Below is the text of the speech made by the then Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, David Steel, made as a tribute following the death of Donald Dewar. The speech was made on Friday 13th October 2000 in the Scottish Parliament.
This is not a meeting that any of us would have wished to hold. The news of our First Minister’s death came with such devastating suddenness, after we had all assumed that he had come safely through his serious heart operation.
It is cruel how Scotland has been robbed in recent years of so many able politicians in their prime: John P Mackintosh, Labour; Alick Buchanan-Smith, Conservative; Allan Macartney, SNP; John Smith; and now Donald Dewar. Donald, however, at least had the satisfaction of leaving behind the completion of what he described as first a hope, then a belief, then a promise and then a reality – the restoration of Scotland’s Parliament after 300 years.
He questioned the title “father of the nation”, but he was without question the father of the Parliament. Under his leadership, this new Parliament had already found its head, its energy and its skills. Today, as it meets to mourn his death, it has found its heart.
Over the past two days, hundreds of tributes have been paid to Donald Dewar, so many that it is difficult to find anything new to say about him. We do not need to find anything new to say, because what is remarkable about all the newspaper coverage is that the same words keep leaping out from different pages – decency, integrity, trust, dignity, scholar, service and commitment.
Tributes have been coming in from all manner of people. He visited the Irish Parliament a few months ago. Its Presiding Officer wrote to me:
“Having paid tribute to the integrity and proficiency of such a fine politician, the members of the Dáil rose in prayerful silence.”
In May, we had a visit from the President of Malawi. Donald’s heart trouble had already been diagnosed and he had cancelled most of his engagements prior to his operation. However, he was due to give a dinner in Edinburgh castle for the President and he told me, “That is one I am going to keep”. He not only gave the dinner, but he spent the evening showing the President round the castle and over the honours of Scotland, revelling in expounding our history and discussing Scotland’s links with Africa through David Livingstone and others. On Wednesday evening, within hours of the tragic news, I was astonished to receive a telephone call from the President of Malawi himself, expressing his sadness and conveying his condolences to the Parliament. Those two tributes show how Donald touched and impressed those whom he had met but fleetingly. How much more painful, therefore, is his loss to those who knew him well.
However, tributes have come not just from the great and the powerful, but from every walk of life. One Scottish organisation wrote:
“While we and he had not seen eye to eye on every aspect of policy, it had been a comfort to know that the Executive was headed by a man who personified the highest possible standards in public life.”
I add the words of two typical individuals, which I have chosen at random. One said that he
“was not a supporter of his party but, like many others, knew him to be a great ambassador for Scotland and a genuinely good man.”
Another stated:
“Yesterday should have been a day of celebration for me – it was my 40th birthday. I had never met the man, but when I heard the news of his death, I simply had no stomach for a party.”
Furthermore, one entry in our condolence book contains, alongside the signature, just one word: “Thankyou”. That is what we come together today to say. However, Donald would not forgive us if we turned this into a greetin meeting, because there was one other characteristic of Donald’s that I have not yet mentioned – he was always enormous fun to be with. I am going to miss our tête-à-tête dinners dreadfully.
Let me tell you about two episodes with Donald, which both – like all good Donald stories – involve food. More than 40 years ago, a group of Scottish university students visited the Soviet Union. Donald was one, I was another and the Deputy Presiding Officer, George Reid, was also there. We spent a week in Moscow and a week in Leningrad, and the food – especially student food – was of disgustingly poor quality; indeed, a few of us, including Donald, were quite ill.
On our arrival in Kiev for the third week, we sat down to lunch. Suddenly, plates of cream buns appeared and Donald more or less led a standing ovation. He inquired hopefully whether, by any chance, any of the rest of us did not like cream buns and generally displayed such excessive enthusiasm that, to his delight, our host produced cream buns again for dinner. He also produced them for breakfast the next morning, and again at lunch, and for every single meal during that week. I blame Donald for the fact that I have never since then been able to face a cream bun.
On Monday evening, the night before he died, I formally opened the new visitors centre at Holyrood. I spoke of the progress on our new building and of the importance of public access to its development. I paid tribute to architect Enric Miralles, whose widow was with us. I had just finished my speech when Donald shambled into the room. I had not been expecting him and mockingly scolded him saying, “You’ve just missed the best part of the evening”. With a withering look, he said, “Your speech? Oh, I don’t think so. These look like excellent canapés.” He added, “As a matter of fact, David, I think I have just demonstrated for you yet again my impeccable sense of judgment and timing.”
Donald Dewar elevated the profession of politician. As an occupation, politics is too easily derided, but to be a politician should be the highest and noblest calling of all – involvement in the responsible and accountable governance of people’s lives. In a television interview about a decade ago, Lord Hailsham said:
“Nobody I think who knows enough about politics really wants to be a leader. Only a fool would want to stand in that position when you are exposed to the whims of fortune and chance and all the rest of it.”
I do not agree. Of course leadership involves taking knocks and Donald had his share, both personal and political. However, it also provides an opportunity to point a course, to stamp a platform and to gather others to one’s cause – Donald used his qualities of leadership to do all of those.
Now that he is gone, where does that leave us? I commend to you lines by Archbishop Darbyshire, who wrote:
“Not names engraved in marble make
The best memorials of the dead;
But burdens shouldered for their sake
And tasks completed in their stead.”
All of us in the chamber have tasks to complete in his stead.
Below is the text of the speech made by Anna Soubry, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, on the 19th March 2014.
Introduction
It’s somehow fitting that the MOD Main Building is our venue today, since this was once the site of the Palace of Whitehall and the former residence of Queen Elizabeth I.
The Virgin Queen once said: “God has given such brave soldiers to this Crown that, if they do not frighten our neighbours, at least they prevent us from being frightened by them.”
And it was she who first introduced a groundbreaking statute ensuring disabled army veterans “should at their return be relieved and rewarded to the end that they may reap the fruit of their good deservings and others may be encouraged to perform the like endeavours.”
More than 4 centuries on and the sense of the duty we owe to those who lay their lives on the line remains undiminished. If anything it has grown stronger with the passing of every campaign from Iraq and Libya to Afghanistan.
The Covenant
We all know that reintegrating into society after life on the frontline isn’t easy. It’s testament to how good our people are that our employment statistics are so good.
But we owe it to our service personnel to do everything we can to help, whether that means continuing their medical care after they leave the service, helping their children find a place in school or enabling to get a foot on the housing ladder.
That is why the government has enshrined its covenant with the armed services in law.
It means that no current or former member of the armed forces, or their families should be disadvantaged compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services.
We honour the covenant in a variety of ways.
Not just by putting our money where our mouth is and providing, from next spring, a permanent £10 million financial commitment in perpetuity.
But through a comprehensive welfare package.
Aside from all the statutory support available from other departments, devolved administrations and local authorities…we are introducing the New Employment Model…giving service personnel an expectation of being stationed in the same part of the country for significantly longer periods
– we’ll soon be bringing in the Forces Help to Buy scheme, to address the low rate of home ownership in the armed forces
– we’ve put £1.8 billion into the new Army Basing Plan so we can make best use of our estate across the UK from Catterick to Colchester
– and we will be spending £1 billion on brand new accommodation, meaning almost 2,000 new family homes are built as well as nearly 8,000 new homes for single soldiers.
Society must back armed forces
But my first point today is that the covenant isn’t just about MOD or even the rest of government. It is about society’s commitment as a whole to our armed forces.
We’re looking to business and local authorities to offer employment support and improved access to local amenities. That’s why we introduced the corporate and community covenant to garner their support.
But, above all we’re looking to our charities, many in this room. You know how important it is that people should stop thinking of all veterans as victims and celebrate their success in wider society.
And from talking, as I do, to many of our veterans, especially the younger ones, I have discovered that some don’t know that help is out there.
There is clearly, for some, a disconnect.
You know how important it is that they get the help to help themselves.
You know how to intervene to make that possible. And you know how to deliver.
As Lord Ashcroft pointed out in his transition report there ‘is no shortage of provision for service leavers and most do well’.
What is significant about the charity approach in these cash strapped times is that you’ve discovered collaboration is the mother of invention.
Look at the way the third sector has become increasingly adept at harmonising their activities.
From the pitch perfect Military Wives Choir Foundation.
To the work of Sorted! and COBSEO’s forces in mind, assisting veterans’ transition to civvie street. Look too at how charities and government are working hand in glove whether on Personnel Recovery Centres or putting Libor funds to work.
And so far those funds have supported hundreds of projects across the country with more than £45 million of grants.
I recently saw this for myself when I went down to Brighton to visit Blind Veterans UK.
They are using a £1 million Libor grant to refurbish accommodation for current and future residents.
And I was delighted to announce a further £40 million for this financial year to fund accommodation for veterans with a housing need across the UK.
Need for increased collaboration
But this brings me to my second key point. All this collaboration that we see at a local level or on individual projects must become the rule not the exception.
It must be more integrated on a national scale.
Some will say this means more work we don’t need.
But…as we drawdown from Afghanistan and Germany…with larger numbers of veterans returning from extended periods abroad
…as the spotlight once trained on our armed forces, turns away again, casting a shadow on your future funding …we will struggle to provide our ex-service personnel with the same high quality service unless we collaborate.
And by co-ordinating efforts nationally, sharing understanding and best practice
– preventing duplication of resource
– seeing the woods for the trees
– we can make best use of what we’ve got
We’re already moving in the right direction.
At a charity summit in October last year the penny dropped.
We collectively agreed to create a National Veterans Strategy with a shared vision for veterans.
This work continues apace.
Admiral Williams met key charities to agree the plan and set out ambitious schedule to deliver a revised Nat Vets Strategy by the Autumn.
It’s a pretty tight timescale but COBSEO is planning workshops for end of April make, look out for them and make sure your voice is heard.
Conclusion
So we’ve achieved an immense amount already.
But veterans is only one aspect of our welfare agenda.
Our challenge today is to map out what else we can do to support the armed forces community.
We’ve got all the right elements in place.
The right people, the right motivation and, in this former palace of Whitehall, a touch of royal inspiration.
So let’s be ambitious.
Let’s think big.
And make sure our wonderful service men and women get everything they deserve.
Below is the text of the speech made by Owen Smith, the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, to the 2013 Labour Party conference in Brighton.
Conference,
It was 25 years ago this week that I came here to start life as a student at the University of Sussex.
The year was 1988, the year the Lib Dems were founded, and Sussex, renowned for its progressive politics, was among the first universities to establish a Lib Dem Society.
I wondered how they were getting on.
So I looked up the university society listings before I came here today and sure enough there’s a Clegg-shaped hole between the Labour Club and the Mexican society.
The University was also famous as the setting for Malcolm Bradbury’s novel, The History Man.
The story’s anti-hero begins as a nice but naive, bearded and sandal-wearing radical, who open marriage descends into treachery, lies and a trough of ‘moral turpitude’.
Sound familiar, Nick?
In the TV version, our hero ends up voting Tory, for a rotten right wing government which privatised our public goods, put a million young people on the dole, and introduced a tax which united the country in opposition.
Who says life can’t imitate art?
But that’s enough of the jokes. Their conference finished last Thursday.
Ours is just beginning – and what a beginning with that wonderful, welcome announcement that a Labour Government led by Ed Miliband will scrap the bedroom tax.
Of course a Labour Government will scrap it.
We will scrap it because it is an affront to our values of fairness and decency,
Because it neither saves the money they claim, nor solves the crisis in our housing.
We will scrap it because like so many of the policies of David Cameron’s deeply out of touch government it seeks to balance the books on the backs of the poor and the disabled.
And let me tell you Conference, people in Wales – hit harder by the Bedroom Tax than anywhere in Britain – will have heard that news and understood that Labour is on their side.
And just as the bedroom tax has hit Wales harder than any other part of Britain, Wales also has more workers earning less than the living wage than anywhere else – more than one in five of the total workforce.
So Welsh workers and Welsh wages need a Labour Government in Westminster as well as in Wales to fight their corner. And Labour this week is sending a clear message to the hard working people of Wales.
We are on your side. We will strengthen the minimum wage and push for a living wage too.
Our values in action, conference.
And our proof, conference, that there is always an alternative.
In Wales, a Welsh Labour Government, has been getting on with the job of defending those values and articulating that alternative, protecting the living standards of ordinary people that have fallen so drastically under the Tories.
In Wales, we kept the EMA and refused to treble tuition fees – holding firm the ladder of education and social mobility that the Tories are so keen to draw up behind them.
In Wales, we’ve rejected the privatisation of Bevan’s NHS and held fast to its role as a beacon of excellence and equality.
And in Wales we’ve been on the side of working people with policies that have put 6000 young people back to work, and by taking bold action earlier this month to stamp out the disgraceful blacklisting of construction workers.
But conference, despite Carwyn and our Welsh colleagues’ values and innovations and sheer hard work, devolution alone is not enough.
– Not enough to stop Welsh wages from falling by £1600
– Not enough to prevent under-employment become the new norm in our economy.
– And not enough to stop food-banks become a shaming feature of communities across Wales.
No, a Labour Government in Wales alone is not enough – and will never be enough – however much devolution we deliver.
Because the social and economic union between the nations of Britain provides a safety net that Scotland or Wales could never recreate if they chose to fly alone.
And though Labour will always defend and cherish the proud identities of the different nations of the UK, we will also celebrate the centuries of common endeavour and shared history that makes us also One Nation.
And which allows Labour Governments in Westminster to share Britain’s wealth more fairly than the market or the out of touch Tories ever would.
So credibility, yes. And deficit reduction, of course. But decency, fairness and transformation too.
Because we need a Labour Government to rebuild the very foundations of our economy, from the bottom up so that it works for the many, not the few.
We need banks that serve the industry of our country – not speculate idly in its success or failure.
We need companies that feel a duty to the society in which they operate – not just to the shareholders who trade them around the Globe.
We need work that pays a decent wage – a Living Wage, with prices under control and growth that is fairly shared across classes and regions.
And we need a Labour Government to consign the Bedroom Tax to history, to strengthen the Minimum Wage and to deal with the cost of living crisis that is damaging our communities.
Conference, Ed Miliband spoke for Britain on this week when he said we will do these things.
That we can do better than this.
That Britain can do better.
He spoke for Britain…and he warmed hearts in Wales.
Below is the text of the speech made by Owen Smith, the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, to Labour Party conference on 2nd October 2012.
Chair, Conference: in music and movies, they say you’ve only really made it when you’ve made it in America.
Well by that yardstick, and in political terms, Wales has arrived.
First we saw Ann Romney feeding dodgy-looking Welsh cakes to unsuspecting members of the US press corp.
But last week was the real breakthrough – when, on the Letterman Show, David Cameron was asked the killer question.
No not the one about Rule Britannia or the Magna Carta – the one about the Welsh.
“What about Wales”, asked Letterman, “they didn’t vote for you in Wales, did they?”
At last, I thought, 106 years of not voting Tory in Wales, and we finally get some credit for it!
And in a week in which the media has complained that we haven’t laid out our full manifesto yet, I want to offer one cast iron guarantee: Wales won’t be voting Tory next time either.
No, in Wales we’ll be playing our part in returning a Labour Government led by Ed Miliband at Westminster, to work alongside the Labour Government led by Carwyn Jones in Cardiff Bay.
A Labour Government in Wales that is standing on the side of ordinary people:
Tackling youth unemployment, with a Jobs Fund which we maintained when the Tories were pulling the plug.
Reforming and restructuring our hospitals – not marketising them as would the Tories.
And investing in education – building new schools, modernising our curriculum and holding down tuition costs, keeping open the door to social mobility through educational achievement.
We’re able to do these things because devolution – designed and delivered by Labour – is delivering for Wales.
It is delivering increased local democracy and political accountability – things that people hold dear in our globalised World.
But delivering too a confident country – at ease with its place in the United Kingdom.
The Tories, by contrast, have just one interest in Wales – not how to protect it, but how to exploit it for a political game of ‘divide and rule’.
Whether it is the Prime Minister talking down the Welsh NHS, or Michael Gove smearing Welsh Education, the strategy is the same: creating division instead of respecting devolution, attacking Wales, to attack Labour.
In some ways this should come as no surprise, because the Coalition tactic of divide and rule is clear not just in their approach to the nations of the UK – but to its people too.
Public versus private, North versus South, privilege versus the plebs.
These are the faultlines that the Tory-led Government sees in Britain and that they seek to exploit.
In Labour we believe such division can only weaken Britain.
Our heritage is a party that seeks to unite and unify – classes and countries.
And we remain a meeting place for British people of different faiths and nations, ages and wages.
That’s why Labour would be making different choices, choices informed by our deep roots in communities throughout the UK and our understanding of the tough times being faced by ordinary families.
Choices designed to respect devolution – but also to unite the people and the nations of Britain.
That’s why, for example, we reject Government plans to scrap national pay bargaining.
Yes, because UK-wide deals are more efficient – but most of all because they are fair for workers throughout the UK.
Regional pay would increase inequality and division in Britain – at the very time when we must pull together.
On this issue, as on so many, we are so much stronger, so much better together.
And we believe that the majority of the British people – in all our nations and regions – believe that too.
Now that does not mean that Britain will not change.
People in Wales, Scotland and England too want more local decision making, and devolution or other constitutional change may be needed to accommodate those ambitions.
But separation or independence remains a minority interest – outweighed by economic and emotional reasons for Britain and the British people to stick together.
That point was brought home to us all by the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Patriotism and pride in Team GB swept people up, from Plymouth to Perth – and seemed for a few brief weeks to wash away divisions in our society.
They reminded us how successful our society has been at embracing different cultures and capabilities – and so enriching those of the UK.
That solidarity of people across Britain is just as important a legacy of the games as the bricks and mortar left behind.
And just as it fell to us to build those bricks to last, so too it’s up to us to retain the hope and optimism, tolerance and togetherness that were the Games’ richest prize.
A Tory-led coalition can’t do that. They cannot speak for Britain – just for the rich and the rip-off merchants, whose interests they protect.
Only Labour can speak for Britain.
Only Labour can unite people ordinary working people in England, Wales and Scotland too.
We alone can do that because the Labour movement has always believed that together we are stronger.
We believed it a hundred years ago in the Rhondda Valley, when my great grandfather, Dafydd Humphrey Owen, fought for better prices and wages in the Cambrian Combine strike and the riots that followed it.
One of the legacies of that struggle was a campaign for workers’ rights and education which brought people together from South Wales, Lancashire and Lanarkshire.
It was called, of course, The Plebs League – and it’s been tempting in recent weeks to think about reviving it.
Yet the truth is that its moment is past – ours is not.
Unlike Andrew Mitchell, or Alex Salmond for that matter, our movement is about uniting people across these isles.
And especially today, in these difficult times, we have to be the party that says: “we are always better together.”
So let’s unite the nations and people of Britain behind Ed Miliband and his vision of a more equal, socially just and democratic Britain.
I am very glad to be able to speak at the conference today. I very much welcome the themes of the conference, to examine policy and practice in tackling organised crime, by bringing together UK and EU experience.
Whilst organised crime may operate at national and international level, its effects are felt in every community. I say that because organised crime does not exist in some sort of vacuum. It fuels all manner of criminal and anti-social behaviour in our communities. We all know the blight and dangers which drug dealing and using brings to our streets. But it is important to remember that organised criminals also deal in cheap alcohol, tobacco and, shockingly, in people as well. The violence of the organised crime groups themselves, the misery inflicted on individual victims and the damage to our communities make this a phenomenon that we must tackle.
Reduced to financial terms we estimate that the economic and social costs in the UK are in excess of £20bn. They manifest themselves in various ways but most notably in the form of drug related crime. That is a huge sum but in itself does not illustrate what is happening in our communities as a result. It is protecting those communities in which I am interested. An effective response to organised crime is part of that.
In the UK in recent years we have gone to great lengths to make the country a more difficult place for organised criminals to operate. Government has carried through legislative change and reformed the organisations we task to tackle organised crime. But success can only be achieved through a strong partnership.
In particular, a partnership approach between Government and law enforcement. We set overall strategic priorities, while law enforcement drive the effort at the front end. But there are other partners as well. We see our role as supporting law enforcement by providing necessary powers and assisting in dealing with third parties whose contribution can be important (for example the private sector). And, as today’s conference makes clear whilst impact is local, influence needs to be international if we’re to achieve real results. Legislation
Firstly, I’d like to outline some of the changes in legislation that we’ve introduced. Like many other countries, we have introduced legislation on proceeds of crime and money laundering. Organised criminals are out to make money and do not like losing it. We need to do all we can to identify dirty money which gets into the legitimate financial system; and to confiscate criminally derived assets. Asset recovery prevents and deters future crime, raises the cost of crime, and allows some payback to victims and society. We regard it as a necessary and powerful instrument for tackling organised criminals.
In addition the law enforcement authorities in the UK now benefit from a wider range of tools to do their job.
Over the last couple of years we have,
-Put the giving of Queen’s Evidence on a statutory footing so that offenders assisting investigations and prosecutions can benefit from lesser sentences if they testify against their criminal associates
-Made provision in certain circumstances for persons to be required to answer questions, provide information or produce documents for the investigation
-Introduced Financial Reporting Orders where a convicted person can be required to report on his financial affairs for a number of years, up to a maximum of twenty.
-And created Serious Crime Prevention Orders which will allow prohibitions or restrictions to be put on the activities of a person involved in serious crime. The aim will be to prevent them committing further crime, for example by limiting communication or association with other people.
These last two measures are very much aimed at life-time offender management. For the most serious career organised criminals we believe that it is necessary to fetter and disrupt their activities over a period of time. It is insufficient, for example, when they have completed a prison sentence simply to let them carry on as they have before, and as they wish. Organisations
I would like to turn now to the organisational changes we have made for tackling organised crime.
First and foremost we have created the Serious Organised Crime Agency [Bill Hughes the Director General has spoken earlier about its work].
It started business in April 2006 and was set up to tackle organised crime in a rather different way from its predecessors. Instead of asking the agency to work exclusively on preventing and detecting serious organised crime we have also asked it to consider how it can contribute to the reduction of such crime in other ways and to reduce the harms it causes.
We have also asked the organisation to pay more attention to understanding organised crime. That is, improving the intelligence picture so that organised crime is tackled through an approach which prioritises networks and markets doing the most harm.
Underpinning that approach is the UK Threat Assessment which describes the threat and the National Intelligence Requirement which aims in a systematic way to fill intelligence gaps.
I welcome the way that SOCA has gone about its tasks so far. The Government and they recognise that tackling organised crime is not a job for them alone. They have developed a control strategy comprising a number of programmes of activity which are truly collaborative.
Those programmes comprise representatives from all the relevant agencies – for example, police forces, HM Revenue and Customs and the Prison Service. It is only by bringing together all those with an interest into coherent programmes that real progress can be made. I very much support that approach.
SOCA, working with partners, can already point to significant successes. Last year it was involved in seizures of 74 tonnes of Class A drugs and 1,700 arrests made in the UK and around the world. Those are good results in an organisation in its early days. I am looking forward to more.
This year, we will merge the Asset Recovery Agency into SOCA. Bringing together the financial investigative skills, expertise and experience of both organisations will ensure the most effective investigative tools and techniques can be used against criminals. It fits with the priority of disrupting organised crime finance and SOCA’s responsibility for reducing harm.
This year also sees the creation of the UK Border Agency through an amalgamation of the Border and Immigration Agency and part of HM Revenue and Customs. An agency with a strong remit to control the movement of people and freight will strengthen our ability to tackle the international aspects of organised crime.
I would not, though, want to imply that the law enforcement authorities should provide the sole response to organised crime. They have to be helped in their tasks.
Private bodies can, and do, provide support and co-operation in the prevention, detection and prosecution of organised crime. For example, financial service providers report suspicions transactions and communication service providers retain and disclose data which help investigations. These are all very important. They need to be encouraged and the doors kept open for sharing data and information in appropriate circumstances.
I know this is an area of work in which SOCA is investing a good deal of time and effort. Gun Crime
We need to be able to respond to particular challenges with new ways of working and new partnerships. In recent years, for example, we have seen firearms being used by younger people, in a sometimes chaotic environment. Not, in itself organised crime, but clearly supported and facilitated by trade in guns and often linked to gang membership.
Sadly, Liverpool has been among the cities to be affected and you will all be aware of the recent tragic murder of Rhys Jones.
In September, I set up the Tackling Gangs Action Programme to develop multi-agency work in neighbourhoods in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool where the majority of firearms offences occur. One strand of the work focuses on the supply of firearms. We know that firearms come into the UK from other EU member states, some of which may be through organised criminal gangs. The Serious Organised Crime Agency and HM Revenue and Customs have raised the priority of this issue and are working with police and colleagues across the EU to gather intelligence and choke off this supply. Last year SOCA were involved in recovering more than 150 firearms; and a co-ordinated day of action on 28 November last year in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London resulted in the seizure of 10 firearms and over 1,000 realistic imitations.
We are also focusing on enforcement – ensuring that those committing these offences are brought to justice – enhancing support and protection for witnesses, as well as a range of prevention activity to make sure young people are able to achieve their potential and do not become involved in criminal and gang activity. In the EU context
So far I have spoken very much about what we have been doing in the UK. But when dealing with organised crime it is essential to think internationally too. And in doing that we need, and wish, to work closely with the EU and other Member States.
It is an irony that I need to hurry back to London from here to vote – yet again – for the European Union (Amendment) Bill to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The key argument about that, however, is not the minutiae of European institutions, but the way in which we can use European cooperation to really impact on our crime fighting efforts. I would like to mention some areas where we believe that the EU has added real value.
The European Arrest Warrant has proved itself to be an efficient and effective mechanism for returning those seeking to evade justice by going abroad. Extradition times have been reduced by months, if not years, and the UK can point to examples of the successful execution of European Arrest Warrants bringing fugitives back to the UK or returning them to the country in which they are wanted. We regard it as a real success.
We are hopeful that when the European Evidence Warrant is adopted comparable benefits will accrue in speeding up the provision of evidence.
Europol [and we have just heard from its Director, Max-Peter Ratzel] is a key EU organisation in the fight against serious and organised crime. Its importance to us derives from its ability to facilitate information exchange, its analytical support capability and its role in supporting Member State law enforcement authorities in their fight against cross border crime. The United Kingdom is strongly committed to Europol, whose assistance has been invaluable in a number of successful police investigations in the UK involving gangs operating across the European Union. It also produces the EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment which we regard as an essential underpinning document – you need to have a knowledge of what your problems are before you can make sensible decisions about tackling them.
A good example of an operation which we undertook with Europol involved an armed and violent gang committing twenty armed robberies against jewellers in the UK. They had also committed 200 similar crimes across the EU. As a result of that co-operation prosecutions have been brought in eleven cases.
Eurojust too provides an important mechanism for facilitating information exchange and co-ordinating investigations and prosecutions between EU Member States. In 2007 the UK sought assistance through Eurojust in more cases than any other Member State and received the second most number of requests for assistance.
In one operation Eurojust co-ordinated actions across five countries, including the UK, leading to the arrest of 82 people for human trafficking offences. The benefits are clear.
The EU is also taking forward a number of initiatives to improve data sharing including, for example, speeding up the process for law enforcement authorities to check unidentified fingerprint or DNA data against records held in other Member States. The ability to share information between Member States and with Third Countries for the purpose of tackling organised crime is essential. We need to be sure we do not unwittingly limit our ability to do so.
As well as these formal EU mechanisms there are other means by which Member States can pull together to tackle problems of joint interest. An example which the UK is glad to be involved in, and whose first Director is from the UK, is the Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre (Narcotics).
The Centre, based in Lisbon combines the efforts of seven Member States. Intelligence is shared between the participating countries and each state makes available interdiction assets for co-ordinated operational action. The results of the collaboration have been very successful with many tonnes of cocaine which was being shipped to Europe being stopped. It is a good example of how well planned and executed cooperative exercises can bring real added value. Beyond the EU
Collaborative working within the EU is obviously important but the fact of the matter is that many of our organised crime problems have their origins beyond the EU’s borders.
There is a need to work closely with those countries which affect us at governmental and law enforcement agency levels.
The UK has a number of countries which it regards as priorities and works closely with. That work ranges across a wide number of fronts – securing the commitment of the politicians, providing training and other assistance to law enforcement authorities, and mounting joint operations with them.
SOCA for its part has 140 liaison officers in some 40 priority countries around the world forging close and effective relationships with the authorities of the host nations. This is an approach which the Government very much supports. It is not enough to counter problems as they reach our shores – they need to be tackled close to source as well.
I welcome the partnership brought together by this conference and the ambition it represents. And I wish you luck – not just in your discussions over the coming days, but in building stronger alliances, better understanding and more effective action. Whether it is the scourge of modern day slavery through trafficking, the lives wasted and ruined through illegal drug use or the tragedies caused by guns in the wrong hands, the thread of serious and organised crime runs throughout. It is only through ensuring that our law provides the best tools, our law enforcement organisations are at their most effective and our partnerships are strong that we can meet the threat and tackle the impact on our communities.
Below is the text made by the Cabinet Office Minister, Chloe Smith, on 2nd July 2013.
Since coming into office we have made it a key priority to reform public sector construction so we can build the schools, hospitals, prisons and roads this country deserves – and at the same time help develop a more efficient, more innovative and more competitive construction industry.
This is a hugely important agenda for us. Britain remains in a global race for the jobs and opportunities of the future.
And our construction industry is critical to this country’s growth – both in creating jobs and in providing the crucial infrastructure this country needs to compete globally.
So we are reforming to ensure we invest in the right places to achieve growth and support UK suppliers to grow here and abroad.
We are also reforming to achieve greater efficiency. The public sector is under unprecedented pressure to produce more for less today. As we address the huge deficit we inherited – budgets are tighter across the sector, but the demand and expectations for public services are rising.
We owe it to the taxpayer to deliver public services that don’t just cost less but are better, more innovative and more catered to the individual’s needs.
Today I want to talk about how the Government has and will continue to promote efficiency and reform in public sector construction, alongside innovation and growth in the construction industry. I will focus on the key areas of efficiency, cost benchmarking, procurement reform, fair payment and new digital models of procurement.
But first I’ll highlight the context for reform. As you know, two years ago, this Government published a cross-Government Construction Strategy with clear objectives to promote efficiency and reform in Government construction, alongside innovation and growth in the construction sector.
How would this work?
On one hand Government would be a tough negotiator – hunting for the best prices and deals on behalf of the taxpayer. We set out a target to make public sector construction 15 to 20 per cent more efficient by 2015.
But at the same time we would build long-term strategic relationships with suppliers; making it easier and simpler to do business with Government.
Today as you’ve heard – a new Industrial Strategy for construction (IS) has been launched – a fine example of how industry and government has worked together to give the sector a long term vision. This builds on foundations of the Government Construction Strategy and gives it a broader momentum to spearhead lasting change through reform.
The themes of the Government Construction Strategy are peppered throughout the drivers of change highlighted in the Industrial Strategy.
The first of these themes I want to discuss is efficiency.
In the past there was a shocking productivity gap between the public and private sectors. And the more money that’s been pumped into public services – the less efficient we’ve become.
This wasn’t good enough at any time – today facing the twin challenges of less money and rising public expectations – there needs to be reform.
The Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group has led an ambitious programme of reform, transforming the way Government works – acting as an effective operations centre at the heart of Government, driving efficiency and clamping down on waste.
This work supported Departments to deliver £3.75 billion of savings in our first year in office, £5.5 billion in 2011-12 and we recently announced £10billion of savings for 2012-13.
Construction is playing its part in this. We reduced costs to contribute £447 million savings in 2012/13.
One of our key efficiency reforms has been the publication of benchmarks of Government construction costs establishing what a project should cost.
Before the launch of the Strategy, few government clients had compiled their benchmarks and made them widely available.
This is no longer the case. We have now published department cost reduction trajectories and construction cost benchmarks, which help inform central government and wider public sector clients as to what they currently pay for construction and what their construction should therefore cost, moving forward.
This is important for spurring on efficiency. For example since 2010 the Education Funding Agency has reduced the average cost of a new secondary school from £2450/m2 to £1460/m2 and is currently out to tender with the Priority Schools Building Programme at this lower cost. This represents a 40 per cent reduction.
The cost data will not reduce the overall amount to be invested in construction but will mean that taxpayers will get more for this money.
So successfully delivering projects at 15 to 20 per cent less than the historic benchmark will mean that the public sector will be building £1.2 billion worth more in projects by 2015.
The equivalent to approximately 60 new secondary schools.
The latest publication of cost benchmarks is published today with, for the first time, more granular department cost benchmarks, and data direct from local authorities. It shows that costs are coming down and sets the pace at which further reductions will be achieved. As we move forward we would like to include private sector comparison data – this exercise is now underway and I would appreciate your help to build up this overarching sector view.
A Government hunting for the best deals is not just good news for the taxpayer and for the service user – it’s good for British businesses too. Efficiency and growth will go hand in hand as we open up to all kinds of businesses and business models.
We’re changing the way we engage with the industry over upcoming contracting opportunities. In the past, constrained by fears about picking winners, cosiness with incumbents and breaching theories of efficient markets, we have left business to flounder in the dark about what’s coming up – meaning we were also blind as to what the industry could offer.
But over the last two years, Government has been publishing a pipeline of upcoming opportunities that gives suppliers a clear picture of the contracting landscape across Government construction.
The latest iteration includes £19.2 billion worth of investment over the next two years. Now that the spending round has been announced a refresh of projects will be completed shortly. So keep an eye open for updates.
I hope you’ve taken the time to visit the New Models of Delivery knowledge hub today and view our new microsite that will make pipeline data more accessible to search.
The pipeline is seen as a key enabler for growth and investment in the Industrial Strategy. It calls for further development to bring a regional emphasis and ownership of local pipeline data and to encourage new partners to contribute.
As well as engaging better with the market before procurement – we are also reforming the way we procure. Historically businesses have found bidding for public sector work excessively bureaucratic, time-consuming and expensive. This often meant the best, most cost-effective ideas were shut out from the start – particularly those coming from small, innovative firms.
SMEs are a crucial engine for growth – 99.9 per cent of the UK’s businesses are SMEs, they are responsible for almost half of our private sector output and create two thirds of new jobs.
Yet when we came into office only 6.5 per cent of Government business was going to SMEs.
This Government set out an aspiration to ensure that 25 per cent of our business in Central Government should go – directly or indirectly – to SMEs by 2015.
To achieve this we have made our procurement processes much simpler, more open and less bureaucratic – so all businesses, no matter what their size, have a chance of success. For example, using PAS91 (2013) to standardise PQQs in the construction industry; and advertising contract opportunities centrally.
There is also much greater visibility of opportunities. In the past businesses often simply didn’t know what was out there. Now the Contracts Finder website gives businesses a single place to survey everything on offer from Government.
We are using technology to enable quicker procurements such as e-Auctions.
And we have introduced more accountability. Our Mystery Shopper allows suppliers to report instances of poor procurements across the public sector for Cabinet Office to investigate.
These reforms are starting to pay off. Overall Government has increased its direct spend with SMEs from 6.5 per cent in 2009-10 to 10 per cent in 2011-12, and in 2011-12 figures from Government’s top suppliers shows that SMES had benefitted from a further 6.6 per cent of spend in the supply chain. We hope to publish information on spend in 2012-13 later this year.
Another key priority for us is to ensure there is prompt payment to the supply chain. Timely access to cash is of course critical to the survival of many SMEs.
There is now a contractual obligation which took effect for all central Government contracts placed to pay down to tier three within 30 days.
We are also working with key central government departments to roll out Project Bank Accounts across government construction projects. This will improve the speed and security of payment to members of construction supply chains down to tier 3 within a matter of days.
This is already working well. The Highways Agency now uses Project Bank Accounts on all contracts awarded post October 2011.
Through electronic bank accounts they pay prime suppliers at the same time as subcontractors down to tier 3 and already this has had a great impact in preventing cash from being held up in supply chains.
Last year alone £1.1 billion worth of projects signed up to use Project Bank Accounts and I’m pleased to announce today that in 2012/13 we exceeded our target of £2 billion, with nearly £2.2 billion of spend having been committed via Project Bank Accounts since their introduction.
The Industrial Strategy re-emphasises this Government’s commitment to fair payment. PBAs, along with supply chain finance and enterprise credit guarantee scheme will continue to support liquidity to the supply chain.
The reforms I have outlined so far are making a difference – but they are not the end of the story.
We are determined to keep piloting new innovative ways of working with the industry – and ultimately embed these across Government and other public bodies. And we are committed to driving efficiencies through harnessing the latest digital technologies.
This is a key theme in the Industrial Strategy – the aim is that new models of procurement once proven, become business as usual across the public sector.
We are currently trialling three new models of procurement which call for the early involvement of the supply chain, and more integration around the design, the construction and the manufacture of products.
These are: Integrated Procurement Insurance; Two Stage Open Book and Cost Led Procurement. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is also becoming successfully embedded in Departments along with Government Soft Landings.
I hope you’ve all taken the opportunity to meet the experts spearheading these new ways of working at the New Models of Delivery and BIM knowledge hubs here today.
We are starting to see how effective these new methods can be. For example using Two Stage Open Book, Surrey County Council has reduced the cost of maintaining the county’s roads by 15 per cent [in addition to 16 per cent achieved in procuring long-term contract]. Project Horizon has demonstrated clearly the benefits of contract-led, properly structured early contractor involvement and supply chain improvement processes.
Then the Ministry of Justice has secured £800,000 of savings through the implementation of BIM at Cookham Wood prison in Kent where a 180-cell extension is now on site. Through BIM’s innovative 3D modelling, MoJ was able to visualise exactly what was being built before the process started and identify any potential issues, leading to savings being made right at the outset.
BIM is the enabler of a better future; a more collaborative built environment that liberates added value at all stages of the asset lifecycle. It allows SMEs to compete with bigger companies. And the savviest, smartest firms are already maximising the potential that BIM can unlock.
Take Bryden Wood, a British-based multi-disciplinary design and technology company, who in February won a competitive tender for a landmark construction project in St Petersburg, Russia. They beat much larger, international practices and it was their experience of working on complex projects where BIM is essential to coordinate the vast range of design, construction and handover activities that secured the contract.
The Government has established a requirement for centrally procured public projects to be level 2 BIM-enabled by 2016. Through this, we want to encourage innovation and collaborative working across all tiers of the supply chain right from the start of procurement process.
In March this year, Fiatech recognised the UK government and industry for their leadership in advancing technology and productivity improvement in capital projects by presenting us with the James B. Porter, Jr. Award for Technology Leadership. This award will be officially presented to us in a few moments.
This is a real achievement – the UK is now seen as a world leader in the use of BIM in the public sector.
Public sector construction in this country is entering a new era – where design excellence, effective procurement, efficient delivery and competitive pricing is becoming the norm. This is good news for the taxpayer, for services users, the industry – and the economy.
We are producing world class iconic public sector buildings such as the London Olympics Velodrome, Tate Modern and UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre. All winners of the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award at the BCI annual awards.
But we are not about to start resting on our laurels.
To continue to achieve success the Government and industry needs to keep working together – as we have on the Industrial Strategy.
It’s vital we continue to join up and share our resources, ideas and best practise. Tell us where barriers remain, report incidences of bad practise to Mystery Shopper – and if you have an innovative idea that will save money and improve public services – we want to hear it.
This Government is open for business – together we can create better public services and a better future for construction in the UK.
Below is the text of the speech made by the Cabinet Office Minister, Chloe Smith, to the Federation of Master Builders made on 18th June 2013.
Thank you for inviting me to give this keynote speech today celebrating the launch of the report Improving the public procurement process for construction SMEs (pdf).
Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has done a great job of getting together key influencers to this event, including my MP colleagues and LGA representatives and I am delighted to be invited to address such an influential audience.
This report raises important issues that I recognise – SMEs find the Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) complex and cumbersome, framework agreements to be bureaucratic, and that future business opportunities from local authorities are not always visible.
These are much the same issues this government has been addressing in central government reforms:
– we are driving through real transformational reforms in procurement
– we have radically improved the visibility of investment opportunities through pipelines
– we are absolutely committed to fair payment
– we are significantly improving engagement, ensuring that we listen to SMEs, and that they have their say in our policy process
Already we are seeing significant positive results. Things are changing for the better.
But, this report has reiterated to me the real value of widening the action we have taken in central government. In particular, sharing best practice we have implemented in central government processes with the wider public sector including local government. The recommendations of this report all chime in with the key themes of these reforms.
So today, I feel is a good opportunity to share with you the experiences of those reforms and to explore how we can work together to take this experience and best practice to the wider public sector.
But first, let me set the background to the action we have taken.
Creating the right conditions for small businesses to grow
More than 95% of the UK’s 4.8 million businesses are micro firms that employ less than 10 people. Together they account for a third of private sector employment (7.8 million) and a fifth of private sector turnover. So SMEs such as the builders’ industry are a crucial engine for growth in our economy.
The public sector spends £230 billion on goods and services a year – that’s roughly 15% of the UK economy and £1 for every £7 spent in Britain.
Businesses have consistently found bidding for public sector work excessively bureaucratic, time-consuming and expensive. This has often meant the best, most cost-effective ideas were shut out from the start – particularly those coming from small, innovative firms.
This government very quickly recognised that for a healthy market place to operate it needs to open and expand access to opportunities, especially for SMEs, and make the conditions right for small businesses to grow.
When we came into office we found SMEs were winning only around 6.5% of the value of central government’s procurement. This wasn’t good enough.
So one of our first priorities was to transform the way we did business so that the smaller businesses would have better opportunities to do business with the public sector.
Many of you will be aware of this government’s aspiration to ensure that 25% of our business in central government should go – directly or indirectly – to SMEs by 2015.
So we have worked hard on that journey. Spend with SMEs has increased across government from 6.5% in 2009 to 2010 to 10% in 2011 to 2012 at a time when overall procurement spend has declined.
SMEs have in fact benefitted from a further 6% in indirect spend through the supply chain for 2011 to 2012. We hope to publish information on spend in 2012 to 2013 later this year.
There are a number of things we have done to get us to this place. Let me share with you our experience of the reforms we have made to set us on this transformation.
Positive action taken
We are nurturing relationships.
We believe it makes commercial sense to nurture our relationships with suppliers – to discuss what’s coming up on pipelines and investment plans, and to ensure early engagement with supply chains prior to procurement.
We have made sure that now SMEs have a Crown Representative pushing for them at the top. Their voice is heard in the high level discussions, influencing the policies we design.
We are reforming procurement.
As you demand, we have made our procurement processes much simpler, more open and less bureaucratic – so all businesses, no matter what their size, have a chance of success. For example, using PAS91 to standardise PQQs in the construction industry; and advertising contract opportunities centrally.
We are using technology to enable quicker procurements such as e-Auctions. And Cloud Store, an online appstore for ICT services, allows public sector organisations to purchase off the shelf IT services on a pay as you go basis.
In construction we are committed to drive efficiencies through harnessing digital technologies. We have established a requirement for projects to be BIM-enabled from 2016. Through this, we want to encourage innovation and collaborative working across all tiers of the supply chain from the start of procurements.
We are now seen as a world leader in the use of BIM in the public sector. We have established the BIM4SME group to assist those making the journey, to share experiences and learn from others.
We have improved the visibility of contracting opportunities.
The Contracts Finder website was launched to give businesses a single place to survey everything on offer from government. Over 15,000 contracts have been published to date and nearly 5,000 have been awarded to an SME.
In July 2011, government construction was the first sector to publish pipelines to help the industry have the confidence to invest and to gear up for future public sector contracts. We have now published pipelines across 18 sectors via the Contracts Finder portal. These provide visibility of government business opportunities worth £79 billion spanning the next 5 years.
We will continue to publish pipelines every 6 months to help suppliers to spot opportunities at an early stage so they can compete and win work. I want to encourage SMEs to use these pipelines as a tool to engage with their suppliers and key markets.
We have increased the accountability of public procurement.
Our Mystery Shopper scheme allows suppliers to report instances of poor procurement for Cabinet Office to investigate. For those of you who are not familiar with Mystery Shopper service – it allows suppliers, including all those within governments supply chains, to report bad/mad procurement practice.
So if a supplier encounters poor procurement practice, such as an overly bureaucratic pre-qualification requirement or unreasonable or inappropriate selection criteria they can refer it to our Mystery Shopper Service, who will raise it with the contracting authority on their behalf.
At the end of last month, Mystery Shopper had received 425 cases and closed 336 with a positive outcome in over 80% of cases.
We are seeking and then responding to feedback.
As you discussed, we are listening to and acting on the feedback we get from SMEs. For example, based on Mystery Shopper feedback, we recently wrote to procurement practitioners reiterating the need not to set burdensome financial conditions when awarding contracts. To ensure transparency, we regularly publish the outcomes of Mystery Shopper cases on the GOV.UK website.
We continue to encourage better use of PQQs that follow the industry-standard wording set out in PAS 91. This has also been a ‘hot topic’ for our Mystery Shopper scheme. We worked with the British Standards Institute, and others from across industry, to further simplify that and the resultant PAS 91(2013) was published by BSI earlier this year.
And our interventions have real life consequences. At the end of last year Mystery Shopper intervened on a late payment case to recover the money owed to an SME and helped prevent the firm from having to make a number of staff redundant.
We are championing prompt payment and integration of the supply chain.
As you ask, prompt payment to the supply chain is a key priority for us. We have pursued fair payment through the use of Project Bank Accounts or a contractual requirement for 30 day terms to be passed to sub-contractors.
We are well on our way to exceeding our target of £2 billion of committed spend being contracted via Project Bank Accounts since their launch.
We have actively supported closer integration of the supply chain. We have set up trial projects on adopting new models of procurement. These new models encourage Tier 1 contractors to build strategic partnerships down integrated supply chains. Innovation and value are important in that partnership.
For example, the Integrated Project Insurance model by the MoD – this was originally proposed by the SME trade organisations Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group and Specialist Engineering Alliance and embraces early contractor involvement and collaborative supply chain integration.
All of this has made a real difference. Now, more SMEs are winning business with government. Direct SME spend has increased from £3.1 billion in 2009 to 2010 to £4.4 billion in 2011 to 2012, an increase of £1.3 billion over 2 years.
But, the job isn’t over. We agree there’s more to be done.
The government is already working on exploring the recommendations set out in Lord Young’s recent report on growing micro businesses. As part of this work, at the Number 10 SME event on 5 June, we announced that we intend to introduce reforms on procurement.
What next?
I feel there is real value to explore the transformation we have implemented in central government, in a wider public sector platform. Across the public sector, we all have a shared interest in spending money in a way that gets value for the taxpayer and supports business and growth. So there is merit in sharing our experience.
I am particularly keen to work more closely with local government and partners to broaden the progress we have made, to drive forward substantial improvements in procurement practice across the public sector.
Here’s how I see some of that happening:
You talk about publication of data. We are currently looking at ways to make our central government pipelines more accessible and searchable, enabling companies to search for specific opportunities which are relevant to their expertise or region. We want to promote best practice in the publication and use of such pipelines to ensure new opportunities are transparent to SMEs working with local authorities. We are keen for local government and private sector clients to follow our example and publish their own pipelines, enabling a comprehensive picture of regional investment opportunities for SMEs.
We are forging ahead with our transparency agenda with commitments to transparency of data and access to the right information for the right audience, including for procurement and performance related data. We would like to see more of this happening in the wider public sector.
I want to strongly encourage SMEs to seek feedback from the procurement process they have undertaken and if they are having difficulty they should be encouraged to use the Mystery Shopper so we can follow up.
We want to ensure that the opportunities to bid for new procurement frameworks are open to all, and we will continue to actively encourage consortia to bid in the procurement process.
Lasting and sustainable transformation
We will only achieve growth if we in government and the wider public sector really transform our approach to buying – placing more emphasis on early market engagement, and discovering the value for money and innovation that SMEs can offer.
You are key influencers that can make this change happen.
Over lunch, I want to hear from you what you are doing in your local authority/constituency to address the issues highlighted in this report. I want to listen to the problems you face and how you are working to solve them. I want to know what we can do further to make things better.
Let’s build a momentum for collective progress. No one of us can achieve this alone, but with each of us playing our part, pulling in the same direction, we will succeed.
Below is the text of the speech made by the Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform, Chloe Smith, in London at the BIM4SME Launch on 15th April 2013. (BIM is Building Information Modelling).
I am delighted to be here today to support the formal launch of the BIM4SME working group.
Let me start by painting a picture in words – not digitally or in 3D as many of you seated here could do – to show how digital technologies, or you may call them Building Information Modelling or BIM, are already helping SMEs to make an impact in the construction industry.
Firstly, at a local level, the London-based practice of David Miller Architects has shown how BIM has unlocked better productivity and allowed them to grow from a practice of 4 to 14, moving them into new and bigger markets.
Secondly, nationally, London-based Wagstaffs Design with 22 staff has created bespoke real-time 3D applications for Crossrail incorporating, for example, pedestrian flow simulation data so Crossrail has new ways of interrogating and presenting infrastructure and building information. These very visual and results-orientated communication tools are accessible through mobiles and online.
And thirdly, internationally, Bryden Wood, a British-based multi-disciplinary design and technology company, who in February 2013 won a competitive tender for a landmark construction project in St Petersburg, Russia. They beat much larger, international practices and it was their experience of working on complex projects where BIM is essential to coordinate the vast range of design, construction and handover activities that secured the contract. And this is not a BIM one-off. In the last year, Bryden Wood has seen their workload in high-value BIM-driven projects increase dramatically and has been able to expand from 45 people to 70.
I’m sure you will agree these are inspiring pen portraits and we want more for the BIM gallery!
The case for BIM
Let’s now move on to the even bigger picture.
The Government Construction strategy challenges industry to modernise and innovate – with efficient low carbon solutions and digital technologies to strip out waste and deliver real savings to the tax-payer.
So you can see this puts BIM squarely at the heart of the shift to reform the industry and deliver greater efficiencies.
The Government’s plans to deliver better value for money in the construction industry and get the supply chain working more collaboratively is ambitious but achievable. Indeed, we are on track to achieve savings of £350m in 2012/3 to reinvest in new Government projects.
By 2016 all Government construction projects will be using BIM level 2 – a goal we believe is very much achievable over the next three years.
To safeguard against creating a two tier construction community, the BIM mandate will be irrespective of project size or the capital expenditure cost of a project.
Our strategy is about driving collaboration and bringing together communities, sharing data in a common environment to make smarter decisions both in the capital and operational phases.
Collaboration between Government and industry is fundamental to develop and roll-out BIM successfully.
This means continued input and involvement from all players in the supply chain, especially the SME community who form the back-bone of the construction industry. The BIM4SME group is just one way SMEs can engage with Government on the roll-out of BIM.
With this in mind, the Government’s BIM requirements have been built both as an open format and technology agnostic.
This is crucial, as it allows SMEs to feed in to a single data set from the outset of the design process and to drive innovation through early engagement.
The BIM way of collaborative working and the efficiencies it will drive, stripping out waste and duplication, is also scaleable whether it be:
– a kitchen block replacement or a new-build school
– prison refurbishment or road repairs.
And there are early successes. The Ministry of Justice, an early adopter, has secured £800,000 of savings through the use of BIM at Cookham Wood prison in Kent where a 180-cell extension is now on site. Through BIM’s innovative 3D modeling data, MoJ was able to see exactly what is being built and identify any potential issues, leading to savings being made right at the outset.
Crossrail is committed to BIM and has set up an Information Academy, with their technology partner Bentley Systems, to capture, develop and share BIM best practices with the Crossrail supply chain and provide training to their contractors. Since November 2012, over 225 individuals from 28 suppliers have been through the Academy awareness sessions and now have access to supporting online training.
It’s great to see clients also stepping up to the challenge and realising the benefits.
Importance of SMEs
It is true that SMEs often take on and offer more innovative solutions.
Construction is no different and with the majority of the construction supply chain referring to themselves as SMEs, ensuring SME whole-sector adoption of BIM is central to future success.
As an SME, no matter what your role in the built environment is, it is highly likely your business will or should be involved in the BIM process whether through supplying or managing data. You may be involved directly working with a government department or indirectly with a supply chain partner who needs data as part of their contractual requirements.
It is clear that BIM does offer the SME community many benefits, irrespective of their position in the construction landscape and construction supply chain – it helps to improve their working processes and remove waste at all stages of the lifecycle.
BIM is becoming a catalyst for growth for the SME community.
For example – Kykloud, a British company set up in 2010, provides BIM ready building surveying and asset management apps so data can be collected onsite in real time and then reports compiled automatically on future long term maintenance costs. Their software is being used by some of the UK’s leading surveying practices across 23 million square metres of infrastructure including HMRC estates, MoJ and 6,000 schools – one third of English schools. This is impressive and the company has gone from 2 to 15 staff in a year with a ten-fold growth in revenue.
So it’s great when you hear SMEs say that BIM helps them compete with much bigger organisations. BIM is a great leveller.
SMEs are agile and innovative and will be amongst the trailblazers in a BIM enabled industry stimulating growth, especially in the international market place where the UK is already seen as a pioneer of BIM enabled solutions.
And it is not just the Government who believes this.
This was validated last month at the Fiatech international awards ceremony in Texas where the James B. Porter Jr. Technology Leadership Award recognised the HM Government and UK industry for their leadership in advancing technology and productivity improvement in capital projects and, in particular, as a world-wide leader for digital technologies in construction.
Giving SMEs a voice
It is crucial to give SMEs a voice and sense of community.
The BIM4SME group is keen to be inclusive and reach out to other SMEs. Their vision is to bring together a BIM SME community and, as a particularly IT-literate group, already have a virtual presence through social media.
The BIM SME regional hubs, set up by the Construction Industry Council hosting the launch today, will develop a community of like-minded SMEs. The hubs will be two-way – sharing guidance and updates on the UK Government BIM programme and allowing feedback from SMEs on the reality of using digital technologies.
These are great examples of Government and industry working together to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of BIM adoption.
BIM is here to stay
BIM is not a fad.
BIM is now becoming more mainstream and new guidance and standards, like the BSI BIM standard recognised here and internationally, will help to give companies working in the UK a competitive edge in the global race. This includes SMEs.
It is so important to create communities that will push the industry along – groups like the BIM2050 group – a voice for young professionals – and now the BIM4SME group who can provide support and encouragement to other SMEs using or developing BIM solutions.
BIM is fast becoming a master-piece for industry reform and better outcomes.
The below speech was made by Chloe Smith, the then Economic Secretary, on 16th July 2012.
Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining me here today, it’s good to see so many people from across government, regulators, and industry joining us to discuss the important issue of energy and taxation.
A journalist, Gro Brudtland, in Time Magazine, once said ‘I do not know of any environmental group in any country that does not view its government as an adversary’.
Often the same is said of business.
The world of energy policy is often portrayed as a pitched battle – between corporations and environmental campaigners, with Government trying desperately to broker a compromise between the two, only to be accused by each of kowtowing to the other.
I don’t believe it has to be this way. Before we came to office, we pledged to be the Greenest Government ever.
And we will stick by this commitment.
But I believe we need to do so by working both with environmental campaigners, and with businesses to find an energy policy that is at once kind to the environment, affordable to households, and acceptable to businesses.
As fossil fuel supplies dwindle, sustainable, affordable energy is in the interests of all – of the firms that produce it, of the businesses that use it, and of the households that consume it.
And it is imperative that the critical decisions that need to be taken today are not put off until tomorrow.
But equally, at a time when incomes are being squeezed, the cost of living is rising, and many businesses are struggling, a sustainable energy policy will not be one that causes unaffordable increases to customers Bills.
Nor, as some of you may have noticed, is there plenty of money sloshing around from the public purse….
It is striking this balance that is the challenge of the Government, of the Energy companies and of the country.
It is the challenge of business since time immemorial – how to do more, with less. That is the challenge of ‘greening the economy: the whole economy, not just a special, separate sector.
And it is the very definition of sustainability.
It is only by working together that we will achieve it, and through the steps we are taking, we are making excellent progress.
Green taxes definition
One way that we as Government are holding ourselves to account on this agenda is through the commitment in the Coalition agreement to increase, over the course of this Parliament, the proportion of taxes coming from environmental taxes.
Today I have published the Government’s definition of environmental taxation, which will provide us with the baseline for meeting this commitment.
What we have done is take a hard look at the taxes paid by businesses and households and asked some pretty fundamental questions
Are these taxes that aim to achieve a genuine environmental benefit?
Are they designed in a way to properly incentivise positive environmental outcomes?
And do they fit with the Government’s wider environmental objectives?
Taken together, using these principles, we have established a core list of taxes: the Climate Change Levy, the Aggregates Levy, Landfill Tax, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme , and the Carbon Price Support, which I shall come back to shortly.
But we also acknowledge that a range of other taxes, while being primarily focused on raising revenue – quite important at the moment – also have positive impacts.
Vehicle excise duty and company car tax, for example, are based on vehicles’ CO2 emissions.
Fiscal instruments such as these help play a part, alongside increasing emissions standards, in encouraging manufacturers to make cleaner vehicles and for consumers to make choices with the impact on the environment in mind.
We are also not resting on our laurels.
We have said that we will continue to look closely at opportunities to reform taxes to make them genuinely green, or greener.
And there are opportunities to introduce new environmental taxes.
Let me be clear though, all of this is being done in a balanced way.
The previous Government used the green agenda as justification for increasing taxes when the environmental impact was questionable.
What we are doing is seeking a harmonised approach that gives a positive environmental impact but not at the cost of adding unnecessary burdens onto business or households.
We do not want simply to load on more green taxes on top of those already in place.
That is why, for example, we have recognised the complexities in the Carbon Reduction Commitment, and sought to simplify it.
And we have said that if significant savings to business cannot be found we will consider options for a replacement tax.
This is the approach I want us to continue with.
I want to talk for a few minutes in a bit more detail about what we are doing to meet our commitments.
About the progress we are making on climate change and environmental agenda – particularly the Green Investment Bank and implementation of the carbon price floor – and the work we are doing to ensure that costs to businesses are kept to a minimum.
Carbon price floor
It is clear we need significant new investment in low-carbon electricity generation over the coming decades if we are to meet our legal commitments on CO2 emissions – an 80 per cent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050.
A challenge that is made all the greater by the rises in electricity demand over the coming decades.
It is only through working with the private sector that we will deliver the step-change in investment required in the most efficient way possible.
But it falls to government to give private firms the incentives and long term assurance they need to make the significant investment necessary to secure this goal. So at Budget 2011 we announced that the UK will be the first country in the world to introduce a minimum carbon price: £16 per tonne in 2013, rising gradually to £30 per tonne in 2020.
The is the first important step in reforming the UK’s electricity market, providing a strong and stable incentive for billions of pounds of new, low carbon investment in our electricity infrastructure – an early and credible long-term signal to investors that the Government is serious about encouraging investment in low-carbon electricity generation now.
And this announcement is accompanied by a substantial wider package of reforms that will allow the UK to benefit from cheaper, more secure supplies of electricity, facilitating a shift to a sustainable low-carbon economy.
Introducing the Renewable Heat Incentive – £864m over this SR to increase the proportion of heat generated from renewable sources.
Supporting the commercialisation of Carbon Capture and Storage £1 billion of funding available for CCS demonstration.
Supporting renewable electricity generation – publishing the levels of support for new renewable electricity to bring forward capacity and ensure policies remain affordable.
The next stage will be to ensure that, as we implement this suite of low-carbon policies, we do so in a cost-effective way – promoting clean, secure supplies of electricity to support growth, and tackling the complex web of low-carbon support mechanisms we inherited.
We will continue to review and amend those existing fiscal instruments to ensure they remain focused on achieving both economic and environmental objectives.
GIB
Incentives through tax and government spending are an important part of our approach to encourage green investment – but only one part.
We need to ensure the sector has access to sufficient long-term finance to provide that change.
The transition to a green economy will require unprecedented investment in key green sectors – an estimated £200 billion for the energy system alone over the period to 2020.
To address this we are introducing the Green Investment Bank – due to be fully operational this year, subject to State Aid clearance.
The bank is being allocated an initial capitalisation of £3bn and will be able to borrow from 2015/16 and when debt is falling as a percentage of GDP.
The bank’s precursor, UK Green Investments, made its first investments in April, and already has over 20 individual projects under active consideration – including ventures in renewable energy, waste management and energy efficiency.
Some have said that the initial capitalisation of £3bn is too little and the borrowing powers should be provided sooner.
However green growth needs to be built on the back of fiscal responsibility. As business people you will appreciate the value of a stable economy and action to tackle the deficit.
I believe the UKGIB’s initial capitalisation of £3bn and a further commitment to allow the bank to borrow in the future strikes the right balance between encouraging green growth and managing the national debt.
Amidst action to reduce spending across the Government £3bn is a clear signal of our intent.
By 2014-15, we expect around £18bn of additional investment in green infrastructure.
Attracting investment in energy; ensuring energy security; meeting our carbon targets; and fully employing the nation’s natural resources.
The Bank will become a key component of the transition to a green economy, complementing other green policies to help accelerate investment in green projects, while providing employment and strengthening the UK’s competitiveness in the rapidly expanding renewable energy sector.
Supporting growth as well as the environment.
Green deal
The dual growth-environment goal is one major perceived trade-off that we need to address in the energy debate.
The impact on bills is the other, something of relevance today given the Ofgem announcement this morning on investment in the National Grid.
A key challenge for all of us – Government and industry – is to make sure we meet our green commitments while keeping energy affordable.
Here, energy efficiency is key. Since 2010, over 1 million more homes have cavity wall insulation – and we are working to raise this further.
Just as our policies promoting large scale energy investment will promote both growth and low-carbon energy, so our Green Deal will help us lessen both carbon emissions and the impact on consumer bills, through supporting households and firms to invest in energy efficiency.
At the last Autumn Statement we announced £200 million of additional capital to encourage early uptake of this innovative scheme.
Business costs and competitiveness
This is just some of what the Government is doing to support a greener approach to energy.
But at a time when UK businesses need to grow, matching our goals for environmental improvement, with our need to support growth and affordability means striking a fair balance between supporting low carbon investment and letting UK industry compete.
This is particularly true given the recent global escalation in energy costs and the impact these have had on energy-intensive users.
So we are taking action to ensure that our Green agenda is supported by the £250 million targeted package we announced at the Autumn Statement that addresses the needs of those whose competitiveness is most affected by Government policies.
Increasing the climate change levy discount on electricity from the current level of 65 to 90 per cent from April next year;
Compensating for indirect impacts of the EU emissions trading system on electricity costs from January next year;
Mitigating the indirect costs of the carbon price floor to the most electricity-intensive businesses in internationally competitive markets; and
Investigating how to reduce the impact of electricity costs from Electricity Market Reform.
And at Budget we announced a package of measures that will lower headline tax rates to support enterprise, aspiration, and growth.
Working with business
And working with business means more than just keeping burdens low – though that is undoubtedly important.
It means being pragmatic in recognising that as we transition to renewables, the more environmentally acceptable fossil fuels will still have their role to play – so we have published the call for evidence for our gas strategy, and continue to implement electricity market reform – recognising that gas fired electricity generation will continue to play a major role in UK energy supplies over the next decade and beyond.
It means taking account of the ways different ways in which companies and their investments contribute towards the environmental agenda.
So we have exempted input fuels used to produce heat in combined heat and power stations from the carbon price floor, subject to state aid approval.
And it also means that businesses do their bit, and that consumers can do theirs.
That is why we are requiring all businesses listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange to report transparently on their greenhouse gas emissions from April next year.
Conclusion
The need to take action on the environment, while keeping costs to businesses, households, and government low, is often portrayed as an irreconcilable trade-off.
We are showing that with the right policies, these objectives can complement each other. Supporting growth through green investment; reducing bills through energy efficiency, and maintaining business competitiveness by keeping burdens low, and providing support where necessary.
I hope that by doing so we are able to bring environmentalists and businesses with us as we take on one of the greatest challenges we all face – to deliver sustainable, affordable energy as we transition to a greener economy
Below is the text of the speech made by Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at Business for Britain on 7th April 2014.
Introduction
Thank you for coming to Pimlico today, and my thanks both to Pimlico Plumbers and Business for Britain for their efforts in making this event happen.
It is a pleasure to be here…at the site of a real British success story.
What better setting to discuss the turnaround in our country’s fortunes, as the Chancellor set out last week.
The recession slashed 7.2% off our economy and cost 750,000 people their jobs.
Following the crash we heard gloomy forecasts of a million jobs disappearing from the private sector, mass unemployment, lost generations…
…yet they could not have proved more wrong.
Britain’s economic recovery is established and taking hold faster than forecast – and nowhere are the signs of this recovery clearer than in our labour market.
Logical process
Whilst others have questioned and puzzled over the record employment Britain is now seeing…
… as the Work and Pensions Secretary, I have long believed that the strength of our labour market would both drive Britain’s economic recovery, and increase as a result.
Let me explain.
The logic behind that belief is twofold – you will know most about the first step, and the second is my area of responsibility – but the two are linked.
First, this government created the conditions for growth, and gave businesses the freedom and confidence to create jobs… which is precisely what you have done.
Second, we drove a programme of welfare reform where every change was designed to get Britain back to work…
… giving people previously left to languish out of work, the skills and the incentive to take those jobs.
In doing so, welfare reform is, at its heart, about breaking the chains of dependency and supporting people to achieve their potential…
… giving them the freedom to secure a better future for themselves and their families.
Getting Britain working
In reforming a broken welfare system, I have had one overriding intention – to get Britain working again.
Now, the results are clear to see:
we have more people working in the private sector than ever before, up over 1.7 million since the election
we have record employment – more than half a million higher than its pre-recession peak
and – less known – we have falling numbers of people absent from the labour market… falling long-term unemployment… and, perhaps most importantly of all, falling numbers of workless households
It is easy to get lost in what feel like abstract numbers – so let me make clear what this means.
The increase in employment is equivalent to the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Bolton now all in work.
It means individuals in jobs, really feeling the impact of the recovery.
Families able to feel secure about their futures…
…. breadwinners able to feel proud that they can support them…
… and children with that all-important role model to look up to, offering hope and self-worth, with aspirations for their own future transformed.
Human capital
At last year’s Budget, and so too this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility has revised its estimates for employment up and unemployment down.
Yet even still, the labour market has continued to outperform the forecasts.
In looking to explain this trend, there is much to be said of the labour market reforms that took place in the UK many decades ago – freeing up the labour market and ensuring flexibility, even to this day…
… and particularly in contrast to rigid and uncompetitive markets that continue to plague some of our neighbours in Europe.
Yet, I believe there is even more to this recovery than economics alone – which is why, to my mind, the latest labour market statistics are not a source of confusion – but make logical sense.
On entering office in 2010, I was not only determined to get Britain working, but more than that: I was determined that economic reform should be matched by social reform…
… taking action, not only to rebuild our finances, but also to restore our nation’s greatest asset – that is, the British people.
Legacy
Too often in the past, when Britain recovered from an economic crash, the poorest were left behind.
I was determined that would not happen here.
When I arrived in office, too many people had been left to languish in dependency…
… not only an unsustainable drain on productivity… but a tragic waste of human potential.
Under the last government, millions of people were stuck on out of work benefits – a million for a decade or more.
Unemployment had risen by half a million, and youth unemployment by nearly half.
1 in 5 households was workless, and the number where no one had ever worked doubled – from 184,000 to over 350,000 – rising even during the boom years.
Essentially, I found a persistent and sizeable group of people who were inactive – having dropped out of the labour force altogether – neither in work nor looking for work, even when jobs were available.
Migrant workers
With so many trapped on the sidelines, British business looked to migrant workers to fill the jobs which British people didn’t want or couldn’t get.
In just 5 years between 2005 and 2010, the number of British people in jobs fell by over 300,000, while the number of foreigners in British jobs soared by more than 650,000.
Clearly there is a powerful argument to be made here about immigration – but actually, this an issue of supply and demand, as much as it is about borders.
That is why when British business found British people were unwilling or unable to work in the UK, they quickly looked elsewhere.
Taxpayers paid a financial cost for rising welfare payments, and society paid the cost as well – with too many of our own fellow citizens falling into dependency, hopelessness, and despair.
No one knows this better than employers – like yourselves – those wanting to expand but struggling to find workers to fill their vacancies… or whose staff turn down extra hours for fear of losing their benefits.
But even apart from being bad business, it was also damaging people’s lives…
… destroying the ethos of a whole section of our society, left behind in workless households where no one knew what it was to hold down a job.
In too many cases, it was a combination of the welfare system trapping people in dependency and removing the drive to go to work… and the open door immigration policy which meant they were so easily replaced by foreign workers coming in.
Social recovery
Surely common sense should tell us that Britain cannot run a modern flexible economy, if at the same time, so many of the people who service that economy are trapped in dependency on the state, unwilling or unable to play a productive part.
That is why I knew that welfare reform needed to play a vital part in Britain’s recovery: a stable economy matched by a strong society where people are ready and capable of work.
Unlike in the past, when economic recovery meant all too little for those furthest from the labour force…
… now, the evidence of a linked social and economic recovery is clear to see – in an improving jobs market where no one is being left behind.
This is the greatest marker of how successful our welfare reforms have been:
inactivity is at its lowest on record excluding those in education, down by nearly half a million since 2010… driven by falling numbers claiming inactive benefits – down by 350,000, and falling in every single local area of Britain
there are a lower proportion of workless households than at any time on record, down 450,000 since 2010
and we are now seeing promising signs that the trend of more migrant than British workers gaining jobs is being reversed…
… with the latest data showing that of the rise in employment over the past year, nearly 90% went to UK nationals
As the economy improves, this is where the real effect of our reforms is felt: British people reengaging with the workforce and regaining the opportunity to access the jobs being created…
… ensuring everyone who is able can play a part and realise their potential.
Life change
But for me, the drive and the energy has been about ensuring that behind each of these statistics, the recovery reaches those previously at the very bottom of the career ladder.
For, in every case, these statistics represent massive life change for individuals and families.
For the young person: once with bleak prospects, but now one of a growing proportion in employment or education… who has their foot on the first rung of the ladder, able to move onwards and upwards.
For the lone parent – more of whom are now in work than ever before – which we know is the best route to lift their family out of poverty… with children in workless families 3 times more likely to be poor.
For the long-term unemployed, and those for whom worklessness had become a way of life – too often written off in the past, but now receiving meaningful help to overcome the problems that hold them back.
Already, the number of people stuck on Jobseeker’s Allowance for a year or more is down by almost a fifth…
… and the Work Programme is succeeding, helping those further from the labour market into work.
Half a million people have started a job so far – including 22,000 people who might once have been left unseen on sickness benefits, cut off from any real support – and outcomes are ever improving.
Just think of the transformation for someone whose life was one of dependency on the state, but who now has hope for a life they are able to shape for themselves and their family.
Instead of being trapped in that vicious circle – be it crime, addiction, debt – now we are seeing individuals on a journey from dependency to independence…
… regaining control over their own lives and security for their futures.
Welfare reform
Britain will only be great again if all in our society – every disadvantaged group, every deprived community – are part of our nation’s prosperity.
Since coming into office, it has been this belief that has underpinned my programme of welfare reform, arguably the most significant in a generation.
Across all these changes… every day, every policy decision, every visit, every instruction… my purpose has been to get Britain working…
…. restoring the incentive for British people to get back to work and removing the barriers in their way…
… in doing so, transforming the lives of those locked out of the labour market for too long, so that we all benefit as one nation from Britain’s recovery.
Early intervention
Yet powerful as that may be, alone it will not be enough. We also need to go further back and intervene before families fall into dependency and disadvantage in the first place.
For that process of life change to be as effective as possible, it must start at the first opportunity – which is why I am getting involved earlier than ever before…
… working alongside my colleague Michael Gove, who is leading the vital changes in the education system… to prevent the next generation of young people from facing entrenched problems.
I set up the Innovation Fund – a £30 million investment – which catalyses cutting-edge programmes to improve the employment prospects of our most disadvantaged young people… intervening as early as 14 to avoid wasted life chances.
Such has been our success in testing new schemes, that now we’re taking a pioneering approach into the jobcentres too…
… ending a situation where, for too long, jobcentres have been unable to support young people who fall out of school at too young an age.
For 16 and 17 year olds – locked out of both the classroom and the jobcentre – the wage scar caused by being out of work can damage their prospects for years to come.
Now, by opening the jobcentre door to these teenagers, and trialling what works best in helping them, we can do a huge amount to secure their futures.
Support into work
When it comes to my department’s employment programmes, I am using every tool at my disposal to get people into work.
But – equally deliberate – from start to finish, that is the purpose of welfare reform as well.
That is why:
I have fought so hard to create and introduce Universal Credit, now running in England, Scotland and Wales, and set to roll out further across the north west.
The old benefit system too often rewarded the decision to turn down work and for too many, the decision to move into work left them worse off. For too many, to take a job was not seen as the logical choice.
Universal Credit is the great reform that changes this: ensuring that at each and every hour, work always pays.
Already, as we roll it out, the behavioural effect of this reform is striking, with those on Universal Credit spending twice as long looking for work, better understanding their requirements, and working harder to meet them.
That is why:
We took the decision to invest in childcare in Universal Credit, so that families could take that job and earn their way out of poverty.
That is why:
We have capped benefits at average earnings and restricted housing benefit, so that families on benefits face the same choices about where they live and what they can afford as everyone else.
This is putting an end to the something for nothing culture that too often meant work wasn’t worthwhile – meaning welfare became a lifestyle choice.
And if these are the reforms which restore strong work incentives, together with raising the threshold so people now pay no tax on their first £10,000 of income…
… our conditionality system is designed to send a clear message that we expect every effort to be made to find and take work.
We have set clear requirements in return for state support, and are making sure that if someone fails to meet their responsibilities, they face the consequences…
… getting the balance right again in the welfare system, just as for those in work…
… and ensuring fairness for the taxpayers who fund it.
Conditionality and sanctions
Our reforms make this deal unequivocal.
We are requiring everyone to sign up to a Claimant Commitment as a condition of entitlement to benefit – it is deliberately set to mimic a contract of employment… setting out what individuals must do in return for state support.
From this month, we are going further still – the final nail in the coffin for the old ‘something for nothing’ culture.
A more stringent regime will require claimants to do all they can to get work-ready even before they sign on – taking the initiative and showing they are serious about finding work…
… as well as attending the jobcentre weekly, rather than fortnightly, if they need more intensive supervision.
This will be backed up by increased support – no one will be overlooked or left without help… but we are saying to everyone that there is no longer any opt-out from a tough jobseeking regime.
If individuals fail to meet their requirements without good reason, they must face the consequences… with a robust set of sanctions that mean for the most serious offences, they lose their benefit for 3 months for the first time, 6 months for the second and 3 years for the third.
Yes, it is challenging and there is still much more to do if we are to finish the job… but already, it is working… which is why I am baffled when commentators cannot understand the jobs figures.
In response to those who were puzzled by such a strong fall in unemployment, it was the Bank of England which said:
“a tightening in the eligibility requirements for some state benefits might also have led to an intensification of job search.”
In other words, it is this process – everything we have been doing, every reform we have implemented – which has been about getting Britain working.
Access to benefits
Yet in striking the right balance between give and take in Britain’s welfare system, there is still one final issue we must confront.
We have ended the something-for-nothing culture for those already living in Britain…
… and, equally, I believe it is only fair and reasonable to say to those coming into our country: if you haven’t made a contribution, you shouldn’t be able to claim benefits.
So we have also had to reform the way our benefits system works for those, arriving on our shores.
Here too the same principle of fairness must apply.
That is why for those migrants who do come here, we’re ensuing our benefit system is no longer an easy target for abuse…
… limiting access, to prevent migrants from taking unfair advantage of our system by accessing benefits as soon as they arrive.
We have introduced a tougher test that stops individuals from getting jobseeking benefits until they have been living in the UK for at least 3 months…
… ending that entitlement after 6 months unless the person has genuine prospects of finding work.
Those prospects are severely hampered if someone can’t speak English – so, from this month, jobseekers who struggle to speak English will now be mandated to English language courses, and their benefits stopped if they don’t attend.
Banning new migrants from claiming Housing Benefit altogether, we have also clamped down on those trying to manipulate the tax credits system…
… for too long a source of income for those in bogus jobs or falsely declaring themselves self-employed.
Now, until those who come here start paying National Insurance contributions, individuals must prove to us that they are working in a real job.
And we want to go further still – the right to say to migrants that we require a much longer record of commitment before you get benefits…
… restoring the principle that nation states run their own national welfare arrangements…
… something the UK is not prepared to change.
Together, these new immigration and benefit checks will clamp down on those trying to exploit the system…
… ensuring that Britain’s growing economy and dynamic jobs market deliver for those who work hard and play by the rules.
As we reshape our economy, and revitalise the entrepreneurial spirit that our great nation has always shown, we cannot shut the door on the rest of the world.
But those who come here should know that we will not compromise when it comes to protecting the principles on which our welfare state is based.
We must do right by those born here, living here and working here, whose contributions fund the system. That is only fair.
Chancellor’s commitment
It was just last week that the Chancellor talked about a commitment to fight for full employment in Britain – as he put it, to have the highest employment rate in the G7.
And he is right.
We must no longer limit our ambition, nor avoid facing up to a challenge that would improve so many lives.
Indeed, it is my belief that this should be, perhaps, the most vital aim: with help and support, everyone contributing as far as they possibly can.
We’ve done a lot already, and will continue to make progress…
… our long-term economic plan ensuring we help businesses like yours to create new jobs and generate opportunities.
Yet we must go further still, following the recession, to seize a real opportunity: ensuring that our social settlement offers all in our society a fair chance of securing those jobs.
Progression in work
For too long, the prevailing attitude was that a bit more money paid out to those on the sidelines would make their lives a bit better.
Yet the reality is that whilst this approach might have pacified the problem in the short-term…
… the long-term consequence has been a state of even more entrenched dependency.
Given the chance, I believe people will want to make the most of their talents – but instead, what this did was trap them, with little opportunity to take control of their own lives.
Locked into dependency on the state, people’s talents were too often wasted…
… either in trying to get more money from the state…
… or in dodging the state, as individuals were pushed into the shadow economy or a dark world of petty crime.
Still now, some commentators fail to recognise the damage that worklessness and dependency can inflict on people’s life chances and aspirations…
… persisting with the same misguided thinking, through an argument that denigrates those who are taking the first steps into the labour market
The way our opponents would seem to have it, people are better off in dependency than taking a part time or entry level job.
It is hardly an argument many of those on Jobseeker’s Allowance would recognise, desperate to get a job and start earning their way in the world.
Nor does it reflect the dynamic nature of our labour market.
The way I see it, securing a job is the first step – the beginning of a process in which people are able to take control of their futures.
Make the first step too difficult or too high, and a person may never get there.
But help them to take that step, make that positive move, and the rest is in their hands.
Conclusion
Our purpose must be to release people from the trap and so that they can break free from dependency, participating equally as our economy improves.
That is the aim of the reforms we are pushing through.
It is hardly a small undertaking – for it requires a huge cultural change, both within government and for those caught in the system for so long.
And it is not easy, as attacks from all quarters seek to misrepresent what we are doing…
…. angling for a return to failed and expensive policies, when welfare was about how much money was paid out to people, rather than how their lives were improved.
Yet I believe this task is vital – and without it, we risk Britain slipping behind, as growing levels of dependency hinder our progress.
Whilst our critics persist in arguing that a minimum wage job is stepping into a hole…
… I believe, quite the contrary, that it can be the first step on the ladder to an independent life.
