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My Lords, last month the financial services sector was in trouble for mis-selling insurance to pensioners. Yesterday, your Lordships debated the excessive charges for payday loans. These are but the latest in a long list of ethical and moral failings of an industry that the Prime Minister says must be protected at the expense of Britain’s wider industrial interests. In view of this, will the Minister now insist that the governance and management of these financial businesses be linked to the values of the rest of us—for instance, by adopting the City Values Forum?
Asked by
Lord Haskel (Labour)
Oral questions - 1st Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1280
House
House of Lords
I have had exchanges with the noble Lord on a couple of the issues that he has referred to today, so I know how fresh this is in his mind. The Prime Minister has spoken about a new understanding between business and government, with Governments committing to pro-enterprise and business-friendly practices. But more than anything, he believes that Britain’s most successful businesses are those that invest in their people, communities and environment. Every Business Commits is a new initiative taking place under our Government, to see whether we can get businesses to make a significant impact by improving skills and jobs, supporting communities and small and medium-sized enterprises and improving the quality of life and well-being for our people.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1280
House
House of Lords
We know that the shareholders hold the power in this country’s large corporations, and if they will, please, use it to call the people in those companies to account, we should see some movement. That is what we are encouraging.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1282
House
House of Lords
Of course I agree with the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford that growth is not an intrinsic goal but a pursuit in order to achieve other ends. In November a year ago, the Prime Minister asked the Office for National Statistics to devise a new way of measuring well-being in Britain. His goal, he said, was to start measuring our progress as a country, not just by how our economy is growing but by how our lives were improving; not just by our standard of living but by our quality of life. The well-being factors that it identified were: jobs, health and well-being and the environment. They mirror closely our priorities under Every Business Commits, the new initiative which I hope that the right reverend Prelate will follow carefully and advise me, if he thinks necessary, along the way.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281
House
House of Lords
The independent Kay review will be looking at these things, which we have previously discussed and debated. I do not think any of us like to see the distance between remunerations growing wider and wider. There is no doubt that the Government are following this up.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281
House
House of Lords
Well, my Lords, greed was of course only one of the seven deadly sins. If I reflect on some of the others, I can see that they can be just as contagious and nasty. However, I shall reflect on the fact that one of my favourite poets, Kipling, wrote a wonderful poem called Norman and Saxon in which he describes how the people of this land will put up with pretty well anything at all, but they will not put up with the fear of unfair dealing. If we look for fair dealing in the relationship between the Government, their people and our business community, we should get somewhere.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281-2
House
House of Lords
My Lords, does my noble friend not agree that the best way of asserting the rights of the owners of a business, as opposed to the hired help—men like ““Fred the Shred””—would be if some of them were put on trial for falsifying the accounts of the businesses which they ran? They either knew or ought to have known that the accounts and the balance sheets that they brought forward were false.
Asked by
Lord Tebbit (Conservative)
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1282
House
House of Lords
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the high executive pay which the public at large find so objectionable is only one symptom of the real illness, which is the broken relationship between shareholders and managers? How are the Government going to repair this so that the values of shareholders are reflected in the decisions of management, including perhaps having an employee representative on remuneration committees?
Asked by
Lord Young of Norwood Green (Labour)
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281
House
House of Lords
In response to my noble friend Lord Phillips of Sudbury, the Government agree that principles-based regulation will be an appropriate approach in many cases. There are existing examples of principles-based regulation in a variety of areas, as I am sure he well knows, such as the UK Corporate Governance Code, which contains broad principles against which listed companies are required to report. However, we will continue to monitor this and I will continue to talk to him about it.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281
House
House of Lords
My Lords, the Chancellor's Autumn Statement reinforced the Government's commitment to deficit reduction and fairness, to rebalancing the economy away from one built on debt towards long-term sustainable growth for the safety and happiness of our people.
Answered by
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative)
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1280
House
House of Lords
My Lords, given that highly complex, voluminous regulation is meat and drink to City lawyers and accountants—for example, some of our largest public companies pay a trivial amount of tax by avoidance schemes of the utmost artificiality—might the time not have come to consider in principle legislation rather more like our common law principles, which are more difficult to evade?
Asked by
Lord Phillips of Sudbury (Liberal Democrat)
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281
House
House of Lords
My Lords, David Hume argued that greed, which he defined as an avidity to acquire possessions, belongings, property and money, was a force destructive of modern society. Could he possibly be right and, if so, what shall we do about it?
Asked by
Lord Sutherland of Houndwood (Crossbench)
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281-2
House
House of Lords

That this House welcomes the recent publication of the systematic review of the mental health outcomes of induced abortion by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health; notes that the review concludes that the rates of mental health problems for women with an unwanted...

Primary sponsor
Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat)
Type
Early day motions
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
2547
House
House of Commons
My Lords, economic growth must be for some people an end in itself but for many others it is actually a means to an end: a larger end of human happiness, the quality of life and a fairer society. How does the Minister propose that the Government will try to co-ordinate an approach to economic growth, which is important, that also contributes to a richer, more holistic goal of human and social well-being?
Asked by
Bishop of Oxford (Bishops (affiliation))
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1281
House
House of Lords
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether their plan for growth includes steps to encourage shared ethical values and long-term stewardship in United Kingdom businesses.
Asked by
Lord Haskel (Labour)
Oral questions - Lead
Status
Answered
Date
14 December 2011
Reference
733 c1280
House
House of Lords

I hear what my noble friend says but I cannot agree that his approach is the best for research in this country. Very real risks would accompany trying to shoehorn a very important and complex issue into this Bill in what I have to say to my noble friend is...

Member
Earl Howe (Conservative)
Type
Proceeding contributions
Date
7 December 2011
Reference
733 c813-4
House
House of Lords

That the House do now again resolve itself into Committee. Amendment to the Motion That the House do now again resolve itself into Committee. Amendment to the Motion Moved by

Member
Earl Howe (Conservative)
Type
Proceeding contributions
Date
7 December 2011
Reference
733 c723
House
House of Lords

My Lords, I have listened carefully to what the Minister has said. I am not totally astounded to hear his remarks and I am grateful for the generous way in which he made them. However, I also listened carefully to other people in this House, in particular, the noble Baroness,...

Member
Lord Warner (Labour)
Type
Proceeding contributions
Date
7 December 2011
Reference
733 c766
House
House of Lords

My Lords, with Amendments 244 and 260DA, the noble Lord, Lord Warner, has taken us to the important matter of the relationship between the NHS and social care, and I agree with him that this relationship is in a real sense symbiotic. The noble Lord presented us with some sobering...

Member
Earl Howe (Conservative)
Type
Proceeding contributions
Date
7 December 2011
Reference
733 c764-6
House
House of Lords

I was not doubting the enthusiasm on the Liberal Democrat Benches regarding this area. I just wanted to provoke the noble Baroness into giving the kind of excellent speech that she has given. I was hoping that we would hear from her. I also join her in paying tribute to...

Member
Lord Warner (Labour)
Type
Proceeding contributions
Date
7 December 2011
Reference
733 c760
House
House of Lords