Speeches by Gibson.

“Q I have to say that if you considered that to be two questions, then I have four. My second question—your third—is to do with the fact that we have had quite a lot of evidence concerning sick pay and the fact that it is so much lower than almost everything else. As any employer will know, having employees limp in when…”

“Q I am glad to hear that you share my concerns for small and medium-sized enterprises. As you have probably all noticed—it is in my declaration of interests—I have run a small business both here and on the continent for most of my adult life, so I feel for them. It was the first thing that came up once I started to rea…”

“Q Interestingly, earlier today, the Resolution Foundation mentioned that small businesses without HR departments will struggle without clearer legislation and guidance if the Bill is passed. Many retail businesses in my constituency are closed because of flooding this week, so we had a lot of time to discuss the Employ…”

“Q I am curious about whether you feel that the Bill’s provisions will encourage and support those who have been long-term unemployed, or those who find it difficult to get back into employment. Are the flexibilities embedded in the Bill going to help people back into work, as opposed to helping only those who are alrea…”

“Q My constituency has an enormous number of what I would call small businesses or even microbusinesses; the obvious ones are in retail and hospitality, but there are also innovative manufacturing businesses. We have mentioned the fact that some of these rules are quite onerous for very small businesses that only have t…”

“Q I have three short points to make. I am assuming that you are quite concerned that we have heard various sides talk about the fact that the Bill will not encourage employers to take on new staff. That goes strongly against what you are hoping to do in terms of getting Britain working again, which is something to be a…”

“Q Do you think that the measures in the Bill go anywhere in the way of supporting those with family or carer responsibilities? Dr Stephenson: Obviously, the provisions about paternity and parental leave as a day one right will benefit those with caring responsibilities. We are pleased to see that there are plans to rev…”

“This is slightly more specific and comes up from your report, to do with methane emissions, where the reduction rates in agriculture from your Committee’s recommendations for the balanced pathway need to almost increase eightfold. Can this be achieved with the current agricultural practices? Would methane suppression f…”

“I was going to move on to agriculture and I am sure that Toby has organised this very well because he knows that, if I talked about heat pumps and air-tightness on buildings, you would never get me out of here. That is probably a sensible thing. This is quite important because we are seeing these drops in terms of our …”

“Are there any specific policies that you think Ministers should be adopting in the short term that would make a significant difference?”

“That makes perfect sense, which brings me on to a slightly more specific area that is—”

“I am going back to the housing issue because we are talking about building more in rural communities, and you are saying, “Well, so long as they have electric cars, it is fine for them all to travel on their own in an electric car”. I find that incredibly worrying, because is the Committee really looking at full lifeti…”

“Yes, okay. I was going to say that if you come and spend some time in the rural community outside the M25, the biggest difference in terms of connected cities and connected small towns is the second car. If you do not provide good public transport and good access to towns then what happens is people buy a second vehicl…”

“I am conscious that we are running over time, but I want to talk a little bit about something that we have touched upon, which is the community engagement side of it. Councillor Wright mentioned the issues around legislation inflicted upon communities and local governments. Having been a member of a local government fo…”

“I think we have answered the second part of that question more than the first, to be honest. We quite clearly need better engagement and earlier engagement.”

“So the argument is earlier and more meaningful engagement. Mr Stafford, do you have anything to add?”

“I am conscious that we are running over time, but I want to talk a little bit about something that we have touched upon, which is the community engagement side of it. Councillor Wright mentioned the issues around legislation inflicted upon communities and local governments. Having been a member of a local government fo…”

“I think we have answered the second part of that question more than the first, to be honest. We quite clearly need better engagement and earlier engagement.”

“So the argument is earlier and more meaningful engagement. Mr Stafford, do you have anything to add?”

“I have a quick curveball before you all go. The reviews talked about new towns, and 10 or 15 years ago we talked about new villages, which of course quite often would be in the green belt. Do you have any quick thoughts on whether you consider the options for new towns—or new villages, perhaps more appropriately—viable…”