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Post Office
15. Mr. Gapes: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the future of the Post Office. [669]
Mrs. Beckett: We have initiated a review of options for implementing our election manifesto pledge to grant the Post Office greater commercial freedom to take advantage of new challenges and opportunities, both domestically and internationally. The review will enable us to develop a coherent and comprehensive policy programme for the Post Office, something which the previous Government so signally failed to do.
Mr. Gapes: May I welcome my right hon. Friend in three ways: first, to her appointment; secondly, for her statement about the future of the Post Office; and, thirdly, on behalf of my constituents, for the action that she and
my hon. Friend the Minister of State, the Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney), took to reprieve Ilford Crown post office, which has been a fantastically popular decision? I thank the Government on behalf of my constituents.
Mrs. Beckett: I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for his kind remarks and his welcome. I am very familiar with the valiant campaign that he and so many of my hon. Friends fought on that issue in the interests of their constituents. I know that his remarks will find an echo with many of them.
Mr. Yeo: In view of the unsatisfactory level of service that many of my constituents and people in other parts of the country receive from the Royal Mail, and the extraordinary success in raising standards of service in industries that have been privatised, will full-scale privatisation be among the options considered in the right hon. Lady's review?
Mrs. Beckett: No, it will not. The Post Office, even under the previous Government, who did nothing but undermine and interfere with it, is one of the most commercially and professionally successful post offices in the world. I am appalled as well as surprised that the hon. Gentleman should be so critical. The Post Office hopes, believes and will show in its future plans that, given the commercial freedom denied on dogmatic grounds by the previous Government, it will be able substantially to improve service. What the hon. Gentleman hates is that it will do so in public ownership.
Low Pay
16. Mr. Bennett: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment she has made about the impact of low wages on the competitiveness of British industry. [670]
Mr. Ian McCartney: The introduction of the national minimum wage will encourage industry to compete on the quality of the goods and services they provide rather than
by a downward spiral of low pay. By raising morale, it will lead to greater employee commitment and reduced absenteeism, staff turnover and recurring training costs.
Mr. Bennett: Does my hon. Friend share my concern for a constituent who is faced with the sack because he would not work two weekends of overtime? Due to his low pay, had he worked those two weekends, he would have lost his entitlement to family credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit. Is not that appalling? Would not it be far better to force employers to pay a decent wage so that people could be floated off such benefits?
Mr. McCartney: My hon. Friend describes exactly why the in-work benefit system has become a grotesque subsidy to employers instead of assistance to low-paid workers and their employment opportunities. For my hon. Friend's constituent, the subsidy means that the employer does not pay to a level on the sure-or-not basis of knowing that the state will pick up his or her labour costs. I reassure my hon. Friend that, from day one of employment, wherever his constituents work, they will be entitled to a national minimum wage.
Mr. Streeter: I genuinely understand the concerns about low pay, but is not the Minister aware that in the west country especially there are many small businesses, particularly hotels and guest houses, where the owners make a very modest profit and could not afford the hourly rates of pay that the low pay commission is talking about? What will the Minister say to the thousands of young people in the west country who lose their jobs when the Labour Government introduce a minimum wage?
Mr. McCartney: The low pay commission is not discussing any rates, and it has not yet met or even been established--but watch this space. Increasingly, small business organisations support in principle the concept of a minimum wage. Many companies in the catering industry, such as Whitbread, now publicly support the concept of a national minimum wage in principle. Across all sectors of the economy, survey after survey shows support from employers for the minimum wage. The only people who oppose the minimum wage are Tory Members and their fat cat supporters.
Business of the House
3.30 pm
Mr. Alastair Goodlad (Eddisbury): May I ask the Leader of the House for the business for next week?
The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Ann Taylor): The business for next week will be as follows:
Monday 9 June--Debate on the European Union on a Government motion.
Motion on the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 compensation scheme.
Tuesday 10 June--Second Reading of the Local Government Finance (Supplementary Credit Approvals) Bill.
Wednesday 11 June--Until 2 pm, there will be debates on the motion for the Adjournment of the House.
Second Reading of the Firearms (Amendment) Bill.
Thursday 12 June--Motion on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Stratford Station and Subsidiary Works) Order.
Motion on the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1996 (Amendment) Order.
Friday 13 June--The House will not be sitting.
Monday 16 June--Progress in Committee on the Firearms (Amendment) Bill.
The Chairman of Ways and Means is expected to name opposed private business for consideration at 7 pm.
Mr. Goodlad:
I thank the right hon. Lady for the business as far as it goes. She seems again to have forgotten her promise to do her best to give us the business for two weeks. I wonder whether she can give us any idea of the business for the remainder of the week commencing 16 June.
Can the right hon. Lady tell us when the motions to set up the departmental Select Committees will be tabled and when the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges will be set up? There is a desire on both sides of the House to proceed with that as a matter of urgency, not least in the light of the position of the hon. Member for Glasgow, Govan (Mr. Sarwar).
Does the right hon. Lady agree that, given the range of subjects that will be covered at the forthcoming intergovernmental conference in Amsterdam, the Government's determination to take this country into the social chapter, their intention to concede further qualified majority voting and the need for them to set out their position in respect of a single currency in the light of developments in France and Germany this week, it would be appropriate for the Prime Minister to speak in the debate on Europe on Monday rather than the departmental Minister? Can she confirm that the Prime Minister will make a statement to the House after the conference?
Will the right hon. Lady arrange for an early statement to clarify how the Government intend to resist pressure from our European partners for all companies with more than 50 staff to set up works councils or face sanctions?
Will the right hon. Lady arrange for an early statement about the announcement on union recognition made yesterday by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment to the GMB annual conference, about which
the Queen's Speech was noticeably reticent? Could such a statement include an interpretation of the remarks of Mr. John Edmonds of the GMB, who expressed the view that every Labour Member should continue to remember the help that they received from the GMB and so many other trade unions?
Will the right hon. Lady confirm that the Deputy Prime Minister's secret discussions with the public sector unions yesterday included the possibility of abandoning compulsory competitive tendering, and will she arrange for her right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister to make an early statement on that matter?
Can the right hon. Lady tell us whether we might expect a statement on the Government's defence review, which was announced outside the House during the Whitsun recess?
Will the right hon. Lady make an early statement on whether the Prime Minister plans to attend the transfer of sovereignty ceremonies in Hong Kong? Will an early statement be made on the Government's attitude to the Prime Minister's attending the proposed swearing-in of the provisional legislature?
Is it not clear that concern has increased in the House and among the public at the politicisation of the civil service? Last week, Sir Michael Bett, the First Civil Service Commissioner, publicly expressed his misgivings about the Government's behaviour. Will the Leader of the House confirm that she will arrange for an early debate in Government time on the matter, which has constitutional implications, and publish in advance the names and salaries of all political appointees?
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