Press Release

All-Party Parliamentary Group for Construction meets with new chair and committee members

Olympic bid success puts construction in the limelight

15 July 2005

Members of Parliament with an interest in the construction industry met last week, under the new Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Construction, and a new chair for the Group – Claire Curtis-Thomas, the Labour MP for Crosby – was elected.

The APPG was formed in March 2004 as a discussion forum on construction issues – including health and safety, education and training – and a means of communication between Parliamentarians, the Sector Skills Council and the industry.

The meeting was attended by eight MPs plus sponsors from ConstructionSkills including Sir Michael Latham and Peter Lobban of CITB-ConstructionSkills and Graham Watts and Stuart Henderson of the Construction Industry Council. More than fifty additional MPs have expressed an interest in attending future meetings of the Group.

The new Group Chair, Claire Curtis-Thomas MP, is the first female professional engineer to enter the House of Commons in Parliament’s history. With twenty years' experience working in engineering and industry, she is a valued member of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee. Outside Parliament, she is the founder and President of SETup, an educational charity that represents science, engineering and technology-related industries.

On her new role, Claire Curtis-Thomas MP said: “I am very ambitious for this All-Party Group, which was formed last year as a forum for Parliamentarians and industry to look at the absolutely vital area of training and skills needs in the construction sector. Now that London is to host the Olympics in 2012 it is more important than ever that we work together to ensure that the sector gets the skills it needs in order to create the infrastructure for the Games.

“I believe that this Group can make a difference, and my two priorities for this year are to contribute to a review of construction qualifications’ fitness for purpose – do they reflect what is needed on site and are they being adequately delivered – and to help identify ways in which the industry can attract more women and minority ethnic groups. I’m particularly pleased therefore that one of the first events on our calendar, in the autumn, will be a celebration of employment projects which have successfully attracted more women and ethnic minorities into the industry.”

Nick Raysnford MP, who was elected Secretary of the Group at the meeting, reiterated the importance of training and sustainable employment within in the industry at a House of Commons session after the meeting: “I put it to him [my right hon friend] that it will be essential, in the creation of the many jobs that will result from our success, that every effort is made to secure employment and training opportunities for young people who are currently without a job in those areas. That will maximise the regeneration benefits.”