Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Thursday 17th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman and the Opposition are suffering from some form of collective amnesia. Does he not remember that the British economy was on life support in 2010 when the Chancellor took over? The body of the economy was barely twitching. Why does he not acknowledge the fact that since 2010 growth is up, wages are up, employment is up and the deficit is down? He should be praising the Chancellor, not saying the economy is going down.

[John McDonnell]

Will the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that the objective statements of the past 48 hours have demonstrated that all the factors that he mentions are falling back, and that we now face a serious problem that should be addressed by a responsible Government when they see their own fiscal rule and economic policies failing?

Let me repeat what the IFS said so that everyone is clear: the percentage losses were about 25 times larger for those at the bottom than for those at the top. So much for the Government’s statement about the broadest shoulders taking the strain. Furthermore, time and again, it is women who have borne the brunt of the Chancellor’s cuts. Recent analysis by the Women’s Budget Group showed that 81% of tax and welfare changes since 2010 have fallen on women.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) described himself as a “callow youth” when it comes to the number of Budgets he has attended. By that calculation, I am probably an infant when it comes to Budget debates.

The hon. Member for Barnsley Central (Dan Jarvis) referred to the emergency Budget of 2010. I and many other Members were in their places to hear it. Let me take us back to what the economy was like in 2010. It is all very well for Labour Members to criticise what has happened over the last six years, but let us just examine what the economy was like. Actually, it was not growing. In 2009, growth was going down. There was a 4% drop in growth. Wages were going down and unemployment was high—all the things we do not want to see again in our economy. The markets had given their chilling verdict on Labour’s management of the economy.

[Mr Kevan Jones]

Let me remind the hon. Gentleman that, when his party was in opposition, it actually agreed with our spending targets and the measures we took to rescue this country from the world crash. Moreover, what the emergency Budget did—I am sorry, but the hon. Gentleman is wrong because economic growth was moving in the right direction and unemployment was coming down—was suck out demand from the economy, which perpetuated the decline.

[Alok Sharma]

I have to disagree. If the hon. Gentleman looks at what Tony Blair said in his autobiography—he won three elections, but it does not look like any of this lot are going to—he will see that Tony Blair realised that Labour was spending more in the good years and that is why we got into the position we did. At the time, Bill Gross, the founder of global investment management firm PIMCO, said this about the UK economy. He described it as a “must avoid” and said that UK gilts were

“resting on a bed of nitroglycerin”.

Those were incredibly strong words from the market. We were looking over an economic precipice. Thank goodness we had a change of Government. That is why we are in a much better position now, with growth and wages up and the deficit down.

I of course welcome this Budget. It is a Budget for business and for individuals. It is a Budget for young people and a Budget for investment in infrastructure. When it comes to schools, I welcome what the Secretary of State said. In my constituency, I have helped to found two free schools and academies, and they are doing incredibly well. One that has been going for a few years was rated as outstanding in its first year.

[Michael Tomlinson]

Was my hon. Friend, like me, surprised that the Labour party did not welcome, or even mention the subject of fairer funding, which will have such positive effects on our schools?

[Alok Sharma]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As the Secretary of State said, Labour had 13 years to fix this and it did not. This Government are now getting that right.

I spoke this morning at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which is much more interesting and exciting than it sounds. It greatly welcomed the business measures in the Budget, particularly the drop in corporation tax. I have to say to the shadow Chancellor, who is now back in his place, that if we drop corporation tax rates, investment will come into the country, which will allow us to raise more money. That is something that he needs to understand if he ever hopes to become Chancellor himself.

The changes to business rates are incredibly welcome to many small businesses, for which business rates constitute a large component of their fixed costs. I welcome, too, the abolition of class 2 national insurance. I hope that we are seeing a move towards a merger of national insurance and income tax. I know that this is potentially very complicated, but the dividends it will pay in terms of tax simplification will be huge, as will be the benefits for businesses.

Investment in infrastructure—many billions have been invested since 2010, and there is more to come during this Parliament—has been a hallmark of this Chancellor’s Budgets. My own constituency has benefited from significant rail investment: nearly £1 billion has been invested in Reading station, and Crossrail is coming, as is rail electrification. There has been investment in local stations as well. However, may I issue a plea to those who are looking at the Hendy report consultation? Two stations in my constituency, Theale and Green Park, are fully funded, but their development has been delayed. I hope that, as a result of the consultation, we can actually get moving so that my constituents can benefit. I welcome the work that the National Infrastructure Commission is doing in driving forward investment and infrastructure in the United Kingdom.

A few weeks ago, I was appointed the Prime Minister’s infrastructure envoy to India. I think that the experience that will be gained by us in this country, and by our companies, will be fantastic. It will not only allow us to help countries such as India with growing economies to raise finance in the London market, but enable our world-leading businesses that are involved in infrastructure to go out and assist those economies.

Finally, let me say something about Europe. I am very much in favour of a stronger, safer, better-off, reformed European Union, and I will be campaigning for us to stay in the EU. I know that we have a limited amount of time today, and I do not want to initiate a huge debate on the subject, but I will say this: if, on 24 June, we wake up and find that the British people have chosen to leave the European Union, there will be a period of uncertainty. That is the one thing with which no one can disagree. There will be uncertainty because we will not know how long it will take us to renegotiate some kind of relationship with Europe, what the cost will be, or how investors will react. I have heard Conservative Members say that investment will continue to flow in, but I do not agree. Given what is being said by foreign countries and foreign companies, I think that they will think twice, and will wait to see what our relationship with Europe looks like before investing in the United Kingdom.

Uncertainty has two impacts. Businesses hate it, which means that they stop investing, and consumers hate it, which means that they stop spending money. The effect of all that will be very bad news for our economy. Both the Office for Budget Responsibility’s book and the Red Book contain all sorts of predictions about how our GDP could be hit if we left the European Union, but, by any measure, it will go down. All the net savings that my colleagues who want us to leave the European Union say we will gain will, I think, disappear as a result of the losses that will follow a fall in GDP and a consequent hit on tax revenues. I therefore hope that all of us, not just in the House but throughout the country, will think very carefully before voting in the referendum on 23 June.

[Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend remember the same concerns being expressed when this country was considering whether it would be wise to join the eurozone?

[Alok Sharma]

I have never been keen on our joining the euro. All I can say is that I think there will be a huge amount of uncertainty if we decide to leave the European Union. That is what I want to guard against, so I ask everyone to vote to remain in the EU.

I commend the Budget to the House.

British Values: Teaching

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Wednesday 25th June 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Denham]

I understand what the hon. Gentleman is saying. The issues that have arisen in Birmingham are important, and I will come to them in a moment. If the debate was simply about a few schools—the issues that we have seen in Birmingham are not common across the country—that would be an issue to deal with in those few schools. The Government’s response has opened up a bigger debate about how we promote a national story and shared British values, which I think is important and has been neglected for too long. There has been an attempt not to deal with some very difficult issues.

I turn to the Cantle report; I am deliberately going back in time. The report did not meet with universal acclaim. Established racial equality organisations said that its diagnosis was the wrong one and that the problem was poverty and racism. Some Muslim organisations rejected any criticism of how communities had evolved. Liberal—that is, with a small l—voices, as now, rejected any idea of shared British values. Some felt, wrongly, that the problems arose only in a few places. Subsequently, public policy was diverted after the terrorism of 9/11 and 7/7. The riots took place before 9/11 and the report was published just afterwards, so although Cantle had some real influence, the big national debates about shared values that he talked about never took place.

One real legacy was the responsibility placed on all schools in 2005 to promote community cohesion, with Ofsted required to report on how well that was being carried out. That was probably much less ambitious than Cantle had wanted, but it was at least a start. Crucially, however, such work is difficult. Even though the Cantle report said:

“Schools should not be afraid to discuss difficult areas and the young people we met wanted to have this opportunity and should be given a safe environment in which to do so”,

the evidence was that most schools found that difficult. The Select Committee on Home Affairs has said that few teachers felt comfortable with dealing with issues related to terrorism or the wars that were fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. A review of diversity and citizenship in the curriculum found that few pupils had had experiences of talking about things that people in Britain share.

Today, some of those old issues still exist and new ones have arisen. Many schools have seen rapid social and demographic change, so classrooms contain students who have been part of that change and students who come from families who have been disconcerted by it. If our schools, particularly our secondary schools, cannot provide a safe space in which to discuss such issues, that does not mean that students will not talk about them; it just means that they will talk about them in isolation in their own separate groups and communities, and in dangerous places off and online.

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

The right hon. Gentleman is talking about creating a value system that we can all live by. As he knows, a few days ago the Government published a consultative report on independent school standards. They have talked about the fact that we should be promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs. Is that not exactly the sort of common value system that we can all unite around?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Denham]

If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, in a few moments I will directly address what I think the Government should be doing to enable themselves to address situations such as those in Birmingham.

[Alok Sharma]

rose—

[Mr Denham]

I will take one more intervention.

[Alok Sharma]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for being so generous in taking interventions. I agree that the world has changed and society has, in many ways, become much more tolerant. I remember sitting on public transport in Reading when I was a youngster and being subjected to casual racist abuse. That would not happen in a town such as Reading now, or at least people would not get away with it. On the subject of changing values, does he not agree that values such as individual liberty, tolerance and democracy are timeless?

[Mr Denham]

They are timeless, but our understanding varies. Forgive me for using a trivial example, but when I first came into this House, non-smokers were expected to respect the right of smokers to smoke in Committee Rooms, tea rooms, dining rooms and bars. Today, smokers are expected to respect the liberty of non-smokers not to breathe in their smoke. Liberty has not changed, and this is a silly example, but our understanding of what those values mean changes over time. That is crucial. The idea that our understanding of those values is fixed in time is wrong.

One of the reasons for pursuing that point is that the Government are about to legislate on some of those values more strongly than ever before. We need to anticipate the potential problems. The Government want schools to promote active participation in democracy, and I have no doubt that the Government wish to be able to address schools in which, for example, aggressive advocates of an Islamic caliphate are undermining democracy, but where in law will that leave communities, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Brethren and others, that do not vote, do not advocate the vote and do not bring up their children to vote? We, in a rather British and tolerant way, have never felt the need to bother ourselves with those communities before. The Minister should be careful that we understand what we are getting into when we use the law, rather than the promotion of good practice in schools, to promote British values.

Some of the activities in Birmingham schools that have been described, including the harassment of able teachers, the imposition of narrow dress codes, restricted curriculums and the use of racist stereotyping and gender segregation, are unacceptable, but we do not need complex regulations on the promotion of British values to address those activities. The hon. Member for Bradford East (Mr Ward) raised this question earlier, and let us say that all publicly funded schools, of any intake or designation, should be required to maintain an environment that is genuinely welcoming to all students of all backgrounds. If we made that our test and our principle and said that failure to maintain such an environment should be the basis of intervention, it would be much clearer, it would be easier to inspect and it would be a proper foundation that respects the fact that there are faith and non-faith schools, and schools with different intakes, while stating that no school can be run in a way such that other children would not wish to go there.

[Mr Denham]

The hon. Gentleman and I probably do not disagree. My father was the head teacher of a Church of England school and my son goes to a Church of England primary school, but I am not a person of faith. I can see a school that is welcoming to children who do not come from a faith background but that has a distinct faith ethos. It is possible to get the right balance between the two.

There are limits to the extent to which anyone can insist that a school follows a narrow practice such that other parents and other children do not feel welcome. We can do much better than the incredibly complex regulations on the promotion of British values that the Government are pursuing. My wording might not be right, but this is the approach I want to take. I do not think there should be any publicly funded school to which any reasonable person would say, “That school would not welcome my child.” Those are the constraints on how far people can demand particular practices, approaches to the curriculum and the promotion of faith, and so on.

I will now make some progress. I have taken longer than I wanted, although I have taken several interventions. I will quickly address the question of British values. Are Education Ministers in Wales, Scotland and, indeed, Northern Ireland advocating a similar message? I hope the Minister will answer that question. If not, why is it that British values will be promoted only to the English? Have we recognised that people in England are more likely to put their English identity first? Have we recognised that in some areas white students are more likely to describe themselves as English, according to the polls, and black and minority ethnic students are more likely to describe themselves as British? Those are not trivial issues for a teacher having discussions in the classroom about the nature of being British. I see no sign in any of the Government’s guidance or discussions that those issues have been considered at all.

The nation building I want must recognise that we all have multiple identities—faith-based, nation-based, ethnicity-based and locality-based—and should not assume a single homogeneous whole, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East said. The nation building we need must include many people who currently have widely differing views about the state of Britain. If we think about the challenge that faces us, we all have constituents who feel insecure because they feel that their British or English identities are under threat. They need to accept that the clock cannot be turned back, but they must be reassured and feel that they have a voice.

We all have some constituents who will be among those who recently admitted to rising levels of prejudice. Fail to address that and our society will be strained. We all have newer communities yet to find their full place in our society—here but not yet fully here. We all have those who are happy with the way things are and who welcome change. They can actually be part of the problem if they are likely to dismiss the concerns of their neighbours in their local communities. Nation building means finding common ground and common values that can bring those people together. It does not help if just one community is singled out as the problem, but that is what I fear the Government have done.

[Alok Sharma]

The right hon. Gentleman is making some interesting points, and I want to go back to this one: he suggested that the Government want us to be homogeneous. I am sure the Minister will respond, but that certainly is not the impression that I have. He talked about what someone is. Well, I am British, but I have an Indian heritage. At the end of the day, the matter is about people integrating into mainstream society and being tolerant—all those common values that we have mentioned before, which I continue to believe are timeless.

[Mr Denham]

I believe that the hon. Gentleman is right, but I am worried that some of the legalistic ways in which the Government are acting going could end up producing a narrow set of legal definitions that push schools, in their interpretation of Britishness, to precisely the narrow, homogeneous view of the way things are that we do not want to see.

I am also worried that the way in which the Government have handled and responded to Birmingham has tended not to identify the issue as one of bringing together the whole country and people from many different backgrounds, including that of the hon. Member for Reading West (Alok Sharma), but to single out one particular community. The Mail on Sunday screams out on its front page: “Cameron tells UK Muslims: Be more British”—I rather fear that some spin doctor somewhere was rather pleased with that story. I do not think that is healthy or helpful. There are real and current concerns about extremism and radicalisation, but the promotion of British values should not be about one community or one faith.

Of course, given the conflicts involving Muslims around the world; the links of faith and family to some of those conflicts; and the pernicious activities of radicalisers and recruiters, there are dangers and challenges for some young Muslims that young people from other communities do not face, but it is all the more important to get such issues right. I fear that Ministers have equated conservative theology with anti-British values and the promotion of extremism. Yet the Government’s own extremism task force concluded:

“As the greatest risk to our security comes from al-Qaeda and like-minded groups, and terrorist ideologies draw on and make use of extremist ideas, we believe it is also necessary to define the ideology of Islamist extremism. This is a distinct ideology which should not be confused with traditional religious practice.”

We have yet to read Peter Clarke’s report, but I fear that that is the very confusion that Ministers and the Prime Minister have introduced into the debate.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

All free school applications go through a rigorous process that is policed by the Department’s due diligence and counter-extremism unit and will ensure that any inappropriate application that is put forward is not accepted.

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

21. The West Reading Education Network parents’ group is seeking approval to open a single academy trust secondary school next September. The same parents’ group set up the outstanding All Saints junior free school. Does the Secretary of State agree that this is exactly the type of excellent parent-led initiative that everyone in the House should be backing? It certainly enjoys cross-party support in Reading.

[Michael Gove]

I absolutely do agree. It is important to bear in mind that the All Saints school in Reading was outstanding in every category when it was inspected by Ofsted. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend to ensure that the quality of education that Reading parents enjoy continues to improve.

Small Businesses

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Thursday 28th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Anne Marie Morris) on securing this debate. She is a huge champion of small and micro-businesses, and more power to her elbow.

Before the last election many of us were going around meeting small businesses in our constituencies, and businesses in Reading were telling me three things. The first was that they were drowning in red tape and regulation. The second was that they had to deal with an excessive burden of taxation. The third was that they faced issues relating to access to finance. Many Government Members have already pointed out areas where the Government have made a real effort to address all three issues: the red tape challenge; the one-in, two-out policy; cutting back on the regulations that micro-businesses have to deal with; the upcoming deregulation Bill—perhaps the Minister will give us an update on that; the reduction in the headline corporation tax rate; extended small business rate relief; the funding for lending scheme; the enterprise finance guarantee scheme; and a plethora of schemes to get debt and equity provision for start-ups and growing businesses, which are on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website and are now starting to be delivered through the British Business Bank. Of course the one scheme that the Government have not been responsible for, which perhaps the shadow Minister could tell us about, is the Co-op bank soft loans scheme, which has been available to only a restricted number of people.

A friend of mine who works in business and is not particularly partisan politically has acknowledged that the Government have made a huge effort in cutting red tape. However, as he says, perhaps the time has come not just to take an axe to red tape, but to take a chainsaw to unnecessary red tape and regulation. I am pleased that we have gone from one-in, one-out to one-in, two-out, but why not one-in, three-out or none-in, four-out? One reason for not doing that is that the Government are constrained by EU regulation. I welcome what the Prime Minister said following the proposals made by his business taskforce on cutting back EU regulation. I understand that yesterday the Leader of the Opposition referred to a tweet containing “#greencrap”. I have just started tweeting, and am thinking about tweeting after this debate with #EUredtapecrap, because of the enormous amount of EU regulation that is holding back our businesses. The issue of increasing competitiveness is felt not just in the UK but by Governments in Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam and perhaps even Paris.

If Opposition Members really care about business, they should back the European Union (Referendum) Bill. I hope they will turn up tomorrow to support it, because that is the best way of delivering change in the EU and ensuring that we get rid of some of this regulation.

In the remaining two minutes, I have two quick points. One relates to simplifying the tax system overall through the merger or the simplification of income tax and national insurance, and the second is about closing the equity funding gap.

In the 2011 Budget, the Chancellor talked about merging national insurance and income tax. A consultation was held, and the decision was made not to take the idea forward. None the less, the idea is totemic. I know that it is difficult and that there are anomalies, but we should consider merging those two taxes. The reality is that national insurance is just another tax. People should understand that the tax they are paying is not 20% as a basic rate taxpayer but 32%. If they saw that on their pay slips and in their annual tax statements, they would realise that we are all paying a bit too much tax. They would end up preferring parties that propose cutting taxes rather than raising them. Perhaps we will hear something on that from the Minister.

My final point is to do with equity finance. The start-up loan scheme is brilliant. It is a flagship scheme that has worked really well; it is simple and is able to get lending out very quickly. It would be great to see a British equity funding scheme, which would also help to deploy capital quickly across many areas of business.

I am running out of time, so I shall stop at that point. I acknowledge that the Government do a huge amount, but there is still some way for them to go. I am sure that the Minister will tell us of his plans.

School Starting Age

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2013 Westminster Hall

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

I will be brief. Let me first congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) on securing this incredibly important debate. It is an issue that is not aired or talked about enough, and we need to put it at the top of the agenda when we talk about education.

I want to raise the case of my constituents, Mr and Mrs Slade, who approached me two years ago because they wanted their daughter, Ava, who was born at the end of August, to delay her start to school by a year. I have some sympathy with such a view because my older daughter Isabella is also an August-born child. She is doing absolutely fine at school now, but when she first started, her age did make a difference. If she had started a year later, it would have made a difference, but in a positive way.

As I said, Mr and Mrs Slade approached me two years ago, and I wrote to the Department. The then Minister of State for Schools, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr Gibb), gave me a prompt reply. He said:

“It must be the parent’s choice when their child starts school and the law provides flexibility for parents on this issue.”

That was absolutely great news, but he then went on to explain that the parents had to talk to the school, the head teachers, the governing body and the local authority. That was where Mr and Mrs Slade found the huge difference between the theory and the actual practice of getting a delayed start for their child. They battled for almost two and a half years with Reading borough council, which was not as helpful as it could have been.

Mr and Mrs Slade said to me that the local authority effectively hid behind some of the clauses of the admissions code. They admitted that even if their child started in the year when the local authority wanted her to start, she would cope, but no one wants their child just to cope; they want them to thrive in school, and that is what this debate is about. Parents are best placed to judge how well their child will do in a school setting, which is why we should do more to empower them to make those decisions, obviously in consultation with local authorities and governors.

I welcome the guidance that the Department has issued, and I congratulate the Minister on the work that she is doing. I also back my hon. Friend when she says that we need to monitor the advice that is being given and to see whether local authorities are complying with it. We need to give more information to parents, governors and governing bodies. I was a school governor many years ago and feel that this issue should be built into governor training, to explain to governors how they can help parents who want a delayed start for their offspring.

When the then Minister of State wrote to me in 2011, he stated:

“Ms Slade should also be aware that if her daughter were to be educated out of her chronological age group whilst at primary school, any secondary school which she later moved on to would not be obliged to continue this arrangement.”

We also need to consider that matter. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

Gender Balance on Corporate Boards

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Monday 7th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

As you say, Mr Deputy Speaker, this is a time-limited debate, so I will keep my remarks fairly brief.

I welcome the Government’s work to increase gender balance on boards. As we have heard, the Davies review was a seminal piece of work that helped to identify how not just the Government but particularly the corporate sector can respond to the challenge of having more women on boards and of increasing the diversity of boards. As the Minister said—the shadow Minister made this point too—diverse boards make for better companies, better decisions and ultimately better outcomes for shareholders. That is something for which every company should be striving.

The Government have absolutely the right approach in getting companies to co-operate rather than coercing them into coming up with artificial quotas or targets—and certainly by not forcing legislation on them. The approach is clearly working. A number of colleagues have pointed out that the number of women on boards, both executive and non-executive, has been increasing over the past few years. I suspect that this work will continue. I also commend the Government on the work to increase mentoring, which is an incredibly important part of the jigsaw puzzle in informing not just women but people from ethnic minorities how they can aspire to get on boards and into senior management positions in our companies.

[Keith Vaz]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his appointment as vice-chairman of the Conservative party with responsibility for ethnic minorities, but I am not clear what he is saying, because so far we have failed on ethnic minority representation. Is he in favour of continuing with voluntary arrangements and hoping that things will get better, or does he think that Government and business should send a much stronger message about boards needing to be made more diverse?

[Alok Sharma]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his comments; let me come to that point shortly.

I am also pleased that last year the Government introduced a set of draft regulations that will require listed companies to set out the gender breakdown of their work force at board level, in senior management and in the work force as a whole. Normally, those of us on the Conservative Benches are not particularly keen on huge amounts of business regulation, but this is a good regulation, which would not be burdensome but helpful in shining a light on companies and getting them to focus on increasing diversity and, in particular, improving the gender balance on corporate boards. Indeed, the regulations, which are due to be introduced, have already been implemented in a number of other jurisdictions across Europe, so this is nothing new. At the end of last year, the Secretary of State—who is now in his place—urged head-hunting firms to break down the number of individuals they place in senior positions by gender. Again, that is extremely good news.

The right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) made the point about work force diversity. Gender balance is one measure of work force diversity, but ethnicity is another. Championing diversity should undoubtedly be about improving both. The hon. Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna) pointed out that just as there is under-representation of women at senior levels on boards, there is also under-representation of those from non-European ethnic backgrounds. He gave the figure of 5.7%. To break that down even further, research by Cranfield university showed that only 4.4% of board members in FTSE 100 companies are ethnic minority male, while only 1.3% are female. Indeed, of the 48 male directors from minority backgrounds, only eight are British. As has been pointed out, the census showed that the proportion of people from non-white or ethnic minority backgrounds is currently around 14%.

The all-party group on race and community has just published a report—it came out at the end of last year—on ethnic minority female unemployment. Let me set out what it uncovered by quoting briefly from the executive summary:

“Discrimination was found to be present at every stage of the recruitment process—when assessing applications, during interviews, at recruitment agencies and also in the workplace itself. Strikingly, it was estimated…that 25% of the ethnic minority unemployment rate for both men and women could be explained by prejudice and racial discrimination. Discrimination based on name and accent was also uncovered both in data received and from personal testimony.

In addition, it was found that discrimination based on both gender and ethnicity is taking place in job interviews.”

I think all hon. Members today would agree that that is incredibly worrying.

I appreciate the fact that today’s motion is about women on boards, but may I ask the Minister to consider extending the draft regulations for listed companies to disclose their gender balance—which are due to be introduced this year—to include the ethnic balance at senior level, on boards and in the work force as a whole? As for further disclosure that could be considered—this could be part of a voluntary code—perhaps we could ask listed companies also to break down the total number of job applicants, interviewees and new employees they take on every year by gender and ethnicity. That would help to highlight which companies and sectors ethnic minority candidates and women are just not applying to in numbers, as well as which are not giving them any interviews.

I share the view that people should be appointed to jobs on merit and experience. That is absolutely right. The whole idea of artificial quotas is not particularly helpful. However, what I am suggesting for the proposed new regulations is about taking companies one step forwards, towards focusing on what they need to do to increase diversity as a whole in the workplace, whether in the gender or ethnic make-up of boards or in the workplace as a whole.

I will end, as many others want to speak. As we have heard, at the end of the day, diverse boards are much more effective, and they absolutely outperform their rivals—there are reports out there by McKinsey and many others. If a company’s work force and senior management are representative of its customers, it is much more likely to make decisions that respond to their needs and, ultimately, benefit the business. That is a virtuous circle that every company should be looking to square.

Secondary Education (GCSEs)

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Tuesday 26th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Twigg]

I will give way shortly, but I want to develop my argument first.

The most important ingredients of success in education are the quality of leadership and the quality of teaching and learning; the Secretary of State is nodding his assent. It is vital that those ingredients are backed by a credible set of qualifications. We support reforming the structure of the examination system to deal with unhealthy competition between exam boards. If that means a single exam board, we will consider those plans in detail, and I understand that the Select Committee is due to make proposals to deal with that precise challenge shortly. Sensible, thought-through and evidence-based measures to increase rigour and tackle grade inflation will have the full support of the Opposition, but let us be clear about the fundamental difference between us and the Education Secretary: the proposal to divide pupils at 14 into winners and losers.

When the Deputy Prime Minister woke up in Rio last Thursday, he said about the Secretary of State’s proposals:

“I am not in favour of anything that would lead to a two-tier system where children at quite a young age are somehow cast on a scrap heap. What you want is an exam system which is fit for the future”

and

“doesn’t turn the clock back to the past…so it works for the many and not just…the few.”

I agree with that sentiment. The question for Liberal Democrat colleagues is whether they have the courage to vote for our motion, which supports the words of their leader.

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

Labour made a real difference to our education system—there is no doubt about that. However, at the same time as grade inflation was on the rise we were dropping in the international league tables on maths, English and science. Should not the hon. Gentleman be apologising for the disservice he has done to our young people, or is he now championing mediocrity once again?

[Stephen Twigg]

Well read, I suppose. I must correct my earlier remark when I referred to Liberal Democrat colleagues because I think there is only one Liberal Democrat Member in the Chamber. [Hon. Members: “Two!”] Sorry, there are two. I was going to comment on the absence of the Liberal Democrat Minister of State, Department for Education, the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), but we have instead the Liberal Democrat Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the hon. Member for Taunton Deane (Mr Browne). I think the percentage would be just under 2%—that is my calculation.

Last week, the Daily Mail, in a leaked story, reported:

“None of the plans require an Act of Parliament.”

This week, according to the Government’s amendment on the Order Paper, the Government are calling for proposals that are approved by Parliament. May I welcome yet another U-turn by the Government to give Parliament a proper say, but may I suggest that as well as changing the process, the Secretary of State should change the substance of these leaked proposals? Today’s debate provides the House with an opportunity to reject a move to bring back a system that was created in the 1950s and abolished in the 1980s.

These proposals were leaked just as pupils were sitting their GCSEs. As nervous and stressed young people were queuing up to sit hugely important exams, the Secretary of State was saying that those exams were worthless. How insulting to young people who have studied and revised so hard. How insulting to parents who have helped their children through the stress of exams and how insulting to our brilliant teachers who have worked so hard to prepare their pupils. Why are these changes being made now and why are they being rushed? Is the Secretary of State concerned that his other policies will result in a fall in school standards? Is it that he needs to mask the reduction in standards by abolishing the main existing measure of secondary school results? Is that why the Government are so determined to do this?

Oral Answers to Questions

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Monday 27th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

Widening access to higher education and learning is at the heart of what I am trying to achieve, but that is not principally about admissions. It is about good advice and guidance; access points to learning; modes of learning; and prior attainment. Let us be clear about how we can widen access and not be hung up on admissions.

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

12. How many 16 to 18-year-olds started an apprenticeship last year.

[The Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning (Mr John Hayes)]

Final data for the 2010-11 academic year show that there were 131,700 apprenticeship starts in England by young people aged under 19—the greatest number in modern history. That is an increase of 12.8% in a year and of 32.6% in two years. The whole House will acknowledge that achievement. We are feeding social mobility and nourishing social justice.

[Alok Sharma]

I thank the Minister for his huge personal commitment to making the Government’s apprenticeships policy a success—my constituency had more than 900 apprenticeship starts last year. What is his Department doing to make eligible businesses aware that up to 40,000 incentive payments of £1,500 each are available to employers if they take on young apprentices as part of the youth contract?

[Mr Hayes]

With the modesty for which my hon. Friend is known, he understated his own involvement in national apprenticeship week, when I understand he shadowed an apprentice working in a pre-school. He is right that we need to get more small and medium-sized enterprises involved, and to that end I am delighted that the Prime Minister announced during national apprenticeship week the extra support that we are providing. Every small business that takes on a young apprentice will get £1,500—something that the previous Government never attempted.

New Schools

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

Absolutely. One of the great things about Suffolk as a local authority is that its leader and its lead member for education recognise that, at a time of change, embracing academies and free schools can complement the already great state schools for which they are responsible. As for visionary leadership in local government, you have to go a long way to beat Suffolk.

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the All Saints junior free school, which opened its doors in my constituency in September? The reason why parents pressed for it is quite simple: there is huge pressure on school places in Reading, parents and students are not able to obtain their choice of feeder school, and the school’s opening will help parents and students throughout Reading.

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his support, and I am delighted that Reading is one of the areas benefiting. It is an area of real population growth.

Careers Service (Young People)

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Andy Burnham]

My hon. Friend asks a good question. In opposition, the Conservative party produced a manifesto for careers that spoke of £200 million being allocated to an all-age careers service. As well as asking this evening where the transition plan has gone, we might pick up the question that my hon. Friend has just asked: where has the money gone? Schools have not been given any extra money to provide a new careers service and to fulfil the statutory responsibility that the Government want to place on them. How can it be right at this time to ask schools to do more and then not give them the money to do the job for young people? It is utterly disgraceful.

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

rose—

[Andy Burnham]

I give way so that the hon. Gentleman can apologise for that.

[Alok Sharma]

I was rather hoping that the right hon. Gentleman would apologise, as his colleague the shadow Chancellor did yesterday, for the mess that the Labour party left this country in. The right hon. Gentleman asked where the money has gone. His Government managed to spend it. As he knows, his colleague, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne), left a note at the Treasury saying, “There is no money left.” There he has his answer. He should talk to his own colleagues, not lecture the rest of us.

[Andy Burnham]

The Conservative party has to change the record. The hon. Gentleman stood for young people’s votes—

[Alok Sharma]

indicated assent.

[Andy Burnham]

He is nodding. He promised them the education maintenance allowance, did he not?

[Alok Sharma]

indicated dissent.

[Andy Burnham]

He saw his Prime Minister make a personal promise to those young people that they would continue to have their EMA. He also stood on a manifesto promising £200 million for an all-age careers service. If he could not deliver those promises, should he not now apologise to the House for seeking the votes of young people in his constituency on a false premise? That speaks for itself.

Our motion is deliberately broad so that we do not get drawn into a debate about the merits of one service versus another. I have said that we are prepared to support the Government in their vision for an all-age careers service. We want to work with the Government to make that service as good as it can be so that it is fit for purpose in these times and for the challenges facing young people. The motion is simple, then, and makes two requests. I might say in passing that it is drawn directly from the report, published in the summer, to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister from the advocate for access to education, the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes), who I am pleased to see in his place. In fact, the motion repeats the words of his recommendation verbatim. I hope, therefore, that he can support us this evening, given that the motion is his own recommendation—but I know now not to come to any such conclusions where he is concerned.

Our motion makes two simple requests to the House. First, as Members of Parliament standing up for young people in our constituencies, we ask the Government Front-Bench team to get a grip on this mess—[Interruption.]—to stop messing around on their BlackBerrys and to stop going off to attend other events around the country. They need to get a grip on this mess, publish the transition plan, show some leadership for once in their lives and get on with the job of standing up for young people. Secondly, we want the House to send a clear message that we have high expectations of what we expect all young people in this country to get and that we want them to have face-to-face advice.

We hear that the Government want to downgrade the quality of careers advice to a phone or web-based service. The national careers service will be a phone or web-based service! It seems that this cost-cutting drive has been partly driven by the raid on the careers budget, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) alluded, which the Government made having been forced to make a partial U-turn over EMA. I want every Member to ask themselves whether they think that a remote and impersonal phone or web service is good enough. Would that be good enough for their own children when they are making life-changing choices and considering their options?

--- Later in debate ---

[Andy Burnham]

The Secretary of State could guarantee it by amending the Education Bill, which is in the House of Lords at the moment—

[Alok Sharma]

What about the cost?

[Andy Burnham]

I will come to that in a moment.

The Secretary of State could guarantee it simply by inserting the words “face-to-face”. Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright), the shadow young people’s Minister, introduced such an amendment to the Bill on Report. I find it extraordinary that Government Members can troop through the Lobby to vote against face-to-face advice for young people. [Hon. Members: “And the cost?”] As I said a moment ago, the cost was put forward by the Conservative party. It costed its own all-age—[Interruption.] I am trying to answer the question. The Conservative party promised and costed a fully funded, all-age careers service which maintained those currently employed in the Connexions service. It promised £200 million.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

I do not know whether you have seen the film “Groundhog Day”, Mr Deputy Speaker, in which history keeps repeating itself, but this Opposition day debate and the one before it feel very similar. We have heard the same old tired arguments from the Opposition, with very little acknowledgment of the mistakes that they made or the mess in which we find ourselves, in terms of both the economy and the careers advice service.

A number of hon. Members have quoted the former Member for Darlington, Alan Milburn, so let me do so as well. Having chaired the panel on fair access, he said:

“In my view, the service requires a quite radical rethink”.

Indeed, the panel concluded:

“We believe that schools and colleges need to be given direct responsibility, working with local authorities, for making their decisions about information, advice and guidance”.

That is exactly what the Government plan to do.

The current hon. Member for Darlington (Mrs Chapman) quoted a survey that said that only one in five young people found Connexions helpful. Further surveys said that under Labour, six in 10 were unhappy with the quality of the careers that they were getting—[Interruption.] There has been an element of good advice, but perhaps not enough, and we must acknowledge that there was no golden age of careers advice under the previous Government. We need to put the debate in that context.

I agree with hon. Members who have made it clear that careers advice is vital, and that young people need to get it as early as possible in their school careers. It is important that we foster aspiration, which hon. Members have talked about; that we expand the boundaries of what students believe is possible for them in their careers; and that we get young people to aim high.

The hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), who is not in the Chamber, spoke about that, and I agreed with her, but the question is this: how do we deliver that careers advice? We have heard that the Education Bill will introduce a legal duty for the provision of impartial careers guidance in years 9 to 11, which is absolutely right. I am pleased that the Minister spoke about the fact that the Government are consulting on whether they should extend that duty downwards to year 8, which would be great. I would like to see it go down further, because we cannot start careers advice early enough.

I agree that that responsibility should go to schools. At the end of the day, they know their pupils best and know what is required. They will be able to commission advice and services from the new national careers service when that is up and running, and of course from other external sources.

It has been implied—I do not whether it was deliberate or not—that providing online advice does not make sense for young people. Some of us have young children ourselves, and some of us know young people, and we know that it is second nature for them to use the internet to do research. Professor Alison Wolf, who led the Government review of vocational education, has said very clearly that there is a role for the Government in providing online, updated information on what is available. It is entirely consistent that online provision is one of the things that will be happening.

[Lilian Greenwood]

I agree that young people often want to access information through new technology, but does the hon. Gentleman consider it an adequate replacement for guidance and the opportunity to discuss options face to face?

[Alok Sharma]

Clearly, we need to have both. [Interruption.] Hang on, let me finish! Schools will be able to access this information.

I want to talk about what is happening on my patch in Reading. It is vital that not just schools, but businesses have a key role in providing careers advice, because, at the end of the day, they have an interest in interacting with their future employees. It is vital that we do not forget that element. As the Minister knows, because he is opening it at the end of the month, we have organised an interactive careers fair—we have called it a “futures fair”—open to all secondary schools in my constituency. We have organised it with the educational charity, Central Berkshire Education Business Partnership, which I guess is the sort of external service provider that we are talking about. I have long thought it important—I am sure that other Members have too—that we connect schools and business and that careers advice is not provided in isolation by schools and teachers.

When I began the initiative, I wondered how we would fund it, but actually businesses bent over backwards to provide funding. We are holding it at the conference centre at the Madejski football stadium in Reading—it is going to be a very big event—and schools will not have to pay a penny because it will be fully funded by business. More than 60 organisations, including businesses, multinationals and local companies, are taking part. An hon. Member said that we needed alumni and former students in positions of responsibility in companies to come and talk to pupils in schools, which is exactly what we will have—every sector will be covered, from engineering to IT and apprenticeships providers—along with seminars on practical skills, including on how to write a CV, perform in mock interviews, secure an apprenticeship, manage money and budget. There will also be advice on pursuing a science career. Hon. Members have rightly said that we need to encourage STEM subjects.

The careers fair is also about ensuring that before the students arrive, they know exactly what to expect and that afterwards there will be follow-up sessions with teachers. Hon. Members talked about the need to involve families and parents. There will be an opportunity, after the school day, for parents to come back with their kids and talk to businesses. There are families in my constituencies—perhaps in all constituencies—who have never had a scientist, lawyer, accountant or whatever in their family, and this is an opportunity for parents to talk with businesses together with their kids. That is vital.

In the previous debate, the shadow Business Secretary, the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr Denham), talked about the need for long-term apprenticeships. We have companies coming to the fair offering three-year apprenticeships, and there is even a seminar for teachers to learn about the local labour market and the types of skills that employers are looking for. I am talking about this because we need to stop thinking one-dimensionally and assuming that the Government must provide everything. There is a clear role for businesses. They bend over backwards to help schools and local communities because they know that at the end of the day they will see the benefits. We need to find a way of getting the business community more engaged. Bridging the skills and expectations gap between young people and potential employers is vital.

In conclusion, I think that the Government are on absolutely the right track with careers advice, and I ask the Opposition to think carefully about what the Government are doing and the constraints placed on them as a result of the position in which we were left by the previous Government. Unfortunately, I cannot support the Opposition motion tonight.