Vol. 769 Thursday No. 128 17 March 2016 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDER OF BUSINESS Questions Employment: Job Creation .................................................................................................1931 European Union: Single Market........................................................................................1933 Apprenticeships.....................................................................................................................1935 Help to Save Scheme..........................................................................................................1938 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment (Amendment) Bill [HL] First Reading ........................................................................................................................1940 Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 Child Support (Deduction Orders and Fees) (Amendment and Modification) Regulations 2016 Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2016 Motions to Approve .............................................................................................................1940 Companies (Address of Registered Office) Regulations 2016 Registrar of Companies and Applications for Striking Off (Amendment) Regulations 2016 Motions to Approve .............................................................................................................1940 Housing and Planning Bill Committee (7th Day)..........................................................................................................1941 Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2016 Motion to Approve...............................................................................................................1984 Housing and Planning Bill Committee (7th Day) (Continued) ....................................................................................1989 Grand Committee General Practitioners: Appointments Question for Short Debate ............................................................................................GC 245 Children: Maternal Care Question for Short Debate ............................................................................................GC 257 Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital: Redevelopment Question for Short Debate ............................................................................................GC 271 Occupied Palestinian Territories: Development Question for Short Debate ............................................................................................GC 285 India: Freedom of Religion Question for Short Debate ............................................................................................GC 299 £4·00 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. 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The first time a Member speaks to a new piece of parliamentary business, the following abbreviations are used to show their 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 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 2016, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1931 Employment: Job Creation[17 MARCH 2016] Employment: Job Creation 1932 Baroness Sherlock (Lab): My Lords, I welcome the House of Lords rise in employment but I want to ask about the disability employment gap. I was pretty shocked on reading the Thursday 17 March 2016 Red Book to discover that the single biggest revenue raiser was the new decision by the Government to 11 am save £4.4 billion over five years by taking personal independence payments away from hundreds of thousands of people who need aids to get dressed or manage Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Birmingham. incontinence. That is on top of previous PIP cuts, lost Motability cars and ESA cuts. How will that help Employment: Job Creation disabled people into work? Question Lord Freud: There is a huge misapprehension about the cost of PIP, which has been going up rather than 11.06 am down. These are not cuts: on the present trajectory the Asked by Baroness Jenkin of Kennington figure is moving up to £12 billion, and when we discussed it during the passage of the Welfare Reform To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many net and Work Bill there was an expectation that in the key additional jobs have been created in the United 2019-20 year it would be £9 billion. We are reducing a Kingdom since 2010, and what assessment they rapid growth and adjusting how to get PIP because have made, if any, of how that figure compares to clearly we are getting much higher figures than originally those of the 19 nations of the Eurozone. expected through the use of those aids and appliance measurements. The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud) (Con): Since 2010, employment Lord Garel-Jones (Con): Does my noble friend accept in the UK has risen by more than 2.3 million people. that, contrary to what the noble Lord opposite said, it Comparable international figures for this period are was not Prime Minister Gordon Brown who kept us not available, but over the last year the UK has seen the out of the single currency but Prime Minister John second largest rise in employment in the whole of the Major? Gordon Brown simply stuck wisely to that EU, after Spain. Conservative decision. Lord Freud: I am very happy to accept the correction. Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con): I thank my noble friend. Youth worklessness is still too high in this country. Will my noble friend tell us what the Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD): As the Minister Government are doing to tackle it? said, we do not have precise international comparisons on job creation, but we are doing okay on the number of jobs. However, is not productivity also very important? Lord Freud: We have had youth obligation programmes On average, we have lagged behind the French by and we seem to have turned the corner here. The figure 20% over the last 20 years. Does the Minister agree that I have consistently given to this House over the that the answer is to invest more in people and lifelong past nearly six years has concentrated on the workless learning? If he agrees, can he tell me what the Government number—those unemployed or inactive in the 16 to will do about it? 24 age group. In recent months that figure has been at an all-time low. It is 14.3% of the population and has Lord Freud: An economist would reply that the way come down to just a shade over 1 million. It is very to get more productivity out of people is to put more interesting that even through the boom years the figure capital in and raise the quality of people’s input. It is was going up. There was a structural issue. We seem clearly a long-standing issue that we have lower now to be getting at the roots of that structural productivity than other major countries; the comparisons problem and are beginning to see the figure come are often with the US and Germany. However, there is down, as I said, to an all-time low in recent months. something about the structure of our service-based economy that means the comparisons are not necessarily Lord Grocott (Lab): Does the Minister recall, as I what they seem to be. Nevertheless, it is quite clear do, the dire consequences that were predicted by so that one of the major challenges of this economy is to many businesspeople, economists and politicians were get our productivity up. we not to join the eurozone? In view of those predictions having been so spectacularly wrong, has the Minister Lord Kilclooney (CB): My Lords, of the 2.3 million heard any apologies from those people? jobs that the Minister states were created, how many were given to United Kingdom citizens? Lord Freud: It is not often that I warmly