Public Bodies Bill [Lords]

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Tuesday 25th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jones]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point; places such as Telford are surrounded by large rural areas. It is ironic that Conservative Members keep telling us that they are the champions, supporters and voice of the countryside, given that a second Conservative Member has only just arrived for this very important debate. That tells me loud and clear that they will protect certain parts of rural communities but not others—the most vulnerable. May I say, as a former trade union official, that it would be the first time in history if something like the abolition of the AWB led to an increase in the wages of rural workers? It is therefore vital that the AWB is retained.

If the hon. Member for St Ives wants to prove to his constituents that he really cares about their needs, all he needs to do is vote for amendments 32 and 39 and encourage the rest of his party to do so. I assure him that at the next general election the Labour party in his constituency and in other Liberal Democrat rural constituencies will remind constituents of exactly what the Liberal Democrats did. As with a lot of things that this coalition is doing to attack working people in this country, this could not be done without the support of the Liberal Democrats.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I will speak briefly, as I am conscious of the comments of my right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Alun Michael). I do not represent a rural constituency, but a city-centre constituency which, as the House of Commons Library tells me, has approximately zero agricultural workers living in it. It seems to me that this is about fairness. As many speakers have pointed out, the Agricultural Wages Board covers not only workers’ wages but grading arrangements, skills and qualifications, overtime, training costs, apprenticeships, allowances and grants, holidays, sick pay, leave and housing. It is inconceivable that, if the board were abolished, there would not be downward pressure on the terms, wages and conditions of agricultural workers.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jonathan Ashworth]

It is a pleasure to speak on Third Reading. I was privileged enough to sit on the Bill Committee and I want to endorse the comments made by the Deputy Leader of the House—the way in which the Committee proceeded was generally very good indeed. I do not want to appear discourteous but I think that he and the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd) have made a better fist of defending the Government position on some things than departmental Ministers have this evening. Perhaps they should have been at the Dispatch Box more tonight.

I am conscious that many Members want to speak so I shall just make a few brief remarks. The Bill has been spun in the newspapers as a great bonfire of the quangos—rather differently from the way in which the Paymaster General presented it. We have had briefings to The Sun, with an article featuring the headline, “Quango cull saves £30 billion”, stating:

“Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, writing in The Sun today reveals the giant new sum”.

However, the Minister comes and tells us that this is not about saving money, and that may be the case, but it seems that his press officers have been spinning to the newspapers that that is exactly the case.

Let us look at the history of Conservative party policy on this issue. Before the election the Prime Minister talked about needing to save £60 billion from quangos, and I recall the Conservatives’ entering the 2005 election with the James review and talking about abolishing quangos. I do not think that the Paymaster General was in the shadow Cabinet at that time, but one of his Ministers in the Cabinet Office was the shadow Chancellor. Many of the bodies that were proposed for abolition in the James review have, hey presto, ended up being proposed for abolition in this Bill, so when the Minister says that all this is not driven by savings, cost-cutting and trying to get rid of bureaucracy and paper clips, I am a little sceptical.

I am also a little sceptical about the savings that the Government claim they will make. My hon. Friend the Member for Hemsworth (Jon Trickett) has found out, through a series of parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests, that far from making administration savings of £2.5 billion, they are more likely to make savings of £1 billion or so. They have talked about making huge capital savings of about £11 billion from the Department for Communities and Local Government, for example, but I do not see where those savings are going to come from in the Bill. There are certainly some big ticket items—for example, the regional development agencies’ going is a major saving—but I do not know whether Ministers have taken into account the effects on economic growth. I know they will disagree with this, but Lord Heseltine thinks it is a mistake to get rid of RDAs. He has also said that now RDAs are being abolished, Departments are setting up departmental empires in the regions. Has the Paymaster General accounted for that in his figures?

When we look at the ways in which a number of bodies are being abolished, there are further questions. The case of the Audit Commission, for example, although not in the Bill is instructive none the less. The Secretary of State announced its abolition and people at the commission entered into redundancy negotiations, but in February this year they were told that the commission will continue to be open for business until 2014. How much did that cost?

There are also some examples in the Bill. The merger of the Central Arbitration Committee and the Certification Officer will probably produce a negligible saving. We can argue about whether it is right to merge them, but surely a cost will be associated with doing so, because of the need for new branding, a new name, new offices and so on. Has the Paymaster General taken that into account? Perhaps most ludicrously, the Football Licensing Authority was removed from the Bill and replaced by the Sports Ground Safety Authority—a body welcomed by Ministers—which will now be abolished, but not until 2012. Again, Ministers cannot tell us what will happen to its staff and what savings will be made.

I am running through this very quickly, and I shall come to an end. Generally, there is much scepticism about the savings that the Paymaster General expects to make. There are certainly some good things in the Bill—for instance, abolishing unnecessary quangos such as the Victims Advisory Panel, which has not met since 2009. I am pleased that Ministers have now accepted the amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke). He spoke eloquently in Committee, and he got those amendments through because of Labour Members. Overall, I am afraid that this is a bad Bill. In places, it is ill thought out. It is potentially costly, and I will oppose it.