Oral Answers to Questions
Kate Osamor Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Amanda Solloway
We care passionately about businesses in this Government, and our support package includes the job retention scheme, generous grants and cuts to business rates. Pay as you grow measures will allow 1.5 million bounce back loan borrowers to extend payment terms and to benefit from a further repayment holiday. Our plans to support economic recovery and pursue growth through significant investment in infrastructure skills and innovation will help us to build back better and level up across the United Kingdom.
Kate Osamor (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Paul Scully)
The Government are committed to protecting and enhancing workers’ rights. The Uber Supreme Court judgment was clear that those who qualify as workers under employment law are entitled to rights such as the national minimum wage, and all gig economy businesses should ensure that they are fulfilling their legal responsibilities.
Kate Osamor [V]
Does the Secretary of State recognise that, by ditching the employment Bill and, with it, the opportunity to strengthen the rights of gig economy workers, he has abandoned millions of precarious and low-paid workers to fight through the courts for fair pay and job security?
Paul Scully
The Secretary of State and I believe that workers’ rights should be enhanced and protected, so we are absolutely committed to bringing forward an employment Bill that will help us to build back better and to protect vulnerable workers, delivering on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world in which to work and grow a business. While we are waiting for the employment Bill to come forward in parliamentary time, we will continue in that way.
Kwasi Kwarteng
My hon. Friend is absolutely right; it is a huge opportunity. I was delighted to see him in his constituency only a couple of weeks ago. I was very pleased to see the photograph that was taken of us looking like an advert for “Reservoir Dogs”. BEIS is absolutely committed to recruiting excellent staff in Darlington, among other places around the UK.
Kate Osamor (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op) [V]
Kwasi Kwarteng
The hon. Lady will know that that was a very difficult decision. The Treasury and the Government made a decision to reduce ODA spending from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%. In the integrated review, we said that we would get it back to 0.7% when we could. We are fully appreciative that it was a difficult decision, and we want to get back to 0.7% as soon as the fiscal situation allows.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Kate Osamor Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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Kate Osamor (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op) [V]
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for calling me in this really important debate.
The consequences of covid-19 have been disastrous for us, causing the worst recession of any major developed economy. The Budget was a missed opportunity to help to repair the damage caused by covid-19. This Government have used covid-19 and the Budget to hand out contracts to large corporations, funnel funds via the so-called towns fund towards the constituencies of Conservative Members, and cut public sector pay, universal credit and NHS funding. Meanwhile, in Edmonton, 5,000 of my constituents have lost their jobs in the past year alone, and the unemployment rate is now double the national average. Almost half the children in Edmonton live in poverty. Yet the Chancellor will cut the £20 universal credit uplift in September and continues to ignore the millions of disabled and sick people on legacy benefits who never received the so-called uplift. The UK welfare benefits system is one of the least generous in the developed world. This Government have torn holes in our welfare safety net. Sadly, too often, losing your job or falling ill means going hungry and losing your home.
Many leaseholders like those in Prowse Court in Edmonton listened to the Chancellor hoping that the Government would finally offer them the help they need to make their homes safe. There was not a single mention of cladding or building safety from the Chancellor last week. Instead, they are being left to foot bills they cannot afford while the property developers who profited from the Government’s unsafe cuts to building safety regulations walk away without paying a penny.
After more than a decade of austerity, my constituents in Edmonton needed a transformative Budget that would tackle inequality, rebuild the local economy, recover jobs, retrain unemployed workers and rebuild businesses to reflect a fairer society. We cannot go back to business as usual. This country and my constituents deserve better.
Consumer Rights Act 2015 and Consumer Ombudsman Scheme
Kate Osamor Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Martyn Day) on securing today’s important debate, and I thank the other hon. Members who have made interventions.
In this country we have a strong consumer rights framework, which gives most consumers the confidence to settle any disputes directly with businesses. And they do—around six out of 10 such disputes are resolved directly with the business concerned. However, this debate has rightly highlighted the real problems that some consumers have in enforcing their rights, and addressing that issue is my top priority as the Minister with responsibility for consumers.
No consumer, and in fact no business, would want to go to court to resolve a dispute; the experience of the hon. Member’s constituent, Mrs Johnston, illustrates what a daunting experience that can be. Indeed, many consumers lack the confidence or the capability to use the courts, so they may be forced to abandon legitimate complaints. That is not an acceptable outcome.
We know that many consumers would prefer to have different ways to settle their differences with businesses. Alternative dispute resolution schemes, such as the Financial Ombudsman Service, give consumers and businesses a quicker and cheaper way to resolve disputes than going to court.
Alternative dispute resolution takes different forms; it is a flexible tool, which makes it very suitable for such civil disputes. For example, it can involve mediation to help consumers and businesses to reach a solution that satisfies both sides.
Kate Osamor (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)
I am sure that the Minister will agree that we are all consumers, whether we are a member of the public or a Member of Parliament, and so I will quickly raise a case with her about my constituency office. We have a lease with Apogee and our rental agreement is for a photocopier, but that photocopier has not worked for two years. We have gone back and forth, but the photocopier is not fit for purpose. I have been trying to get out of the contract, but Apogee has said that I have to pay £28,000—of taxpayers’ money—to do so. Is the Minister available to meet me to discuss the matter further? It is part of the wider issue that we are discussing today.
Kelly Tolhurst
I am happy to meet the hon. Lady. Without knowing the specifics or the details, it is difficult to comment, but she mentioned contracts.
If parties cannot reach an agreement, alternative dispute resolution can also involve a final arbitration of the case that the business accepts as binding. Alternative dispute resolution has benefits for both parties, but I am concerned that tens of thousands of consumers still go to court to resolve disputes with business. I am also unhappy that many do so because the business refuses to participate in a cheaper, quicker and less adversarial alternative dispute resolution process. I want to make it easier and quicker for consumers to obtain redress across all sectors of the economy when things go wrong.
The Government consulted on the issue in the Green Paper “Modernising consumer markets” and launched a review of the consumer redress system. The review addresses in particular how Government can improve business take-up of the alternative dispute resolution, increase consumer awareness and raise quality standards. Consumers have a right to take a dispute to ADR in the finance, energy, telecoms, estate agent and legal services sectors. In other sectors, there is no mandatory requirement to use ADR, although it is available for any dispute should the business decide it wants to use it.