Vol. 808 Tuesday No. 149 24 November 2020 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Questions Adult Learning: Union Learning Fund..........................................................................121 Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme: Spending .......................125 LGBT Community: Domestic Abuse .............................................................................128 Ministerial Code.............................................................................................................131 Tigray Conflict Private Notice Question ..................................................................................................134 Fixed-Term Parliaments Act Committee Membership Motion........................................................................................................139 Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Order 2020 Motion to Approve ..........................................................................................................140 Fire Safety Bill Third Reading .................................................................................................................140 Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill Committee (1st Day)......................................................................................................145 Covid-19: Winter Plan Statement .......................................................................................................................213 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2020-11-24 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2020, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 121 Arrangement of Business[24 NOVEMBER 2020] Adult Learning: Union Learning Fund 122 House of Lords with millions of people in this country still lacking the basic skills that they need to progress, we need a Tuesday 24 November 2020 solution at scale that can reach everyone, not just those able to access Unionlearn. We have created the The House met in a hybrid proceeding. £2.5 billion national skills fund and the £500 million skills recovery package to do just that. Noon Baroness Prosser (Lab): My Lords, I, along with Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of St Albans. other Members of the House, was extremely pleased to receive the letter from the Prime Minister in September setting out the Government’s plans for increasing and Arrangement of Business improving FE provision. However, the letter did not Announcement say that that was to be funded in part by the loss of money currently given to the Union Learning Fund. A 12.07 pm different taint would have been put on the letter had it The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler): My Lords, the been a little more open about that matter. The noble Hybrid Sitting of the House will now begin. Some Baroness has already agreed that the Union Learning Members are here in the Chamber, respecting social Fund reaches a group of people who have not been distancing, others are participating remotely, but all touched by other systems and measures—people who Members will be treated equally. Oral Questions will learn from concentrating along with colleagues who now commence. Please can those asking supplementary support them and give them confidence. What is the questions keep them sensibly short and confined to Department for Education going to do to ensure that two points. I ask that Ministers’ answers are also brief. these new ideas actually reach those people who, in the past, prior to the Union Learning Fund, were not reached at all? Adult Learning: Union Learning Fund Question Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, in addition to Unionlearn, the European Social Fund has a lot of 12.07 pm provision in place to make sure that those who are hardest to reach for skills training access it. That Asked by Lord Shipley provision continues until 2023 and will then be replaced by the UK shared prosperity fund, where the Government Toask Her Majesty’sGovernment what assessment have committed to matching the existing level of funding they have made of the benefits of adult learning going into the future. delivered through the Union Learning Fund. Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD): My Lords, we Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, the annual £12 million are all delighted to hear of the additional money going grant has allowed the Union Learning Fund to support into FE—one wonders how that will pan out. However, around 200,000 people a year to access education and as the noble Baroness already said, the Union Learning training opportunities. An assessment for Unionlearn Fund reached people who are not otherwise reached by Exeter and Leeds universities found that Unionlearn’s by learning—250,000 of them, currently.Can the Minister activities generated a return of £12.24 for every £1 of say why this decision has been taken at this stage? funding. However, a 2015 Department for Business, Could it be seen as a politically motivated attack on Innovation and Skills report found that each £1 of trade unions and their members across the country, government investment in FE and skills as a whole who are the very people who benefit from this tremendous produced a return of £14. fund? Lord Shipley (LD) [V]: My Lords, I thank the Minister Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, I can reassure the for her reply. Since their inception just over 20 years noble Baroness that it is absolutely not a political decision. ago, union learning schemes have proved very successful, Many Conservative Governments have supported not least because of their mentoring systems. Having Unionlearn over the years with over £70 million of promoted schemes on behalf of the Open University funding. The decision was taken based on the fact that and then when I was leader of Newcastle City Council, we want to increase the scale and reach of our offer. I know from personal experience that they work. The £2.5 billion national skills fund is illustrative of Might the Government look closely at the evidence our ambitions in this area. One of the limitations of that many low-paid workers develop their career prospects Unionlearn is that it is reliant on a trade union presence through union learning schemes? Would the Minister in the workplace, which can often be more focused on agree that union learning should be seen as a key part larger employers. For example, it does not necessarily of the Government’s levelling-up agenda? reach unemployed or self-employed people, start-ups, tech, and many more small and medium-sized businesses Baroness Penn (Con): My Lords, the Government that do not have union representation. recognise fully the good work that Unionlearn has done with the funding it has provided in directing and Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con) [V]: My Lords, supporting people to take advantage of education given that not just individual trade unions but major and training opportunities in the workplace. However, employers such as Tesco, Heathrow, Tata Steel, and 123 Adult Learning: Union Learning Fund[LORDS] Adult Learning: Union Learning Fund 124 [LORD BOURNE OF ABERYSTWYTH] Government make is through the National Careers indeed many others, have raised concerns, can my noble Service. I reassure the noble Lord that, with respect to friend tell us what discussions there have been with people on low wages, the Government have extended the TUC and the CBI about the future of the Union eligibility for those who are in work but on low wages Learning Fund? to access fully funded adult education, whereas in previous years this was co-funded . Baroness Penn (Con): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education met Frances Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-Afl) [V]: Adult learning O’Grady of the TUC to discuss this very matter in is life-affirming, but the unemployment rate among November. those from BAME backgrounds is at 8.5%, almost twice that of their white counterparts. What more are Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB) [V]: My Lords, in a the Government planning to do to help remove barriers fast-changing world we have to adapt and learn new to adult education and