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Remploy

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for repeating the Statement on the future of Remploy, which, as the Statement says, was set up after the war to give employment to disabled people. The Statement is an amelioration of the original proposals, which were designed to reduce the losses, and hence the government subsidy, to Remploy which have been going on for some time. As long ago as 2005 the National Audit Office described many of the factories as ““unsustainable””. We also learn that, under the department’s normal scheme, the cost of supporting a disabled person into a mainstream job is £5,300. By contrast, the average cost of supporting a disabled person in a Remploy factory has increased inexorably from £11,400 a year in 1994 to more than £20,000 today. I assume that the figures which I have just read out are in today’s prices; perhaps the Minister can confirm that. If they are, that is of course an exponential increase. The proposals in this Statement affect many employees who already live the most difficult of lives, which most of us cannot imagine—people whose lives will be totally disrupted as a result. I do not know, and the Statement does not reveal, just how many disabled people—people, your Lordships will remember, who are pursuing active employment—will lose their jobs in the factories due for closure. Just how many people will be made redundant? Can the Minister tell us, too, whether, in the 11 mergers that are to take place, any redundancies are envisaged? Clearly it is the case that managers will have to go, but I am more concerned with the shop-floor employees. Whatever the answers to these questions, we are used to government Statements starting in what I rather irreverently like to think of as the gung-ho tones of the noble Lord, Lord Jones of Birmingham, so the first three and half pages of this one come as no surprise. However, is it not a bit rich for the Secretary of State to claim, by implication anyway, that Remploy was in the minds of Ministers when they planned the Disability Discrimination Bill? During the debates in this House—I stand to be corrected on this—I do not recall Remploy being mentioned at all. Nevertheless, I share with the Government the objective of having as many disabled people as possible in mainstream work. That may—may—be the result of the Welfare Reform Act, which, as the House will remember, is intended to reduce the number of people claiming incapacity benefit. Under current proposals, however, it is only the newly disabled people who will attract the employment and support allowance which replaces IB. Be that as it may, today I am concerned with a small but important group of disabled people who are employed by Remploy. It helps to place them in mainstream employment. Earlier this year, we heard of plans to close 32 and merge 11 of its 83 factories. Until late September, this was to happen. However, the pre-non-election Labour Party conference changed all that, and we now know the Government’s revised plans. The Statement describes these plans as ““final””, involving the closure of 17 factories—a reduction from 32, but 11 are still to merge. Ministers are to be urged to use their powers to allocate public sector procurement contracts to Remploy. The new Remploy plan intends to increase such sales by about 35 per cent, from £298 million to £461 million. While this is not a new pledge, I would like to know what progress has been made with other departments in this regard. The Government also pledged that no individual factory would close without direct ministerial approval. Is that still the case? Will the Minister list those factories that are to close? I know that a close reading of the modernisation plan—I am grateful to the Minister for putting it in the Printed Paper Office—will give me the answer. However, I think the word for it is probably ““verbose””. There are so many words that it is difficult to extract, in the short period I have had available, a simple list from the rationale of each factory. I hope that the Minister, even if he cannot do it now—and perhaps that would not be appropriate—will be prepared to reply to that point by means of a Written Answer. While I am asking questions, the Statement speaks of ambitious targets. On page 7, it speaks of: "““quadrupling to 20,000 the number of disabled people Remploy would help into mainstream work””." Given the reduction in the number of factories and the amalgamation of others, how exactly will the rise from 5,000 to 20,000 be achieved? Finally, I note that the major charities agree that Remploy must be restructured, as do the relevant unions. I agree with them. On these Benches, however, we will be watching carefully for signs that those employees who can no longer have a Remploy job will be transferred to private sector employment, if necessary with a short period on the new employment and support allowance.