House of Lords: Reform

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Wednesday 1st May 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Baroness Neville- Rolfe) (Con)]

My Lords, I start by sharing the sadness at the sudden death of Lord Stunell.

The House of Lords plays a crucial role by scrutinising, debating and holding the Government to account. However, reform, including in relation to the size and membership of this House, is not a priority in this Parliament.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is participating remotely.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I will ask a very simple question. Due to the ageing nature of Labour’s membership of the House, we are now down to as few as 100 Labour Peers regularly attending proceedings. Meanwhile, the Government are openly challenging the excellent and well thought-through Fowler-McFall reforms with a stream of their own introductions, bringing the Conservative membership to nearly 300. If a Labour Government are elected, how can we possibly secure the public business against a background of such overwhelming odds? Is the Government’s strategy to fill the House to capacity and make it difficult for Labour to appoint without further breaching the reforms?

Vetting Social Media Accounts

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

The guidelines apply to cross-government diversity networks and they should follow the guidelines, although, obviously, there can be local interpretation.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

My Lords, we now have a virtual question from the noble Lord, Lord Strasburger.

Consumer Protection: Online Ticketing

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Thursday 30th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

The ticketing system underpins the success of our events and our tourist events, in music as well as in sport, and I am sure the secondary sites will be a good source of tickets for Icelanders as they progress through the tournament.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)]

My Lords, is there a case for using technology here to ensure that the ticket sellers reveal the identity of their websites?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

Provisions are laid down in the Consumer Rights Act, which we introduced in this House. Technology is changing things. One thing that can be looked at is ID, but potentially that will have problems under the Data Protection Act if people’s names are published. However, other technological advances, such as the use of wrist bands and biometrics, are coming along. My message would be that we should take these into account in trying to reduce fraud and improve enforcement in this important area.

Libraries: Local Government Finance Settlement

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Thursday 11th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I entirely agree with my noble friend about the importance of funding for these areas. As he said, the settlement was very reasonable. Indeed, on the local government settlement, the proposal that has been adopted this week was made by Labour authorities, including Lancashire. The point is that libraries are changing—we have talked a lot about digital change, and volunteers are coming in. Lancashire is doing the right thing by consulting on change. I am sure that the final proposal will be different from what was first put forward.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)]

My Lords, the Prime Minister’s mother has done what the Minister asked and sat down and wrote a serious letter to a local authority complaining about local authority cuts. Does not that indicate that we have reached a very serious situation indeed, and the Prime Minister and his Government need to do something about it if they are to maintain the social fabric of local communities?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, the settlement means that every council will have for the financial year ahead at least the resources allocated by the provisional settlement. In addition, those councils with the sharpest fall in grant money will now receive transitional funding as they move from dependence on central government grants to greater financial autonomy.

Steel Sector

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Monday 18th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, the EU rules on state aid apply to everybody. Where member states do not apply them, they get taken to the European Court of Justice and there are quite significant penalties and financial implications. That is why steel industries across the EU have found it difficult. These state aid rules can be beneficial in other areas. On nuclear power, we are, of course, looking for investment in this vital industry. It is one of the areas in which the Chinese have indicated that they may invest. I see that as different and separate from steel. If there are problems with steel, we should take action in the steel area.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness says that we need investment in nuclear. We actually need investment in steel as well. The Government are guaranteeing £92.50 for every unit of electricity produced at Hinkley Point for the next 35 years. The subsidy will come to £20 billion and the plant will cost customers some £4.5 billion. If we have these gigantic figures for the nuclear industry, what is missing for the steel industry? Is it just a lack of resolve on the Government’s part?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

Of course, we need investment in steel in parallel with nuclear. We should look at how Tata has come in and invested in steel in the UK. There is bad news today but Tata has worked well with us in these very difficult circumstances to try to do the right thing and to really improve our offer for steel that can be used in the UK in our car industry—and overseas—HS2 and in all the other very important uses for steel, because I believe that what we need is a market for our goods. That is what the steel industry needs.

Local Enterprise Partnerships

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I thank my noble friend for drawing attention to all this and look forward to hearing fuller details. I do not think that any of us is condemning LEPs. There are always good and bad things about such organisations. My own view is that they are making a great drive forward in helping local people choose the projects we should support with government funding and matching funding from business and others.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)]

My Lords, in the debate on the constitution will the Minister keep in mind the distinction between decentralisation and devolution? Decentralisation is superior to devolution in terms of local enterprise companies. I give the Minister an example. The SNP Government in Scotland abolished the local enterprise zone in my area, but not before I established a public-private partnership in 1998. Sixteen years later, 2,000 jobs have been created with gross value added to the local community of more than £500 million. The public investment in that is one-1,000th, at £500,000. Will the Minister bear in mind that we have no hope of rebalancing the economy if we do not keep in mind the merits of decentralisation and local involvement?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, I very much agree about the power of localism and partnership, which that example demonstrates.

Companies Act 2006: Nominee Operators

Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord McFall of Alcluith

Tuesday 13th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, the FRC corporate governance code already makes it clear that the board as a whole, which obviously includes the non-executive directors, has a responsibility to ensure satisfactory dialogue with shareholders. We believe that many companies and investors are already holding meetings of the kind that the noble Lord suggests, and we have encouraged such strategy discussions outside the formality of the AGM.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)]

My Lords, the financial crisis illustrated that shareholder engagement was a sham. Is there not a case for the Government taking immediate action, forgetting about having any consultation on this and ensuring that the noble Lord’s reasonable request—that private shareholders receive these free accounts—can be done with a loud and clear message from the Chancellor of the Exchequer?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, I was very pleased to see the extension of ISAs to AIM. I am delighted that these questions have been asked today so that we are debating the issue. I am sure that noble Lords will be pleased to hear that we are looking into exactly what is needed with a view to taking action.