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Building Britain's Future

I thank the Minister for what he has said this afternoon, although I remain unconvinced that the exercise of this so-called Grand Committee is really very purposeful—it is a rather ungrand Committee that is unable to take any decisions and is very much a media-based performance, rather than a practical part of the apparatus of government. For instance, the hon. Member for Erewash has just asked to bend the Minister’s ear after anything that happens in this chamber. She may well enjoy doing that—he might enjoy it, too—but I do not think that it will be very effective, because we have been briefed in advance that ““Regional Ministers do not cut across the work of the national departments responsible for specific policies and are therefore not responsible for the exercise of departmental responsibilities within that region.”” So what on earth is the Regional Minister for? There is nothing that he actually administers. He is there supposedly to gather together all the various functions of government in a way that suits the region, but he has no power whatsoever to do anything over those Departments. That illustrates the absolute failure over the last decade of the Government’s broader regional policy, which is in a state of complete collapse, and should we get into government, that policy in its current form will be replaced totally, which in my view would be for the better.