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  • Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 23 May 2016 to Question 37122, on variations in access to transcatheter interventions for heart valve disease, whether the next iteration of the NHS England service specifications and policy for the surgical and interventional treatment of heart valve disease will take into account (a) the need to commission for a growing patient population, (b) anticipated doubling in the over-65 population in the UK by 2050 and (c) lower levels of transcatheter interventions performed in the UK compared to European comparator countries.

    Nicola Blackwood

    NHS England’s policy development process includes assessment of current published evidence nationally and internationally and will review population projections for up to five years.

    Decisions to set commissioning criteria for which patients will most likely benefit from the intervention will be based on a range of clinical, academic and financial information and a proposition will be put forward through the NHS England prioritisation process. Within the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) development process, NHS England accepts that there is an ageing population and it will review all available evidence including the encouraging results of the TAVI trials and consider the options around the best use of National Health Service resources. A policy proposition will be produced as part of the 2016/17 work programme.

  • Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

    Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

    The speech made by Derek Thomas, the Conservative MP for St Ives, in the House of Commons on 13 December 2022.

    I rise to speak in support of Government new clause 119. The lack of the housing that people need to live, work and play a full part in our local community is not a new problem for Cornwall and Scilly, but it has certainly become acute during and following the covid pandemic. The demand for staycations, fuelled by stringent rules and tax changes, has caused massive numbers of long-let properties to switch to short lets to meet the demand for short breaks at the expense of those who need the security of a permanent home. We have more homes approved for building than families on our waiting list.

    This Bill has a job of work to do, and I believe that, with this sensible new clause, which I and many others support, it can offer a framework that will see a shift for the better in how we deliver the homes our community needs. I am grateful for the way the Minister has engaged with us and listened to the concerns that I and colleagues have shared, including those who share the task of representing the Duchy of Cornwall.

    Very early on, my Cornish colleagues and I pressed for consideration to be given to how we ensure that houses built to meet local need can enjoy protection so they stay that way. The Bill establishes a registration scheme for holiday rentals and a consultation on whether planning permission is required for new holiday rentals, especially in tourist hotspots. I very much hope that is progressed as quickly as possible to reassure my constituents that the Government and the Bill work for them. That will address a difficulty that many families face by curtailing the opportunity for a landlord to switch the home to a holiday let. I ask the Minister to consider including second homes in the consultation. With that measure in place, Cornwall Council and other local authorities can assess the housing need and choose to decline a change of use application, protecting the home for permanent residents.

    I am glad that the Government have made the central plank of this legislation enabling the building of the right homes in the right places with the right infrastructure. Communities will heave a huge sigh of relief, as they have felt forced to accept housing that spoils the natural environment but that does little to meet the need in the area. It confirms the fact that when we empower a local community to fashion and design its own destiny, people step forward and give their time to meet the challenge and win the arguments. This will always be a more constructive method of addressing housing supply than the top-down, target-driven approach that we are subject to now. That approach has not worked, otherwise there would be no housing crisis in Cornwall and no need for much of this legislation.

    The top-down housing targets undermine confidence, sap the energy of local volunteers and do nothing to deliver the homes that local people need. With this Bill, brownfield sites will take precedence over greenfield sites and local communities’ needs over top-down diktats, and there will be confidence that priority will be given to those who live, work and are enabled to play a part in their community.

  • Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on Business Rates and Levelling Up

    Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on Business Rates and Levelling Up

    The speech made by Derek Thomas, the Conservative MP for St. Ives, in Westminster Hall, the House of Commons, on 13 December 2022.

    It is a privilege to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous), for bringing this subject—a pet subject of mine—to the House once more. I am glad that the debate is called “Business Rates and Levelling Up”, because I want to pick up on both of those, and include the VAT threshold within the levelling-up issue, because it is absolutely relevant to my constituency.

    Much of what has been said today does not come as a surprise, but every opportunity to argue for a reform of property-based taxes is one that we should seize. As I said, I will touch on business rates and levelling up in relation to the VAT threshold. I do not think I am alone in the view that business rates are arbitrary, taxing the existence of a business within a building, irrespective of its economic activity. It is unfair and discriminates against large independent businesses, especially in town centres, and favours—in my view—out-of-town and online businesses.

    I believe that business rates should be scrapped altogether and replaced, although I know that I differ from my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney on that. We should have the courage to replace business rates with a system that taxes in-town, out-of-town and online equally and fairly.

    I have a great news story from my constituency. In Penzance, we have the oldest working dry dock. It is a fantastic business, and Members are welcome to come and see it. It is an amazing bit of infrastructure—donkey’s years old, and quite leaky, which does not really work for a dry dock. However, it would not be there—there is still a real risk of closure, partly because of businesses rates—if not for a local individual, a young man, who decided that it needed to be saved and wanted to have a go at it.

    The dock was threatened with closure, but he has secured that business and all the jobs and skills there—and increased them—and is spending a huge amount of money on the infrastructure, trying to plug the holes and level the floor of the massive engineering workhouse. It is a fantastic piece of marine engineering, which is vital, and strategically important for the British coastline, particularly Cornwall.

    That young man has invested significantly in that old facility, although much more is needed. New jobs and apprenticeships have been created and significant services have been secured and enhanced for marine engineering, and shipping more generally. However, it operates in a highly competitive market and he must find £4,000 a month just for business rates. That is undermining, as we speak, its ability to be competitive, as he needs to pour money into bringing the facility up to where it should be.

    It is actually more tax-efficient—if that is the right phrase to use—to close that strategically important dry-dock facility in favour of housing or hospitality. I have done a lot of work with Cornwall Council, which says that there is nothing that it can do, but we are working to find a way to give that dry dock a level playing field with others in the area, which benefit from an enterprise zone arrangement.

    I will move on to levelling up, particularly to the obstacle of the VAT threshold. In a rural coastal area where so much of the economic activity, and jobs supporting it, are compressed into the tourist season—many MPs share that problem—effort has been made for years to extend that activity. In west Cornwall, we have worked hard to extend the tourist season into the shoulder months—much earlier and later in the year. I am sure that is true in other coastal areas. That would increase economic gain, jobs wages and skills; it would provide job security, if nothing else.

    However, we have faced challenges as we try to do that. There is an acute issue on the Isles of Scilly where, as we try to increase the shoulder months, we come up against the understandable need that small hotels, guest houses and restaurants have for curtailing their business. As they get closer to the VAT threshold, which I think is about £85,000, they will either close or slow down their business to avoid that threshold. The simple reason is that the minute they go over the £85,000 threshold, even by £1, they are clobbered for £9,000 of VAT. They would have to earn another £45,000 in order just to stand still. The problem with a small hotel is that it just does not have the beds, particularly in the shoulder months or the winter, to grow business to that extent.

    Unfortunately, the inevitable and sensible decision for many businesses in Penzance and in my coastal community on St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly is to close. That immediately puts other businesses in the area at risk, contributes to job insecurity and the challenges we face around that every year, hollows out communities, and threatens transport links. We tried to increase the transport running to and from Scilly in the shoulder months, but it was just not viable because people were booking the ferry, but were then unable to find accommodation or places to eat. It is a real challenge, which I have raised many times since I was elected. The last answer I received was that it was going to be looked at in 2024, but I think that might have been pushed further into the future.

    Those businesses cannot grow and they would need to earn another £45,000 just to stand still—that is not an incentive for someone to work in the winter, supporting our local economy but with no gain for their business. As a result, we have a real problem in coastal areas. It is harming our ability to level up and to provide good, skilled jobs. We have seen during and following covid that jobs in hospitality and tourism are beginning to be reasonably well paid and more skilled, but they are not secure, partly because of this problem. There is thus a direct impact on job security, other businesses, transport and so on. I am not sure if this is the right place to raise it, but the simple fix is that when a business reaches the £85,000 threshold, VAT should be applied to all money earned above that. It is so simple and obvious that I am not sure why the Government do not do it.

    In conclusion, I differ from my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney; tweaking business rates has actually increased unfairness and depressed growth and aspiration —that is the experience in my constituency. Business rates should be scrapped in favour of a tax that reflects the economic activity, not the building the business occupies. To support levelling up, serious consideration must be given to the chilling impact of an arbitrary VAT threshold.

  • Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on Burning Trees for Energy Generation

    Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on Burning Trees for Energy Generation

    The speech made by Derek Thomas, the Conservative MP for St. Ives, in Westminster Hall, the House of Commons, on 6 December 2022.

    I commend my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby) for securing this important debate. How we create energy is a hot topic, if you will excuse the pun, Mr Gray. It is vital that Parliament, Government and the broader public hear our concern about burning trees to generate energy.

    The Government’s own figure put annual bioenergy emissions at 47 million tonnes of CO2, which is 10% of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. That is four times greater than those from coal, as the right hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) has just said. The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the wider debate on how we balance the needs to protect the environment and biodiversity and for energy to keep us warm and feed us. It is a really big debate that we do not have time for today but it must be had.

    I want to focus my remarks on where the best home for carbon is. Some people rightly emphasise that keeping it in the ground is the best place. They want it permanently kept in unused fossil fuels. I would accept this if the alternative were more destructive. Many of us here believe that the best place for carbon is in trees. They not only store existing carbon, but capture more. We and our constituents cannot believe the argument that says that burning those trees and releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere makes sense. I did not know a great amount about this subject until very recently, but what I have looked at over the last few weeks and what has been said today makes me realise how ludicrous and harmful that argument is. We must find a way to put an end to it.

    I would like to speak about a specific store of carbon, where carbon is turned into timber for construction for uses such as building frames and furniture. These are long-term uses for carbon. By making building frames out of timber, we reduce the need for cement and steel, which are both highly carbon-intensive. The problem is that burning trees for energy increasingly takes wood away from use in construction, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon made clear.

    Two months ago, the BBC’s “Panorama” reported on the quality of wood being used by Drax in its pellet-making plants in Canada. It found that only 11% was grade 6 or grade Z—the diseased rotten wood that Drax’s PR machine says it uses for pellets. The rest was not waste wood. It could have been used for timber, making things out of chipboard, oriented strand board or other essential sheet building material that stores carbon for the long term. The Telegraph reports that the Government’s current plans for bioenergy would need to burn the equivalent of 120 million trees a year by 2050. We have heard that the entire New Forest has only 46 million trees, so that is the equivalent of burning the entire New Forest every five months. No wonder we import all our wood, but what if other countries did the same?

    As my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) noted a couple of years ago, we all live under the same sky. Forests destroyed in Canada for burning in UK power stations have a big impact for all of humanity. Given that so much useful wood is being burned by power stations such as Drax today, what would be the situation if global demand for wood pellets grew by 3,000%, as forecast by Chatham House? If there is not enough waste wood today, better and better grades of wood will inevitably go up in smoke in our power stations. Inevitably, that will drive up the price of timber, forcing builders to use cement and steel.

    There is another important point. We talked about the use of wood in building. I came from the construction trade before I entered this place, but in recent years I have learned that the people who produce the panels and sheet material also find a way to use pretty much all their waste wood. There is a real debate about how we use trees, where we use them and what we should be focusing on for carbon capture.

    Bioenergy threatens to devour huge quantities of wood needed for construction, land needed for farming and water needed for drinking. It is robbing land needed for human homes as well as habitat for countless species. Bioenergy is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is a monster, as we have heard this morning. Those who gave it birth 20 years ago might have had good motives, but today we must pass its death sentence. It is doing our planet and climate no good whatsoever. We must not forget that it cost UK taxpayers £1.2 billion in 2021 alone to subsidise bioenergy production.

  • TWITTER TIMELINE ARCHIVE : Derek Thomas

    TWITTER TIMELINE ARCHIVE : Derek Thomas

  • Derek Thomas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Thomas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2015-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was spent by his Department on research into brain tumours in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15.

    George Freeman

    The information requested is not available. Spend on research funded directly by the Department’s National Institute for Health Research is categorised by Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health categories including ‘cancer’. There are no HRCS health sub-categories, such as for brain tumours or other cancer sites.

  • Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on the Cost of Living Crisis

    Derek Thomas – 2022 Speech on the Cost of Living Crisis

    The speech made by Derek Thomas, the Conservative MP for St. Ives, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. We have heard much this afternoon about the hike in energy prices. It is well-documented and concerning. However, I welcome the supercharging of the effort to boost homegrown clean energy, which will drive down costs, take the volatility out of the energy markets and cut our carbon footprint. That is all welcome, but more must be done now to help. Those changes will help in the future, but we need help in our homes now, as we have heard. We also need to look closely at the use of the standing charge—a daily charge on every household—which has risen to 50p plus, putting £150 more on the bill. I am concerned that these standing charges will never come down, so it is important that we raise the matter here and that we keep our eye closely on the use of them by energy companies.

    We also know that food prices are on the rise, but we are not seeing the same kind of supercharging in the Government’s response when it comes to increasing homegrown food production. Now that we have left the EU, the Government have the power to prioritise food production, using money already available through the environmental land management scheme to supercharge food production to make sure that farmers have the confidence, security and funding to produce the food that we need. Surely if there was ever a time to boost food production in the UK it is now.

    I know from speaking to many people in food, farming and fishing that the sector is willing to step up and increase production, but, at the moment, they are planning to sow less, rear less and fish less because of their concerns about the cost of fertilisers, fuel, energy and so on. The Government must look very closely at how we can supercharge homegrown food production.

    The real squeeze is on household budgets, especially for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. One area that we have heard little about this afternoon is the cost of housing. Rents in recent years have rocketed. In my constituency, people can barely find a house to rent. If they can find one, a three-bedroom house costs £1,400-plus, which is a massive increase on perhaps a year ago. House prices have also rocketed in the south-west, and action is needed, and needed now, to address the matter.

    I welcome the fact that the Queen’s Speech includes a levelling up and regeneration Bill, but it must be a response to the housing challenges in coastal areas in particular. Existing homes must be made more efficient; that would help with energy costs, as we heard from the right hon. Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms). New homes must be protected for permanent residence. It is far easier to get homes built in rural areas such as mine if local people know that they will meet a recognisable need, such as the acute need of housing.

    More must be done to safeguard the homes in which people already live. Every week, I meet families who have been turfed out of their homes, and those homes are then flipped for other uses. Landlords are not entirely at fault, as changes in the tax system and the energy performance rating system have discouraged them from providing homes for local families. I welcome the Government’s recent commitment to changing the methodology of energy performance certificates, but more must be done to make sure that being a landlord, or providing homes for people to live in, is both attractive and secure. It is vital that the Government take more decisive action to support home ownership, secure a quality home for everyone who needs one and drive down the cost of those homes through good energy efficiency measures.

  • Derek Thomas – 2019 Speech on Bank Holidays in 2020

    Below is the text of the speech made by Derek Thomas, the Conservative MP for St. Ives, in the House of Commons on 18 June 2019.

    I am grateful for the opportunity to bring this important issue before the House; it concerns many of my constituents and many other people around the country. Since being elected in 2015 I have secured a number of debates in Parliament, all triggered by someone from west Cornwall and Scilly raising an issue with me that deserves proper scrutiny and representation. The issue of the early May bank holiday next year is no exception.

    I am here to add my full support to the decision to make the 75th anniversary of VE Day on 8 May 2020 a bank holiday and a national day of celebration and commemoration. Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day, is a day celebrating the formal acceptance by the allies of world war two of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on 8 May 1945.

    It is worth remembering how we celebrated that momentous event all those years ago. At 11 am on 8 May church bells rang out across the nation signifying the end of the most destructive war Europe had ever seen. More than 1 million people took to the streets of London to celebrate. Crowds filled Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace, where King George, Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill stood on the palace balcony, waving and cheering the crowds on. Around the country, millions gathered in villages, towns and cities, marking the end of war in Europe with street parties, dances and parades. Social norms were abandoned as strangers hugged and danced with one another, and bonfires were lit in the street—I cannot imagine what local councillors would do about that these days. Despite rationing and years of economic strife, communities came together to cook sweet treats for children and shared meals with what food they had, and pub licensing hours were extended. Buildings and streets in major cities were illuminated for the first time since the start of the war, after years of blackouts to prevent German bombings.

    Julian Knight (Solihull) (Con)

    I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate and add my support to the bank holiday idea. I recently read through the biography I wrote of my grandfather, who was a 17-year-old paratrooper—they used to lie about their age—in northern France and Germany in 1945; it addressed that time and when he came home. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is not unusual to mark the end of wars and major events in this way? For many years we marked Trafalgar Day and even the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth I.

    Derek Thomas

    I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. The days that he has referenced are really good opportunities for MPs to take part in the commemorations that happen right across the country, which I enjoy. I make a point of taking part in them and taking my children along as well, so that they can learn about our great heritage and our great service.

    Hugh Gaffney (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (Lab)

    I agree with what the hon. Gentleman says about the 75 years, and about the 50 years. I have been a trade ​unionist for 30 years, and the only day of action I took was for the bank holiday to remain as a traditional May Day bank holiday. It must remain. Give us the extra day for the 75, but the traditional May Day bank holiday on the first Monday of every May is for workers and trade unions, and it must remain as well.

    Derek Thomas

    That is the argument I will be making as I remind the House about the incredible event that took place on VE Day and explain why it is absolutely right that we set aside time to celebrate that next year, so that the whole of Great Britain can take part.

    Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)

    I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way, and if he needs any advice on bonfires in Northern Ireland, we would certainly have lots of information. We do them every 11 July, by the way. I attend one in Newtownards and it is always very well attended. There have been almost 1,000 people there in years gone past. Does he not agree, however, that it is difficult for businesses and even community groups to accept this roll-out of a new bank holiday date? I support the principle of what he is saying, but the proposal is not even for a year’s roll-in. Does he share my dismay at the news of calendar makers losing hundreds of thousands of pounds due to the short roll-in? Does he share my concern at the environmental aspects of the wastage of perfectly good material because the Government, in this case, did not pre-empt the change in the same way as was done with the last change to a bank holiday, which was announced in 1993 for a roll-out in 1995?

    Derek Thomas

    I welcome that intervention, and I would be happy to apply for a Westminster Hall debate with the hon. Gentleman if he chose to speak on that further.

    I want to make the point that I am not a fan of the way in which the Government have come to this decision, but it is really important for me, knowing what a great thing it is to remember the sacrifice made by the millions of men, their families and all the people involved in working and fighting for peace in Europe, that we spend a little bit of time remembering the great event that took place when that finally came to an end. For me, seeing the footage of crowds in the streets celebrating this momentous occasion—for them, a bittersweet moment after years of hardship, loss and fear—it is right that we should put aside all else and commemorate and celebrate that day on 8 May next year. I hope that we will be able to re-enact many, if not all, of the activities in our towns and villages. I would not need to go far, as I have a couple of sons in my own home who would be quite happy to tell me how to light fires, which the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) mentioned.

    As I have said, I have no problem with the decision to move the bank holiday to 8 May. My problem is the cack-handed way in which the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy went about reaching this decision. I would be interested to hear from the Minister what impact assessment the Department did on the lateness of making such a substantive change to the bank holidays in 2020 before announcing this decision. What was the Department thinking when it decided to give to give just 11 months’ notice of the cancelation of the early May bank holiday?​

    Dr David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op)

    I am sure the hon. Gentleman is going to talk about this, but I will pre-empt him. At least two people have written to me to say that that was the ideal date for them to get married, and that they had invited people for the whole weekend. Their plans are now in tatters. We cannot just let people down in this way. It is not fair. People plan these things years in advance, based on the dates they know. Why don’t we just have an extra day?

    Derek Thomas

    I am glad that I have support from around the House, because Adjournment debates are often poorly attended. I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, and I completely agree with him. The Secretary of State announced the change to the early May bank holiday, and it was an enormous decision for large numbers of small businesses, for the tourism industry—which I particularly want to focus on—for the people who have already, for good reasons, booked their holidays next May, and for the people who have decided to use that weekend because they would be able to take their children away without interfering with their schooling.

    I am disappointed that the Secretary of State himself is not here to respond to the debate, because the late notice of the announcement demonstrates a tin ear towards the tourism industry. For those in any doubt about the meaning of the expression “tin ear” and its use in relation to the Department’s attitude towards small businesses and many other people, it is defined as “a deafened or insensitive ear”. However, I want to make it clear that I do not include the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson), who has been asked to respond to this debate, in that definition, because he has had nothing to do with it.

    I received a letter from a businessman on the Isles of Scilly a day after the announcement, and he put his concern across much more diplomatically, saying:

    “I have to say whichever government department decided at this late stage, 11 months before, to change the dates really does need to wake up to the realty of the holiday market. This change has the potential to create many upset guests unable to change their booked dates.”

    I know that I am not alone in receiving correspondence and representations from constituents and businesses, and I have selected a few extracts that help to express the various implications of the decision being so late. One constituent asked the following question of the Secretary of State in an email to me:

    “Have schools been considered in this late announcement about the changes to the May bank holiday? This will cause problems especially as holiday dates are already issued, residentials and school trips will have been planned, and this is the Friday before the important Y6 SAT tests”.

    Another wrote:

    “Hello Mr Thomas,

    I have also been affected by the change of the bank holiday. I have booked my Hen Do”—

    we have already had a reference to weddings—

    “for the bank holiday weekend, paying more to go on these dates so that more people could make it as they wouldn’t have to take the day off work. As the date has now changed, people are not able to make my Hen Do, and I am forced to pay to cancel the holiday booked for us all losing over £1000.​
    I hope you can help in this issue by asking the government to not take away our original bank holiday date.”

    Another constituent wrote to me to say:

    “Dear Sir,

    I am extremely pleased that VE day is to be celebrated as a priority in 2020.

    However, I do not believe that the decision yesterday to change the date to 8th May 2020 provides a suitable length of time for the country to adapt.

    My family are now left with the option of losing financially to cancel our annual May Day Bank Holiday as our children will be required to attend school.

    The tourism industry is just one example where 11 months’ notice is not suitable.

    I would expect that more foresight would have been given to this scenario.”

    Someone who is not a constituent—I will leave the House to work out where they are from—wrote:

    “Dear Mr Thomas

    I understand you are bringing up the cancellation of the May day holiday in Parliament.”

    A small group of us, they continue, organises

    “the annual bikers’ event and May day Morris dancing in Hastings. It is by far and above the biggest weekend in the annual calendar. Not only will it affect our events badly, it will also be a massive blow to local tourist businesses who rely on that weekend after a hard winter and tell me it’s their biggest earner of the year…Currently, Morris dancers and bikers from across the country”—

    this is something that we can all look forward to—

    “are planning a protest at Parliament on July 23rd. This is something we would rather not have to do”—

    although I think we would welcome it.

    “We fully support a commemoration of VE Day, but we do not support having our events that have already been booked and paid for, plus all those who have already booked hotels, disrupted with so little notice.”

    Returning to my constituency, many will know that the world gig rowing championships take place on the Isles of Scilly on the early May bank holiday every year. It is a momentous event in my constituency’s calendar, and it takes a considerable amount of time to get all the gigs over to Scilly. However, it is currently unclear what changes will need to be made if the Government stick to their decision. Moving on to other disruption that I am aware of, we have all seen the story in the national press about the small business that is set to lose £200,000 having just printed next year’s calendars.

    I am sure the Government do not need me to say how disruptive this decision is given how late in the day the announcement was made. The only possible, practical and pragmatic response is for the Government to keep the bank holiday to commemorate VE-day and to reinstate the early spring bank holiday on Monday 4 May. I make it clear to the Minister, to the House and to business that I have no appetite to create extra cost and disruption for small businesses, and I have never previously supported the idea of extra bank holidays. However, the fact remains that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has left the decision far too late and has caused far too much disruption and potential expense to far too many people. The appropriate response must be for the Department to quickly reinstate the bank holiday on 4 May.

    There is support for that proposal, which may not surprise the House. The British Beer & Pub Association sent me a letter:​

    “For clarity the BBPA does support the extra bank holiday that Mr Thomas is proposing. Based on the four-day bank holiday weekend for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, we predict that the extra bank holiday would provide a boost to Britain’s pubs and brewers, with an estimated 10 million extra pints sold. This would also support the taxman and the economy—the taxman would receive £4.5m in extra duty revenue and VAT and it would provide a £30m boost to the economy.”

    All of us, particularly those of us with rural constituencies, know the importance of small rural village pubs and how such opportunities really help them to continue their business of providing a community hub and keeping an eye on those who are otherwise often left at home on their own.

    Hugh Gaffney

    The hon. Gentleman mentioned earlier that people book holidays for that weekend, and sometimes it is the only time that families get together because they have to work through the school holidays to keep a roof above their head. The UK has the fewest bank holidays in the G20. Does he agree with Labour, which wants to increase the number of bank holidays? Let us start next year with VE Day and then look at each country’s patron saint’s day.

    Derek Thomas

    The hon. Gentleman will realise that I do not fully support everything he has just said, but I support what he says about next year. That is the whole point of this debate.

    We have left it too late. There is no question but that we need 8 May, but we should reinstate and keep the 4 May bank holiday, because that is what people have planned for, expect and, in many cases, have paid for. Tourism is a significant part of my constituency’s economy, and people have booked in advance because there has been real growth in staycations. People are staying in the UK for holidays, and Cornwall is obviously their No. 1 choice, particularly west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

    I have always maintained that I represent the most beautiful, precious and wonderful part of the country. If people have any concerns about their wellbeing, they should come down for a well-deserved rest and therapy. I hope I have been able to get that across in this short commercial break.

    I agree about the extra bank holiday for next year, but I do not have it within me, as a former businessman, to impose further bank holidays, particularly on small businesses, unless there is a good reason to do so and the Department handles it much better than it has on this occasion.

    The British Beer & Pub Association’s letter continues:

    “Furthermore, the BBPA have already called on the Government to grant extended hours to pubs, so pubs can make the most of the celebratory weekend.”

    That is what happened 75 years ago, and I hope the Government follow suit.

    In summary—I am reluctant to keep people away from any activity they might want to pursue in the beer industry later this evening—I have no appetite to create further cost and disruption for small business. That is clear, and I spend my time trying to do what I can to support small businesses. In fact, I have spent a lot of time over the past four years arguing that the Government should improve the lot of small business by simplifying the tax system—scrapping business rates, for example—creating training opportunities and ensuring that businesses have affordable access to credit.​

    I have a record of wanting to support and promote small business, and I am not one to disrupt it any further, but I believe we should give the extra bank holiday on this occasion. The Business Secretary has given too little notice of the changes to the early May bank holiday. The Government should reinstate the bank holiday on 4 May and keep the planned bank holiday for 8 May that was recently announced to celebrate the 75th anniversary of victory in Europe.

    I completely support the proposed bank holiday. The challenge for businesses, particularly in tourism, is that the Government have given just 11 months’ notice of this change, as if the 75th anniversary has come as some sort of surprise. I sincerely apologise to business, which can ill afford another bank holiday, but it is too late to scrap the 4 May bank holiday. The Government should reinstate it, and reinstate it quickly—hopefully in the next 15 minutes.