SUN ALLIANCE AND LONDON INSURANCE COMPANY (Hansard, 2 February 1978)

§ Mr. Hordern

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific, urgent and important matter, namely the decision of the Secretary of State for Trade to force the Sun Alliance and London Insurance Company to cut its premium rates. The headquarters of this Company lies at Horsham, in my constituency, and this is a matter which will affect hundreds of my constituents. I submit that it is a specific matter, because the decision taken by the Secretary of State for Trade last night affects only the Sun Alliance company and his decision that the premium rate should be cut affects only that company.

That the matter is urgent seems clear to me, because the decision was announced only last night by the Department of Trade—and it is also urgent, I submit, because unless the matter is debated very quickly the Government will lay upon the company an order, which it 718 is not entitled to do. I say that it is a matter of considerable urgency. Of its importance I do not think there can be any doubt at all. There is no statutory Government pay policy in existence and yet it is well known and widely remarked that the Government have a black list of firms to which they refuse to give either orders or an entitlement to temporary employment subsidy where pay increases are given about the limit of 10 per cent.

That is the position as it affects a number of companies on what is known as the black list. Of course, with a company like Ford different considerations appear to apply, but in respect of the Sun Alliance company, in my constituency, there is no question of that company's breaking pay guidelines in any way. That company has made a pay award of 9.9 per cent. and has also made an improvement in its pension arrangements. It has done so on a specific undertaking given by the Secretary of State for Social Services on 18th July last, in which he said that improvements to occupational pension schemes would be free from pay policy limitations.

I submit, therefore, that the Government have absolutely no grounds at all to try to force the Sun Alliance company to reduce its premiums. Clearly, this is a matter of far wider interest and importance, going beyond its effect upon one company, important though that company, may be. You will have heard this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, of the considerable concern there is in the House about the existence of the black list, and I submit that we should debate this issue at the earliest opportunity.