HC Deb 13 July 2000 vol 353 cc1055-6
8. Ms Margaret Moran (Luton, South)

What steps the Government are taking to ensure that the benefits of the knowledge-based economy are accessible to people in all socio-economic groups. [128947]

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Stephen Byers)

We are taking action in a number of areas to ensure that everyone can benefit from the internet and new technologies, and more generally from an economy based on skills and knowledge.

Ms Moran

I thank my right hon. Friend for his commitment to ensuring that the new technologies are available to all. But is he aware that in parts of my constituency young Asian males and females are four times more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts? That is why I am working with business and the voluntary sector in a project to encourage the take-up of new technologies for skills and job opportunities. What incentives can my right hon. Friend offer such projects? What incentives will be available to ensure that the most socially excluded can engage in businesses in the new economy and the opportunities that it offers?

Mr. Byers

My hon. Friend makes an important point. The survey produced just two days ago by the Office of National Statistics showed clearly that there was a danger of a digital divide developing in the United Kingdom—a geographical divide between north and south, as well as a divide based on ethnic background. I commend my hon. Friend for the work that she is doing with young black and Asian people in her constituency. There is clearly a responsibility for Government to reflect on that as well. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment has commissioned some work in this area to make sure that people from different ethnic backgrounds do not lose out in terms of the new technologies.

There is a very important lesson here for all of us. The new technologies have the potential to bring great opportunity, but also to introduce greater divisions in our society. It is the job of an active Government to ensure that wherever we come from, whatever our background, we all benefit from the new technologies.

Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)

How can the Secretary of State stand there and pay glib lip service to supporting high-tech industries when the Government are bringing in IR35, which will drive entrepreneurs offshore tomorrow? The CBI, the TUC, the Federation of Small Businesses and others agree that this is a disaster for entrepreneurial business in the sector. What does the right hon. Gentleman have to say about that?

Mr. Byers

As the hon. Gentleman knows, IR35 was introduced because service companies were being exploited in a way that meant that some people were not paying their fair share of tax and national insurance. Entrepreneurs who are prepared to make their contribution to the United Kingdom have nothing to fear from IR35.

We hear stories from Conservative Members about people walking away from the United Kingdom; it would be interesting to see some figures to support those accusations. [Interruption.] I look forward to the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) providing me with details and names, because so far no Conservative Member has been able to do so.