Meeting of the Parliament 01 March 2016
In all honesty, I genuinely do not understand the point that Christian Allard is making. I point out a host of areas in which successive UK Governments of different political stripes have pushed hard to bring in high-quality jobs, whether through inward investment or through what they have done for science, engineering or medicine. Governments of all shapes and sizes want to bring in the best high-quality jobs that they can. They do not always succeed, but to suggest that they do not want those jobs and that they do not succeed intentionally is an absurd proposition.
There were a number of highlights in the debate, one of which was Johann Lamont’s thoughtful contribution. She very eloquently made the point that poor working practices are not just bad for the individuals concerned but, ultimately, bad for the economy as a whole. I would go a step further and say that in the medium to longer term, they are bad for employers as well. There might be a short-term boost to the bottom line as a result of paying workers less and not treating them well, but that sets a terrible precedent, and doing that does not do a business any good in the medium term, in terms of its potential and its sustainability. Johann Lamont made that point well.
In my final minute, I will return to the point that I made earlier. I hope that the minister, in her summation, will respond specifically to a number of the issues that were raised in the report. I talked about the new national indicator and improving labour force data. There were other excellent suggestions—the commissioning of specific research from the office of the chief economic adviser was a good idea. Can things be done in the public procurement processes? Although there are challenges, there are further angles that we can consider, particularly those looking at the supply chain and not just the individual main contractor. A specific conclusion was on mental wellbeing monitoring and performance indicators across the workplace. There was a whole host of good ideas. Obviously, we will get a full written response, but anything that we can get from the Government today would be welcome.
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