date: 14 May 2008
embargo: immediate
Government gets "new sense of direction" says TUC
Commenting on the Prime Minister's statement on the draft legislative programme today (Wednesday) TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
'The Prime Minister's statement today contains many welcome measures which will help give the Government a new sense of direction and help re-establish its commitment to fairness.
'In particular we welcome the measures to increase the supply of affordable housing, the extension of the right to request flexible working and the important new right to request training. A new Equality Bill is an opportunity to tackle unfair discrimination. The recognition of the raw deal faced by agency workers will spur unions to step up their campaign for proper protection.
'Tighter regulation of banking is essential. One of the main drivers of current economic difficulties has been that legislators, particularly in the USA, have been too ready to listen to special interest pleading to reduce 'red tape'. The resulting lack of regulation has allowed bankers to take huge profits and bonuses when risk has paid off, but left tax payers to pick up the pieces when risks go bad.
'But there are also some dissonant notes in the statement. Boasting of reducing civil servants to 1945 levels is a strange thing for a Labour Prime Minister who believes in an active state to do. The size of the civil service should be sufficient to carry out the tasks set by parliament, not subject to arbitrary cuts or limits.
'Similarly the proposal for regulatory budgets that would limit the amount of regulation that departments can introduce is similarly arbitrary. Of course all regulation needs to be justified, fit for purpose and as user friendly as possible, but if a new consumer scam emerges late in the year will the Government say nothing can be done because the regulatory budget is used up?'
Contacts:
Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk
Press release (400 words) issued 14 May 2008
