Thursday Volume 592 12 February 2015 No. 110 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 12 February 2015 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2015 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 933 12 FEBRUARY 2015 934 Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): I House of Commons am grateful to my right hon. Friend for referring to the Select Committee report. Unfortunately, one year might Thursday 12 February 2015 be too late for the many dairy farmers going out of business. Will he undertake an immediate and urgent review into extending the remit of the GCA to indirect The House met at half-past Nine o’clock supply chains, such as those in the dairy industry, as well as direct supply chains with supermarkets? PRAYERS Vince Cable: The hon. Lady rightly touches on the key outstanding issue, and I certainly believe it would [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] be appropriate to consider the indirect supply chains. I am happy to talk to my colleague the Secretary of State BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about that particular issue, but I think she will find that there is a TRANSPORT FOR LONDON BILL [LORDS] legislative obstacle. Motion made, That the Bill, as amended, be now considered. Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): Will my right hon. Friend look at the successful local sourcing policies Hon. Members: Object. promoted by the East of England Co-operative Society, Bill to be considered on Thursday 26 February. with the support of Forward East, which are enabling small food and drink manufacturers to get their products into local stores? He and others might wish to know Oral Answers to Questions that on Tuesday 24 February, in the Inter-Parliamentary Union room at lunchtime, they will be able to witness that for themselves. BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS Vince Cable: It is always the case that genuinely voluntary efforts to promote local sourcing produce The Secretary of State was asked— substantial benefits and that legislation is necessarily a blunt instrument. The method my hon. Friend describes Small Farm Companies is better where it can be applied. 1. Mr Andrew Robathan (South Leicestershire) (Con): Technology and Video Games Sectors What assistance his Department provides to small farm companies in supply chains. [907592] 2. Jim McGovern (Dundee West) (Lab): What discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues in the Department The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and for Education and Department for Culture, Media and Skills (Vince Cable): The House legislated to strengthen Sport and with the devolved Administrations on ensuring protection for small farmers and small businesses supplying that their policies meet the skills needs of the technology supermarkets by establishing the Groceries Code and video games sectors. [907593] Adjudicator. I recently secured Government agreement to enable the GCA to impose fines of up to 1% of The Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy turnover on supermarkets found guilty of mistreating (Mr Edward Vaizey): As a joint Minister at the Department suppliers. I was also pleased that the GCA last week for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department launched a formal investigation into alleged breaches for Culture, Media and Sport, I often have conversations by Tesco of the groceries code, and I urge those with with myself about this important issue, and on the odd evidence to come forward. occasion they get dull, I involve the Minister for Skills Mr Robathan: I think the Secretary of State and I are and Equalities and the Department for Education. I am at one on this, but he will know of the plight of pleased to tell the hon. Gentleman that we have introduced the many small dairy farmers driven out of business by a new school computing curriculum, are establishing a the abuse of market position by supermarkets and big new national college for digital skills and are co-funding buyers, and of its impact not just on the face of our with employers innovative degree apprenticeships. countryside, but through the importation of milk that is probably produced to much lower farm welfare standards Jim McGovern: I try not to speak to myself about than our own. Will he therefore consider strengthening this subject, but the Minister will be aware that I have the powers of the GCA so that if market position is raised on numerous occasions the importance of computer abused, farmers and others are not penalised by the and video games to the Dundee, Scotland and UK strength of supermarkets? economy. I am sure he agrees that there is a skills shortage—not enough graduates are going into the Vince Cable: I am aware of the Select Committee computer games industry. What is he doing with other report that suggested something very similar. Its main Departments to address this situation? recommendation was that we introduce the power of fines, which we have now done, but there will be a Mr Vaizey: The hon. Gentleman is a doughty champion review of the GCA within a year of the legislation, and for the video games industry, which is hugely successful no doubt in the next Parliament those powers can be in his constituency and throughout the country, and the taken. video games tax relief will also help the industry grow. 935 Oral Answers12 FEBRUARY 2015 Oral Answers 936 However, he is quite right to point to the need to focus Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): on skills. The games industry was instrumental in This year, China will produce something like 2 million persuading the Government to have computer coding graduates in engineering and engineering-related subjects. taught in schools, and, because we have a sense of Engineering firms in my constituency tell me how difficult urgency about this, we have introduced new degree it is to recruit engineers, particularly female ones, and apprenticeships so that people at university can work that when they train them up, they often lose them to closely with employers on the latest technology. larger firms. What can the Minister do to make sure we have a better join-up between business requirements Engineers and education so that engineers stay in this country and produce for our economy? 3. Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con): What steps he is taking to increase the number Nick Boles: My hon. Friend is absolutely right about of engineers. [907594] the desperate need for more engineers, but we have been making good progress. Since 2010, the number of people The Minister for Skills and Equalities (Nick Boles): starting an engineering-related apprenticeship has gone We are investing in engineering skills at every level in up by 52%, and since 2013 the number of people higher education through apprenticeships and in further starting an engineering degree has risen by 6.5 %. If we education, but perhaps the most important initiative is can get a better supply coming through the pipe, companies the university technical college initiative. We have opened will be less inclined to poach from each other and will 30 university technical colleges and a further 27 are in actually invest in developing the talent themselves through the pre-opening phase. an apprenticeship. Stephen Metcalfe: As we know, we are going to have Universal Service Obligation (Mail Deliveries) increasing demand for engineers nationally over the next few decades, and this will be no more acute than in Basildon and Thurrock. Will my hon. Friend therefore 4. Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) work with me to explore the possibility of establishing a (Lab): What steps he plans to take to safeguard the university technical college in Basildon to meet our universal service obligation for the delivery of mail. local needs and to encourage and enthuse young people [907597] to look at engineering as a valued career? The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Nick Boles: I would be delighted to do that. I know Innovation and Skills (Jo Swinson): The universal service my hon. Friend has been leading the process of trying obligation is not an optional extra—it is a fundamental to set up a UTC in his constituency. I urge him to make duty enshrined in law and only Parliament could change contact with the excellent Baker Dearing Educational that. In addition, it is the responsibility of the postal Trust, which developed the concept of the UTC and regulator, Ofcom, to ensure services are available throughout will provide invaluable advice on how to make sure that the UK at an affordable and uniform price, six days a my hon. Friend submits a successful bid. week. Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): The Michael Connarty: I thank the Minister for that reply, Minister will know that the largest manufacturing industry but is it not time that we looked at how Ofcom carries in the country is food and drink, and that it has one of out its remit, possibly through a judicial review of that the biggest export potentials. Will he recognise that remit? Given that Ofcom has been dragged reluctantly engineering disciplines that are ancillary to that industry to review the actions of the cherry-pickers such as also have enormous potential, whether it be agricultural Whistl, which wants to pick mail up in the 8% of the engineering, food processing, food storage requirements UK’s geographical area that covers 42% of the mail or food transport. Will he look at technical education thereby undermining the ability of Royal Mail to deliver, from the point of view of where the export potential is, Ofcom attacked the standard of wages and conditions particularly in the developing world? of the Royal Mail workers rather than deal with the problem of cherry-picking of the universal service Mr Speaker: Minister Nicholas Edward Coleridge obligation, which could be irrecoverably damaged.