconfirming the European The Commission will present key elements of the Council’s support for EU enlargement and recognising 2013 annual growth survey which can be found on the that the accession process gives strong encouragement Commission’s website at: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/ to political and economic reform and reinforces peace, pdf/ags2013_en.pdf. democracy and stability. We agree with the Commission’s The annual growth survey sets out the Commission’s view that closer relations with the EU should be based views on the economic priorities for Europe for 2013, on the principles of delivery on commitments, fair and focusing on fiscal consolidation, promoting economic rigorous conditionality, and good communication with growth and employment. The survey, which represents the public. We agree that key challenges remain for the first stage of the 2013 European semester, focuses most enlargement countries, including in the area of on growth-friendly fiscal consolidation measures across the rule of law. We also support a focus on freedom of the EU. The European semester is the EU-wide framework expression and regional co-operation, particularly for for co-ordinating structural reforms and growth-enhancing the western Balkans countries. policies. We do not expect this item to be opened for I set out the Government’s views on the Commission’s substantive discussion but, in the event that it is, I will reports in my explanatory memorandum of 18 October. be supporting the focus on growth. We will seek council conclusions welcoming Croatia’s WS 81 Written Statements[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Statements WS 82 continued progress towards meeting all of its commitments The Government are today publishing the Skills in full before its expected accession on 1 July 2013, Funding Statement 2012-15 and the FE College Capital while reiterating the Commission’s call for Croatia to Investment Strategy.I will email all honourable Members sharpen its focus to ensure this is achieved. and a copy of each will be placed in the Library of the I will seek conclusions that provide a fair and House. balanced assessment of Turkey’s progress, which will Since May 2010, the Government have made available inject much needed momentum into the process to over £330 million of new FE capital investment enabling allow accession negotiations to move forward in 2013. college projects totalling over £1 billion. We have now I will argue that Iceland should be commended on the allocated a total of £550 million for additional capital progress made in accession negotiations this year, investment in the FE college estate in 2013-14 and while recalling the need for Iceland to address existing 2014-15. £270 million of this represents new money obligations, such as those identified by the European announced in the Autumn Statement, over and above Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority under the Spending Review settlement for FE. the European economic area agreement. The FE College Capital Investment Strategy sets I also expect the council to welcome the opening of out the Government’s priorities for capital funding accession negotiations with Montenegro in June 2012, over the remainder of this Parliament and sets the while calling for early progress in the area of the rule direction of travel for future years. The strategy also of law, in line with the new approach to accession includes an outline delivery plan and new capital negotiations endorsed by the council in December programmes which the Skills Funding Agency will 2011. develop with input from sector representatives and Following the FAC discussion of 10 December, the launch on its website before Christmas. GAC will discuss the Commission’s enlargement package This year’s skills funding statement reaffirms our for the western Balkans countries. We remain fully commitment to creating a FE system which secures supportive of a future for all of the western Balkans the skills we need for everyone in Britain to succeed. countries in the EU, once conditions are met. We want We have delivered significantly increased flexibilities the European Council to commend good progress on for colleges and FE providers; removed planning controls, reform in Macedonia through the high level accession enabling providers to be more responsive to their dialogue, and hope the European Council will be able communities, achieved better value for money and to build on this by agreeing to the Commission’s delivered more with less. With tight budgets across the fourth successive recommendation to open accession FE sector, these freedoms and flexibilities are now negotiations. more important than ever. In the absence of a further report from the This funding statement sets out how we will enable Commission, the December European Council will the sector to build upon these achievements in the not be in a position to grant candidate status to years ahead: Albania; we will want it to call on Albania to make early progress on reform implementation and establish overall funding for adult FE and Skills will be a track record on tackling organised crime and corruption £4.1 billion in the 2013-14 financial year with to enable a decision in 2013. I will argue for council £3.6 billion of this being routed through the Skills conclusions that underline that Serbia still needs to Funding Agency to support capacity for over three make real progress to deliver a “visible and sustainable million learners; improvement”in its relations with Pristina before accession we are prioritising government funding on English negotiations can be opened, while noting that this and maths which are essential to enable people to remains in reach if recent progress continues. We want function in society, progress into vocational learning the council to welcome the Commission’s assessment and employment and to contribute more effectively that a stabilisation and association agreement with at work. Funding will also be focused on young Kosovo is feasible and to signal that negotiations adults and the unemployed where skills training will should begin as soon as possible. We agree with the help them to enter sustainable employment; Commission’s assessment that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s we welcome the Richard review and its emphasis on progress on its EU agenda has stalled. We will want quality, high standards and rigour in apprenticeships the council to press the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to raise their status, value and impact. A to make progress and deliver quickly on those issues consultation on the review will take place in the they themselves have agreed to, for example, on the spring but any initial views or comments on the EU road map agreed in June. review are welcomed; and we are giving local enterprise partnerships a new strategic role over skills policy in line with the Higher Education: Reform recommendations of the Heseltine review, to work Statement closely with colleges and providers. Employers play a crucial role in identifying and supporting the skills which we need for growth. Across The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department the country, colleges are innovating and collaborating for Business, Innovation and Skills (Lord Marland): My to build skills for growth. We want to encourage honourable friend the Minister for Skills (joint with employer-led bodies to take the lead in designing the Department for Education) (Matthew Hancock) is qualifications employers need, and ensuring that today making the following Statement. vocational qualifications are rigorous and valuable. WS 83 Written Statements[LORDS] Written Statements WS 84

The Skills Funding Statement and FE Capital Ministry of Defence: Annual Report and Investment Strategy set out in more detail how these Accounts priorities will be delivered. Statement Kosovo Statement The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Astor of Hever): My right honourable friend Secretary of State for Defence (Philip Hammond) Baroness Northover: My right honourable friend has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. the Secretary of State for International Development has made the following Statement. I am today publishing the Ministry of Defence’s On 30 November DfID closed its office in Kosovo. annual report and accounts 2011-12. It provides a This is DfID’s last bilateral programme in Europe and comprehensive overview of the department’s financial hence it is a symbolic moment for the UK’s relations performance for the year, together with data on some with the countries of the former Eastern bloc. It is specific areas of non-financial performance, including also evidence of how DfID’s assistance is changing. factual information on the department’s progress against structural reform and business plan priorities. This The UK commenced assistance to the former year we have laid the annual report and accounts later Communist countries of Europe in 1989. It has since than planned and we expect to lay next year’s annual operated programmes in central and eastern Europe, report and accounts before the summer recess. Copies the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia to will be available online from the MoD’s website at: build the foundations of democratic societies and free www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/ markets, helping improve living standards for millions Researchers/. of people. While much remains to be done, progress has been undeniable. The World Bank estimates that between Planning 1998 and 2003, for example, 40 million people in the Statement region left extreme poverty (defined as living on less than $2 per day) as a result of rapid growth and narrowing inequality. Twenty-three years after the fall The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Berlin Wall, 12 former Communist countries for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham): are our trading partners in the European Union, My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for democratic elections are the norm, and many countries Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles) which previously received aid are now donors themselves. has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The UK has progressively reduced its aid programme Today, to assist parliamentary scrutiny, my department in response to this progress. Assistance for 10 central has published details on European Union proposals European and Baltic countries ended when they joined which will affect the planning system across the United the EU in 2004. Assistance to Romania and Bulgaria Kingdom. ended on their accession in 2007, and programmes I have deposited in Parliament an explanatory were closed in Albania in 2008 and Bosnia and memorandum on European Union legislation on proposals Herzegovina, Moldova and Serbia in early 2011. to amend Directive 2011/92/EU on environmental impact We are therefore at the end of a significant period, assessments. A copy of the memorandum has been in which the UK can be proud of its contribution. In placed in the Library of the House. future, DfID’s engagement will be through the multilateral Environmental impact assessments are a European system, which we believe is now better placed to Union requirement which impose significant costs on respond to the regions’ emerging needs. the planning system, over and above long-standing, We will work with the European Union to ensure domestic environmental safeguards in planning law. their assistance through the instrument for pre-accession It has become apparent that some local planning (IPA) and European neighbourhood partnership authorities require detailed assessment of all environmental instrument (ENPI) is focused on appropriate priorities, issues irrespective of whether EU directives actually monitorable results, and value for money. We believe require it; similarly, some developers do more than is these instruments can be made significantly more effective. actually necessary to avoid the possibility of more We will use our position on the boards of the World costly legal challenges which add delays and cost to Bank and IMF, the European Bank for Reconstruction the application process. Consequently, my department and Development and the European Investment Bank will be consulting in 2013 on the application of thresholds to promote high quality investments in infrastructure for development going through the planning system in and private sector development, where significant needs England, below which the environmental impact remain. assessment regime does not apply. This will aim to Finally, we recognise that in some regions, particularly remove unnecessary provisions from our regulations, the western Balkans, the threat of conflict remains. We and to help provide greater clarity and certainty on will continue to contribute to the UK Conflict Prevention what EU law does and does not require. Pool alongside the FCO and MoD. The CPP has There are an increasing number of directives which allocated £16 million for programmes in wider Europe have implications for land use planning. In addition to this financial year, which will support projects in areas the environmental impact assessment directive other such as security sector reform, rule of law, training for EU legislation which impacts (or may shortly impact) on peacekeepers and support for political settlements. the planning system includes the strategic environmental WS 85 Written Statements[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Statements WS 86 assessment directive, flooding directive, habitats directive, and enable us to maximise the benefits for taxpayers wild birds directive, waste framework directive, revised and west coast passengers. For this reason the new waste framework directive, Seveso II directive, public franchise with VRG will be for up to 23 months. participation directive, renewable energy directive, energy I am also pleased to announce that passengers will performance of buildings directive, environmental noise not only experience the same levels of service they directive, draft airport noise regulation, energy efficiency have previously enjoyed but will also benefit from directive, draft regulation on trans-European energy improvements to previous levels. infrastructure, water framework directive, air quality In addition this agreement coincides with the successful directive and the draft soil framework directive. completion today, on budget and ahead of schedule, The European Union does not have competence on of a project to deliver 106 new Pendolino carriages land use planning, although it does have competence onto the west coast main line. in relation to the environment but as is evident from The new carriages, which will see up to 28,000 extra that list, increasingly, its regulatory creep is imposing seats provided each day, are being introduced with additional and expensive requirements on the planning £1.5 billion of Government support. system. Indeed, as outlined in the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 July 2012 (Official Report, House of Under the new franchise agreement, there will also Lords, col. WS 66-68) rulings from the European be a new hourly service between London and Glasgow. Court of Justice on the strategic environmental assessment This franchise will operate as a management contract, directive have added significant delay and complexity with both revenue and cost risk being borne by the for the UK Parliament to move ahead with the proposed Government. In return VRG will receive a margin of abolition of the last Government’s regional spatial 1% on revenue. The contract also makes a provision strategies. for the department and VRG to agree revised commercial The European Commission has announced that it terms that would see VRG take greater revenue and is seeking to amend the environmental impact assessment cost risk in the period to 9 November 2014. directive. The explanatory memorandum outlines that the proposals could result in a significant increase in regulation, add additional cost and delay to the planning Remploy system, and undermine existing permitted development Statement rights. In addition, the proposal appears inconsistent with the conclusion of the October European Council that it is particularly important to reduce the overall The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department regulatory burden at EU and national levels, with a for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud): My honourable specific focus on small and medium firms and micro- friend the Minister for Disabled People (Esther McVey) enterprises. This view was unanimous amongst all EU has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. Heads of Government, who also agreed with the I would like to make a Statement on Remploy to Commission’s commitment to exempt micro-enterprises update the House on the next steps in the reforms that from EU legislation. my predecessor as Minister for Disabled People, the Draft European Union legislation often receives right honourable Member for Basingstoke, set out in little parliamentary or public scrutiny. I would encourage this House on 10 July 2012. honourable Members to examine carefully this latest The Remploy board is today making make an proposed increase in EU regulation. announcement, and is quite rightly informing all those employees whom it affects. The Remploy board has now concluded its assessment Railways: West Coast Franchise of the stage 2 businesses. It has been working closely Statement with the Department for Work and Pensions and independent business analysts to explore in detail whether the remaining factory based businesses (automotive, Earl Attlee: My right honourable friend the Secretary automotive textiles, e-cycle, frontline, furniture, marine of State for Transport (Patrick McLoughlin) has made and packaging), CCTV contracts and employment the following Ministerial Statement. services could viably exit government ownership and if On 15 October 2012 I announced to the House that so, how this could be best achieved. following the cancellation of the InterCity west coast Further work is being undertaken on employment franchise competition the Department for Transport services and a separate announcement will follow when was commencing negotiations with Virgin Rail Group a decision has been made. (VRG). The Government have decided to confirm the exit I can today announce that negotiations have concluded of stage 2 factories and businesses, and the Remploy successfully and that Virgin Trains will continue to board has today announced the results of its analysis operate services on the west coast main line. and its proposals for a commercial process for stage 2 After careful consideration I believe taxpayers, rail factory businesses and the CCTV business. passengers and the wider rail industry will be better The automotive business operating from factories served by moving directly from this agreement with in Coventry, Birmingham and Derby is considered by VRG to a longer term franchise on the west coast Remploy to be a viable business. It has the potential to main line. Doing so will provide greater certainty for successfully move out of Government-funded support passengers, minimise disruption for all stakeholders as a going concern. Remploy will now move to market WS 87 Written Statements[LORDS] Written Statements WS 88 this business , there is no proposal to close this business of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), employees and staff at these sites are not formally at risk of employed in or assigned to the relevant businesses will redundancy. transfer to the new owner under TUPE. However, if The automotive textiles operation at Huddersfield TUPE does not apply, the number of employees who is not commercially viable and the factory there is may transfer to the new business cannot be guaranteed proposed for closure. All staff in this business are now as this will be a matter of negotiation between the at risk of redundancy. bidder and Remploy. The furniture business based in Neath (Port Talbot), It is important to note that no final decisions have Sheffield and Blackburn has the potential to be been made about the factory closures or about commercially viable but would require significant redundancies in stage 2 factories or businesses at this restructuring consideration and downsizing of its time. operations. Remploy will market this business as a I expect the process for exits or closures to have prospective going concern, while recognising that the been completed by October 2013. current trading position of the business may ultimately result in no viable bids being received and that there To encourage bids that maximise the continued may therefore be consequential redundancies and factory employment of disabled people, the Department for closures. All staff in this business are now at risk of Work and Pensions will offer a three-year tapering redundancy. wage subsidy totalling £6,400 for each eligible disabled The marine textiles business (based at Leven and member of staff. In addition Remploy will also fund Cowdenbeath) has an established market position and professional advice and support worth up to £10,000 might attract commercial interest. Remploy management for employee led bids. This is in line with the offer of will discuss any potential opportunities for a commercial support in stage 1. exit with its current distributor and any other parties Remploy’s automotive business will continue to who express an interest. However the business currently operate business as usual. There is no proposal to makes significant losses and is not saleable currently close this business at this stage. as a going concern. The employees of the marine Remploy employment services business will also textiles business are therefore at risk of redundancy. continue to operate business as usual. The CCTV business has the potential to become a viable business or series of businesses and successfully The Government have made £8 million available for move out of government control. Remploy will now 18 months to fund the delivery of a People Help and discuss with the 27 organisations that have let contracts Support Package across the UK for any disabled to Remploy their intentions and the opportunity to individuals who are made redundant. This tailored market this business and its 27 contracts as a going support from the People Help and Support Package concern. If the business can be sold it may result in includes access to a personal case worker to help potential TUPE transfers. In the event that it cannot individuals with their future choices and a personal be sold compulsory redundancies will be made and all budget for additional support. employees in the CCTV business are therefore at risk We will use the expertise of Remploy’s employment of redundancy. services which, despite difficult economic times over In addition to automotive textiles, three other Remploy the past two years, has found jobs for around 50,000 businesses are not commercially viable or have little disabled and disadvantaged people. realistic prospect of being sold as going concerns. We are working with Remploy employment services, These are e-cycle (based at Porth and Heywood), Frontline local and national employers, and the Business Disability Textiles (based at Dundee, Stirling and Clydebank) Forum (BDF) to offer targeted work opportunities for and packaging (based at Norwich, Portsmouth, Burnley disabled people. This could include guaranteed interviews, and Sunderland). These factories are now proposed work trials, industry sector specific training, pre-application for closure with all the staff working there and at the training (including mock interviews), on the job training associated business offices at risk of redundancy. and employer training in how to make adjustments for As a means of reducing the number of potential particular impairments. job losses Remploy will, from today commence a commercial process and invite expressions of interest We have also set up a community support fund to from any individuals or organisations who would like provide grants to local voluntary sector and user-led to buy all or parts of these businesses or sites proposed organisations to run a variety of projects to support for closure. They will also be inviting expressions of disabled Remploy employees and their families. interest for the assets associated with these sites, although Of the 1,349 disabled people affected by the factory going concern business sales will take precedent over closures, 875 have expressed an interest in returning to asset sales. work and are actively using the support package, so As a result of these proposals a total 875 employees the latest results mean that just under 15% of those are including 682 disabled employees in the automotive now in work. It is one of our top priorities to maximise textiles, e-cycle, frontline textiles, furniture, marine employment opportunities for the Remploy factory-leavers. textiles, packaging and CCTV businesses are being This is an ongoing process, and as it develops, I placed at risk of compulsory redundancy. commit to keeping this House updated on the status of If a successful sale or transfer of ownership is the business plans going through to the next stage. possible and such sale or transfer falls within the I will provide a further update on progress in the new provisions of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection year. WS 89 Written Statements[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Statements WS 90

Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Plant Biosecurity.The task force’s initial recommendations Measures lay the groundwork for a radical reappraisal of what we can do to protect the UK from threats to plant and Statement tree health. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home The discovery of ash dieback caused by Chalara Office (Lord Taylor of Holbeach): My right honourable fraxinea in the UK earlier this year highlighted the friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department importance of plant and tree health to our economy (Theresa May) has today made the following Written and environment. As well as providing direct employment Ministerial Statement. in the forestry, horticulture and nursery sectors, our Section 19(1) of the Terrorism Prevention and woods and forests provide valuable raw materials for Investigation Measures Act 2011 (the Act) requires many other uses, from wood fuel to construction and the Secretary of State to report to Parliament as soon furniture making. The value of woods and forests as reasonably practicable after the end of every relevant however goes beyond the economic. They provide three-month period on the exercise of her TPIM powers habitats for a range of valuable habitats for our wildlife under the Act during that period. and places that are loved by communities for their The level of information provided will always be beauty and the recreational opportunities. Individual subject to slight variations based on operational advice. trees on streets and in gardens enhance the local environment and people’s quality of life. Ash is the TPIM notices in force (as of 30 November 2012) 10 majority tree species in about 129,000 hectares of TPIM notices in respect of British citizens (as of 30 9 woodland out of Britain’s 3 million hectares of woodland. November 2012) It represents just over 13% of all broadleaf cover in Variations made to measures specified in TPIM notices 12 the UK. Applications to vary measures specified in TPIM notices 7 Interim Control Plan for Chalara refused This summarises the progress we have made in During the reporting period: one TPIM notice was delivering the initial actions we set out on 9 November imposed; no TPIM notices were extended; no TPIM and outlines what further action we will take over the notices were revoked; and no TPIM notices were next few months. The scientific advice is that we will revived. not be able to eradicate Chalara. Our objectives and A TPIM Review Group (TRG) keeps every TPIM actions for controlling the disease are therefore: notice under regular and formal review. The TPIM objective 1—reducing the rate of spread Review Group met twice during this reporting period. maintain the ban on import and movement of ash No individuals were charged in relation to an offence trees; under Section 23 of the Act (contravening a measure specified in a TPIM notice without reasonable excuse) explore options for a targeted approach to management during the period. of infected trees by the end of March 2013; Section 16 of the 2011 Act provides rights of appeal initiate research on spore production at infected against decisions by the Secretary of State in relation sites; and to decisions taken under the Act. No appeals were work with partners to publish targeted advice on lodged under section 16 during the reporting period. movement of leaf litter. Two judgments have been handed down by the High objective 2—developing resistance Court in relation to the review of TPIM notices under work across Europe to share data and experience Section 9 of the Act. In Secretary of State for the on resistance to Chalara; and Home Department v CC and CF [2012] EWHC 2837 (Admin), handed down on 19 October 2012, the High work with research councils and other bodies in Court upheld the TPIM notices imposed on CC and the UK to identify and prioritise research needs on CF (and the control orders which they were subject to resistance and ensure those needs are met. before the TPIM notices). CC and CF have applied for objective 3—encouraging public, landowner and permission to appeal the judgment. In Secretary of industry engagement State for the Home Department v CD [2012] EWHC fund a feasibility study to accelerate the development 3026 (Admin), handed down on 5 November 2012, the of the ObservaTREE, a tree health early warning High Court upheld TPIM notice imposed on CD. system using volunteer groups; Most full judgments are available at http://www.bailii.org/. develop a plant health network of trained people Trees: Chalara Fraxinea to support official surveillance and detection; Statement continue to work with the OPAL consortium to develop the OPAL survey on tree health for launch The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department in May 2013; and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De support a biosecurity themed show garden at next Mauley): My right honourable friend the Secretary of year’s Chelsea Flower Show. State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Owen objective 4—building resilience in the UK woodland Paterson) has today made the following Statement. and associated industries Further to my Statement on 9 November, I am today setting out plans for the next few months to publish silvicultural guidance on adapting to Chalara; control Chalara and also publishing the interim report publish maps showing the distribution of important by the independent Task Force on Tree Health and ash trees across Great Britain; and WS 91 Written Statements[LORDS] Written Statements WS 92

work with the horticulture and nursery sectors on produced an interim report which is also published long-term resilience to the impact of Chalara and today. Its recommendations are: other plant health threats. develop a prioritised UK risk register for tree These actions are interim measures based on our health and plant biosecurity; current state of knowledge and will be updated as that strengthen biosecurity to reduce risks at the border knowledge develops over the coming months. Until and within the UK; the science becomes more certain, we will continue to appoint a chief plant health officer to own the UK apply a single, national response to the disease and the risk register and provide strategic and tactical leadership current ban on movements of ash trees in Great for managing those risks; Britain will remain in place. review, simplify and strengthen governance and Landowners, voluntary organisations and the general legislation; public all have a crucial role to play in helping us implement this plan by identifying and managing the maximise the use of epidemiological intelligence spread of the disease and adapting to its impact. The from EU/other regions and work to improve the EU control plan sets out a number of actions to enable regulations concerned with tree and plant biosecurity; them to do this and new advice to landowners and develop and implement procedures for preparedness woodland managers will be published today by the and contingency planning to control the spread of Forestry Commission alongside the control plan. disease; While our best hope of securing the future of the develop a modern, user-friendly, expert system to British ash tree lies with understanding the genetic provide quick and intelligent access to data about variability in ash and identifying resistance to Chalara, tree health and plant biosecurity; and the greatest area of uncertainty remains how we should identify and address key skills shortages. deal with infected trees. To date we have been pursuing I welcome these initial recommendations and look a policy of tracing and destroying young infected trees forward to receiving the task force’s final report in the across Great Britain to slow the rate of spread. However, spring. that is unlikely to be sustainable in the longer term and there may be benefits from a more targeted approach. I have arranged for copies of the interim control We will therefore work with stakeholders and experts plan for Chalara and the interim report of the Task over the coming months to explore the costs and Force on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity to be benefits of a range of alternative approaches to slow placed in the Libraries of the House. the spread of Chalara. However, Government alone cannot address this issue. Industry, landowners, environmental groups and I believe this approach will put us in the best the wider public all have an important part to play. possible position to respond with pace to the disease Over the coming months, we will continue to work over the winter months while the disease is not spreading. with all those who can play a role in developing Task Force on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity innovative approaches to protecting our economy and In parallel to the work in response to Chalara in the environment from the increasing threat posed by October, I asked my chief scientific adviser to convene plant pests and diseases. I will return when I have an independent expert Task Force on Tree Health and considered the final recommendations from the task Plant Biosecurity to assess the current disease threats force, setting out my plans for radical action to reform to the UK and to make recommendations about how our approach to plant and tree health in the light of those threats could be addressed. The task force has the task force’s recommendations. WA 169 Written Answers[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Answers WA 170

have also commissioned a longer-term project to quantify Written Answers the actual exposure of wild bumblebees to sub-lethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticides in UK landscapes. Thursday 6 December 2012 The US phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder, involving a complete or near-complete absence of bees in a colony, is not present in the UK. Agriculture: Pesticides Questions Asked by Baroness Thomas of Winchester Apprenticeships Question To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to prevent the contamination of Asked by Baroness Brinton surface water by water-soluble neonicotinoid pesticides. To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for the latest [HL3790] year for which figures are available, how many people in England started an apprenticeship (1) before the age of 18, (2) between the ages of 18 and 21, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department (3) between the ages of 22 and 24, and (4) aged over for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De 24; and how much funding those apprenticeships Mauley): A thorough risk assessment is undertaken received from the Government. [HL3831] before the Government will consider authorising the use of a pesticide. This considers the ways in which the product may get into surface water and the effects it Baroness Garden of Frognal: Table 1 shows the may have. Where appropriate, conditions of use are provisional number of apprenticeship programme starts set, which may include restrictions on dose rates, timing by age in England, 2011-12. of application or need to observe buffer zones adjacent Table 2 shows provisional estimated funding to to watercourses. Pesticide users are legally obliged to support the delivery of apprenticeship programmes by comply with these restrictions and take reasonable age in England, 2011-12. precautions to protect the environment when applying these chemicals. Provisional data for the 2011-12 academic year provide an early view of performance and will change Asked by Baroness Thomas of Winchester as further data returns are received from further education colleges and providers. They should not be directly To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment compared with final year data from previous years. they have made of the impact of neonicotinoid Figures for 2011-12 will be finalised in January 2013. pesticides on bee colonies; and what action they are taking to eliminate the risk of bee colony collapse Figures for estimated funding come from the individualised learner record. They provide an indication as a result of neonicotinoid poisoning. [HL3791] of the level of government funding. They should not be treated as actual spend, as spending is not reported Lord De Mauley: All pesticides, including neonicotinoids, at this level. are tightly regulated. The risk assessment process, as set out in European legislation, looks in detail at the Table 1: Apprenticeship Programme Starts by Age, 2011-12 (Provisional) risks to honey bees. It considers a range of factors, Apprenticeship starts 2011-12 Age (Provisional) including methods of application and examining both lethal and sub-lethal effects. Under 18 71,450 We carefully assess new studies as they emerge and 18-21 150.070 consider how they alter the overall picture. We have 22-24 61.140 consistently made it clear that we are prepared to take 25+ 219.870 regulatory action if and when the evidence calls for Total 502,500 this. Several new studies were published in spring 2012, suggesting that low doses of neonicotinoids Table 2: Estimated Funding for Apprenticeships by Age, 2011-12 could have sub-lethal effects on bees with consequences (Provisional) for bee populations. These recent studies and existing Estimated Funding 2011-12 Age (Provisional) evidence were assessed by government experts and by the independent expert Advisory Committee on Pesticides. Under 18 £405m A summary of the evidence and the experts’ assessment 18-21 £489m was published on 18 September. We have since considered 22-24 £ 120m a further study by Gill et al published in Nature in 25+ £334m October. Total £1,348m We are carrying out our own research to fill gaps in Source: Individualised Learner Record what is known, including questions raised about the 1. Provisional data for 2011-12 should not be directly relevance of the recent studies to field conditions. New compared with data for earlier years. research to explore further the impacts of neonicotinoids 2. All starts figures are rounded to the nearest ten except for on bumble bees in field conditions and to understand England totals which are rounded to the nearest hundred. what levels of pesticide residues and disease in honey Estimated funding figures are rounded to the nearest million. bees are normal will be completed early in 2013. We 3. Age is based on age at the start of the programme. WA 171 Written Answers[LORDS] Written Answers WA 172

Information on the number of apprenticeship starts BBC: World Service by age is published in a supplementary table to a Question quarterly Statistical First Release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 11 October 2012: Asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/ To ask Her Majesty’s Government what statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_current consideration they have given to releasing and http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/ reallocating Department for International Development statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_supplementary_tables/ funds to prevent the closure or reduction of BBC Apprenticeship_sfr_supplementary_tables/. World Service broadcasts to developing countries, to regions where there is conflict, or to states responsible Atos Healthcare for abuses of human rights. [HL3813] Question Asked by The Countess of Mar Baroness Northover: DfID is required by HM Treasury to spend the majority of its budget in ways which meet To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA). the light of the National Institute for Health and The department’s small non-ODA budget is fully Clinical Excellence guidance that “people with committed. The BBC World Service does not meet the severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and myalgic criteria required to be categorised as ODA because its encephalomyelitis should be offered a summary primary purpose is not the economic development record of every consultation because of their cognitive and welfare of developing countries. difficulties”, they will proactively offer recording of Atos face-to-face assessments to all claimants with cognitive difficulties. [HL3642] Bees Questions The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud): All reports from Asked by Lord Hoyle Atos Healthcare now contain a personalised summary To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research in plain English. We have also tested sharing these they are funding into the decline in bee numbers. reports with claimants but results showed that this was [HL3635] not helpful to individuals. We have therefore agreed a more helpful variation of this with Professor Harrington The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department and now issue the department’s decision-maker’s reasoning for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De report to explain fit for work decisions. Mauley): HM Government recognise the importance DWP has asked Atos Healthcare to accommodate of all pollinators, including bees, and their value to requests for audio recording where a claimant makes a both food security and sustaining the natural environment. request in advance of their assessment. We are currently We are currently considering a range of evidence on developing criteria in order to evaluate the success of the state of bees and other pollinators in order to this approach and will await the results of this evaluation determine what action is required. before making a decision on the future of this service. Defra is providing £2.5 million over five years (from 2010-11) towards the £10 million Insect Pollinators Banking Initiative which is being jointly funded with the Scottish Question Government, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Asked by Lord Myners Research Council (BBSRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Wellcome Trust. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their The initiative’s projects are looking at different aspects assessment of the concentration of the banking of the decline of insect pollinators. sector in London; and whether they will take steps to encourage the development of regional banks. Defra has two further small research contracts that [HL3650] are piloting new methods for surveying bees and other pollinators and helping to understand the status and The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord habitat requirements of solitary and social bees. Sassoon): Decisions concerning the opening and closing Natural England has also supported work to update of branches and agencies are taken by each financial the British “red list” of bees, wasps and ants as a way institution, on a commercial basis. As with other of identifying those most at threat and in need of banking service providers, regional banks will need to future funding to secure their continued survival. balance customer interests, market competition and Asked by Lord Hoyle other commercial factors when considering their strategy and the Government do not intervene in these decisions. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what effect However, the Government recognise the importance they forecast the decline in bee numbers will have of a diverse and competitive banking sector and there on the price of food. [HL3637] are a number of initiatives already underway. As announced in the banking reform White Paper, the Lord De Mauley: There are many factors that impact Financial Services Authority is also reviewing the on the prices we pay for food. The most important of prudential and conduct requirements for new entrants these are world commodity prices, exchange rates and to the banking sector to address barriers to entry and oil prices, as well as the demand for food, fluctuations expansion. in global weather and labour costs. WA 173 Written Answers[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Answers WA 174

The Government recognise the importance of all The UK, in its role as a permanent member of the pollinators, including bees, and their value to both UN Security Council, plays an active role in encouraging food security and sustaining the natural environment. the UN to review the effectiveness and efficiency of all While we have not conducted any work to forecast current peacekeeping operations mandated by the UN the impact of declining bee numbers on the price of Security Council. This includes the UN peacekeeping food, it is estimated that insect pollinators contribute operation in Cyprus. £500 million per year to UK agriculture. We are currently considering a range of evidence on the state of bees and other pollinators in order to determine what Democratic Republic of Congo action is required. Question Asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool Burma Question To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the security and humanitarian Asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead needs of the citizens living in Goma. [HL3833] To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the Government of Burma’s policies Baroness Northover: We are extremely concerned towards provision of humanitarian assistance and about the humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic healthcare to minority ethnic nationalities in the Republic of Congo. 130,000 people in and around conflict zones of that country. [HL3788] Goma have been displaced by recent violence. Many are living in overcrowded camps with inadequate facilities Baroness Northover: The Government of Burma where cholera and other diseases pose a significant have allowed the Mynamar Peace Support Initiative to threat. 30,000 people have fled into South Kivu in the deliver humanitarian and development programmes past week, where they have faced abuses at the hands to minority ethnic groups in ceasefire areas. of ill-disciplined Congolese Army troops. We have In Kachin, where there is no ceasefire, access to reports of widespread looting in Goma by M23 troops. internally displaced people in Kachin Independence The UK has just announced an additional £18 million Army controlled areas has been restricted. The UK is in humanitarian support to those affected by the crisis. supporting groups that are able to work around these This will provide food to 100,000 vulnerable people, restrictions and provide critical humanitarian support. reach 11,000 severely malnourished children with lifesaving In Rakhine, where there has been a recent increase treatment and provide clean water, shelter and emergency in communal violence between the de-facto stateless education to more than 130,000 people. We continue Muslim Rohingya and the majority Buddhist Rakhine to follow the situation closely, and advocate for safe communities, the Government of Burma have stated humanitarian access to affected populations and the their commitment to enabling access, logistic support protection of vulnerable people. where appropriate and ensuring the safety of humanitarian actors. The UK has provided humanitarian support and will, with international partners, continue to monitor Energy: Smart Meters the situation. Question Cyprus Asked by Lord Teverson Question To ask Her Majesty’s Government when a smart Asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass metering programme will be established. [HL3877] To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Warsi on 7 November The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department (WA 227) and 13 November (WA 274), when they of Energy and Climate Change (Baroness Verma): The last engaged in a review of the effectiveness and smart metering programme is being delivered over appropriateness of current United Nations operations phases: the foundation stage and mass rollout. During in Cyprus; whether they proposed to amend any the foundation stage, which began in April 2011, the United Nations decisions from 1963–74; and whether Government are working with the energy industry, they will identify specific United Kingdom documents Ofgem, consumer groups and other stakeholders to ensure all the necessary groundwork is completed before or proposals relating to this matter. [HL3699] energy suppliers start the major programme of installations. The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities Mass rollout is expected to begin in late 2014 and be and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth completed by the end of 2019. Office (Baroness Warsi): While the leaders of the two Cypriot communities continue to support a UN led process, the UK will consider this to be an appropriate Equality Act 2010 strategy and will not make an independent assessment Questions of its effectiveness. The last UN Secretary-General Asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill report on his mission of good offices in Cyprus was published on 12 March and can be found at the UN To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to mission website: www.uncyprustalks.org/nqcontent.cfm? the Written Answer by Baroness Stowell of Beeston a_id=24868&tt=graphic&lang=11 on 22 November (WA 406–7), what are their WA 175 Written Answers[LORDS] Written Answers WA 176

reasonseb;normal;j for concluding that the repeal The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of liability for third party harassment under the of Health (Earl Howe): Aspartame has been extensively Equality Act 2010 would not decrease existing legal tested to ensure it can be safely used but there are a protection. [HL3676] small number of people who allege ill-health effects following consumption. The Food Standards Agency Baroness Stowell of Beeston: Section 40(2) to (4) of (FSA) therefore commissioned Hull University to carry the Equality Act 2010 explicitly makes an employer out a study on alleged adverse reactions to aspartame. liable for harassment of an employee by a third party, The study commenced in July 2009, was scheduled such as a customer, when the employer knows that the for completion in October 2010 and aimed to recruit employee has been harassed on two previous occasions 50 self-diagnosed aspartame-sensitive participants along and fails to take reasonable steps to prevent that with 50 matched controls. The cost for this initial plan employee being harassed again. It is our view that was £150,728. Metabolomic profiling, to determine these provisions are unnecessary as such a situation is any effects on plasma and urinary metabolite profile, capable of being covered by the general harassment was added at an additional cost of £136,995. To make provisions under Section 26 of the Equality Act, the study more robust the number of self-diagnosed depending on the facts and circumstances of the case. aspartame-sensitive participants was increased from In addition to this, a remedy may be available under 50 to 75, with the same increase in matched controls. the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 where the The increase in participants and additional metabolomic harassment causes the employee alarm or distress, and analysis increased the cost by a further £173,664. a claim for constructive dismissal could be made where Metabolomic profiling is a rapidly developing scientific the harassment is such that the employee feels no field. In order to put any findings from the profiling in alternative to leaving their job. context, additional clinical chemistry analysis of the clinical samples is required. The contractual documents Asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill for this additional analysis are not yet complete and we are therefore unable to provide further information To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to on the costs at this time but shall let the noble Countess the Written Answer by Baroness Stowell of Beeston have this information once the contract is signed. on 22 November (WA 406–7), whether they will publish the responses to their consultations on (1) the Difficulties were encountered with recruiting sufficient repeal of Section 40 of the Equality Act 2010, and volunteers to participate in the study which caused (2) Sections 124(3) and 138 of Equality Act 2010. delay. However, subsequent changes in the recruitment [HL3677] approach remedied this. The draft study report, including results from the additional analysis under negotiation, is expected to be with the FSA in January 2013. It will Baroness Stowell of Beeston: We will as soon as then be subjected to peer review before publication. practicable publish copies of formal responses to both consultations received from organisations which did Government Departments: Staff not specify that they wished their responses to remain confidential. Copies will also be placed in the Libraries Question of both Houses. Asked by Lord Laird Asked by Lord Pendry To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many staff currently employed in the legal department of To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Department for Environment, Food and Rural they have made of the effectiveness of the Equality Affairs are (1) barristers, and (2) solicitors; and Act 2010 in eliminating sex discrimination in golf how this compares to the numbers in each year clubs. [HL3737] since 1997. [HL3793] The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department Baroness Stowell of Beeston: No assessment has for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De been made of the effectiveness of the Equality Act 2010 Mauley): Core Defra’s in-house legal team transferred in eliminating sex discrimination in golf clubs during to the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) and its the Act’s first two years of operation. small team of prosecutors transferred to the Crown We are committed to a full post implementation Prosecution Service (CPS) on 1 September 2011. At review of the impact of this Act by 2015. the time of the transfer, Defra employed 76 solicitors and 16 barristers. Food: Aspartame Information on the number of barristers and solicitors employed by Defra before 1 September 2011 could be Question provided only by incurring disproportionate cost. Asked by The Countess of Mar Government of Wales Act 2006 To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Question University of Hull’s study of aspartame was originally scheduled to finish; when it will be completed; why Asked by Lord Wigley it has been delayed; how much funding was originally To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the committed for the study; whether the cost of the cost of challenging the competence of the National study has risen from that level; and, if so, why and Assembly for Wales to enact the Local Government by how much. [HL3640] Byelaws (Wales) Bill; and whether, following the WA 177 Written Answers[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Answers WA 178

ruling of the Supreme Court, they plan to replace Findings relating to employment status over 52 the Government of Wales Act 2006 with an Act weeks across the four arms of the trial are published in using the reserved powers model. [HL3654] the paper in PLoS ONE, Adaptive Pacing, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Graded Exercise, and Specialist The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Wales Medical Care for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Cost- Office (Baroness Randerson): The Supreme Court has Effectiveness Analysis: McCrone P.Sharpe M. Chalder made no order for costs so individual parties will bear T.Knapp M, Johnson AL, et al. (2012) PLoS ONE 7(8): their own costs. Total costs for the Government are in e40808. doi: 10.1 371/journal.pone.0040808. The timing the process of being finalised. of the publication of findings resulting from research funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) is The Government have no plans to replace the current determined by the research team. Welsh devolution settlement. The Commission on Devolution in Wales is considering at the moment The MRC, which funded the trial through a grant whether any modifications to the settlement are necessary to Queen Mary, University of London, assesses whether to make it more effective, and the Government will the research proposed in a grant application represents consider its recommendations when it reports in 2014. good value for money in terms of the resources being requested as part of the peer review process. Health: Controlled Trials Question Health: Mental Health Asked by The Countess of Mar Questions To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light Asked by Lord Alderdice of the fact that selected results of the Pacing, graded Activity and Cognitive behaviour therapy: a To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much randomised Evaluation trial were published in March was spent on psychological therapies in the National 2011, when they expect the return to employment Health Service broken down by (1) modality or statistics of the trial to be published; and what type of psychological therapy, and (2) region or assessment they have made of the value for money administrative area, in each year between 1997 and of this trial. [HL3819] 2008. [HL3659]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Lord Marland): of Health (Earl Howe): The following table shows Two papers relating to the findings of the PACE trial: National Health Service expenditure on psychological A Randomised Controlled Trial of CBT,graded exercise, therapies broken down into four modalities during adaptive pacing and specialist medical care for the financial years 2003-04 to 2007-08. The information chronic fatigue syndrome, have been published. The was collected for the first time in 2002-03. It was not findings have been reported in the Lancet in March collected centrally before that. However, data from 2011 (published online in February 2011) and in PLoS 2002-03 which is comparable to the data collected in ONE in August 2012. the subsequent years are not available.

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

Psychology Therapies and Counselling Services £82,057,000 £89,925,000 £97,558,000 £100,080,000 £105,921,000 £113,174.25 Psychology Therapy Services not allocated to £5,437,000 £6,627,000 £7,317,000 £7,276,000 £7,446,000 £10,351.75 service categories Specialist Psychotherapy Service £23,699,000 £25,780,000 £29,271,000 £25,039,000 £27,136,000 £29,112.31 Voluntary/Private Counselling and/or £6,478,000 £25,780,000 £7,232,000 £7,710,000 £7,555,000 £8,740.08 Psychotherapy Service Total £117,671,000 £129,352,000 £140,105,000 £140,105,000 £148,058,000 £161,378,390

Source: National Survey of Investment in Adult Mental Health Asked by Lord Alderdice Services Reports To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been spent on psychological therapies outside the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, broken down by (1) modality or type of The available information on expenditure by primary psychological therapy, and (2) region or administrative care trust (PCT) on psychological therapies has been area, in each area since 2008. placed in the Library. This represents the direct spend on psychological therapies reported by each PCT. The [HL3660] totals in the table above include all expenditure on psychological therapies by the NHS, so are slightly Earl Howe: The following table shows National higher than the direct spend of PCTs. Health Service expenditure on non- Improving Access to Psychological Therapies broken down into four modalities during financial years 2008-09 to 2011-12 WA 179 Written Answers[LORDS] Written Answers WA 180

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

Psychology Therapies and Counselling Services £128,916,000 £125,089,000 £133,201,000 £119,423,000 Psychology Therapy Services not allocated to service categories £12,686,000 £7,871,000 £9,459,000 £12,514,000 Specialist Psychotherapy Service £34,657,000 £30,457,000 £37,186,000 £32,650,000 Voluntary/Private Counselling and/or Psychotherapy Service £8,497,000 £9,172,000 £7,131,000 £7,657,000 Total £184,756,000 £172,589,000 £186,977,000 £172,244,000

Source: National Survey of Investment in Adult Mental Health However, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 prohibits Services Reports restrained assets to fund legal expenses that relate to The available information on expenditure by primary the offences upon which the restraint order is predicated. care trust (PCT) on non-IAPT psychological therapies The Government are concerned about public confidence has been placed in the Library. This represents the in the legal aid system and the Justice Secretary has direct spend on non-IAPT psychological therapies ordered an examination of aspects of the system that reported by each PCT. The totals in the table above affect its credibility with the public. include all expenditure on non-IAPT psychological therapies by the NHS. Internet: 4G Spectrum Libraries: Volunteer-run Libraries Question Questions Asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark Asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the 4G To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment [HL3624] auction process has been delayed. have they made of volunteer-run libraries. [HL3628] Viscount Younger of Leckie: The auction process To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether has not been delayed. Ofcom remains on schedule for volunteer-run libraries are subject to the statutory the auction process for the spectrum at 800 MHz and public library requirements. [HL3629] 2600 MHz to start by the end of 2012, with the licences being awarded to successful bidders early in 2013. Viscount Younger of Leckie: Volunteer-run libraries Israel and Palestine: West Bank are subject to statutory public library requirements if Question they form part of a library authority’s statutory service. Asked by Lord Hylton This department has worked with Arts Council England and the Local Government Association, together with To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they the Department for Communities and Local Government, will make representations to the Government of Defra and the Cabinet Office, on the commissioning Israel for all existing residents of Area C of the of guiding principles for local authorities in the West Bank to have adequate access to water supplies, engagement of volunteers in the library service. This sewerage, refuse disposal and schools. [HL3465] report is due for publication in the new year. The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi): On 14 May, the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council called on Israel to meet its obligations Local Authorities: Art and Sculpture regarding the living conditions of the Palestinian population Question in Area C. They discussed halting forced transfer of population and demolition of Palestinian housing and Asked by Lord Myners infrastructure, ensuring access to water and addressing To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans humanitarian needs. The UK along with our EU partners they have to safeguard art owned by local authorities, continue to make this case to the Israeli Government. in the light of the decision by Tower Hamlets Council to sell the Henry Moore sculpture Draped Legal Aid Seated Woman. [HL3693] Question Asked by Lord Dykes To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they Viscount Younger of Leckie: The Government do have any plans to tighten the rules to prevent known not have formal powers to intervene in matters such as criminals from using legal aid in cases directly this, which are ultimately for local authorities. Local related to their crimes. [HL3751] authorities should take account of local opinion before taking decisions on cultural assets. The Department The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord for Culture, Media and Sport has in place mechanisms McNally): Legal aid is available in criminal cases to protect our national heritage. For example, the where the interests of justice require it and the individual Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art cannot afford to pay. Defendants who can afford to enables the country to retain some of our most valuable contribute to the cost of their defence should do so. assets. WA 181 Written Answers[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Answers WA 182

NHS: Clinical Commissioning Groups Education Programme to achieve improved performance Question and agreed targets over the next 12 months. DfID accepts these recommendations. Asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton The ICAI report was a limited enquiry which did To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they not fully reflect the UK’s achievements in promoting plan to monitor performance against the duty on primary education in Nigeria. A recent annual review clinical commissioning groups to seek out and adopt of DfID’s largest project, namely the Education Sector best practice and to promote innovation. [HL3776] Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) shows that it is on track to expand its learning improvement work The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department from 1,000 schools two years ago to 10,500 schools by of Health (Earl Howe): The NHS Commissioning Board 2014. must conduct an annual performance assessment of each clinical commissioning group. This will assess As the ICAI report makes clear, northern Nigeria is how well the clinical commissioning group has discharged an extremely challenging environment and it will take its functions during the year. many years before significant and widespread The NHS Act 2006, as amended by the Health and improvements in girls’ education can be achieved. Social Care Act 2012, specifies that the assessment must include an evaluation of how the group has Overseas Stability discharged its duties to: Questions exercise its functions effectively, efficiently and economically; Asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead obtain advice from persons with professional expertise; and To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the Building Stability Overseas Strategy will be mainstreamed involve and consult with the public. across Government. [HL3784] We anticipate this will include how clinical commissioning groups will satisfy their duty to promote innovation. Baroness Northover: The Secretaries of State for Defence, for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and NHS: Procurement for International Development take a close interest in Question implementation of the Building Stability Overseas Strategy. This is complemented by a number of cross-government Asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton official-level structures overseas and in Whitehall to To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they help ensure the approach is properly mainstreamed. plan to publish the findings of the recent consultation Joint visits overseas by senior officials have also been on the NHS Procurement Strategy. [HL3846] used to promote joint working and implementation of the strategy. There has been considerable progress over The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the past year, outlined in detail in the Foreign Secretary’s Department of Health (Earl Howe): In May 2012, the Written Ministerial Statement from 17 July 2012 (Official NHS chief executive launched the review of NHS Report, col. 126 WS), tabled jointly with Secretaries of procurement. The review will conclude at the end of State for Defence and International Development. December 2012 and the report will be published early Asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead next year. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans Overseas Aid they have for further consultation on the Building Question Stability Overseas Strategy, including opportunities Asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead for debate and scrutiny of conflict prevention by parliamentarians and civil society. [HL3785] To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of the UK Aid programme supporting schools in Nigeria. [HL3786] Baroness Northover: The Government welcome debate and scrutiny from parliamentarians and civil society Baroness Northover: The UK aid programme in groups on our approach to conflict prevention. The Nigeria is on track to help educate 800,000 children House of Lords has twice debated the Building Stability and train 5,000 teachers under existing programmes. Overseas Strategy, most recently on 30 October 2012. DfID is working with federal and state governments Scrutiny of the Government’s work in this area has to improve what is taught in schools and to improve been the subject of a number of reviews including the supply of books and materials. from the Joint Committee on the National Security A recent report on “DfID’s Education Programme Strategy as well as the regular inquiries of departmental in Nigeria” by the Independent Commission on Aid Select Committees. The All-Party Parliamentary Group Impact (ICAI) recommended that more should be on Conflict Issues has also taken a close interest. The done to improve learning outcomes. The report Independent Commission for Aid Impact and recommended that DfID should have stronger agreements the National Audit Office have both recently reviewed with state governments outlining their policy and financial the Conflict Pool. commitments to secure faster progress on primary Parliamentarians and civil society organisations education. The report recommended that DfID should attended an event on 26 November 2012 which provided work with the United Nations Children’s Fund Girls’ officials with a range of valuable inputs, including on WA 183 Written Answers[LORDS] Written Answers WA 184 the Conflict Pool and the department’s approach to Railways: Intercity Express Trains women, peace and security. There will be more such Question opportunities to contribute over the coming months. Asked by Lord Bradshaw To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 the Written Answer by Earl Attlee on 29 November Question (WA 81), whether, when specifying the interior design of the proposed Intercity Express trains, they Asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark considered the improvements made in motor-coach designs in allowing increased space for passengers. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans [HL3911] they have to review the Libraries Act 1964.[HL3627] Earl Attlee: The Department for Transport’s specification Viscount Younger of Leckie: The Department for for the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) was an Culture, Media and Sport has no plans at present to output specification that provided incentives to bidders review the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. to increase the space available for seating without being at the expense of passengers’ knee room. The detail of the interior design was for bidding consortia to determine based on current best practice, including, Railways: Fares if appropriate, lessons learnt from improvements made Question in other industries. Asked by Lord Bradshaw Rights of Way To ask Her Majesty’s Government who is Question responsible for checking that railway fares conform with limits announced by the Government, in the Asked by Lord Greaves light of the potential for manipulation within the fares basket; and whether the results of such checks To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light are made public. [HL3830] of the recent Ramblers report on the reduction of funding for rights of way in England, what discussions they intend to have with local authorities about the Earl Attlee: Department for Transport officials use levels of funding for rights of way works. [HL3806] a monitoring system called FIRM (fares increase regulatory mechanism) which incorporates fares regulation The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department rules into its software. Using FIRM, officials ensure for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De that fares baskets conform to these rules, including Mauley): The allocation made to local authorities for with respect to the permitted degree of flexibility. public rights of way work forms part of the unhypothecated Under the fares regulation rules, train operators environment protection and cultural services block may increase individual regulated fares by up to an from central government. It is for local authorities to additional 5% (2% for Southern) above the average decide what level of funding they allocate from this cap on regulated fares as long as the average increase block to rights of way works in accordance with local across their basket of fares is no more than the average priorities. Defra does not intend to direct them to cumulative cap. particular levels of spend. Local access forums provide The checks of the fares baskets undertaken using the opportunity for local people to express their views FIRM are not made public as the contents of fares on funding the public rights of way network in their baskets are commercially confidential. area and how they would like to see it improved.

Roads: Maintenance Railways: High Speed 2 Question Question Asked by Lord Bradshaw Asked by Lord Bradley To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there To ask Her Majesty’s Government when an is a regulation in place which specifies the standard announcement will be made on the preferred route of repairs to the highway which should be carried of a high-speed rail link from Birmingham to out after work by utilities is concluded; who is Manchester. [HL3789] responsible for enforcing this; and whether penalties are enforced. [HL3810]

Earl Attlee: The Secretary of State for Transport is Earl Attlee: Yes there is. Section 70 of the New currently considering advice on options for phase 2 of Roads and Street Works Act 1991 provides for a duty HS2, including a high-speed rail link from Birmingham on the street works undertaker to reinstate the street. to Manchester and is planning to make an announcement Where this does not happen an offence is committed. on this soon. Section 71 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 WA 185 Written Answers[6 DECEMBER 2012] Written Answers WA 186 states that reinstatement by undertakers must comply health workers in primary health care, and (2) primary with whatever specification may be prescribed for school teachers, in South Sudan who are no longer materials and standards of workmanship. The regulations receiving government salaries. [HL3853] which cover these sections are the Street Works (Reinstatement) Regulations 1992 and these are further Baroness Northover: The UK does not currently described in the Code of Practice Specification for the provide any funding directly through government systems Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (April 2010). in South Sudan. However, donors currently pay over Highway authorities have powers to inspect works and 50% of health worker salaries (through non-governmental impose appropriate fines, and do so. organisations). We are continuing to do so, including during the initial stages of the new UK-led Health Schools: Funding Pooled Fund, which is being established to provide Question basic health services in six out of South Sudan’s Asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch 10 states. Donors in South Sudan are also looking at options for supporting primary teachers through non- To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they salary incentives, such as learning materials and personal intend to monitor and scrutinise the use of direct items. funding by individual academies to ensure value for South Sudan needs to restart its oil revenues in money, high standards of financial management, order to pay government staff. There have been serious proper governance and probity. [HL3688] delays in the payments of salaries and cuts in allowances The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools and incentives for staff as a result of the halting of (Lord Hill of Oareford): The Department for Education South Sudan’s oil production in January 2012. Following operates an accountability framework for academy extensive engagement from the international community, trusts that is based on a combination of statutory including through UN Security Council Resolution requirementsandobligationstoParliament.Thearrangements 2046, Sudan and South Sudan signed a series of are set out in the DfE’s published accountability statement. agreements in Addis Ababa on 27 September 2012, It aims to strike an appropriate balance between assurances which should allow oil production to restart. The UK for Parliament and freedoms for the sector. Assurance and the international community are now supporting on the use of public funds is obtained from a number both countries to move forward with implementing of sources. These include audited accounts, budget the Addis Ababa agreements. We are also working forecast returns and, from this year, an opinion on with the Government of South Sudan to encourage regularity provided by external auditors. As charitable them to prioritise health and education allocations companies, academy trusts are required by law to within the budget. publish audited accounts each year. This is more rigorous, in terms of independent scrutiny and transparency, Sudan than the system for local authority maintained schools. Question Schools: Sport Asked by The Earl of Sandwich Question To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Asked by Lord Moynihan the Multi-Donor Trust Fund in South Sudan has been withdrawn; and, if so, what alternative support To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the will be provided to central government and local Department of Health intends to introduce a wider organisations to ensure continuity in sustainable healthy schools agenda as part of a sports legacy primary health care. [HL3852] from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [HL3709] Baroness Northover: The Multi Donor Trust Fund The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department (MDTF) in South Sudan will stop funding project of Health (Earl Howe): From April 2013 local authorities activity on 31 December 2012, and will close by June will take on responsibility for the public’s health. They 2013. In order to ensure the continuity of primary will have the flexibility and resources to determine how healthcare the UK, USA and World Bank have worked they work with schools to help children and young in partnership with the Government of the Republic people be healthy, active and participate in sporting of South Sudan to develop new primary health care opportunities. delivery programmes in all of South Sudan’s 10 states. The department remains committed to supporting The UK is the lead donor for the Health Pooled Fund, an Olympic and Paralympic legacy that inspires a a new multi-donor pooled fund which will maintain generation. That is why we are investing over £36 million service delivery and help to strengthen health systems in the School Games and Change4Life School Sports in six of South Sudan’s 10 states. It is expected that Clubs. Australia, the EU and Sweden will also contribute to the fund which plans to help treat at least a quarter of South Sudan a million children. The USA and the World Bank are Question developing programmes to cover two each of the remaining four states. Asked by The Earl of Sandwich Donors are also pressing the Government of South To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provision Sudan to allocate their own resources to pay for has been made by the United Kingdom and the medicines in the future. However, in the short term, international community to support (1) community the UK, USA and Norway are establishing an emergency WA 187 Written Answers[LORDS] Written Answers WA 188 medicines fund, which will help to provide one year’s are temporarily detained in police cells as a result of worth of essential medicines following the closure of the unavailability of other agencies or appropriate the MDTF. holding and treatment facilities. [HL3537] Taxation: Corporation Tax Question The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Asked by Lord Lexden Office (Lord Taylor of Holbeach): While the Mental To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to Health Act 1983 (MHA) allows for police stations to the answer by Lord Newby on 15 October (Official be used as one of a range of places of safety, the MHA Report, col. 1251), whether they have now reached Codes of Practice for England and Wales and guidance a decision on the devolution of responsibility for issued jointly by the Association of Chief Police Officers corporation tax in Northern Ireland to the Northern (ACPO) and the Department of Health agree that Ireland Executive. [HL3647] police custody should be used as a place of safety only in exceptional circumstances for individuals, including The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord children and young people, suffering from a mental Sassoon): The Joint Ministerial Working Group on health crisis. rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy has concluded The Home Office is working with the Department its discussions on the potential devolution of corporation of Health, ACPO and others to develop better local tax. The group has reported its findings to the Prime protocols between police and mental health services so Minister. that all individuals, including children and young people, who are found by the police in immediate need of care Young Offenders: Mental Health and control can get a response from the most appropriate Question service and, where needed, prompt access to a health-based place of safety. Asked by Lord Condon The Government have invested a total of £54 million To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action over the four years to 2014-15 to deliver better mental they are taking to reduce the number of children healthcare to children and young people when they and young people with mental health issues who experience mental health issues. Thursday 6 December 2012

ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO WRITTEN STATEMENTS

Col. No. Col. No. Agriculture: Single Payment Scheme ...... 73 Kosovo ...... 83

Armed Forces: Covenant Annual Report...... 73 Ministry of Defence: Annual Report and Accounts ...... 84

EU: Balance of Competence Review ...... 75 Planning ...... 84 Railways: West Coast Franchise ...... 85 EU: Foreign Affairs Council...... 76 Remploy ...... 86 EU: Foreign Affairs Council and General Affairs Council...... 77 Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures ...... 89

Higher Education: Reform ...... 81 Trees: Chalara Fraxinea...... 89

Thursday 6 December 2012

ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO WRITTEN ANSWERS

Col. No. Col. No. Agriculture: Pesticides ...... 169 Legal Aid...... 179

Apprenticeships ...... 170 Libraries: Volunteer-run Libraries ...... 180

Atos Healthcare...... 171 Local Authorities: Art and Sculpture...... 180

Banking ...... 171 NHS: Clinical Commissioning Groups ...... 181

BBC: World Service ...... 172 NHS: Procurement ...... 181 Overseas Aid...... 181 Bees ...... 172 Overseas Stability...... 182 Burma...... 173 Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964...... 183 Cyprus ...... 173 Railways: Fares ...... 183 Democratic Republic of Congo ...... 174 Railways: High Speed 2...... 183 Energy: Smart Meters ...... 174 Railways: Intercity Express Trains ...... 184 Equality Act 2010 ...... 174 Rights of Way...... 184 Food: Aspartame ...... 175 Roads: Maintenance ...... 184 Government Departments: Staff...... 176 Schools: Funding...... 185 Government of Wales Act 2006 ...... 176 Schools: Sport...... 185 Health: Controlled Trials ...... 177 South Sudan ...... 185

Health: Mental Health...... 178 Sudan...... 186

Internet: 4G Spectrum ...... 179 Taxation: Corporation Tax ...... 187 Israel and Palestine: West Bank ...... 179 Young Offenders: Mental Health...... 187 NUMERICAL INDEX TO WRITTEN ANSWERS

Col. No. Col. No. [HL3465] ...... 179 [HL3537] ...... 188 Col. No. Col. No. [HL3624] ...... 179 [HL3776] ...... 181

[HL3627] ...... 183 [HL3784] ...... 182

[HL3628] ...... 180 [HL3785] ...... 182

[HL3629] ...... 180 [HL3786] ...... 181

[HL3635] ...... 172 [HL3788] ...... 173

[HL3637] ...... 172 [HL3789] ...... 183

[HL3640] ...... 175 [HL3790] ...... 169

[HL3642] ...... 171 [HL3791] ...... 169

[HL3647] ...... 187 [HL3793] ...... 176

[HL3650] ...... 171 [HL3806] ...... 184

[HL3654] ...... 177 [HL3810] ...... 184

[HL3659] ...... 178 [HL3813] ...... 172

[HL3660] ...... 178 [HL3819] ...... 177

[HL3676] ...... 175 [HL3830] ...... 183

[HL3677] ...... 175 [HL3831] ...... 170

[HL3688] ...... 185 [HL3833] ...... 174

[HL3693] ...... 180 [HL3846] ...... 181

[HL3699] ...... 173 [HL3852] ...... 186

[HL3709] ...... 185 [HL3853] ...... 186

[HL3737] ...... 175 [HL3877] ...... 174

[HL3751] ...... 179 [HL3911] ...... 184 Volume 741 Thursday No. 80 6 December 2012

CONTENTS

Thursday 6 December 2012 Questions UK-Israel Life Sciences Council...... 747 Department of Health: Budget ...... 749 NHS: Hospital Services ...... 752 NHS: Hospital Beds ...... 754 Police (Complaints and Conduct) Bill First Reading ...... 756 Business of the House Timing of Debates ...... 756 Scotland Act 1998 (Modification of Schedule 5) (No. 2) Order 2013 Public Bodies (Water Supply and Water Quality Fees) Order 2012 Motions to Refer to Grand Committee ...... 756 Foreign Affairs: Global Role, Emerging Powers and New Markets Motion to Take Note ...... 756 Ugandan Asians Motion to Take Note ...... 802 Economy: Growth Question for Short Debate ...... 827 Written Statements...... WS 73 Written Answers...... WA 169