Contributions
3,240 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDPublic Services (Social Value) Act 2012We will implement the system this year. We are keen to be able to measure the distance travelled for individual departments and for procurement overall. Training is being rolled…27 Feb 2020HANSARDPublic Services (Social Value) Act 2012My understanding is that all aspects of these issues are being reviewed as part of that. I do not know specifically about the voluntary living wage, but in the short term a big…27 Feb 2020HANSARDPublic Services (Social Value) Act 2012My Lords, as outlined in the civil society strategy, central government is stepping up our ambition to deliver social value through commercial activities. In future, social value…27 Feb 2020HANSARDPublic Services (Social Value) Act 2012I absolutely agree that social value is central to our procurement process: it is a massive lever. It is £49 billion of central government expenditure, but total public sector…27 Feb 2020HANSARDPublic Services (Social Value) Act 2012The Government are developing a measurement framework. There have been two approaches. Most local government procurement uses a form of financial metric. Central government…27 Feb 2020HANSARDWuhan Coronavirus: TourismI am sorry to disappoint the noble Lord, but I am not aware of any plans to review VAT on tourism at the moment.26 Feb 2020HANSARDWuhan Coronavirus: TourismObviously, VisitBritain is responsible for the data on its website. I asked the same questions of officials that the noble Lord put to me. Rightly, the view is that there are many…26 Feb 2020HANSARDWuhan Coronavirus: TourismAs I tried to explain in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Lee, the Minister for Tourism is working closely with the industry and the Government. As the noble Lord, Lord Clark, will…26 Feb 2020HANSARDWuhan Coronavirus: TourismMy Lords, the Government are working very closely with the tourism industry to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on the sector. VisitBritain has chaired two meetings of the Tourism…26 Feb 2020HANSARDWuhan Coronavirus: TourismI thank my noble friend for his question. In everything that we are doing, we are being guided by the Chief Medical Officer in trying to strike a balance between the safety of the…26 Feb 2020HANSARDWuhan Coronavirus: TourismThe noble Lord is right to point out the challenges to certain sectors of the tourism industry. As for working more closely with the banks on the impact of Covid-19, the virus is…26 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]My Lords, Amendments 4 and 18 seek to ensure that all staff employed directly by the organising committee and those employed by organisations awarded contracts to deliver the…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]I thank my noble friend Lord Moynihan for raising the important issue of accessibility through Amendment 8 and for his very helpful analysis of all the different issues involved.…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]My Lords, I start by sharing the positive sentiments that many noble Lords, including the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, the noble Lords, Lord Grocott and Lord Addington, and…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]My Lords, as we have heard, Amendment 9 requires the Secretary of State to direct Birmingham 2022 to prepare a charter for the Games. I thank my noble friend for his amendment…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]My Lords, the amendments tabled by my noble friend Lord Moynihan on advertising and trading restrictions seek to provide that news media would be excepted from the advertising and…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]I fear that I may be repeating what has been said in previous debates, but as part of the hosting requirements for the Games the Government have committed to underwriting the cost…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]Obviously, legally everyone has to meet the national living wage. The Living Wage Foundation’s voluntary living wage will be one of a number of metrics that will be taken into…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]My noble friend makes a very fair point, and I am sure that the Commonwealth Games Federation has given enormous consideration to these matters and will continue to reflect on…25 Feb 2020HANSARDBirmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]I am happy to explore that, but my understanding is that that decision has been taken. Perhaps we need to see how it plays out in the event that the model is adopted in future.25 Feb 2020