Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Wednesday Volume 516 20 October 2010 No. 55 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 20 October 2010 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2010 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 929 20 OCTOBER 2010 930 Mr Hurd: We have planned a series of initiatives for House of Commons the forthcoming years to promote wider volunteering and to connect people again with their own power to Wednesday 20 October 2010 make a difference locally—that is the heart of the big society. I cannot be drawn on the detail of those plans, because they are subject to the spending review. The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock Mr Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) (Lab): If voluntary service for young people is to work, the third PRAYERS sector has to still be alive. This afternoon the Chancellor is going to try to drive a steamroller over the big society. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Can the Minister explain why, in answer to parliamentary questions from my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow Central (Anas Sarwar), three quarters of Whitehall could not say what contracts they had in place with the Oral Answers to Questions third sector? How can the Department protect the third sector from cuts this afternoon if it does not know what contracts are in place? Is the Minister not, in effect, flying blind? CABINET OFFICE Mr Hurd: I suspect that the right hon. Gentleman The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked— will eat his words later when he hears the Chancellor. I do not see any steamroller in evidence in relation to the Volunteering (Young People) big society, which is absolutely central to the Government’s mission. A central strand of that mission is to open up 1. Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland the public services to a more diverse set of providers, West) (Lab): What recent steps his Department has including and specifically contributions from the voluntary taken to increase opportunities for young people to and community sectors. As the right hon. Gentleman volunteer. [18048] well knows, they are in a position to add a huge amount of value. That is a specific commitment of this Government, The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Nick and we are going to deliver on it. Hurd): In the current financial year, the Department has provided £39 million in grants to the v organisation. Government Procurement On 22 July, the Prime Minister announced the introduction 2. Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con): What steps he has of the national citizen service to give young people an taken to increase the efficiency of his Department’s opportunity to develop the skills needed to be active mechanisms for Government procurement. [18049] and responsible citizens, mix with people from different backgrounds and start getting involved in their communities. 8. Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): What steps he has taken to increase the efficiency of Mrs Hodgson: I thank the Minister for his response. his Department’s mechanisms for Government At a fringe event at the Conservative party conference, I procurement. [18055] understand that the Minister for the Cabinet Office was quoted as saying that in his opinion the big society The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster would be “chaotic and disorderly”. That being the case, General (Mr Francis Maude): Procurements of major I feel that his heart is perhaps not in it. How can he go projects by the British Government have typically taken on to encourage young people to volunteer so that they 77 weeks. They have frequently involved the extensive can pick up the right skills and be employed fruitfully in use of external consultants. That process is costly and the future? wasteful, excluding small businesses, social enterprises, and voluntary and charitable organisations. That results Mr Hurd: We are absolutely committed to that, and in procurements that are too often uncompetitive, delayed, the national citizen service will be an extremely important expensive and ineffective. We are taking steps to streamline opportunity to connect young people with their own the process. In the meantime, we are renegotiating contracts power to make a difference in their communities. I with the bigger suppliers to the Government on a know that the hon. Lady took a strong interest in that single-customer basis, thus leveraging the Government’s through her work on the Select Committee on Children, buying power. That will deliver some £800 million-worth Schools and Families. If she had had the opportunity to of savings in this financial year alone. talk to some of the young people who had taken part in this year’s pilot, she would have been as impressed as I Stuart Andrew: Sir Philip Green’s report showed just was by the transformative effect that it had on them and how little time the previous Government afforded to the on how they view their community and their own power basic principles of cost-effective commissioning and to make a difference. We are very excited about it. procurement. Does the Minister feel that that attitude is embodied in the ill-considered note left by the ex-Chief Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD): Voluntary Secretary to the Treasury as he left his old job? organisations in my constituency rely on the great efforts of many people who are retired, and they are crying out Mr Maude: If the last Government, including the for younger volunteers. Those volunteers need not just right hon. Gentleman, had bothered to spend the time be teenagers, however. What plans do the Government that we are spending getting into the unglamorous parts have to facilitate opportunities for volunteering by people of Government spending to find out just how much of working age? money can be saved, he might not have felt it necessary 931 Oral Answers20 OCTOBER 2010 Oral Answers 932 to leave a note in quite the stark terms that he did, true 13. Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con): What recent though it was. The fact is that there is a huge amount of progress has been made on his Department’s review of wasteful spending. Sir Philip Green has done a sterling non-departmental public bodies. [18060] service in picking up some stones and providing the evidence for that, and we will be acting on his The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster recommendations to see how we can take costs out of General (Mr Francis Maude): Last week I announced the overheads of Government. That is the best way to the first results of the Government’s review of quangos. protect front-line services and to protect the jobs of This is a work in progress; the principal aim is to dedicated public servants, which the right hon. Gentleman increase accountability. We believe that where the state claims to care about. carries out a function it should be accountable to a Minister or to a local council unless one of three Julian Smith: Does my right hon. Friend agree that rigorous tests is met. To pass, the function must be small business has been locked out of the procurement purely technical, tasked with measuring facts or figures, process for far too long? Will he start to give small or plainly required to be politically impartial. We reviewed businesses, particularly those in Yorkshire, a fairer crack 901 bodies and intend that nearly 200 will cease to be of the whip? NDPBs, and we will merge a further 118 and substantially reform a further 171. Mr Maude: A big benefit arising from the changes that we are proposing to make to the way in which Charlie Elphicke: Does the Minister agree that the services are procured is that they will open the door to review should include the misuse of public funds by smaller businesses. Over-prescriptive procurements make quangos and public sector balance sheet organisations it very expensive for small businesses to take the risk of in paying lobbyists to brief against the Government or committing to tendering, and they tend to be excluded elected Members in the execution of their mandates? on a self-selecting basis. We want to change that. It is our aspiration that 25% of contracts should be let with Mr Maude: Guidelines already limit the use of external small and medium-sized enterprises. That is the direction consultants for those purposes, and we intend to tighten in which we hope to go, and I am sure that my hon. them further, because the public find it quite offensive Friend’s constituents in Yorkshire will take full advantage that a quango should be spending taxpayers’ money on of it. hiring external consultants to lobby the Government to Gordon Banks (Ochil and South Perthshire) (Lab): encourage them to spend more taxpayers’ money. Will the Minister be able to publish information in future to show that his aspiration to help small business Chris Skidmore: Will the Minister tell the House how is not just an aspiration but a reality? many quangos were created by the previous Government and, of those, how many will remain as a result of the Mr Maude: One of the stark conclusions of Sir Philip changes that he is introducing? Green’s review was that the quality of Government data is lamentably poor. It is not easy to know exactly what Mr Maude: As I said, we will reduce significantly the the position is.