"My Lords, water companies have knowingly violated their licence conditions and have more convictions than hardened criminal gangs, yet no executive has been fined and no company forced to relinquish its licence. What will it take for the Government to recognise that privatisation has failed and that water companies ought …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, this is primarily an enabling Bill and much of the substance will follow later, through the FCA and PRA rule-making and secondary legislation. Parliament will not have a proper opportunity to amend whatever the FCA agrees with the industry lobby. Consumer protection and confidence in the finance industry …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"To ask His Majesty’s Government in which years since its privatisation Royal Mail has fully met its first class and second class letter delivery targets; and what assessment they have made of its performance in this period...." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, Royal Mail is another disastrous privatisation. Since privatisation, the price of a first-class letter has increased by 200% and second-class by 89%. As the Minister just said, Royal Mail has not met its delivery targets for years, and Ofcom continues to lower the targets; second-class mail is now …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, will the Government set up fast courts to prosecute price-gouging and profiteering from the sale of football World Cup tickets?..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, I am surprised that the Minister did not remind the Opposition that youth unemployment was 1.25 million in 1984. They are keeping quiet about that. What assessment have the Government made of the possibility that a freeze or a reversal of the state pension age could release jobs …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, the term political donations is misleading. This is really about political corruption. The donors are buying power and influence, subverting public choices, getting government contracts, et cetera. Simply capping it does not end political corruption. The only way forward is to criminalise the receipt and payment of political …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, I welcome this pragmatic Bill, as it seeks to protect social housing stock and tenants. It is shameful that, due to low wages and profiteering, too many people cannot afford decent housing. Some 330,410 households need homelessness support; 134,760 households are living in temporary accommodation; and an estimated …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, the production cost of a typical replica football kit is less than 10% of the selling price. Companies such as Nike and Adidas use an opaque network of offshore entities to inflate costs by adding royalty, licensing, marketing and other payments through intragroup transactions—in short, they shift profits. …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech
"My Lords, it will take a long time to undo the damage done by 14 years of Conservative rule. However, that task has been made difficult, as the Government’s ambition on so many fronts is not matched by actions. I welcome the attempts to build a closer relationship with the …..." Lord Sikka - View Speech