Speeches by Hinds.

“I intend to speak mainly to the provisions dealing with guaranteed hours, but I begin with a word of thanks to the Government for what they have announced about special constables. It is not quite as good as adopting the amendment, but I welcome the review. I also commend my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Sir A…”

“In the positive spirit in which the Secretary of State speaks, will he commit on the Floor of the House that the reference period used to calculate hours for sectors that have serious seasonality—we have heard about boat building, hospitality, tourism and farming—will not be a ridiculously short period, such as 12 week…”

“And some people do not, as the hon. Gentleman quite rightly says. When I was working at the Department for Work and Pensions, the issue of zero-hours contracts became a totemic issue under the leadership of the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), the immediate predecessor of the current leader of the…”

“I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for suggesting that he will try. I turn to the provisions dealing with guaranteed hours and zero-hours contracts. I understand why it is attractive to the Government and the Labour party to seek to restrict the availability of contracts that do not have a guaranteed number o…”

“You mentioned the different sub-sectors—publishing and music—and art is another. They have quite different existing systems, processes, associations, guilds and all the rest of it. Is it physically possible to have an effective opt-out mechanism?”

“Can we expect something this calendar year?”

“Or this financial year?”

“Secretary of State, can I ask about AI and copyright? The Government’s preferred option is to have a general exception for text and data mining, with a so-called opt-out. You had a consultation and a ton of responses. Were you surprised by the virulence of the reaction to the Government’s preferred option, both from th…”

“You will have to have one eventually; you are the Government.”

“So far.”

“There are few that have quite the same tension that we have. It is a fundamental tension and it is particularly strong here because we are a country that has both a strong, very creative sector and a strong, nascent and developing AI sector. In the machinery of government, this Government have tried to deal with that b…”

“What sort of reduction in the amount of time online should we expect to see in one, two or three years’ time?”

“Yes, but you would expect to see the time come down?”

“Only one in four children, including at school?”

“Just give us a rough idea of how much you would expect it to come down?”

“No Government Minister ever answers the question: “When can we expect the results?” So let me ask a different one. How far through assessing the responses are you? I think you had 11,500 responses from the consultation, and there are the roundtables, the different inputs you are getting and what you are hearing from co…”

“In due course.”

“You are suggesting that the amount of time that children spend online, including alone online, is a result of previous Government policies on youth services. The implication would presumably be that all the other countries that have also seen the same increase in the amount of time that children spend online must have …”

“It is, yes, and rather elegantly, if I may say so.”

“Chairman, in your independent report on workplace culture and behaviour, there is a finding that there was some doubt, some cynicism, among some of the corporation’s employees about the ability of management to make the changes necessary in workplace culture and behaviour. Some things were recommended, and you agreed t…”