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Mrs. Beckett: First, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, it is the Prime Minister's custom to make a statement to the House after formal EU Councils, so I anticipate that one will be made. I cannot give a date, but I anticipate that it will be within the usual time scale.
Secondly, the right hon. Gentleman asks about the Census (Amendment) Bill. He will understand that the position is unusual: Governments do not usually find time for private Members' Bills. However, the Bill is believed to be uncontroversial, and it went through the House of Lords without any difficulty. The issue it addresses was raised after the main census legislation had gone through, and it is promoted by our former Speaker, who is now a Cross-Bencher in the Lords. Until the objection the other day, there was no reason to anticipate that there would be a difficulty in the House of Commons. The matter is one in which there is considerable public interest, and there is a degree of pressure arising from the fact that the next census will not be held for another 10 years. As the alternative was not to deal with the matter at all, it seemed sensible to the Government to deal with it now, in the context of the current census.
The right hon. Gentleman asked me about a debate on the Neill report. There has been no undue delay in dealing with the report, which made 41 recommendations, some of them with substantial constitutional implications. The Government are giving the matter full consideration. It was put forward as a package of proposals, and the Government will respond to it as a package. I do not see much point in having the debate before the Government's response, but I take on board the right hon. Gentleman's request for such a debate. Indeed, I welcome it, as it will give us an opportunity to remind everybody that we have given the Conservative party substantial extra sums of public money--a fact to which Conservative Members seem puzzlingly unwilling to refer.
The right hon. Gentleman asked about a statement from the Health Secretary. Since, as my right hon. Friend made plain, there has been no change of policy on the issue, there is little for him to say to the House.
I have already indicated that I have taken on board the right hon. Gentleman's request for a statement on the spending review and his request for a little more clarity about the pattern of economic debates.
With regard to the recess, I apologise for having overlooked what was, I think, question 8 last week. I fear that I have, as yet, no news for the right hon. Gentleman.
Given the huge demand from the Opposition for further debates, I anticipate that they will want the House to sit until well into August.
Mr. Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston): May I draw my right hon. Friend's attention to early-day motion 773?
[That this House notes with pleasure the 10th anniversary of the elections on 27th May 1990 in Burma, in which the National League for Democracy, headed by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of the 495 parliamentary seats; but regrets the action of the military regime in failing to respond to the democratic wishes of the country; condemns the regime for retaining in prison 55 MPs elected in 1990 and for detaining 1,000 political activists last year; further condemns the regime for its brutal and inhumane treatment of ethnic minorities, such as the Karens, who have suffered from a brutal campaign of murder, forced relocation and slave labour during this period; and calls upon the British Government to exert the maximum pressure on the regime, including pressing for international court action against those responsible for crimes against humanity.]
Unusually, the early-day motion has already been signed by 190 right hon. and hon. Members from eight parties. May we have an early statement from the Government on the important subject of democracy in Burma?
Mrs. Beckett: I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I know that he, with others, has long campaigned on the issue and takes a great interest in the subject. I am pleased to know that there is such support across the House for the position that he has been advocating. I cannot undertake to find time for an early debate, and I am not sure how easy it will be for a statement to be made on recent developments, but I assure my hon. Friend that the Government will continue to work steadily at the issue, as I know he would wish.
Mr. Paul Tyler (North Cornwall): Will the Leader of the House urgently consider publishing the criteria by which Ministers decide whether to make a full and proper statement to the House on a change of policy, and when they simply use a planted question and a written answer? The right hon. Lady will recall that in the past Ministers seemed to avoid making a full statement only when an issue was causing embarrassment on the Government's Back Benches, as in the case of the contamination of crops with genetically modified seed.
There are two cases in the news today on which, I think, the Leader of the House would accept that a proper statement should have been made to the House. Reference has been made to the fact that the Secretary of State for Health made copious references to a change of policy on the "Today" programme this morning. To add insult to injury, he implied that there would be a written answer this afternoon, when no such question appears on the Order Paper. How are we to hear whether a U-turn has taken place with regard to the investment of national health service money in the private sector?
The Leader of the House will have heard in exchanges a few minutes ago that there are serious concerns in the textile and clothing industry, relating not just to C&A but,
as I understand from rumours circulating in the past few minutes, to Bhs. When will we get a proper statement from the Secretary of State on the Government's policy on that very important industry?
Mrs. Beckett: First, the hon. Gentleman asked about the criteria determining when a statement is made and when a written answer is given. I entirely reject the notion that a written answer is given when the matter causes the Government some difficulty. Indeed, I well remember, as I am sure he can, many occasions on which that has clearly been disproved by the Government making a statement in just such circumstances. The practice varies from occasion to occasion.
One of the important criteria is that we do not allow statements to be made on an Opposition day, which I hope the hon. Gentleman would welcome. [Interruption.] There is no need for the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing) to make a fuss. We screwed that concession out of the previous Government with considerable difficulty when she was engaged as a special adviser.
The examples given by the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Mr. Tyler) do not stand up. From memory--and it is from memory, I accept--my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food did come to the House to make a statement about contamination, but the issue arose, if I recall correctly, over a weekend, and there was some difficulty with timing. With regard to the textile industry, it is an important industry and there is concern about it, but we have just had Trade and Industry questions.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich): My right hon. Friend will be aware that many of us came into politics to defend and improve the national health service. May I point out to her that private commercial health care, which is an industry, is not required to maintain the same ratio of doctors resident to patients, or of trained nurses to patients? If there is any suggestion of a reverse takeover of the NHS by private industry health care units, I hope that she will reconsider her decision not to hold a debate next week, because some of us may have rather a lot to say about the matter.
Mrs. Beckett: Of course I understand my hon. Friend's sensitivity, and her family has many links with the health service. However, I understand that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health made it plain that there has been joint working between the health service and the independent health care sector and that there is every determination to ensure that not only value for money but proper clinical standards will be maintained where there is reciprocal use of facilities.
Mrs. Beckett: Well, that is my right hon. Friend's policy. Proper clinical standards will be maintained and those are the contracts that will be undertaken, but not at the expense of developing NHS services. Of course I share my hon. Friend's view. The whole House--well, most hon. Members--will share her view that it is extremely important that we modernise and expand the health service so that it can deal with all those who wish to use it. That is what the Government are doing.
Mr. John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood): Will the Leader of the House allow time next week to hold a
debate on the White Paper "Smoking Kills", especially in the light of the damning report just published by the Select Committee on Health, entitled "The Tobacco Industry and the Health Risks of Smoking"? Will she ensure that the hon. Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Vaz) is present at that debate to explain why the Government still allow the European Union to subsidise the growing of tobacco in southern Europe at the British taxpayer's expense? Does she realise that subsidising tobacco growers in the EU is roundly criticised by the Select Committee in paragraph (zz) of its report?
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