Remploy

Jim Dobbin Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2011 Westminster Hall

[Jim Dobbin (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab/Co-op)]

I will begin by agreeing with my right hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Paul Goggins): we are not against change or improvement, but we are against destruction, which is the big danger in this case.

On 1 December, I visited the Remploy e-cycle factory based at the Heywood distribution park, to which it moved from Radcliffe in Bury a couple of years ago. I was invited to celebrate the international day of disabled people and disabled workers and to present certificates to some long-serving employees. I was presented with a baton by the staff, which states:

“Help relay the message. Thousands of disabled people across the country are aiming high, achieving more and fulfilling their ambitions!”

That is the logo on the baton, which I intend to present to my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg) who is present in the Chamber today.

That was my second visit to the factory and it was intended to mark the achievements of disabled people in my constituency. The aim was to raise awareness about disability and to promote the fundamental rights of disabled people, so that they can be fully integrated into mainstream workplaces. That must happen, however, only when they feel ready for such as move and through their own choice.

There are 386 Remploy employees working in different factories in the north-west, and they do a fantastic job. The Heywood factory in my constituency repairs, cleans and recycles computers and laptops. E-cycle works closely with some Departments—I think that the Department for Work and Pensions is its largest customer, but there are others—and also with Manchester city council and Bury council, as well as a number of major private sector companies to which it provides electronic waste solutions and IT recycling. May I suggest to the Minister that more Departments provide work for and become customers of Remploy? Such a move would both support the system and be cost-effective.

When my right hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr Hain) was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2007, he initiated the modernisation programme, which we are not against, as I have said, and he provided £555 million to sustain it. When the present Government came to power, they invited the chief executive of Radar, Liz Sayce, to assess the situation. I have great respect for Radar and have worked with it on many issues. In this instance, however, I am concerned about the proposals to make the system more independent from the Government. That is similar to what is happening in the public sector across the board and seems to illustrate what the Government are planning in public sector service provision. The trade unions are unhappy with the Sayce report. They see it as a break-up of Remploy that could mean wholesale devastation in the system.

The Disability Alliance supports the Sayce report, which it sees as a way to introduce and integrate skilled disabled people into the workplace and the community, and I accept that. My experience of visiting a local factory, however, demonstrated to me that the present system offers a comfort zone to some vulnerable individuals and groups and that those people work confidently and feel comfortable in such a system. My local factory provides a highly-skilled service and runs a complex system. E-cycling is difficult. Cleaning laptops and refurbishing computers for industry, not only for the UK but for export, is a complex matter.

In my view, the changes envisaged by Sayce are premature and wrong, and they are happening when, as hon. Members have said, unemployment is increasing. Unemployment among disabled people is also rising, and now is the time for consolidation and support for the existing system, albeit an improved existing system.

The Remploy system need strengthening, and as I have already said, it would be good if more Departments, public sector organisations and local authorities put work the way of Remploy. It is important to retain the dignity of every Remploy employee, and to continue supporting them in the workplace. Unemployment is at its highest level for many years, and Remploy factories are threatened with closure at this sensitive time.

I have a personal interest in disability as I have two grandsons who are wheelchair bound. I want a system that will be there to support them when they reach working age and help them through life—that is not asking an awful lot.

I will conclude by stressing that the high level of support among Members who have Remploy factories in their constituencies and want to see Remploy remain sustainable has been illustrated by some of the strongly worded early-day motions that have been placed in the Table Office over the past few months. I think that Remploy management and the trade unions should be better consulted on the entire issue, because we are about to lose a very worthwhile service.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Dobbin]

It just so happens that, before I came to this debate, I attended a reception held by the Council for Disabled Children in the Jubilee Room next door. A young man spoke to me about the situation, and I told him about this debate. He told me that he had just lost his job. I asked him why, to which he replied, “Because I am disabled.” I asked him how he was disabled, and he said that he was deaf. He has tried and tried to get re-employed, but he has failed.

[Maria Miller]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. The answer is that there is a great deal of legislation that would support that young man. I hope that the hon. Gentleman’s advice to him was to seek legal redress, although the particular instances of the circumstances would need to be taken into consideration. Our responsibility is to plan for the future and for young men like that who want to be able to work in the same jobs as their peer group in a class, and to make sure that they have the ability to do that, not only through legislation, but through the attitudes of their employers.

Procurement has been mentioned a number of times. Indeed, the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley raised the issue right at the beginning of the debate. It has been suggested that an increase in procurement sales, particularly from local authorities, would resolve Remploy’s current problems. In its briefing for this debate, the GMB initially chose to criticise the support provided by local authorities for Remploy, but, for the record, I want to thank local authorities for their support for Remploy. The hon. Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas) has talked about his local authority’s work in that regard. Moreover, the local authorities in Blaenau Gwent, Swansea, Merthyr Tydfil and Newcastle already support Remploy. Indeed, my own county council in Hampshire also supports Remploy and is very proud to do so. It is important that we do not underestimate the existing support. We are most grateful and thankful for it.