Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) Bill

Debate between Andrew Gwynne and Luciana Berger

Friday 1st November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

The simple answer is yes, and when we get to that part of my contribution I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will be won over to my argument. Actually, it is already happening in many local and central Government Departments, but there is a lot more we could do, which is why I hope he will support my Bill today.

Apprenticeships provide us with inspirational ways of realising our ambitions and enabling us to break the current cycle. One good example is the 50/50 scheme set up by my own Labour-controlled Tameside council, which awards up to 50 apprenticeship grants of £1,000 to employers who take on a 16, 17 or 18-year-old Tameside resident. Over the past few years Tameside council, working closely with the Connexions service, has gradually reduced the number of young people in my constituency who are not engaged in employment, education or training. Some of those young people want to learn while they are in work, and the initiative is intended to ensure that they have the opportunity to do so. Schemes such as 50/50 recognise the particular problems faced by young people in the current economic climate, and support them. They are training a new generation for economic recovery in places such as Denton and Reddish.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am sure that my hon. Friend also welcomes the Liverpool Futures programme, which is run by a partnership of our chamber of commerce, Liverpool city council and the Eldonian Group, and is helping up to 3,500 young people to become apprentices.

[Andrew Gwynne]

I do indeed. There is much good practice throughout the country that we should be championing. I believe that my Bill will encourage other public bodies to do what my hon. Friend’s council, my council and, probably, the councils of Members in all parts of the House seek to achieve. Notwithstanding all that good work, however, it is a sad state of affairs when fewer than one in 10 employers offer apprenticeships. Far too many young people are being told that they have an apprenticeship after a course lasting 12 weeks or less, and one in five apprentices receive no actual training of any kind. I believe that, between them, Government procurement and my Bill could enable us to change that position.

I am proud of my party’s record in this regard. Under the last Labour Government, the number of apprenticeships more than quadrupled. We launched the official Office of Government Commerce guidance to encourage the growth of apprenticeships, whose principles are also evident in the Bill. I have been informed by both the Public Bill Office and the House of Commons Library that it is still the most relevant guidance for apprentices. The last Labour Government proceeded with major projects such as the kick-start housing scheme and Building Schools for the Future, and their work with the contractors on the Olympic park resulted in the creation of thousands of new apprenticeship opportunities as part of public procurement. That is a legacy of which I think we can be rightly proud.

It was the last Labour Government who ensured that skills and apprenticeships would be an integral part of the Crossrail project that we launched and that, I am pleased to say, the current Government have retained. It was our party that established the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy, and constructed the framework for a procurement strategy based on taking apprentices from the local London boroughs. That was crucial to ensuring that young people in some of the most deprived communities in our country have the skills training that will be necessary for the next generation of engineers.

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[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, because while there was some good practice in the national health service, this is one area where we have witnessed in recent months the rolling back of skills training. I do not know whether that is because the new NHS bodies have been so fixated on reorganisation that they rather neglected skills training, or whether it is purely because some of the new bodies do not realise that they have the power when commissioning services—as clinical commissioning groups have, as providers of public services—to ask some of the people bidding for those contracts to provide apprenticeships. My Bill would make it quite clear that public bodies—my definition would encompass clinical commissioning groups—would be able, as part of their contracting process, to ask companies that bid for those contracts to provide adequate skills training.

[Luciana Berger]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on introducing today’s private Member’s Bill. It is absolutely fantastic and I am delighted to be supporting it today. Does my hon. Friend accept that in some large infrastructure projects in some areas, there can often be some local ill feeling that a lot of the people coming to work on the projects come from far away? I think of a project locally, on Merseyside, not naming any names, where there is a lot of ill feeling that people are travelling long distances—from as far away as Bristol—to work on it. Does he agree that a scheme such as he is proposing today, to encourage local apprenticeships, would really help to develop local skills, so that for future projects, it will not be necessary to ship people in from far and beyond?

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is one reason why my Bill makes it clear that those opportunities for apprenticeships and training should be advertised locally, so that local young people in constituencies such as Liverpool, Wavertree will have access to those skills training positions that are being made available in the city of Liverpool. At any one time, umpteen posts will be being made available in Liverpool, but if we do not tell young people in Liverpool—as in my constituency, there is structural, long-term unemployment and long-term youth unemployment there—we shall never break that cycle. This very simple measure will therefore make a big difference in a city such as Liverpool, along with the other areas of the country that we have already mentioned.

It is worth placing on the record that the cross-party Business, Innovation and Skills Committee report on apprenticeships recommended a similar approach in respect of public procurement. The House of Commons Committee argued that the Government should aim for the benchmark used by many leading businesses in the construction sector, including Kier, Willmott Dixon and Laing, whereby for every £1 million spent by Government Departments and their agencies on public procurement, at least one new apprenticeship place should be created. Some estimates suggest that that could create tens of thousands of apprenticeships, although my Bill is much less ambitious and makes no commitment on the numbers of apprenticeships within public procurement projects.

I am very pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) is not only here today to support my Bill but is one of its sponsors. I pay tribute to the ten-minute rule Bill that she introduced a few years ago, which has led to important Front-Bench policy developments in the Labour party and, I believe, helped to build the head of steam for our campaign today. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend.

My private Member’s Bill has attracted supporters, including the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, the Association of Colleges, the National Union of Students and—although I do not want to put off the hon. Members for Bury North and for Shipley—Unite and the GMB. However, we still do not know whether today those on the Government Front Bench will back this very sensible and very modest measure to help boost apprenticeships.

Almost 1 million young people are unemployed and we must act now to prevent another lost generation. A public procurement policy as outlined in my private Member’s Bill could create even more and better apprenticeships, and we would start to transform the numbers and the life chances of countless young people. So my plea to all today is to support this simple measure. It makes economic sense and it is common sense, but it is also the right thing to do and, in these financially constrained times it would be cost-neutral to the public purse. Therefore I urge all Members and the Government to support my Bill in the vote today.

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[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am delighted to take part in proceedings on this important Bill, which I support. I reiterate my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) on introducing this excellent Bill, which I believe is crucial.

I am disappointed by what the hon. Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) said over the course of 55 minutes. I cannot understand how he believes his constituents are best served by him speaking for just under an hour in Parliament in London on a Friday against a Bill that would help them, particularly the young people, into employment. I cannot wait to go and campaign for the Labour candidate in Bury North, who I know will stand up for young people who are desperate to get into employment. In the north-west of England, where we have seen an increase in unemployment, it is incumbent on all hon. Members to do everything we can, going down every single avenue, to promote employment and skills.

[Andrew Gwynne]

I will join my hon. Friend on the streets of Bury North to campaign for the Labour candidate. Does she agree that the people of Bury North will find it very hard to understand why the hon. Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) does not want job opportunities to be promoted in the local jobcentre in his constituency?

[Luciana Berger]

I listened closely to the remarks of the hon. Member for Bury North. I know how many of my constituents rely on the jobcentre for finding out about opportunities. They might not be able to afford to pay for our local paper. We do not have a free sheet—our previous free sheet is now inserted in the paid-for paper. For those reasons, the hon. Gentleman’s objection is incomprehensible.

[Andrew Gwynne]

Did not our hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) make the pertinent point that, in many of our constituencies, the free papers are no longer delivered to many of the communities to which we want to reach out with those adverts?

[Luciana Berger]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. We need to do everything we can to promote and let people know about opportunities. Our local newspapers are under a lot of pressure, including the Liverpool Echo. We used to have the Merseymart free sheet, but it is no longer available. It used to be delivered, but now it is not. People have to buy the Liverpool Echo to get the Merseymart free sheet, which is inserted in it. For all those reasons, it is important that we increasingly look to our jobcentres. The Government are asking people to use the internet more, and the jobcentre website, on which people can access opportunities virtually, is an important resource.

[Luciana Berger]

I listened carefully to the hon. Gentleman, but we are conflating various points. Businesses are free to advertise their jobs wherever they wish, but the jobcentre is a crucial resource. Jobcentre Plus requires jobseekers to apply for a number of jobs within a time period. For many people, that is the first resource they use. It is a free resource for business, and I am surprised that the hon. Member for Bury North does not want his businesses to advertise on it.

The Bill seeks to

“Require certain public procurement contracts let by public authorities to include a commitment by the contractor to provide apprenticeships and skills training; and for connected purposes.”

I support the Bill because I have met many people with experience of tendering for public procurement contracts, during which process they must specify and comply with many things. Different local authorities and public bodies, such as the NHS or education authorities, use different frameworks, but they are all very comprehensive, and because tendering companies must comply with and cover so many different things, if the contracts say nothing about apprenticeships, they often do not get included.

The Bill would not mandate apprenticeships, but would be an important tool with which to ensure an increased focus on this area. We need to do everything we can to help people into employment, particularly young people. If people do not get into employment when they leave school, college or university, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to do so over the rest of their working lives. I have met many companies that are concerned about this, but which do not understand the rules—we have discussed Europe already. The Bill would make it a lot clearer and much easier for businesses and public authorities to focus on apprenticeships.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend has hit the nail on the head. Above all, the Bill would give clarity to those contractors about what public bodies can and cannot ask of them.

[Luciana Berger]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that helpful clarification at a time when others have sought to confuse that point.

I do not want to take up too much of the House’s time, but I wish to support what Liverpool city council has done on apprenticeships. It has made every effort to work with partners to create apprenticeships in our city. I repeat that unemployment is rising in the north- west. Under enormous pressure from the massive cuts imposed by central Government, the Labour council in Liverpool is trying to be positive and forward-looking and to create employment opportunities. It has created 926 apprenticeships—no mean feat—by working with its service partners, including Glendale, a ground maintenance company, and BT, with which it has provided ICT apprenticeship opportunities.

The council has created hundreds of apprenticeships through the council’s investment plan for schools. The Government’s decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme had a massive impact in Liverpool, where 26 schools were in the pipeline for refurbishment or rebuild. It was an absolute disgrace that the scheme was scrapped, but the council has done everything it can to go ahead with as many schools as it can afford. Knowing that investment in those schools and education buildings is vital, we have put in place our own investment plan for schools, in spite of the Government, not with their help, and now the construction firms building 12 new schools in Liverpool have committed to creating apprenticeship positions as part of their contracts. The council has done that of its own accord.

[Luciana Berger]

If the hon. Gentleman had listened to the earlier contributions from Opposition Members, he would have heard that we were sharing best practice. Many bodies, whether local authorities or other public bodies—education trusts and the NHS spring to mind—are not aware of the opportunities and do not have that focus or direction, and therefore they do not do it. That has an impact on companies and organisations, including those in the voluntary sector, which do not include the requirement in their proposals, and everyone loses out as a result. As I have said, I have given examples of good practice, but they are not sufficient on their own. We need even more apprenticeships. It is not enough merely to celebrate what Liverpool city council has done; we need to see it being done across the board.

[Andrew Gwynne]

Is that not why it is so important to make it absolutely clear in statute that public bodies may require extra higher and advanced-level apprentices as part of a contract?

[Luciana Berger]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, who has made his point very eloquently.