Thursday Volume 583 26 June 2014 No. 14 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 26 June 2014 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2014 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 445 26 JUNE 2014 446 use zero-hours contracts to get around the national House of Commons minimum wage legislation will therefore be prosecuted? If employers seek to exclude people on zero-hours Thursday 26 June 2014 contracts from being able to take work with any other employer, cannot those contracts be declared void as being contrary to public policy? The House met at half-past Nine o’clock Vince Cable: On the latter point, we shall discuss in PRAYERS the forthcoming legislation how enforcement action might be taken in respect of exclusivity contracts. The answer to the first part of the question is yes, indeed: if [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] the minimum wage legislation has been breached, action is taken, initially by retrieving the sums involved and by naming and shaming, and under the forthcoming legislation Oral Answers to Questions it will be by very significant penalties. Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): Does the Secretary of State agree that the Government’s approach to zero-hours contracts has to tread the difficult BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS line between supporting the vast majority of employees who want to continue with those contracts, and limiting The Secretary of State was asked— the use of such contracts where they are neither necessary nor appropriate? Workplace Insecurity Vince Cable: My colleague is right that this is a 1. Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East difficult line to tread, which is why we must base our Cleveland) (Lab): What assessment his Department has policy on evidence and not on dogma. The evidence made of the main causes of insecurity in the workplace. very clearly shows that a large number of people do [904468] appreciate and see value in the current arrangements but that there is also abuse, which needs to be dealt The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and with. Skills (Vince Cable): Employees’ views on job security are related to their individual circumstances and underlying Zero-hours Contracts economic conditions. Unsurprisingly, insecurity rose in the recession, but the fall in unemployment from 7.9% 2. Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab): What when we came into office in May 2010 to 6.6% in April assessment he has made of the implications for his 2014 and the creation of 700,000 permanent employee policies of the Office for National Statistics report on jobs since 2012 will almost certainly have reduced it. zero-hours contracts, published on 30 April 2014. [904469] Tom Blenkinsop: The national minimum wage gives people at work security and a statutory minimum, The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and ensuring decent wages. In January, the Chancellor advocated Skills (Vince Cable): The ONS report was a helpful a £7 minimum. Was that not just empty rhetoric, given addition to the debate on zero-hours contracts, alongside that no action has occurred since? Why are Ministers the Department’s call for evidence and final consultation. refusing to back Labour’s living wage plans? Our policy is that although zero-hours contracts benefit many employers and employees, there is a need to Vince Cable: Before I reply directly to the supplementary address abuse. question, may I thank the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my hon. Friend the Mrs Moon: The ONS study showed that 1.4 million Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott), who comes workers were on zero-hours contracts. Those workers to the end of her admirable period in office at the end of are unable to access rented property, because they cannot this week as her colleague returns from maternity leave? prove a work record, or mobile phone contracts and The Chancellor was not advocating a £7 minimum hire purchase contracts. What work has the Department wage; he was explaining the simple arithmetic of what undertaken also to identify the status of the 1.3 million would happen if a real minimum wage was restored. people whose jobs were not examined as part of the The hon. Gentleman will well know that measures will ONS study? Do we not need to find out more about the be coming before the House to introduce much more people on zero-hours contracts rather than staying where effective enforcement action on the minimum wage. We we are? should concentrate on strengthening the minimum wage, rather than pursuing the living wage as a mandatory Vince Cable: I thank the hon. Lady for her close option, about which there is confusion among Opposition interest in this matter and for trying to build up the Members. evidence base. There is some confusion here, because the 1.4 million figure relates to the number of contracts, Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): Will my right hon. and individual workers may have several contracts; the Friend confirm that any employer found not to be best number we have from the ONS for the number of complying with the national minimum wage legislation workers involved is 583,000, which represents about 2% will be prosecuted, and that any employer seeking to of the total labour force. 447 Oral Answers26 JUNE 2014 Oral Answers 448 Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con): Does the mainly small and medium-size enterprises. The funding Secretary of State agree that in today’s modern workplace ends in March 2015, and the fact that future rounds will many employees find zero-hours contracts very attractive be open only to larger businesses and universities with a because of the freedom they give them to combine minimum bid of £1 million will exclude many SMEs different jobs, to work from home and be available to that are vital to the future of Hull. Will Ministers look work, or to work and study at the same time? again at this matter? Vince Cable: My hon. Friend rightly says that certain Vince Cable: On the hon. Lady’s first point about groups of workers find these contracts advantageous, women in senior roles in Government—of course I the main ones being workers who have passed retirement want to add again compliments to my colleague—she age and wish to do optional, flexible work, and students, may have noticed that the last of the FTSE companies for whom the lack of an obligation to turn up at a fixed that did not have a woman on the board, Glencore, has time for a fixed period is compatible with their studies. listened to our clear advice that it should proceed, and Mr Glasenberg appointed a woman director this morning. Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab): Will the Secretary On the £30 million, which is of course the local fund of State clear up the confusion he created during the that was hitherto administered through the local enterprise last debate on this issue in the Chamber and confirm partnership but will come under the local growth fund that workers on jobseeker’s allowance who turn down a when it is available from 2015-16, the local enterprise zero-hours contract job will not face sanctions? partnership will have discretion over how to use the funding available to it. I am sure that it will, as before, Vince Cable: They will not face sanctions. I hope that continue to support development in Hull. that clarifies the matter. Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): For Kettering’s sustainable urban extension to be sustainable, the Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): Department for Transport says that a new junction on Employers are trying to steer a course between being the A14 called junction 10A is required at a cost of flexible and skirting around their legal obligations, but £39 million. That is supported by both the there is concern about the zero-hours contracts for care Northamptonshire LEP and the South-East Midlands workers, on whom we are becoming increasingly dependent. LEP. Given that the junction could release economic Will the Secretary of State’s Department take a careful activity worth up to £1 billion under the Treasury green look at that industry with a view to giving it further book rules, will the Secretary of State look favourably guidance if required? at this bid from Kettering for this new road junction? Vince Cable: Yes, indeed. We are already doing that, Vince Cable: That is an issue that the Minister of and I am discussing the matter with the Minister with State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks responsibility for care. The problem with domiciliary (Michael Fallon), the Department for Transport and I care is that there is almost certainly an avoidance by will have to examine. As I understand it, under the companies to pay the minimum wage, and that overlaps arrangements that will prevail in 2015, this is very much with the problem of zero-hours contracts. We recognise a matter for the two LEPs involved to exercise their that there are some very specific problems for workers priorities. in that sector. Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): Some Regional Growth really good stuff has happened under the regional growth fund, and I am glad to see the next round, but it is still not enough. We are still not getting borrowing for 3. Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab): start-ups. New entrepreneurs are not being encouraged What contribution the regional growth fund has made enough, and we are not using crowdfunding and to rebalancing the economy across regions.