Harriett Baldwin MP: speeches

Speeches

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Replies to my parliamentary questions are often late. They are often evasive and often refer to websites that are infrequently updated, and sometimes they are even overtly political. I know that the Leader of the House cares passionately about improving performance in this area, so will she make a statement to update the House on how she is working to get better responses from Departments to parliamentary questions?

• 23 Jan 2025 · Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs: OBR Costing · Hansard source

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  The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the measure will raise £500 million in revenue by 2029, which, in the context of tax revenues of over £1,150 billion, is a very small number. What value does the Minister put on food security for the United Kingdom?

• 23 Jan 2025 · Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs: OBR Costing · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, have you noticed a pattern—that on a Thursday, a Treasury Minister will be asked to come to the Commons to answer an urgent question, and there will be barely a soul on the Labour Benches behind them when they do?

• 21 Jan 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Former Chair, Mr Speaker, but thank you very much for calling me. It is clear that we all want to see economic growth in rural areas and across the UK, but I am concerned that some of the measures in the Chancellor’s Budget are having the opposite effect. Which statistic worries her most: the fact that we are at a 20-year high for business closures, or the 100% increase in millionaires leaving the UK?

• 20 Jan 2025 · Office for Value for Money · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Lady not only on her excellent chairing of our Committee and this report, but on securing a slot in the Chamber to tell people about some of the report’s recommendations. Her background as the former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee gives huge credibility to the points she is making about the possibility that this new and temporary body will not be able to make its mark in the way the Government hoped. One of the areas where my constituency has benefited most in value for money from public spending is flood defences. With her long experience, does she agree that protecting our communities from the impact of climate change is one of the best uses of public money?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Draft Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024 · Hansard source

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  It is a very great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Ms McVey. I just note that the Minister highlighted the fact that, in fact, this initiative had been started under the previous Government, and so you would not expect me to be objecting to its passage today. But I do have, in the interest of scrutiny, a few questions for the Minister. The explanatory memorandum accompanying the statutory instrument highlights the improvements that have occurred in the time that it takes to pay invoices since these measures were brought in in 2018. There was strong support in the consultation for extending the reporting requirements to these retention payments. Could the Minister summarise for the record what the objections were in the consultation and from whom they came—the people who did not support moving forward with these measures? The Department will generally, it says in the explanatory memorandum, seek to encourage businesses to comply with the regulation by encouraging them, getting in touch with them rather than prosecuting them for non-compliance. Could the Minister highlight if there have actually been any prosecutions at all under the previous payment regulations, and, if so, who the holdouts or the big contractors that have resisted these measures have been? Most companies say that this regulation will be an ongoing cost to their business. It is estimated to be a small amount of £10 million per year. Can the Minister outline for the committee any measures that he is planning that will reduce costs for businesses? Businesses are telling me that the extra cost of national insurance and the Employment Rights Bill are adding costs to their businesses that can be seen from space. The last Government introduced new requirements for firms bidding for large Government contracts to make sure that they pay small businesses on time, and those bidding for Government contracts over £5 million will have to demonstrate that they pay their own invoices within an average of 55 days, tightening to 45 days and then to 30 days in the coming years. Can the Minister confirm that he is planning to continue with that approach? The last Government overhauled the voluntary prompt payment code, halving the time signatories have to pay small businesses to 30 days. Is the Minister planning to update us on the progress he has made on this matter in the last six months, and has the number of signatories gone up or down—it was 2,800 voluntary signatories. I look forward to the Minister’s answers and we support the measures today.

• 14 Jan 2025 · UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue · Hansard source

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  It is good to see the Chancellor back from China and to hear her reiterate that growth is her No. 1 mission, because we have not had any growth since her Budget. Given that accepting responsibility is the first step in solving a problem, will she accept that last October’s Budget has caused business confidence and growth prospects in this country’s economy to plunge?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Does the Leader of the House plan to set aside some Government time for us to discuss the enormous changes to local government announced in a statement just before Christmas? That forced a lot of councils to come up with plans at very short notice. There has been limited opportunity for any kind of democratic engagement from our constituents. It seems to me that we ought to spend some time in this Chamber debating the implications of potentially cancelling a series of local elections? Will she spare that time?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Public Finances: Borrowing Costs · Hansard source

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  In yesterday’s extraordinary emergency statement from the Treasury to try to calm the markets, it paid tribute to the fact that the Government inherited the second-lowest debt in the G7. Is the reason the Government Front Bench is so empty today and the Chancellor has fled to China that she has realised that her Budget means she now is the arsonist?

• 6 Jan 2025 · Health and Adult Social Care Reform · Hansard source

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  My constituents will welcome the opportunity to get more services delivered through their GP surgeries, of which there are many excellent examples in West Worcestershire, and through community hospitals. However, I hear from those very same GP surgeries their concerns over the national insurance rises, and how that is leading them to think about reducing services. When will the Secretary of State be able to square that circle?

• 17 Dec 2024 · Trades and Apprenticeships · Hansard source

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  It is a great honour to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Betts. I congratulate the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) on securing this important debate. I must start by declaring an interest: I am married to someone who did a BT apprenticeship back in the day, and he always talks about how incredibly valuable that was as a way to learn after leaving school. So I did slightly bridle at the rather attacking political tone that I heard from the hon. Lady in her opening remarks, because if there is one thing that we have complete cross-party consensus about in this Parliament, it is about the value and importance of apprenticeship routes. We may occasionally differ on the means and the approach, but I think we would not differ in terms of the end and how important it is for our country and economy to have more people doing apprenticeships, because they offer a wonderful opportunity for young people to learn valuable skills on the job and earn a salary while they learn. As a nation, we need to ensure that school leavers and employers view an apprenticeship on equal terms with going to university. I will point out some of the positive statistics from the last Government’s track record. Nearly 70% of occupations could be entered via an apprenticeship by the time the last Government left office. In 2009-10, there were fewer than half a million people participating in apprenticeships, but by 2023-24, there were more than 735,000 participating and training under the more rigorous industry design standards introduced in 2014. The 178,220 achievements reported for the 2023-24 academic year represented the highest number since the pandemic, in 2018-19. Between 2010 and 2024, the previous Government delivered 5.8 million apprenticeships, and passed legislation requiring children to be informed about technical education opportunities. It is crucial that the Government build on this legacy, and I am sure we will hear from the Minister on how they intend to do that. According to the Liverpool School of Plastering, the UK will need to recruit more than 1 million tradespeople by 2033 to meet the demands of a growing population and the infrastructure requirements. The hon. Member for Portsmouth North highlighted some of the important roles in her constituency that would require that. The shortfall we have in this country is driven partly by an ageing workforce, but also, as the hon. Lady rightly highlighted, by negative perceptions of trades, and by demand outstripping supply. Some of the negative perceptions that young people have include seeing these jobs as being physically demanding, low paying, and lacking in career progression. That does not reflect the diverse and rewarding career paths that exist today in trades. In the autumn Budget, we heard that the Chancellor is increasing the rate of pay for apprenticeships by some 18% up to £7.55 an hour. On top of that, the Government have raised employer national insurance contributions, and the threshold at which national insurance is paid has been lowered from £9,100 to £5,000 a year. It will be important to note how this cost squeeze will impact the number of apprenticeships that businesses are able to provide. We will follow and scrutinise that in the weeks and months to come. I endorse what we have heard from so many Members this afternoon about the importance of apprenticeships, the incredible opportunities they offer to so many young people, the importance of issues such as transport, and the awareness and knowledge that both businesses and young people need to have. With that, I look forward to hearing from the Minister.

• 16 Dec 2024 · English Devolution · Hansard source

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  Whatever our views on the different flavours of local government, surely we in this House can all agree that good local services are delivered when there are excellent, hard-working local councillors who have been democratically elected. At the moment in counties up and down the land, county councillors are campaigning for re-election for four-year terms next May. The matter before us is an important decision for local people to make and it should be part of the discussions in the election campaign next year, so can the Minister take this opportunity to rule out any suggestion that he is cancelling any county council elections next year?

• 16 Dec 2024 · Royal Mail Takeover · Hansard source

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  May I start by thanking the Minister for advance sight of his statement? Before I get into my questions, can we take a moment to thank every postman and postwoman up and down this country for their hard work, particularly at this time of year? In all the challenging weather, they are out there putting letters through every letterbox in the land and collecting thousands of letters from the red pillar boxes in every corner of our country. I take the opportunity, especially in this Christmas season, to say thank you on behalf of all of us. Every colleague here will recognise the importance of Royal Mail, both as an institution and as a provider of a vital nationwide service. It has been in existence for more than 500 years, and it has seen a lot of change over those years, but the one consistent thing is that it is still a service on which we all depend every day. It is not the only way we communicate any more, but it is a vital one, and it will continue to be needed, including by Government. What a shame it is that one of the biggest postal deliveries done by Royal Mail this year was from the Government. It was a letter to many pensioners—often on low incomes—cancelling their winter fuel payments. The dwindling number of letters sent has eroded the base on which the success of Royal Mail was built. The inevitable consequence is that Royal Mail has been facing serious financial challenges, and amid those challenges the service received by people across Britain has become worse, whether that is deliveries missing their deadlines, letters going missing or occasionally, in some areas, people going weeks at a time without post. The example of that failure was shown last week by the fines that Royal Mail received. The cost of this poor service cannot be overstated, whether it is for those who subscribe for services by mail, those who rely on business deliveries or those who miss appointments with their general practitioner, impacting their health and costing the Government. That poor service cannot be allowed to continue. The inward investment into the service announced today will be scrutinised by shareholders, but given that they are the golden shareholder, I have questions for the Government. What guarantees has the Minister received about the service provision? What commitments has he received about the level of jobs across Royal Mail? How much of Royal Mail do the employees themselves now own? In some places it has been reported that the commitment to the tax residency guarantee is for five years, but I heard the Minister say at the Dispatch Box that it was perpetual. Can he clarify that? What ongoing role will the Government have in making sure that Ofcom ensures that Royal Mail delivers the service expected by customers? The fines do not seem to be doing it. An important part of the service offered by Royal Mail is the universal service obligation, which now requires post to be delivered six days a week and parcels to be delivered five days a week. When the Royal Mail is working well, the universal service obligation provides an outstanding service. However, Royal Mail wishes for it to be reformed. Does the Minister believe that the obligation must be maintained in its current form? Can he confirm what discussions he has held with EP Group about the obligation? Will he confirm whether there is a sunset on the obligation? He mentioned that there potentially was with a transfer of ownership. The value of Royal Mail goes far beyond the universal service obligation. Can the Minister outline whether he expects any of the other services provided by Royal Mail to be impacted? For example, can my rural constituents continue to count on their letters being collected from every post box? What risks has he identified with the takeover itself? Although the Post Office and Royal Mail are separate entities, they are closely tied. Just over a month ago, the Government announced that more than 100 post office branches were at risk of closure, with hundreds of jobs lost. Can the Minister explain what assessment he has made of the risks facing the Post Office and how they will be impacted by the sale of Royal Mail? Royal Mail faces the same headwinds, often created by this Government, as other businesses. Whether it is Labour’s employment regulations or the national insurance jobs tax, businesses have warned that they may be forced to put up prices and cut jobs, because of the very actions of this Government. Finally, can the Minister confirm whether Royal Mail has expressed concerns over the Budget or the Employment Rights Bill?

• 12 Dec 2024 · Small and Medium-sized Businesses · Hansard source

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  Some of the most successful small and medium-sized businesses, which truly think long term, are owned by families, so why does the Secretary of State think that it will help his long-term growth mission for the Government to start taxing those businesses when they get passed on to the next generation?

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  One of the ingredients for a successful high street is having a post office in the mix. The Government have inherited a network of 11,500 post offices, and that number has been stable since 2010. Will the Minister commit to supporting high streets by maintaining the scale of the post office network in this Parliament?

• 5 Dec 2024 · Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led Government · Hansard source

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  Five months in and after a Budget that the Office for Budget Responsibility says will lower growth over five years, increase inflation and reduce the number of people in jobs, it is extraordinary to see a document that has so many areas not covered. I want to probe the right hon. Gentleman specifically on his goal of increasing disposable income for working people. What would he say to those 44,000 terminally ill older people who, in shocking news last week from Marie Curie, will not get their winter fuel allowance this year? Will he be judged by his governance actions?

• 3 Dec 2024 · Draft Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. It is important for the UK’s international business reputation that we should have a public companies register, and its transparency is important for dealing with economic crime. However, we accept that having personal information on the public companies register can put individuals at risk of fraud and other harms; I am sure that many hon. Members are aware of such cases. This statutory instrument widens the range of circumstances in which individuals may apply to the registrar to protect their usual residential address where it appears on the companies register by ensuring that the registrar is able to decide not to display that address publicly. It is good to see the Government carrying forward our broader package of measures from the “Corporate transparency and register reform” White Paper published in February 2022. The White Paper and ensuing measures are important for supporting corporate transparency, which is vital to the UK because of its ability to attract investment, tackle fraud and build confidence. We support reforms to create a more secure system that allows certain individuals to apply to protect their usual residential address from public disclosure. We are pleased to hear that progress is being made on the pledge from the last Government of a total of £63 million to support the reform of Companies House—about £20 million in additional budget per year, which is important. We do, however, have some questions about this instrument, including its impact on fraud and public scrutiny of companies. We are not going to oppose the regulations, but I would appreciate it if the Minister replied to the following questions. The explanatory note says that Companies House has been “inundated” by requests to go into the undisclosed part of the register. Will the Minister assure the Committee that Companies House has sufficient resources to deal with the potential step change in workload that the regulations will create? Does the Minister foresee any issue in people not being able to check whether a company is legitimate? What potential unintended consequences might there be? Could this instrument make it more difficult for people to check, or to see at all, whether their own address is being used for fraud? What steps will the Minister take to ensure that investigations into companies, such as shell companies locating at one address, are not hampered by this legislation? In summary, will the Minister describe his ability to scrutinise the registrar’s own decision making process with regard to this statutory instrument? How much guidance can he exert in terms of the registrar’s discretion? How does he expect discussions to go with the Foreign Office given its work with some of our overseas territories to ensure greater transparency and disclosure of their registers?

• 3 Dec 2024 · UK Supply Chains: Uyghur Forced Labour · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) on securing the urgent question. Let me also welcome the Minister back to Parliament, as well as to his place on the Front Bench. As the hon. Lady said, the human rights abuses taking place against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are egregious. In government we took robust action, leading international condemnations and sanctioning individuals and an entity involved to tackle the problem at source. We also took further measures to ensure that British companies were not involved, including the introduction of export controls and financial penalties for organisations that fail to meet their obligations under the Modern Slavery Act. Those measures must be retained, and indeed reviewed, to ensure that British companies and consumers do not indirectly support the human rights abuses. The Minister said that the new Government were committed to the measures introduced by the last Conservative Government. He also mentioned that two weeks ago the Prime Minister held a bilateral meeting with President Xi. In the read-out from No. 10, however, there was no explicit mention of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which is disappointing. Can the Minister elaborate on exactly what was said at that bilateral meeting? Were human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang explicitly raised? If the Minister decides to meet his Chinese counterpart, will he commit himself to explicitly raising those human rights abuses? Indeed, will all Ministers across the Government always raise this issue in all their bilateral meetings? The Government made a manifesto commitment to carry out an audit of our relations with China. Can the Minister confirm that the audit will cover trade and the issue of goods in the UK supply chain that are produced in Xinjiang? Can he tell us whether the impact of the accelerated roll-out of electric vehicles and solar panels and the 2030 decarbonisation target will also be audited? Given the Government’s so far unsuccessful mission to grow the UK economy, will the Minister agree that that growth must not come at the price of restricting our condemnation of human rights abuses in China?

• 28 Nov 2024 · Creative Industries · Hansard source

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  Will the Culture Secretary welcome the news that, thanks to levelling-up funding, Malvern theatres in the west midlands will be expanding? Planning permission was granted last week, which will give lots of young people an opportunity to get jobs in the creative industries. When the new theatre has been built, will she come to open it and meet some of those young people?

• 27 Nov 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q6. Last weekend, during Storm Bert, Tenbury Wells was flooded for the second time this year. It is a question of when, not if, the town will flood again. The situation is even more devastating for residents because the town has a fully developed flood defence plan that is partly funded. The Budget carried forward £2.4 billion for flood defences. Will the Prime Minister commit to using his offices to finally get this scheme built and to fix the foundations of Tenbury Wells?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Storm Bert · Hansard source

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  I associate myself with the words of gratitude paid by the Secretary of State to all those who have helped over the weekend. The House will know that I have raised the situation of Tenbury Wells many times. It is devastating to hear that it was flooded again this weekend. I do not know whether the Secretary of State, in his meeting with Philip Duffy this morning, was told that there is a really well advanced design for flood defences for Tenbury Wells, which has been substantially funded thanks to previous funding allocations. I wonder if he could find it in his heart—and in his £2.4 billion over the next two years—to get that scheme over the line.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Bus Funding · Hansard source

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  Bus usage after the pandemic was beginning to recover in Worcestershire, thanks to the £2 bus fare and improvements to routes. We are campaigning in Malvern for a better and more regular bus service between Worcester and Malvern, including on weekends, and for the reinstatement of the X43 service. We hoped that we would be able to do that with some of the £209 million of High Speed 2 money that was indicated for Worcestershire. Could the Secretary of State clarify what has happened to that funding, and how it links to her statement?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Financial Services: Mansion House Speech · Hansard source

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  I declare an interest as a trustee of the parliamentary pension scheme. There is a lot to welcome in the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech, a lot of which was taken from the Mansion House and Edinburgh reforms of the previous Chancellor. I particularly welcome the increase in access to financial advice that the Minister has said she is taking forward. Can the Minister confirm the end of the senior managers regime in the City, which I believe was in the Chancellor’s speech, and if that is the case, how does she plan to take it forward and will it require primary legislation?

• 14 Nov 2024 · Council Tax · Hansard source

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  The Chancellor and the International Monetary Fund are known to favour ending council tax and replacing it with a wider property tax. The Welsh Labour Government tried to revalue all the properties in Wales for council tax purposes. Can the Government rule out doing either of those things?

• 14 Nov 2024 · Flood Resilience · Hansard source

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  I associate myself with the Minister’s remarks about the flood victims in Spain. Flood victims in Tenbury Wells were concerned to see in the Budget Red Book that capital spending on flood defences is under review. Will the Minister tell the House whether the bid that she will be making to the spending review for flood defences will be higher or lower than it is currently?