HL Deb 08 February 1988 vol 493 cc92-3WA
Lord Allen of Abbeydale

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they have now had an opportunity of reconsidering the reply given by Lord Skelmersdale to the debate on 7th December last on the report of the European Communities Committee on Social Security in the European Community.

Lord Skelmersdale

The Government congratulate and are grateful to the Committee and to all those who gave evidence to it for their valuable role in adding to our information on this relatively little known topic and raising public awareness of this important field of activity. We are also grateful to all those Members of the House who contributed to the debate.

I hope that, in expressing the Government's inability to endorse all the Committee's recommendations in full, I did not give the impression that we undervalued its work or failed to appreciate the importance of the issues involved. On reflection, my reply perhaps concentrated too much on the conclusions of the report with which the Government disagree and did not give sufficient emphasis to the considerable areas of agreement.

The Government agree completely with the Committee that harmonisation, in the sense of standardisation, of the social security systems of the member states is neither possible nor, indeed, appropriate but that some other forms of harmonisation, including the acceptance of agreed principles, are desirable. We also endorse the point that such limited harmonisation should not prevent or discourage innovation by member states.

The Government are at one with the Committee in agreeing that more research and information gathering and collation should be conducted by the Commission in these important areas identified by the Committee.

The most specific recommendation of the Committee was that "there should be a right to a basic level of social assistance throughout the Community". We agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment behind this recommendation, and of course the United Kingdom already has such a system. Nonetheless, as the Committee point out—and the Government agree—because of the very wide variety of provision between states and the lack of resources available to some of them to enable them to make radical changes in this respect, the possibility of achieving this is, at present, remote.