Speeches by Bance.

“Martha, particularly with your BCC hat on, my manufacturing SMEs would tell me that they do not know what they do not know. We have heard some amazing evidence about the impact of AI in manufacturing settings. I would appreciate your thoughts.”

“I wanted to ask the members of the panel about the extent to which they think successful AI adoption in enterprises depends on really good leadership and management skills. Some of the evidence we have heard on this Committee to date has been less about AI and digital skills and more about the lack of skills that manag…”

“On the leadership and management point, do you think that the work Skills England is leading is doing enough to ensure that leaders and managers in enterprises understand what the potential for growth and development is?”

“Turning to adults, do we think the current adult skills and training system is fit for the future, thinking about the evidence that we have heard about AI and digital skills, but also about the leadership and management competencies, which the evidence this Committee has heard has indicated are so important for underst…”

“If employers were here, we know what they would say about apprenticeships, and we can put some of that to the side for the moment. We know their criticisms of the levy, the system and so forth, and their difficulties with apprentice wages. Would they say the content of the apprenticeships on offer is keeping pace with …”

“Will you find an answer for us on aluminium?”

“What about the capital costs?”

“It is required reading in Maidenhead.”

“Staying on steel tariffs, downstream steel fabricators face a double hit from the new steel trade measures: they face higher costs for imported steel inputs while fabricated steel products can still be imported without any tariffs. What assessment have you made of the risk that this will accelerate the offshoring of fa…”

“You will have heard the evidence given to this Committee by the beauty associations, the hairdressers, which are predicting the end of an employed model in hairdressing. They are absolutely clear that there is a massive competitive disadvantage if you employ hairdressers and hairdressing apprentices as opposed to alloc…”

“Sticking with business rates and moving to manufacturing, do you think it is fair that if a manufacturing business invests in net zero adaptations, it then sees its business rates bills go up? That is a major barrier to manufacturing businesses investing in transition technology.”

“Outside of what you have mentioned, so DRIVE35, and in the absence of the industrial energy transformation fund, what schemes are available to support the capital costs of transitioning to net zero in manufacturing?”

“What should the other 260,000 manufacturing businesses that are not going to be supported through BICS do? There is no industrial energy transformation fund. As we have discussed, if they invest themselves and use the tax breaks and full expensing that is available in order to bring down their energy costs by putting s…”

“Some of the boundaries for the schemes that you have in place do not make sense. For example, if you are a foundry in my constituency and you melt steel to produce products, you will be helped by BICS. If you melt aluminium, you will not. Aluminium is a metal that, as part of our transition, we expect to use to make li…”

“Secretary of State, when you last appeared before this Committee, you would not give us a date for the manifesto commitment to the review of single worker status, but said explicitly, “We will get to it.” Can you tell us now when we should expect a review of single worker status?”

“I wanted to ask about the access requirements that are also in the Employment Rights Act. Sampson, I will start with you, but I will also go to Joanne and the employer representatives in just a moment. What barriers are there to unions’ ability to reach workers, especially in sectors such as social care? What challenge…”

“That was the question that I was going to ask Tom and David. You have spoken, David, about eight hours being your preferred threshold. What modelling have you done? Do you have any sense of how many workers are currently on eight hours? Do you have any sense of how many workers will be on nine hours? That feels like it…”

“If I may, Chair, people quite frequently reference the rise of NEET young people—people who are not in employment, education or training. They talk about zero-hours contracts as a stepping stone into sustainable employment. Do you think that there should be an exemption for young people, Joanne?”

“A free democracy needs free trade unions. What is the problem with trade unions coming into retail businesses, Tom?”

“Thank you for coming today. When do you expect the Fair Work Agency to be fully operational, and what are your immediate priorities?”