Bombardier

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and commend my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) for his hard work and his endeavours on behalf of the workers. I have a Bombardier factory in my constituency, as well as a number of companies that feed into the supply chain. It is clear not only that those at Bombardier will be affected, but that those in the supply chain will be as well. At the same time, Bombardier’s aerospace business was worth $2.4 billion in the US last year—800 companies and, as the Minister said himself, 23,000 workers. Is it not the case that Boeing needs to be careful about the hand that feeds it?

[Greg Clark]

I appreciate what the hon. Gentleman has to say, and he is right to point out that, as well as the hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson), who has worked so indefatigably on this, constituency representatives across Northern Ireland—indeed, across the whole of the United Kingdom—are also affected. I agree with his injunction that we should continue to pursue this to a satisfactory resolution. He has my commitment that we will do that.

Perhaps I can end by reiterating a tribute to the workforce, not just at Bombardier but in the supply chain, who have continued to work completely uninterrupted at the high level and on a calibre of product for which they have an international renown. We want that international renown extended and able to prosper in the future, and I am absolutely determined that we will do that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 12th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Joseph Johnson]

At the ESA ministerial council in December, the UK committed a record sum of €1.4 billion to ESA. We are committed to continuing to participate in ESA, which, as the hon. Gentleman knows, is not part of the EU but a separate organisation entirely. We see great value in continuing to participate in the programmes it administers.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The Minister is right to address the space sector. He will also be aware of issues within the aerospace sector, in particular at Bombardier. He will be aware of Boeing’s attempts to stop the contract and to add $30 million to every C Series plane coming out of Belfast. What is he doing to ensure that Bombardier’s contract is secured?

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman got the word “space” in, but there is a distinction between aerospace and space. Some people might think that he was cheekily shoehorning his own preoccupation into a question to which it was not obviously entirely relevant.

Bereavement Leave: Loss of a Child

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 12th September 2017 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Paul Masterton) on securing the debate and on passionately setting the scene for us all.

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Colchester (Will Quince). I was present for his Adjournment debate on this subject in the last Parliament. I remember the debate well and the contributions made by other hon. Members. I remember the understandable personal pain that each of them felt and how we were much moved by their speeches.

I cannot begin to speak about this sensitive issue without first offering my most sincere and heartfelt sympathies to all families who have lost a child. It is sad to lose a parent—I was devastated when I lost my father—but it is the natural cycle of life. To lose a child goes against the natural order of things, as all four of the speakers in the debate have said. I cannot even begin to imagine the depth of pain that it would cause; it is unspeakable and unimaginable.

Even though none of us truly want to think about this, as it comes too close to home, we must do what we can to ensure that the response from employers is adequate. That is our role here. I was quite shocked, and indeed angered, when the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire mentioned a large employer of 20,000 people that dictatorially instructed its worker to get back to work. I cannot begin to believe such lack of feeling. I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that case.

Every week, 10 children and young people die from cancer in the UK. That figure simply shocks and saddens. We all know many charities that we work for and help. CLIC Sargent has care teams that provide bereavement support through more than 300 home visits, and it gave palliative care to around 250 children and young people just last year. That charity is just one example; there are many others.

I have been asked to raise a number of points, which I hope to do now. It is always a pleasure to see the Minister in her place. We know that she understands very clearly how we all feel, which will be reflected in her compassionate response to the debate.

Children’s hospices and palliative care charities provide lifeline support for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, and of course for their families as well. However, children’s palliative care is woefully underfunded and under-resourced. For example, on average, adult hospices in England receive 33% of their funding from statutory sources, whereas the figure for children’s hospices is 22%. I know that there are many claims upon the Government, but here is a really crucial issue that we need to address. Unless that funding gap is addressed, we as a country are seen to be placing greater value on the life of an adult than that of a child. That can never be the case, and I know it would not be.

In England, local authorities’ contribution to the cost of providing children’s palliative care in the voluntary sector fell significantly, by 61% between 2014-15 and 2015-16, when the cost of providing complex care increased. There was a drop in the funding and a rise in the need. It is simply unsustainable for local authorities to contribute just 1% to the costs incurred by children’s palliative care charities.

[Emma Little Pengelly (Belfast South) (DUP)]

I am sure my hon. Friend agrees that very often it is the parents of these children, who have suffered the most loss, who do incredible work in raising funds for the likes of children’s hospices right across the United Kingdom. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to them. The death of a child is always tragic and sometimes unexpected. I know that we all, through our constituency offices, see many parents who have children with life-limiting conditions. The parents are their strongest advocates and fight so hard for them. When that child goes, there is a huge gap in their lives, and they do sterling work for the likes of the hospices.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank my hon. Friend for her words. Those who fight hardest are those who have walked the road, taken the journey and personally experienced the heartache and pain.

Together for Short Lives, another wonderful charity, is calling on the Government to follow the example of the Scottish Government. I pay tribute to the Scottish Government and to my colleagues here from the Scottish National party, who are part of that, perhaps not directly in Scotland but through the party, for their contribution. That Government have allocated £30 million over five years for children’s hospices so that there is parity with funding for adult hospices. They recognised the need and did that. I see good done in many places across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There is good done by different regions, and that is an example of good done by the Scottish Parliament. Children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions in England, Northern Ireland and Wales deserve the same recognition, opportunity and support as those in Scotland.

May I highlight quickly the importance of faith and the need for the Church? Many of us in this Chamber have personal experience of that. It is important that there is recognition of the importance of the Church and the role that it can play when tragedy hits.

I will conclude because I am conscious of the time. It is hard to know what to legislate for, because there cannot be enough paid leave to heal the wound that is left by the loss of a child, but there should be enough paid time to ensure that someone is back to being able to function like a human being. There cannot be enough of a grant to provide a decent send-off, but a grant should be available to those who have cared for their child and are financially strained because of the requirements of that care. Often the burden of the care is not just financial, but emotional and physical. There cannot be enough free hours in hospital car parks to ease the burden, but help in that respect can ease the load. Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do to help these families emotionally, I believe, unless we have expertise in this regard, which is why I am looking to Churches and to those of the cloth to provide support.

What we can do is support families practically through end-of-life care and then bereavement support. That is why I am standing with the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire, who made the proposal today, and with all the other hon. Members who have made and will make contributions, including the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Wirral West (Margaret Greenwood), and the Minister, and asking that every person here and every group represented here does the right thing and supports that proposal.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Margot James)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this tragic issue, and I thank the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Paul Masterton) for securing this important debate and for his thoughtful remarks. I also thank the all-party parliamentary groups mentioned in this debate for their positive work.

I reassure all hon. Members that the Government remain committed to supporting the private Member’s Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) on parental bereavement leave and pay, which comes on the heels of a similar Bill brought last year by my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince), to whom I shall return in my remarks. I met the two of them today to flesh out some of the details of the issue.

Unquestionably, the death of a child is traumatic and deeply upsetting for any parent. I agree wholeheartedly with the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) that the loss of a child or baby is the worst form of bereavement that a human can suffer, a point reinforced by other Members in their contributions. It consigns most sufferers to a lifetime of grief, which, at best, if they are fortunate, they learn to live with over time. That was powerfully put by the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) in a speech of great impact. I extend my heartfelt condolences to her and to all Members, and all observers of this debate, who have been personally affected by this terrible, life-changing event.

The Government expect employers to be sympathetic and flexible when employees request leave in such circumstances, but acknowledge that that is not always the case. I have been upset to hear from several hon. Members about the survey, and about individual instances of inhumane behaviour that I do not think that any amount of human resources training could begin to address. We recognise that without a statutory entitlement to time off following the death of a child, the situation will not rectify itself.

Our manifesto committed to ensuring that bereaved parents can take time away from work to grieve for a lost child. As I have mentioned, the Government remain fully committed to that. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester for the huge amount of work that he did during the last Parliament, which led directly to the making of that commitment in the Conservative party manifesto. I know that a similar commitment was made in the Labour party manifesto.

The particulars of the Bill are being carefully considered, so it would be premature to go into too much detail about the proposals, but I will of course bear in mind the detailed questions and suggestions from the shadow Minister and discuss them with my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton and with Treasury officials. Officials in my Department met interested stakeholders over the summer and had some fruitful discussions, which have helped to shape our thinking. I was heartened to hear that there is wide support for the Bill among employer and employee groups, charitable organisations and parents alike.

Many hon. Members have mentioned the importance of bereavement services. The quality of care that bereaved families receive can have long-lasting effects. The Government have invested £35 million to improve birthing environments from that perspective. The improvements include better bereavement rooms and quiet area spaces at 40 hospitals. There is, of course, more to do, as the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands) amply demonstrated in his contribution.

[Jim Shannon]

Will the Minister give way?

[Margot James]

I am mindful of time. If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I only have five minutes left and a number of questions to answer.

The Government are supporting Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, to work with other baby loss charities and royal colleges to produce a national bereavement care pathway to reduce variation in the quality of bereavement care provided by the NHS. I noted the intervention by the right hon. Member for Enfield North (Joan Ryan) about the evolving needs of bereaved parents, some of whom will need to access bereavement services long-term. That point was reinforced by the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran. Sands is also working on a project for NHS England on the role of bereavement midwives.

The Department of Health has published “Health Building Note 09-02: Maternity care facilities”, a guideline on the design and planning of maternity care facilities in new healthcare buildings and the adaptation and extension of existing facilities. In line with the guidance, we expect new build or redesigned maternity units to include facilities for parents and families who suffer bereavement at any stage of pregnancy or in the immediate aftermath. The standard of neonatal care across Scotland, as my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire has rightly pointed out, is a matter for the Scottish Government, but I share his concerns and encourage him to take it up with Scottish Ministers.

I listened with interest to the hon. Member for Glasgow East (David Linden) on the work of children’s hospices and palliative care services in Scotland, which should be brought to the attention of Health Ministers in the UK and, if possible, of those working on the national bereavement guidelines.

The self-employed were mentioned. Those who are self-employed and bereaved face different challenges from people who are employed, but no less demanding ones. As Matthew Taylor argued in his review of employment and protections, the tax that people pay and the entitlements that they receive are linked, so it is right that we consider the wider arrangements for the self-employed in a holistic way that includes tax benefits and rights. The Government will come back to the Taylor review, including those matters, with a full response before the end of the year.

Since 2010, we have taken steps to equalise the state benefits provided to the employed and self-employed, including giving the self-employed access to the full rate of the new state pension for the first time, so there is a precedent. We agree with the principle of equalising benefits for the self-employed, but that should happen alongside reforms to taxation, which will need to be considered carefully over the longer term. The self-employed will need to be consulted as part of those deliberations.

I draw hon. Members’ attention to the ACAS guidance document for employers, “Managing bereavement in the workplace—a good practice guide”, which was developed with the charity Cruse Bereavement Care for people who have lost a loved one. I hope that the valuable work done by so many hon. Members to raise awareness of this terrible issue will have an impact on employers, as well as on the health services and wider society.

Hon. Members raised the important point that some employers struggle to know the best way to support staff in these circumstances. We support the Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton, which will put matters on a statutory footing, but there is a lot more that employers can do. It was disturbing to hear of the survey showing that only a third of people who suffered this terrible experience felt adequately supported by their employers.

The ACAS guidance highlights the important role that employers can play and their duty of care to employees, and includes specific advice about parents who lose a child. Most importantly, it helps employers understand how grief might affect their employees. It provides practical steps that employers can take when they are notified by their member of staff, in the immediate aftermath, and when the employee returns to work. The guidance has been well received by employers, and we will consider how we can continue to work with ACAS to promote it further and embed a cultural change in companies up and down the country, given the importance of the issue.

I thank all hon. Members for their contributions to the debate. It has come at a valuable time in our thinking.

Tesco House, Cardiff: Job Losses

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Anna McMorrin]

I think it is absolutely the case that the company is prioritising management over the hard-working workforce, who are highly skilled and motivated.

I suspect that nearly every Member of this House has a Tesco store in their constituency. It is one of the UK’s biggest and most recognisable brands, with a loyal customer base.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Lady for bringing this debate to the House. Does she agree that there is something obscene about the loss of 1,100 jobs at the customer contact centre at Tesco House in Cardiff? On behalf of Tesco employees in my constituency, I register my support for her campaign. Does she agree that we should ask the chief executive officer of Tesco to reconsider his decision immediately?

[Anna McMorrin]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his support.

In his desire to achieve more savings, Mr Lewis needs to understand that he has an absolute responsibility to treat his employees fairly and with respect. He owes them a duty of care and he should listen to what his staff are saying.

In the days following the announcement, I went to the customer centre to meet the staff affected, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff Central (Jo Stevens) and my local Assembly Member, Julie Morgan. The staff are utterly devastated and feel let down by a company to which some have dedicated their working lives. One staff member told me:

“We had felt like we were part of one big family and took pride in coming to work. This feels like being dumped like an old pair of shoes after being promised a secure future. Now we are feeling exploited and used.”

Some of the worst-affected households are those with multiple members losing their jobs. Some families will lose two, three or even four wages from their budgets. One couple in their late 20s who had their first child less than a year ago are both set to lose their jobs.

Whirlpool: Product Safety System

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 26th April 2017 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Ryan. I commend the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) for bringing forward this issue, on which he has been a champion in debates in the House, including in a shorter Adjournment debate, when he fully put forward the issue and was supported by many of us here today and those from further afield. I thank him for bringing it forward today and am fully supportive of his purpose. He gave much detail on what has happened, and I will try to give my speech without repeating it.

I have had constituents in my office who are anxious and concerned about being told, “Just stay in the house,” when the machine is in use. Let me set the scene with an example of one constituent. My constituent and her husband work full-time jobs and also work some additional shifts to pay the mortgage. She leaves the house with her two-year-old and her one-year-old baby at 8.30 am. She returns at 6.30 pm, gives the children their dinner and bath and has them in bed for 8 pm, at which stage her 18-year-old babysitter takes over, to allow her to go to her evening meetings. She does not have the time to sit for the washing and drying cycle to complete, and cannot leave an 18-year-old in charge of a fire hazard with sleeping babies upstairs—that is unrealistic.

Her option is to sit and watch the washer-dryer cycle throughout the night. That is certainly ridiculous, but it is the reality of what the firm wants people to do, as the hon. Gentleman set out in his introduction. Is it a joke? No, it is not, and that is why in Westminster Hall today, with the Minister in her place—she has a very wide-ranging portfolio, given what she was here responding to yesterday and what she is doing today—we believe that legislation needs to be put in place that makes firms accountable and protects consumers, which it quite clearly does not at this moment in time.

I read the very succinct briefing provided by Which?—I am sure we have all had sight of that. Where a product could cause a risk to life or serious injury, Which? expects it to be promptly recalled by the manufacturers. What could be clearer or simpler than that? Yet we have firms who clearly disregard that and have a blasé attitude in how they respond. I ask again: how can we make those firms act with the urgency that we really need? All right-thinking people expect that, but we must make what is expected from manufacturers crystal clear.

As we know, Whirlpool acquired the Indesit Company, including its brands Hotpoint, Indesit, Swan, Proline and Creda, in 2014. In August 2015, Whirlpool informed Peterborough trading standards, as its primary authority partner, that up to 5.3 million dryers in the UK were affected by a fault discovered in more than 120 models. The magnitude of that number! The 5.3 million dryers in more than 120 models is nearly everything it has. Why has it not been coerced, persuaded or made to act more quickly? Those driers were also at risk of catching fire and required urgent modification to address the problem.

In August 2015, the company admitted what had to be done and notified trading standards, but the number of driers and models is very large. By 2016, about 750 fires had been reportedly linked to Hotpoint, Indesit, Proline, Swan and Creda tumble driers. Of course, since then there have been even more. A fire in a tower block in Shepherd’s Bush—I am sure the hon. Member for Hammersmith or other hon. Members will talk about it—left 50 people unable to return to their homes. The London Fire Brigade found that it had been caused by an Indesit tumble drier. We could see the horror that it caused on TV: it did not affect just one person, but all the other residents of the tower block. There are other examples—the fire brigade gave us one. Does Indesit not realise the danger? We do as elected representatives, and the people who own the driers and those whose homes have been damaged certainly do as well.

Which? found that those affected have been forced to wait far too long for a repair or replacement, and that customer service staff have given incorrect and potentially dangerous advice.

[Mrs Moon]

Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that some of the machines have been sold on? When houses go up for sale, electrical goods go with them, and perhaps the second owners do not appreciate that the machine they inherit with their new home is dangerous, so they will not be looking to see whether it should be repaired.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the hon. Lady for that very wise intervention. I had not given much thought to that. Sometimes the machines are sold on, but where is the follow-on? How does the company find out about those people? The people who have got them know about the problem from the adverts on TV, the stories in the papers and so on, but in many cases they do not know that they have something dangerous sitting in their home. The hon. Lady is right. We are trying to be positive in our questions to the Minister, but perhaps she will give some thought to that issue.

The hon. Member for Hammersmith spoke about home fires, and the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) spoke about some personal examples. There is a record of damage, and the company admits that there is a problem, so surely it should be held to account and should award compensation to people who have had massive fires in their flats and properties. Let us be honest: it is only for the grace of God that people have not been injured or died as a result of this issue.

Whirlpool has not acted in the best interests of consumers. It resisted a recall of the affected models and failed to repair and replace affected machines in a timely way. The affected consumers were told not to use their tumble driers. When someone is told not to use their tumble drier, they expect the company to come and repair it or replace it with something that works correctly.

[Ms Ritchie]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that regulation is an issue? A series of recent product safety issues have brought into sharp focus the need for proper regulation and enforcement. Does he agree that the Government should focus their attention on that issue, too?

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the hon. Lady for those comments.

Clearly, the issue for us all is safety. As I said, it is only by the grace of God that nobody has been injured or killed. It is unrealistic to expect consumers not to use their tumble dryer for months on end, so it is possible that further fire and safety incidents will occur as a result of continued usage. Whirlpool should issue a full recall of all affected models immediately. If there are 5.3 million dryers, we will get them all back. If there are 120 models, we will work on that and get it done.

Which? reported that one in five—22%—of the affected customers surveyed in April 2016 were still waiting for their machine to be repaired or replaced. Does the company have no sense of urgency or safety? Are these issues lost on it? The Minister must be able to feel our frustration and anger. Other Members who speak after me will reiterate that. We need to be on the ball to ensure action is taken.

A third of customers who had their dryer repaired or replaced said they were dissatisfied with how the manufacturer handled the situation. I’ll tell you what, if I had been waiting since 2016, I would be very dissatisfied. I would be wondering what the company was doing and whether it had got the notification of the repairs to be done in a tray in a locked room where nobody ever goes. Six in 10, or 62%—it is rising all the time—of those who were surveyed for the first time in November 2016 and had decided to wait for a repair were concerned about using their tumble dryer, so the vast majority of those who own those dryers are concerned. One quarter—26%—of affected customers were told that they would have to wait longer than six months for their tumble dryer to be repaired. If only it did take six months to have it repaired, at least we would have a date. One in five—22%—were told that the wait would be between three and six months. Where is the company’s understanding of the inherent danger that those delays compound?

I will conclude with this comment because others wish to speak. We must ensure that consumer protection legislation is in place to deal with this issue. Current legislation allows that to take place. I believe the power is with the Minister: she can do this. I respectfully ask her, in the short time she has, to ensure that action can be taken after the election. It is incumbent on us all to ensure that this does not happen again. I thank the hon. Member for Hammersmith and all those who have come to Westminster Hall to support the safety not only of my constituents but of people throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who rely on legislation to force manufacturers to do the right thing. The fact is that we have to force them. I believe we must deal with this issue.

--- Later in debate ---

[Margot James]

I am sorry that my hon. Friend has not had satisfaction from Whirlpool on that. Whirlpool wrote to me on 4 November outlining its engineer training programme and auditing programme of the machines that it has modified. I am happy to share that correspondence with him and other hon. Members.

We hear from industry and other experts that recall programmes typically have a success rate of resolving between 10% and 20% of affected products. In this case, Whirlpool’s resolution rate is over 40%, which is well above the industry norm. We can therefore posit that the action taken by Whirlpool in co-ordination with Peterborough trading standards has achieved more in terms of resolving cases than recalls typically achieve, meaning a greater number of consumers have been protected from potential harm.

[Jim Shannon]

Will the Minister give way?

[Margot James]

I will give way once more. There is more material that Members will be interested in.

[Jim Shannon]

We are talking about 5.2 million machines and 120 different models. Is there a timescale for how many years it will take for resolution to be arrived at and all those machines to be repaired or replaced?

[Margot James]

I can only reiterate what I have already said. Of those machines, 1.5 million have already been modified, and only 10% of cases registered with Whirlpool are outstanding. Whirlpool is modifying machines at roughly the rate of 100,000 per month.

The role of Peterborough trading standards has been discussed. That team has ensured that Whirlpool has taken responsibility for resolving the issue and agreed actions deemed proportionate to the level of risk. The initial risk assessment was peer-reviewed and agreed by two other trading standards departments, at Norfolk County Council and Hertfordshire County Council. As a responsible regulator, it has kept the issue and the evidence under continuous review and made decisions accordingly. It issued enforcement action to ensure that Whirlpool gave clear advice to consumers not to use the product before it had been repaired, and it has been in close contact with Whirlpool to agree and oversee the corrective action programme.

I note hon. Members’ comments about Whirlpool’s motivations and the extent to which it was moved by the threat of judicial review. It is impossible for me to comment on that speculation, but I would point out that Whirlpool had already resolved the majority of those 1.5 million cases prior to the threat of judicial review, which was later removed. As a result of Peterborough’s actions, Whirlpool did not, as Members implied, sit on its hands; it commenced a programme of corrective action back in November 2015. I have covered issues about Whirlpool’s customer service, so I will move on.

I want to acknowledge the remarks of the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Gerald Jones) about the manufacturing of white goods. I was sorry to hear of the manufacturing losses in his constituency, but I am pleased to report that Whirlpool tumble dryers and some of its other white goods are manufactured not abroad but in Bristol.

I will turn to the working group on product recalls and safety. I take to heart the suggestion by the hon. Member for Hammersmith that the Government should look at the safety of all electrical goods and not just tumble dryers. That brief has been given to the working group. An online hub of information on product recalls, known as “Recall Central”, has been developed on gov.uk. That follows up one of Lynn Faulds Wood’s recommendations, cited by the hon. Gentleman.

When I took on the product safety brief, I reviewed the remit of what was then called the recall review steering group. Like the hon. Gentleman, I considered two years far too long to wait for discernible improvements in the system. In October, I rebooted the group and established the working group on product recalls and safety to develop credible options for improving product safety and the recalls system, setting a more challenging timetable of six months. I asked the working group to focus in particular on identifying the causes of fire in white goods and the action needed to reduce that threat.

The group is better resourced than its predecessor. Officials in my Department are supporting the group and are in regular contact with the Home Office about fire prevention. The group consists of experts in the fire services, trading standards, consumer groups and industry, including Electrical Safety First. The chair, Neil Gibbins, has extensive experience of fire safety, as former deputy chief fire officer for Somerset and Devon, and a background in enforcement.

I am grateful to Neil Gibbins and members of the working group for their work. They submitted their initial recommendations in December, which were published on gov.uk. Each meeting has had its notes published on gov.uk, and hon. Members can visit that site. The group submitted its full report to me earlier this month, which might explain why I have not yet published it, in less than the six months given to it. If it had not been for the Easter recess and the calling of the general election, I would now be planning the publication of the report. The group has already commissioned the British Standards Institution to develop a code of practice on corrective actions and recalls to improve consistency and transparency.

The hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Jim Fitzpatrick) raised the issue of consumer behaviour and attitude, which is very important. The working group has commissioned consumer behavioural insights research, which I gather has almost concluded, to help ensure that the code of practice, and indeed the whole process of encouraging and motivating consumers to register their appliances, is taken forward in the optimum way.

I must leave time for the hon. Member for Hammersmith to wind up the debate, so I will conclude. In terms of Brexit, I would like to reassure Members that the Government have absolutely no intention of watering down consumer protection and consumer safety. The opposite may well be the case. I would also like to reassure the House generally that the Government take these issues very seriously indeed, and I look forward to the hon. Gentleman’s concluding remarks.

Post Office Closures

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2017 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) on securing this debate and on setting the scene so well. I thank him for giving us all a chance to speak by curtailing his time.

I am an advocate of the Post Office. I represent a community that is both urban and rural, and I have long been concerned about the isolation of my constituents—my rural constituents in particular—who rely on the Post Office. That reliance is greater in the Ards peninsula and Strangford—the area I represent—because the banks are closing. As other hon. Members have said, when banks close, they always state that they have an agreement with the local post office, but when the post office closes, people have to jump on the bus and go on long journeys on already limited public transport to towns to access banking services.

The news in January that the Post Office would close 37 of its largest branches, leaving more than 300 people out of a job, was shocking and unexpected. Although I understand that the idea behind franchising branches is to keep services

“where customers want and need them”,

and to allow post offices to operate in rural areas, the fact that the large post offices are under pressure does not bode well for smaller post offices.

During the five-day strike, members of the Communication Workers Union referred to jobs and pensions. Branch closures, including the proposed closure of my local branch, have unsettled them. The fact that the Post Office is now seeking partners for 37 of its directly managed branches as part of its effort to secure its services in communities around the UK has added to workers’ job uncertainty.

The fact is that each and every one of us as MPs has fought hard to ensure that benefit payments are made to post office accounts. The number of post offices has reduced by some 50% in the past 30 years, and people are uncertain about where they will be employed. Staff must have more security. I have been told that staff confidence levels are at an all-time low, and morale levels are at a critical level. I call on the Government to respond as a major stakeholder and investor in the Post Office, and I urge the Minister to confirm that this rate of closure will not continue and that there will be investment to enhance, rather than cut, services.

Just before Christmas, I received word of the strike action that was to affect my area. The letter stated:

“As you may be aware, the CWU has called for further strike action, on 19th , 20th and 24th December, in 300 directly managed Post Offices and, on 22nd and 23rd December, in our cash distribution operation.

I would like to reassure you, and your constituents, that people working in 97 percent of our network—the 50,000 individuals who work in over 11,000 independently-run Post Office branches—will not be involved in this industrial action.”

Those are not accountancy figures. They are people who work hard to pay their mortgage and who need our support. That is what I am doing now, and I ask the Government to do the same and to offer the support that is needed, not just for the workers in post offices but for those who use post offices across Strangford, the Ards peninsula and the whole of the United Kingdom of this great nation of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Fuel Poverty

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) (Con)]

The UK has one of the largest economies in the world, growing quicker than many of its neighbours. We have record levels of employment and a welfare system that, despite differences of opinions across the political divide, provides an effective safety net in most cases and stacks up well in comparison with several countries around the world. However, we still have a number of vulnerable people, including children and the elderly, who make incredibly difficult choices about whether to eat or heat each day.

It is estimated that around 2.4 million households in England are in fuel poverty, the definition of which varies somewhat. In the past, the Government considered a household that needs to spend more than 10% of its income to maintain an adequate heating regime to be in fuel poverty. That is still the case in Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, I can see the Government’s concern that that definition is too loose, with “income” and “adequate heating regime” meaning different things to different organisations. That is why fuel poverty in England is now measured using the low income, high costs indicator, whereby a household is considered to be fuel-poor if its required fuel costs are above the national median level and it would be left with a residual income below the official poverty line were it to spend that amount. Admittedly it is more technical and less snappy, but LIHC allows for a more focused approach to identify those in most immediate need.

The different methodologies make it more complicated to compare numbers across the UK, but the best estimate is that a total of 4 million households are in fuel poverty.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Fuel poverty is an important issue for us in Northern Ireland. The hon. Gentleman will know that 17% of people across the UK are in fuel poverty, but in Northern Ireland the figure is 42%, which is massive. Does he agree that any fuel poverty strategy and funding allocation must take a co-ordinated, UK-wide approach to address that shocking statistic, which speaks more of fuel poverty levels in a developing country than in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

[Paul Scully]

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has had a chance to air that important point, because I understand the situation in Northern Ireland.

Governments have recognised fuel poverty as a problem and have put strategies in place. The numbers affected by fuel poverty have reduced over the past decade overall, but slowly, by around 1%. Cavity walls now insulated have doubled over that period, and Government figures clearly show that houses with solid walls and in which portable heaters are used, rather than central heating, are far more likely to be in fuel poverty. There are still some 600,000 houses without central heating. People who are privately renting are twice as likely to be in fuel poverty than those in local authority or housing authority properties. However, all the numbers are still too high.

There is regional variation, as we have heard, with the north-east of England having the highest proportion of households in fuel poverty despite also seeing the largest percentage decrease, some 5% over the past 11 years. However, there are also many hidden cases. The London Borough of Sutton is a relatively prosperous borough, but it has pockets of deprivation that can easily be overlooked when considering London on a macro level. Within those pockets live people who get stuck between the cracks when it comes to low pay, welfare support, high energy prices and homes that are not energy efficient. That is likely to include older people on a small fixed income who are living in a large house that may be difficult to heat. Downsizing may or may not be an option, but it is one part of the solution.

Age UK has calculated that there have been 2.5 million avoidable deaths among older people in England and Wales due to winter cold over the past 60 years. Cold weather causes a massive spike in associated health problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, and there is a strong relationship between poor insulation and inadequate heating of houses, low indoor temperatures and excess winter deaths among older people. Age UK goes on to estimate that, each winter, one older person dies every seven minutes from the cold weather. Age UK has a number of advice guides that I strongly recommend colleagues share with constituents, particularly the elderly.

Beyond the impact on the frail and elderly, we all know from our casework that children living in damp and mouldy homes are particularly at risk. They are almost three times as likely to suffer from coughing, wheezing and respiratory illness. Evidence also highlights that infants living in cold conditions are at greater risk of admission to hospital or primary care facilities. In turn, living in such conditions also affects educational achievement, either through increased school absence due to illness or because children are unable to find a quiet, warm place to study at home.

Financial stress about energy bills causes huge anxiety that can exacerbate mental health problems, leading to depression and, unfortunately, potentially suicide. Currently, more than one in four adolescents living in a cold house is at risk of multiple mental health problems. There are three particular variables that affect the figures: income levels, energy prices and the energy efficiency of people’s homes.

The Government have sought to tackle low incomes by addressing the underlying causes of poverty, rather than by using cash transfers that just lift people over an arbitrary threshold in the short term. Rising tax thresholds have taken 1.3 million of the lowest paid out of income tax entirely since the start of this Parliament and have allowed others to keep more of what they earn. The introduction of the national living wage, which is due to reach £9 by 2020, is delivering a pay rise for millions of low-paid workers. The lowest-paid workers saw their pay go up by more than 6% in 2015-16, well above inflation, through those and other measures. Working parents are also benefiting from increased support with childcare costs.

There are a number of reasons why energy prices remain stubbornly high, including the fact that oil prices have doubled from their low point since early last year. SSE has become the last of the big six energy companies to review its current prices, with 2.8 million of its standard tariff customers facing a 6.9% increase. On Thursday, my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) will lead a debate in the Chamber in which he will call on the Government to introduce a relative price cap that brings the worst-value standard variable tariffs within a margin of the best-value fixed deals. His premise is to maintain competition by not introducing a strict cap, while seeking to end the exploitation of loyal customers—the set of people who, in a properly functioning market, would be the first to be rewarded.

Price-wise, it is important to address prepayment meters, which are used by many people in or around the fuel poverty category. The best way to keep prices low is to switch more—through competition—but that is often easier said than done. Although the number of people who switched rose by 30% last year, around two thirds of bill payers are still on the worst-value standard tariffs, despite Energy UK data that suggest that energy switching rates in Britain are the highest of any large energy market in the world.

Together, the big six energy companies have a commanding share of the market, in spite of their losing market share in both domestic and non-domestic supply. Between April 2015 and March 2016, 14 new licensed suppliers became active in the domestic market. The new entrants have a variety of business models, such as not-for-profit, renewable and local supply schemes. The increase in competition is to be welcomed, with small and medium-sized suppliers growing to account for 14% of the domestic market in March 2016.

If I may be parochial for a moment, I should point out that not every alternative small supplier adds to the liberalisation of the market. The London Borough of Sutton, my home borough, has launched an initiative called SDEN—the Sutton decentralised energy network—which takes the energy generated by a new, unpopular incinerator in Beddington on the Croydon border and pipes it to a new estate of houses that is currently under construction in nearby Hackbridge. Although few residents in Beddington wanted an incinerator as their new neighbour, the concept of using recovered energy in new homes seemed reasonable at first glance. However, last year our local paper, the Sutton Guardian, reported a proposed tariff that was some 21% more expensive than Sainsbury’s Energy was charging at the time. Such a decentralised network, piping energy in this way, prohibits residents from buying their energy from any other source, thus forcing them to take it up and locking them into a contract without the possibility of switching—the very opposite of liberalisation, and from a Liberal Democrat-run council.

Smart meters have been touted as a way to reduce energy use and fixed costs and to allow easier switching. They allow energy companies to harvest a lot of data and remove the costs of meter readings from their bottom line, but will they serve the customer well? The first generation of smart meters, SMETS1—smart meter equipment technical specification 1—worked while the customer was with the particular supplier that installed the meter, but they were not flexible enough in their interoperability. The next generation, the SMETS2 meters, are meant to solve that problem, but unfortunately the roll-out date has been delayed.

An open system will allow for the greatest flexibility. Apps that can nudge customers into energy reduction and more efficient use of their appliances and heating can be of huge benefit. Time and again we see how open source means better, faster and more flexible innovation. A few years ago, Windsor and Maidenhead Council put its money where its mouth is and fitted very visible meters on council buildings to show its energy use, leading to considerable reductions in energy consumption. That is nudge theory working really well. That could and should happen in domestic settings, too, with technology used to highlight high usage and so change behaviour, rather than people getting a shock from a high bill sometime later down the line.

The Government are working to improve the energy efficiency of homes throughout the country. Households that struggle with their bills are eligible for insulation measures, including solid wall insulation, through the energy company obligation scheme. Homeowners and those in privately rented homes who are on specific benefits may also be eligible for support through heating improvements, including oil-fired boiler replacements, through the ECO affordable warmth scheme. I welcome the fact that more than 2 million energy efficiency measures have been installed in more than 1.6 million homes since 2013, and the Government have made a commitment to insulate a further million homes by 2020.

I further welcome the fact that a greater focus of this support for low-income households will be on working families, and that the Government will continue to ring-fence a proportion of delivery for rural areas. The warm home discount scheme continues to help ensure that households at risk of fuel poverty can afford to heat their homes. This helps more than 2 million households a year with £140 going towards their energy bills. Pensioners also get further help through the winter fuel allowance.

The Government retain the goal of insulating 1 million more homes by 2020. However, I remain concerned that the Committee on Fuel Poverty, which advises the Government on this matter, raised serious doubts in September 2016 that the 2020 and 2025 fuel poverty energy efficiency milestones can be achieved. It believes that, over time, the £2.1 billion per year spent on fuel poverty programmes such as the warm home discount and winter fuel payments needs to be better targeted at those most in need of assistance.

The WHD will be reviewed in this Parliament and, currently, only 15% of it is targeted towards those in fuel poverty. The winter fuel payment is universal and so clearly not targeted, but it is also committed until 2020. The Committee also believes that the Government should seek to attract new sources of funding to assist in meeting the fuel poverty strategy milestones. Examples it cites include modifying existing legislation to require private landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency levels of their properties; giving the same priority to improving household energy efficiency as to generating new renewable energy; and modifying existing legislation to attract more third-party capital. I would be grateful to the Minister if he commented on those thoughts in his response.

I was motivated to raise this matter after hearing about an initiative by the local Sutton business, MaximEyes. This energy consultancy has succeeded in winning a number of awards by working with its clients on energy management and efficiency as well as utility infrastructure and procurement. Its core business is about the best use of energy, so it is well placed to examine and help tackle fuel poverty as part of its corporate social responsibility. It approached me to help identify households in need that it could help to turn around as part of its Fuel the Change initiative.

The company aims to take 1,000 homes out of fuel poverty by 2020 as its business develops. It has created a solid partnership with the Foundations Independent Living Trust, which has the expertise and infrastructure to ensure that the funding is used in the most efficient way and that it reaches those who are most in need.

Businesses that address issues to which they can relate directly tend to have more effect. Writing a cheque gives bosses a warm, short-term glow, but using a company’s resources to tackle something connected to its core business, market or interests can have a far bigger effect on the beneficiaries.

I am delighted that a Sutton business is taking a lead, encouraging other businesses to join it and to put something back, especially in an area that can really save lives. I hope that Members will join me in the Macmillan Room next Tuesday at 1 pm to speak about this further with the MaximEyes team and with representatives of related businesses. Businesses can, and should, be a force for good. I know that the Minister and my Government colleagues take this matter seriously. There is much to commend them for in the way that they are tackling low pay. We need to continue to improve competition in the energy market and look at how we can grow our investment in our housing stock to ensure that homes are energy efficient. We must also use emerging technology, such as apps, to influence behaviour; battery storage, such as Tesla’s Powerwall; and of course renewables. We must also work with the construction industry and allied businesses to ensure that they play their part. I look forward to my hon. Friend informing this House about what more can be done in the future by Government, energy providers, businesses such as MaximEyes, charities and individuals in this really important area of fuel poverty.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Jesse Norman)]

What a delight it is, Mr Deputy Speaker, to see you in the Chair. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully) for selecting such an important issue for debate this evening. I am very grateful to him not just for his interest in fuel poverty, but for his leadership in hosting a discussion in the Palace of Westminster next week. You may have detected, Mr Deputy Speaker, the subtle way in which he wove in the details of the time and place into his speech on how we can support efforts to tackle fuel poverty in the UK.

The Government recognise that fuel poverty is a significant issue, affecting households throughout the United Kingdom, as the Committee on Fuel Poverty rightly highlighted in its 2016 report. I massively welcome the insight and challenge to Government that the committee brings. I also welcome the fact that it can help us, by those means, to deliver a suite of solutions for those who need help that is as effective as possible. Only this morning, I spoke to David Blakemore, the chair of the committee since November last year, and I look forward to working with him and the committee over the coming years.

As my hon. Friend has said, fuel poverty is measured in England by the low income, high costs indicator. According to that indicator, a household is fuel poor if it has an income below the poverty line and, at the same time, higher than typical energy costs. It is a relative indicator that is essentially a balance of two averages. It is fair to say that the total number of households living in fuel poverty has been relatively static over the past few years. However, there has been a fall over time between 2010, when there were just under 2.5 million households in fuel poverty in England—as my hon. Friend will know, this is a devolved matter—and 2014, when the latest official statistics record 2.38 million households. Those households face an average fuel poverty gap of some £371, which is itself a measure of the severity of the problem.

Perhaps I can assure my hon. Friend that, as he has rightly acknowledged, the Government are committed to helping households in fuel poverty, or on lower incomes and living in homes that are expensive to heat. I congratulate him on rightly highlighting the broader measures that the Government have taken in recent years by raising income tax thresholds and introducing the national living wage. Both those things are, at the broadest level, important contributions to solving the problem. He also rightly focused on the significant public concerns about recent announcements of price increases by the energy suppliers. I am glad that, as a result of action by the Competition and Markets Authority, in February this year Ofgem announced details of a cap on the amount that suppliers can charge prepayment meter customers. This will take effect from April and will help to protect those customers from high energy costs.

Energy suppliers have delivered nearly 700,000 measures in 500,000 low-income and vulnerable households since the energy company obligation began in 2013. That is part of a total of some 1.6 million homes that have been improved over that period, but this Government are going further to take action to tackle the root cause of fuel poverty, recognising that improving household energy efficiency is the most sustainable long-term solution to tackling the problem. Next week, the Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) (Amendment) Order 2017 will be debated in both houses to extend the scheme from 1 April 2017 to 30 September 2018. The measure will seek to reform ECO so that 70% of the support under the scheme will now be directed at low-income homes. That represents an increase from £310 million to £450 million a year that will be invested in improving the energy efficiency of homes that most need support. We expect that the reformed ECO will improve about 500,000 homes over the coming 18 months, and the Government have made a commitment to insulate 1 million homes over the life of this Parliament.

Recognising the fact that people also need immediate support with energy bills, we also have in place the warm home discount, which my hon. Friend recognised. The scheme provides more than 2 million low-income and vulnerable households with a £140 rebate off their energy bill each winter, when temperatures are lowest and bills highest. Together, the schemes mean that there will be at least £770 million of support for low-income and vulnerable consumers over the period 2017-18.

[Jim Shannon]

In my intervention on the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully), who introduced the debate, I mentioned having a co-ordinated plan across the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland so that we can collectively—in all the regions—take on the energy companies and work together. Has the Minister given any thought to how we could progress that?

[Jesse Norman]

As I have said, this is a devolved matter, so that does not specifically bear on it. However, on the wider question of whether there is scope for more joined-up thinking, I would absolutely welcome the hon. Gentleman’s suggestions, or indeed suggestions from the Northern Ireland Executive, as to how those things could be done, and we would give them a very warm interrogation. I am not sure what would come out—we would have to see the suggestions—but the warmth and the interest from our side are certainly there.

I should add that the role of regulation will also be important as we take action to ensure that tenants can live in a home that keeps them comfortably warm. The private rented sector regulations will target the least efficient, F and G-rated properties from 2018 by requiring landlords to improve those properties to at least a band E, unless a valid exemption applies. My Department is considering options for the implementation of the regulations, with a view to ensuring they can be implemented effectively by April 2018.

Of course, there is more work to be done. One important area will be to improve targeting on the households most in need—a topic my hon. Friend rightly raised. The Digital Economy Bill, which is going through Parliament, will be important in that regard, as it will make available better data on householders and properties. That, in turn, will reduce the costs obligated suppliers face in identifying households that are most in need, and it will allow more measures to be installed for the same cost.

I hope my hon. Friend will agree that the Government are taking this matter with the appropriate level of seriousness, but what I have described are all Government-led actions, whereas fuel poverty is a problem for all of society, and the Government cannot tackle it alone, as he rightly said. That is why partnership is a key theme of the fuel poverty strategy. It is important for the Government to play a leadership role, but it is also important for them to work alongside initiatives from local government, businesses, individuals and the charitable sector. Only by making the most of the varied skills and resources of each of these partners—the collective resources of society as a whole—can we collaboratively tackle the long-term social problems of fuel poverty.

In that context, I welcome the Fuel the Change initiative, which is due to be launched next week, and which my hon. Friend mentioned. I am looking forward to hearing the outcomes from the discussion led by my hon. Friend and Baroness Verma of how businesses can support the fight to tackle fuel poverty in the UK. This debate, and my colleague’s excellent speech this evening, are important contributions to that further conversation.

Question put and agreed to.

Vauxhall/Opel: Proposed Takeover

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

The discussions are at an early stage. The leak of the discussions came out only in the middle of last week and I have had a number of meetings since then. I have been clear to the House that the successful operations in this country need to be maintained. The PSA side of the discussions has pointed out quite recently that Vauxhall is not yet its company to make contractual statements about, but the direction in which the discussions are going is clear. I will continue to be vigorous in extracting the best possible agreements about the future of Vauxhall here.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and what he has said so far. It is clear that Vauxhall’s UK plants are run to a high standard, with above-normal efficiency ratings, so will the Secretary of State outline what support he will offer to ensure that the plants are retained—and, indeed, enhanced—and that jobs are secured during any takeover? What influence, including financial assistance, can the Government exert to help?

[Greg Clark]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for what he says. Again, I come back to the fact that Vauxhall’s UK operation is successful. It is efficient and effective, which is the reason, as with other car companies, why investments come to this country. We have had a successful programme of joint working with the automotive sector in areas such as research and development, and in training and upskilling the workforce. That programme continues and is available to any manufacturer that participates in the sector.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 31st January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman]

I salute my colleague’s proper concern for support and investment in his constituency; that is absolutely right. The wider implications are being considered by the Government, and I remind him that the Hendry review asked for the issues to be considered specifically in the context of power generation, so those things go alongside the wider consideration we are giving to the report.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The Hendry report refers to tidal energy. The Minister will know that the first large-scale tidal steam generator in Northern Ireland, in Strangford Lough, was four times more powerful than any other in the whole world at the time. What consideration will he give to ensuring that the energy being produced in Strangford Lough can be utilised for the benefit of the whole of Northern Ireland?

[Jesse Norman]

As I have indicated in a separate debate with the hon. Gentleman, that is a different, although related, technology. It was funded in part by the Government and has produced interesting results. This is a matter for close consideration by officials and we will continue to reflect on the matter. If he wishes to write to me further, I would be delighted to take a letter.

Photonics Industry

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 25th January 2017 Westminster Hall

[Carol Monaghan]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and I will talk later about some of the applications of photonics. As she suggests, the central belt of Scotland is a hotbed for photonics, from Glasgow and Strathclyde in the west to Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh in the east.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

First, I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing this matter to Westminster Hall for consideration. Whenever we did research on this issue, one point that emerged was that UK photonics companies export between 75% and 90% of their products, so their importance to the UK economy is immense, even though it is not well known and often overlooked. Does she agree that if the photonics industry across the UK is going to continue to succeed, it needs to be supported, which is something the Minister should consider?

[Carol Monaghan]

The hon. Gentleman makes some really important points and I will come on to some of the challenges that the photonics industry faces. Of course, one of them is that it is a relatively unknown area of the economy.

In Scotland, the presence of a number of major multinationals, combined with the outstanding research base, has enabled the central belt to become a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of high-value lasers. Laser sales are in excess of £200 million per annum and 90% of those sales are exports, bringing significant wealth to the region.

Scottish companies in the laser sector currently provide employment for around 3,000 people. The largest industrial players in Scotland are Thales, which is based in Glasgow, and Selex, which is based in Edinburgh, but other small and medium-sized enterprises are doing excellent work.

Another renowned company, Coherent Scotland, has gone from strength to strength in the last decade. It is not in my constituency but in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady). It manufactures lasers for industrial environments, such as the semiconductor market, as well as focusing on microscopy and micromachining. In the same area, we also have M Squared Lasers, which has won a string of awards for its innovative work in sensing.