§ 13. Roger Casale (Wimbledon) (Lab)If she will make a statement on changes in employment levels in the UK call centre sector in the last three years.[177765]
§ The Minister for Trade and Investment (Mr. Mike O'Brien)The call centre industry is enormously important, and the recently published DTI study on the UK contact centre industry found that employment in the industry grew by nearly 15 per cent. from 2001 to 2003. It forecasts that the industry will continue to grow and could directly employ more than 1 million people by 2007.
§ Roger CasaleI thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Of course, call centres are a very competitive part of the British economy, but there are fears that jobs could be lost overseas. In that context, surely the best thing that the Government can do to help people in the call centre industry, as in other parts of the economy, is to continue to ensure that individuals working in those industries have the opportunity to get the skills that they need to adapt to change; that firms enjoy the most competitive fiscal environment in Europe, which we have under this Government; and, above all, that Britain continues to enjoy the growth in jobs and prosperity on which all our futures depend.
§ Mr. O'BrienI agree with my hon. Friend; he is exactly right. The flight of jobs overseas is not inevitable. The UK has an absolute advantage in a range of things, certainly including call centres, given its cultural fit with its customers and an enormous pool of contact centre expertise and knowledge. However, the industry must move up the value chain, competing on service quality and the value added, not on price. We are in the business not of trying to pay people low wages but of getting the quality up and making sure that we provide a better product. That will enable us to be competitive.
My hon. Friend is entirely right. The Government's record of getting the basis of our economy right and of providing the best period of growth and prosperity that this country appears to have ever known is the basis on which we can look forward with some optimism to the future not only of the call centre and contact centre industry, but the whole of our industry.