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Mr. Hain: The hon. Gentleman makes his point eloquently. I am sure he will try to catch the Speaker's eye in next Wednesday's debate.
David Wright (Telford): As winter approaches, there have been numerous reports of problems with electricity and water supplies. May we have a statement on the preparedness of utility companies for the forthcoming winter period?
Mr. Hain: I shall ensure that the relevant Secretary of State is made aware of my hon. Friend's concern. If there is information that he or the House needs, I am sure that it will be provided by the Department.
Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South): May I support the plea for President Bush to address both Houses of Parliament? Such announcements are always made in the United States first. I hope that this time it will be announced here first.
Is it possible for a Foreign Office Minister to address the House in the near future on the guidelines on people who come to the UK for specific purposes that are given to entrance clearance officers? If not, perhaps they could be published instead. Some people travel great distances only to be refused entry for spurious reasons. For example, a person who came here for training in orthopaedics was refused entry because he was not going to spend long enough in the UK. That is strange.
Mr. Hain: I shall draw that to the attention of the Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for visas. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will get a response.
Mr. Clive Betts (Sheffield, Attercliffe): Yesterday I attended a lobby of London bus workers organised by the Transport and General Workers Union to press for extra funds because of the success of regulated buses in London, which carry 1 million more passengers a day than they did three years ago. Will the Leader of the
House organise a debate on the possibility of re-regulating buses outside London where passenger numbers are falling, services are being cut and there is general public dissatisfaction with a service that is effectively the same free-for-all that we inherited from the previous Government?
Mr. Hain: I know that the Secretary of State for Transport is aware of local concern about the subject and of the campaigns by local bus authorities. I am sure that he will want to take account of the situation in south Yorkshire.
Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham): Will the Leader of the House reinstate the regular debate on small businesses, which used to take place in Government time in this Chamber? Given that 99.6 per cent. of companies in the UK employ fewer than 100 people, that they account for approximately 50 per cent. of the private sector work force and that they generate two fifths of national output, is it not important that we debate the fact that those small businesses, which are the seedcorn of our current and future prosperity, are drowning in a sea of regulation, which is deeper and more hazardous than any with which they have previously had to contend?
Mr. Hain: I can agree with the hon. Gentleman on one thing: small businesses are the seedcorn of our economy. That is why the Government are providing more support and assistance to small businesses than ever before, which is why they are flourishing in a way that they have not for generations. However, regulation is an issue. The hon. Gentleman is right to raise it and it is being addressed by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. We want to ensure that businesses are not overburdened with red tape or regulation but allowed to proceed with their enterprises to generate the prosperity and jobs that flow from that.
Mr. David Chaytor (Bury, North): May I draw the attention of the Leader of the House to last week's report by the Audit Commission and Ofsted on the planning of school places? It highlights the increasing problems caused by the polarisation of more-popular secondary schools and less-popular secondary schools. We are increasingly running a system in which schools are choosing children rather than children choosing schools. That is why we have a vast increase in the number of parental appeals and an increase in the number of cases going to the school's adjudicator. Is it not time that we had a full debate on the issue so that we can examine all aspects of admissions policies in our secondary schools?
Mr. Hain: I am sure that the Secretary of State for Education and Skills will study carefully what my hon. Friend says and reflect on his local experiences. I am sure, however, that he will equally want to put it on the record that school standards have been rising in my hon. Friend's community and across the country—[Interruption.] Yes they have, including in the constituency of the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth). Morale is better and funding is
going into education. As a result, schools are in a much better shape to provide the highly skilled population that we need to have a successful economy.
Patrick Mercer (Newark): I was interested to see that elements of the police and the British security industry are working on a scheme whereby, in the event of a serious terrorist attack, the private security firms will send men and equipment to back up the police at the scene of the incident. Although I applaud the initiative, will the Leader of the House confirm how those volunteers will be co-ordinated and why it is necessary to have volunteers rather than a formed Government body? May we have a debate on the subject?
Mr. Hain: The hon. Gentleman has raised an important issue, and I shall make sure that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary takes account of it.
Mr. Bob Blizzard (Waveney): A couple weeks ago the Government announced a new drive to improve levels of physical fitness in this country. May we have a debate on the matter so that, among other things, we can examine the performance of some Customs and Excise offices, such as the one that serves my constituency, which are charging non-profit-making sports clubs such as the Kirkley and Pakefield sports club in my constituency VAT on new changing rooms that the club wants to provide? We all thought that non-profit-making sports clubs that want to provide more facilities to get more people involved in sport were exempt from VAT.
Mr. Hain: I have noticed that as my hon. Friend has continued his life in the House, he has become a more and more radiant example of physical fitness, and I congratulate him on that. The issue that he raises is an important one in his constituency, and the Chancellor and other Ministers concerned will want to consider it and see whether it can be addressed.
Jim Knight (South Dorset): Has my right hon. Friend had time in the past week to visit the Committee Corridor, where the heating has been chaotic? Those of us who serve on the Standing Committee considering the Water Bill have been suffering Siberian temperatures until today, when it was positively tropical. While he is there, will my right hon. Friend look at the labels on some of the Committee Room doors? Committee Room 13 is now the MacDonald Room, Committee Room 12 is the Lloyd George Room and Committee Room 11 is curiously both the Peel Room and the Wellington
Room. What is going on with the labelling of our Committee Rooms? Who is deciding all this? Have we not got better types of modernisation to get on with?
Mr. Hain: I understand that the Works of Art Committee has taken a decision to rename the Committee Rooms. I hope the numbers are not removed, or none of us will be able to find them. Since the Committee Rooms are all being named after former Prime Ministers, I am sure that the name Iain Duncan Smith will not appear on one.
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff, West): Will my right hon. Friend reconsider his opposition to reviewing the new hours of sitting of the House? Has he considered that, apart from the usual arguments, the new arrangements are clearly grossly unfair to the official Opposition, not because they are left with insufficient time to scrutinise the Government, but because they do not have enough time to plot successfully against their own Leader?
Mr. Hain: I have not noticed an absence of plots against the Conservative leader on the Opposition Benches. As I said before in respect of the hours, the House took a decision, which applies for the rest of the Parliament. It will be reviewed in due course to see whether we want to proceed with it.
Shona McIsaac (Cleethorpes): Will my right hon. Friend do his utmost to find time for a full day's Adjournment debate on the funding of the health service? The British people have a right to know how the health service is to be funded in the future, and what the Government will do to ensure that the future of the health service is safe. People need to see that there is clear blue shark-infested water between the Government's policies to protect the health service, and the policies of the Opposition, which would destroy the health service, not to mention the gloopy quicksand of the wannabe Opposition, the Liberal Democrats.
Mr. Hain: I would welcome a debate on the funding of the health service. There is now a clear choice for the country between the Government's investment at record levels in the health service, recruiting more and more nurses, doctors and consultants and providing a higher standard of service to all, compared with the Opposition's view that charging and private funding should be introduced, robbing the health service by putting public money into private hospitals. I alert the House to the fact that every time somebody takes out money in order to have an operation performed in the private sector, according to the Opposition's policies, they are effectively taking out nurses, consultants and doctors. It is not like going along to the local hospital and taking out money from a bank that one can take down the road to another bank. It is taking out money that funds medical staff, without whom the hospitals cannot function at the level that they should.
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