Lord Davies of Abersoch: Hear, hear! I think that my speech should also be deleted from Hansard. For the past 12 months I have been involved in the debate about women on boards. It has been an education for me. I have learnt much and grown in many ways. It has been a humbling experience to meet so many women of such talent. It has been a huge test for my wife of 33 years, because it seems that every day I come home...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: I declare a range of conflicts, as I work with a number of companies in the financial services industry. Until I became a Minister in the Government, I had been a career banker-I should perhaps lower my voice at this stage. I love the industry, which may be an unfashionable thing to say, and found it to be an industry with huge integrity. In fact, I was going to thank my noble friend for...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: No, not at all. This is the moment in history where we use the Vickers report and the European crisis and in the next six months we come and agree a global accord for liquidity and capital. We must not end up with a system whereby we impose the separation of retail and investment banking on an HSBC or a Barclays when Jamie Dimon-the chief executive of one of the largest banks in America, JP...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My honourable friend the Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform (Ian Lucas) has today made the following Statement The EU Competitiveness Council will take place in Brussels on 1- 2 March and this Statement covers the business to be taken at the Council. I shall represent the UK on internal market and industry issues on 1 March and Andy Lebrecht, the UK's Deputy Permanent Representative...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: No conversations have taken place between Government and One North East on this matter.
Lord Davies of Abersoch: The regional development agencies are committed to achieving value for money in procurement and use of office supplies. Each RDA uses recycled paper in their printers and photocopiers in accordance with the network's commitment to sustainability. Prices of paper are influenced by specification in terms of paper quality, the distance of the supplier to the RDA's office (which impacts on carbon...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: The prompt payment code is a voluntary code developed and managed by the Institute of Credit Management (ICM). We encourage all public sector bodies and private sector businesses to become signatories to the code. The list of signatories is provided in the Institute of Credit Management website at http://www.prompt paymentcode.org.uk.
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Howell, for his comments. I think we all share his concern that EU legislation should be subjected to proper scrutiny and that this House and the other place should have the opportunity properly to scrutinise both EU measures and the domestic legislation that implements them. First, it is simply not true that the Government laid the order without...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: I thought that I did say that; please accept my apologies. We need to join with our European partners on this. The threat can be more effectively tackled at a European Union, rather than at a national level, by ensuring that there are uniform measures binding on all member states. Without such action, we could not guarantee that member states would have equivalent controls in place on exports...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: The Government support the promotion of the effective use of "comply or explain" in corporate governance across the EU. Used appropriately, such an approach can achieve high standards of corporate reporting and so assist shareholders in holding directors to account.
Lord Davies of Abersoch: The City of London's report provides a good summary of the financing landscape affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including the funding escalator required for different stages of business growth. Government acknowledge the conclusions in the report and will continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders and partners, including the City of London, to support the financial...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: The March scoreboard demonstrates that the record of member states in transposing EU legislation correctly and on time continues to improve. However, further improvement is still needed, not only on the measures contained in the scoreboard but also in the way in which legislation is implemented in practice, to make sure the anticipated benefits are really delivered to businesses and citizens....
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My honourable friend the Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform (Ian Lucas) has today made the following Statement. I have today agreed to the publishing of the Insolvency Service's corporate plan for the period 2010-11. As a result of changes in public behaviour, with individuals increasingly opting for voluntary insolvency and bankruptcy procedures, the Insolvency Service is planning...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: Values of exports of military equipment and services to Oman are shown below for the past three years for which figures are available. Values for 2009 have not yet been finalised. Year £ million 2006 12 2007 427 2008 16
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My honourable friend the Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform (Ian Lucas) has today made the following Statement. Companies House I have set Companies House the following targets for the year 2010-11: Customer achieve a score of more than 86 per cent in each quarterly Companies House customer satisfaction survey;to achieve on average a monthly compliance rate for accounts submitted of...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My honourable friend the Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform (Ian Lucas) has today made the following Statement. We are today launching a consultation about personal insolvency. Specifically, we are asking whether we should amend the eligibility criteria relating to debt relief orders (DROs) in order to allow access to those people who are currently excluded because they have pension...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My honourable friend the Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform (Ian Lucas) has today made the following Statement. The EU Competitiveness Council took place in Brussels on 1 and 2 March 2010 and the following is a summary of those discussions. The main Internal Market/Industry Council items discussed on 1 March were on industry policy, intellectual property rights enforcement and the...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: My Lords, our future economic success depends on encouraging more women to start and grow their own business successfully. Matching US levels of female entrepreneurship would contribute an additional estimated £42 billion to the UK economy per year. We are implementing the recommendations made by the Women's Enterprise Task Force, and are working closely with the banks to ensure that women...
Lord Davies of Abersoch: First, may I, on behalf of all the men, wish noble Baronesses a happy International Women's Day, and suggest that we adopt the same practice as Russia and China, where the men give gifts of flowers and chocolates, maybe a year from now?
Lord Davies of Abersoch: I am not sure whether that was a win for the Contents or the Not Contents. I agree with the noble Baroness. We in the UK have provided funds for ethnic minority groups. We also have an Aspire fund, as I have said, which provides about £12.5 million. It was launched in November 2008, and is aimed at co-investing and investing in women-led enterprises. Additionally, the community development...
