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London Olympics Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I hope later to raise one or two issues concerning the construction projects. In housing visiting teams we should build on diversity around the country to try to host teams in communities with which they have links. For example, in my area we have a large Jewish community with many excellent connections and roots in Israel. We have one of the largest Indian communities in the country, and many African nations are represented. Is it possible for several areas or local authorities to get together to put in a joint bid to host some of the larger teams? We need some guidance on how those arrangements should be made and accessed. The proposed Olympic delivery authority could play a useful role in the co-ordination of such activities. My hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South (Ms Butler) anticipated my remarks when she mentioned the role of apprenticeships as we go about organising the construction projects. It is fair to look at what has happened elsewhere. In Greece, much of the construction work, large and small, was farmed out around the whole country, benefiting the whole of Greece and the Greek economy. There is no reason why that should not happen here, given that this will probably be the biggest and most important construction site in London and the south-east, if not the whole country, once terminal 5 is completed. My hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South said that this should be an opportunity to ensure that there are plenty of local jobs for local people. Foreign teams of construction workers may arrive from all over the European Union, perhaps in the same numbers as their sporting teams given the scale of the project. There is no excuse for not making efforts to ensure that local people are trained up, through the apprenticeships that my hon. Friend mentioned, to play their part in building the major projects in the east end. It would be alienating for local young people if they saw people coming in from outside and the sporting facilities going up with no jobs for them. Those who work on the sites must have proper terms and conditions and health and safety arrangements. That is particularly so in the case of overseas workers. During the last Parliament, the Work and Pensions Committee’s report on the work of the Health and Safety Executive highlighted the problems of health and safety in the construction industry, with particular reference to the position of migrant workers. I hope we can take that into account in our approach to the letting of construction contracts.