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House of Commons
Thursday 1 March 2012
The House met at half-past Ten o’clock
Prayers
[Mr Speaker in the Chair]
Oral Answers to Questions
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Secretary of State was asked—
Farmers (Regulations)
1. Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con): What progress she has made in reducing regulatory burdens on farmers. [97372]
11. Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con): What progress she has made in reducing regulatory burdens on farmers. [97384]
12. Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con): What progress she has made in reducing regulatory burdens on farmers. [97385]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): We published the Government’s full response to the farming regulation taskforce on 21 February. There were more than 200 recommendations, and our response sets out clear commitments to take action and to address most of the recommendations. We are already working to implement those commitments in partnership with the farming industry, and an implementation group chaired by Richard Macdonald himself will ensure that we deliver on them.
Jesse Norman: I thank my right hon. Friend. The House will know that Herefordshire is blessed with some of the finest farmland and farmers in the country, but many farmers in my constituency who are members of voluntary schemes such as “Freedom Food” are keen to know whether such schemes will be given a lighter-touch regulation and inspection regime, as recommended by the red tape review.
Mr Paice: I cannot be specific at this stage about the “Freedom Food” scheme, but the principle to which my hon. Friend refers is absolutely correct. I assure him that the principle of earned recognition, under which farmers are already being inspected regularly in certain farm assurance schemes, will be used as a form of risk assessment to minimise inspections on holdings.
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Rehman Chishti: With regard to regulatory burdens on farmers, what steps is the Minister taking to ensure that a replacement seasonal agricultural workers scheme is in place when the current framework is removed at the end of 2013?
Mr Paice: My hon. Friend is entirely right—the seasonal agricultural workers scheme is an essential source of labour, particularly for the fresh produce sector. We fully recognise its importance, and my Department is working closely with the Home Office to ensure that the industry’s labour requirements will be met after 2013.
Mark Menzies: Farmers in Fylde will welcome the Minister’s response, but can he assure me that he will resist any further measures from Brussels that seek to undermine the Government’s good work on deregulation?
Mr Paice: I am glad that my hon. Friend added the last bit, because to say that we would not implement any further regulations might be counter-productive. I can assure him that we will fight very hard against anything that we believe is against the interests of the British agriculture and food sector or the British economy. That has always been the case, and we will continue to do our very best to oppose such measures.
Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab): What steps will the Minister take to put in place regulations to ensure that the Schmallenberg virus is not extended and does not create problems for farmers who still have good-quality lamb available for sale?
Mr Paice: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for allowing me to address that issue, which also comes up later on the Order Paper. We do not believe that any regulation on the Schmallenberg virus is necessary. The important point to note is that all the evidence of it that we are now seeing—the deformed lambs and a few deformed calves—is from infection caused last autumn in the midge season. We are working closely with the other member states in northern Europe, where the disease was found earlier than in the UK, to develop the science. A year ago we had never heard of the virus, so we are having to develop all the basic science to move forward with tests and maybe vaccination.
Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab): I begin by wishing all Welsh colleagues dydd gwyl Dewi hapus, which my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) reliably informs me is “happy St David’s day”. I hope I have not offended anyone with my pronunciation.
We are grateful to the Minister for his speedy offer of a meeting with the chief vet on the Schmallenberg disease, which we hope to have early next week. As the Minister says, there is much that we do not yet know. Has the arrival of the virus in England led to any changes or pauses in the implementation of the Macdonald report?
Mr Paice:
The short answer is no. At this stage, we do not see any need to change the decisions arising from the Macdonald report. I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her thanks for the briefing by the chief vet. It is important that all Members are properly informed about the disease. When her party was in government it kindly briefed me on such subjects, and it is only right to
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reciprocate. She will be aware that I wrote to all Members about a fortnight or three weeks ago with a very clear exposition of the situation.
Mary Creagh: I thank the Minister for those comments. May I suggest that it might be useful for the chief vet to meet all Members of Parliament to give those with badly affected constituencies the opportunity to question him?
The Minister argued against the disease being made notifiable in the EU. Will he explain why, when many farmers want it to be notifiable so that scientists can build up the full picture and help develop the effective vaccine that we all want? What steps has he taken to scale up the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency so that it is not overwhelmed by testing as we enter the peak lambing season? How much will that extra resource cost and who will pay for it?
Mr Paice: On the last point, I assure the hon. Lady that, as this is—I will not say it is an emergency—obviously very urgent, we are finding the necessary resources. It is only right and proper that we do so. I cannot give a figure because it is all changing as we go. The chief executive of the AHVLA is addressing the issue of its resources. I am afraid that I have forgotten her first point.
Mr Paice: I am grateful. The advice from the vets is that that is not necessary. We are receiving a tremendous amount of information from the private veterinary sector and, of course, samples from those in that sector and some directly from farmers, which all go into our labs for testing. As she implies, I urge all farmers to report any particular evidence. At the moment, we do not see any need for notifiability, but the matter is under review.
Mr Speaker: Order. We must move on.
Water Resources
2. Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con): What recent discussions she has had on water resources; and if she will make a statement. [97374]
3. Mr Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con): What recent discussions she has had on water resources; and if she will make a statement. [97375]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon): Our water White Paper set out the challenges we face to ensure we have resilient and sustainable water resources. The current drought illustrates the importance of planning for the future when our water resources are expected to come under more pressure from climate change and a growing population. We will need to be smarter and less wasteful in how we use existing water resources, develop new sources, and build greater connectivity across the network.
Julian Sturdy:
Does my hon. Friend agree that water security is an increasingly big issue, which we must tackle for the UK and the world, and that it will affect
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future generations if we do not significantly improve our water collection and storage, and the transfer of water from regions?
Richard Benyon: I entirely agree. That is why the Government got a grip on the matter through publishing our water White Paper before Christmas. We need to capture and use our water more efficiently. That means developing new water sources and greater interconnections, the need for which was never more apparent than now, when we face impending drought. I am pleased with how water companies are working together and with the Environment Agency, building resilience into our systems for emergency procedures now, but also for the medium to long term, when we will face different climatic conditions.
Mr Holloway: In Kent, a lot of our water comes from an underground chalk aquifer. What is its long-term sustainability, and what can the public and local businesses do to help?
Richard Benyon: My hon. Friend’s constituents, like mine, depend on that extraordinary geological feature, which contains millions of gallons of water. However, it is under real pressure at the moment, which is apparent from river flows. I had hoped that we would start to reverse the decline in some of our river flows this summer. Importantly, it is a demand as well as a supply situation, and we can all play our part in reducing the impact on aquifers. We had our drought summit last week to get people thinking now about the measures that they can take in their homes to reduce water usage.
Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): This is a serious matter, and I hope that the Under-Secretary read the speech that my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) made yesterday, pointing out that there is an abundance of water in the north-east. I checked today, and Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs are 96% full. Is not the answer therefore to move more of our industry to the north? Perhaps we should relocate Gravesham and its excellent Member of Parliament to the north of England, where he will be made most welcome. There is the land and we need the industry. If we are to rebalance our industry and our economy, we should head north—the water is there.
Richard Benyon: The hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) made a very good speech yesterday, in which he pointed out the folly of the easy fix that people constantly suggest to me: building a vast pipeline from his constituency to mine. We know that that is prohibitively expensive, but we can get greater interconnectivity between water companies, and thus water flowing from areas where it is plentiful to areas where it is not.
Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op): If tackling drought, conserving water and reforming abstraction are so important, why has the Secretary of State delayed her own Bill?
Richard Benyon:
The hon. Gentleman presupposes what is—or is not—in the Queen’s Speech. I have to confess that I am not privy to that; the Queen will announce the contents. We have said that the Bill will be
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available for pre-legislative scrutiny, but we do not need a Bill to deal with many of the issues that we are discussing on the drought. We can introduce the abstraction incentive mechanism—a bit of a techy issue, but one that can make a difference right now to the sustainability of water supplies.
Circuses (Wild Animals)
4. Naomi Long (Belfast East) (Alliance): What assessment she has made of the Austrian constitutional court’s decision to dismiss the legal challenge against a ban on wild animals in circuses; and if she will bring forward proposals to implement such a ban in the UK. [97376]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): A written ministerial statement published this morning sets out the Government’s policy on the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in England. The statement includes our assessment of the Austrian constitutional court’s recent judgment on the legal challenge against the Austrian ban on wild animals in circuses. As a result, we are developing legislation to provide for a ban.
Naomi Long: I thank the Minister for his response and am aware of the ministerial statement. When does he anticipate that the legislation will come to the House? In the interim, are the Government willing to review the licensing regime to prevent the import of any new wild animals for circuses?
Mr Paice: I cannot be precise on the timing of the legislation, partly for the reasons that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary gave in answer to the previous question. It will take time, which is why we believe we must proceed with the licensing process. We are advised strongly that the hon. Lady’s proposal on new animals would almost certainly fail a judicial challenge, but importing animals is anyway covered by the convention on international trade in endangered species regulations.
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD): Further to the question of the hon. Member for Belfast East (Naomi Long), I congratulate the Government on their announcement today, but will this welcome measure be implemented by the time of the next general election? When will it be implemented? It is important that we have a date.
Mr Paice: My hon. Friend knows full well that it is impossible to put an exact date on it, but I would be extremely surprised and disappointed if it was not implemented before the next election.
Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab): Last year, Parliament voted unanimously for a ban on wild animals in circuses with the backing of 95% of the public. DEFRA Ministers showed how out of touch they are with the public and hid behind spurious threats of legal challenges in the EU as an excuse for doing nothing. They now say that they will introduce a Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows, but yesterday they introduced a water Bill that will be passed in just two days. Why cannot they do the same with the ban on wild animals—
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Mr Speaker: Order. We are grateful to the hon. Lady. I think we have got the gist of it, but both sides really must speed up.
Mr Paice: If the hon. Lady reads what I said in that debate, she will see that I made it abundantly clear that the Government are in favour in principle of a ban—that is laid out in front of us in Hansard. As I also laid out, a ban for welfare reasons would almost certainly fail if challenged in the courts. That is why we must act on ethical grounds, which means that we must be sure that our measure is watertight. It would be easy to pass legislation today only for it to be bogged down in the courts for several years under challenge, with no protection for the animals. That is why we must take the two-pronged approach of licensing urgently while we proceed with a ban.
Apprentices
5. Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): How many apprentices are employed in her Department. [97377]
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman): In the period from April to December 2011, 33 core DEFRA employees have been completing apprenticeship training programmes. We also fund apprenticeships across the DEFRA family of arm’s length bodies. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew should be specially commended for having 67 apprenticeships.
Robert Halfon: Will my right hon. Friend support the parliamentary apprentice school that I have set up with a charity, New Deal of the Mind, and hire an apprentice under that scheme? Will she consider adopting the standard contract that Department for Work and Pensions Ministers introduced last year, which has led to an extra 2,000 apprentices being hired by their suppliers?
Mrs Spelman: I warmly commend my hon. Friend for his scheme, which all hon. Members understand has absolutely at its heart the desire to create opportunities for young people to get into work. I would be delighted if he would like to come and discuss his scheme with me at the Department.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): I am very pleased to hear that there are apprentices in the Secretary of State’s Department, but I would be more pleased if I knew that she was pushing hard for more apprentices in agriculture, with every farmer taking on more apprentices and everyone in the environmental sector around the country taking on apprentices. We need more young people to have jobs. Although the workfare scheme has run into problems, it is wrong for young people to be unemployed and on benefit. If there is anything she can do to help, will she please do it?
Mrs Spelman: I share absolutely the hon. Gentleman’s passion for seeing young people given the opportunity to work. That is one of the reasons why we announced 50,000 apprenticeships in the food and drink industry, precisely to create those opportunities for young people to work in this important industry.
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Common Agricultural Policy
6. George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth) (Con): What recent discussions she has had on reform of the common agricultural policy; and if she will make a statement. [97379]
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman): The proposals for reform of the common agricultural policy are being negotiated by member states in the Agriculture Council and, for the first time, by co-decision in the European Parliament. We take every opportunity to discuss the UK’s concerns in detail with other Agriculture Ministers at Agriculture Council meetings and in the course of bilateral meetings. I had the opportunity to do that with the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, both with Ministers from the devolved Administrations and, separately, with the National Farmers Union, most recently at the annual general meeting.
George Eustice: I am grateful for that answer. A report published this week by the think-tank Open Europe concluded that the best way to green the pillar one payments in a flexible way would be to replace the single farm payment with a market in transferable environmental obligations, so that we can use pillar one funding to bring to life some of the ambitions in the Natural England White Paper. Is that a proposal that the Secretary of State might take to the negotiating table?
Mrs Spelman: My hon. Friend wrote an interesting article about CAP reform where he expressed the idea—which he calls “common objectives”—of introducing greater flexibility through the creation of a market in tradable biodiversity obligations. He is ahead of his time with this thinking. He has heard Ministers talk about the future importance of supporting ecosystem management through agriculture, although we are dealing with reform proposals as they stand. At this stage of reform, I am sure he would share with me the view that it is important that the CAP should be greened and that taxpayers should see other public goods for the support they provide.
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): Will there be any benefits from CAP reform for developing countries? The dire consequences for developing countries that flow from the operation of this dreadful policy—including, of course, from dumping—have been known for a long time.
Mrs Spelman: I can give the hon. Gentleman the absolute assurance that the Government are keen to see the reduction in tariff barriers that would allow developing countries to send more of their produce to this country. We believe in trade liberalisation; we believe it is good for both the developed and the developing world.
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD): Despite opposition from the UK and other countries, the electronic identification scheme for sheep is now part of the CAP. In her discussions, will the Secretary of State ensure that penalties for non-compliance with this impractical scheme are kept to a minimum, before getting rid of it altogether?
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Mrs Spelman: The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. He may not know—and it is important to record for the whole House—that we wrung an important concession out of the Commission with respect to older sheep. However, in our discussions with the Commission we are of course taking forward the question of penalties, which should be proportionate.
Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP): I note the Secretary of State’s reference to discussions with devolved Ministers. Can she say when she last met the devolved Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, and also whether reference was made to greening the CAP, the issue of conacre or the definition of an “active farmer”?
Mrs Spelman: As I have explained to the House on a number of occasions, we invite devolved Ministers to attend every Council meeting, which means that we meet them once a month, as there is a meeting virtually each month. In addition, we have meetings at Westminster. As for conacre, the Minister of State raised the issue at last month’s meeting on behalf of the devolved Administration in Northern Ireland.
Dangerous Dogs
7. Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op): When she plans to publish her proposals on dangerous dogs. [97380]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): I am pleased to say that we are close to finalising a package of measures to tackle irresponsible dog owners. We are considering the benefits of compulsory microchipping of dogs, along with requiring the details of non-prohibited dogs to be held on a central database. We will announce these measures very shortly.
Stella Creasy: Residents in Walthamstow live in fear of the growing numbers of people in gangs who keep and train dogs to use as weapons and to fight in our local parks. My constituents have now been waiting more than two years for progress on this issue. Will Ministers promise them not just another consultation on tackling dangerous dogs, but real powers, including dog control notices and a responsible dog ownership education programme?
Mr Paice: Is it not amazing how we started a new world two years ago, without any reference to the inaction of the previous 13 years? I fully understand the anger of people who have to face gangs of youths using dogs as weapons, which is already unlawful. The Home Office will bring forward its own proposals, separately from our announcement, as a result of the consultation that it has carried out on measures to deal with precisely the issues to which the hon. Lady refers.
Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con): Battersea Dogs and Cats Home does very good work in educating young people, especially those in danger of being drawn into gangs and irresponsible dog ownership. Does the Minister agree that education is one of the ways forward in tackling this problem?
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Mr Paice: I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. I understand that Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is undertaking initiatives, particularly with young children on the Doddington estate, where there is a high percentage of what we call status dog ownership among the children’s parents. She is absolutely right to say that education is the answer to many of our problems, but sometimes we also have to take other measures, and we will do so.
13. [97386] Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab): Will the Secretary of State commit to publishing the proposals for tackling dangerous dogs and irresponsible dog ownership before the House breaks for the recess on 27 March 2012?
Mr Paice: If a Minister stands at the Dispatch Box and says that something will happen very shortly, it means precisely that. It certainly means before the House rises for Easter.
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con): All of us abhor the use of wild dogs for criminal purposes, but does the Minister not agree that the law of unintended consequences may apply here, in that perfectly reasonable, sensible, law-abiding dog owners could be scooped up in complex, bureaucratic arrangements while criminals continue to use their dogs for illegal purposes?
Mr Paice: I fully understand my hon. Friend’s concern, but I must point out to him that a very large proportion of dogs have already been microchipped on a voluntary basis by responsible owners. We are now trying to draw in that sector of the dog-owning community that has not done that. We are certainly not planning to create a bureaucratic scheme, but he will have to wait for the full announcement.
Flooding (Insurance)
8. Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con): What recent discussions she has had with representatives of the insurance industry on the Government’s policy on maintaining coastal and inland flood defences. [97381]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon): The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has had regular meetings with representatives of the insurance industry, and they include discussions about the future of flood insurance beyond June 2013. This is against the background of our continuing investment in flood and coastal defence.
Damian Collins: Does the Minister agree that there needs to be a more accurate assessment of flood risk? The residents of Romney Marsh in my constituency are living in a drought area and have seen £60 million spent on a new sea wall, yet they have been told that they might not get insurance cover after 2013.
Richard Benyon:
I understand the frustration felt by my hon. Friend’s residents. The Environment Agency makes the latest flood risk information available to insurance companies, on licence, on a quarterly basis. The approaches of insurance companies vary considerably, however. Some have sophisticated risk models that reflect
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that information, while some upload it only on an annual basis and others continue to make assessments on a postcode basis. That is why we are working closely with the insurance industry to ensure that information is shared. The Environment Agency can write a letter to my hon. Friend’s constituents, which they can then use to show their insurance company that they are no longer have the degree of flood risk that they had before.
Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab): Happy St David’s day, Mr Speaker.
In January this year, the Association of British Insurers released information to the national media stating that my constituency had the second highest number of homes in high flood risk areas in the whole country. The number that it quoted was 7,339, but the actual number is 500. The ABI was using old statistics. What can be done to minimise the time lapse between improvement works being carried out and householders’ bills being reduced?
Richard Benyon: I entirely understand the frustration that the hon. Gentleman’s constituents must feel. I am concentrating my efforts to secure an agreement that will lead beyond June 2013, when the statement of principles comes to an end. I also want to ensure that the information that is available is being used by insurance companies. Brokers are often the first point of contact, and we need to ensure that the information is shared with them as well. There are no state secrets involved in this; the Environment Agency has the information, and it makes it available on a quarterly basis, so it should be possible for the insurance companies to use it when calculating their premiums.
Metal Theft
9. Chris Kelly (Dudley South) (Con): What assessment she has made of the implications for her policy on waste of the Government’s strategy on metal theft. [97382]
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman): I believe it is important to crack down on all those involved in metal theft, including rogue scrap yard operators who fuel the crime. That is why we are working collectively across Government to take a range of enforcement and legislative measures that will make stolen metal too hot to handle.
Chris Kelly: Does the Secretary of State share my view that scrap yards that knowingly facilitate this crime are just as responsible as those that actually commit the theft? In line with that, will she make sure that this important clampdown is pursued with vigour, as urged by the widely supported all-party parliamentary group on combating metal theft?
Mrs Spelman:
I commend my hon. Friend, who made an excellent speech on this subject on 7 February. Like me, he comes from the west midlands, which is badly affected. Let me reassure him that we will certainly pursue this matter with vigour. I support the ban on cash payments for the purchase of scrap metal and, indeed, the increase in penalties under the Scrap Metal
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Dealers Act 1964, which will provide the police with greater powers to enter illegal sites as well as registered sites.
16. [97390] Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con): While the popularity of metal theft does not seem to have extended itself to removing that dreadful lot of junk on College green called “cutting edges”, will my right hon. Friend tell us what the Government are doing to streamline overlapping measures to deal with the scrap metal business?
Mrs Spelman: I am disturbed to hear that there was any threat to Henry Moore’s beautiful sculpture on College green—that is news to me—but it reminds us of the dreadful depths to which these criminals have sunk in removing metal from statues and, particularly, from war memorials, which has brought misery. Yes, as part of this clampdown on metal theft, we will streamline regulations. From April, for example, the Environment Agency will consider convictions linked with metal theft alongside other criteria when scrutinising the applications for an environmental permit to run a scrap metal yard.
Sugar Industry
10. Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab): What steps her Department is taking to protect production and jobs in the UK sugar industry. [97383]
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman): We benefit from two sources of sugar supply in the UK: sugar beet, grown by farmers in this country and processed by British Sugar, and sugar cane, which is imported and refined by Tate & Lyle Sugars. The European Commission’s current management of the EU sugar market is threatening the continuing viability of the cane side of the industry, and we are urging the Commission to provide a balance of competition and success between the two sources.
Lyn Brown: The Secretary of State is absolutely right. The proposed job losses at Tate & Lyle are not due to a lack of demand for sugar or a lack of modernisation by the company; they are actually due to a ruthless protection of the European sugar beet industry, which is putting up our sugar prices and putting my constituents out of work. Can the Secretary of State assure me that she will stand up against the bureaucrats and the vested interests in the European Commission, and stand up for British industry?
Mrs Spelman: I absolutely give the hon. Lady that assurance. I know that she is coming to see the Minister of State on Monday. Both he and I have strongly put the case that she has outlined. There are obvious employment consequences for London as a result of this threat to the viability of the cane side of the business. We believe that we need both sources of sugar in this country to flourish and be successful, and we believe there is room for both.
14. [97388]
Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab):
There is a shortage of sugar in Europe, yet the Silvertown refinery is forced to run at just 60% capacity, which seems ridiculous. Does the Secretary of State agree that
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it cannot be right to have a charge of €87 a tonne for extra beet quota, while the charge for each extra tonne of sugar cane is €270?
Mrs Spelman: I am well aware that the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency is also affected by the threat to the viability of the cane refining side of the business. I can assure him absolutely that, from the first sight of these Commission proposals under common agricultural policy reform, and in the context of high world sugar prices, we have worked hard to ensure in our national interest that both sources of sugar have their place as part of our sugar economy. Ultimately, trade liberalisation is what should give us a level playing field and a fair opportunity for both types of sugar processing.
Schmallenberg Virus (Wales)
15. Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (PC): What discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the spread of the Schmallenberg virus. [97389]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): DEFRA officials have been in regular contact with officials from all the devolved Administrations—including those from the Welsh Government—to discuss the Schmallenberg virus. There have been meetings and regular reports on the situation, both national and international.
Jonathan Edwards: Diolch, Mr Speaker. Does not the sudden outbreak of the Schmallenberg virus prove the need to preserve Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency services in livestock-intensive areas such as Carmarthenshire?
Mr Paice: I hope—as, obviously, does the hon. Gentleman—that the virus does not spread as far as Wales. We believe that it has come, midge-borne, across the channel, and, as I said earlier, we hope that it will not continue to spread. However, we do not consider it necessary to revisit the issue of the two laboratories in Wales. As has been said repeatedly before Committees at which the hon. Gentleman has been present, we believe that the overall laboratory services will be sufficient, under the reorganisation, to continue the surveillance.
Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con): Will the Minister assure the House that any plans he makes to restrict livestock movements will involve proportionate measures, so that those involved in embryo or semen exports are not affected?
Mr Paice: I assure my hon. Friend that we have no plans to introduce any export restrictions, and that, although one or two third-party states are beginning to raise question marks over not just UK but European livestock because of Schmallenberg, any further regulations will be based on the best scientific advice.
Topical Questions
T1. [97392]
Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con):
If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.
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The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman): My Department takes responsibility for safeguarding the environment, supporting farmers, and strengthening the green economy. At the heart of that is the ambition to create a dynamic and growing rural economy that will play a significant role in helping us to tackle the economic deficit, and yesterday, to that end, we announced a new £60 million grant scheme for rural entrepreneurs. I urge Members to make their constituents aware of this exciting new opportunity, which could, among other things, help towards the building of more farm reservoirs.
Neil Carmichael: I certainly welcome that announcement —very impressive indeed.
Many of my constituents along the Severn estuary are grateful for the work of my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon) —who is responsible for water and fisheries—in ensuring that the Environment Agency consults properly during operations that involve dealing with flood defences. Can my right hon. Friend reassure me that that will become the hallmark of the agency’s activities? Consultation is essential to community life.
Mrs Spelman: My hon. Friend did well to bring a delegation of farmers and residents of his constituency to meet my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary to discuss the specific question of the Severn estuary. As a result, my hon. Friend asked the Environment Agency to review its plans, and it is now doing so with the aim of reducing the area required for inter-tidal habitat.
T2. [97393] Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab): The coalition agreement promised a free vote on the repeal of the Hunting Act 2004, of which a number of Ministers are in favour. That would not only allow the resumption of hunting with dogs, but remove the ban on hare coursing. Does the Minister think that the British people really want to see a return to the barbaric sport of dogs chasing hares?
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): I am not going to enter into a debate on the rights and wrongs of the issue, because that is precisely what the Government have said we will do when time allows. We have said that we will provide for a straightforward debate and a vote in the House on whether it wishes to revoke the ban, and that will be the time at which to discuss the principal issues. The commitment stands.
T4. [97396] Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): Dairy farmers in my constituency tell me of the huge mental and emotional pressure that they and their families are under owing to the fear that their herds will be infected by bovine tuberculosis. Will the Minister update the House on the steps being taken to tackle the spread of the disease, which I believe constitutes a threat to a vital part of our agriculture sector?
Mr Paice:
My hon. Friend has put his finger on a tremendous trauma affecting much of the British countryside—the spread of bovine TB. As he knows, we have announced that badger culling will be piloted in two areas in the early autumn, and we have invited two
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groups from those areas to submit applications to Natural England. I must emphasise, however, that badger culling is just one part of a much wider, comprehensive package of measures such as further restrictions of cattle movements and testing, including pre-movement testing.
T5. [97397] Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab): My hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Jim Fitzpatrick) and I secured a consultation on dog control from the previous Government, on the basis that a comprehensive overhaul of the legislation was required. That was well over two years ago. Will the Government commit to that approach, or will they choose to introduce piecemeal reforms, which many now believe is the preferred option?
Mr Paice: In answer to an earlier question, I said that the Department will be making its proposals known very shortly. I will not pre-empt that announcement. The Home Office will also be announcing the results of its own consultation on the human aspect of the ownership of dogs as weapons or trophy dogs.
T6. [97399] Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) (Con): This week the Government announced the creation of 12 nature improvement areas, with a pot of £7.5 million, which no doubt will draw on the considerable experience and work of the Attenborough nature reserve in my constituency. I know that the Secretary of State has a great fondness for Nottinghamshire. Will she be so good as to put on her walking boots and join me at Attenborough to see for herself the great work that has been going on there for many years?
Mrs Spelman: It is always a pleasure to put on my walking boots. I stood as a candidate for Bassetlaw in the 1992 general election, and I am familiar with the Attenborough reserve and the excellent work being done there. I will be very happy to visit it. I have encountered huge enthusiasm for the nature improvement areas. There have been 76 bids for NIAs. Although only 12 of them have been successful, I am confident that many of the others will go ahead anyway.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green): At the previous DEFRA Question Time the Minister, the right hon. Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Mr Paice), said that
“there never was any intention to dispose of the whole public forest estate.”—[Official Report, 19 January 2012; Vol. 538, c. 870.]
Yet in evidence to the Lords Committee inquiry in 2010 he stated that
“we wish to proceed with…very substantial disposal of public forest estate, which could go to the extent of all of it.”
Will the Minister now once and for all come clean about the Government’s original intention, and is his confusion on this issue the reason the forestry brief has now been taken off him?
Mr Paice:
I am happy to confirm that the final proposals we made to the House—the only ones that matter—did not include total disposal. The hon. Lady knows full well the contents of the consultation, and they did not include total disposal. In fact, it could be argued that the amount that would have been disposed would have been much less than that, as there would
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have been considerable leasehold. Turning to the question of the forestry portfolio, first, this year I will be far busier with common agricultural policy negotiations and, secondly, my noble Friend Lord Taylor has now joined the team, and he has special knowledge of the horticultural sector and plant and tree disease, which is very topical at present.
T7. [97400] Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con): The fisheries Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon), responded to a Westminster Hall Adjournment debate that I secured last week. He heard that my constituent Paul Gilson had been fined £400,000 for catching too many fish. Please will my hon. Friend assure the House that the Government will now address the very unfair situation whereby under-10 metre fishing vessels comprise 85% of the fleet yet are allowed to catch only 4% of the stock?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon): As I made clear in that debate, seeking a fairer deal for the under-10s has been one of my main priorities. I will shortly announce the launch of six pilot schemes, under which fishermen will have more opportunities to catch fish. We have employed three coastal liaison officers to support them in both the management of their quota and the marketing of their produce.
Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab): Household flood insurance policies for next year are being written this year. Can the Minister reassure my constituents who live in a flood-risk area that the Government are working on this with insurers now, because the problem will kick in before 2013?
Richard Benyon: I entirely understand that, which is why we announced before Christmas that we would come forward with a solution with the insurers in the spring. I am confident that it will be a solution that works. There will be a year to embed new systems for what will follow from the end of the statement of principles in June 2013.
T8. [97401] Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con): As the Secretary of State will know, York, North Yorkshire and East Riding local enterprise partnership has asked for an investment of £3.25 million from DEFRA to create a rural growth network. I fully support the bid as that investment will bring substantial economic benefits to our region. Please will the Secretary of State look favourably upon the bid?
Mrs Spelman: I am delighted that my hon. Friend supports the creation of rural growth networks, and I must commend the role he played in developing a bid in his constituency. He has clearly done a very good job, because that bid is on the shortlist, but I am sure he will understand that I cannot, at this stage, reveal who will ultimately be in receipt of that status.
Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): When does the Secretary of State and her team next plan to be in Northern Ireland, to discuss with stakeholders the reform of the common agricultural policy and how it affects our Province?
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Mrs Spelman: After you! I say that because both the Minister of State and I have planned visits to Northern Ireland, and I am to meet Jim Nicholson in a few days’ time. As I said, at every Council meeting we have the opportunity to meet devolved Ministers, but both the Minister of State and I have planned visits to Northern Ireland in the near future, as, I am being told, does the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon).
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): The Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has come up with a novel means of negotiating decision making on fisheries management back to the member states. Will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to amend the regulations, as part of the common fisheries policy, to end the micro-management from Brussels and enhance local decision making?
Richard Benyon: I will examine any suggestion that unpicks a system that has failed fishermen and the marine environment. I am putting all my energies into trying to get a meaningful reform that will enable the regional control of fisheries, taking this away from the micro-management by people who often sit about 1,000 miles away from the fishermen who are actually doing the work.
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab): It is more than 14 months since the Department sought guidance from the Commission on how to achieve an uplift in area VII—I spell that out for the benefit of Hansard—effort.
[Hon. Members: “Seven”] Well, it is seven, but it has to be written as “VII”. Can the Minister therefore let those with scallop interests know when he expects that guidance to come forth, and what he is doing to speed things up?
Richard Benyon: I do understand that this is an important matter for area VII and I will make sure that I write to the hon. Lady with full details about how we are taking this scalloping order forward.
Mr Speaker: I just make the point that the Hansard reporters are immensely able and dexterous characters, and they are quite capable of doing Roman numerals without special coaching.
Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): Further to the earlier question from the hon. Member for Belfast East (Naomi Long) and the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives (Andrew George), will the Minister confirm that his written ministerial statement of today is somewhat deficient, in that it fails to mention that the decision of this House on 23 June 2011 is that there shall be a ban on wild animals in circuses? So when the statement says that the Government are “minded” to ban performing wild animals in circuses, is this just a smokescreen?
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Mr Paice: No, it is not just a smokescreen. It is quite clear: we are developing legislation for a ban, on ethical grounds, on the use of wild animals in circuses. We could not proceed on the basis of the recommendation in the motion that the House considered nearly a year ago, for the reasons I have already outlined: it would have opened us up to litigation and we would have had no protection for animals while that took place. We are determined to protect animals, which is why we are going to put in place a licensing system very shortly and implement a total ban as soon as we can.
Mr Speaker: I am sorry, but we must move on.
Church Commissioners
The hon. Member for Banbury, representing the Church Commissioners, was asked—
Bishops (Staff)
1. David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con): What annual wage is paid to chauffeurs working for Church of England bishops. [97362]
The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Tony Baldry): The commissioners are currently employing 19 drivers, at a total cost of £352,719, which helps to ensure the best use of bishops’ time.
David T. C. Davies: I understand that the average wage of a chauffeur for Church of England bishops is about £23,000 a year. The Welfare Reform Bill has just become an Act, but does the commissioner believe that the bishops who voted against it—who voted to ensure that people who are not working should earn more than £26,000—should now feel a moral imperative to pay their chauffeurs accordingly?
Tony Baldry: My hon. Friend makes his own point in his own way. Bishops were not arguing for the abolition of the cap; they were arguing for child benefit to be exempted because they believed that the cap was not flexible enough to be fair to those with large families or those in areas with high housing rental costs. May I say to my hon. Friend, who is an independent-minded Member of Parliament, that there are just 26 Lords Spiritual in a Chamber of nearly 800 Members and I suspect that all independent-minded Members of this House, wherever we sit, would think that from time to time it is no bad thing for the Lords Spiritual to rattle a few cages?
Cathedrals (Insurance)
2. Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) (Con): What steps the Church Commissioners are taking to ensure that cathedrals are able to access insurance. [97364]
Tony Baldry:
The Church Commissioners are aware of the increasing demands that cathedrals are making on their insurance policies, especially as a consequence of metal theft. The majority of cathedrals are insured by Ecclesiastical Insurance and so far no cathedral has
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ever been refused any insurance claim by Ecclesiastical, which is working extremely hard with all cathedrals to assist in reducing the problem of metal theft.
Sarah Newton: I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for that answer, because there has been alarming coverage in the press of cathedrals being unable to insure themselves. People in my constituency work very hard to raise the necessary funds to support Truro cathedral and its vital work in the community, so will my hon. Friend keep ensuring that cathedrals can afford insurance?
Tony Baldry: My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. Cathedrals have not been immune from thefts within and without and only recently a silver cross was stolen from the Lady chapel in Manchester cathedral. Each time this happens, it puts up the costs of insurance in all cathedrals, including the much-loved Truro cathedral in my hon. Friend’s constituency. That is why we have to bear down on metal theft.
Bell Ringing
3. Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con): What steps the Church Commissioners are taking to promote bell ringing. [97365]
Tony Baldry: A general fund provides grants to enable the repair and maintenance of historic bell towers. The Church of England is delighted that bell ringing in church buildings is taking centre stage this year during the diamond jubilee and Olympic celebrations.
Andrew Stephenson: Over the past few years, the bell ringers of the 12th century St Mary-le-Ghyll church in Barnoldswick have raised more than £60,000 to increase the number of bells at the church from three to six, a project that was completed and dedicated by the Bishop of Bradford in January 2010. They are now in the process of raising a further £17,000 to add a final two bells. Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating them on their efforts?
Tony Baldry: That is a fantastic achievement by St Mary- le-Ghyll and I hope that all those six bells will ring out at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on 3 June, when churches throughout the country are being encouraged to ring out their bells to coincide with the river pageant on the River Thames. I am glad to report to the House that the lead barge—the herald barge—will contain a floating belfry, the first of its kind with a new ring of eight bells cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Each of the royal jubilee bells will have the royal arms cast on it and will be named after a senior member of the royal family. The bells will go down the Thames and ring a quarter peal on the river, with the church bells along the route providing a musical response. It is hoped that at 3 pm on 3 June bells throughout England will ring out to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee.
Mr Speaker: No one could accuse the hon. Gentleman of providing the House with insufficient information and we are grateful to him.
Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con):
Living in the house directly opposite St Thomas, Musbury, church in Helmshore, I am a real fan of campanology.
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Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating our congregation at St Thomas’s on the fundraising we have done to restore our bell tower so that bells can be rung again on Sunday morning?
Tony Baldry: Absolutely, and that demonstrates that communities throughout the country are very keen to keep their church bell towers in good order.
Metal Theft
4. Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab): What discussions the Church Commissioners have had with (a) the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and (b) the Secretary of State for the Home Department on metal theft from war memorials situated on Church of England property. [97366]
6. Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con): What steps are being taken to protect churches and churchyards against metal theft. [97368]
Tony Baldry: The Bishop of London, Anne Sloman, the chair of the cathedral and church buildings division of the Church of England, and myself have had numerous detailed discussions with a number of Ministers on the issue of metal theft from church property.
Tom Blenkinsop: Incidents of metal theft, including vandalism of war memorials, in the church diocese of York have increased by 61% in the past year alone. Would the hon. Gentleman be willing to meet me to talk about how we can help parishes in my constituency that are suffering from such crimes?
Tony Baldry: I would, of course, be very happy to do that.
Guy Opperman: Metal theft is a huge issue that concerns Church leaders across all faiths in Northumbria. Does my hon. Friend agree that the punishments for those who steal from churches and churchyards should be both severe and a proper deterrent?
Tony Baldry: As became clear in our recent debate on metal theft, there is a general desire across the House for the courts seriously to consider deterrent sentences for what is a despicable crime.
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): This crime is a threat to some of the greatest buildings and monuments across Britain. Is there any possibility of grants being made available to churches so that security can be improved to protect against it?
Tony Baldry: As may come up later, those churches that use SmartWater or that install roof alarms have found that the incidence of metal theft has been substantially reduced. SmartWater and roof alarms are not necessarily that expensive and I hope that all churches will look at how they can improve security to deter metal theft.
Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con):
Does my hon. Friend know whether the Church Commissioners have
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had discussions with English Heritage about allowing fibreglass replacements of lead roofs so that the crime is no longer a temptation?
Tony Baldry: We are in continuous discussions with English Heritage about what can be done in replacing lead roofs, but 60% of grade-I listed buildings in this country are Church of England churches, and there are some restraints as a consequence of those listings.
Syria
5. Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): What plans the Church Commissioners have to provide support for Christian communities in Syria. [97367]
Tony Baldry: The Archbishop of Canterbury and his staff are in regular contact with the Bishop of Jerusalem, whose diocese includes Syria. The archbishop has just returned from a personal pilgrimage to the middle east and has seen at first hand the issues facing Christians living there. The people of Syria who are being subjected to crimes against humanity need the prayers and support of all in this House.
Mr Hollobone: I am sure that we would all support the end of the Assad regime, but it has at least protected the Christian community in Syria from some of the more radical Islamist elements in that society. Does my hon. Friend share my concern about whether the Christian communities in Syria, which are substantial, will get the protection they need if the regime goes, as I am sure we all hope it will, and a new Islamist regime comes in?
Tony Baldry: My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. It is a fact that Christians in Syria have found a modus vivendi in the past and it is a real tragedy that such human rights atrocities have taken place in Syria. Throughout the middle east, I am afraid, Christians are being put under intolerable strain and pressure, and that must be a matter of concern for us all.
Bats
7. Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): What recent representations the Church Commissioners have received on bats in churches; and if he will make a statement. [97369]
Tony Baldry: On 29 November the Bishops of Lincoln, Norwich and Chelmsford and I met the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon), to discuss how we could better deal with bats in churches. Also at the meeting were representatives of Natural England and the cathedral and church buildings division of the Church of England. I wish to thank the Minister at DEFRA who is working closely with the Church of England to support that work.
Miss McIntosh: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Are we not over-exuberant in our implementation of the habitats directive? Will he welcome DEFRA’s review to make sure that we are not gold-plating, so that the congregation at St Hilda’s church in Ellerburn can enjoy the facilities they usually enjoy?
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Tony Baldry: I very much welcome the initiative taken by DEFRA Ministers. At the meeting I mentioned, the Minister made it very clear that he thought it was unacceptable that churches could not be used for public worship as a consequence of infestation by bats. He made it very clear to officials in his Department and officials from Natural England that he was looking to them to come forward with solutions in respect of the worst-affected churches and to report back by the autumn of this year.
Same-sex Marriage
8. Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): What recent representations he has received on the implications for the Church Commissioners of the Government’s plans to introduce same-sex marriage. [97370]
Tony Baldry: The Church of England will be making a detailed submission to the forthcoming consultation exercise, which will provide an opportunity for a more focused critique of what is proposed, including the proposal to distinguish in law between civil and religious marriage.
Mr Bone: I am very grateful for my hon. Friend’s response. Would it not be very simple just to write back and say, “Marriage is between a man and a woman so this is completely nuts”?
Tony Baldry:
I am quite relieved by that question because I feared that we might have a question about Mrs Bone and, assuming that Mr and Mrs Bone are already married, I was not quite sure how I was going to deal with that. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. So far as the Church of England, the Roman Catholic
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Church and many other faith groups are concerned, marriage is a union between one man and one woman. That is a point that we will be putting forward, I hope, responsibly and clearly in the consultation.
Metal Theft (Forensic Marking Systems)
9. Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab): How many churches use forensic marking systems to prevent metal theft from church property; and what the cost is of such systems. [97371]
Tony Baldry: The use of forensic marking is widespread and is strongly encouraged at diocesan level and by insurers. Some 12,500 churches have registered with the SmartWater scheme. SmartWater has been successful in a number of cases involving arrests and successful prosecutions. An increasing number of churches are also now fitting roof alarms.
Valerie Vaz: I recently visited a church dedicated to St Materiana in Tintagel. It is a small church carrying the SmartWater sign. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the costs should not be prohibitive so that smaller churches can remain open for worshippers and visitors?
Tony Baldry: I would hope that it would not be prohibitive for any church to install SmartWater. I take note of the hon. Lady’s point, however, because I would hope that, in such circumstances, dioceses could help small churches with the funding that they need to protect their heritage.
Mr Speaker: I am sure that the House is grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his replies to nine successive questions, and for the prodigious work rate he has just demonstrated.
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Business of the House
11.31 am
Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab): Will the Leader of the House please tell us the business for next week?
The Leader of the House of Commons (Sir George Young): The business for the week commencing 5 March will be:
Monday 5 March—Opposition day [un-allotted day]. There will be a debate on jobs and growth in a low-carbon economy, followed by a debate on living standards. These debates will arise on Opposition motions. In addition, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister plans to make a statement following the EU Council.
Tuesday 6 March—Conclusion of Second Reading of the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Bill, followed by a motion relating to a reasoned opinion on procurements by public entities. That will be followed by the remaining stages of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill [Lords]. In addition, the Chairman of Ways and Means has named opposed private business for consideration.
Wednesday 7 March—My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will propose an Humble Address to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen. That will be followed by Opposition day [un-allotted day] [half-day]. There will be a debate on a Democratic Unionist party motion, subject to be announced, followed by a motion relating to human rights abuses and the death of Sergei Magnitsky. The subject for this debate has been nominated by the Backbench Business Committee.
Thursday 8 March—Topical debate on international women’s day, followed by a debate on the future of social care. The subjects for these debates have been nominated by the Backbench Business Committee.
The provisional business for the week commencing 12 March will include:
Monday 12 March—Motions relating to Standing Orders and to outstanding reports of the Committee on Standards and Privileges.
Right hon. and hon. Members will know that this morning I made a written statement to the House announcing that Her Majesty the Queen will open a new Session of this Parliament on Wednesday 9 May.
Ms Eagle: I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his statement and, ahead of this afternoon’s general debate, wish everyone a happy St David’s day. We spend our time surrounded by his amazing designs in this place, so it is also right to mark today the 200th anniversary of Pugin’s birth.
The Foreign Secretary updated the House this week on the situation in Syria. Today, the whole House will be appalled that the Syrian Government appear to be escalating repression. They are responsible for widespread human rights crimes, including the deliberate targeting of civilians and journalists. We fully support the call by the United Nations Secretary-General for an immediate end to the violence. Across the region, tens of thousands have been killed demanding the freedom that we in this country take for granted. Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the middle east so that the House can consider the support we give to those battling
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against brutal dictatorship? Such a debate would give us the opportunity to praise the outstanding journalism that has meant the crimes of the Syrian Government have not gone unrecorded.
If in Syria we have seen journalism at its very best, we have heard this week at the Leveson inquiry about the worst excesses of some sections of the press. The Conservative Mayor of London, who is in charge of the Metropolitan police, said last year that stories of illegal phone hacking were “codswallop”, but this week he argued that “the caravan should move on”. Joining in, the Conservative Education Secretary said that the Leveson inquiry was having a chilling effect on press freedom. This is beginning to look like a systematic attempt to undermine the inquiry and pre-empt the outcome. Some sections of the press might be trying to browbeat Lord Justice Leveson, but does the Leader of the House agree with me that Conservative Cabinet Ministers and the Conservative Mayor of London should not join in?
I was disappointed this time last week when, in response to my questions about the Health and Social Care Bill, the Leader of the House said that he was not one of the heroic three Cabinet Ministers who briefed ConservativeHome off the record that the Bill was a disaster, but it is not too late to change his mind. After all, the Deputy Prime Minister briefed Liberal Democrat peers this week on the record that the Bill needed amending to stop Conservative Ministers privatising the NHS. I wonder whether the Leader of the House could explain what the Deputy Prime Minister has been doing all this time, because he wrote the foreword to the health White Paper and championed the original Bill. He then voted for the Bill but championed the pause and the rethink. He then championed the revised Bill, and now he is championing a revision of the revision of the Bill. This cynical choreography will not be taken seriously by the public. If he really wanted to, he could stop the Bill now. Why on earth has he not done so? Meanwhile, a Conservative Health Secretary is proving that we can never trust the Tories on the NHS.
The most signed e-petition on the No. 10 website is a campaign to drop the Health and Social Care Bill. The Prime Minister said on launching the site:
“One of the points of the new e-petitions website is to make sure that if a certain level of signatures is reached, the matter will be debated in the House, whether we like it or not. That is an important way of empowering people.”—[Official Report, 11 August 2011; Vol. 531, c. 1092.]
Will the Leader of the House explain why Government Members of the Backbench Business Committee voted en bloc to stop a debate on the NHS petition? Last week the Prime Minister locked his health critics out of No. 10, and this week’s shenanigans in the Backbench Business Committee revealed that the Government are running scared of debate. Does the Leader of the House think that that will win over the public?
As a result of another e-petition, the House decided to ban the keeping of wild animals in circuses, but today the Government sneaked out a consultation that completely ignores the will of the House. It looks as though e-petitions are another public relations gimmick from a Prime Minister who thinks that that is what his job is about, so may we have an early debate on the Government’s response to the Procedure Committee’s report on e-petitions, which after all said that the Prime
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Minister’s claims on the No. 10 website needed to be rewritten to ensure that they “more accurately reflect reality”?
I thank the Leader of the House for finally confirming what Paul Waugh of PoliticsHome announced at the beginning of January: that the Queen’s Speech would be on 9 May. I have a suggestion for how he could successfully bring this legislative Session to a proper close: drop the Health and Social Care Bill.
Sir George Young: I endorse what the hon. Lady said at the beginning of her questions about St David’s day and the 200th anniversary of Pugin’s birth.
On the serious issue of Syria, we had Foreign Office questions on Tuesday. She will know that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has issued a written ministerial statement today. She may also know that the matter is likely to be raised at the European Council meeting later today, and I have announced that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will make a statement on that on Monday, so there might be an opportunity to report progress then. I join her in paying tribute to those journalists who have risked their lives, and in one case lost her life, to bring the truth to the rest of the world, going to the most dangerous places in the world, showing the hardships that people endure there and broadcasting the realities to a wider audience.
On Leveson, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister dealt with this yesterday, and I gently remind the hon. Lady that it was the coalition Government who set up the inquiry to get to the bottom of exactly what has been going on.
We had an urgent question on the Health and Social Care Bill on Tuesday, which my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary answered. The Bill continues to be improved by amendments tabled from both sides of the House, and from both Houses, as it goes through Parliament. It was a Labour Secretary of State for Health who had a motion of no confidence passed in her by one of the royal colleges.
We have no intention of dropping the Bill. I asked the hon. Lady last week which particular clauses she wanted to see dropped. Does she want to drop clauses 22 and 25, which make it explicit that patients should have more choice and be much more involved in decisions about their care? Does she want to drop the clauses placing a duty on key organisations to integrate health and social care services? Does she want to drop the clauses that remove the arbitrary private patient cap, which stifles groundbreaking new treatment by organisations such as The Royal Marsden?
The Government have passed to the Backbench Business Committee responsibility for the subjects that it chooses. It has chosen Magnitsky, social care and a wide range of important issues which have been brought before it by Members from both sides of the House. The Committee may have taken the view that the health Bill has been adequately debated in this House since it was introduced more than a year ago. It has probably had more debate than any other Bill in recent history, and that may be why the Committee took that decision.
We have just had DEFRA questions, and I watched the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the
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Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Mr Paice), answer questions about circus animals. As the hon. Lady knows, we have put out a written ministerial statement—
Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab): Sneaking it out.
Sir George Young: Putting out a written ministerial statement is not “sneaking it out”.
The Parliamentary Secretary, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons (Mr David Heath): Nor is answering questions in the House.
Sir George Young: Nor, as my hon. Friend says, is answering questions about it on the same day. There could hardly be a more open process of bringing a matter before the House.
Finally, under the Labour Administration there was an e-petitions system that ended up in Downing street and got nowhere. We have introduced a much better system, whereby if a certain threshold is reached the petitions are eligible for debate. Some of the best debates that we have had have been as a result of the e-petitions system, introduced by this Government, and we are proud of it.
Mr Speaker: Order. As usual a very large number of right hon. and hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye. May I just remind the House that Members who were not here when the Leader of the House stood up to answer the business question should not now be seeking to catch my eye?
Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): Ever since I have been a Member, there has been a full day’s debate on Wales to coincide with St David’s day. Today that debate is being seriously curtailed by the Backbench Business Committee. I understand that not a single Conservative MP petitioned for today’s Back-Bench business debate, so is one right in assuming that the Labour party wishes to curtail debate on Wales because it wishes to curtail debate on Labour’s stewardship in Wales and, in particular, Labour’s stewardship of the health service in Wales?
Sir George Young: My hon. Friend poses some interesting questions about the mentality of Welsh Labour MPs, but however short the time available for that debate is, I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales will criticise the stewardship of the NHS in Wales and at the same time outline the steps that the coalition Government have taken to support growth in the Principality.
Mr Tom Harris (Glasgow South) (Lab):
As we celebrate St David’s day, we should also celebrate the fact that citizens of Wales are able to choose which language they fill out their application forms for driving licences and passports in because Welsh is recognised throughout the UK as an official language. The same cannot be said of Gaelic, which is recognised in Scotland as an official language but not in the UK, so Scottish citizens cannot fill out their applications for driving licences or passports in any language other than English. May we have an
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early ministerial statement so that the Government can set out their plans to give Gaelic equal status with Welsh and English, so that in turn Scots native Gaelic speakers can start to fill out such applications in the language of their choice?
Sir George Young: I very gently say to the hon. Gentleman that I believe he was a Minister in the Department for Transport, and I wonder why that progressive measure was not introduced on his watch.
Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD): The Leader of the House will be well aware of The Times cycling campaign after joining us in the Westminster Hall debate last week. Given the level of interest in and support for the campaign in all parts of the House, will he find some parliamentary time for my Road Safety (No. 3) Bill, which addresses much of The Times’ campaign?
Sir George Young: I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the quality of the debate in Westminster Hall last week, at the end of which the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), set out the steps that the Government are taking to promote cycling and cycling safety. I would be raising the hon. Gentleman’s hopes if I implied that his road safety Bill was likely to reach the statute book in the remaining days of this Session, but there will be an opportunity in the new Session to put forward private Members’ Bills, and I very much hope that he pursues his campaign in that context.
Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab): Today the Prime Minister is hosting the Czech Prime Minister. On 20 February, the Prime Minister posted on the No. 10 website a letter to the European Commission, signed by them and 10 other European leaders, on a plan for growth in Europe. It said, among other things :
“We should foster labour mobility to create a more integrated and open European labour market”.
May we have a debate so that Ministers can explain to the public and, indeed, to their own Back Benchers, why they think that giving away more British jobs is such a good idea?
Sir George Young: As I announced a few moments ago, the Prime Minister will be at the Dispatch Box on Monday after the European Council. Is the right hon. Gentleman seriously wishing to detract from the commitments made by all Governments for mobility of labour within the European Union?
Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con): Following yesterday’s excellent news on the increasing number of companies joining the coalition’s voluntary work experience programme for young people, may we have a debate on this topic so that certain sections of the media, which seem to be confused about voluntary work experience for young people, workfare and the Work programme can be enlightened?
Sir George Young:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing to the attention of a wider audience the benefits of the work experience programme. I was delighted to hear that another 200 businesses want to sign up
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against the background of the debate that we have had in recent weeks. I found very compelling an article in
The Times
on Tuesday by John Bird, founder of
The Big Issue
, setting out exactly why the work experience initiative was in everyone’s interests. I hope that companies and young people will consider joining the work experience programme. As local MPs, we all have a job of work to do to encourage employers to participate and young people to take up vacancies.
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab): Has the Leader of the House been given notice by the Secretary of State for Defence of the appointment of the commercial management company Serco to run Defence Business Services within the Ministry of Defence? The House and the staff believe that this is still subject to a consultation, yet over the past week Serco has been advertising appointments on its website. Could a Minister come to the House to clarify the exact situation?
Sir George Young: The answer to the first half of the hon. Gentleman’s question is no. However, I will make some inquiries of the Secretary of State for Defence seeking confirmation that the contract has not been let if, as the hon. Gentleman says, it is still subject to consultation, and I will ask my right hon. Friend to write to him.
Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con): Police Constable David Rathband passed away last night. He was an outstanding Northumbria police constable, and I know that I speak for all local north-east colleagues when I say that this brave man will be sorely missed. Will my right hon. Friend join me in passing on our condolences to his family and to the police colleagues he worked with and who continue to serve our region so well?
Sir George Young: The whole House will endorse what my hon. Friend has said following the tragic death of David Rathband, who lost his sight bravely risking life and limb to arrest a suspect. I applaud what he did subsequently, having lost his sight, in setting up the Blue Lamp Foundation, and also becoming internationally renowned for the way he responded to the challenges that he had to face. I endorse what my hon. Friend said about his tragic loss and extend our sympathies to his friends and family.
Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP): The recent acquittal of a dozen or so defendants in a paramilitary-related supergrass trial in Belfast costing upwards of £20 million has raised serious questions about the use of “assisting offenders” evidence under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which is a Westminster Act not an Assembly Act. May we have a statement from the Attorney-General on the use of that Act specifically in relation to paramilitary supergrass trials in Northern Ireland, which were last seen in the 1980s?
Sir George Young: I will certainly draw the attention of my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General to the point that the right hon. Gentleman has made. Of course, I have announced that a debate has been allocated to the right hon. Gentleman’s party on Wednesday, so it is open to him to choose this matter as a subject for that debate next week.
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Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con): Last week, Hatton & Harding in my constituency came second in the best small shop in Britain awards 2011, highlighting the quality of retail in our community. On the back of that, Warwick TweetUp, a group of local businesses, is campaigning for Warwick to put in a bid to be one of the Portas pilots, which I fully support. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating Hatton & Harding on its success, and will he schedule a debate in Government time on small retailers and how we can best support them?
Sir George Young: I commend Hatton & Harding for coming second in the competition to which my hon. Friend referred. He will know that we had a debate on the Mary Portas review in January in Back-Bench business time. The Government are grateful to Mary Portas for her review and are reflecting on its recommendations. We will announce in the spring our conclusions on that review. There may be an opportunity thereafter to have a further debate on the future of the high street.
Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op): The Government had let it be known that an announcement on the location of the headquarters of the green investment bank would be made in February. Even though February had 29 days this year, no announcement had been made by yesterday. What we did get was an e-mail indicating that the decision had been further delayed. There has been no written statement and nothing on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website. Will the Government ensure that a written statement is forthcoming so that we know what is going on with the green investment bank, at least as a courtesy to the 32 Members across the House who have supported its being located in their constituency?
Sir George Young: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. He is right that a large number of Members have bid for the green investment bank to be located in their constituency. I was not aware that a firm commitment had been given to make an announcement in February, but I will make inquiries at BIS to establish when a decision on the location of the green investment bank will be made.
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Has my right hon. Friend seen early-day motion 2,781, which opposes the fee for tours of the Big Ben Clock Tower?
[That this House regrets the plans of the House of Commons Commission to create an admission charge of 15.00 for Big Ben tours; notes that if fees increase in July 2012 as planned, it will cost a family of four 60 to visit the Big Ben Clock Tower; believes that this undermines the basic principle of British democracy, that this is a people’s parliament, open freely to its citizens; further believes there must surely be other ways of saving money, such as publishing Hansard and business papers online; and therefore urges the House of Commons Commission to think again, to scrap the fees and to make sure that this remains a parliament for the many, not the few.]
May we have an urgent debate on these unaffordable, undemocratic and unprecedented plans, so that MPs from all sides of the House can vote against the proposals once and for all?
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Sir George Young: I understand my hon. Friend’s concern. He raised this matter on a point of order on Monday. I have in front of me your response, Mr Speaker, which I will not read out because it would take longer than you like me to take at the Dispatch Box, but I will—[ Laughter. ]
Mr Speaker: I am prepared to make an exception.
Sir George Young: It is quite a long statement. I reiterate your advice, Mr Speaker, that if my hon. Friend wants to take the matter further, he should pursue it with the Finance and Services Committee.
Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab): First, I thank the Leader of the House for getting me a reply from the Secretary of State for Education. When will we have the promised statement, which we have been waiting on for about six months, on the capital programme for schools? There are schools in Coventry that are dilapidated, falling down and badly in need of repair. The Government are letting down teachers and kids in Coventry.
Sir George Young: There were questions to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on Monday this week. I do not know whether there was an opportunity to raise the issue then. I will raise it with my right hon. Friend and seek to establish when an announcement will be made about the capital programme, particularly as it impacts on Coventry.
Mr Rob Wilson (Reading East) (Con): As well as being a terrible tragedy, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) said, the death of PC David Rathband poses difficult questions about how we support police constables who have been wounded in the line of duty. Will the Leader of the House schedule a debate in Government time on this important and urgent issue?
Sir George Young: My hon. Friend raises an important issue, particularly given the background that he has touched on. I cannot promise a debate in the near future in Government time, but it strikes me as an appropriate subject for a debate on the Adjournment or in Westminster Hall. I am sure that a large number of Members on both sides of the House would like to take part in such a debate.
Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab): Having said that they would not do so, the Government adopted the previous Labour Government’s 18-week waiting time target for treatment in hospital once somebody has been referred by a GP. The number of people breaching that 18-week period has gone up by 43%. We are now told that people are being bounced off lists and left waiting once they have breached the 18-week point to hide the huge spike in the number of people who have breached it. May we have a debate to expose the Government’s appalling record on that target?
Sir George Young:
I must gently disagree with the hon. Gentleman. The backlog of over-18-week waiters is going down and the figures for December were the best on record. In the broader context, the average waiting times for in-patients and out-patients before
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they start treatment are lower than at the time of the last election, and the number of patients waiting for more than a year is half what it was in May 2010.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con): May we please have a debate on deregulation? This week saw the publication of the third progress report on the Government’s one-in, one-out policy. A debate would allow the House to examine the extent to which the progress made by the Government is being completely outweighed by new regulations from the European Union, which are not covered by the one-in, one-out policy.
Sir George Young: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. There may be an opportunity in the context of the Budget debate to discuss that matter further. He is right to point out that from January 2011 to April this year, the one-in, one-out system will result in the net change in domestic regulation remaining at or close to zero. Eleven of the 14 Departments report a net reduction or no change in the regulatory costs to business. The red tape challenge has so far considered more than 1,200 regulations, and has agreed to scrap or improve well over half of them.
Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab): More than six weeks ago, the Department of Health’s propaganda machine put out an announcement that private finance initiative hospitals, including my own, will get an additional allocation of £1.5 billion. No prior warning was given to the trusts or to MPs who are interested in this issue. Six weeks on, the allocation has not been made. May we have a statement from the Department of Health about when the allocation will be made to those hospitals, so that they can get on with planning for the future?
Sir George Young: I would have hoped that the hon. Gentleman would preface his remarks with a tribute to the Government who are seeking to put right the disastrous PFI contracts that the previous Government entered into. None the less, in a conciliatory mood I say to him that I will pursue the issue of any resources that might be made available to his authority to give it the assistance it needs to cope with the ongoing debts incurred by the previous Administration.
Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con): With about 600 young people being supported by more than 250 companies in the work experience scheme in Norfolk alone, may I join my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin) in asking my right hon. Friend for a statement or a debate in Government time to highlight the excellent things that are being done in the work experience scheme, to clarify the erroneous statements that are out there, and to promote the good work that is being done by these companies and the well-motivated young people who are taking advantage of the scheme?
Sir George Young:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Some 34,000 young people have taken advantage of the scheme since it was launched in January, and more than half of them have come off benefits. At a fraction of the cost of the previous scheme, it is finding work for young people. I reiterate my response to an earlier
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question: we all have a responsibility to promote the scheme widely in our constituencies over the coming weekend.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab): Sadly, the death rates for mesothelioma in north Lincolnshire are above the national average. Will the Government make a statement on their progress in delivering the commitment to set up a fund of last resort to act as a safety net for workers who can no longer trace the employers who exposed them to asbestos?
Sir George Young: I understand the problems of those who suffer from mesothelioma. I will raise the matter with my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and ask what progress is being made on establishing the fund to which the hon. Gentleman referred.
Mr Mark Williams (Ceredigion) (LD): The all-party parliamentary group on global education for all recently concluded a visit to Nigeria, where we saw some harrowing scenes and heard that 8 million children there are denied basic education. There are some excellent Department for International Development projects working on sanitation and on access to education for young girls in particular. May we have a debate on the successful work of DFID and on how we can enhance that good work?
Sir George Young: I am delighted to hear of the good work being done by DFID in Nigeria to tackle the problem to which my hon. Friend refers. There will be an opportunity on, I believe, 14 March, the next time my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development answers questions, to press him further on what additional assistance can be extended to Nigeria to make further progress in the direction that my hon. Friend outlines.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op): Yesterday, HMS Liverpool arrived at Liverpool for the final time before it is decommissioned at the end of the month. For three decades the ship and her crew have served our country with bravery and distinction in conflicts around the world, most recently in Libya. Will the Leader of the House ask the Defence Secretary if he will make a statement recognising the courageous service of all those who have sailed on HMS Liverpool over the past 30 years?
Sir George Young: I am sure my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence would like to join the hon. Lady in paying tribute to all those who have served on HMS Liverpool. She will know that we had to take some difficult decisions to balance the Ministry of Defence budget on coming into office. The outcome was announced in the strategic defence and security review some 18 months ago. I hope that we now have a more balanced MOD budget and can go ahead on a more sustainable basis.
Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con):
In 2006, I raised the unintended consequences of the Extradition Act 2003. Six years on, many individuals still find themselves at the wrong end of that legislation and denied bail, meaning that they are kept from their families and livelihoods for long periods. May we now
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have a debate to see how we can improve our relations with other countries so that people, some of whom will ultimately be found not guilty, are not disadvantaged?
Sir George Young: My hon. Friend raises a serious issue, particularly against the background of the case of Mr Tappin. He will know that the Home Secretary received the Scott Baker review in October. Since then we have had two good debates on the matter, and my right hon. Friend is reflecting on the review, which examined how we might improve extradition arrangements with the EU and the wider world. She will announce her conclusion on the review and the debates in due course, at which time she will also publish the documents referred to in a question asked last week by my hon. Friend the Member for Esher and Walton (Mr Raab). The Government understand the concerns of my hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) and want to make progress.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): May I invite the Leader of the House to come to Huddersfield to explain to my constituents how laws are passed in this House? They know that the Health and Social Care Bill has not become law, but they also know, having listened to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, that 95% of GPs are already putting it into effect. They also know that a vast amount of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on letting contracts and hiring people under a law and structure that has not passed the House of Commons.
Sir George Young: It has actually passed the House of Commons. I will not come to Huddersfield to explain how laws are passed in the House, because the hon. Gentleman can perfectly well do that himself. He knows full well that there are certain things that a Government can do once a Bill has received its Second Reading, and what we have done on the Health and Social Care Bill is absolutely consistent with actions taken by his party’s Government once Bills had received a Second Reading in the House of Commons.
Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): In view of a parliamentary answer that I received yesterday, may we have a debate on the independence of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority? I have discovered that over a three-month period, there were nine meetings of Ministers with IPSA, notably on 16 January when its chairman and chief executive met the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Leader of the House and the Minister for the Cabinet Office. The written answer states:
“We do not intend to provide further details of these meetings as to do so may inhibit free and frank discussions in the future.”—[Official Report, 28 February 2012; Vol. 541, c. 287W.]
In the interests of openness and transparency, and bearing in mind that one of the subjects discussed was MPs’ pensions, may we have a debate on the subject?
Sir George Young:
I have regular meetings with the chairman and chief executive of IPSA, but on the subject of MPs’ pensions, the Government made their views perfectly clear last July when I tabled a motion, which was passed unanimously without Division in
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November. IPSA referred specifically to that resolution when it announced its proposals in the document that was published a few weeks ago.
Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab): Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the quality of decision making in the NHS, since MPs in my area, including my hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg), recently discovered that a decision to make Chester rather than Warrington a hub for vascular services was taken without any criteria being set down and therefore without any scoring against set criteria? We are now left in a position in which our hospital and its future services are at risk, based on a decision that appears to have been taken arbitrarily. Do people not deserve a better quality of decision making than that?
Sir George Young: I challenge the hon. Lady’s assertion that hospitals and health services are at risk because of the decision about the hub to which she refers. However, I am happy to refer to the Secretary of State for Health the issue of why that particular configuration was chosen in her part of the country.
Mr Speaker: I call Jason McCartney.
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con): Oh, thank you, Mr Speaker. I thought you were looking at somebody else.
A lot of doom and gloom is being peddled at the moment, so in this Olympic and diamond jubilee year, may we have a debate so that Members can mention all the many positive and uplifting things happening in their constituencies? For example, in the past week in my patch I have met many young apprentices—there are 130 new ones. There is a new dye works opening, David Brown Engineering has had another investment from the Government, the National Citizen Service is being launched on Monday in my constituency and young people are engaging with the Olympics. Let us have more positivity.
Sir George Young: I hope that my hon. Friend continues to be called in business questions. He is right to say that there is a lot of good news around. In January, retail sale volume was up by 0.9% on December and up on a year ago. The services purchasing managers index, the manufacturing purchasing managers index and construction output are up, and in January we had a budget surplus of £11.8 billion, £2.5 billion higher than last year. I hope that he will put his name in for the debate on the Budget, when we can listen to him tell us at greater length about all the good news in his constituency and the rest of the country.
Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP): Will the Leader of the House have a discussion with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland about holding a Westminster Hall debate on making St Patrick’s day a public holiday? The decision on that is a reserved matter that lies with the Northern Ireland Office.
Sir George Young:
I will raise the matter with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Depending on the subject that is chosen for debate next Wednesday, which will presumably relate
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to Northern Ireland, the hon. Lady may have an opportunity to raise the matter then and get a response from him.
Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (Con): I had understood that the January surplus was £7.8 billion, so I congratulate the Leader of the House on finding another £4 billion down the back of the sofa.
The Backbench Business Committee has been unable to allocate time for pre-European Council meetings, because it has limited time that is often changed at the last moment. Will the Leader of the House now reinstate those debates in Government time, or does he believe that the Standing Order No. 24 process is more appropriate?
Sir George Young: That would be to reverse the commitment that we made to implement in full the Wright recommendations, which involved putting in a pot a number of days, including those for the pre-EU Council debates, and transferring the pot over to the Backbench Business Committee. I would be most reluctant to take power away from the Committee in the way that my hon. Friend suggests by reducing its number of days.
On a more encouraging note, my hon. Friend may have heard the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) yesterday, with which I have a lot of sympathy. He suggested that at the beginning of each Session, we earmark a number of days that would be made available to the Committee at the appropriate time when an EU Council was imminent. If we go down that road, we may avoid the problems to which my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Mark Reckless) refers.
Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab): The Leader of the House might recall that a few weeks ago, I raised with him the situation facing Leicester businesses that were damaged at the height of the summer disturbances. They are not getting any compensation, because the police authority does not designate the disturbances as a riot and they have missed all the other compensation schemes. I was grateful for the opportunity to meet the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice on Monday evening to discuss the problem, but may we have a debate on it in Government time to see how widespread it is and how many businesses are not getting compensation, so that Members on both sides of the House can make representations on the Floor of the House?
Sir George Young: I do remember the exchange, and my right hon. Friend the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice met representatives of the insurance industry to urge them to speed up their compensation payments to victims. On the outstanding cases with the Government bureau, which covers uninsured individuals, there are 75 out of the 1,261 cases that were originally received. The Home Office has reimbursed all authorised claims for expenditure. Rather than waiting for a debate, I would like to pursue with my right hon. Friend the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice the specific cases that the hon. Gentleman raises to see whether we can get compensation out of the door to those who are entitled to it.
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Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): The Government are right to seek through the Council of Europe to change the rules so that the Supreme Court in this country would be the ultimate determinant of human rights. I would like to be helpful to the Government. I have introduced the European Convention on Human Rights (Temporary Withdrawal) Bill, which would speed up that process and allow us to deport extremists. Unfortunately, there must be a problem with the telephone line between the Chief Whip’s office and mine because he has not contacted me yet to make arrangements. May we have a statement on that?
Sir George Young: My right hon. Friend the Chief Whip was 6 feet away from my hon. Friend a few moments ago, when there would have been an opportunity for a direct dialogue. I would be misleading my hon. Friend if I said that, in the remaining days of the Session, his Bill was likely to reach the statute book, but he knows that we have the chairmanship of the Council of Europe, and my right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor is seeking to reform the ECHR in a way that my hon. Friend would approve of to tackle the backlog and to ensure that cases reach the European Court only when there is no alternative, thus returning more to subsidiarity of the national courts. Although I cannot promise my hon. Friend any progress on his Bill, I hope that he will endorse the direction in which the Government are now travelling.
Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op): May we have an early debate in Government time on the national policy statement for waste water? Yesterday, during a debate on the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Bill, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that
“there were 21 working days for the national waste water policy to be debated from the moment it was laid before Parliament…There is still time and I am sure that hon. Members will take advantage of that.”—[Official Report, 29 February 2012; Vol. 541, c. 354.]
In conversations with the Journal Office today, it was made clear to me that until the Localism Bill becomes law, the decision on whether there is a debate on the national policy statement is entirely in the Government’s hands. Will time be made available for that important issue?
Sir George Young: I read the exchange in Hansard to which the hon. Gentleman refers. As he knows, Second Reading of the Bill was adjourned. I will seek to ensure that, in the winding-up speeches on Tuesday, the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon) has the response to the hon. Gentleman’s question.
Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con): The GMB union has claimed that, without the support of trade unions, Labour would have lost another 40 to 50 seats at the general election. With several marginal constituencies receiving thousands of pounds, such as the £5,600 given by the GMB to Dudley North, which was won by just 649 votes, may we have a debate in Government time on capping political donations to end any undue influence by only one political donor?
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Sir George Young: I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who may know that there was a debate on the reform of trade union funding in Westminster Hall yesterday. He may like to read the response by the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd). On the broader issue, we want to reform funding. My hon. Friend will know that we are trying to achieve a consensus between the main parties on the way forward and that Government Members—certainly the Conservative part of the coalition—believe that any restriction on funding should embrace the trade unions rather than their having the privileged position that they currently enjoy.
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab): May we have a debate on the retention of the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, the Green Howards? All four of the regiment’s battalions are on active service in Afghanistan and the future of the second battalion was raised in the most recent edition of The Sunday Times? May we have an urgent debate and statement on that so that the welfare of those troops and their families is properly discussed?
Sir George Young: I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concern for the regiments that are based in his constituency. I cannot promise an early debate on the matter, but I will draw his concern to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence and ask him to write to the hon. Gentleman, giving such assurances as he can about the future of those regiments.
Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con): For many years, the British Thomson-Houston Co. was the biggest employer in my constituency. In 1921, it erected a memorial to employees who gave their lives in the great war, and, with additions after the second world war, it bears 418 names. This week, in an appalling act of vandalism, Nazi graffiti has been scrawled all over it. May we have a debate to consider what should be done to keep alive the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice?
Sir George Young: I was appalled, as I am sure that the whole House was, to hear that Nazi graffiti has been scrawled on a memorial to those who gave their lives in the service of this country. I very much hope that the police in my hon. Friend’s constituency are trying to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice and that the appropriate authorities are removing the graffiti immediately so that no more offence is given. Of course, I understand the concern that that has generated in my hon. Friend’s constituency.
Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab):
In November 1981, Katrice Lee went missing from a German supermarket on her second birthday. She has never been found. Her father, who is my constituent and was serving in the armed forces in Germany at the time, has never been satisfied about the investigation to find his daughter. He has requested access for the family to the case files. The hon. Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage), where Katrice’s mother now lives, has worked hard on the matter, and I have written to the Prime Minister and asked a parliamentary question to the Secretary of State for Defence. May we have a debate on that harrowing and tragic issue, and more generally, about consistency
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in providing case files on missing children to families, so that the hon. Lady and I can discuss the matter in the House?
Sir George Young: I am very sorry to hear of Katrice Lee’s disappearance in 1981 and of course I understand the relevant local MPs’ concern to find out what happened, and about access to the case files. I would like to contact the appropriate Minister, probably in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to ascertain what representations they can make, presumably to the authorities in Germany, who have the case files and see whether they can be made available. I understand the wish of members of the family to find out what happened, and I will raise the matter with the Foreign Secretary to see whether we can make progress.
Mr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con): Following the fire under the M1 in my constituency in April 2011, Network Rail and the Environment Agency were going to look at possible sites of future risk. I understand that the Highways Agency audit was developed into an action plan, which, a parliamentary written answer to me stated, would be completed by the end of spring 2012. Will my right hon. Friend advise whether that action plan will be published?
Sir George Young: I understand my hon. Friend’s concern about sites at risk following the fire that he mentioned. I will contact the Secretary of State for Transport and find out what progress has been made and when information will be put in the public domain about the action that she plans to take.
Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab): May we go back to the schools capital programme? I urge the Leader of the House to provide an urgent debate on that. He will recall that the Building Schools for the Future programme was cut in the early months of his Government and a promise was made to introduce a new capital programme scheme. We were expecting an announcement before now, but I understand from reports yesterday that it is some six months away. That is a long time, given that we are now in March 2012. The matter is important to my constituents, who are concerned about their schools getting investment.
Sir George Young: Again, there was an opportunity on Monday to raise the matter during education questions. However, I give the hon. Gentleman the same reply that I gave to the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham): I will make inquiries about the progress of the capital programme for schools and find out when a decision will be made, referring to schools in his constituency.
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con): Today the Government sold £2.75 billion of 10-year Government debt at just over 2% and that is good news for borrowers and business, but it is a complex issue. The Government have a strategy for credit easing so may we have a debate in this Chamber on why it is so important for Government policy to continue to bear down on the interest that we pay? Opposition Members have been making very different statements to the media and there is real confusion in the country.
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Sir George Young: My hon. Friend brings to the House’s attention the benefits of low interest rates to business and households. Those low interest rates would be put at risk if we listened to some of the siren voices in the Opposition, who want to push up the budget deficit. When we have the Budget later this month, there will be an opportunity to debate the issues that my hon. Friend mentioned. Speaking from memory, every 1% increase in interest has an impact of about £1,000 a year on the average mortgage. That puts the matter in context.
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab): On this St David’s day, it is appropriate for us to remember the Welsh troops who were killed tragically and injured terribly during the Falklands war. Was the Leader of the House as surprised as I was that the Prime Minister’s spokesman this week said that the Government took no position on the news that the Argentine Olympic team will include a Malvinas logo on their Olympic kit? May we have a statement to clarify the Government’s position?
Sir George Young: Of course I would understand the concern were that to happen. That may be a matter for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, which is in charge of the Olympic games. I will draw the hon. Gentleman’s concern to the attention of Lord Coe and see whether any steps need to be taken to ensure that no inappropriate logos are on display during the Olympics.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): The Backbench Business Committee has given more than a month’s notice of the very important debate on assisted dying, which will take place on Tuesday 27 March. It would be helpful to the House and the nation if the Leader of the House confirmed the timings for that day. His normal practice, if he follows it, will have a knock-on effect on tours around the House. In addition, members of the public who want to attend the debate want to know what time it will start.
Sir George Young: My hon. Friend is right that, normally, when the last sitting day is on a Tuesday, we move the sitting forward from 2.30 pm to 11.30 am, which is the Wednesday timetable. No announcement has been made, but I take my hon. Friend’s point. I will see whether at the next business questions we can give some certainty about the sittings of the House on that last day, 27 March.
Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): Mr Speaker has announced that marvellous ceremonial occasion state opening of Parliament for 9 May. That is followed by the trooping of the colour, the Derby, the royal garden parties, the Eton-Harrow match, the Durham miners gala, the Government reshuffle and the opening of the grouse shooting season. Are not too many ceremonial occasions crammed into the summer? May we have a debate on moving the state opening back to an autumn date, both to take a bit of pressure off Her Majesty and to allow us to debate the Queen’s speech in the more austere, chilly autumn winds rather than in the heat of the summer?
Sir George Young: The right hon. Gentleman has a very busy social calendar and will be attending a number of events that I will not be at.
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To return to his question, he might remember that I made a statement in 2010 explaining why the state opening of Parliament would always be in the spring/summer because we now have fixed-term Parliaments. The general election will always be in May, so the first state opening will be in May. We want full, one-year Sessions rather than the six-month truncated Session that he has just advocated. If we have a state opening in November and a fixed-term Parliament ending in May, we would not have a full Session, which I know he would miss.
Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con): Like Sir Stuart Rose, I started my working career stacking shelves in my local Co-op in Poynton, which gave me a great work ethic. I fully agree with the former chairman of Marks & Spencer that it is baffling that anyone would oppose unemployed young people being given the opportunity to gain good-quality work experience. May we have a debate on workfare so that we can take on the misguided opponents of that vital scheme?
Sir George Young: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for reinforcing a point that some of our hon. Friends have made. I would welcome such a debate. I should point out to him that we have the same success rate as the future jobs fund at a 20th of the cost, so we are getting much better value for money than the scheme we were left with.
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab): The Paediatric Continence Forum found in a survey that 50% of children do not want to use the toilets because they are poor facilities, and that affects their health and education. The regulations for staff toilets are more robust than those for children’s toilets. May we have an urgent debate or a statement on how we can eradicate that anomaly? Perhaps that aspect could be included as part of the Ofsted inspection report, because it affects children’s health and education.
Sir George Young: I will raise that issue with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and see whether there is an anomaly that needs addressing, and I will ask him to drop the hon. Lady a line.
James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con): Plans have recently been submitted for a new retail development in Blackheath in my constituency, which will bring much-needed construction and retail jobs to the area. May we have a debate on the Government’s success in generating private sector jobs and on what more needs to be done over the coming years?
Sir George Young: Again, the Budget may provide an appropriate forum for such a debate, but my hon. Friend reminds the House that private sector employment is up 580,000 since the election, and that the overall number of people claiming out-of-work benefits has fallen by 30,000. I hope we can maintain that impetus, and that my hon. Friend will take part in the Budget debate, when he can make the point at greater length.
Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab):
May we have a debate on the Kafkaesque policies of Lloyds banks? When my constituent Mark Williams was unemployed three years ago, he set up a new business, Pins ’n Cool
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Things. He was suddenly notified by Lloyds that it was closing his bank account. It will not tell him why and he can have no explanation. His business has ground to a halt. There is no way he can find out what he is allegedly guilty of, which is surely against the nature of British justice. May we have a debate on why banks have the power to destroy companies by refusing to tell them why they close bank accounts?
Sir George Young: The constituent has done the right thing in contacting his Member of Parliament. I am sure she is in contact with the Lloyds chief executive to see whether she can get a satisfactory explanation of how her constituent has been treated. I hope she is pursuing that, but I will draw the matter to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to see whether there is a role for him in view of the Government’s stake in that bank.
Mr Speaker: Order. There is still a large number of hon. Members trying to get in—they are all on one side of the House as it happens. I am keen to accommodate them, but we must now have brief questions, because the Leader of the House always provides brief answers.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con): Tomorrow, I will visit Megger, a very successful business in my constituency. May we have a debate on how we can accelerate economic growth in the UK, particularly in the light of the excellent news in the International Monetary Fund report that Britain is likely to grow more quickly than Germany and France this year?
Sir George Young: Indeed. The best news for Megger would be a continuation of the Government’s economic policies, which allow low interest rates to endure. My hon. Friend rightly draws attention to the fact that, this year, we are growing three times as fast as France and twice as fast as Germany. That is a tribute to the economic policies that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has championed.
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con): Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the importance of local initiatives to stimulate business growth, such as the successful loan fund set up by Staffordshire county council and administered by the mutual Black Country Reinvestment Society, of which I am proud to be a member?
Sir George Young: I am delighted to hear that despite all the pressure on Staffordshire county council, it has been able to find the resources to make the loan available to that mutual company. It is important that loans continue to be made to promote growth and employment and I commend the priorities of my hon. Friend’s county council.
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con): A consistent theme raised by businesses in Tamworth is their access to bank lending. May we have a debate on that and on what opportunities there are for banks to borrow money, particularly in respect of Project Merlin, which has exceeded its target this year, and which means that more money was lent to small businesses in 2011 than in 2010?