As you know, Mr Owen, productivity has flatlined, and it has remained lower than its peak under the last Labour Government for the full eight years of the current Government and the coalition. The Office for National Statistics has found that since this Government took office, they have presided over the worst period of productivity growth since the Napoleonic wars. I think that was the last time we came out of Europe—well, perhaps not the last time, but one of the times. [Laughter.] That was a dodgy link, I have to say.

At present, UK productivity lags behind that of most of the G7 nations, notably the United States, France, Germany and Italy. What the Germans produce in four days, Britain achieves in five. We have heard that so many times, and the question that arises is: does the Government’s proposal do anything to enhance productivity? We do not know. Do the Government have any proposals for us to suggest how they might do that via a review? No, they do not. That is why we want a review.

This is not a mere technicality; it has serious consequences. As the Nobel prize-winning American economist Paul Krugman once said,

“Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.”

More than many other indicators, our productivity has a huge impact on both our future economic growth and the living standards of millions of British workers, who rely on productivity gains to improve their pay and conditions. We know that investment in research and development can, and does, enhance productivity. The question is: do the proposals do that? We do not know. Why do we not know? Because the Government—I suspect—will not agree to our review today. We will persist on that. As far as I can see, we do not have any information from the Government on the correlation.

Sadly, we are heading in the wrong direction. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that the Government’s plans will leave us with a 17-year period of wage stagnation. The Institute for Fiscal Studies agrees, arguing that we face two decades of lost pay growth. Will the Government’s proposals do anything significant to deal with that? We do not know, but we do not think so.

Time and again, the Chancellor has watered down the Government’s promise of increases in the wage floor. That will not help, either. We know that the most sustainable way to ensure a return to wage growth is to boost productivity, as well as ensuring that there is a strong framework of other worker representation to make sure that gains are shared evenly across any enterprise. That is also important. Research and development not only helps companies to grow, helps profits and helps income tax and tax generation, but helps workers and wage growth. Are the Government doing anything in the proposals to assist with that? No.

The Prime Minister recognised the importance of economic democracy and worker representation all the way back when she became Prime Minister. It is also important that workers can see what research and development investment there is, and what the Government’s proposals on it will do to help. It is difficult to establish what gains there will be under the proposals, and that is why we need to check and challenge the Government time after time on this one.

Of course, while research and development investment is not going into businesses, companies can rely on large pools of pretty cheap and expendable labour. That is important. In the past, the Minister has referred to us having quite high levels of employment, but we come back to the issue that the levels of employment per se—