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Jan 8, 2013 - a large increase in the plaice quota and we managed to avoid a big cut in other stocks ...... Secondly, do
Tuesday 8 January 2013

Volume 556 No. 92

HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 8 January 2013

£5·00

© Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2013 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/.

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House of Commons Tuesday 8 January 2013 The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock PRAYERS [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS CANTERBURY CITY COUNCIL BILL (BY ORDER) Motion made, That the Lords amendments be now considered. Hon. Members: Object. Lords amendments to be considered on Tuesday 15 January. LEEDS CITY COUNCIL BILL (BY ORDER) Motion made, That the Lords amendments be now considered. Hon. Members: Object. Lords amendments to be considered on Tuesday 15 January. NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL BILL (BY ORDER) Motion made, That the Lords amendments be now considered.

The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): Happy new year, Mr Speaker. The Government published our proposals on the recall of MPs last year, and the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee then published its report in June last year. We submitted an interim response reaffirming our commitment to establishing a recall mechanism and are now taking the proper time to reflect on the Committee’s recommendations. Ian Murray: Happy new year, Mr Speaker. I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for that unvarnished answer. Given that one of the justifications for introducing recall is improved confidence in our democracy, what is his view of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee’s statement: “We are not convinced that the proposals will increase public confidence in politics”?

The Deputy Prime Minister: The Committee made a number of recommendations about our proposals, but equally it accepted that all parties had made a manifesto commitment to introduce some kind of recall mechanism and acknowledged, as I think everyone does, the difficulty in trying to define serious wrongdoing precisely and determine who should define it and who should set off a trigger for a recall by-election. It is precisely those kinds of difficult dilemmas that we are now trying to address, because we do not want to resile from the commitment to legislate to introduce some kind of recall mechanism. Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries

Hon. Members: Object. Lords amendments to be considered on Tuesday 15 January.

2. Jim Dobbin (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab/Co-op): What his policy is on the review of parliamentary [135548] constituency boundaries.

READING BOROUGH COUNCIL BILL (BY ORDER) Motion made, That the Lords amendments be now considered.

4. Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab): What his policy is on the review of parliamentary constituency [135550] boundaries.

Hon. Members: Object. Lords amendments to be considered on Tuesday 15 January.

The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Miss Chloe Smith): The boundary commissions are continuing with the boundary review in accordance with the legislation that requires them to report before October 2013.

CITY OF LONDON (VARIOUS POWERS) BILL [LORDS] (BY ORDER) Second Reading opposed and deferred until Tuesday 15 January (Standing Order No. 20).

Oral Answers to Questions DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Jim Dobbin: Yesterday’s coalition renewal document, “The Coalition: together in the national interest”, includes a vote on the boundary change proposals for constituencies. I know that the Minister is to answer, but I would like to know whether the Deputy Prime Minister will campaign for a no vote. Miss Smith: I think that the parties within the Government have made their positions clear on the matter. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, there will be a vote, it will take place, and I suppose that is that.

Member Recalls

Mr McKenzie: Does the Minister believe that it is right to redraw parliamentary boundaries on the basis of data from which millions of eligible voters are missing?

1. Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab): When the Government plan to bring forward proposals on the [135547] recall of hon. Members.

Miss Smith: It is the Government’s intention to proceed with the individual electoral registration programme, which will increase and improve the accuracy of the

The Deputy Prime Minister was asked—

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registers we work with. It is really important that we all continue with the support that there is across the House for those proposals.

Miss Smith: There will be a set of penalties that relate to those actions. I will be happy to write to my hon. Friend so that he gets the fullest possible detail.

Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con): Can my hon. Friend guarantee that the next general election will be fought according to the new parliamentary boundaries recommended by the Electoral Commission, and that it will be fought with individual voter registration?

14. [135560] Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab): When does the Minister expect a national online electoral registration system to be in place?

Miss Smith: I think that the answer to my hon. Friend is best given within the point that there will be a vote on those proposals, as I think he knows. On individual electoral registration, I can confirm that the programme is proceeding as planned, and I am happy to give him further details on that. Dr William McCrea (South Antrim) (DUP): If the Lib Dems are still voting against the recommended parliamentary boundary changes, should this House not have the earliest opportunity to vote on the issue, thereby possibly saving unnecessary public expenditure at a time when the public finances are limited, and when should such a vote take place? Miss Smith: I am terribly sorry to be boring, but there will be a vote on those proposals.

Miss Smith: Many Members take an interest in that issue. I do not have a specific date to give the hon. Gentleman. The Government are looking at the matter and I shall be happy to discuss it further with him. Sadiq Khan (Tooting) (Lab): We all want a register that is complete and accurate. The Electoral Commission’s recent damning report on the move to individual voter registration in Northern Ireland is extremely worrying, yet the Government have decided to speed up the implementation of individual voter registration and to remove the safeguards that Labour put in place. All this is happening at a time when local authorities are having to make record cuts, including to the amount that they can devote to electoral registration. Given the criticism levelled by the Electoral Commission’s report, what extra are the Government considering to avoid a repeat in the rest of the UK of the experiences in Northern Ireland, which could see millions of eligible voters dumped off the electoral register?

Electoral Register 3. Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab): What steps the Government are taking to ensure that under-represented groups are included on the electoral register. [135549] The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Miss Chloe Smith): As I mentioned in my previous answer, it is important that we ensure that all those who should be are included on the electoral register, including the under-represented groups to which the hon. Lady’s question refers. The Government, politicians, parties, electoral administrators and plenty of others have a role to play in encouraging people to register to vote. The Government are committed to doing all they can to maximise registration, including among under-registered groups. They are looking to modernise the system to make it as convenient as possible and are running various sets of data-related pilots to find out how we can best identify unregistered groups and add them to the register. Jessica Morden: Does the Minister agree that the annual canvass is a really important part of ensuring that under-represented groups are on the register and that any attempts to water down the frequency of the canvass, or give powers to Ministers to abolish it altogether, should be avoided? Miss Smith: Our current plans for electoral registration do include the annual canvass, which will continue to be used for as long as it remains the best way to ensure that the register is as complete and accurate as possible. Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con): Will the Minister clarify what penalty, if any, will be imposed on those who fail to return an individual electoral registration form?

Miss Smith: I think the right hon. Gentleman is misrepresenting some of what the report says. The evidence from the report is that continuous registration is working for the majority of the population in Northern Ireland. The report notes that many of the key lessons from the experience in Northern Ireland have already been addressed by the proposals. It also states: “The findings from this research do not undermine the principle of individual electoral registration or mean that the introduction of this system in Great Britain will necessarily lead to similar declines in accuracy and completeness.”

Commission on Devolution in Wales 5. Mr Mark Williams (Ceredigion) (LD): What assessment he has made of the work of the Commission [135551] on Devolution in Wales. 6. Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con): What assessment he has made of the work of the Commission [135552] on Devolution in Wales. The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): On 19 November, the Commission on Devolution in Wales delivered a thorough and clear analysis of the options for fiscal devolution in Wales. The Government welcome publication of the Commission’s report and will respond formally in due course. Mr Williams: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer, and I welcome his welcome for the work of the Silk commission. We have an opportunity to enable our Assembly to be truly accountable—not just for the money that it spends by way of the block grant, but for the money that it raises through taxes, through a partial devolution of income tax. Surely that would be an important facet of a strengthened and accountable

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National Assembly. Will my right hon. Friend guarantee that part 1 of the Silk recommendations will be enacted in legislation during this Parliament? The Deputy Prime Minister: I can certainly confirm that we will respond in full well before part 2 of the Silk commission proceedings is concluded. We aim to provide our full response to part 1, about the fiscal aspects of further devolution to Wales, by spring this year. I strongly agree with my hon. Friend’s praise for the report, which is thorough and thoughtful. It is radical; it suggests devolving up to about a quarter of total money spent in Wales to the Welsh Assembly itself. It actually goes further in important respects, notably on varying income tax rates, than the Calman-like process on which it was modelled. Glyn Davies: The Silk commission recommended that the National Assembly for Wales should become more financially accountable through being given responsibility for raising tax. Does my right hon. Friend believe that this can happen only after a referendum takes place to secure the support of the Welsh people, even if a firm commitment is made in the manifesto of the party or parties that form the next Government? The Deputy Prime Minister: As my hon. Friend knows, the Silk commission has on it representatives of all four parties in the Assembly, and it was a unanimously supported recommendation that the change in income tax recommended in part 1 should be implemented only once a referendum had taken place. Obviously, we will look at this very closely. We are acutely aware that it represents a cross-party approach within Wales itself. Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab): Have the Deputy Prime Minister and the Government considered a floor to the Barnett formula to ensure that Wales does not lose out? The Deputy Prime Minister: As the hon. Gentleman may know, back in October the Chief Secretary to the Treasury made it clear that we would work with the Welsh Administration to look at the convergence or, as is the case at the moment, divergence of funding in Wales and elsewhere in the United Kingdom. We have also made it clear that while there is a legitimate debate around the future of the Barnett formula, our priority remains the stabilisation of the public finances. Mr Elfyn Llwyd (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC): Given the need for change, supported by all parties on the Silk commission, and the Deputy Prime Minister’s enthusiasm, together with that of his party, will he make every effort to ensure that part 1 of Silk is legislated on during this Parliament? The Deputy Prime Minister: As I said, we all need to take a careful look at part 1 and take a collective decision within the coalition Government on how we respond to it. As Ministers in all parts of the coalition have said, it is an extremely thorough and thoughtful piece of work representing a cross-party approach in Wales, and we will respond to it with similar seriousness before the spring of this year.

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Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con): Has my right hon. Friend given any consideration to communities that straddle the Anglo-Welsh border—for instance, the Chester economic sub-region, including north Wales and Chester—and the impact that this will have on people who live and work on both sides of the border? The Deputy Prime Minister: My hon. Friend has identified one of the issues that makes some of the tax recommendations in part 1 of the Silk commission slightly more complicated in certain respects than the devolved tax arrangements in Scotland, principally because the border area between England and Wales is more populous than the border areas between Scotland and England. That is one of the things that we are seeking to address right now in our internal deliberations. Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab): In the very slim midterm review, a commitment is given to the Government’s responding to the Silk commission, as the Deputy Prime Minister has confirmed this morning. Will he give a commitment that there will be no unilateral reduction in the block grant to Wales? The Deputy Prime Minister: I think we have done better than that. As the hon. Gentleman knows, back in October the Chief Secretary to the Treasury made it clear that we would work with the Administration in Cardiff before each public spending review to monitor the convergence or divergence between the funding settlements in both places. This commitment has not been made by previous Governments here in Westminster. That is a demonstration of our willingness to respond to some of the concerns about the future funding arrangements within the United Kingdom, particularly as they affect Wales. Local and Central Government Powers 7. Mr Graham Allen (Nottingham North) (Lab): Whether he plans to examine the balance of power [135553] between local and central Government. The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): The Government are clear that we must disperse power in our society. That is why we have initiated a historic shift away from Westminster to put our counties, cities, towns, villages, neighbourhoods and citizens in control of their own affairs. I look forward to seeing the final report on the relationship between local and central Government from the hon. Gentleman’s Select Committee inquiry as we continue the process of reform. Mr Allen: The Deputy Prime Minister will know that three out of the four nations within the United Kingdom now enjoy some form of devolution; the one that does not enjoy any devolution, effectively protected by statute, is England. Will he engage with local government at the right moment to discuss how devolution can be made effective through local government, and will he also engage with the Select Committee, which is due to report on this very matter at the end of this month? The Deputy Prime Minister: I certainly stand shoulder to shoulder with the hon. Gentleman on his long-standing critique of the over-centralisation of power in Westminster and Whitehall. I know that he has welcomed some of

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the initiatives that we have taken. They do not provide all the answers, but they are significant steps in the right direction. The retention of 50% of business rates by local authorities is probably the biggest act of fiscal decentralisation in England for several years. The city deals, in my view, are a radical template of a wholesale transfer of responsibilities, ranging from transport and capital investment to skills and training, to local authorities. The question that the hon. Gentleman’s Committee is posing is whether that can be done in a more systematic, neat and formalised way, and I am certainly open to look at any suggestions in that respect. It is the tradition in this country to do things in a slightly more informal and uneven way, but his Committee’s report will be taken very seriously by us in government. Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Can my right hon. Friend set out what powers have been devolved from central Government to the big society? The Deputy Prime Minister: As my hon. Friend knows, whether it is in planning, control over business rates, significant powers over skills, transport and capital investment in our cities or in the enactment of a general power of competence—whereby we recognise in law for the first time the general power of competence for local authorities—I believe that, in all of those areas, as well as, of course, the new referendum powers available to local neighbourhoods and local authorities, we have made a significant step towards creating a more decentralised nation. Topical Questions T1. [135563] Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) (LD): If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities. The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): As Deputy Prime Minister I support the Prime Minister on the full range of Government policy and initiatives. Within Government I take special responsibility for this Government’s programme of political and constitutional reform. Paul Burstow: Yesterday the Government, in their mid-term review, reaffirmed their commitment to the principles of a cap and reform of means-testing to end the care lottery in this country. Will the Deputy Prime Minister now go further than just considering principles and commit this Government to introducing legislation, through the draft Care and Support Bill, during the life of this Parliament to give effect to that cap and give people the peace of mind they deserve? The Deputy Prime Minister: I can confirm that in the coming weeks we will publish our detailed response, which will address the issue of how to avoid individuals and households having to face catastrophic costs in funding their care. We have said all along that we believe in the principles and the basic model set out by Andrew Dilnot. Of course there is an issue about how to pay for this in the future, but as my right hon. Friend has rightly identified, the first step is to enshrine that approach in legislation, which we will seek to do during this Parliament.

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Ms Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) (Lab): If the Deputy Prime Minister votes for the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill tonight, he will be voting to make millions of low-income families worse off. Will he confirm that two thirds of the people who will be hit by the Bill are not lying in bed with the curtains drawn—which, anyway, is no way to speak about unemployed people—but are actually in work? The Deputy Prime Minister: It is obvious that a measure that deals with both out-of-work benefits and tax credits affects people both in and out of work. The challenge for the right hon. and learned Lady and her colleagues is to explain to this House and the British public, first, why she could support a 1% limit on the pay increases for doctors, nurses and teachers in the public sector, but not take exactly the same approach in this area, and secondly, where she is going to find the £5 billion that this measure will save over the next three years. Would she take it from the NHS? I know that Labour’s health spokesperson thinks that increasing spending on the NHS is irresponsible. We do not. Would she take it from schools? Would she take it from social care? Those are the kinds of answers that this House deserves from the Labour party before the vote takes place tonight. Ms Harman: Even the right hon. Gentleman should be able to work out that 1% if someone is earning more than £100,000 a year is a great deal more than 1% if someone is struggling on a low income. His Government are failing on the economy—that is why they are borrowing £212 billion more than they had planned. On fairness, will the right hon. Gentleman admit that tonight’s vote will mean that, while someone earning more than £1 million a year will be better off by £2,000 a week because of their tax cut, a working couple on tax credit will be worse off because their increase of 38p a week will be wiped out by inflation? The Government have failed on compassion as well as on competence, so why will he not vote with us against the Bill tonight? The Deputy Prime Minister: The biggest tax measure, which will benefit more than 20 million basic rate taxpayers, is about to take place in April. A two-earner household on the basic rate of tax will be £1,200 better off because we are increasing the tax allowance by the largest amount ever. I would have thought that the right hon. and learned Lady would welcome that. It means that someone on the minimum pay will have had their income tax slashed by half. On the upper rate of tax, the right hon. and learned Lady’s party makes great play of the 50p rate. It is worth putting it on the record that the 50p upper rate of tax existed for only 36 days of the 13 years that her Government were in office. I know that they had a deathbed conversion to the 50p rate, but they pretend that they were believers all along. Actually, the upper rate of tax under Labour was 40p. Under this Government, it will be 45p. Justify that! T5. [135567] Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con): Like many hon. Members, I read the mid-term review with great interest. Much of it is welcome, but I was concerned by the line on page 32 that states that “provision is made for Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain on proposals to introduce transferable tax allowances for married couples.”

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Why will the Deputy Prime Minister not support that common-sense proposal, which would help hard-working families across the country? The Deputy Prime Minister: As the hon. Gentleman knows, that is a carbon copy of the wording in the coalition agreement. My party has always taken this stance because I have always struggled to explain to people why someone who happens not to be married should pay more tax than someone who happens to be married. If such a measure were put before the House, it would be very difficult to explain to people why those who are not married should be stung with higher tax. That does not seem to me to be right. [135564] Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab): T2. When the Deputy Prime Minister entered the coalition, did he foresee that at the halfway stage there would be a sixfold increase in the number of people using food banks, there would be predictions that half a million more children would be living in absolute poverty by the end of the Parliament and that he would champion legislation described by the Child Poverty Action Group as “poverty-producing”, as he will later today? Is he not thoroughly ashamed of his record?

The Deputy Prime Minister: I am proud that this coalition Government have come together to clear up the monumental mess left by the hon. Lady’s party. After all, it was her shadow Chancellor who went on the prawn cocktail charm offensive in the City of London to suck up to the banks, which created the problems in the first place. It was the Labour Government who presided over the shocking tax system in which a hedge fund manager paid less tax on their shares than their cleaner paid on their wages. It is this coalition Government who have ended that scandal. [135568] Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) T6. (LD): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on bringing forward legislation on the succession to the Crown. However, does he think that it is necessary to push it through in one day as if it was emergency terrorism legislation, when Parliament has a job to do to ensure that it is correctly drafted and that any concerns or unforeseen difficulties are addressed properly?

The Deputy Prime Minister: Making a small, concise amendment to an Act that has been on the statute book since 1701 is hardly acting hastily. Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab): 1700. The Deputy Prime Minister: I am being corrected by the historians on the Opposition Benches. None the less, this is something that has been on the statute book for more than 300 years. Let us remember that this is a very specific act of discrimination against one faith only. The heir to the throne may marry someone of any religion outside the Church of England—Muslim, Hindu and so on—but uniquely not a Catholic under the terms of the Act of 1700 or 1701. This is a precise change and it is being co-ordinated precisely with all the other realms that have to make the identical change in their legislation.

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T3. [135565] John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab): The last former East Midlands MEP, who had a radio show, soon disappeared into political oblivion. When will the Deputy Prime Minister give the voters of Sheffield, Hallam the opportunity to vote on recalling him? The Deputy Prime Minister: It is always a pleasure to answer the hon. Gentleman’s somewhat incoherent but none the less punchy questions. I do not want to disappoint him, but I am afraid there are not millions of people hanging on his every word spoken in the Chamber. I think that as politicians, we should go out to be where people are rather than expect them to come where the politicians are. I make no apology for making myself available to members of the public on the radio or in town and village halls up and down the country, as I do every week. T8. [135571] Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): Given the huge distortions in the current parliamentary boundaries, does the Deputy Prime Minister really believe that by reviewing boundaries only every eight to 12 years we will have a fair and unbiased electoral voting system? The Deputy Prime Minister: As I have said before, my own view, in light of the events that have disrupted the package of political reforms to which the coalition Government had committed in the coalition agreement, is that we should delay the implementation of the next set of boundary reviews by a full parliamentary cycle. T7. [135570] Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab): Support through the tax system for families in Scotland with their child care bills amounted to a miserable 1p a day in the past year, and the Resolution Foundation says that half the benefit of the Deputy Prime Minister’s current voucher plan for child care goes to people in the top fifth of the income bracket. Is he not going to have to do a lot more than his complete absence of plans yesterday to prevent the second half of the coalition from being as big a disaster for families’ child care costs as the first half ? The Deputy Prime Minister: I am slightly surprised that the hon. Gentleman is commenting in detail on plans that have not been published yet. We have not yet finalised the details of our new investment in support for families facing high child care costs, but we will do so in the weeks to come. I point out to him, though, that it is this Government who have introduced 15 hours of free pre-school and child care support for every three and four-year-old in this country, which no Government have done before. It is also this Government who, from this April, for the first time ever, will be providing 15 hours of free pre-school and child care support to two-year-olds from the most disadvantaged families in this country. Government Members are proud of that. Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle) (Con): Why is the fact that an Act has been in existence for more than 300 years an argument for amending it, together with the Bill of Rights and the Act of Union with Scotland, in a single day? I would have thought the argument was very much in the opposite direction.

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The Deputy Prime Minister: As I sought to explain to my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Sir Alan Beith) earlier, we are removing one specific, highly discriminatory provision from the law, on the faith of people whom heirs to the throne may marry. That discriminatory provision was introduced in the early years of the 18th century in response to the activities of Louis XIV of France, and I simply do not think it is necessary now in 21st century Britain. T10. [135573] Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab): The Deputy Prime Minister is starting to have the same trait as the Prime Minister of not answering questions. May I try again? Is it not the case that after the vote this evening, 3,900 people in my constituency who claim in-work benefits and do the right thing will be worse off while millionaires get a tax cut of £2,000 a week? The Deputy Prime Minister: As I said before, the Labour rate for top taxpayers was 40p, so the hon. Gentleman needs to justify his support for 13 years for a lower rate applied to millionaires than will be introduced—[Interruption.] I know Opposition Members do not like it, and they are shrieking at the top of their voices, but the record shows that for the whole time of the Labour Government, apart from 30 days towards the end, the upper rate was 40p. We are introducing an upper rate of 45p. That is the first point. The second point is that I hope the hon. Gentleman would celebrate with his constituents the fact that as of April this year, every single basic rate taxpayer in his constituency will be £600 better off because of the changes in the income tax allowance that we have introduced since the general election. T9. [135572] Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD): There is no doubt that the Government have to make some tough decisions, but what comment would my right hon. Friend make on the overall impact of Government policies on social mobility? The Deputy Prime Minister: One thing we have learned is that if we could shift social mobility by pouring billions of pounds into the tax credit system—the Labour party’s approach—that would have worked a long time ago. In fact, despite a huge transfer of money through the tax credit system, social mobility barely budged during 13 years of Labour government. That is why we are investing more in early years initiatives and providing more child care support, and why we are giving more support to two, three and four-year-olds and—most importantly—providing £2.5 billion through the pupil premium to help the education of the most disadvantaged children in the country. We believe that that is the way to promote social mobility over time. T13. [135576] Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab): The Labour-controlled Welsh Assembly is not implementing tuition fees, and Liberal Democrat Assembly Members support that. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with his Liberal colleagues in Wales? The Deputy Prime Minister: We have a devolved approach to higher education in both Wales and Scotland. Under the new system introduced in England—unlike that over which the right hon. Gentleman presided

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during Labour’s time in office—students will not pay any up-front fees at all. That includes thousands of part-time students who for the first time do not need to pay any up-front fees. Because of the way we are introducing what is, in effect, a time-limited graduate tax, all graduates will pay out less from their bank account every week and month—even if for longer—than they did under the system introduced by Labour. T11. [135574] John Stevenson (Carlisle) (Con): I welcome the second wave of city deals for the next 20 largest cities, but what about smaller cities such as Carlisle? Will the Deputy Prime Minister confirm that they too will have the opportunity to reach a deal with the Government to have increased powers devolved to them? The Deputy Prime Minister: As my hon. Friend will know, the first wave of city deals applied to the eight biggest cities. We then invited 20 cities and communities to submit bids for the next wave, on which we hope to decide in the coming months. I very much hope that the city deals will not be just a one-off experiment in devolution but that they will act as a template for further devolution across the country. Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op): The coalition agreement states that the Government will introduce “extra support for people with disabilities who want to become MPs, councillors or other elected officials.”

Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on progress with that? The Deputy Prime Minister: As the hon. Lady may know, there is a £2.6 million access to elected office fund, and the wider access to elected office strategy was launched in July last year to deliver on the coalition agreement commitment to provide extra support to tackle the obstacles she mentions. The fund will be open for applications until the end of March 2014, and so far there have been 11 applications, including from independent candidates. Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): Can the Deputy Prime Minister assure the House that the Succession to the Crown Bill will give the public confidence that the relationship between Church and state will be unaltered, even if a future monarch should marry a Roman Catholic and the ensuing child is a Catholic? The Deputy Prime Minister: I can give the hon. Gentleman complete reassurance that the provisions in the Bill will not in any way alter the status of the established Church in this country and the monarch as head of that Church. We have had monarchs who have married Catholics. I think Queen Anne of Denmark was married to James I of Scotland—I may be corrected by our historian, the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), from a sedentary position. There is absolutely nothing in the provisions that will alter the status of the Church in the way feared by the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr Turner). Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab): The coalition agreement commits the Government to the appointment of new peers to create a second Chamber

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that is more reflective of votes cast at the 2010 general election. Is the Deputy Prime Minister seriously saying that he will appoint 24 new UKIP Members of the House of Lords and 16 new peers to represent the British National party, or is it more about stuffing the other place full of Tory and Lib Dem cronies?

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ATTORNEY-GENERAL

The Attorney-General was asked— Serious Fraud Office (Senior Staff)

The Deputy Prime Minister: With respect, I think the hon. Gentleman has grasped the wrong end of the stick. The coalition agreement says that the appointments we make to an unreformed House of Lords—pending the long-awaited, and now even more long-awaited reform of the other place—will be made according to the proportion of votes won by parties at the last general election. That is precisely what we intend to do. Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): I wish the Deputy Prime Minister a happy new year. Was one of his new year resolutions to decide that, if he thinks a policy is right, it should be rushed through in a day? Will he answer properly a question he has been asked before? Why will the succession Bill be rushed through in a day under emergency legislation procedures? Those procedures should be used only for emergency legislation, which the succession Bill is not. The Deputy Prime Minister: I wish the hon. Gentleman a happy new year too—and Mrs Bone. It is important to stress that the Bill is not a capricious legislative initiative on behalf of the Government. It was solemnly agreed at the Commonwealth summit in Perth by all the Commonwealth realms. It has also been subject to extensive discussion between officials in the Cabinet Office and the royal household, and between Governments and officials of this country and of the Commonwealth realms. We have said that we will take the lead in setting out the legislative provisions for the other Commonwealth realms. The legislative change is very precise, which is why we are keen to proceed as quickly as possible. Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab): Perhaps the Deputy Prime Minister would like to take this opportunity to enhance his concern for people in difficulties. More than 60,000 people have signed a petition asking that the Government carry out a proper cumulative impact assessment of the changes to disability benefits. Will he ensure that that happens? The Deputy Prime Minister: I am curious to know whether the hon. Lady believes that those impact assessments were delivered in full under the Labour Government—I do not recall them. She will know that we are on the verge of introducing a very significant change in the way in which disability benefits are administered in the years ahead, from the disability living allowance system to the personal independence payment system. That change will mean that many who have received disability benefits for years when there has been no check on whether they need it will finally, for the first time, be asked to be subject to certain objective tests. The change will also mean that people who do not currently receive benefits or support for their disabilities will receive it for the first time. We have been transparent in setting out our proposals.

1. Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab): What steps he is taking to recover payments made to former senior staff at the Serious Fraud Office that were not properly [135612] authorised. 3. Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab): What steps he is taking to recover payments made to former senior staff at the Serious Fraud Office which were not authorised by the Cabinet Office or Her Majesty’s [135616] Treasury. The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve): As set out in my statement to the House on 4 December 2012, on learning of these agreements and payments, the new director of the Serious Fraud Office sought legal advice on whether the arrangements might be reopened and on whether money might be recovered. The advice he received is that the agreements, although entered into without the necessary approvals, are binding on the Serious Fraud Office. Mr Spellar: If one of our constituents is overpaid on tax credits, or on their housing or council tax benefits, which often occurs through no fault of their own, the state claws the overpayment back, yet the Serious Fraud Office has made unauthorised redundancy payments to bureaucrat fat cats—some of nearly £500,000—but seems to be doing nothing to recover them. What, therefore, will the Attorney-General do to get the money back? Perhaps he could get a new lawyer, but he could also take action against those responsible for irresponsibly giving away public money. The Attorney-General: I share the right hon. Gentleman’s disquiet about what has happened. Nevertheless, it is the duty of the director of the Serious Fraud Office, who is the accounting officer in this context, to take legal advice and to observe it when he receives it, and the legal advice he has received is quite clear. It is perhaps worth making one further point. The vast majority of the sums paid out would have been in line with the civil service compensation scheme. In my judgment, some payments may well not have been in line with the scheme, but the majority were—I would stress the totality of the sums involved. Should there be any further developments, I will inform the House of them. Like the right hon. Gentleman, I do not consider the matter to be satisfactory—it causes me disquiet, and the Public Accounts Committee may well wish to look into it. Grahame M. Morris: I thank the Attorney-General for his reply to my right hon. Friend the Member for Warley (Mr Spellar). In that spirit of openness, will he publish the findings of the independent investigation into the payouts commissioned by the current director of the Serious Fraud Office? Will he also indicate whether any legal or disciplinary action will be taken against the individuals responsible?

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The Attorney-General: On the first point, my office and the Serious Fraud Office have received requests for this information, and we are currently considering whether any further information can be released. I would like to see as much of the information released as possible. On the second point, it is right to make it clear that the person responsible for making these payments is no longer working in the civil service. Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): Does the Attorney-General realise that this is merely a symptom of something seriously wrong with the Serious Fraud Office in terms of its leadership, culture and record over recent years? The Attorney-General: May I recommend that the hon. Gentleman look at the report by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate on the Serious Fraud Office, as he will see that it has many laudatory things to say about the way in which the SFO has operated and sees it as capable of achieving significant outcomes in challenging cases. That is not to say that I do not think that there is room for improvement—I certainly do. A new director, David Green, has been appointed, and I have every confidence that he will be able to make the necessary changes. For example, he will be implementing the changes that the inspectorate recommended, and it will of course make a follow-up report to track that progress. Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle) (Con): While we are on the subject of the efficiency of the Serious Fraud Office, may I ask the Attorney-General how it is that, despite the appalling behaviour of some bank staff in some British banks and the enormous fines that have been imposed on those banks by the regulatory authorities in both New York and London, no senior banker in this country has yet been prosecuted for complicity in serious criminal banking offences? Mr Speaker: I know that in respect of this question the right hon. Gentleman will have in mind fraud in particular, which properly concerns the Serious Fraud Office. He did not say it, but I know that is what he meant. Sir Peter Tapsell: I withdraw the word “criminal” and insert the word “fraudulent” instead. The Attorney-General: I thank my right hon. Friend for his question, in whichever context. The Serious Fraud Office is carrying out a major inquiry and investigation into the LIBOR scandal. The conduct of the investigation is obviously a matter for the SFO, but the matter has not been ignored. Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) (Lab): The Attorney-General has referred to the report by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service inspectorate. I have read it, and it says that the Serious Fraud Office needs to improve its performance and appears to be suffering considerable resourcing problems. Will he consider the suggestion by the director of the SFO that the agency be allowed to retain more of the proceeds of crime that it confiscates? Might that be a way in which it could increase its funding?

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The Attorney-General: The hon. Lady raises an interesting question which may turn out to be a good subject for debate in this House at some point. There is clearly potential for changing the rules on the retention of the proceeds of crime by prosecuting agencies, but it is equally right to point out that it is not an uncontroversial subject. Disquiet is expressed about prosecutors being dependent on asset seizure for the way in which they operate, and that also raises some profoundly difficult ethical issues. For those reasons, I would counsel caution about whether that is necessarily the right way forward, although I am open-minded about any improvements that can be made on funding. Tax Evasion 2. Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD): How many successful prosecutions for tax evasion the Serious Fraud Office has completed in each [135615] of the last five years. The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald): It is the Crown Prosecution Service rather than the Serious Fraud Office that prosecutes tax evasion cases. The records of the Crown Prosecution Service show that in 2008-09 there were 226 convictions, and the latest figures, up to November 2012, show 349. Simon Hughes: We had a major debate on tax avoidance yesterday, and I think the country and Parliament want us to be very tough on tax evasion. Can the SolicitorGeneral assure us that the Government and the Crown Prosecution Service will concentrate on large national and international companies, and not on the small fish, so that ordinary people realise that they are not being singled out when much bigger prizes are available from much naughtier people? The Solicitor-General: I can certainly give my right hon. Friend the assurance that from top to bottom the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who has given us a target of increasing prosecutions fivefold, and all parts of Government will tackle this issue hard. From the point of view of the Attorney-General’s office, my right hon. Friend may be interested to know that we have been referring cases where sentences are unduly lenient to the Court of Appeal. It has recently been established that seven years’ imprisonment should be the starting point for significant tax fraud cases. Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con): Tax fraud is estimated to cost the Government £3.3 billion. What steps are the Serious Fraud Office and the Department taking to address that? The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service, with the police, is working extremely hard on tax evasion cases to ensure that as many as possible are brought to court. As I mentioned, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has set the target of a fivefold increase in cases. The figures I read out show that since 2008-09, there has been a major increase in the number of convictions. Child Abuse Victims 4. Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central) (Lab): What steps he is taking to support victims of child abuse in the [135617] prosecution process.

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The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald): The Crown Prosecution Service takes all allegations of child abuse very seriously. Supporting victims of child abuse is vital to successful prosecutions. The CPS works closely with the police and voluntary sector agencies to ensure that proper support is provided to victims at all stages. Anas Sarwar: In the past two years, reports of child abuse have shocked the entire country. Currently, at least 13 inquiries are taking place, including three BBC inquiries into Jimmy Savile, a Department of Health investigation into Broadmoor, a CPS inquiry, and inquiries into child protection in Rotherham and Rochdale. What discussions has the Minister had with other ministerial colleagues to ensure all that work is pulled together, and to ensure that all victims of child abuse receive the support and protection they deserve? The Solicitor-General: The Director of Public Prosecutions is working closely with all other authorities and took a personal lead in September by holding a round-table to consider how child sexual exploitation offences can be tackled. Witness care units are important and new Crown Prosecution Service guidance on child sexual exploitation is due in the new year. A great deal is being done, and special measures are being put in place to help witnesses give evidence. Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley) (Con): My hon. Friend is probably aware that a small team is looking into the history of cases of child abuse complaints in Northern Ireland. One member of the team is an ex-senior inspector in the Metropolitan police who explained to me that, looking back at cases from 1920, believe it or not, one stark fact is the astonishing lack of support for victims, including from the Crown Prosecution Service. Would my hon. Friend be interested in meeting him at the right time to consider whether there is anything from his expertise and research that would be of help? The Solicitor-General: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that offer, which I will certainly take up. He is right to say that support for witnesses is crucial to enable them to give their evidence in a confident and effective way. That is why the witness care units, the use of the voluntary sector supporters and the other work going into special measures at court to make it easier for witnesses to give evidence are all important. I look forward to the meeting. Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab): I welcome the steps taken by Keir Starmer and Nazir Afzal to try to reorganise how the Crown Prosecution Service deals with these matters. However, the fact remains that in relation to Rotherham there have been no prosecutions this year in the whole of south Yorkshire, despite 600 victims having been identified in the past few years. Does the SolicitorGeneral share my concern? Can we please see more prosecutions of the perpetrators? The Solicitor-General: As the right hon. Gentleman will be aware, it depends on the police investigating cases thoroughly and then on the Crown Prosecution Service reviewing them to see what evidence is needed. A full review was carried out after the Rochdale case, which was particularly concerning. That was last autumn, since when the CPS has been working on the new

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guidance, which I hope will lead to more prosecutions. I accept the need for more prosecutions in this area, but we want to establish best practice, and that guidance will be out soon. Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con): On another form of child abuse—female genital mutilation—there have been no prosecutions whatsoever in this country since it became illegal. Does the Solicitor-General share my hope that the Director of Public Prosecutions’ robust new action plan will lead to more progress in this area? The Solicitor-General: Yes, I certainly do. I have personally raised and discussed this subject with the DPP and was delighted that he held the round-table last September, which led to the robust action plan that my hon. Friend mentions. That is about improving the evidence available, identifying what is hindering investigations and prosecutions, exploring how other jurisdictions deal with these cases and ensuring that the police and prosecution work together closely on what are very difficult cases. Human Trafficking 5. Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab): How many prosecutions for human trafficking there have been in the most recent period for which figures are available; [135618] and if he will make a statement. 7. Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con): What steps he is taking to increase prosecutions for [135620] human trafficking. The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald): The Crown Prosecution Service charged and prosecuted 64 cases where human trafficking was the main offence between 1 April 2012 and 2 January this year, and has prosecuted other human trafficking cases using other legislation. The CPS is working with law enforcement and other agencies to improve investigation and prosecution and to encourage victims. Fiona Mactaggart: Those figures sound a little better than the ones previously published that suggested to me that out of 25 European countries Britain had fewer prosecutions for human trafficking specifically than all bar Malta, Slovakia, Estonia and Finland. What effect does the Solicitor-General believe the relatively low level of prosecution for specific human trafficking offences has on the potential for future human traffickers? The Solicitor-General: Of course, it is very important that we prosecute cases of this kind, but I make the point to the hon. Lady that the figures I read out and which are often quoted relate to cases where human trafficking was the main offence, but quite often with human trafficking, as she will know, the main offence is a violent assault or a rape, and it is the more serious offences that are flagged. In another 111 cases, in addition to the 64 I mentioned, human trafficking was one of the offences, but the main offence was a rape or major conspiracy. Andrew Selous: There have been relatively few prosecutions for human trafficking involving forced labour, compared with, say, sexual exploitation, although

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there have been major successes in my own county of Bedfordshire and, just before Christmas, in Gloucestershire. These forced labour exploiters often earn enormous sums of money. What can we do to take some of that money to help the police fund these complex and difficult investigations? The Solicitor-General: My hon. Friend will know of the Connors case, which was finally concluded yesterday —an appalling case involving vulnerable people being forced to work by the criminals concerned. It is important that we tackle these cases, but the main offence was introduced only in 2010 and related to events that occurred after that date, so we are very much at the early stage of bringing these cases to court. The Connors case is one of the first. An agreement has been reached with the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, however, to refer cases to the police, and other steps are being taken to toughen up on internal trafficking. Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP): Has the Solicitor-General had any indication of the number of cases where files were submitted and the decision was taken not to prosecute, or of the number of decisions that were based on concerns about the witness capacity of the victims? The Solicitor-General: I will look into that and am happy to write to the hon. Gentleman, because I do not have the information here. The Crown Prosecution Service is anxious to prosecute in this area if the evidence is available. All too often it is difficult to obtain the quality of evidence from overseas that one would want in order to prosecute effectively. There is also the problem that victims need a great deal of support and encouragement. All these matters are being addressed, and I will write to the hon. Gentleman on his point. Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): I welcome what the Government are doing in this field—they are being very proactive—but does the Solicitor-General share my concern that there is a temptation for the Crown Prosecution Service to choose lesser charges for which it is easier to secure a conviction, such as immigration offences, which results in traffickers getting a lower sentence than if they had been prosecuted for human trafficking? The Solicitor-General: I would dispute that. As I mentioned to the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart), many human trafficking cases involve other offences, which are often more serious. With sexual exploitation cases, where there are continual rapes and serious offences of that sort, it is right to charge for rape as the principal offence because it is more serious in some ways. I therefore do not accept that the Crown Prosecution Service is going for lower charges. This is a matter that we in the Attorney-General’s office keep under review. Law of Contempt 6. Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab): Whether implementation of the recommendations of the Leveson report will affect the enforcement of laws of contempt. [135619]

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The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve): Lord Justice Leveson has provided detailed recommendations on how best the press might be regulated in future. Those recommendations and their implementation will be considered by the Government and Parliament. Whichever regulatory model is finally chosen, the law of contempt remains applicable. When appropriate, I will continue to bring proceedings against publications that create a substantial risk that the course of justice in proceedings will be seriously impeded or prejudiced. Graeme Morrice: What consideration has the AttorneyGeneral given to Lord Leveson’s view that further guidance is needed on press coverage of police investigations and that “save in exceptional and clearly identified circumstances…the names…of those…arrested or suspected of a crime should not be released to the press or the public”?

The Attorney-General: I have noted what Lord Justice Leveson has said and it may be something to be incorporated in press regulation. The current position on the law of contempt is that proceedings are active from the time of arrest. Those considerations are not identical to those that Lord Justice Leveson was considering, but they raise the issue that after arrest the press has to have in mind the possible impact on the fairness of the trial process thereafter. That could include naming a suspect; equally, it might be perfectly acceptable to do that. Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con): There is continuing concern, nevertheless, about the almost habitual naming of suspects after arrest, which in the minds of many of us has the potential to cause real prejudice. Will my right hon. and learned Friend do all he can to monitor the current situation and ensure that the law is prosecuted to its full effect? The Attorney-General: My hon. Friend raises an important point. I am certainly mindful that in many of the contempt matters brought to my attention the problem has arisen in the period between arrest and charge. Of course, if the House were minded to change the law on anonymity, which has been floated previously in private Members’ business, that could be done by enacting legislation. However, let me make it quite clear that this would need a legislative solution, not one that I can in some way “magic up”. The law of contempt has to be applied free of all political considerations, and that is what I try to do as best I can. Mr Speaker: I would not want the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson) to feel socially excluded, so we will accommodate him, but he needs to be very brief. Serious Fraud Office 8. John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab): What recent assessment he has made of the Serious Fraud Office’s ability to conduct a succession of large-scale [135621] inquiries. The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve): The recent report by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate demonstrates that the Serious Fraud Office

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has the ability to conduct large-scale inquiries, although there is scope for improvement. Funding for the Serious Fraud Office is kept under constant review. There is a set budget for the SFO, but as the Prime Minister has previously made clear in relation to the LIBOR investigation, if the SFO needs more resources, they will be provided. John Robertson: Can the right hon. and learned Gentleman confirm that none of the additional funding promised for the LIBOR investigation has been received by the Serious Fraud Office, and will he explain why? It is envisaged that the investigation will take three years. Why so long?

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The Attorney-General: The undertaking is for up to £3.5 million for each of the next three years to be made available as and when required. When the SFO requires it, it will be made available. Mr Speaker: I am grateful to the Attorney-General. I remind the House that, in addition to the two urgent questions granted today, there is a statement followed by a very heavily subscribed Second Reading debate on the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill. The UQs will therefore be run strictly to time, but depending on the level of interest, it might not be possible to accommodate all colleagues who are interested. I shall do my best, and I invite the House to do the same.

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Ibrahim Magag 12.35 pm Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab) (Urgent Question): To ask the Home Secretary to make a statement on the disappearance of Ibrahim Magag. The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May): On 26 December 2012, Ibrahim Magag, a Somali-born British national who is subject to a terrorism prevention and investigation measure, failed to report for his overnight residence requirement. As I told the House yesterday, the police believe that he has absconded, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. On 31 December, at the request of the police, I asked the High Court to revoke the anonymity order that was in force in relation to Magag. The police subsequently issued a public appeal for information that might lead to his location and apprehension. The Government took steps to inform Parliament of this incident as soon as it was lawful and operationally possible to do so. The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (James Brokenshire), spoke to the Chairmen of the Home Affairs Select Committee and the Intelligence and Security Committee on 31 December. This was followed by letters to both Committee Chairmen, to the shadow Home Secretary and to you, Mr Speaker. Copies of the letters were placed in the Library of the House on the same day. The statements that the police issued on 31 December and 2 January confirm that, at this time, Magag is not considered to represent a direct threat to the British public. The TPIM notice in this case was intended primarily to prevent fundraising and overseas travel. The Government do not believe that Magag’s disappearance is linked to any current terrorism planning in the UK. Nevertheless, we are of course taking this matter very seriously. The police are doing everything in their power to apprehend Magag as quickly as possible. Although I cannot give operational details, I can confirm that the police, the Security Service and other agencies are devoting significant resources to the search for Magag. Members of the public with any information relating to the search should contact the confidential police anti-terrorist hotline. Before the shadow Home Secretary stands up again, I would like to remind the House that this is not the first abscond of a terror suspect. In six years of control orders, there were seven absconds, of which six were never apprehended. Magag’s abscond is serious, and the authorities are doing everything they can to locate him. I will update the House when there are further developments as soon as it is possible to do so. Yvette Cooper: Ibrahim Magag is still missing after 13 days, and the Home Secretary clearly has no idea where he is. The first priority must be to find him, and she should tell us more about the additional resources being put into the search. Will she also tell us what the threat assessment really is? She said that the risk simply related to “fundraising and overseas travel”, yet the courts

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have said that Magag has attended terrorist training camps in Somalia, that he was fundraising for known terrorists and that “the operational tempo and capability of the group of extremists based in London will be degraded by removing his operational role from London”.

Does the Home Secretary think that that threat assessment still holds? How was Magag able to abscond in the first place? Was he even under surveillance at the time? Cabwise, a trade news service for London cabbies, reported yesterday that Magag “used a London taxi in the vicinity of Triton Street at around 17:20 on 26 December.”

Is that true? Is the Home Secretary worried that surveillance can be shaken off simply by jumping into a black cab? The Home Secretary allowed Ibrahim Magag to return to London. She has not answered the question from the independent reviewer, David Anderson, about whether it would have been harder to abscond in the west country, where Magag was made to live under a control order and where it would have been harder for him to get help from his associates, harder to hide and harder to get forged papers. She knows that relocation makes it harder to abscond, because she has included it in her draft emergency terror legislation. The Home Secretary referred to the early years of control orders, but David Anderson, the independent reviewer has said: “The absence of absconds since mid-2007 has coincided with the trend away from light touch control orders, and/or the more extensive use of relocation.”

The right hon. Lady chose to ditch relocations, and she has personally made it easier for people to abscond. Other people previously relocated under control orders are also now back in London on terrorism prevention and investigation measures. Could any one of them simply jump into a black cab tomorrow and be off ? Will the Home Secretary ask the independent reviewer urgently to investigate the failures of this case and to review the issue of relocation? She has ignored security advice before and someone involved in terrorism is now out on our streets. She must not ignore the evidence on relocations. She should put the national interest ahead of her political interests and stop ducking the issue. Is it not time that she took some responsibility and sorted this mess out? Mrs May: I am very sorry that the shadow Home Secretary chose to pursue that line in relation to this case. Let me repeat the key fact that she does not seem to want to accept—that this is not the first time that somebody has absconded. She seems to think that it is all down to the difference between control orders and TPIMs, but in six years of control orders there were seven absconds and six of the individuals involved were never apprehended. The right hon. Lady keeps saying that it is all down to whether we have the power to relocate, but relocation powers were available throughout the history of control orders and they did not prevent seven absconds by control order subjects. If she will not listen to me, perhaps she will listen to the police and the Security Service, which made it absolutely clear at the time TPIMs were introduced that there should be no substantial

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increase in overall risk and that appropriate arrangements were in place for the transition from control orders to TPIMs—and that remains their position. The right hon. Lady asked about the current level of risk. I repeat what I said in response to her question—that the statements the police issued on 31 December and on 2 January confirm that at this time Magag is not considered to represent a direct threat to the British public, and that the Government do not believe that his disappearance is linked to any current terrorism planning in the UK. The right hon. Lady made a number of references to David Anderson, the independent reviewer. He has said: “The only sure way to prevent absconding is to lock people in a high security prison.”

I agree, which is why we provided extra funding to the Security Service and the police when we introduced TPIMs to maximise the opportunities to prosecute terrorists in open court and to minimise the risk they pose to national security. The alternatives—whether we are talking about TPIMs or control orders—are highly useful disruptive tools, but because they do not involve locking people up, as the history of control orders shows, there will always be a risk of abscond. Currently, the police and other agencies are, as I have said, working very hard to apprehend Ibrahim Magag. They have taken the operational decisions that needed to be taken and the way in which they pursue their inquiries is an operational matter for them. When the dust has settled, we will look again to see whether any lessons need to be learned. The independent reviewer produces an annual report that covers TPIMs, and I fully expect him to cover them in his review. I say to the shadow Home Secretary, however, that all she has done in highlighting this matter is to demonstrate the weakness of her argument, as what she says about TPIMs was also true of control orders. I hope that the whole House will join me in supporting the police, the Security Service and other agencies in continuing their work and in keeping our country safe. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Speaker: Order. To maximise the number of participants in these exchanges, I appeal to right hon. and hon. Members to ask single short supplementary questions and, of course, to the Home Secretary to provide us with her characteristically pithy replies. Mr James Clappison (Hertsmere) (Con): Since the previous Government introduced the Human Rights Act 1998, it has been more difficult, has it not, to strike the right balance between the rights of terrorists and the proportionate protection of society from the threat they present? Should we not be thinking about the longterm future of the Human Rights Act, notwithstanding the support it has from Opposition Members? Mrs May: My hon. Friend tempts me down a road that, if I were to travel down it, would probably necessitate a rather longer response than the pithy answer you have requested of me, Mr. Speaker. I can tell him, however, that the Government are looking at the Human Rights Act, and that the Commission on a Bill of Rights is considering what legislative support we should have in relation to human rights.

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Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab): I thank the security Minister—the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (James Brokenshire)—for contacting me about this matter on new year’s eve. May I briefly express two concerns? First, it has been alleged that Magag was forging passports while he was in the camp in Somalia. Can the Home Secretary confirm that the police have his passport so that he is not able to travel abroad? Secondly, will she personally review the arrangements for the other nine people who are subject to TPIMs, in order to be satisfied that they are all in place and are secure? Mrs May: The issue of the passport has not been discussed openly in public, but given the right hon. Gentleman’s position I shall be happy to talk to him about it on Privy Council terms. As for his second question, when one TPIM subject absconds, the agencies take appropriate steps to look at other TPIM subjects. Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD): Does the Home Secretary agree that the whole concept of internal exile without trial is abhorrent? Labour should never have introduced such a Stalinist, authoritarian approach, and she was right to get rid of it. Someone who has committed a terrorist offence should be tried, convicted and jailed, not exiled indefinitely without trial. Mrs May: As I explained in my response to the shadow Home Secretary, one of the purposes of the extra resources that we provided for the Security Service and the police following the introduction of TPIMs was to improve their ability to identify opportunities for prosecution. As was pointed out by the independent reviewer, the best place for a terrorist suspect is behind bars. Mr Bob Ainsworth (Coventry North East) (Lab): The Home Secretary decided to rebalance in favour of civil liberties rather than security, and that cost £50 million. Will she answer this question? Did the absence of relocation affect the ability of this individual to abscond? Mrs May: When the Government took office they decided to review counter-terrorism legislation. There was a public consultation, and a number of changes were made as a result. It is possible for people to abscond from wherever they are; indeed, three of the control order subjects who absconded did so from outside London. David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con): Is not one of the root causes of the current problem the fact that members of the Labour Government allowed so many of these people to have visas and passports, letting them stay in the United Kingdom? Is it not time that we rounded up as many of them as possible, and established grounds on which to strip them of their visas and passports and deport them to whichever hellhole they came from and wish to emulate? Mrs May: My hon. Friend makes his point in his normal forthright manner. I can tell him that the Government view national security as an absolute priority

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[Mrs May] and take every possible step to keep the public safe, through deportations when they are possible, through the application of TPIMs, or through other measures. Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab): On many occasions the Home Secretary has been at pains to reassure the House that the extra measures are sufficient to mitigate any increased risk caused by the absence of a relocation power and the move from control orders to TPIMs. Why were those additional resources not effective in this case? Mrs May: It is true that when we introduced TPIMs we made extra resources available to the Security Service and the police. However, as I said in my original response in relation to whatever powers actually exist, the best place for a terrorist or a terrorist suspect is behind bars, because without that there is a risk of absconding. Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that the crude political posturing of Labour Members is all the more ironic given that they did not even vote against TPIMs when the Government proposed their introduction, and given that they lost seven people under control orders, six of whom have never been seen again? Mrs May: I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The point that the shadow Home Secretary seems incapable of accepting is that under control orders with relocation powers, seven people absconded. Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab): The Home Secretary is at pains to say that it is not all about relocation, and she reminds the House that she chose to legislate to give these suspects access to mobile phones and the internet, and for a sunset clause that would kill this regime off after two years even if the threat level from the individual had not changed. Given the disappearance of Mr Magag, does she not regret regarding increased risk to the public and unnecessary extra pressure on the police and the security services as an acceptable price to pay and as, in the end, a civil liberties pose rather than a move to increase national security? Mrs May: I am confident in the TPIM package that was available—the TPIM measures plus the extra resources that were made available to the Security Service and the police. We of course consulted on them at the time this was done. As I said in response to the urgent question from the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), they were clear that there was no substantial increase in risk, and that remains their position. Mr Ben Wallace (Wyre and Preston North) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to avoid such dangerous individuals being loose in our society is to improve our ability to intercept their communications? Will she therefore agree to carry on supporting the telecommunications Bill—which I hope will come before the House—so that our agencies can do the best job they can?

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Mrs May: I certainly agree with my hon. Friend that it is important to improve and develop the ability of the agencies to have access to communications data. That, if I might gently remind my hon. Friend, is not about intercepting data. Intercept of data is a separate issue under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, but it is true that we need access to that communications data. As terrorists and others—organised criminals, paedophiles and others—use new means to communicate, it is important that the Government have access to the communications data from those new means of communications. Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab): The Home Secretary has repeated several times this afternoon that the Security Service and the police advised that there would be no substantial increase in risk as a result of the introduction of TPIMs, but the question that she is singularly failing to answer is how she can justify any increase in risk to the safety of this nation. Or is she saying that the absconding of Mr Magag and the more relaxed conditions that allowed it to happen are now part of an additional but acceptable risk that she is prepared to take? Mrs May: I say to the right hon. Gentleman, as I have said to him on a number of occasions, because he has asked a number of questions in relation to TPIMs— [Interruption.] He says from a sedentary position that he will continue to do so, and I will continue to answer them in the same way. When we looked at the legislation, we did introduce the TPIMs. One of the purposes of the TPIMs was to ensure that people were better able to find evidence that would lead to prosecutions. Extra resources were given to the Security Service and the police at the time, and the Security Service and the police at the time and now are clear that there was no substantial increase in risk. Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con): In my experience, the very best way of stopping potential terrorists in action, in thought or in any deed is to relocate them. Will my right hon. Friend reconsider the measure? I was always uneasy about changing from control orders. Mrs May: I have to say to my hon. Friend that my view, as I have stated this afternoon, is clearly that the best way to deal with terrorists and terrorist suspects is to be able to prosecute them and put them behind bars. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab): Apparently, during the period that he was supposedly subject to a TPIM, this man was allowed to meet regularly with other known extremists. Why did the Home Secretary think that was a good idea? Mrs May: For every individual who is placed on a TPIM, there is a particular package of measures that is part of that. The details of that are operational matters. What I can say to the hon. Gentleman is that the package of measures is carefully considered for each individual and is reviewed regularly. Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con): Will my right hon. Friend remind the House that more people absconded under the previous Government than under this Government? While she is at it, will she remind the

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House that under the previous Government and under the control order regime there were more absconds that were not based in London?

result, within 12 months he has absconded. That is what happened. It is clear. Is it true—yes or no—did he just ring a cab?

Mrs May: My hon. Friend has put it well and put it on the record. It is the singular fact that the shadow Home Secretary is reluctant to accept—indeed, will not accept—that there were seven absconds under control orders, and six of those individuals were never apprehended.

Mrs May: The situation that the hon. Gentleman portrays in the whole of his question is not the situation that pertains. I made it clear in answer to his hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) that for any individual on TPIMs a range of measures can be applied, including, for example, listing those with whom they may not associate. Those measures are put in place for each individual. They are carefully considered and regularly reassessed.

Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab): Even if Magag does not pose a direct, imminent terror threat, as the Home Secretary claims, does she not accept that his presence in a city such as London is of great concern and risks radicalising young vulnerable people such as some in my constituency? What assurances can she give that that will not happen? Mrs May: We take that individual’s abscond extremely seriously, as I have said. The police, the Security Service and other agencies are working and putting resources into trying to apprehend him. That is entirely right and, as I said earlier, I hope the whole House will support the police and the other agencies in doing that. Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Does not the fact that six people absconded under the control orders and were never found show the major flaws in the control order system? Can my right hon. Friend set out how the TPIM system, with the extra resources thrown at it, is much more advantageous? Mrs May: My hon. Friend has hit the nail on the head: the Opposition fail to accept that under the control order regime there were seven absconds, six of whom were not apprehended. That was under a regime that had the relocation power. What we did with TPIMs and in giving extra resources to the police and the Security Service was to put in place the regime that was appropriate for national security, but which also should allow greater opportunities for prosecution. Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab): The background to this is clear. Under control orders, people absconded, so the extra power to enforce their relocation was used and as a result, during the next four years, no one absconded. The Home Secretary made a political decision to get rid of that power and allowed this man to come back, live where he wants, mix with whoever he likes and as a

Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that the real issue is not about relocation orders but about the extra resources that were given to the police and security services when TPIMs were introduced? Can she reassure me that those extra resources are being used with specific reference to this person so that he can be apprehended as soon as possible? Mrs May: The extra resources that were available were to be used on the introduction of the TPIMs and for a period of time in terms of the individuals who were on TPIMs and the TPIM regime that had been introduced. In relation to resources for the potential apprehension of Ibrahim Magag, I am assured by the police and others that they have the resources that they consider necessary to be able to conduct the inquiries and the search they are conducting. Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab): Further to the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), the Chair of the Select Committee, why cannot we all be told whether the authorities have Magag’s passport? Do not the public have a right to know? Mrs May: Perhaps I can answer the question in this way. There are certain facts in relation to an individual that are not publicly known because they are subject to an anonymity order, and there are various legal issues relating to that. If I may go away and check those issues, and if it is possible to make a public reference in the House in relation to the passport issue, I will place a letter in the Library of the House. Mr Speaker: I thank the Home Secretary and colleagues for their co-operation.

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South London Healthcare NHS Trust 12.58 pm Dame Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab) (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the trust special administrator’s report on South London Healthcare NHS Trust and the NHS in south-east London. The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): I have today published the final report of the trust special administrator to South London Healthcare NHS Trust and laid it before Parliament. I received the report yesterday and must now consider it carefully. I am under a statutory duty to make a decision by 1 February on how best to secure a sustainable future for services provided by the trust. The trust special administrator began his appointment on 16 July. He published his draft report on 29 October and undertook a consultation on his draft recommendations between 2 November and 13 December. More than 27,000 full consultation documents and 104,000 summary documents were distributed during the consultation and sent to 2,000 locations across south-east London, including hospital sites, GP surgeries, libraries and town halls. A dedicated website was established to support the consultation, the TSA team arranged or attended more than 100 events or meetings and the consultation generated more than 8,200 responses. I understand the concerns of hon. Members and, indeed, the people living in areas affected by the proposals, especially in Lewisham. They have a right to expect the highest quality NHS care, and I have a duty to ensure that they receive it. However, they will understand that it would not be appropriate for me to give a view on the report’s recommendations only one day after receiving it. To do so would be pre-emptive and would prejudice my duty to consider the recommendations with care and reach a decision that is in the best interests of the people of south-east London.

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Dame Joan Ruddock: I thank the Secretary of State for his reply. Neither I nor my hon. Friends the Members for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander) and for Lewisham West and Penge (Jim Dowd) are opposed to change or to greater efficiencies, but we are opposed to the destruction of Lewisham hospital, which is a solvent, well-regarded trust that meets all its performance and financial standards. There is a fundamental question at stake. My right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) has made it clear that the powers associated with the failure regime under which the TSA acts were not intended to be used to encompass the services of other hospitals. Yet in order to tackle the huge financial deficit sustained by South London Healthcare Trust, the TSA proposes to close Lewisham hospital’s accident and emergency services, including the acclaimed children’s A and E, to end all medical and surgical emergency care and to demolish maternity services. He then proposes to sell off half the hospital’s land. That cannot be justified. Each year around 120,000 people use Lewisham A and E, more than 30,000 children use the children’s A and E and more than 4,000 babies are born in the hospital. There is no current capacity at any of the other hospitals in the area to provide for those patients. These proposals amount to a major reconfiguration by the back door, and they are opposed by virtually all the health professionals in the area and by the people of Lewisham. Does the Secretary of State believe that a reconfiguration of services in south-east London is necessary? If he does, he needs to propose one with the relevant consideration for patient safety and health care standards and that meets his four tests. These proposals do none of that and must be rejected.

However, I have made it clear that any solution would need to satisfy the four tests outlined by the Prime Minister and my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley), with respect to any major reconfigurations: the changes must have support from GP commissioners; the public, patients and local authorities must have been genuinely engaged in the process; the recommendations must be underpinned by a clear clinical evidence base; and the changes must give patients a choice of good-quality providers.

Mr Hunt: First, I want to recognise the right hon. Lady’s real concerns about the proposals that have been made. I also recognise that they reflect the concerns of many of her constituents and, indeed, many people in Lewisham. Her point about scope is one I replied to in my letter to the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) before Christmas. I have taken legal advice on that and been told that under the unsustainable provider regime, which the previous Government put into law, an administrator must initially look at a trust’s defined area, but if they conclude that the defined area is not in itself financially sustainable—they have a duty to come back with a financially sustainable solution—and if it is necessary and consequential, they need to look at a broader area. Of course there is interrelation between different parts of the south-east London health care economy. However, I will be getting fresh legal advice on that point, because I recognise that it is extremely important.

The challenges facing South London Healthcare NHS Trust are complex and long standing, but to fail to address them is to penalise other parts of the NHS from which resources must be taken to finance the biggest deficit anywhere in the NHS. To date, it has not proved possible to ensure that South London Healthcare NHS Trust can secure a sustainable future for its services within its existing configuration and organisational form. In appointing a special administrator to the trust, the Government’s priority was to ensure that patients continue to receive high-quality, sustainable NHS services, and I will consider the special administrator’s report with that objective in mind.

I welcome the fact that the right hon. Lady recognises that changes need to be made. I also hope that she understands that I have a duty to address this issue, which has affected hospitals in the South London Healthcare Trust area for many years. The deficit of the trust amounts to £207 million in the period since it was set up, and that is money that must be taken away from other parts of the NHS. I have a clear duty to address that issue. I will not comment on specific proposals today, but I will be very happy to meet her and her colleagues from Lewisham in order to hear from them directly about their concerns. Indeed, I will be meeting the trust special administrator on 10 January so that

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I can ask him any questions about his proposals before I make my decision, which must be within 20 working days. Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con): I remind my right hon. Friend that the Beckenham Beacon is not only modern, but extremely central. I stress the incredible value it could have in south London. I very much hope that the services currently provided there will increase, rather than decrease, at the end of this consultation. Mr Hunt: I thank my hon. Friend for again speaking up for his constituents, as indeed I have done as a constituency MP on many occasions. I want to reassure him that the four tests we have outlined for any major changes to health care services would indeed apply to the Beckenham Beacon and that, were there to be any changes, we would need to be satisfied that they would have strong, local, clinical support, that his constituents had been properly consulted and that there was clear evidence that change would be beneficial. Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab): I apologise for missing the start of proceedings on this urgent question. It has long been accepted that difficult decisions are needed to secure the sustainability of health services in south-east London. That is why recommendations from the review, “A Picture of Health”, were agreed under the previous Government. The trust special administrator has adopted many of those proposals, which we welcome. However, the review presented today goes way beyond that and takes the NHS into new territory. It uses powers passed by the previous Government in a way that was never intended and, in so doing, sets a worrying precedent whereby normal processes of public consultation are short-circuited and back-door reconfigurations of hospital services are pushed through. The Health Act 2009, which I took through this House, states that “the administrator must provide to the Secretary of State and publish a draft report stating the action which the administrator recommends the Secretary of State should take in relation to the trust.”

In making recommendations that have a major impact on another trust, is the Secretary of State not going beyond the powers this House has given to him? He has acknowledged that he needs to commission fresh legal advice, which suggests to me that the legality of the process is in doubt. Will he publish all the legal advice he has been given so far and give a commitment that any new legal advice he commissions will be made available? As this is a financially driven process, the people of Lewisham have justifiable concerns about whether it is safe to close their A and E and downgrade the maternity services. Is the Secretary of State satisfied that a clinical case has been established behind these major changes? Given that all A and E departments in south London are currently overstretched and operating at full capacity, people will need to be convinced that these changes will not put lives at risk. Finally, will the Secretary of State give a guarantee today to the people of Lewisham that, if he accepts the TSA’s recommendations, they will have the full consultation rights that come with any hospital reconfiguration, including the ability to challenge the clinical case and, if necessary, to refer it to the Independent Reconfiguration

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Panel? This process is attempting to rewrite the rules on making changes to hospital services, bypassing the intention of the House. It will send a shiver through any communities without a foundation trust, as it raises the prospect that their hospital will be able to be used as a pawn to solve problems in another. People in Lewisham feel a huge sense of unfairness and I am sure that that will be shared by people across the House. The onus is on the Secretary of State to justify the changes and ensure that rules governing hospital changes are fair and respect the essential rights of all communities to be fully consulted and involved in any decision affecting their services. Mr Hunt: We have followed to the letter the processes laid down in the law that the right hon. Gentleman’s Government passed. We followed the procedure extremely carefully. This is the first time that the procedure has been invoked, so we have taken extra legal advice to make sure that the processes followed strictly adhere to the letter of the law. I will continue to take legal advice, because I want to make sure that we absolutely follow the wishes of the House in how we carry out the procedure. Unlike the right hon. Gentleman’s Government, we have introduced new safeguards for any major changes made to NHS services. Those safeguards did not exist when the right hon. Gentleman was Health Secretary. We have said that we will not accept any changes unless there is proper consultation of the local population, clear evidence and clear local clinical support. We made that commitment in the four tests, which did not exist under his Government. I will not accept any of the changes that the special administrator proposes unless I am satisfied that all four tests have been met. They include proper local consultation, because I consider that to be extremely important. Gareth Johnson (Dartford) (Con): The report mentions an increase in elective surgery in Darent Valley hospital—my local hospital, which is just over the Kent border with south London. Although the hospital has enjoyed extra funding from the Government, it still has capacity issues. Will the Secretary of State ensure that the knock-on issues are taken into account before he makes any decision? Mr Hunt: My hon. Friend makes a very important point. One of the most important things that I have to consider in the next 20 days is what he describes as the knock-on impact of all the proposed changes. I have a duty to find a solution that is financially and clinically sustainable for the South London Healthcare NHS Trust area. However, I need to consider the knock-on effects everywhere else, including in Lewisham and my hon. Friend’s constituency. As well as legal advice, I will be seeking clinical advice and want to make sure that my officials agree with the financial considerations made in the report. I will consider all that advice in enormous detail before I come to any decisions. Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab): I am grateful to the Secretary of State for agreeing to meet Members with Lewisham constituencies about this matter. Representatives of the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign, which is made up of local GPs, local hospital doctors

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[Heidi Alexander] and the public, are also very keen to meet the Secretary of State to put our case directly to him about why it is important to retain a full, admitting A and E and full maternity service at Lewisham. Will he agree to meet them? Mr Hunt: I want to meet colleagues from the House but, as I am sure the hon. Lady will understand, I want to be careful not to restart the whole consultation process that has been happening in what I believe is a very thorough way in the past few months. However, one of the things that I will be considering very carefully— and I will listen to any points that the hon. Lady makes when I meet her—is whether the consultation has been done properly, as it needs to be done and as was intended by the legislation. I will not accept any changes unless I am satisfied on that point. Dame Tessa Jowell (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab): I welcome the Secretary of State’s apparently open-minded approach to the proposals, which have caused enormous clinical alarm in our hospitals as well as local concern. Two particular issues affect my constituents and those of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) in relation to King’s College hospital. I ask the Secretary of State to take them seriously. First, should the proposed closures at Lewisham hospital go ahead, that will impact on the King’s College hospital paediatric A and E, which is already overstretched; the staff have enormous concern about their ability to meet any additional demand. Secondly, will the Secretary of State agree that discussions currently under way to merge the managements of King’s College hospital with those of Guy’s and St Thomas’s should be suspended while the extensive reorganisation threatens the stability of a number of hospitals? If they were to go ahead in parallel, that would risk engulfing our hospitals with preoccupations about reorganisation rather than there being a focus from our world-class hospital staff in south London on treating the patients that we represent. Mr Hunt: The right hon. Lady makes two important points. As she knows, I visited King’s College hospital just before Christmas and was incredibly impressed by what I saw. I visited the geriatric ward and was really impressed, and I am sure that the paediatric service is outstanding as well. It came across to me as an extremely well run hospital. I will, of course, make sure that I consider the impact of the changes proposed by the trust special administrator on King’s, just as I will consider the impact on all surrounding hospitals. With respect to the merger proposals, because the legislation requires me to come to a decision within 20 working days, the right hon. Lady will find that I have to make and publish my decision quickly enough to ensure that any impact from the changes is properly considered by the people pursuing the possibility of a merger between King’s, Guy’s and Tommy’s.

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Mr Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab): The Secretary of State will understand that I have not been able to read the entire trust special administrator’s report in the hour or so I have had access to it. However, while I was reading the report, it became clear that a great deal of concern was expressed during the consultation about the implementation of the proposals. Indeed, the report highlights the fact that following previous reorganisations, costs have increased rather than reduced as a result of the very process of reorganisation. Given those worries, will the Secretary of State agree to meet representatives from other boroughs, who are equally concerned? I remind him that he declined my request for a meeting on the trust special administrator’s draft report; I hope he will not decline to meet now that we have the full report. In particular, will he consider the implications for patient care and services of a major reorganisation, which can be disruptive and fail to deliver the savings envisaged? Mr Hunt: I heed absolutely the right hon. Gentleman’s warning that reorganisations are not always the panacea that they are made out to be. We need to be absolutely clear that, if we accept the proposals, they will deliver a sustainable, robust and clinically sound outcome for the right hon. Gentleman’s and neighbouring constituents, as the trust special administrator believes they will. I shall be delighted if the right hon. Gentleman attends the meeting with other MPs affected by the proposal. I shall hear what he has to say further at that meeting. Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab): The Secretary of State has to recognise the serious contradictions between the proposals in the trust special administrator’s report and the Conservative manifesto before the last general election. If he were to accept the proposals, particularly in relation to A and E, that would be a serious betrayal of promises made to the electorate. There are also the changes expected from the “A Picture of Health” proposals for Queen Mary’s hospital in Sidcup in relation to overnight elective surgery. How much is the Secretary of State bound by the specific promises made in the Conservative manifesto before the election when it comes to making decision on the report? Mr Hunt: We were concerned in the run-up to the last election at the pace and scale of many of the reconfigurations pursued by the last Government. That is why when we came into office we paused the reconfigurations and introduced the four tests—an additional safeguard to make sure that reconfigurations were not done without local clinical support. We wanted to avoid what had happened so often, including in my own constituency—an alliance of Health Ministers and NHS managers riding roughshod over what local people wanted. We wanted to stop that, so we put in place new systems. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will be comforted by the robustness and thoroughness of the processes that we are now going through.

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EU Fisheries Negotiations 1.19 pm TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof StateforEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon): I represented the UK at the fisheries part of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 18 to 20 December. Richard Lochhead, Michelle O’Neill and Alun Davies attended for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales respectively. The annual December round of negotiations for total allowable catches, or TACs, and quotas is a difficult process, and this year was particularly challenging. UK fishermen were facing automatic 25% reductions in the time they can spend at sea, as well as significant decreases in TACs and quotas. I entered this year’s negotiation clear in my mind that decisions on quotas or on days spent at sea need to be based on three clear principles: following scientific advice, sustainability, and the need for continued discard reduction. We adhered to these principles throughout, and I am pleased to report to the House that the UK Government secured a deal that was good for the health of our seas and for the UK fishing industry. We secured agreement to end automatic reductions to the number of days fishermen can spend at sea, overcoming legal obstacles in the cod recovery plan. The number of available days in 2013 will be at the same level as 2012, giving fishermen the time to fish sustainably, avoiding discards and juvenile fish. The quota for North sea cod in 2013 will be decided during the EU-Norway negotiations next week. We removed the requirement for this to be based on an automatic 20% reduction, instead enabling the quota to be set on the basis of scientific evidence. Reflecting the latest science, the UK is calling for a rollover of the TAC to decrease discards, increase the likelihood of achieving maximum sustainable yield by 2015, and improve the stock biomass. This outcome, together with our success in removing proposed restrictions on discard reduction programmes, means that our highly successful and innovative catch quota scheme, which effectively eliminates discards, can continue to grow and develop this year. On fish quotas, where the scientific evidence showed that significant cuts in quota were necessary for the health of the stock, we accepted them—for example, in the case of North sea nephrops, Celtic sea herring and Rockall haddock—but where they were not justified we successfully managed to fight huge cuts to quotas across a number of different fish stocks. The proposed cuts to quotas were often not supported by the available evidence and would have led to an increase in the discarding of perfectly edible fish. Successes included mitigating a 55% cut in south-west haddock to 15%, a 48% cut in west of Scotland haddock to 30%, and overturning a 12% cut to a 6% increase in nephrops around Northern Ireland. Because a number of stocks are improving, we were able to increase quotas for them this year. For example, we secured increases in quota for plaice and sole in the channel, nephrops in the west of Scotland, and cod and whiting in the south-west. We are hoping to secure increases in many of the North sea stocks, in line with the scientific advice, as part of the EU-Norway discussions next week.

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Through the night the UK team battled hard to reach an agreement that ensures the long-term sustainability of fish stocks while providing short-term catching opportunities for our fishing industry. The package we secured helps all sectors of the industry, large and small, and delivers benefits for all parts of the UK—north, south, east and west. It was a good result for the UK fleet and for sustainable exploitation of the fish on which our fishermen depend. It also supports our wider objectives on the reform of the common fisheries policy, and it was a timely coincidence that the European Parliament was voting on CFP reform at the same time that the annual quota negotiations were taking place. I was very pleased that ambitious provisions to eliminate discards, set fishing rates sustainably and allow for regional decision making were voted through. This was an important step forward for the reform process, and it bodes well that the final package we will negotiate this year will include the radical reforms we all agree are needed. 1.24 pm Mr Tom Harris (Glasgow South) (Lab): I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. I sympathise with the Minister for being forced to sit through the night at the Fisheries Council at the end of last year in what I am confident he would describe as a Kafkaesque experience. Does he agree that our fishing industry deserves better than this undignified and often chaotic annual round of negotiations each December? More to the point, does he agree that public and industry confidence in the negotiation framework would be enhanced by a substantial degree of transparency? By holding meetings behind closed doors, the Council prevents us from evaluating the logic behind its decisions. What measures does the Minister plan in future to open up these negotiations to a healthy dose of public scrutiny? We are at a critical point for fisheries management, and common fisheries policy reform is at the top of the agenda. May I wish the Minister every success during the EU- Norway negotiations on the North sea cod quota next week? Labour Members welcome the news that automatic cuts to the North sea cod quota and a reduction in the number of fishing days at sea have been avoided. Given public outrage at the shameful waste of discards, any change in policy that increased discards would have been unacceptable. Is the Minister aware of concerns within the fishing industry that the vote by the Council of Ministers to amend the more problematic parts of the cod management plan could be subject to legal challenge from the European Parliament? Can he guarantee that the Council’s vote will not be overruled by the outcome of such a legal challenge? The Minister told the House that proposed cuts to quotas were “often not supported by the available evidence”. Will he give us examples? Can he confirm that despite the Council’s, and his own, public support for evidencebased policy-making, about half of all quotas have been set above levels advised by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea? He reported that the Council was able to increase quotas for those stocks that are improving. Can he confirm to the House that all these quota increases were unambiguously supported and recommended by the scientific evidence? What discussions, if any, took place at Council regarding the ongoing dispute between UK and Icelandic fishermen on disputed north-east Atlantic mackerel stock? Was

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[Mr Tom Harris] the Minister personally involved in any discussions on the possible enforcement of EU sanctions against Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and will he update the House on this crucial issue? Is the Minister fully aware of the increasing importance to Scottish processing plants of the blue whiting quota, and will he bear this in mind as he approaches the EU negotiations with Norway next week? Total allowable catch for blue whiting increased significantly in 2012 but is still constrained by our commitment to swap quotas for North sea cod with Norway—a move that largely benefits Spain and Portugal. Lastly, given the importance to these annual negotiations of quota distribution within the EU, will the Minister update the House on when he expects to be able to publish the full, comprehensive and up-to-date list of who owns the UK fishing quota, long promised by this Government? I welcome the Minister’s statement and wish him every success in future negotiations. So long as he continues to represent the fight for the sustainability of the UK’s fishing industry and of our vital natural resource, he will continue to enjoy our conditional support. Richard Benyon: I would expect nothing less from the hon. Gentleman. I thank the hon. Gentleman for his sympathy about the absurd and ridiculous processes that one has to go through. With the reform of the common fisheries policy, we have a golden opportunity to end some of the absurdity, if not all of it. We can cease the ridiculous charade of a Minister like me discussing fishing net sizes with a Commission official perhaps 1,000 miles from where the net will be used. That is a technical matter that should be decided locally with fishermen. That is why our regionalisation agenda as part of the CFP reform is so important. The system can also be improved through better long-term management plans. The cod recovery plan is a bad plan, but that should not dissuade us from pushing for more long-term management plans that are scientifically based and worked through with the industry, taking away from politicians the late-night horse trading and making the system much more evidence based. We want to see more of that. The hon. Gentleman raised an issue about cod. Where cod effort continues to be reduced, the incentive is then for fishermen to fish as soon as possible after leaving port, and that might not be the most sustainable place for them to catch fish—it might be where cod are spawning or where there are more juvenile fish. We want to encourage them to go to the places where there are the larger fish that they can target sustainably. The hon. Gentleman asked whether this will be subject to a legal challenge. It may well be—these things happen. I was very clear that I did not want the livelihoods of our fishermen or the sustainability of our seas to be the totemic issue on which inter-institutional rivalries would be sorted out. Therefore, the decision we took to support the presidency in sorting out this element of the cod recovery plan was the right one. It may well end up in court and I cannot guarantee the result, but we have secured a sensible solution for this year.

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The hon. Gentleman asked about the advice of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. ICES looks at individual fish stocks rather than, as is the case in this country, mixed fisheries, so we do apply other scientific advice. On cod, we got ICES to agree that our rationale was right that if we had progressed down the route proposed by the Commission, it would have resulted in more discards. Mackerel remains our absolute priority. It is this country’s biggest by-value catch and I am determined to do all we can to get Iceland and the Faroes back to the negotiating table and find a solution. If not, sanctions remain on the table. I will write to the hon. Gentleman about blue whiting, because that is a more technical issue. We inherited an extraordinary situation whereby we do not know who owns quota in this country, which is daft. We have set about our determination to resolve that issue this year, so I hope that at some point in 2013 we will be able to explain to the House whether or not quota is actually owned by football clubs and celebrities, as is constantly made clear to me. We have yet to find out and are working hard to achieve that. Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): I congratulate the Fisheries Minister on enduring the final throes of an out-of-date policy. Could he assure the House that cod quota will be extended to our hard-pressed, initial under-10 metre fleet? That is extremely important. On the common fisheries policy, it is music to the ears of fishermen that we are proceeding on the grounds of sustainability, sound scientific advice and, indeed, a discard policy that should work. Will he assure the House that regional control will amount to control by him and his colleagues for the North sea fishermen and, indeed, by the fishermen and the regional advisory councils themselves? Richard Benyon: I thank my hon. Friend for her remarks. Yes, I can confirm that cod is an important stock for the inshore fleet as well as for others. It is welcome that cod stocks are increasing. That is in so small part thanks to the work being done by fishermen in all sectors to improve the biomass of this important staple of our diet. It is not entirely good news—there are still cuts to cod quotas in some areas—but the general trend is increasing. We need to reflect on the fact that 1 million tonnes of cod will be caught off Norway and in the North sea this year. This stock is improving dramatically not very far from us. It is not improving quickly enough, but we are working hard to achieve that. I agree with my hon. Friend that sustainability is important, not just because we mind about the health of our seas, but because we mind about the future of our fishing industry. We want an increased biomass and it is through increased stocks that more businesses will progress and become more profitable. I absolutely concur with my hon. Friend’s comments on regional management. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has been banging this drum for a long time. We want fully documented fisheries where the technical measures that are currently decided by a top-down centralised system are decided locally on an

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ecosystem basis, so that in an area such as the North sea it is the countries that actually fish in it that will decide how it is managed. Mr Frank Doran (Aberdeen North) (Lab): I join in congratulating the Minister on this very good result that is obviously welcomed by the fishing industry. He is well aware of the trials that are taking place in Scotland to improve discards. The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation is anxious that they progress as quickly as possible and feel that it would be extremely beneficial to have an extra quota of fish specifically to pursue the research. Is the Minister prepared to argue for that in next week’s Norway discussions? Richard Benyon: What we managed to achieve was to get the argument understood. We are not talking about more mortality; we are talking about landing more fish that would otherwise be discarded. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that fishermen from his part of the world have led the way on a whole range of measures. Some have been technical and have involved their gear, while others have involved real-time closures, but the really important scheme is the catch quota scheme, which has involved fully documented fisheries. The scheme has been praised from the commissioner downwards as the way forward. We want it to become the norm and, in many respects, for it to be much extended, because under that scheme practically no cod will be discarded from vessels this year. That is an incredible achievement by those fishermen and the people who have worked with them on such schemes, and we want to see more of that. Mr Speaker: I congratulate the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshire (Roger Williams) on his CBE in the new year’s honours list. I also congratulate his hon. Friend the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) on her OBE in the same list. Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I, too, congratulate the Minister on the tremendous progress that has been made on regionalisation. It has long been an ambition of the UK Government that more decision making and management of the common fisheries policy be done locally. Could he give us other examples of how this will benefit the UK fleet and ensure that it has a happy future? Richard Benyon: I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend on his recent honour. Many benefits can be achieved from proper, effective regionalisation. Ending the top-down, centralised control of small and detailed technical measures is an important way forward. Ensuring that local fishermen work with scientists and developing the concept that every single vessel is a scientific platform can only be achieved locally. We cannot achieve what we want to achieve on discards without regionalisation. It has been a real battle to push this through the Council and other forums. I am really pleased that the fisheries committee of the European Parliament recognises this. We now have to make sure that it is followed through in the bizarre processes that we have to go through for the rest of the year, in order to ensure meaningful reform. I assure my hon. Friend that this is a priority for us.

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Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab): The Minister will recall that I have called on a number of occasions for the abolition of the common fisheries policy and for the Government to press that on European colleagues. I still believe that we should do that. Would it not be sensible to return to the national limits that we used to have, so that we can manage our fish stocks and monitor our fishing? That is how the Norwegians do it, and their fisheries are much better than ours. The question that I really want to ask relates to Spain, which has in the past refused to give information about its fishing. Indeed, there have been suggestions that it is landing black fish illegally. Is Spain being properly regulated now? Richard Benyon: Sadly Spain is not alone in having had problems in the past with black fish landings. We have to make sure that all houses are in order when we criticise countries for failing to obey the rules. I want to make it absolutely clear that if people land black fish— illegal, unreported and unregulated landings of fish—they are stealing those fish from our fishermen. People such as the hon. Member for Aberdeen North (Mr Doran) have made that important point consistently. The hon. Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) is consistent in his view of the common fisheries policy. I certainly would not have started from this point, and I think that most Members would agree with that. As we develop the policy further, we need to recognise that the “common” part of the common fisheries policy is not necessarily wrong. We need to manage this on an ecosystem basis. Fish may spawn in one country’s waters and then swim to those of another country. They do not have passports and we need to manage the situation on a sea basin basis, and that is where our regionalisation agenda is going. Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree that the Commission’s draconian and inflexible stance, particularly on stocks with a precautionary, rather than an analytical, TAC, is a clear reason why management and decision making should be devolved to the local nation states that have a real interest in the sea basin area? Will he argue for that in the CFP review negotiations? Richard Benyon: I thank my hon. Friend for her continued interest in this issue. Her knowledge is important in guiding us and making sure that we are on this agenda. I assure her that we are. I want fishermen from her part of the world to take responsibility for the detailed management, technical measures and other sustainability issues that we require of them, rather than feeling that yet another layer of control is being imposed on them. That is what is driving people out of the industry and making fishermen feel that they do not want their children or grandchildren to go into their industry. I am determined to see a degree of regionalisation that is effective in delivering that. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Speaker: Order. I am sorry to tell the House that we have got through only five questions in nine minutes of Back-Bench time, which is very slow progress. We

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[Mr Speaker] need to speed up, I am afraid, if we are to accommodate colleagues and move on to the next business in a timely fashion. Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): I thank the Minister for his hard work and effort on behalf of the fishing industry, especially in Northern Ireland, and for working with the Minister in Northern Ireland. Along with Diane Dodds, I met the Minister the day before he went to Brussels to put the case for the Northern Ireland fishing sector. The 6% increase in nephrops is most welcome, especially for the Northern Ireland fishing fleet. What plans does he have to address the growing problems associated with Irish sea cod, particularly in area 7, and the assertion of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries that science suffers from annual TAC reductions? Richard Benyon: I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concerns. I am pleased with where we got to on nephrops. On the technical issue of Irish sea cod, I think that we can slightly ameliorate the impact of the cut. Working with fishermen in his constituency and the STECF, I hope that we can move the argument forward. Great work is being done by fishermen in Northern Ireland on selectivity, and I encourage that. I want to achieve the holy grail of fisheries management, which we are achieving elsewhere: catching less and landing more. We can do that. Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con): My constituency and neighbouring Grimsby broadly welcome the negotiations and, in particular, the moves towards regionalisation. However, the Minister will be aware that there are concerns that the negotiations between the EU and Iceland over mackerel catches may lead to lower imports into this country, which are vital to the Grimsby-based industry. Will he give the industry in my constituency some reassurance? Richard Benyon: I visited my hon. Friend’s region not long before Christmas and that point was made very clear to me. I recognise that we have a very valuable processing industry that we want to protect. In large part, it is dependent on fish from Iceland. If sanctions are brought in against Iceland, we want to ensure that they are proportionate. We think we can exert some influence in this area and get Iceland back to the table, so that we can start seeing proper management of a stock that swims across a vast area that is the responsibility of many countries. Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab): On behalf of the Scottish and UK fishing industries, may I congratulate the Minister on a job well done? Will he give the House an assessment of whether Scotland’s fishermen would have benefited from having a separate delegation or whether we are better together? Richard Benyon: My view is that Scotland’s fishermen are best represented as part of a large, 29-vote member of the European Union. That is true of a lot of other interests. I cannot do the maths off the top of my head to work out how many votes Scotland would have as an independent state, but I think that it is best served by being part of the United Kingdom in these negotiations.

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Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con): I congratulate the Minister on behalf of myself and the fishermen of Ramsgate. Will he elaborate on the impact of the settlement on the under-10 metre fleet, in particular in the channel? Richard Benyon: We achieved an increase in the quotas for sole and plaice in my hon. Friend’s area and a roll-over of the sprat quota, which was due for a big cut. Those are all valuable fisheries for her constituents. I am gratified that fishermen in her area are part of our trial for more financial support for the under-10 metre fleet in the coming year. Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): There is much to welcome in the Minister’s statement. I commend him and the devolved Ministers for their efforts in recent weeks. I, too, want to press the Minister on the mackerel dispute, which is still at an impasse. Will he give an assurance that he will reject the Commission’s proposals for reductions in mackerel quotas next week at the EU-Norway talks, because that would simply reward Iceland and the Faroes for destructive overfishing and fail to pull them back to the negotiating table? Richard Benyon: I am sure that the hon. Lady, like me, wants to ensure that we stay resolute in our determination to follow the science. We have a political issue to sort out with the mackerel problem and that can be done only by getting Iceland and the Faroes back round the table. I do not want the United Kingdom to fish the last mackerel out of the sea. We want to ensure that the stock remains sustainable. I feel very unhappy about the impact that this situation could be having on her constituents and on those whom I have met in Lerwick and in other places where mackerel is an important fishery. We want to ensure that Iceland and the Faroes play ball, but we cannot allow this stock to be fished unsustainably. Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con): I thank my hon. Friend for all that he has tried to do for the under-10 metre fleet. Will he say more about how the “non-sector” will be affected by the settlement, in particular people fishing out of Harwich, Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe, a fleet that he knows well? Richard Benyon: As I have said, there is good news for the under-10 metre fleet, which is particularly effective at targeting stocks such as sole and plaice. There is quite a large increase in the plaice quota and we managed to avoid a big cut in other stocks by presenting the science and working with my hon. Friend’s constituents who fish sustainably. The under-10 metre fleet can feel proud of their contribution towards the sustainability of our fishing industry and I commend those in his constituency for that. Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/ Co-op): The Minister has taken a sensible approach to the dispute over mackerel with Iceland and the Faroes. In the discussions that he and his colleagues have with them, will he ensure that the point is made that they will be the biggest losers if there is an unsustainable approach to mackerel fishing in the North sea? It may be attractive to Iceland to get immediate economic returns from the mackerel stock, given its current economic situation, but it would not be in that country’s interest to see the stock diminished beyond recognition.

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Richard Benyon: There is a perfectly acceptable international method for resolving these disputes, but it requires countries such as Iceland to take part in the process. We remain willing to discuss the matter with them in an open and meaningful way. The ball is in their court. In the meantime, this is a difficult time for the industry, with the threat to the viability of the pelagic fleet. I assure the hon. Gentleman that we remain absolutely committed to ensuring that bad practice is not rewarded and that we are working hard to achieve a happy solution to this problem. Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con): I congratulate the Minister on securing an increase in the quotas for cod and whiting in the south-west and for plaice and sole in the channel. How quickly does he think it will be possible to roll out the catch quota scheme to further eliminate discards? Richard Benyon: I was really pleased that fishermen in my hon. Friend’s constituency entered the scheme last year. I want many more vessels to do so, because fully documented fisheries are the only way forward, not only to have proper management of our fisheries, but to address the concerns of all our constituents—even mine inland—who are affronted by the idea of perfectly edible fish being thrown away. Through schemes such as the catch quota scheme we can give assurances to our consumers and make life better for our fishermen, who are landing more and being better rewarded for it. This is an entirely virtuous circle. Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con): I, too, congratulate the Minister on his work in the negotiations before Christmas and over the past two and a half years on behalf of the under-10 metre fleet. There is concern that in future work on the reallocation of quota, the under-10s will be compromised by not having kept records. Will he confirm that he will work with the industry to address that concern? Richard Benyon: I hope my hon. Friend would concede that I am on record as having faced criticism from some quarters for reallocating quota to the under-10 metre sector. I strongly believe that fishing opportunity is a national resource, and this rather bizarre business is about the allocation of that national resource. I firmly believe that the under-10 metre sector is important socially as well as economically, and I will continue to do what I can to make its life better. Andrew George (St Ives) (LD): I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister on both what he has achieved and the manner in which he has conducted the negotiations. He mentioned the context of the common fisheries policy reform. Will he reassure the House that his counterparts in Europe will respect the fact that we are introducing marine conservation zones that extend beyond the six and 12-mile limits, to ensure that British fishermen are not constrained in areas where foreign vessels are not? Richard Benyon: My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and that is really important. I am not in the business of proposing restrictions for our vessels only to see vessels

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from other countries entering the restricted areas in our waters and fishing in a way that our fishermen cannot. We must have the matter agreed at European level, and I have already had discussions with my French counterpart on it. We will have further discussions to ensure that it is completely clear at every level that we are not imposing a restriction on ourselves that will not be recognised by other countries. George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth) (Con): I welcome the Minister’s success in getting the scientific evidence heard, particularly when it comes to haddock in the south-west. Why were the Commission’s original proposals so far wide of the mark, and why is it apparently so dysfunctional on the issue and so deaf to the evidence? Richard Benyon: The issue of haddock in the south-west is a product of the situation that I mentioned earlier, whereby the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea simply examines one stock on its own. In most of the UK waters we have mixed fisheries, and there is a danger that we can—I have already used this expression in Committee today—make the perfect the enemy of the good. If we are tied to one species, in this case a “choke species”, it can result in more discards and worsen the sustainability of wider stocks. That was why we argued successfully for a reduction in the cut. Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con): I am sure that the fishermen who fish in Sole bay will be delighted by the increase in eastern channel sole, as will those in Southwold, Orford, Sizewell and elsewhere in my constituency. Does the Minister share my concern, though, about the comments of the chief executive of the New Under Ten Fishermen’s Association that the deal was damaging, when it has actually proved a lifeline for many of our coastal fishermen? Richard Benyon: I think the chief executive’s comments were a pity, because if he had looked closely at what we achieved he would have seen an improved prospect for the year ahead across all sectors and around all our coasts. That includes some valuable stocks that are of particular interest to his members, so I accept my hon. Friend’s point. Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con): May I add to the chorus of congratulations from Members on both sides of the House on the Minister’s his genuine achievements? In particular, the increase in the nephrops quota will be most welcome in Fleetwood and is a real success. Now that he is back, may I ask him to keep an eye on the new wind farm applications in the Irish sea so that there might be some space left for my local fishermen to catch the new quota? Richard Benyon: My hon. Friend may try you, Mr Speaker, but I listened to what he said. I want to ensure that we get away from the silo mentality in managing our fisheries of talking about fishermen in one forum, conservation in another and other marine activities in a third. Following the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, we are moving towards much more holistic management of our seas, which is right.

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Regulation of Bailiffs Motion for leave to bring in a Bill (Standing Order No. 23) 1.54 pm Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab): I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require the Secretary of State to introduce a regulatory regime for bailiffs which would preclude the making of multiple fee charges without explanation; to introduce guidelines for dealing with potentially vulnerable debtors; and for connected purposes.

Concerns about the practices of bailiffs are not new, nor has the issue simply gone ignored. Governments have been aware of the concerns for decades. Action on the matter, however, has proved slow at best. I do not wish to make a party political issue of it, and I am aware of cross-party concerns about bailiff practices. Before I continue, I wish to thank the Coventry Evening Telegraph for the investigative work that it has undertaken into the matter. Many of my examples have been drawn from the paper’s investigation. Those of us wanting reform of the bailiff system were given hope when, in February last year, the Government announced a consultation on bailiff reform. The consultation duly went ahead and closed in May 2012. I am aware of the disappointment felt by many in the industry regarding the scope of the consultation, but many have been optimistic that it could lead to real change. However, the report on the consultation was due to be published in October. As might be expected, every month that passes with no word from the Government diminishes hope about their commitment to the issue. I understand that the report is due to be published this month, and I very much hope that that will be the case. I therefore want the House to signal to the Ministry of Justice that we place great importance on bailiff reform. Another reason for the lack of faith in the forthcoming report is that the Department in charge consulted 16 organisations and introduced the national standards for enforcement agents in 2002. Those standards remained unchanged for nine years and were clearly in need of updating. Many people were therefore delighted when the then Justice Minister, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly), announced last January that the national standards had been updated. He said that the voluntary code had been tightened to protect people from rogue bailiffs, and stated: “Councils and other authorities will adopt the standards”.

I do not know on what basis he could make those claims, given that the standards remain voluntary. What is most concerning, however, is that on close inspection of the updated standards, it appears that only six sentences were added to the original standards. Only one sentence was changed in the section on information and confidentiality, adding the words “avoiding unnecessary and unhelpful use of legal and technical language”.

No changes were made under the headings “Complaints/ Discipline”, “Vulnerable situations” or “Goods”. I was also shocked to discover that most of the new material had been taken almost word for word from the new Office of Fair Trading debt collection guidance.

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In updating the standards, the Ministry of Justice consulted only two organisations, compared with the original 16. Anyone looking for a meaningful change in standards for bailiffs must be extremely disappointed. Based on the Ministry’s last announcement regarding its efforts to address bailiff reform, in my eyes there is reason to be pessimistic about the Government’s forthcoming proposals. Nevertheless, I wish to take this opportunity to raise a number of recommendations that have been made, in the hope that the Ministry will take them into consideration. The first recommendation is to eliminate the practice of making multiple fee charges for a single visit without explanation. I believe that in calling for that, I am asking for something modest. The local government ombudsman has recognised that the practice is legal and not uncommon, but she has also ruled that in many cases it is disproportionate. She has urged councils to enter into new contracts with bailiffs preventing multiple fee charging. An example from Coventry might be helpful. Coventry council’s hired bailiffs recently sent 10 threatening letters in two days demanding that a disabled woman pay her debts in full immediately or face the loss of her possessions. That was despite her already having begun a payment plan. The bailiffs charged her five lots of £95 for a single visit to her house, which cannot be right, reasonable or fair. There are many reports of bailiffs charging multiple fees for a single visit or bill, and the debt escalates rapidly. Such practice is too prevalent for us to continue relying on individual contracts with private bailiff firms. Let me reiterate that such cases are not unique to Coventry council and it has not behaved illegally. I hope, however, that all hon. Members will agree that such things should not be allowed to happen. We are failing vulnerable people facing bailiff action. A cancer patient in Coventry missed just two council tax payments before receiving a court summons and a demand for the full up-front payment, together with the threat that her home possessions might be taken away. The bailiffs added another £200 costs and appear to have wrongly threatened her with prison. In that case, the bailiff firm seems to have accepted that it failed in the guideline “duty” on bailiffs to hand cases back to councils as soon as any potential for vulnerable circumstances is identified, so that councils may handle such cases more sensitively. There are many other examples from my constituency of vulnerable people trying desperately to persuade private bailiffs of their situation but simply being ignored. Such cases include a women who was suffering from severe depression and deemed at risk of suicide. National standards for enforcement agents make clear that bailiffs should exercise discretion when dealing with debtors who may be vulnerable. The standards state that potentially vulnerable people include those with a disability, but do not mention debtors who have mental health difficulties or who may be vulnerable by virtue of other difficulties—for example, those facing homelessness. A bailiff might be the first person in the process to realise that a debtor is vulnerable, and we need much closer regulation of how to handle vulnerable debtors than currently exists. Private bailiff firms must be forced to inform councils of vulnerable cases. At the moment,

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administrative oversights, mistakes and unclear protocol can result in vulnerable people becoming the victims of aggressive or inept practice by bailiffs. I therefore hope to see a drastic change to the guidelines on how vulnerable people are treated in our private bailiff system, and I hope that all hon. Members will agree on the need for change. This issue was discussed before Christmas in another place during a debate on an amendment to the Crime and Courts Bill, and I urge the Government to take on board the many sensible and important points made then, particularly regarding a full regulatory system for bailiffs. I call on the Government to consider the recommendations in the recent local government ombudsman report, “Taking possession: councils’ use of bailiffs for local debt collection”. The report covers a number of issues and provides recommendations based on the ombudsman’s considerable experience of complaints. In conclusion, I appreciate the importance of debt collection to councils’ revenues, particularly in these times of austerity. Faced with cuts to council budgets, Coventry council has set a target under the bailiffs’ contract to reduce council tax debts from previous years by about 40%, and many other councils are in similar situations. We can therefore expect private bailiff firms to continue to be necessary to a certain extent, but we should make whatever arrangements are necessary to prevent the worst practices—whether due to incompetence or greed—such as multiple fee-charging, and protect the most vulnerable in society at an extremely distressing time. I hope that the Government will take my comments on board in the upcoming report, and that we will finally see radical change to our mediaeval bailiff system. I hope we will achieve a system that is reasonable, legal and proportionate, and I commend my Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Mr Jim Cunningham, Thomas Docherty, Mr Geoffrey Robinson, Grahame M. Morris, Mr Tom Clarke, Sir Bob Russell and Mr David Winnick present the Bill. Mr Jim Cunningham accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 25 January, and to be printed (Bill 117).

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill Second Reading Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): Before I call the Secretary of State to move the Second Reading debate, I inform the House that the amendment has been selected. 2.5 pm The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith): I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. The Bill, which stands in my name and that of my right hon. and hon. Friends, is about the renewal of what I believe is a principled welfare state based on affordability, integrity and fairness. For the convenience of the House, let me explain that I intend briefly to run through the features of the Bill, and I will then open up the debate to take interventions and deal with the amendment. This Government inherited from the previous Government an unsustainable and costly system, and a welfare state that I believe delivered poor social outcomes, trapping people in dependency, as well as a poor deal for Britain’s taxpayers. My opposite number, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne), needs no reminder of that as it was he who, when we arrived in government, told us that there was no money left. That was the result of a recession that was later discovered by the Office for Budget Responsibility to be deeper and sharper than anyone thought. The original estimate— Mr Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) (Lab) rose— Mr Duncan Smith: I will give way in a moment. I am in the business of having the right hon. Gentleman justify his own position so I will be happy to give him a chance, but let me finish this point. The previous Government originally claimed that the shrinkage in the economy was 5.8%. In fact, as the OBR later pointed out, at 6.3% the shrinkage was deeper than we had ever seen before—the biggest shrinkage in the economy since world war two. Mr Byrne: I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way so early in the debate. Will he confirm to the House that on his watch the welfare bill has risen nearly £14 billion higher than anticipated? Mr Duncan Smith: I am glad that the right hon. Gentleman raises that point because a huge part of that is spending on pensions. He will know that we are spending more on pensions and provide a better deal for pensioners than his Government ever did. Until this Bill, the Government continued to raise welfare payments in line with inflation; this is the first time that we propose not to do so. That will take effect through the uprating order that should be laid before Parliament later this month. The Bill provides that discretionary working age benefits and tax credits will be uprated by 1% for a further two years in the tax years 2014-15 and 2015-16, if prices have risen by at least 1%. The schedule to the Bill sets out the benefit payments and tax credits

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[Mr Duncan Smith] in question, which are listed in full in the explanatory memorandum. By providing for those changes in legislation, we can provide certainty for taxpayers, the markets and claimants. A number of exceptions to the Bill are not included, and a number of benefits remain outside the scope of the Bill. We are maintaining our commitment to the triple lock so that the basic state pension will rise by 2.5%. In April 2013, pensioners will see an increase of £2.70 on last year—far more than the derisory 75p that Labour gave them in 2000—and I stress again that we introduced the triple lock to guarantee that. Crucially, we are also protecting disabled people and carers. Benefits to cover the added costs faced by these groups will continue to be linked to price inflation. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Duncan Smith: I will give way in a moment. That includes carer’s allowance, disability living allowance, and new personal independence payments, as well as premiums paid to disabled people receiving working age benefits such as the disability additions in tax credits, and the support group component of employment and support allowance. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Duncan Smith: The hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore) was first. Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab): The Secretary of State has stated that benefits have been raised in line with inflation, but he did not say that tax credits— 2,000 people who are affected by the Bill are in work and receiving benefits such as tax credits—have not been increased for the past two years. In fact, they have been frozen. Mr Duncan Smith: It is interesting that the hon. Lady raises that point, because under the Labour Government, tax credits absolutely boomed. In 2005, there were increases of 58%. Overall, there were 340% increases in tax credits, 70% of which goes to child tax credits. The hon. Lady says that tax credits should continue to rise, but she can make that argument in due course. Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab): Will the Secretary of State admit that the social security budget is going up on his watch because unemployment is rising faster than his colleague expected? Mr Duncan Smith: Never let a good fact get in the way of a good argument. Unemployment is falling, youth unemployment is falling, more women are in work than ever on her watch, and long-term unemployment is flattening out. The reality, therefore, is that we have better employment figures—there are 1 million new private sector jobs, which outweighs the public sector jobs we have had to get rid of. The reality is that the rate of unemployment, at 7.8%, is better than the EU average and better, almost for the first time, than the United States of America.

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Mr Byrne: It is significant that the Secretary of State has just admitted for the first time that welfare spending on his watch is rising £14 billion higher than projected. Will he go a step further and confirm his understanding of the OBR figures that show that the claimant count is forecast to rise by a third of a million more than anticipated over the next few years? Will he admit that, yes or no? Mr Duncan Smith: I should remind the right hon. Gentleman that the claimant count was forecast to rise but has fallen throughout all those forecasts. I know it is inconvenient for the Opposition, who would rather unemployment rose than fell, but unemployment is falling. Many countries in Europe would give their eye teeth for the employment figures in this country. Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab): On disabled people, paragraph 24 of the Secretary of State’s impact assessment, which has just been published, states: “Nevertheless, despite this protection…those households where someone describes themselves as disabled, (under the DDA definition) some of whom will not be eligible for a disability benefit, are more likely to be affected than those where there is not a person”

in that category. Mr Duncan Smith: There are two good reasons for that. First, families in which there is some disability are often more likely to include people who have claims on other benefits. Some of those will be affected by the change. Derek Twigg: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way? Mr Duncan Smith: No. That is exactly the reasoning behind what the impact assessment says. The second reason is that, as part of employment and support allowance, the support group is protected. However, people who are described in the terms of the Bill as qualified under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and are not in the support group will find that they will be affected by the 1% increase. Therefore, by and large, the benefits for those who are disabled and qualified as disabled, and for those in receipt either of support payments in ESA, disability living allowance or the premiums in many other benefits, are being uprated in line with inflation—[Interruption.] May I finish? The only benefit that is not being uprated in line with inflation is ESA for those not in the work-related activity group. Some of those with disability will be affected because many in their households will be on other benefits. That is the reason. Derek Twigg rose— Mr Duncan Smith: I think I have dealt with that particular point and will move on—[HON. MEMBERS: “No!”] All right, I will give way to the hon. Gentleman again. Derek Twigg: I thank the Secretary of State for giving way, but I am not clear about what he has just said. Will he confirm his impact assessment, which states that “despite this protection …those households where someone describes themselves as disabled, (under the DDA definition) some of whom will not be eligible for a disability benefit”—

this is the crucial point—

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Does he agree?

benefits have risen by about 20%. We are trying to get a fair settlement back over the next few years. Eventually, benefits will go back on to inflation.

Mr Duncan Smith: I have just told the hon. Gentleman that the reality is that someone in those households is more likely to be on benefits, but particularly ESA. Let me remind him and the Labour party that they introduced the changes to the work capability assessment and ESA. The Government inherited, modified and improved those measures, but they are part of the reason why that is in the impact assessment.

Andrew George: We do not know—the Secretary of State is probably more clairvoyant than I am—what food price inflation will be in, for example, 2016. We are being asked to predict what the circumstances will be in the context of the rather arbitrary figure of 1%. I simply urge my right hon. Friend to keep an open mind, and to have a means by which we will uprate that is fair to both benefit recipients and those in work.

Derek Twigg: Will the Secretary of State give way?

Mr Duncan Smith: I accept the point about fairness—that was my point—but the reality is that the Bill is also about getting the overall welfare bill down and in kilter. As I have said on the radio and again today, the key is that we must reduce the deficit—that is at the heart of the measure. The Liberal Democrats joined us in the coalition. I should remind the hon. Gentleman that the No. 1 priority we face is reducing the deficit that Labour left us—the biggest deficit on record of any Government since the second world war. That is the reality, but Labour Members are in denial, so I will move on. The reality is that affordability—

“are more likely to be affected than those where there is not a person who describes themselves as disabled”?

Mr Duncan Smith: No. I have dealt with the hon. Gentleman’s point. The truth is that the Labour party is not only against the Bill but against what the Labour Government introduced just before the last election and the work capability assessment. Labour Members have opposed £80 billion of changes and reductions in every single vote and every single motion. I have dealt with his point. They must decide what they are in favour of when it comes to reducing the deficit; otherwise, they will be a laughing stock. Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con): Is not the bottom line that it is very difficult to justify 20% increases in benefits when earnings for hard-pressed families have gone up by only about 10%? Mr Duncan Smith: It is worth pointing out to my hon. Friend that, when the Opposition originally heard about the Bill, the shadow Chancellor and my opposite number—the shadow Secretary of State—entertained the idea that what was wrong with the Bill was that it was affected too many people who were in some kind of work through working tax credit. The speculation was that, somehow, they would be prepared to support, or not oppose, measures on those not receiving working tax credit. I notice that there is no mention of that position in the amendment, because they have been clobbered by their left and by the trade unions, their paymasters. Instead, there is a rag-bag amendment expressing opposition to a variety of things, which bears no relation to their previous position. There they go again, denying where they are. The real question for the shadow Secretary of State and the shadow Chancellor, before they intervene again, is this: having opposed every single reduction to the deficit, what exactly would they do to cut it? They have not a single answer. Andrew George (St Ives) (LD): We have just heard that one justification for capping benefits at 1% is that, allegedly, benefits have risen significantly more than wages. In that case, would it not be wise for the Government to introduce a measure so that benefits do not increase by more than average wage inflation? Mr Duncan Smith: As I have said, the Bill is about trying to bring that fairness back into the welfare payments process. As my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke) has said, the reality is that in the period since the recession, payments for those in work have risen by about 10% and payments for those on

Several hon. Members rose— Mr Duncan Smith: I will give way in a minute—I want to make progress and I have been quite reasonable in giving way. First and foremost, under Labour public spending spiralled out of control—[Interruption.] Yes, it did. That left behind the UK’s largest ever peacetime deficit, and interest payments running at £120 million a day— [Interruption.] It is interesting that as soon as I speak about what Labour Members left behind, they go into denial. They try and shout me down because they do not like the sound of it. The reality is— Several hon. Members rose— Mr Duncan Smith: I will give way in a minute. The reality is that the shadow Chancellor and the former Chief Secretary deny that they left a problem. It was a nightmare, and they should apologise and tell us what they would do to put it right. Mr Byrne: I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way again: he is being typically generous. No doubt he, like me, will have looked at the DWP benefit expenditure tables, which show that spending on out-ofwork benefits between 1996-97 and 2009-10 did not rise, but fell by £7.5 billion. That is why Lord Freud said that Labour’s record in getting people back to work was “remarkable” and noted that Labour had tackled the long-term dependency on unemployment benefits that it had inherited from the Tories in 1997. Mr Duncan Smith: I notice that the right hon. Gentleman is very careful to avoid telling the House how much Labour spent on tax credits as well. The important point that Labour Members need to realise is that of the total bill for tax credits, 70% had no involvement with work at all. Child tax credits had no work agreement on them whatever. The reality is that Labour spent

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[Mr Duncan Smith] 340% more on tax credits, 58% before the 2005 election and 29% before the last election, in the hope of buying votes to get it out of difficulty. The result was that the debt we had to pay off was costing us £30,000 every single minute. That is what we had to pay as a result of that expenditure— Mr Byrne: Will the Secretary of State give way? Mr Duncan Smith: I am not giving way to the right hon. Gentleman again. I keep reminding him that he is the man who, when he left office, admitted that there was no more money left. He should apologise for that. Labour has opposed the £80 billion of savings that we have proposed. When he gets up again, he needs to tell the House what Labour would do to reduce the deficit and where it would find the savings. If he answers that question, I will give way to him. Mr Byrne: My right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor has set out far more about the difficult decisions that we would make than the Chancellor ever made. We have said that uprating of benefits should be slower; that there should be a two-year cap on contributory ESA; that there should be a reduction in disregards in tax credits; that there should be a benefit cap in different parts of the country; and that no one in this country should be allowed to live a life on welfare and languish for more than two years on JSA. The best way to bring the welfare bill down is to get people into work, not give them a failed Work programme. Mr Duncan Smith: I remind the right hon. Gentleman again that we are getting people into work. Unemployment is lower than it was when we took office, youth unemployment is lower and we are getting more people into work. He said that he was in favour of the cap. That is very interesting, because he voted against the cap. He says that he is in favour of a number of issues, but he voted against the Welfare Reform Act 2012. He is against universal credit and the housing benefit changes. He has not agreed to any of the changes that we have made. The overall bill for welfare rose by 60% between 1997 and 2010— Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Is not the philosophical underpinning of this debate our wish to create a hand-back society, not a hand-out society? Is not cutting taxes on lower earners the best way to help those on low earnings, rather than recycling their hard-earned money through the benefits system? Mr Duncan Smith: That is exactly the point. Labour Members think that helping people is about trapping more and more people in benefits. It is interesting that under the tax credits system, nine out of 10 families with children were eligible for tax credits, in some cases those with more than £70,000 in earnings. What a ridiculous nonsense they created. Labour’s system was riddled with fraud and error. HMRC had to write off £4 billion in fraud and error payments and will probably have to write off another £4 billion, so £8 billion has been lost. This Bill is about

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finding savings of £1.9 billion, but as a result of tax credits Labour lost probably nearly £8 billion. That is the record of the last Government. They should apologise for the mess they left us in. Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): I appreciate the Secretary of State’s generosity in giving way. I welcome the Secretary of State’s confirmation that pensions will not be detrimentally affected by the Bill. Can he confirm that in actual cash terms there will be an increase in benefits? Mr Duncan Smith: That is correct. That is exactly what this Bill sets out. That will also be the case this year. Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab): I wish to take the Secretary of State back to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) about disabled people. We have now gone from the Secretary of State saying that there is a blanket protection for disabled people to him acknowledging in the impact assessment that some disabled people will be affected by these changes. Given that recognition in the impact assessment, can he tell the House how many disabled people his Department estimates will be affected by these changes? Mr Duncan Smith: I stand by what we said originally, and I say it again: in this Bill we have protected people on disability living allowance, as well as people in the support group on ESA. All the disabled premiums in JSA and so on are also protected. I do not know where Labour Members think they are going with all these points, because the reality is that they are basically opposed to absolutely everything. They would spend more money, they would tax more and they would borrow more, and the people who would suffer would be the British people who would have to pick up the bill. That is the reality. I was making an important point about fraud and error. In essence, more than £10 billion was lost, and we do not even know how much was overspent, because Labour would not collect the figures. Writing off those debts wastes taxpayers’ money. To put this in perspective, the Bill sets out what we are doing at the moment to raise £1.9 billion, but that money could have been raised without difficulty had Labour’s system been better and more efficient. It is also worth pointing out that, for many of the people Labour Members talk about, universal credit will improve their income dramatically. I have some very good examples of that. Under universal credit, a typical one-earner couple who have two children and rent their home will be £61 better off—including the changes today. A one-earner family with an income of £20,000 and two children will see a net gain of at least £34 a week. That will be a big boost for them and was not taken into consideration in the IFS figures. The reality is that there is an issue about fairness, which we touched on just now. We should bear in mind that 70% of all households will not be affected by this legislation. Many of our constituents are taxpayers picking up the bill for all these costs, including the deficit and borrowing that the last Government left us. Over the last five years, following the recession, the gap

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has grown between what people in employment have been earning and what those on welfare have been getting. Those in work have seen their incomes rise half as quickly as those on out-of-work benefits—10% compared with 20%. That is not fair to taxpayers. Returning fairness to the system is critical, and it is one area that Labour refuses to acknowledge. Under the previous Government, taxes rose, borrowing rose and the deficit rose—and they left those bills for the next generation to pay. It is our job to get that under control. These are not decisions taken lightly or easily, but we have to take them and they are in denial. The shadow Chancellor likes to sound off from a sedentary position. He likes to give it out but does not like to take it. I remember only a few weeks ago that he went around the studios complaining that we were too mean to him. If he does not like it, then he should stop making sedentary interventions. Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Will the Secretary of State confirm that inflation can be particularly tough on people on low incomes who face small increases? Will he reassure people in the country that the Government and the future Governor of the Bank of England will be dedicated to getting inflation down, so that the value of benefits is not eroded more? Mr Duncan Smith: Exactly. Mortgage rates are a critical component of what a household spends each year. Under Opposition plans, if interest rates had to rise because of their messy borrowing and spending, every 1% would cost another £1,000 on a typical mortgage. What have also done as a coalition, which we should be proud of and on which our coalition partners were very keen, is raise the tax threshold. That is taking more than 2 million people out of tax—people who were paying tax under the previous Government. That is serious help and an improvement of £165 a week for the average family. Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab): I want to ask the Secretary of State about the people who are moving into low-paid work. Of the increase in employment in the past year, only 20% has been for full-time work, and so 80% has been for people who are by definition in part-time, and therefore probably low-paid, work. How will they benefit when he is capping the in-work benefits increase by just 1%? Mr Duncan Smith: I will make two points to the hon. Lady. First, the vast majority of people who take part-time work choose to take part-time work. In all the studies we have—I am happy to let her have them; they are in the public domain—only 17% or 18% say that they did not want a part-time job, and wanted a full-time job, so she should not decry those who take part-time work. My second point is that that is why we are bringing in universal credit. Universal credit is about in-work and will be a huge support to those in part-time work, starting this year. The trouble with the tax credit system, which the Opposition are defending despite the fraud, the over-payments and the massive error, is that it lodged people into little silos where they could not move up, out of those hours. If a job moved from 16 hours to 17 or 18 hours, people did not do it because they could not afford to do it. Large numbers of lone

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parents, as she knows only too well, would rotate out of that and crash back out of work, because the job moved on and they could not stay with it. The reality is that we are reforming the welfare system to make it better and easier for people who are in part-time work to have improved incomes. That is a part of this overall welfare programme that will deliver an efficient and even-handed system. It is right that the 1% applies across the board, including the tax credit system. As I said earlier about the overall numbers of people affected, of those working households, 20% of all households are affected by the Bill. If tax credits and child benefits were excluded, as the Opposition have prescribed, we would see a requirement to find a further £1.5 billion—yet another amount of money which they cannot say how it would be found. When in denial, like those on the other side of the House, one just votes against everything. A constructive Opposition would give us a proposal on how they would save that money. Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op): The Secretary of State has used the word “denial” twice. In previous Budgets and autumn statements, the Government talked about and acknowledged measured child poverty. However, in the most recent autumn statement and in the Bill, there is no mention of child poverty. Will he admit that under these plans child poverty in our country will go up and that that will come at a cost to us all? Mr Duncan Smith: I will say two things about child poverty. First, we want to ensure that the figures published concern the years that this measure covers, and the year in which I will be introducing secondary legislation. The figures will be published next week in time for the debate—the Committee stage will be on the Floor of the House and everybody who is here today can take part. Secondly, child poverty was calculated based on the median income line, and the previous Government lost control of it. Tax credits rocketed because they were chasing a moving line. As upper incomes rose, so did average earnings, and that is why they had to spend so much money. I remind the hon. Lady that they missed their targets in 2010 by 600,000 children in poverty. Since we have come in, the figures published this June show that child poverty fell by 300,000. I am not going to stand here today and try to claim credit for that fall. The figure fell because we saw the biggest fall in earnings for many years. Does that mean that because earnings fell child poverty has been solved? No, it does not. That is why we are consulting on a better way to measure child poverty. Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green): The Secretary of State brandishes the figure of a 20% increase in benefits in the past five years. In cash terms, jobseeker’s allowance has gone up from just £59.15 in 2007 to £71 in 2012. In other words, in each of those past years JSA has gone up by just £2.50. Is it not the truth that this is a mean and miserable piece of legislation from a mean and miserable Government? Mr Duncan Smith: I hear the hon. Lady’s point; I have to say that I do not agree with her. Benefits have risen, but if she would like to talk to those who are in

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[Mr Duncan Smith] employment on lower incomes in her constituency she would find that many have seen absolutely no rise in their incomes at all, and some even less than that. Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con): On that point, I was approached by a member of Manchester constabulary in my advice surgery recently. He said, “How can you justify putting out-of-work benefits up by 5.2% last year, when I have had a pay freeze and I risk my life every day?” Is that not the nub of the argument? People who are in work have to be treated fairly. Mr Duncan Smith: I agree with my hon. Friend. I want to make some progress because he is absolutely right. The reality that Labour will not face up to is that the programme it has put forward is hugely costly. I want to deal with the programme that Labour put forward in the past week, which I think is in the amendment before the House. I looked at it and it seemed very familiar. I remembered something, looking back over the past 10 years. I went back and had a look at the programme that the shadow Chancellor and his then boss, the then Labour Prime Minister the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) came up with. [Interruption.] I seem to recall that they came up with a programme called StepUp. The right hon. Member for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls) was an adviser at the time. [Interruption.] Well, he was certainly very close to him. Is he now denying— [Interruption.] Well, there we have it finally: he no longer wants to have the former Prime Minister as his friend. More than that, from his sedentary position, he will probably deny that, late in the hour while the then Prime Minister was troubled and in difficulty, he did not come by taxi or by car to consult him and help him out. A denial of a friend is pretty cheap, and I think we will remember that. The reality is that the StepUp programme, on which the Opposition have clearly based this new programme, was piloted in 20 areas between 2002 and 2004. It was never rolled out nationally, and I want to quote from the evaluation report. The StepUp programme was all about giving paid employment to people who had been out of work for some two years. The report stated: “StepUp produces a very modest improvement in job entries…but this is below the level of statistical significance.”

In fact, each of those jobs would have ended up costing £10,000—a massive cost for a very small regard. When they did it—[Interruption.] Wait a minute. When they did it—[Interruption.] They do not want to hear about it. They made a bogus announcement and now they do not want to hear how useless it is. The work prospects of under-25s in the pilot got worse as a result of this programme. Here is what happened. The Opposition were in a hurry during the Christmas recess, worried about being attacked for having no proposals, so the shadow Chancellor said, “Oh, I remember something we did under the man who used to be my friend, but is no longer my friend. I remember we had this programme.” So they decided to put that out and propose raiding pensions savings yet again to pay for a bogus programme. If anyone thinks for one moment that it would help anybody at all, let me

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tell them that it is more than a joke—it is pathetic. And it is pathetic that they have done it to try to get themselves off the hook. Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con): Has my right hon. Friend pondered this question? The Government are trying to ensure that the social security net works for people who need social security. When does he think that Labour decided that they were not interested in social security, only in bribing the electorate? Mr Duncan Smith: It is in its DNA, so I am not sure when it started, to be honest. The tax credit system was out of control, as I said earlier on, because Labour was chasing a figure it could never reach, and as a result its spending was enormous. In conclusion— Mr Byrne rose— Mr Duncan Smith: No, I want to conclude. The right hon. Gentleman will have plenty of time to speak. Mr Byrne rose— Mr Duncan Smith: Okay, I will give way in a second. I want to remind the Opposition of what they have done. They have opposed £83 billion-worth of savings this Parliament. That is equivalent to adding another £5,000 of debt for every working family in the country. We hear much about taxing the rich, yet, in this Parliament, the richest will pay more in tax than in any single year of the previous Government—more tax on capital gains, more stamp duty—they will be less able to avoid and evade tax and they will pay more when they take out their pension policies. We hear much about the bankers’ bonus tax, but Labour would have spent that money 10 times over. This is its great bankers’ bonus tax of £2.3 billion. Let us think about it very carefully. It would have overspent that to the sum of £25 billion—through reversing the VAT increase, more capital spending, reversing tax credit savings and reversing the child benefit savings. We are talking huge sums of money. Mr Byrne: The Secretary of State has the temerity to criticise proposals we launched on Friday, when he is presiding over a Work programme that is literally worse than doing nothing. He stands before the House justifying the position of his Government, which is that it is possible to spend a life on welfare, but we say that is wrong. The way to bring welfare spending down is to get people into jobs, and when there are no jobs we invest in creating them. Mr Duncan Smith: Our record on getting people into jobs is better than theirs. The difference is that Labour spent taxpayers’ money like drunks on a Friday night, with no care or concern for how effective it was. The work experience programme achieves what the future jobs fund did, but at a fraction of the cost. The Work programme is getting more people into work than the flexible new deal programme. Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab) rose—

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Mr Duncan Smith: No, I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman. I think he has a few apologies to make before I give way. This was Labour’s legacy in government: 5 million on out-of-work benefits, one in five households with nobody working and 2 million children living in workless families—a higher proportion than in any other EU country. In opposition, they have learned nothing. Today’s amendment shows—if Members can be bothered to get to the end of it without falling asleep—that Labour would spend more, tax more and borrow more and let the next generation pick up the bill. The Bill is about picking up the pieces, sorting out the deficit and being a responsible Government. 2.44 pm Mr Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) (Lab): I beg to move, That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill because it fails to address the reasons why the cost of benefits is exceeding the Government’s plans; notes that the Resolution Foundation has calculated that 68 per cent of households affected by these measures are in work and that figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that all the measures announced in the Autumn Statement, including those in the Bill, will mean a single-earner family with children on average will be £534 worse off by 2015; further notes that the Bill does not include anything to remedy the deficiencies in the Government’s work programme or the slipped timetable for universal credit; believes that a comprehensive plan to reduce the benefits bill must include measures to create economic growth and help the 129,400 adults over the age of 25 out of work for 24 months or more, but that the Bill does not do so; further believes that the Bill should introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee, which would give long-term unemployed adults a job they would have to take up or lose benefits, funded by limiting tax relief on pension contributions for people earning over £150,000 to 20 per cent; and further believes that the proposals in the Bill are unfair when the additional rate of income tax is being reduced, which will result in those earning over a million pounds per year receiving an average tax cut of over £100,000 a year.

It is good to see the Secretary of State fronting the Bill today and to see the Economic Secretary to the Treasury in his place. Where, however, is the Chancellor? It is a disgrace that he is not here in person. Where is he? Mr Duncan Smith: The Chancellor told me earlier he was in Berlin making a speech—a long-term commitment —but he will be back in plenty of time for the winding-up speeches, and he is looking forward to hearing Labour make as much of a mess of it at the end as at the beginning. Mr Byrne: I think it is surprising that the Chancellor is talking to people in Germany, rather than to MPs in the House about the disastrous consequences of his policies. We know that the Chancellor and the Secretary of State do not see eye to eye on much, but they are jointly and severally liable for the mess and the haemorrhaging of the welfare budget that the Bill seeks to staunch. The Chancellor’s disappearance is a hallmark of the contempt that has been shown for the House today. The impact assessment for the Bill was published at noon. It makes radically different assumptions from the policy costings set out by the Chancellor last year. And now the Government propose to ram the Bill through the House in just one day of debate. They are terrified of

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scrutiny and exposure. It is turning into a hit and run on working families, and frankly we should not stand for it. The Chancellor should have shown up, because the Bill is about clearing up the consequences of his failure. His reputation as a maker of recessions is now pretty well established. Every time he has come to the House, he has been forced to downgrade growth yet again, and since he took office he has battered the life out of the recovery that Labour left him in 2010. He is the first Chancellor for 35 years to preside over a double-dip recession. History will not judge him well. But the Chancellor has a partner in crime: the Secretary of State, the man who has become the Comical Ali of the Government, the only man in the DWP who thinks that everything is fine and hunky-dory—a man who would put Dr Pangloss to shame. Every time he comes to the House, he comes with words of reassurance: everything on his watch is going according to plan. He blithely assures us that the Work programme is fine. We are told that universal credit is completely and utterly on track—not a hiccup to be heard—and that the benefit cap will definitely start in May. The only problem is that he is living in a fantasy land of his own, because everything is not okay, everything is not on time and everything is certainly not on budget. We were promised a Work programme bigger than any yet know to man. So big it could be seen from space. This is a programme that is so effective it is literally worse than doing nothing. It works so well that just three out of 100 people who passed through it passed into sustained jobs. It is a disaster. Then, of course, we have universal credit—a policy that is now proceeding so smoothly that, it is fair to say, it has earned widespread support and praise from right the way across Government. Members of the Cabinet— perhaps even those sharing a building with the Economic Secretary—are now so impressed that they are telling anyone who will listen at the Daily Mail and elsewhere that it is a “disaster waiting to happen” and that the IT is “nowhere near ready.” The Secretary of State has so much grip on this project that the Prime Minister himself invited him to pack his bags and clear on out of the Department—a vote of confidence that I know rang around Caxton house, because senior officials are now leaving the Department as fast as they can. Now, of course, we have the news that the benefit cap—which Lord Freud told the other place would absolutely, definitely, without question be introduced nationwide in April—will be introduced in just four London boroughs. This is a record of chaos, delay and impending disaster, and today the Government are inviting millions of working families in this country to pay to clean it up. Jake Berry: I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. I am sorry to drag him back to the Bill, but what would he say to the police officer in my constituency—the right hon. Gentleman heard my earlier intervention—who said, “Is it fair that people out of work have seen their benefits go up by 5.2% when my salary’s been frozen and I risk my life every day to keep people safe in this country?”? That is what this Bill is about; will the right hon. Gentleman please answer that question?

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Mr Byrne: I want incomes to rise faster than benefits. That is why I think it was wrong that the hon. Gentleman voted for a three-year freeze in tax credits, which has hit 7,700 of his constituents. He must answer to them after today’s debate. Why is he supporting a huge tax cut for millionaires when 7,500 people in his constituency are seeing a freeze on their tax credits and a squeeze on them in the years to come?

person in the area telephoned BBC Tees this morning and said that he had £130 a week for himself, his wife and three children. He cannot get a job and all he has to look forward to is an increase of £1.30—enough to buy a loaf of bread. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to show compassion to such families, rather than giving millionaire earners a tax break of £2,000 a week?

Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab): To respond to the issues raised by Government Members, I point out that a lady on £72 a week in jobseeker’s allowance came to my surgery on Friday. She is being expected to pay £9.60 because of a loss of housing benefit because of the imposition of the bedroom tax. What do Government Members have to say to her?

Mr Byrne: What we need from this Government is the right combination of compassion and competence, and right now we see neither.

Mr Byrne: Once upon a time—back in 2004 and 2005—when the Secretary of State was making speeches about poverty, he said that the way to judge the Conservative party was on how its policies worked for the poorest communities in the country. What many people will be asking after today’s debate is: what happened to that man? Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con): The right hon. Gentleman is perhaps not willing to address the issues put to him by Government Members, but I wonder whether he will address the question raised by a former Cabinet colleague of his, Jacqui Smith, who said earlier this week that Labour canvassers “who’ve knocked on doors recently”

have “been told the problem for Labour is…they think we caused the deficit and they’re not…convinced we know how we’ll solve it.”

How would he respond to her? Mr Byrne: I spoke to the former right honourable Member for Redditch yesterday and I set out— [Interruption.] Absolutely. I set out the substance of today’s debate and said that we have a choice between the Tory way and the Labour way to bring down welfare spending. The Tory way is to hit working families; the Labour way is to help people work. Andy Sawford (Corby) (Lab/Co-op): I share the concern about the Bill’s impact on public service workers. Has my right hon. Friend seen—I am sure he has—the research published over the weekend by the Children’s Society? It shows that 40,000 soldiers will see their household incomes cut if the Bill goes through, along with 300,000 nurses, 150,000 primary school teachers and 9,300 of my constituents, which is why I will be voting against it today. Mr Byrne: My hon. Friend is already speaking very eloquently in the House. Some 40,000 soldiers, 300,000 nurses and 150,000 primary and nursery school teachers will be hit by this Bill. I suggest to the House that they are making a much bigger contribution to the health and well-being of this country than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is accusing them of being the people whose blinds are closed in the morning. Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab): We have seen the failure of the Work programme. In my constituency, unemployment is now 10% higher than a year ago. One

Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab): We were told that this Bill was about fairness. How can it be a fair when a young mother in my constituency on jobseeker’s allowance is expected to live on £56.24 a week? She will lose £12 a week through the empty room tax and £9 a week in council tax. That leaves her with £35 a week to pay for heating, water and food. How is she going to survive? How can that be fair? Mr Byrne: My hon. Friend is exactly right. What her constituents need is a job, but what they are not getting from the failed Work programme is any prospect at all of work. John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) (Lab): On inflation uprating, which is at the heart of this Bill, there is a widespread belief that housing benefit for private rented accommodation will rise in April by CPI. The Department has done little to dispel that understanding, but in Rotherham, as my right hon. Friend might be aware, the rate for a three-bedroom home is set to be cut by 3% in cash terms. Is not this, like the Bill, another harsh, half-hidden cut to the help that those in work and those out of work need to meet the cost of household bills? Mr Byrne: My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. He is also right that the Department’s incompetence in proceeding with some of these reforms means that many of the changes risk costing more than they save. That is why Ministers have been forced to delay implementation of the benefit cap, about which they made such a fuss last year. Now we see that it will be implemented in just four London boroughs, because the Government do not know how it will work in practice. Charlie Elphicke: Does the right hon. Gentleman think it right and fair that benefits should have gone up by 20% at the same time that average earnings have gone up just by 10%? Mr Byrne: I repeat: there are 6,800 people in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency on tax credits—we have rehearsed these figures before, because he is an assiduous attender of social security debates. I want incomes to go up faster than benefits. That is why it is so important that tax credits are protected. He has to accept that he has voted for a freeze in tax credits for the 6,800 of his constituents who enjoy them. Today he is proposing to vote for a further squeeze, at a time when millionaires are being given a tax cut. I just do not understand how he will justify that to the good residents of Dover.

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Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con): The right hon. Gentleman refers to 6,700 people in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke). While he is bandying statistics around, he might be interested to know that there are 38,000 people in work who have benefited from the increase in the tax threshold. The way to raise incomes is not to have inflation of state support but to get people back into work where they can keep more of their own income. Mr Byrne: The hon. Gentleman knows as well as I do—he is a numerate man and he understands the figures involved in this debate—that the personal allowance does not compensate for the whack that has been delivered to most working families in this country. The House of Commons Library says they will be £280 a year poorer by next year and the Institute for Fiscal Studies says they will be £534 poorer by 2015-16. He has to get real about the impact of his Government’s policies, because they are hurting 7,000 of his constituents. Nick de Bois: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way again. However difficult these decisions are, if we look more closely at the numbers, we see that he is not highlighting the fact that people earning £50,000 or £60,000—which most people would consider a good income—are included in his figures for tax credits. That is disingenuous and merely a reflection of the trap and the legacy of the shadow Chancellor’s former friend, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown). Mr Byrne: That is complete nonsense. This Government are taking £14 billion out of tax credits and the Bill proposes to take another £4 billion. That will hurt 7,000 of the hon. Gentleman’s constituents, at a time when millionaires are being given a tax cut. I simply do not understand how he can justify that, either in this House or on the streets of Enfield. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Byrne: I am going to make a tiny bit of progress once I have given way to my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas). Ian Lucas (Wrexham) (Lab): I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. What Government Members do not seem to understand is that the whole rationale for this Bill is the need to address their failure to deliver on the economic promises they made when they first came into government. The Bill is necessary only because the Government have failed economically. Mr Byrne: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. When the Chancellor came to the House back in December, he was forced to admit that somehow, for some reason, growth had eluded him once again—it had got away. He brought forward a package of measures that was so focused on generating jobs that the Office for Budget Responsibility looked at it and revised the claimant count for the forecast period, not down but up by 300,000. The OBR also spelled out how much this was going to cost us: it is an eye-watering figure. The heroic efforts of the Chancellor and the Secretary of State to get the claimant count down over the next few years is costing us £6 billion in higher welfare bills, and today’s Bill shows us exactly who is going to pick up the tab.

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Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con) rose— Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con) rose— Mr Byrne: I shall give way to people who were here at the start of the debate, rather than to those who have wandered in late. This is an important debate. The point that I want to make, before I give way to the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Margot James), is that we are learning today who is being asked to pick up the bill for this catastrophic economic failure. It is not Britain’s richest citizens, who are now so hard pressed and under the cosh that they are being given a tax cut. From next year, millionaires will have £107,000 more to help them to heat their swimming pools. It is not Britain’s millionaires who are picking up the tab; it is Britain’s working families. The measures in the Bill are a strivers’ tax, pure and simple. Margot James: Is the right hon. Gentleman going to acknowledge the 1 million extra jobs that have been created since 2010? Will he also acknowledge that the number of people claiming tax credits escalated to an unsustainable level under his Government? The country cannot afford to have 50% of the population either claiming tax credits or in receipt of benefits. That is unsustainable. Mr Byrne: I look forward to coming to Stourbridge and helping to explain to the 6,500 people there who are on tax credits that their Member of Parliament thinks that the money they are getting is unsustainable. I happen to think that those 6,500 people, whom the hon. Lady has just dismissed, need every pound of the tax credits that Labour delivered when we were in office. The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb): I should like to bring the right hon. Gentleman back to the Bill, and to tell him that when he votes against it tonight, £1.9 billion a year will go missing. Will he compare that £1.9 billion a year with the £3 billion a week that Labour was borrowing during its last year in office? Mr Byrne: I would contrast that money with the £3 billion a year that the Chancellor is giving away to Britain’s richest citizens, in a tax cut that will kick in next year, at a time when the Government are cutting tax credits and when Britain’s working families are under pressure. How can the hon. Gentleman possibly justify that, either here or to his constituents? Mr Duncan Smith: I would be grateful if the right hon. Gentleman will now acknowledge that all the OBR’s latest figures show that, under this Government, the wealthiest are paying more in tax than in any single year under his Government. Mr Byrne: Like me, the Secretary of State will no doubt have seen table 2.1 of the Budget, published in March 2012, which clearly shows that in 2014-15, the cost of the tax giveaway will be £3.4 billion. How can he possibly justify that at a time when he is hitting Britain’s working families? Will he justify it now?

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Mr Duncan Smith: I asked the right hon. Gentleman a simple question—[Interruption.] Actually, the shadow Chancellor should leave the right hon. Gentleman alone for a second; I think he has a brain in his head. Don’t listen to him; his advice to the last Prime Minister was hopeless. I want to ask the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) a simple question. Here are the figures: the wealthiest in Britain are paying more in tax under this Government than in any single year under the last Government. Does he agree with that? Mr Byrne: We put the top rate of tax up. It is this Government who are cutting it, at a cost of £3.4 billion a year. How can the Secretary of State possibly justify the choices made by his right hon. Friend the Chancellor, a man who has supported him hilt and sword? How can the Secretary of State justify giving away £3.4 billion to Britain’s richest citizens in a tax giveaway when he is hurting Britain’s working families? Justify it now! Mr Duncan Smith: Does the right hon. Gentleman agree or disagree that the OBR figures show that, under this Government, we are raising more in tax from wealthy people than in any single year under the last Government? Will he now admit that? Mr Byrne: I am saying that we should be raising more from Britain’s richest citizens, not giving them a £3.4 billion tax cut to heat their swimming pools while Britain’s working families are being punished. Let us be clear about the effects of the Bill. Nadhim Zahawi rose— Mr Byrne: I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, even though he could not be bothered to get here for the beginning of the debate, but let me first ask him how he can justify giving away £3.4 billion to Britain’s richest citizens while taking money away from Britain’s working families. Justify that now! Nadhim Zahawi: My question to the right hon. Gentleman is about the honesty with which he delivered his message in 2010, in which he told us that there was no money left and wished us good luck. Will he show the same honesty now and acknowledge that we are taking more from the wealthiest in this country in every year of this Parliament than was taken in the 13 years of the Labour Government? That is the honesty we require from him. Yes or no, please? Mr Byrne: I think that, at a time like this, those with the broadest shoulders should be carrying the biggest load. I also thought that, once upon a time, the Conservatives agreed with that principle. I seem to remember hearing that once in a debate. Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con) rose— Mr Byrne: I will give way to the hon. Lady, who I believe made an important intervention yesterday about the tone of this debate and about how we should not reduce it to a basic division between Britain’s shirkers and strivers. I hope that she will say more about that today.

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Dr Wollaston: I certainly feel that the tone of this debate is important, and that we should not be talking about shirkers. I do not believe that people on welfare benefits are shirkers. Having made that clear statement, I would like to ask the right hon. Gentleman this question: for how many days did the Labour Government apply the top rate of tax when they were in office? Mr Byrne: I know that the hon. Lady is new to the House—[Interruption.] I will seek to answer her question as soon as those on her own Front Bench calm down a little. I think that she would acknowledge that the economics and the politics of this Parliament are very different from those in the last three Parliaments. There was an important principle at the heart of the debate— namely, that those with the broadest shoulders should bear the biggest load. That is why, when Labour was in power, we put up the top rate of tax. We knew that, as part of the plan to bring the deficit down, those with the broadest shoulders should bear the biggest load. That is why we put up the top rate of tax, and that is why we object to the Chancellor of the Exchequer cutting it and giving £3.4 billion to Britain’s richest citizens when he is taking money from Britain’s working families. Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD): The hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) was right yesterday, and she is right today. This debate should not polarise people in work against people who are out of work. However, the right hon. Gentleman must realise that those of us who lived through the last Labour Government saw the rich doing better, the bonuses getting higher, the bankers exploiting people more and the pensioners not getting the link with earnings that Labour promised but never delivered. This is a difficult decision, but the Government have got the balance right in these difficult times. I hope that, by the end of this Parliament, they will be vindicated through many more people being in work and many fewer being on benefits. Mr Byrne: I respect the passion with which the right hon. Gentleman made that intervention, but would he mind intervening once again and telling me whether he thinks a top-rate tax cut is the right priority for Britain’s hard-pressed working families? Simon Hughes: No, I do not think that it is the right priority, but it was part of a package deal that will leave the richest paying more than they did under Labour, that will bring the top rate down to 45% when it was only 40% in 12.5 years of the Labour Government, and that will bring in a rise in the tax threshold to £9,440 for ordinary people in my constituency and the right hon. Gentleman’s this year. In this place, we make balanced choices. This is a reasonable balanced choice to get the economy out of the mess that he and his colleagues have clearly admitted they left us in. Several hon. Members rose— Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. Interventions, even when invited, need to be relatively brief.

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Mr Byrne: At least the right hon. Gentleman is honest, unlike that lot on the Conservative Benches. We will leave it to the voters of Bermondsey to decide whether the package that he secured, which punishes so many hard-working families in his constituency, was or was not a good one. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Byrne: I shall give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham (Clive Efford), but then I will make some progress. Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab): The argument coming from the Government Benches is wholly founded on misinformation, particularly in respect of the claim that the Government have created 1 million jobs in the private sector. Is my right hon. Friend aware that, according to the Office for National Statistics, 196,000 of those jobs are due solely to the reclassification of sixth-form colleges and further education colleges? Mr Byrne: My hon. Friend is right: sometimes things are not all that they seem to be. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Byrne: I will give way later, but I want to move the debate on a little. It is time that we debated who is going to be hurt by the Bill. Yesterday, the Institute for Fiscal Studies did us a great favour in setting out for the first time that a total of 7 million working families will be hit by the Bill—half the working families in Britain. As we heard from the hon. Member for Enfield North (Nick de Bois), some on the Treasury Bench like to cry, “Don’t worry, don’t panic; working people are going to be compensated by the rises in the personal allowance.” That is simply not true. The IFS is very clear about that: the real income of a one-earner working family is going to be £534 a year less by 2015-16. The Children’s Society, as one of my hon. Friends mentioned earlier, has spelt out clearly what this means for many of Britain’s working families. A second lieutenant will lose £552 a year, and there are 40,000 soldiers in the same position; and a lone parent nurse will lose £424 a year, as will a primary school teacher. These are not people who have their blinds closed in the morning, yet these are the people who will be hurt by the Bill. I know the Chancellor thought he was being clever. I know that he was, as the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather) said, playing the politics of the playground and looking for a dividing line. We are right to ask what that means for the average Conservative constituency. It means that an average of 6,000 families in Tory-held constituencies will be worse off—a number that I noticed was bigger than the Tory majority in 107 seats. I just mention that in passing. Why should a second lieutenant, a nurse or a primary school teacher, or 6,000 residents of an average Tory constituency, be asked to pay for this Government’s failure to get people back to work? This is a strivers’ tax pure and simple: it does nothing to create new jobs or remedy the deficiencies of the Work programme; it does nothing to sort out the chaos in universal credit; it does nothing but punish working families that are now losing £9 billion of support under this Government.

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Chris Bryant: Is there not another real problem? In many constituencies where there is profound deprivation and low-income families have even less money coming in to spend every week, we will see further depression in the local economy, more shops closed and fewer people in jobs, so that we will never be able to refloat the economy. Is not the greatest scandal of all the fact that working people in our constituencies—people in jobs—are using food banks to feed their children? Mr Byrne: My hon. Friend speaks eloquently, and his remarks cut to the quick of the values now on show in this Government. Once upon a time—the Secretary of State will well remember this—he said: “Conservative policies have to work for Britain’s poorest communities and every policy must be measured by that standard.”

That is what the right hon. Gentleman said on 28 June 2004, so let us weigh up the impact of this Bill on Britain’s communities. It will mean child benefit rising by 20p a week, maternity allowance by £1.37 and jobseeker’s allowance by 72p, while the income of a millionaire will go up as a result of the tax cut by £2,058 a week. How can he possibly justify that? He cannot. He knows that the Chancellor was in search of a dividing line on welfare and that he has obliged the Secretary of State to kiss goodbye to 10 years of campaigning to turn the Tory party into one that gave a monkey’s about poverty. Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab): Does my right hon. Friend agree that child poverty in London remains stubbornly high, and that this Bill will make matters worse? My constituency has the highest level of child poverty, and this Bill will lead to more poverty across cities such as London and around the country. Mr Byrne: Many unemployed people in my hon. Friend’s constituency are young people. These are the people who need a jobs guarantee backed by a tax on bankers’ bonuses. Andrew George: Of course we welcome the Labour party’s last-minute pre-election conversion to increasing tax for wealthy people. The right hon. Gentleman will have heard in my intervention on my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State my sincere misgivings and my wish to encourage him to review this rather arbitrary 1% cap and perhaps to find ways of relating it to average wages. Bearing in mind that the welfare budget is— Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. It was only a few moments ago, I remind the hon. Gentleman, when I said interventions on a speech needed to be brief and should not become a speech in their own right. Mr Byrne: I am grateful for the intervention because I think the hon. Gentleman, like us, is concerned that in our country today a food bank is opening every three days, and that 5 million people may resort to payday loans this year in order to balance the books for the end of the month. The Sun on Sunday this weekend, in an article carried next to the one by the Secretary of State, said that a quarter of mums are now turning off heating so that they have enough money to feed the kids. Is that the kind of country that we are becoming, because the

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[Mr Byrne] Saint of Easterhouse has now become the punch bag of the Treasury? Once he talked about broken Britain; now he is presiding over breadline Britain because he keeps losing his battles with the Treasury. Andrew George: In view of that and given that the welfare budget is £220 billion, does the right hon. Gentleman believe that it is something that needs a long hard look at? Particularly in a time of austerity, where does he believe the savings can be made within that budget? Mr Byrne: I have been very clear about where I think the savings can be made. I just think it is wrong that we are giving £3 billion in a tax giveaway to Britain’s richest citizens. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Byrne: Let me deal first with the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. I think it is wrong that millionaires will get an extra £2,058 a week next year, in 2013-14, when child benefit is going up by 20p a week. I simply cannot see how that can be justified and I do not think that tax cut should go through. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Byrne: I shall give way a couple more times, but then I want to conclude. Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con): The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that the public do not want false distinctions between strivers and shirkers and he is equally right, I think, to believe that people will see through those who pretend to care when they do not have the money to show that they care. In his more lucid moment, he explained that the Government had no more money left, so would he accept that one answer might be to push forward with ideas such as the living wage, and will he advise us, on the basis of his own research on a living wage, what impact it would have on the long-term benefits needs in the country? Mr Byrne: I suspect the hon. Gentleman feels that very keenly, as 7,500 people in his constituency are on tax credits. I think that the best way to bring the welfare bill down is by getting people into work. The tragedy with the Bill is that it fails the Ronseal test set out by the Prime Minister yesterday. It does not do what it says on the tin. We are told that this Bill is all about reducing welfare spending. Actually, if we put tax credits to one side, the welfare bill for the period covered by this Bill will not rise by 1%; it is going to go up by 4%. It will go up by £8 billion because the Secretary of State is doing so little to get people back to work. The reality of the debate is that there is a Labour way to bring down welfare spending and there is a Tory way. The Tory way, aided and abetted by the Liberal Democrats, is to attack tax credits. The Labour way is to bring down welfare spending by getting people into jobs—jobs in which they will pay tax rather than sitting on the dole taking benefits. That is why we tabled our amendment. We think that it is right to introduce a bank bonus tax to get 100,000 young people back to work, and to

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reform pension tax relief to create a two-year limit on jobseeker’s allowance. We think that it is right to send the clear signal that anyone who can work must not, and will not, be allowed to languish or to live a life on welfare. That is the kind of tough-minded but fair policy that we now need. Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab): We have heard many interventions from Government Members about the unsustainability of tax credits and top-up benefits for working families. According to the Government’s own impact assessment, “households towards the bottom of the income distribution are more likely to be affected and have a slightly higher average change because they are more likely to receive the affected benefits.”

What does my right hon. Friend think is the reason for that statement? Mr Byrne: I note that the impact assessment is based on assumptions very different from those that formed the basis of the Treasury costings in December last year. However, the Government cannot change the simple truth: this is a strivers’ tax pure and simple, and it will hit people on tax credits. We oppose this strivers’ tax. We believe that welfare to work will not work without jobs, and the Bill does not create a single job. It creates a heck of a mess, and asks Britain’s working families to clear it up. I urge the House to oppose the Bill’s Second Reading, to strike a blow for Britain’s strivers, to send the Government back to the drawing board, and to demand from them a proper plan to get our country back to work. Several hon. Members rose— Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. I remind all Members that there is a five-minute time limit on Back-Bench speeches. 3.21 pm Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con): Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. If they read Hansard tomorrow, many of my constituents will be under the misapprehension that the last Labour Government were a great welfare-reforming Government, but one of the points that many others will make to me is that that left the legacy of welfare dependency that has corroded so much of our society. The simple reality is that the last Labour Government should have dealt with the issue of welfare reform when they had the opportunity to do so, between 1997 and 2010. Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab): Research carried out recently by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that no such culture of worklessness existed, and that in fact there was a strong commitment to work among people throughout the country, including the 3,500 unemployed people in my constituency. Gavin Williamson: Where we have a culture in which it sometimes does not pay to take a job or to work more hours, we capture people in a culture of dependency.

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How do we measure success? Is it about spending more and more money? Is it about spending money on welfare, constantly and consistently, or is it about results? I think that we on this side of the House believe that it is about results. In 1997, the number of households in which no one had ever worked was 184,000. That number was far too high. Given all the billions of pounds that were spent, we would expect it to have fallen considerably: perhaps by 10,000, perhaps by 50,000, perhaps by 100,000. So what happened? Did it increase or did it fall? It increased, and not by 10,000— Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab) rose— Gavin Williamson: Does the hon. Gentleman think that the number increased, or does he think that it fell? Perhaps he will tell the House. Chris Williamson: If the hon. Gentleman is concerned about an increase in long-term unemployment, why will he not go through the Lobby with the Opposition in support of our amendment, which will guarantee jobs to people who are out of work for more than 24 months? Gavin Williamson: The hon. Gentleman is living in cloud cuckoo land. He will not answer the question that I asked. How many more families are there in which no one has ever worked? In fact, the number increased from 184,000 to 352,000 under the last Labour Government. Is that a legacy to be proud of ? I think that Members on this side of the House would say that it is not. Margot James: My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about the legacy of the last Government. Perhaps he agrees with the economics editor of The Sunday Times, who wrote last week: “It is hard to think of a period more conducive to control of welfare spending than the Blair years, 1997-2007.”

Gavin Williamson: That too was an excellent point. What we have seen is total fiscal irresponsibility. The whole idea of the Labour party’s proposals is to trap more people in welfare, not to take them out of welfare. Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con): My hon. Friend has made a very good point about Labour’s past record of fiscal irresponsibility, but what about its current record? Labour Members will vote for millionaires to receive child benefit. Gavin Williamson: I am afraid that the Labour party’s proposals on so many matters are completely inconsistent. The greatest shame is that there are no ideas coming from Labour Members. They have no ideas about how to deal with the legacy that they left, in relation to welfare reform or in relation to the many billions of pounds of debts with which they have saddled the country. Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab) rose— Gavin Williamson: I will happily give way to the hon. Lady if she explains to the House what she will cut. I assume that she will be voting for the amendment. Will she shut schools in her constituency? Will she close

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hospitals? Will she sack teachers? Will she get rid of nurses? I want to hear what the hon. Lady is going to do. Fiona O’Donnell: What I want to do is return the hon. Gentleman to the subject of the Bill. Does he agree with Disability Rights UK, which has said that 1 million disabled people will be affected by the 1% uprating, and that more disabled people will be living in poverty? Is he proud of that? Gavin Williamson: I am taking a lead from the Labour Front Benchers and touching on some of the reasons why we are in this position, and having to make highly difficult decisions. We are not scared to take difficult decisions, but perhaps if the Labour party had made some of the tough choices that we have made—if it had reformed welfare earlier, and had not trapped so many people in welfare dependency—the decisions that the present Government are having to make would be far, far easier. I am afraid that the hon. Lady is not facing up to the reality, and nor is her party doing so. This Government are committed to giving a hand up, not a handout. What we want to see is people getting into work. What we want to see is people doing well, and not constantly depending on the state. Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab/Co-op) rose— Gavin Williamson: I will make some more progress. That is what we are hoping to do. That is what we are doing for our welfare reform, and that is what we are doing here today. We recognise that we cannot spend money that we do not have. It is a simple fact and we hope that eventually the Opposition will adopt such fiscal responsibility. We hope that during the afternoon they will suggest what they would cut if they vote in favour of their amendment. No one wants to see a restriction on benefit increases, but we all have to face the reality of the country’s position. The coalition is dealing with that reality and with the mess that the Opposition left us. That is what we are getting on with and what we will deliver for this country. 3.29 pm Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab): Over the past hour and a half, the parties on the Government Benches have thrown various lines of argument into the mix, but possibly the most absurd is that the whole agenda and the Bill are about deficit reduction. That argument is already in tatters. We have seen the economic recovery deferred and a double-dip recession possibly turning into a triple-dip recession. The rate of reduction of unemployment has been so slow since 2010 that it will not return to pre-recession levels until 2019, and we have seen a systematic and structural increase in underemployment. It is no wonder that total expenditure on welfare, despite the protestations, has been going up. Let us take one example about which there has been a great deal of sound and fury over recent years—the housing benefit bill. Over this comprehensive spending review period, this Government will spend £12 billion more on subsidising private tenants than was spent by

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[Ms Karen Buck] the Labour Government during the previous CSR period, so let us not hear anything from the Government about their successes on welfare reform and reduction and our failure. For the first time in decades we see more working than workless people in poverty—now a record 6.1 million. It is no wonder that the new head of the Secretary of State’s favourite think-tank, the Commission for Social Justice, told an interviewer: “I would say we have missed in-work poverty”.

Yes, the commission did, and yes, the Government did, but rather than the Government facing the evidence, we have been subjected to a barrage of rhetoric about the people behind the closed curtains and the shirkers rather than the strivers. Meg Munn: Does my hon. Friend recognise that in half the workless households the adults are under 25, which is a reflection of the growth in unemployment among that age group? Ms Buck: That is correct; I recognise that figure. We have seen from the Bill and the debate behind it a political debate and a set of wheezes that the Government think will pay off for them. The problem with wheezes is that they tend to fracture when they come into contact with reality. The Government cannot make serious money out of an assault on out-of-work benefits, whatever the Conservatives like to say. Just 3% of all welfare spending goes on jobseeker’s allowance. Indeed, all out-of-work benefits account for only 3% of GDP between them. The House of Commons Library advises me that if only out-of-work benefits were subject to the 1% cap, but in-work benefits were uprated as normal, 80% of the proposed savings would disappear. If one factors in the changes to the personal tax allowance, one finds that working people, as the Resolution Foundation demonstrated to us, take 60% of the hit. If the Bill is passed, 2.5 million workless households will lose out by about £215 a year by 2016, and of the 14.1 million working-age households with someone in work, 7 million will be hit: 30% of all households will take a hit on their income because of this Government’s obsession with the tiny minority of long-term or multigenerational workless. The distinction between those in and out of work is far less rigid than the Government would have us believe. That is an extraordinary piece of rhetoric, given that the universal credit, the centrepiece of the Government’s welfare agenda, is designed to blur the distinction still further, and it has that one significant advantage of seeking to do that. Millions of our constituents, in Conservative and Liberal Democrat constituencies as well as in Labour ones, churn between those states of being in and out of work. Last year there were between 244,000 and 357,000 new claims every month for jobseeker’s allowance, while between 242,000 and 370,000 left benefit every month. It is a myth that the welfare reform agenda put forward by the Government is about tackling worklessness. It is an assault on low-income working families far more than on working households. It is an assault on both, and on very low-income families, but it is real and not mythical families who will be hurt as a consequence.

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It is real children who are at increasing risk of going to school hungry, as teachers unions are already reporting, and it is real children who will return to homes that cannot be heated by parents who cannot manage to balance all the bills. We live in a country that apparently can afford tax cuts for millionaires but requires low-income, working families to go to food banks and pay their mortgages with payday loans. Every day in London 100 homes bust the £1 million value level, yet 70,000 children were homeless this Christmas. Today we should not be reducing the capacity of 9.5 million families and households across the country to pay their bills. What the crash and its aftermath demonstrated beyond doubt was that the future cannot be like the past. We want everyone who can work to do so, we want that work to be secure and fairly paid and for the costs that consume an unsustainable element of people’s incomes to be reduced. Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab): Did my hon. Friend notice that the Secretary of State accused Labour of having a new idea with our job guarantee? In fact, the pamphlet produced by my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) on a job guarantee is dated January 2012. We have been discussing these ideas for more than a year. Ms Buck: We have indeed been discussing these ideas. The future jobs fund demonstrated value for money in getting people back into work, but the Conservative party, which claims to like evidence, trashed it in favour of the Work programme, which, as we know, has been less effective than doing absolutely nothing would have been. Without jobs, deficit reduction is doomed, however much the Government cheese-pare away at the income of the poorest. While housing and child care costs consume an ever-larger portion of the incomes of poorer families, work cannot pay and families cannot thrive. It is jobs, fair pay, affordable homes and good affordable child care that will get us out of the trap we are in, whether it is the trap we want to spring to get people into work or the trap of deficit reduction. The trap that the Government are setting today will catch 30% of households in a worsening squeeze on their incomes at the very worst time for them to be facing it. 3.36 pm Sarah Teather (Brent Central) (LD): People who come to my constituency office these days for help with some kind of error in their benefits often spend the first few minutes trying to justify their worth. They usually begin by trying to explain their history of working and that they have paid tax. They are desperate to get over the point that they are not like other benefit claimants—they are not a scrounger. It is perhaps a feature of the way in which the term “scroungers” has become so pervasive in social consciousness that even those on benefits do not attempt to debunk the entire category, only to excuse themselves from the label. Language matters. Politicians in this place know that, because all of us spend a good deal of time worrying about how everything we say will be reported by the media, just as journalists pore over every fact, comma

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and noun we give to look for power shifts and personal divisions. Any modern political party devotes considerable money and effort to testing messages with focus groups to see how they would influence voting patters. However, I am afraid we often spend less time considering how our language actually affects people’s lives, choices, values and sense of worth, how they rub up against their neighbours and how society itself functions. In an atmosphere of uncertainty and limited resources and where every family in this country is struggling, there is a natural tendency to try to find someone to blame for our woes. A fissure already exists between the working and non-working poor. Hammering on that fault line with the language of “shirkers” and “strivers” will have long-term impacts on public attitudes, on attitudes to one neighbour against another. It will make society less generous, less sympathetic, less able to co-operate. The marginalisation of the undeserving poor will place one group outwith society entirely over time and leave them less able to make choices about their lives and to participate. That fragmentation of society, for me, is the spectre of broken Britain, and it is one that we hasten at our peril. Gareth Johnson (Dartford) (Con): Does the hon. Lady not recognise that the nub of the whole argument is that if we allow benefits to be increased by more than salaries, that will increase the number of people on benefits who are trapped in poverty and unable to afford to go to work? Sarah Teather: I will return to that point in a moment, because I want to make another point about public attitudes first. For those of us in this place who care about social justice, long-term changes in public attitudes to poverty should give us other causes of concern, because it will make it more difficult for any politicians who come after us to argue for any option for the poor, because public opinion will simply not support it. The irony, of course, is that, as many have said, many of those affected by the Bill are actually in work; many are the same group who have already had a negligible pay rise and are already bumping along at the bottom of the poverty threshold. For me, that is the first of a number of disingenuous comparisons used to argue for the fairness of the Bill. The first is that those affected are out of work, when many more are in fact in work but on low pay. As the hon. Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) mentioned a moment ago, many of those are part of the group of people who cycle in and out of work all the time; I see that in my constituency. The second disingenuous point is about percentages themselves, which fail to take into account the cuts to housing benefit that families in my constituency will be experiencing in the next six months or so as the changes filter through. There are also the changes in April to council tax benefit; they will affect the same families affected by the uprating provisions in the Bill. The third point is whether percentages mean anything at all. Whatever goal posts are used to measure the percentage change in benefit across time, it is clear that the monetary value of rising average wages is significantly more than that of benefits. Percentages do not buy milk, bread or school uniforms—pounds and pennies buy those things, and it is in pounds and pennies that people will experience a cut.

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Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab): I thank the hon. Lady very much for giving way. I have sat for three or four minutes listening to her and I have never in my life agreed with her more. She is right about the language of the debate and about the percentages—it is monetary value that is important. Can the hon. Lady explain to me in any way how the removal of the best part of £6 billion from the economy in the next two to three years will stimulate the economy? How many jobs will it create, if any at all? Sarah Teather: The fourth disingenuous point is probably that cutting the incomes of those at the bottom of the income threshold will help boost the economy. All the evidence says that money put into the pockets of those at the bottom of the income spectrum is most likely to be spent. That is precisely why my party argued so hard during negotiations to ensure that we raised the threshold of tax on the lowest paid. I do not enjoy voting against my own party, and I cannot vote for the Labour amendment, but with a very heavy heart I shall be voting against the Second Reading of the Bill. I hope that I, and any others who choose that course of action, will give the Government some cause for thought and reflection. 3.42 pm David Miliband (South Shields) (Lab): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather). The truth is that all western economies need to refashion their social contract to cope with demographic and economic change—expanding child care versus higher child benefit; housing benefit versus house building; and long-term care versus reliefs and benefits for old age. In each case, we need to choose. The Bill asks us to make three judgments: about fairness, affordability and politics. The Chancellor claimed in his autumn statement that the Bill was about distinguishing working people from those “asleep, living a life on benefits.”—[Official Report, 5 December 2012; Vol. 554, c. 877.]

That has been blown out of the water by the facts that have come out since; the facts unearthed by my right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State today are damning. What of the 3,120 people in South Shields on income support or the 4,200 on jobseeker’s allowance alleged to be choosing a life of Riley? I have three points. Two years ago, the Prime Minister said that he had ended the option of a life on benefits through the so-called Welfare Reform Act 2010. Secondly, the Government’s own figures about the level of fraud show it to be 0.7%—by the way, it is lower among immigrants to this country. Thirdly, the DWP’s own figures, published by the Secretary of State, show that more than 10 jobseekers in South Shields are seeking every job. In all the talk of fairness, that is what is unfair. David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con): Will the right hon. Gentleman elaborate on the statistic he gave? Do immigrants not have a lower level of benefit fraud because fewer of them are entitled to the full range of benefits?

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David Miliband: I do not want to give the hon. Gentleman a maths lesson—I did not get good marks in maths—but percentages are percentages; that is the whole point. If we change the denominator it plays through in the percentage that comes later. I do not want to get too diverted by that, but I thank him for the extra 50 seconds. Let me get on to the question of affordability, which is central to the Government’s case. The Government claim that the alternative to this Bill is higher borrowing or higher taxation, but I want to show why that is not true. The Government themselves have projected the total cost of all benefits, all tax credits and all tax relief for the next few years, and I am happy to debate priorities within that envelope. I will take the envelope that they have set, but let us have a proper debate about choices, not the total sum—a priorities debate, not an affordability debate. Nadhim Zahawi rose— David Miliband: Just a minute. The measures before us raise £3.7 billion from poor and lower-middle-income people in 2015-16. The Chancellor cut tax relief for pension contributions by wealthier people, but by how much? It was by £200 million in 2013-14 and £600 million in 2015-16. The cumulative saving from the richest between now and 2015-16 is £1.1 billion; the cumulative saving from those on lowermiddle incomes on benefits and tax credits is £5.6 billion. Taking five times as much from poor and middle-income Britain as from the richest in Britain— Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne) (Con) rose— David Miliband: I will come to the hon. Gentleman in a minute. Taking five times as much from lower and middle-income Britain as from the richest in Britain is not equality of sacrifice. The Chancellor reminds me of the man at the top of a ladder in a 1929 election poster. The man at the bottom of the ladder has got water up to his neck, and the man at the top shouts, “Equality of sacrifice—let’s all go down one rung!” It is not equality of sacrifice when you are up to your neck in water. Kwasi Kwarteng rose— David Miliband: I will come to the hon. Gentleman in a moment. The Government have made a great deal of the point that no one should receive more on benefits than the average wage of £26,000 a year, but they offer tax relief of £40,000 for those with £40,000 spare. Just to be clear, that tax relief costs £33 billion a year, while we are talking about a total bill of £42 billion for out-of-work benefits. If tax relief on pension contributions were limited to £26,000 a year, we would not need this Bill. That is the point about priorities and choices that need to be made. Kwasi Kwarteng: The right hon. Gentleman gives a very powerful speech in which he mentions lots of facts and statistics, but there is a very fundamental question that he has not answered. Is it right that people on

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out-of-work benefits should be receiving faster and greater increases in their income than people on very low wages? Is that fair? David Miliband: Forty thousand soldiers are not on out-of-work benefits but they are being hit by this Bill. Eighty per cent. of the savings— Kwasi Kwarteng: Answer the question. David Miliband: I will address it directly; I am very happy to do so. If a couple on £5,500 a year or someone on £3,700 a year gets a 1% increase, that is different from someone who is on £15,000, £20,000, £25,000, £30,000 or £35,000 getting the same increase, because although the people on £15,000, £25,000 or £30,000 are making tough choices, those on £5,000 or £3,700 are making a choice between feeding their kids and heating their home. Nadhim Zahawi rose— David Miliband: Let me make some progress and I will come to the hon. Gentleman if I have time. The truth is that this rancid Bill is not about affordability; it reeks of the politics of dividing lines that the current Government spent so much time denouncing when they were in opposition in the dog days of the Brown Administration. It says a lot that within two years they have had to resort to that dividing-line politics. We know the style: you invent your own enemy, you spin your campaign to a friendly newspaper editor, you “frame” the debate. But the enemy within in is not the unemployed; the enemy within is unemployment. I do not want to live in a society where we pretend that we can enjoy the good life while our neighbours lose their life chances. It is bad enough to have no economic growth, or 420,000 young people out of work for more than six months, or rising levels of child poverty, or declining levels of social mobility, but it is hard to stomach a Government who take absolutely no responsibility for their mistakes. It is intolerable— [Interruption.] Government Members are laughing, but I am ready to say what we did wrong; I have not heard them say a word about what they are doing wrong. It is intolerable to blame the unemployed for their poverty and our deficit. That is why I will vote for the amendment and against this rotten Bill. 3.50 pm David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con): It is never a pleasure to support any Bill that will leave some people worse off, but Members of both Government parties do so out of a heavy sense of duty and responsibility, both to those who pay taxes and to those who receive them. It is unfortunate, to an extent, that this debate has been framed, perhaps not in this House today, but in some quarters of the press, as a kind of battle between workers and shirkers or, even more regretfully, between immigrants who have come to this country and are sponging off the state and those British nationals who have been here all their lives and paid taxes. It is true that some people have come to this country and have received too generous an amount in benefits. It is equally true that a lot of eastern Europeans—I know that both points are true from the experience of

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my own extended family, who are eastern Europeans—have come to this country, sometimes speaking very little English and sometimes with qualifications that are not recognised here, and have managed to find work very quickly, have used that work to get better jobs, and have ended up contributing a great deal to our society. It is true that some British people have not wanted to take on the jobs that have been snapped up by eastern Europeans. I would have no hesitation in saying to somebody who is fairly young and in their 20s that they should be willing to accept any job going, no matter how demeaning it may appear. I have worked in nightclubs and done other low-paid work in my life. I would have more of a problem, however, with saying to people I know who spent 20 or 25 years working for Tata—British Steel as was—who lost their job through no fault of their own and who may be a father of three or four, “You have to go to work in Starbucks on the minimum wage.” It is a shame that we find it hard in our benefit system to distinguish between different types of people, but that is the way it is. We are not here to talk about penalising people; we are here because we have a simple problem, which was put eloquently by the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) when he said that we do not have any money. Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): If the hon. Gentleman is saying that that is the problem, why is he supporting a Government who are only too happy to give a tax cut of £2,000 a week to everybody earning more than £1 million a year? How does that add up? How is that fair? David T. C. Davies: Put simply, the total amount of tax that we are taking from the rich has increased, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has said, and that has not been denied by any Opposition Member. The total amount of money that we are taking from the rich has increased, which means that the total amount that we have to take from those who are not so rich has gone down somewhat. That is how I would justify it. Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): It might be worth reminding Opposition Members about the 10p tax fiasco that they imposed on some of the poorest members of my community. They have not been forgiven for it. David T. C. Davies: I should also like Opposition Members to recognise the economic truism of the Laffer curve, which has proved that the more we try to tax the rich, the less we get off them. That is why so many people are queuing up to come over here from France at the moment, and good luck to them. We will have their money and spend it on less well-off people here. I have listened carefully today to Opposition Members and I have not heard any of them explain how they would manage to maintain benefits at their current level or fund the increases that they want to impose. What would they cut in order to fill that gap? What extra taxes would they impose on people? Would they simply continue to do what Labour Governments have done since the time of Attlee, which is just to borrow the money they need in order to pay for projects that they cannot afford?

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Opposition Members simply have no credibility left. Government Members are going to take a difficult decision, but with absolutely no pleasure whatsoever. We are doing so because what happened in 2008 was bad, but it was nothing compared with the financial catastrophe that would engulf us if we continued to spend £120 billion a year that we do not have. Opposition Members and their many supporters outside in the unions and the pressure groups have complained about the bankers. I could complain about bankers as well. Why is it that these people want to put more money into the hands of the bankers by borrowing money from bankers, getting us more into debt and giving them greater amounts of interest? Who are the true friends of the bankers—the people who are trying to keep down their interest payments or the people who want us to be in hock to them? I do not want to be a Member of Parliament who presides over Britain being turned into Greece, but without the sunshine. That is why I will vote for the Bill today. 3.55 pm Ian Mearns (Gateshead) (Lab): As someone who has been in this House for two and a half years and who in the past has been unemployed and has held low-paid jobs, I think that the mirth with which parts of this debate are being greeted will be seen with dismay by many people outside this Chamber. The Bill is yet another example of the Government demonising and punishing the most vulnerable in our society and making the poorest live in greater poverty. The most important fact to take into account is that the Bill does not target only those who are out of work, whom I refuse to refer to as skivers, but those who are in work on low wages. It does not affect just those in part-time work, but people who are in more than full-time employment—people who regularly work long hours or complicated combinations of part-time jobs just to make ends meet. Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that the problem is not just with the 1% cap? A constituent came to see me before Christmas who had been made redundant last year by a local factory. His wife is a cleaner and he has now taken employment in a local garage serving petrol at night. He will lose about £20 a week when the bedroom tax comes in because the family home of 30 years is now deemed to be under-occupied. Ian Mearns: I could not agree more. My surgery in Gateshead is regularly populated by people with similar problems. This is a society that Government Members do not understand. In the whole town, the average income of a household is not much more than £20,000 a year. That is the income for the whole household, not for an individual. Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con): Surely the way to help people on incomes of just above £20,000 is to reduce the amount of tax that they have to pay. What the hon. Gentleman is proposing is to tax them with one hand and give part of it back with the other.

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[Stephen Mosley] The way to solve the problem is to do what the coalition Government are doing and remove them from tax altogether. Ian Mearns: What is shocking for low-income families is the impact of VAT on their real income. Rises in VAT and other taxes of that nature have a disproportionate impact on people on lower incomes. Mrs Moon: Will my hon. Friend give way? Ian Mearns: I am afraid that I will not, because I need to make progress. The shocking statistic is that the number of people experiencing in-work poverty has risen to 1.6 million. Sadly, workers are increasingly reliant on welfare to top up their low wages. The number of families receiving tax credits has risen by 50% since 2003 and 4.4 million jobs pay less than £7 an hour. We have to ask ourselves whether we want to continue to support a situation in which private employers in particular do not want to pay a living wage to the staff that they employ in order to make profits. As the Secretary of State knows all too well, a real-terms cut will have a much greater impact on low-income households than on higher-income households because basic living costs make up a greater proportion of their income. Even when a cut is proportional to income, it is often felt more acutely by a household on a lower income, as a greater proportion of its income is spent on essentials such as food, fuel and clothing. On Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported the managing director of Waitrose as predicting that the prices of basic food such as bread and vegetables could rise by up to 5% this year, and in the past few months utility companies have hiked up their prices—the biggest change that I have seen so far is 10.8%. How on earth are the low paid and those out of work supposed to heat their homes and feed their families if their benefits are not increased in line with inflation? Families are already having to make difficult choices between heating and eating. Make no mistake about it, the Bill is intended to squeeze further the already squeezed. Analysis by Unison shows that in-work poverty is becoming the modern face of UK hardship. It is estimated that the freeze suggested in the Bill will cost an average family with two children more than £1,000 by 2015-16. The Chancellor may point to changes in personal tax allowances as the reasoning behind the Bill, but that will do little to offset the shortfall in the income of working families. The Child Poverty Action Group argues that a working family eligible for both housing and council tax benefit will gain only 13p a week extra—13p!—as a result of the extended personal allowances. We should remember the furore that the 20p upgrade in old-age pensions caused under the last Government, and in this case we are talking about 13p. It is a slap in the face for the working poor and their children. The CPAG has also spoken of its grave concern about the Bill, arguing that failure to “uprate in line with inflation will increase absolute child poverty, relative child poverty and the material deprivation”

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of many children. The Bill fails any fairness test with regard to income distribution, and it fails the working poor, the job seeking, the caring and the disabled poor. It will push those at the bottom further down the ladder. The Bill is shrouded in smoke and mirrors. The Chancellor’s choice of start date to illustrate the rise of out-of-work benefits is 2007, but if we take a longer period, for instance beginning in 1979, we can see that benefits have risen significantly less than wages. He talks about strivers and skivers, but I see something different on the ground—families scraping by in low-paid work or jumping from insecure jobs to benefits and back again. The truth, unlike what the Government keep spouting, is that the vast majority of those who rely on benefits and tax credits are either in work, have worked or will desperately be trying to get into work in the near future. They have made a contribution to society, but their families are really struggling. Welfare to work is a two-part equation: welfare and work. Where there is no work—in many parts of the north-east there is not a great abundance of work—there must be welfare that is enough to sustain families fairly. I know that in difficult times we all have to think about ways of reducing the bills that face the Government, but let us do that in a way that is proper, productive and economically and socially beneficial. Let us do it by stimulating, not stagnating, our economy; by unlocking the huge investment potential of UK business; and by creating hundreds of thousands of real jobs, building houses and reinvigorating our infrastructure, not by punitively poisoning the minds of ordinary people and punishing the poor. 4.3 pm Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con): This is obviously a difficult debate. Any debate that discusses cuts or limits to payments is difficult, and no one should take any pleasure in it. However, two fundamental elements need consideration. The first is the tax credit system as a whole and its purpose, and the second is how benefits in general relate to income. I will briefly take each in turn. It is hard to believe that until the last general election, anyone earning up to £60,000 a year could still qualify for tax credits. That was nonsensical and crazy. At the time, £60,000 was nearly two and a half times the average salary, but the Government of the day still chose to issue those privileged people with welfare payments. Sheila Gilmore: The Bill is not about restructuring the tax credit system but about placing a limit on an uprate. Much restructuring has already happened: has not £14 billion already been taken out of the tax credit system? The hon. Gentleman should address the issue of uprating. Alun Cairns: I wish that the hon. Lady would at least allow me to create a context and develop an argument, and that she would focus on the real issue and allow me to develop arguments on that. To me, someone who earns £60,000 a year is quite privileged and should not be receiving those payments. Nevertheless, that was the position inherited by the Government.

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David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con): Will my hon. Friend remind the House what steps the Labour party took to bring benefit increases closer to the world of work when it was in office?

Ian Austin: I would rather see people who earn more than £150,000 make a contribution than take money off the poorest people in Britain, which is what the hon. Gentleman is arguing for today.

Alun Cairns: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that useful reminder that the Labour party did nothing on the issue. Few individuals—if any—would reject a benefit payment, even if in their hearts they were confused about why they were receiving it or uncomfortable with that. The then Chancellor knew well what he was doing and that withdrawing a payment after issuing it in the first place would create a difficult and almost impossible situation—the situation we are in now. Dependency on the state became more widespread, and with that came a significant political shift to the left. The centre ground of politics moved at that moment. It is, therefore, little wonder that £90 billion is now spent on welfare for people of working age. During the seven years before the last general election, tax credit spend increased by a staggering 258%—that is the context I wished to create in response to the hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore). Adding insult to taxpayers’ injury, the tax credit regime was one of the most inefficient benefit systems ever devised, leading to £2 billion of fraud each and every year. Today’s Bill will lead to savings of £1.9 billion over two years, with the pain shared by those recipients whose increases in benefits will be limited. Although £1.9 billion is a significant sum, it does not go anywhere near the increases in spending introduced by the previous Government, particularly leading up to the 2010 general election.

Alun Cairns: I would have much more respect for the hon. Gentleman if he told the House that that will be his commitment at the next general election.

Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab): Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Alun Cairns: I will in a moment but I want to develop my argument a little further. Presumably in an effort to drive the landscape even further to the left, tax credits increased dramatically—strangely—in the run-up to the 2005 general election, and, by coincidence, in the run-up to the 2010 general election. Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con): Given the political manoeuvring and increases in tax credits that my hon. Friend describes, which took place under the previous Government, is there a direct correlation between the time that tax credits started, the start of the financial crisis, and the substantial rise in the deficit created by the Labour party? Alun Cairns: My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The previous Prime Minister knew exactly what he was doing and he did it for party political ends rather than to support and help families who needed tax credits.

Ian Austin: We will announce our policies for the next election but they will not be to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in Britain while hammering the poorest. That is what the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues are supporting today. Alun Cairns: It is obvious that there are two options. Either that will not be a commitment going into the next general election, or the Labour Government introduced the only temporary tax rate that would last almost 10 years. I hope the hon. Gentleman will allow me, in the minute I have left, to develop my second point. On benefits and incomes, it is difficult to believe that out-of-work benefits have increased by 20% since 2007 and that earnings have increased by half that amount. What is the incentive to work? The Labour Government left a marginal rate of tax of 80% for some of the lowest earners and those on benefits. What sort of incentive was that to get people into work? They continue with the same principle in this debate. That inequality must be resolved, particularly given the nation’s debt, the need to encourage people into work and the demand for structural changes in the economy to deliver growth. It is Labour’s policy to increase spending, taxes and benefits and to take us into a further spiral of increased borrowing, spending and taxes. The people will not stand for it. 4.10 pm Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab): I have sat through a lot of annual debates on benefits uprating, but I have never seen a turnout quite like this. Very often the number of hon. Members in the Chamber is less than double figures. I hope today’s turnout reflects the importance of the debate. The votes tonight will have a profound effect on many of the most vulnerable and poorest people in our society, whether they are in or out of work. Based on the decisions we take tonight, for some families it will not be a case of whether to eat or heat. Towards the end of the two weeks or the month when universal credit is introduced, some families might have a few days when the children get neither food nor heating, unless food banks, which are increasing, come to the rescue. We should not wish that on our society in the 21st century.

Ian Austin: If the hon. Gentleman is so worried about helping people further down the income scale, why does he support a tax cut for people who earn more than £150,000 and a reduction in the living standards of the poorest people in Britain?

Mrs Moon: An additional problem is that low-income families—some working, some not—will be faced with a decision when their housing benefit is paid directly to them of whether to pay their landlord or feed their children. Does my hon. Friend accept that we are facing a potential explosion in homelessness?

Alun Cairns: That is right on cue because I remember the 50% tax rate as being temporary. Is the hon. Gentleman saying that he is committed to that rate leading up to and beyond the next general election?

Dame Anne Begg: I thank my hon. Friend, because she sets up my point on how the proposals undermine the Government’s flagship policy of introducing universal credit. Universal credit will create problems—she alludes

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[Dame Anne Begg] to the fact that it will be paid monthly, and that housing benefit will be paid directly to individuals, who must make the decisions she describes. One big claim for universal credit is that it will make work pay in all circumstances, but Government Members somehow cannot understand that making work pay means increasing benefits, because the majority of people who receive the benefits that will be affected by the Bill are in work. The group who are out of work and the group in work are often the same people, as my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) has said—they move in and out of work. The principle of universal credit is to smooth the move into work. The Government are freezing the benefits that make up universal credit statutorily for the next three years. I do not know why we are not having the normal uprating debate. There is no reason why the measure must be in the form of legislation, which makes me suspect that it is a political decision. The freezing of those benefits will tie the Government’s hands on the introduction of universal credit and could undermine it. In spite of everything that has been said today, tax credits were a huge success. They increased the income of workers on low wages and made work pay. For the first time in at least two generations, the poverty trap was ended—I thought that it had gone for ever. There was a genuine poverty trap created by the previous Conservative Government and to all intents and purposes tax credits got rid of that. Almost everybody was better off as a result of tax credits unless they lived in a high accommodation cost area such as London or they had a large number of children. Work paid. The incentives did not always work because work did not pay enough. Through the Bill, the Government are repeating the same mistake—the incentives to move into work under universal credit will not be high enough to make work pay in all circumstances. Bill Esterson: My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about the impact of universal credit. I am sure she is aware that the DWP itself says that 1.8 million main earners will be worse off if they take extra hours under universal credit than they are under the current arrangement. The figure for second earners is 300,000. Dame Anne Begg: Indeed, and Barnardo’s has just published a report which says that families that depend on child care to allow the adults to work will be worse off if they increase their hours. The claims that are being made for universal credit—that it will do away with the cliff edges, smooth the transitions and make work pay in all circumstances—are false. The Bill will make that more likely to happen, not less likely. Welfare benefits have already been attacked and reduced. We have heard today about housing benefit. Still to come are the changes to council tax benefit, and tax credits have been frozen for the last two years. We now know that universal credit will be set at a level comparable to the benefits that it will replace—income-related job seeker’s allowance, income-related employment support allowance and housing benefit, as well as tax credits. If those benefits have not increased with inflation, by the time universal credit comes in it will be set at a much lower level as a result of the decisions taken today. That

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will mean less support through universal credit for those moving into work. Unless the Government intend to change the tapers and the disregards—and I have heard nothing to suggest that—the difference between being in work and out of work will not be very great, and on many occasions people could be made worse off by increasing their hours or taking work in the first place. I have always suspected that when the Government said that no existing claimants would lose in cash terms from the introduction of universal credit, it was their intention to reduce what people were receiving before the move to universal credit. This Bill confirms that that is exactly what they intend. They seem to have missed the essential point—to make work pay, the Government need to increase in-work support, not decrease it as this Bill will do. So when universal credit is introduced and fails to be the magic bullet that the Government have claimed—when it does not do all that has been claimed— they cannot say that they were not warned. That is why I will not support the Bill and will vote for the amendment. 4.18 pm Jessica Lee (Erewash) (Con): It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg), who brings great expertise and experience to the topic. While I may not always agree with her on how to resolve welfare benefit issues, I always respect what she has to say. For me and many others in the House, the central motivation for being here and practising politics is simple: it is to try to improve the country in which we live, to give opportunities to everyone, and to create an environment in which businesses can flourish, jobs can be created and young people can be equipped with the education and skills that they need to do well. At the heart of every civilised society is the protection of those who cannot work or care for themselves and need help. It is unlikely that many people will disagree with that opening statement, but, as ever, it is where the balance falls. It is how fairness is achieved that often divides us in this place. The underlying focus of the welfare state must, of course, be to help to prepare and equip people for a life back in work. My concern is that over the years—in particular, under the previous Government—the admirable and compassionate aim of the welfare state, of getting people back on their feet, in some circumstances provided an alternative lifestyle and lifelong income. That is the issue that the House has to address on Second Reading, and in other legislation. The work ethic was a central part of my upbringing. I stand here as the first person in my family to study A-levels, let alone go on to university. I am very proud of my background. My mother was the main breadwinner in our family—she was a children’s nurse in the NHS for more than 40 years. My late father worked in shops, in retail, and unfortunately had periods when he was not in work. However, he always remained focused on the importance of getting back to work, and my parents instilled in me a strong work ethic, a desire to work hard and to achieve my goals. Role models are important in life, and the lack of hard-working supportive role models can make the challenge of getting back to work even harder. We now have nearly 2 million children growing up in homes

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where no one works. Nearly 900,000 people have spent at least 10 years claiming incapacity benefit. It can be difficult to find the self-esteem and motivation to move back into work after such a period of time, but I have seen from this Government a commitment to encourage people, and to provide and facilitate a way to get them back and to reach their potential. In my constituency of Erewash, many churches and community groups are undertaking excellent work. One church in particular, the Arena Church, undertakes a vast programme of outreach and supportive work. It tells me that it has seen people in the last year blossom, find their self-esteem and move back into employment, often after years of not working. Mr Kevan Jones: What would the hon. Lady say to the 59-year-old gentleman who came to see me on Saturday at my constituency surgery who suffers from schizophrenia and has failed the work capability test? He has now been sent on a security guard course by his local jobcentre, which is totally inappropriate. Why do we have a system that is so cruel to such individuals? Jessica Lee: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, and he takes up the case on behalf of his constituent in this House. However, I put the responsibility squarely on his Government, the previous Government, which expanded the welfare state with tax credits and left people on incapacity benefit who for too long were never reassessed. That is unfair to those people and we need to recreate the entire welfare system to improve it. Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): It is always worth saying that there is no Government money, only taxpayers’ money. It behoves us to ensure that taxpayers’ money is used as well as it possibly can be. Jessica Lee: I agree with my hon. Friend and thank her for her intervention. The welfare budget has increased considerably over many years. The Department for Work and Pensions already spends more than £90 billion a year on welfare for working-age people—£1 in every £8 that the Government spend. Limiting certain social security benefits to the 1% that is before the House today, and tax credits is a proportionate approach to funding welfare in the longer term. My constituents in Erewash often say to me that fairness works both ways. One gentleman said to me that he is working around the clock and his wife has two part-time cleaning jobs, and that they are trying their best to keep things going. Like me, he wants to support people in this society who, for whatever reason, will never be able to stand on their own two feet and get work, but that was not his point. His point was about the standard of living of other people in the area on full benefits. He did not think it right that they should have a higher percentage increase than his family’s budget. The financial mismanagement of the welfare budget by the last Government—increasing and increasing tax credits without the financial means to pay for it in the long term—has created an imbalance between families, and it is not the fault of those families; it is the responsibility of those in government at the time. The books have to be balanced and accountability is required. Between 2003 and 2010, Labour spent £171 billion on tax credits—

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more than 60% of the welfare budget increases. How on earth it expected to make that financially viable I simply do not know. At the same time, the number of the most vulnerable and of children living in poverty increased, heading up to between 2 million and 3 million. The last Government failed to tackle the cause of worklessness, and that is why we are in this difficulty. I take full responsibility for every vote I cast and everything I say in the House—I am happy to do so —but I can reassure my constituents that I do not think anyone in the House takes these decisions on welfare lightly. In the wider picture, however, of maintaining the safety net of the welfare state, preparing people for work and setting them free from welfare dependency, today’s proposals are proportionate and necessary, and I will support the Government. 4.26 pm Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC): Today, we are debating an uprating Bill that will result in a real-terms cut in support for people working and contributing to the economy. That paradox will not be lost on those hardworking families so beloved of spin doctors. I do not see how the Bill will promote the work ethic so beloved of those on both sides of the House, and I do not see how it will enable working people to contribute more effectively in the savings culture. As a Welsh MP, I have to say that Wales will be hit particularly hard. Incomes in Wales are substantially lower than elsewhere. Gross value added per head in Wales is £15,696, whereas in the UK it is £21,368—a difference of more than £5,500 per person. Alun Cairns: Given what the hon. Gentleman has said, is he comfortable that welfare payments are rising at twice the rate of earnings? Hywel Williams: This point has been done to death this afternoon. It says a lot about the quality of the hon. Gentleman’s argument that he repeats it continually. I do not think I will bother with it any further. Some 6.8% of households in the south-east of England, for example, claim working tax credits. In Wales, that figure is 7.1%. In Gwynedd—my own area—9,200 families are on tax credits of some form out of 53,000 households. That is 17.5% of the population—nearly three times the Welsh rate. The point is that any cuts to in-work benefits for the low-paid will hit Wales and my constituency particularly hard. Mr Kevan Jones: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the individuals receiving those types of benefit do not save the money, but spend it in their local communities? In areas of high unemployment, such as parts of my and his constituencies, it will have a knock-on effect on the local economy. Hywel Williams: Clearly, the hon. Gentleman is blessed with clairvoyance, because that is my next point. People on low incomes tend to spend locally and to spend all their money. The Welsh economy is overwhelmingly made up of small businesses. That is a point for the hon. Member for Vale of Glamorgan (Alun Cairns) to consider. Working tax credit reductions will suck demand out of local economies and make matters even more difficult for small businesses struggling to survive in the recession.

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[Hywel Williams] The uprating will also hit those seeking work. The Prime Minister talks of unemployed people abed while others are at work. We can almost see him in Shakespearean mode paraphrasing King Henry: “Gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not out seeking work”—I can see him doing it anyway, but less extravagantly. Unlike the Prime Minister and his friends, I do not think that the overwhelming majority of unemployed people are abed; they are seeking work. They want to work; they want to improve their lives and those of their children. For those who do not seek work, there is a system of sanctions, and there has been for a long time, as the Secretary of State knows full well. Poorer areas of Wales have long suffered from high levels of worklessness and low levels of job availability. To end the misery of unemployment, we need not only to help individuals with their skills and, in a small number of cases, their motivation, but to ensure there is real work for people to do. Recently published Work programme figures for Wales show that success there was the lowest in the UK, with only 1,380 of 42,380 people getting a job that lasted six months or more. That is a miserable success rate, at only 3%. In Wales, more than 77,000 people are looking for work and claiming jobseeker’s allowance, while only 20,000-odd vacancies are being posted in jobcentres. Across Wales, there are four people chasing every job, with 11 people chasing every job in Blaenau Gwent and 21 people chasing every job in the Rhondda. That brings me to Labour’s amendment. I have a question, to which I would like an answer—which might persuade me to back the amendment—in the wind-ups. Long-term unemployed people might still be unable to find a job after 24 months of searching. Large-scale work opportunities are just not available in many Welsh constituencies, so my question is: under Labour’s scheme, would those people face penalties after 24 months? If Labour’s scheme were adopted, would we see benefit cuts 24 months down the road for people who are not refusing to find work, but who just cannot find a job? We in Plaid Cymru have been as good as our word—to the extent we can be—to the people of Wales, securing thousands of extra apprenticeships as part of the Welsh Government budget deal. We are now pushing for a new procurement policy that would create 50,000 jobs by sourcing public sector contracts locally. However, Wales needs proper job-creating levers to improve our economy, not just handouts and certainly not workfare. For example—this might be a domestic matter as far as most Members in the Chamber are concerned—we want full and early implementation of part 1 of the Silk commission proposals. We also want the transfer of responsibility for Jobcentre Plus to the Welsh Government. There are answers to joblessness and dependence on benefits. At present, we in Wales look in vain to London and the London parties for those answers. 4.32 pm Mr David Ward (Bradford East) (LD): This is not a difficult one for me. I believe that benefits are far too high—I think most people accept they are at an unsustainable level. Mr Kevan Jones: Too high?

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Mr Ward: Yes; as a nation, our payments on benefits are, without a doubt, far too high. However, what we face in this Bill seems to be a huge lack of confidence by the coalition in its own policies and programmes to deal with that situation. None of us is going to support scroungers, skivers or people who are fraudulently claiming disability benefits. None of us is going to say that we should not support people into work, but we on the Government Benches say, “We are doing all of that.” We on this side of the House say that we are dealing with the situation so that we can reduce the colossal welfare bill to the nation. It shows a huge lack of confidence for us then to say that we now need to go to the least well-off in the country and say, “You’ve got to make a contribution to deficit reduction,” because if our measures work—we say they are going to work; we tell people how successful they will be—what are we left with? We are left with those who want a job and cannot get one, even when they have been through the Work programme. We are talking about those who are disabled—and who have been assessed as disabled—who are not able to work. We are talking about those in work but on low incomes. Despite the confidence in our strategy, these are the people to whom we are now saying, “We’re not really sure, because we’re going to have to come to you, for you to make a contribution as well.” I have identified three arguments for this move. The first relates to incentives, and states that work should always pay, but I thought we were going to ensure that that happened anyway. Is that not what universal credit was supposed to be about? The second argument is that we cannot afford to do otherwise, but I did not see much cutting back on the Olympics. I have heard various suggestions, and yes, there are tough decisions to be made. It has been suggested that we limit the tax relief on pensions. We are seen as being able to afford to give tax reductions to millionaires, and of course we can afford to give rich pensioners winter fuel payments. These are examples of the decisions that need to be made, and there are many more, but we need to look at all of them before we turn to the people on the lowest incomes and those with no income who are surviving on benefits. Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the fiscal cliff deal made last week in America, which took the most money from the top 2%, gave money to those on lower incomes and is projected to increase growth by 1%, is a much better way of squaring the circle than the measures in the autumn statement, which will take money from the bottom 30% to 50% and give it to those further up the ladder, which is reducing overall consumer demand? Mr Ward: We all know that. We know about the multiplier effect on consumer demand. It is not a secret; it is well researched and we all understand it. The third reason for the proposals that I have identified relates to fairness. A national debate about fairness is taking place at the moment. I am about to get really technical: there is a difference between somebody who is unemployed and somebody who is employed. The person who is unemployed does not have a job. The person who is employed has a job. They are not the same; we cannot compare them when we are talking about fairness and a 1% increase. I will give the House another really

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technical fact: those people who are on low incomes and receiving tax credits are receiving those tax credits because they are on low incomes. It is very technical, this. How on earth can we compare those on low incomes or on benefits with people who are in a job? We cannot say that it is unfair—or bizarre, according to the Prime Minister—to give someone who is in a job 1%, but then give 2% to those on benefits. We cannot compare the two. There is a difference between somebody who is on benefits and somebody who has a job. The evidence for that is clear. Of course, people who are in employment do not like the pay freezes or the 1% increase, but is anyone seriously suggesting that they would give up their job to be unemployed? Don’t be ridiculous! Let us not forget that we are eliminating the scroungers and all the rest of it. In my experience, most people in work look at those who are unemployed and say, “Thank God it’s not me!” They do not say that it is unfair that their benefits are being increased; they say, “There but for the grace of God go I.” I have mentioned the massive lack of confidence in our proposals, but there could be another reason for these measures, although I hope that it is not true. It relates to a sense that the public at large are in favour of these welfare reforms, egged on by opinion polls, and that some people on the Government Benches see that as an opportunity to attack the unemployed. I fear that that is being driven by a deep-rooted conviction that unemployed people are unemployed by choice. This is what worries me. I hope that the explanation is in fact the lack of confidence, but I suspect, deep down, that far too many people on this side of the House believe that unemployed people are the undeserving poor, that they need to sort themselves out, and that we cannot possibly reward them with an increase. Let us remember, too, that this is not an increase. When inflation is taken into account, the measure will simply freeze the level of benefits that we have already decided will provide people with a minimum standard of living. The measure is not fair, and I will not support it. 4.39 pm Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab): The Bill is without doubt an attack on the living standards of those who are in work and on low or modest incomes, and of those who are in work on such incomes who are on disability benefits. The Government have tried to paint those who are unemployed as lazy and as scroungers, but it is a fact that the Bill will definitely make people poorer. The Government are trying to cover up their failures on the economy, and the Chancellor is now raiding working-age benefits and tax credits by a total of £6.6 billion by uprating them by 1% over the next three years—a real-terms cut. Meanwhile, the Government are giving 8,000 millionaires an average tax cut of £107,000—an average cut of £2,000 for every week of the year. In comparison, people on jobseeker’s allowance will see their benefit cut by 71p and people receiving the couples element of the working tax credit will see a minimum increase of 38p. Of course, the Secretary of State has admitted today for the first time that disabled people will also see cuts as a result of the changes made. Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making some strong points. Does he agree with me that one other group of people in our

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society who will be severely impacted by the change is children? We are going to see an increase in absolute poverty and relative poverty for children, which will take us back to the level we had over 10 years ago. It is wholly unfair that they should be prejudiced in this manner. Derek Twigg: I agree with my hon. Friend, who makes a valid point, and I repeat that people, families, children will be made poorer by the Bill. The Secretary of State refused properly to answer a question about the disabled issue. He would not say how many disabled people would be affected, so that is a subject to which we will certainly return. Of course another group of people who will be badly hit are women. Some 4.6 million women who receive child tax credit, including 2.5 million working women and more than 1 million women who are caring for children while their husbands or partners are in work, will be hit by this strivers’ tax. Even the Government’s own impact assessment, which we have just got, acknowledges that that will be the case—and it is a disgrace, if I may say so, that we received that impact assessment at such a short time before this debate. Those hit by the Government’s cuts include primary school teachers, nurses and, as we have heard, many members of our armed forces who today are fighting for this country. My constituents are increasingly suffering because of the rising cost of living. The costs of food, energy and fuel are crippling many families, who are having to decide whether to buy a decent meal or to heat the house. Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab): My hon. Friend mentions primary school teachers and nurses. Does he acknowledge the figures in last Sunday’s edition of The Observer in which chief executives of a number of organisations, including children’s societies, Barnardo’s and the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, showed that a single parent primary school teacher or a nurse with two children stands to lose £424 a year by 2015 while an Army second lieutenant with three children will lose £552 a year? Those are hardly people whom we should describe as “scroungers”. Derek Twigg: My hon. Friend makes a strong point: many people in work are being hit, and many of them would not usually be viewed by members of the public as those likely to be hit by such changes. Many families on low incomes in my constituency are having great difficulty finding the money to feed their families properly—even to provide proper meals every day. We know that some children are going to school hungry. The problem is so bad in Halton that two food banks have been set up, and I believe that that is a regular feature in many poorer parts of the country. To add to that, of course, are the appalling changes to housing benefit and the unfair cuts to local government funding, including changes to the treatment of council tax support, which will greatly increase the suffering in my constituency and others where the poorest and the weakest will be the most badly hit. Frankly, the Government’s approach to welfare reform is cruel and vindictive, with cuts hitting the most vulnerable the hardest. That is said even in the Government’s own impact assessment, which acknowledges that the

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[Derek Twigg] poorest will be hit the hardest. It is a disgrace that this is happening. I have been contacted, like many MPs, by many constituents who have suffered badly under the benefits system, who have lost benefits or who have been denied them or treated badly. In many cases, these people are in despair and at the end of their tether. We have to deal with such cases—day in, day out. It is therefore important to link that with what is happening today. There are, of course, people who exploit the system, and they should be dealt with severely, but the overwhelming number of people involved are honest and want to work where they can. In my experience, those who can work want to work. I have heard many tales of constituents applying for countless number of jobs, but getting nowhere because jobs are either very hard to find or do not exist. Despite what the Secretary of State said, many want full-time employment. Many are being pushed into part-time employment because there are no full-time jobs for them. The Government have no coherent policy for growth and jobs. That is why people trust Labour more on jobs and growth. We have given greater priority to job creation, which is why I support our jobs guarantee. David T. C. Davies: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Derek Twigg: I will not, because I have already given way to two Members and others wish to speak. Let me return to the Government’s decision to cut benefits. We should not forget the announcement in the June 2010 Budget that from April 2011 the measure of price inflation used for the uprating of benefits and tax credits would be the consumer prices index rather than the retail prices index. That will have a significant impact on benefit rates and on future real-terms cuts. So in addition to what is happening today, a major cut is already taking place. The long-term assumption of the Office for Budget Responsibility is that the annual increase in RPI will be 1.4 percentage points more than the increase in the CPI. That means that after 10 years, benefits will be worth 86% as much as they would have been had they continued to be uprated in line with RPI. The House of Commons Library research paper on the Bill states:

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The Bill clearly constitutes a tax on those who work hard and a cruel, vindictive cut in the living standards of the poorest people in our society. The Government should hang their heads in shame, and that applies especially to the Liberal Democrats. 4.46 pm Kris Hopkins (Keighley) (Con): About 40 years ago, I used to walk through a really run-down council estate on my way to school. The estate was poor, the people living there were poor, the housing was poor, and life expectancy and opportunities were very low. It is still the same today: 40 years on, the people living on that estate have the same opportunities, or lack of them, that they had in the days when I was walking through it. Successive Governments have failed to address the problems of people who live in poverty in some of our communities. This is not just about money; it is about a lack of aspiration and ambition, about a failure to understand the need to educate people, and about the need for people to develop skills. It is about a whole range of things, and the solution is not simply money. I say that because now, when I look at estates like the one that I mentioned, I see brand-new schools, and I see that all the houses have been done up, but the people are still poor, still unemployed, and still dependent on benefits. The fact is that, regardless of the 1.5% difference between inflation and the uprating, if you have not got the brass you cannot give it out. The purpose of the coalition must be to manage the deficit that we inherited from the last Government, and we must change the culture of dependency in those areas. Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab): The hon. Gentleman talks of dependency. Does he not realise that the Bill will create a food-bank dependency in our nation? Kris Hopkins: I do not think that it will. I think that the 900,000 or 1 million new jobs created by the Government represent the solution to the problem. We need to face up to the drama in the welfare state. The hon. Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy) says that this is not about a dependency culture, but I can take her to places where people are trapped in a way of life that gives them no incentive to go and look for jobs. That is the tragedy of the situation.

“independent estimates of “Minimum Income Standards” suggest that current out-of-work benefit rates for people of working age are significantly lower than the amounts necessary for a minimum acceptable standard of living.”

Mr Kevan Jones: I understand what the hon. Gentleman is saying about the dependency culture—he thinks that if he repeats it enough, people will start to believe him—but what would he say to two people whom I met in a local jobcentre last week? They were made unemployed by AEI Cables in Birtley a year ago. They have the work ethic. They are aged 51 and 52, they had worked for the company since they were 16, and they have applied for literally hundreds of jobs without success. Are those people part of the dependency culture?

We should never forget that a large number of those who receive benefits are being paid a very small amount of money, an amount that would surprise many people. It is not the case that the majority, or anywhere near the majority, are receiving massive sums. Members should go and talk to a young person who is unemployed, or a single mum, or a couple, and ask about the benefits that they are receiving—and now disabled people are also being hit by the Government’s proposals.

Kris Hopkins: No, obviously not, because they are going out there to seek a job. That is the key thing. I thank the hon. Gentleman for the extra time. We have put a benefit cap at £26,000, and that is net. The vast majority of my constituents would be delighted to take home or have access to that amount of money. Far from doing something outrageous by increasing the amount of money that people are going to get by 1% in

“A decision to limit increases in benefits to below inflation for a sustained period is historically unprecedented. If inflation averages more than 1% over the three years, families claiming the benefits and tax credits affected will experience a permanent real terms reduction in the support they receive.”

It goes on to say that

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this climate, it is an admirable move by those on the Front Bench to facilitate that, bearing in mind the crisis that the previous Government left. We have made some choices about who we are going to protect and who we will not. There is a debate about disability, but I am pleased that we are protecting pensioners. It was a commitment by this Government to protect pensioners and we have continued with that. I am very concerned that the unemployed, those who are dependent, those who are uneducated and have no skills, those with limited opportunities to offer young people, are the families that are growing in my constituency. That is a tragedy for the future of towns such as mine. We must break that cycle. It cannot be right that it pays to live on the state. The resentment and anger are real in people who are working hard. They have seen generations continue to claim benefit. Some of those are trapped, but some have no desire to go and work. People are making life choices based on the fact that they can get money from the Government. As was pointed out earlier, that is taxpayers’ money. That cannot be right. When families see no increase in their income after their hard work and they see people on benefits receiving twice the increase, as has been shown statistically, that promotes resentment in our communities. It is not just about strivers or skivers. Failure to address the issue promotes racism and tension in communities, because somebody sees or perceives that somebody else is getting something that they are not getting. After all their efforts they do not see the benefit of working so hard. Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab) rose— Kris Hopkins: No, I will not give way. I have great sympathy for all the people who go out there, graft hard and pay their dues, and then look over next door where the curtains are closed or see estates where people are not ambitious, not aspirational, have failed in education and failed in skills. It is the responsibility of those on the Government Benches to address that, as much as it was with the previous Government. In another 30 or 40 years I do not want to see people living in poverty because they have been abandoned and people keep sustaining those estates. Society backfills sink estates in constituencies such as mine. We do not take decisions about welfare lightly. We take them extremely seriously, as my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash (Jessica Lee) said, but we on the Government Benches are on the side of hard-working individuals. That is why I support the Bill. 4.53 pm Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab): I rise to speak on behalf of the many constituents who come to see me every week in my constituency office because they have been affected by the Government’s attacks on our welfare system. I have said this before and I will continue to say it: at every point we must challenge the ideology underpinning these so-called reforms, including the Bill, and the divide-and-rule narrative that the coalition Government have developed. I know I was not alone in being deeply offended by the Chancellor’s autumn statement, not only because the cuts he put forward will affect the poorest 10% in

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our society, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, but because of the way in which he attempted to justify his actions by deliberately vilifying people who receive benefits as the new undeserving poor. By using pejorative language, such as “shirkers”—he has used the terms “work-shy” and “scroungers” in the past—he sunk to a new low, with a disgraceful misrepresentation of the facts, a few of which I would like to put straight. Myth No. 1 is that most people on benefits are out of work. In fact, 68%—more than two thirds—of benefit recipients are in work. The majority of welfare beneficiaries are net contributors to the Exchequer. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) has said, there is no evidence of a culture of worklessness in this country—[Interruption.] I will repeat that: independent research has shown that there is no evidence of a culture of worklessness. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the New Policy Institute, 6.1 million people are in poverty but are working. That compares with 5 million people in out-of-work households. As we have heard, the Children’s Society’s statistics show that the proposed cap on welfare benefits will affect 500,000 key workers—nurses, midwives, nursery school teachers, primary school teachers, administrative workers, secretaries, shop workers, electricians, fitters and members of the armed forces. Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): Can the hon. Lady say what proportion of primary school teachers are covered by those statistics? Debbie Abrahams: I cannot because I do not have the figures to hand, but I am happy to provide them later. The evidence is there. Scenario modelling has been done—[Interruption.] If I could finish the point. Scenario modelling is available showing exactly how many have been assessed. Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con): Will the hon. Lady give way? Debbie Abrahams: I will not give way at the moment. I will finish my point and then make some progress. The Children’s Society’s analysis shows that between £500 and £400 will be lost per annum by key workers such as a second lieutenant in the armed forces or a primary school teacher. Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab): In addition to the scenario my hon. Friend is outlining, these cuts come on top of the fact that the move from RPI to CPI for benefits will push a further 4 million children into poverty by 2020. Debbie Abrahams: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that nearly half a million more children will be living in poverty by the end of this Parliament, and that is without taking into account the 1% drop. Families up and down the country are struggling. Food prices have increased by 26% over the past three years, almost as much as energy prices. That is a real cut for ordinary families. The second myth I would like to expose is the claim that welfare benefits have increased more than average earnings. In fact, since 2002 average earnings rose by 36% while jobseeker’s allowance, for example, increased

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[Debbie Abrahams] by 32%. Between 2007 and 2010, to ensure that work pays, benefits for people in work rose by 53.1%, compared with 46.9% for out-of-work benefits. The Government have also claimed that the 1% cap will offset increases in tax thresholds. We know that at least 682,000 working families receiving child tax credit earn less than £6,420, so they will not benefit from those changes in tax credits. I was going to refer to the myth that we need to do this to reduce the deficit, but that myth has already been blown out of the water in other contributions, so I will not go on about the fact that growth has been downgraded yet again, we are borrowing more than anticipated and our economy is one of the worst performing in the G7. The Government’s response to their failing economic policies is what? It is to give tax breaks to the wealthiest in society. Some £3 billion is being given to 300,000 people earning more than £150,000 a year, with an average gain of £10,000, and the Government are making people on low incomes pay for it. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, £500 million will be saved as a result of the 1% cut in 2013 and just over £2 billion in 2014, but that money could also be saved if the Government made different choices. It is clear where the Government’s priorities really are. The choices that the Government have made are underpinned by their ideology. Several hon. Members rose— Debbie Abrahams: No, I am not going to give way any more. That ideology is to demonise people receiving benefits, creating antipathy and resentment and an “us and them” culture. Through the withdrawal of universal benefit such as child benefit, the Government show an irrelevance of the welfare system to non-welfare-recipients; meanwhile, they are dismantling the welfare state. I am proud of our model of social welfare, born of the second world war, when we were literally all in it together. I want to retain that model, with its principles of inclusion, support and security for all, protecting any one of us who should fall on hard times and ensuring our dignity and the basics of life to help us get back on our feet. Fortunately, the British public are seeing through the Government. As British social attitudes surveys have consistently shown, they want not a divided society but a fairer, more equal one. That has been reflected in recent opinion polls on benefits. When the Government’s myths are exposed to people, most do not support them. I do not want ours to be a country where we impoverish children and rob them of their futures. We need to get the economy moving again and I hope that the Chancellor and Secretary of State will listen to my right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State’s proposals about how we do that. If they do not, we are in danger of losing a generation, storing up health and social problems for the future—and seeing a divided Britain, not a one nation Britain. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Speaker: Order. In a bid to accommodate more colleagues, I am afraid that I am reducing the time limit for Back-Bench speeches from five to four minutes each, with immediate effect.

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5 pm Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con): In the short time available, I want to nail a couple of myths that have come up in the debate and give the view from Cannock Chase. The first myth is that we are giving a tax break to the wealthiest in society. The answer that the shadow Secretary of State would not give earlier is that over a 13-year period, the Labour Government had a 50p tax rate for 37 days. The idea that we are giving the rich a tax cut is just a sixth-form debating point; the Labour party had 13 years to introduce the 50p rate, and they introduced it for 37 days. Let us nail another myth. Although many people in work get benefits, there is evidence of a culture of worklessness, whatever the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says. If hon. Members do not believe me—[Interruption.] Give me a second. Let me read the House a summary of an interview on LBC radio in December. A man called Paul phoned in to say that it was not his fault that there were no jobs out there. He said: “Why would you work for low wages, can’t really understand that, what’s the point? I was offered a job two weeks ago; they wanted me in there at 8 am in the morning.”

The presenter said: “And you didn’t want to do that job?”

Paul replied: “It’s ridiculous, that time!”

The presenter asked: “What time would you finish if you started at 8?”

Paul answered: “Well it finished about 4, but that time in the morning is too early. Most people start at 9 don’t they?”

The presenter, getting angry now, said: “No, people start work at all hours. If I was in charge and you turned down a job for that reason I would cut your benefits. You lied you said no work out there. There are people out there struggling every single day who would love to get that job, frankly you can’t be fagged can you?”

Paul said that he would love to have the job but he was not willing to start at 8, only at 9.30, to which the presenter replied: “I am outraged by what you just said.”

Let us not pretend that there are not some people who cannot be bothered to work. Mr Kevan Jones: I am not sure whether that anecdote should lead us to any wider conclusion. The only worklessness in the Chamber today is on the Tory Back Benches—there has been an average of only 12 Tory Back Benchers all afternoon. Mr Burley: I have been here since the beginning of the debate, waiting patiently to speak. I move on to my constituency. The House of Commons Library shows that average wages in Cannock Chase rose by 6% between 2007 and 2012. During that same period, benefits went up by 20%. Where is the fairness in benefits going up by 20% when pay has gone up by only 6%? Do not take my word for it. This is what a local police officer e-mailed me last year when we uprated benefits by 5%: “Why has the Conservative Government given a recent rise in benefits money…to the unemployed when Nurses, Police Officers, Fire and rescue workers and all other public sector workers have not received a pay rise for over two years?”

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It is a fair question, and I do not know the answer. What I do know is that if the rate of inflation is not sufficient to warrant an increase in public sector pay beyond 1% in April this year, it cannot be so high as to require an increase in benefits beyond that either. This is what another constituent who recently contacted me said: “I have a friend who has a partner, neither she or he work and have not worked for as long as I can remember. They are both fit and healthy and perfectly able to work they just do not want to. They openly admit there is no point in finding work as they would not have enough money to live on. She stated to me that in order to get close in wages to what they receive in benefits that they would both have to get a job.”

This is the perverse reality of where we are now—that it pays people not to work and they are better off at home on benefits even though they could work and in many cases want to. Tellingly, the constituent went on to say: “Some time ago she”—

her friend— “let it slip out that she claimed £500 a week in benefits, I was…astounded and furious and pointed out that it was twice my wages. I am…aware that some people are unable to work and in genuine need…but surely people on benefits who are MORE than capable of working should not be living a life of…luxury and be financially better off than those who…earn a living? These people are playing the system…whilst…genuine hard working people struggle to have a life.”

Those are the real words of a real constituent in an area where the average salary is £22,500, and Labour Members ignore those words at their peril. [Interruption.]

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doubt be grateful that pensioners have been spared this cut in their benefits, but that is probably down to Lord Ashcroft having identified what a key group they are and putting their benefits off limits. I am afraid that these proposals look like an ambition to create division between those who have little and those who have less. That sits comfortably with the values and politics of a particular kind of Conservatism. This is called an uprating, but 1% rises over three years really represent a cut of 4% in the spending power of those already struggling. Citizens Advice estimates that when we take tax changes into account, a family with two children paying £130 per week in rent and earning just above the minimum wage will be almost £13 per week worse off. That is before we take food and energy inflation into account. No wonder people are being driven into the arms of payday loan sharks. Income transfers for those on modest incomes, for example, are recognised throughout developed economies as exactly the kind of fiscal stimulus needed when recessionary pressures are highest, but the Chancellor is doing the exact opposite. A total of 4.6 million women will lose their tax credits, including 2.5 million working women and more than 1 million who care for their children while their partner works—the same people who are also having their maternity benefits cut. Lord Ashcroft calls them “suspicious strivers”. In his words, they fear they are one more redundancy, one interest rate rise or one tax credit change away from real difficulty, and they would not want to rely on a Conservative Government if they found themselves in trouble.

Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): Order. Mr Burley: The Opposition have argued that this uprating of 1% will impact on working people and not just those on benefits. Given that the previous Government made 90% of workers eligible as welfare recipients, that is inevitable. Unfortunately, Labour Members make the mistake of taking these measures in isolation. If we take the Government’s measures as a whole, including tax allowances, energy tariff changes and cutting petrol duty, low-income working households will be better off. It is time to end the ridiculous money merry-go-round. Let us take people out of tax and off benefits. Labour used to be the party of the working man; it is now the party of the workless and welfare. I look forward to fighting them on the doorsteps as they take that message to the electorate. [Interruption.] Several hon. Members rose— Mr Deputy Speaker: Order. Before I call the next speaker, let me say that shouting back and forth really does not help the debate, and I am finding it difficult to listen to what the speaker is saying, so please let us have less of it. I call Steve McCabe. 5.7 pm Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab): I apologise for being absent for part of the debate while attending duties at the Home Affairs Committee. The one inescapable fact is that however much the Chancellor talks about shared pain, we are discussing real cuts to benefits at a time when he thinks it is okay to prioritise tax cuts for millionaires. We should no

Mr Stewart Jackson: For the record, 42,654 people in the Peterborough constituency will be better off under the tax changes in April. Is the hon. Gentleman not ashamed that under his Government, who presided over 16 years of economic growth, more than 1,000 people in my constituency were parked on invalidity and incapacity benefit for more than 10 years. That is shameful and it is his Government’s record. Steve McCabe: I cannot wait for the hon. Gentleman to have to meet all those people who are better off at his advice centre. The International Monetary Fund regularly warns about the dangers of cutting the automatic stabilisers in these economically fraught times, yet that is exactly what is happening. It is estimated—the IMF is the source —that these benefit cuts will contribute to a £40 billion reduction in the country’s output when we desperately need the opposite to happen. As well as implementing benefit cuts that defy economic logic, the Chancellor has set up a special hotline for Tory MPs who are confused about his benefit changes. Special hotlines for Tory MPs, Government cars to cushion Ministers from rail-fare rises, and specially arranged meetings to cover the transport costs if they want to watch the European cup final—yes, they are definitely all in it together. My contention is that these decisions do not make economic sense, are not fair and will punish the very people who are striving and struggling to make ends meet while the Chancellor’s millionaire friends are prioritised for tax cuts. That tells us all we need to know about this Government’s values.

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5.11 pm Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con): The problem with this debate is that nobody has gone back to the idea of what the social security welfare state was for. It was brought in to make sure that people who were in desperate need at a time of unexpected circumstances did not fall into poverty. When somebody lost their job, that often meant they were stuck. That is why the social state was created. I have sat throughout this debate and listened to many a speech, and the only Opposition Member who has spoken with any passion is the hon. Member for Gateshead (Ian Mearns). He gets it—he knows what the welfare state is about. All the other speeches by Opposition Member have, I am afraid, been about pure political point scoring. I do not doubt for one minute that the vast majority of Opposition Members care deeply about the poorest in society, as we do on the Government Benches. Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Alec Shelbrooke: Just give me two ticks. The constant mocking that has gone on is shameful political posturing. Jim Shannon: The two commodities that have seen the highest inflation are food and fuel, which affect those on a low income more than anyone else. Does the hon. Gentleman think that the Secretary of State’s benefits cap will enable those people to come out of poverty and go for jobs? Alec Shelbrooke: The hon. Gentleman mentions rising food inflation, but let us not forget that we have just knocked 10p off the price of a litre of fuel. That 10p was in the Opposition’s plans and would have created extra inflation. This debate has been polarised, but a divide has been in existence for more than a decade and it is coming to the fore. As soon as we try to address it, we are described as nasty and heartless and told we are not dealing with people fairly. The fact is that too many people in this country have the wrong idea about benefits, which is not a dirty word. Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): The divide has not been in existence for just the past decade—Lady Thatcher and Geoffrey Howe hatched a plan to dismantle the welfare state more than 30 years ago. Is this Bill just another phase in bringing the welfare state to a conclusion? Alec Shelbrooke: In the past 10 years, people have said time and again, “Why should I do this when someone on out-of-work benefits gets double the pay rise I get?” That is a fact. Wherever we may want to lay the blame and whichever way we may want to look at the issue, the fact is that people do not believe in the welfare state in this country any more. That is not just a tragedy; it is deeply worrying for this country. The measures being taken by the Secretary of State, which we will vote through, will bring back some fairness to society. They are part of a big package of measures. However, we have a problem. We all want to give as much money to people—of course we do—but we cannot afford it.

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Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree that when there is a limited pot of money, it is better to spend it on high-quality advice and support for people such as older workers who are back in the job market and are struggling to cope than on increasing an already enormous welfare bill? That kind of advice is long overdue and has been long neglected. [Interruption.] Alec Shelbrooke: I thank my hon. Friend for those comments. I just heard Opposition Members say from a sedentary position—we have heard this several times today—that there has been a tax cut for millionaires. Let me be blunt. All the evidence shows that when the 50% tax rate came in, £7 billion disappeared from the Exchequer. Today’s policy will save £1.4 billion from the welfare state bill. If Labour had not brought in the 50% rate, we would not have had to introduce this policy. Opposition Members cannot pick and choose the arguments; they have to look at things consistently and completely. This debate has shown that the Government are trying to ensure that we have a fair system of social security that is there when people unexpectedly fall into terrible circumstances. Several Opposition Members have described people who have been made redundant recently and who need to rely on the welfare state. That is what social security is for. That is why people pay their national insurance contributions—so that they do not fall into the starvation and poverty that existed before the welfare state. What is shameful about the Opposition, as has been shown today, is that the Front Benchers are not linked up with the Back Benchers. The Back Benchers believe in caring for people, whereas the Front Benchers are trying to score political points. If the Labour party once again votes against reforming social security, let the message go out to the country that it is not interested in the poorest in society, but is interested only in bribing the electorate to try to get back into power. 5.17 pm Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab): The proposal is to limit the increase in working-age benefits to 1% for the next three years, which is an effective cut. Let us make no mistake: for anyone who relies on benefits for all or part of their income, this will be a “poverty-producing policy”. Those are not my words, but the words of the Child Poverty Action Group. Working families are finding it hard to get by financially after two years of freezes in child benefit and working tax credit, and cuts to child care tax credit, housing benefit and support for new parents. It is no wonder that the CPAG is warning that the number of children living in absolute poverty will rise. Let us look at what the proposal means for a full-time worker on the minimum wage. In a response to my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey), the Treasury confirmed that the working tax credit lost in 2013-14 by people who are working full time on the minimum wage, due to the Government’s freezes and the increase in the earnings taper, will be £475 for a single person with no children and £660 for a couple with one child. Contrary to the assertions made in Parliament, the amount of working tax credit lost by families with one earner on the minimum wage will be greater than their saving of £420 in 2013-14 from the increase in the personal tax allowance.

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Many of my constituents work in low-paid retail work. I am grateful to the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers for the survey of its members, who all report how difficult it is to manage with the rising cost of food, fuel and other everyday items. Many report that they have turned off the heating at certain times in the month. Tracey said that although both she and her partner work, after paying for the rent, gas and electric, they often find it so hard to manage that they go without food so that their children can eat. That situation is confirmed by the Oasis food bank in my constituency, which has recently begun to operate. Although I support its good work and pay tribute to it, I deplore the fact that such organisations are needed in the 21st century. The food bank tells me that many working people come to it as they simply cannot make their money stretch to the end of the month, and we know that more people are turning to payday lenders simply to get money to spend on essentials, not on luxuries any more. It is no wonder those payday lenders are circling the estates. The people affected have not made a lifestyle choice. They are working people such as the one who came to my surgery who gets up at 5 o’clock to do two cleaning jobs. It is not a lifestyle choice for those who are out of work, either. It is a situation that they find themselves in, like the young man who worked at Comet and lost his job, and is now competing with seven others for every job in my constituency. He was almost in tears at having to claim benefits, and I can relate to that: I claimed benefits myself for a few months in the mid-’80s when I was left with a young daughter, and it has left an indelible mark on me. I know what it feels like to go and sign on—it hurts, it really does. Those in work who are struggling to make ends meet and those out of work who are desperate to find it are the people who are bearing the brunt of the Government’s failed economic policies, not the high earners and millionaires who are getting a tax cut of £107,000 this April. It is not fair, and it is not right, and I am proud to vote against the Bill and defend the 8,100 people in my constituency who are claiming working tax credits. 5.20 pm Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con): It is a great privilege to be called to speak in this sensitive and important debate. Any debate that focuses on our welfare system tends to provoke a great deal of passion, and it can be all too easy for politicians of all parties to fall into lazy arguments based on simplistic generalisations or preconceived ideas. Our welfare system is a valuable part of our social fabric. Even a believer in a small state, like me, can believe that we should unquestionably support those in our society who fall on desperately hard times, either temporarily or permanently. For those who find themselves truly in need, support must be provided through our welfare system as a safety net for the most vulnerable. However, the idea that our welfare system was sufficiently reliable or fair upon the formation of the coalition Government in 2010 is simply ludicrous. First, the system that we inherited was simply unaffordable, costing taxpayers more than £87 billion in 2010 alone. Such enormous outgoings must be reviewed and targeted for efficiencies. To suggest that a desire to reduce the cost of

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the welfare system is akin to not supporting vulnerable people is nonsense. In fact, I would argue that a shrinking welfare budget would be a key indicator of a successful welfare system. That brings me to my second point which is about the wider welfare situation that we inherited in 2010. It was creating a culture of sheer dependency in certain parts of the system and contributing towards the dangerous social divide that my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Kris Hopkins) touched upon. Mr Ward: I welcome the fact that you welcome a safety net. Do you not agree that unless you increase benefits by the rate of inflation, you are lowering that safety net? Julian Sturdy: As you rightly said in your speech— Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): Order. There are too many uses of the word “you” for my liking. It is not about me. Julian Sturdy: I apologise, Mr Deputy Speaker. The safety net in the welfare state system is important, but I support the 1% uprating. The point was made earlier that if we are really to focus on the problem, we have to consider inflation as well. If we can keep inflation down through Government measures, as we are at the moment, that is an important part of the system. An effective and fair welfare system should support those who tragically suffer from difficult medical conditions and those who find themselves in abject poverty. However, benefits that are simply rolled out and increased without question and without any regard for the wider economic situation threaten to give our whole welfare system a bad name. Thus our benefits must always be questioned, our welfare system always honed and the key question of fairness always addressed. The votes in the House later today must be made with fairness in mind—fairness to those who receive benefits and those whose taxes pay for them. We cannot adequately or logically debate this issue without considering the fiscal implications of increasing benefits and the fairness of those implications. The key fact used by the Secretary of State—that over the past five years some benefits have increased by 20% while workers have experienced an average pay increase of 10% to 12%—is enough to set alarm bells ringing. If we are to ensure that our welfare system is a source of pride and not resentment, we cannot justify such increases when wider taxpayers are suffering in a tough economic climate. Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree that this debate is essentially about two things—first, whether people on benefits should receive an income that rises faster than those who earn wages, and secondly, for those in work, whether it is better for the Government to take a lot of money and give it back in tax credits, or whether they should take less money in the first place and introduce tax cuts? I, together with most people in the country, believe it is better for the Government to take less money away, and thanks to this Government almost 2,000 people in Bristol North West have been taken out of tax altogether from April, and 40,000 people will get a tax break.

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Julian Sturdy: I entirely agree with my hon. Friend; I will always believe that the Government should take less tax from people in the first place, rather than taking it and giving it back in some other form. The welfare system—including benefits—is a delicate balancing act and by ignoring valid concerns about the system’s cost and efficiency we risk its future reputation and, by extension, its effectiveness. Capping benefit increases to 1% for the time being is a step of reason that will add to the Government’s wider package of welfare reforms to rebalance our welfare system for the benefit of claimants, while also helping to restore public confidence in the fairness of that system. We should all remember and appreciate that decisions on such matters have a real impact on real lives. Nevertheless, to improve the fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of our welfare system for those most truly in need, I believe that the measures in the Bill are both necessary and justified. As in many areas of government, our tough decisions will not only reverse deficits and improve efficiencies but will save some of the public provision that the Opposition drove to the brink of bankruptcy when in office. I therefore urge all Members to support the Bill today. 5.27 pm Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab): The Chancellor intends to take a further £6.7 billion from benefits and tax credits over the next four years by capping the increase in them at 1%. That is a real-terms cut and an additional squeeze on families, because of the Chancellor’s failure to create growth in our economy, and the delivery instead of a double-dip recession. The Government told us that they would bring down borrowing, but they are now borrowing an £212 billion more than planned. The Chancellor claims that he is cracking down on a benefits culture, but hard-working lower and middle-income working families are those hit hardest by the Bill. Many working families need tax credits and benefits to top up their incomes, as without them work really would not pay. Just 23% of the savings come from jobseeker’s allowance, employment and support allowance, and income support—the principal out-of-work benefits. The rest comes from tax credits such as maternity pay, sick pay and housing benefit, all of which are claimed by working people. Some 60% of people affected by the changes to tax credits and benefits are in work, and one-earner working families could lose as much as £534 per year at a time when more than 6 million people in working households are already in poverty. Levels of long-term unemployment are worryingly high, because the Government have failed to kick-start the economy and their Work programme has failed. Even excluding the 60% of working people affected by the changes, this is hardly the time to start picking on the unemployed. The Government are always prepared to talk about skivers when unemployment is high and they are worried about costs, but never want to do so when job vacancies are relatively numerous and unemployment is low. Surely, if the Government wanted to inconvenience so-called skivers, this is not the time to target them, when large numbers of people are without work and reliant on benefits. Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the reform will make it more difficult to kick-start the economy?

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It will remove millions if not billions of pounds from communities up and down the UK, making it harder for people to spend and therefore kick-start the economy. Mr McKenzie: I could not agree more with the hon. Gentleman. The Bill will take many millions out of local economies and have a double kick on the downturn. Incredibly, the Government take from struggling households and give to millionaires. As I have said, at the same time as the Government are giving tax cuts to millionaires—as we have heard, some cuts are in the region of more than £2,000 per week—the Bill effectively means a permanent reduction in benefits, which could have a devastating effect when a proper safety net is desperately needed by millions of the most vulnerable people in Britain. It is highly likely that this regressive change will lead to an increase in poverty, especially for those who are already facing a perfect storm of cuts to public services and rising prices. Clearly, the Bill is an attack on hardworking families, who are paying the price for the Government’s economic failure. It is without doubt an attack on striving families. In my Inverclyde constituency, 6,300 families receive working tax credit. They are being asked to pay the price for the Government’s failure, while millionaires—believe it or not—get a tax cut. In Inverclyde, the number of unemployment claimants means that 15 people chase every vacancy. The Government would suggest they use the Work programme. Where can I start with that? My constituents never hear from the Government where they can start work. The Work programme has delivered less than 1% in my area, which is a disgraceful and pitiful success rate. The best way to reduce the cost of welfare is to get people back into work. The truth is that the Government’s failure on the economy is pushing the dole bill through the roof. That is why Labour propose real jobs for those who have been out of work for two years or more. Scotland stands to gain most from the introduction of the compulsory jobs guarantee. Long-term unemployment has been rising faster in Scotland than in any other part of the UK. I shall conclude, because other hon. Members wish to speak in the debate. The welfare bill is going up under this Government—it is a staggering £13.6 billion higher than forecast—because they are failing to get Britain back to work. The Government need to practise fairness, but the Bill fails on fairness and on the economic tests, which is why I will support the amendment. 5.32 pm Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD): Sometimes when I listen to debates in the House—on a number of subjects—I wonder whether the great British public are, frankly, astounded at the lack of acceptance of the genuine economic crisis facing this nation. The coalition Government exist only because of the situation we inherited back in 2010. Last year, we found out that the situation was worse and that it would take longer to get better. We had honesty from politicians—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Mr McCann), the Parliamentary Private Secretary, says ludicrously from a sedentary position that we created the current situation, but the great British public know full well that it was the hon. Gentleman’s party and his previous Government who created it. What an absurd statement!

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The simple reality is that the current situation means that there are very difficult decisions to take. The Bill is one of them. It is a serious matter, and there have been sensible, helpful and thoughtful contributions to the debate from Members on both sides of the House, but other speeches, frankly, have just scored party political points—[Interruption.] If the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) wants to intervene, he is welcome to do so, but he should not chunter from a sedentary position. Mr McCann: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Greg Mulholland: Of course. Hon. Members: He will get more time. Mr McCann: That is always a danger. Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that, since the coalition’s election in 2010, the Government have increased borrowing by £212 billion more than they said they would? Greg Mulholland: The hon. Gentleman is obviously not listening. I have said that it has been made clear that getting rid of that borrowing will take longer and be more challenging. However, let us also be clear that if Labour were in government, we would be like Greece. [Interruption.] Labour Members cannot apologise and they shout people down when things that are true are said. The reality is that difficult discussions had to be made when we found out last autumn that the situation was more difficult and that further cuts would have to be made over a longer period. That would be the reality whoever was in government. Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that this is about choices? Certain choices have to be made in what everybody accepts are very difficult circumstances. Nobody likes doing what we have to do today, but it is a job that we have to do if we are to sort this economy out. Greg Mulholland: It is indeed about choices, and two parties are having to make those choices while the Labour party refuses to make any choices. Labour Members are saying nothing about what they would do or even telling us a single cut that they would reverse. Ministers from the two parties have sat down and developed a reasonable strategy for reducing the welfare budget. I remind the House that it costs us more than £220 billion a year—more than we spend on health, education and defence combined. Labour Members conveniently forget that they went into the last election with a commitment to reduce that. At the same time, the Liberal Democrats were clear that there were red lines that we would not cross. We clearly said that we would not accept getting rid of housing benefit for the under-25s; penalising people who have more children; a freeze on benefits; a reduction in benefits; or £10 billion in cuts. What we have now is a much smaller reduction in the budget, but one that is still significant and necessary. The solution is that everybody on benefits, apart, crucially, from those most vulnerable groups, as it is welcome that DLA, attendance allowance,

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disability carer and pension premiums in the ESA support group have been excluded and will continue to get benefits uprated by CPI— Ian Austin: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Greg Mulholland: No. The hon. Gentleman has been extremely rude in this debate, and I have taken two interventions, so I am certainly not going to let him intervene. If he gets some manners, I might think about it on a future occasion. It was a tough choice, but Ministers, to their credit, worked together in the interests of the country and came up with something that was as fair and reasonable as possible. I do not want to have to do this. I do not want to see any reduction in benefits unless absolutely necessary, but we need to remember that this is temporary. This is a temporary measure which can and will be reversed as and when the economy improves. The one thing I would say to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is that we must get the language right. Talk of trying to divide those who work from those who do not has been unhelpful. On worklessness, as a former member of the Work and Pensions Committee in the last Parliament, I can tell the House that there was an appalling benefits trap under that Government, but they did not have the courage to address it. All members of the Committee said that again and again, and this Government are doing something about it. It is not easy and will not be done overnight, but the universal credit will ensure that people have a safety net and that work pays. That is why it is being introduced, and today’s changes also need to be seen in that context. It was a Liberal who brought in the welfare state, and that is one of our proudest achievements. The principles in the Beveridge report were for a safety net to assist those who cannot work for whatever reason. If those principles were being breached today, I would not support the Bill, but they are not. Indeed, the level of benefits that we have will increase—admittedly not as much as we would like—and I hope that in the future we will review the situation. This is a tough choice, but it is one that I am prepared to make. 5.39 pm Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab): I do not have time to do justice to the appalling, grinding impact of this miserable piece of legislation on the 3,500 people I represent who are seeking work, including a number of people who until last year used to work for Remploy, when they were casually forced out of work by Ministers. I do not have enough time to do justice either to its impact on the 8,500 working families who will lose out as a result of the Bill, or the 40% of children across Greater Manchester who already go to school hungry. There was not one single reference to them in the autumn statement, and we have heard very little about them from Government Members today. It is bad enough that, as food banks spring up across the country, the impact of the Bill will be felt by the children I represent. It is worse that the Government believe it is appropriate to label them and their families as shirkers and scroungers—to play the politics of division while at the same time failing to explain how jobseeker’s allowance claimants gaining 72p per week and millionaires gaining more than £2,000 per week could possibly be fair in anyone’s book.

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[Lisa Nandy] In the past few days, it has become absolutely clear that the case for the Bill is based on a series of what I can only politely describe as false premises: that it is on the side of people in work, when, as the Resolution Foundation pointed out, two-thirds of the people who will be hit are in work; and that there is a culture of worklessness, which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation roundly disproved in its recent research. Ian Mearns: One of the things that stuns me about the debate is the fact that 57% of children living in poverty actually have one parent who is in work. It is dreadful that Government Members discount that fact. Lisa Nandy: I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. That brings me on to the third false premise that the Bill is based on: that there are two distinct groups, the working poor and the non-working poor, who can somehow be separated out and divided when, as we know and as the research proves, most of the people we are talking about are moving in and out of work at an alarming rate. Many of the people I represent work part-time on zero-hours contracts. They are agency workers and they are in insecure employment. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab): Is my hon. Friend aware that in inner-London constituencies such as mine, the housing benefit cap affects people in work and out of work, and that working families are being forced out of private rented accommodation? They cannot afford the rent anymore, because the cap has been imposed and does not meet their needs. This is an attack on the poorest people in the most vulnerable parts of the country. Lisa Nandy: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for helping me to illustrate that point. We have heard the myth, repeated over and over again today, that somehow the welfare bill is too high when, as my right hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (David Miliband) said, there is a big difference between attacking the evil of unemployment and attacking the unemployed. As the Child Poverty Action Group points out, in 1979 unemployment benefit was 22% of average earnings; today, it is just 15%. It has fallen sharply over that period. We have also heard the myth over and over again that we can bring down the welfare bill by cutting benefits to the poorest. We know that that is not true, as does the Office for Budget Responsibility, which has forecast an extra £6 billion of welfare costs as unemployment tragically continues to rise in my constituency and across the country. There are two solutions that the Government need to take seriously urgently. If the Secretary of State would stop laughing and listen for just one moment, I would like to ask him to get serious about job creation. That is not just about wage subsidies, but looking at how we use our public procurement power to ensure that we get young people into apprenticeships, and people into work and decent training opportunities. Secondly, I ask the Secretary of State to take seriously the impact of low pay on local economies. A number of hon. Members have raised this point. The more people there are taking cuts to their tax credits and take-home

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pay, the fewer people there are spending in local economies. In an area such as mine, where there is a high proportion of small businesses that employ many people from the local area, that is devastating. The Bill fails every test. It is not fair. It will not work. It will have appalling consequences for the very poorest in society, whether they are in or out of work. All of us, every single one of us, in this Chamber has a minimum household income of more than £65,000. Many of us, particularly those sitting on the Government Front Bench, have a minimum household income of much, much more. For any of us to vote for the Bill today would be simply shameful, but what is more shameful is that, as part of the debate, some of us have managed to demonise the very people who most need and deserve support from their Government. 5.44 pm Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con): Thank you for calling me to speak in this important debate, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have been here since the start and have heard a lot of rhetoric, particularly from Opposition Members. For me, this Bill and this debate are about striking a balance between the state providing a safety net for those who need that support and not putting the burden of any changes on to those least able to react to reductions in income, and taking into account the hard-pressed taxpayer. I fully support the decision to retain the uprating of long-term disability benefits at the rate of inflation, as I support the triple-lock guarantee for the basic state pension. Those benefits are paid to groups that in general would find it impossible to increase their income, and it is right and proper that we fully protect them. That brings me to the people who will be mainly affected by the Bill. They broadly represent two groups in our community: those on out-of-work benefits and those receiving benefits in work. I shall take the former first. No doubt, it is a terribly difficult decision to limit the increase to 1%, but, that said, unemployment benefits, by definition, should be a short-term safety net. The Government and Parliament should do all they can to get people back into work as quickly as possible. I know from my constituency that things are starting to work in that regard, and I am delighted now to see more bespoke help through Jobcentre Plus and the Work programme, and measures such as the enterprise allowance, the work experience programme, the Youth Contract and the push on apprenticeships are all starting to make a difference. Couple that with the universal credit, and 3.1 million people will benefit from increased support for getting into work. That will make a huge difference. I turn to those affected who are in work. Again, in an ideal world it would be fantastic to uprate working benefits in line with inflation, but in the world of inevitable reality we all know that that is unsustainable. The creation of the tax credit system unleashed a bureaucratic leviathan on the country, and billions have now been spent on bureaucracy: £4 billion has been written off in errors and bad debts already and, as we heard today, another £4 million is likely to go the same way. It is far simpler to put people in a position where they pay less income tax, and I am glad and proud that the Government are doing that. Personally, I would like to see that extended, so that we can continue to move away from that bureaucracy.

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The deficit, which is the most important issue facing the country, has to be dealt with in a way that is fair to the taxpayer. There is no doubt that difficult decisions have to be made to deal with it, and I am mindful that many people’s wages have been frozen, uprated at below inflation or even cut. We need to acknowledge that the taxpayer cannot bear the burden indefinitely. Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con): My hon. Friend is right to say that taxpayers cannot continue to bear the burden. Does he agree that the 258% increase in tax credit spend between 2003 and 2010 was unsustainable? Mr Jones: I thank my hon. Friend for his comment. He is absolutely right that we are in a difficult position that we can no longer sustain. That brings me on to another point. This afternoon, I have observed a certain mood among the Opposition. Far from being pragmatic, they have been completely ideological. What puzzles me is that before the last general election Labour pledged to cut spending roughly in line with the coalition’s current rate of deficit reduction, but since then they have opposed virtually all the cuts, including £80 billion of savings proposed to welfare. The question for the Opposition, therefore, is: if all those changes are unacceptable, what do you propose to do? Do you want to cut the NHS? Do you want to make more cuts to policing? Do you want to cut local government? Do you want to cut education? Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): Order. I do not want to do any of those things. Will the hon. Gentleman please use the third person? Mr Jones: I apologise, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was referring to Opposition Members, whose other options might be to put 13p on a litre of fuel, increase council tax, impose other tax rises or—as has always been the case—give the country more debt. Nick de Bois: Does my hon. Friend agree that it is time for the Opposition to set out their full deficit reduction plan, as specified by Labour’s previous Chancellor? Mr Jones: I thank my hon. Friend for his comments because they bring me neatly on to my next point. I suspect that today we will hear nothing from those on the Opposition Front Bench about what they will do. As with the rest of the measures that they have opposed, the Opposition will not reverse the measures put forward today, even if this country should have the misfortune of having another Labour Government. I look forward to, I hope, receiving answers from those on the Opposition Front Bench, but I fear that the hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Cathy Jamieson) will be completely silent on that point. To conclude, I will go through the Lobby this evening mindful of the fact that I am making an extremely important and difficult decision for many of my constituents. In the absence of a credible plan being put forward by any other party in this House—that is particularly true of the alternative being put forward this evening—I will be backing the Bill’s Second Reading and supporting the Government.

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5.50 pm Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab): Let me start by doing my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Gregg McClymont) a favour and correcting the hon. Member for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland). It was a Labour Government who introduced the welfare state, not a Liberal Government—I am damn sure there was not a Liberal Government after the war. I heard the Secretary of State defending the Bill on Radio 5 Live this morning. He made two important comments. The first was that the Government had underestimated the size and scale of the economic problems the country faces; the second was that the proposal to cap benefits was based on fairness. The two issues are, of course, inextricably linked, but what he failed to mention was his Government’s contribution to the size and scale of the economic problems we face. Without that part of the story it is difficult—indeed impossible—to put into context the proposal before us, nor is it possible to understand the rationale that the Government are setting out. The economy is not in good shape, but if the Prime Minister was too weak to move the Secretary of State from office in the last Cabinet reshuffle, he is certainly not going to move his Bullingdon club buddy. That is a pity, because it is the Chancellor’s quick-fix agenda of raising taxes and cutting spending too far and too fast that has spectacularly backfired on our economy. Because the benefits bill is going up while tax revenues are down, borrowing continues to rise. [Interruption.] The Secretary of State should listen to this; he might learn something. We hear a lot about the great work that the Government have done to reduce the structural deficit, but very rarely do we hear anything about the debt. A perfunctory look at the numbers tells us why. The Government claim they have clipped the structural deficit by £37.5 billion, but they have also increased borrowing by £212 billion since they were elected. It seems neither appropriate, reasonable nor sane to claim that we have reduced the household budget— to use the litmus test of Mrs Thatcher, the great saviour of the Conservative party—while simultaneously borrowing more than five times as much as we claim to have saved. Like so many other claims that the coalition parties make, it is spurious. Their economic competence is indeed questionable. All this is important because if we had steered a different and more sensible course, the economic condition of our country would be immeasurably better. That takes us back to the Bill. Who is being asked to pay as a result of the Government’s mishandling of the economy? We all agree that it would be foolish to disagree or take sides on arithmetic, but it appears that the Government wish to do so. May I remind hon. Members that jobseeker’s allowance is £71 a week? Under the proposal in this Bill, it will increase by 71p this year. It might interest the House to know that since this Government took office, the cost of the average weekly shopping basket has risen by 17%. Most importantly for the poorest people in our country, figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show that falling income and rising food prices reduce food affordability by 20%. For the record—I draw this to the Secretary of State’s attention—the proliferation of food banks across the UK is not a cause for celebration.

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[Mr Michael McCann] Increases in prices have the ability, or at least the potential, to be absorbed by a working household’s budget. Although Labour Members do not deny that times are tough for everybody under the current economic circumstances, to suggest that there is a level playing field between someone earning even the minimum wage and someone receiving £71 a week in benefits is an utter fallacy. This is not about fairness; otherwise, 8,000 millionaires would not be getting a tax cut of £107,000 a year. The Secretary of State’s halo has fallen and crashed to the floor, and the Bill is sadly another example of the true character of Conservative politics. In difficult times, they see nothing wrong in helping the rich at the expense of the country’s poorest people. 5.54 pm Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con): I do not criticise Labour Members for their aspirations. There is nothing ignoble in the positions that they are taking; I just happen to believe that they are wrong. They know that the picture of despair and hopelessness that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State saw in Easterhouse in 2002 was the same picture that the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field) saw in 1997, when there was an historic opportunity for the then Labour Government to tackle welfare dependency and rebalance work and welfare. Unfortunately, they did not take that action. People out there are decent; they care and their attitude is, “There but for the grace of God go I.” They do not want to stigmatise people, and nor do Government Members. I accept that there has been some rhetoric on both sides of the House, but people do care. They also care about the dependency culture, and about fairness. In all honesty, they feel that the previous Labour Government tested their patience on this issue. It is disingenuous to talk about cruelty. I think that it was cruel to park 1,000 of my constituents on invalidity or incapacity benefit for more than 10 years without the opportunity—[Interruption.] I should remind Labour Members that this was in 2010. Those people were given no opportunity to inform anyone of their needs. People suffering from depression or other mental health problems, and people with physical afflictions, were simply parked and forgotten. I am not saying that the Labour Government did that because they were cruel or heartless; they did it because they were incompetent. We are taking the tough decisions that will make work pay, through the Work programme and through apprenticeships that will tackle youth unemployment, which the previous Government doubled. Work is the No. 1 determinant in taking people out of poverty and breaking the cycle of children seeing their parents unemployed, living in a half-life of hopelessness and poverty and lacking ambition. That has been demonstrated across the world. Christopher Pincher: My hon. Friend is quite right to say that work provides the best way out of poverty. Does he agree that the 5.2 million people who were trapped in dependency when the economy was growing in the boom years under Labour are evidence of the previous Government’s structural failure to deal with poverty?

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Mr Jackson: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In retrospect, I think that it was a tragedy to import thousands of low-wage, low-skilled people from eastern Europe while we parked our own indigenous young people who needed skills and training and who needed educators and businesses to put their the faith and trust in them. I have nothing against the people who wanted to come to this country to make a better life for themselves and their families, but at what cost did? Even the Scottish Trades Union Congress says the same thing. Some of the arguments being used are disingenuous because they do not fully understand the context. We have uprated benefits by 5.2%, we have brought in apprenticeships, and we are trying to deal with these issues through the Work programme. I am on the Public Accounts Committee and I know that the programme is not perfect. We are at the beginning of a process and there are some difficulties with appeals, with people’s understanding of the system, and with advocacy. I understand that. However, my blue-collar constituents do not understand how it can be right, when their average salary is about £24,000, for a party that aspires to government to say that it will not countenance a benefit cap of £26,000. My constituency has some of the poorest super-output areas and wards in the eastern region, and my constituents are decent, salt-of-the-earth people who want to work. They are not shirkers. Mr MacNeil rose— Mr Jackson: I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman, even though he is a terribly charming fellow. Those people in my constituency want to work, but they want the Government to give them a positive message about the future. It is cruel to park people and to forget them. James Wharton (Stockton South) (Con): I want to back up what my hon. Friend is saying. When I went around my constituency at the last election, the issue of making work pay came up time and again, and the communities in which it came up were the poorest ones. They had seen the damage that long-term welfare dependency could do to a community. The reason that my hon. Friend and I welcome the reforms is that the Government are finally tackling this long-term problem, which hits the poorest in our country the hardest. Mr Jackson: That was eloquently put by my hon. Friend, who is even younger and better looking than the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil). We take a pinch of salt for a party that has no coherent fiscal alternative. Frankly, “Tough on Coco Pops and tough on the causes of Coco Pops” does not make a fiscal policy. The 10p tax rate was a debacle, while re-spending over and over again bankers’ bonuses and pensions credit does not cut the mustard. Let me give some free advice to Labour Members. We did the same as them in 1998 and 1999 when we said that the downturn was made in Downing street, but it did not help us because we were not seen as credible. I respectfully invite Labour Members, if they are going to vote against Second Reading, to say what they would cut and what they would spend as an alternative. The Bill will save the best part of £2 billion. Politics is about choices, as Aneurin Bevan said 50-odd years ago, and

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he was right. It is disingenuous to keep repeating the issue of tax cuts to millionaires, when we have taken millions of people out of tax and cut the taxes of many low-paid working people. This Bill is about giving a message—that work pays and that it is better than welfare. We should give people the life they need and deserve—a life of work and a better future. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): Order. Will everyone resume their seats? We can see that no Government Members wish to contribute, so if everyone shows the time discipline of remaining within three minutes, all those who wish to speak will be able to contribute to the debate. Let us have some team play. 6.1 pm Mr Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) (Lab): First, I am sorry to see that the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather) is no longer in her place, as she made a very good speech. She mentioned one word that applies to much of the debate when she spoke about the use of “language”, while another important word, spoken about by the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones), who is now leaving, is “ideology”. Language and ideology have surrounded this debate for many years. In the last 12 months, we have noticed the language used by the coalition to get us to where we are today. Twelve months ago last January, the Deputy Prime Minister was talking about “alarm clock Britain”, and then we had talk about people “behind the curtains”. On 8 October last year on the “Today” programme, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said it was “unfair that people listening to this programme going out to work see the neighbour next door with the blinds down because they are on benefits”.

My blinds used to be down because I was on night shift, and for many people the blinds and curtains are closed in the morning because they are working hard throughout the night, seven of 24 hours every day to keep industry running. Many people will resent what has been said. This is not the first time that such language has been used. Andrew Rawnsley, a political columnist for whom I have a lot of time, got it right in an article in The Observer this Sunday, when he said that in view of the true intent of the author of the Bill—I assume he meant the Chancellor of the Exchequer—it should be called “the Welfare (Make Labour Look Like the Party for Skiving Fat Slobs) bill”.

It is a pity that the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Mr Burley) is not in his place as that description fits well with his anonymous quotes about people being at home because that is what they want to do and because they do not want to go out to work. That is not my experience in life, and I have been a Member of this House a long time. I started work as one of six children in a coalmining community. I lived in that community for most of my life, and I can say that the people I know and have represented for years are not like the caricatures that have been portrayed in this debate for far too long. Andrew Rawnsley went on in his article to say the real truth: “The majority of those who are going to lose—about 60%—are people in work, among them 3.7 million people on child tax credit and 2.5 million on working tax credit…those hit will include primary school teachers, nurses and army officers”.

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As he went on to say, they are “not exactly the ‘shirkers’ and ‘scroungers’ of some Tory rhetoric about benefits.”

The Government are trying to play politics with the welfare state, but their claims are clearly unravelling. It is no wonder that the Government have run out of speakers—and come the next general election, some Government Members will deeply regret the speeches that they have made today. The Citizens Advice Bureau works with these people week in, week out, giving them advice, and it works with us as well, certainly in my part of the world. According to the brief that it sent to us: “A couple with two children earning £26,000 a year and paying a fairly modest rent of £130 a week… will experience a net loss of £1.85 a week from next April, £6.52 the following April and £11.20 in April 2015. A possible rise in the personal tax allowance to £10,000 in perhaps April 2014 would only give them £0.75 a week to offset the loss of £6.52.”

Mr MacNeil: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way? Mr Barron: No, I will not. Other Members wish to speak. As was pointed out by my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg), this is the first time that we have sat here and not had one debate about one annual uprating of benefits. That is because this uprating is so unpopular. It has been driven by a nasty party, and by a nasty piece of legislation which I will oppose. 6.5 pm Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): I am sorry that we are so pressed for time, because these are issues of real public interest, and I think that they deserve more scrutiny than we are able to give them this evening. I believe that the 1% cap on the uprating of working-age benefits is an inherently regressive measure. It will make people on low incomes even poorer, will increase deprivation, and will widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots in our communities. It will particularly hit parents in low-paid or part-time work who are already struggling to make ends meet because of the wider economic climate. I shall oppose the Bill’s Second Reading. Labour’s amendment proposes that the House should decline it a Second Reading, and posits a guaranteed job offer for those who have been out of work for a long time. On the basis that that is a laudable aim, I am prepared to support it, albeit with a caveat. I have listened carefully to the debate, but I have heard no details of how such a proposal could be put into effect in any realistic way. I would not want to endorse any particular scheme until I had seen whether it was workable and fundable in practice. The Bill will hit those who are working, especially those who are supporting and bringing up children, especially hard. Many people in lower-paid private sector jobs have seen their hours cut recently, and many who are working part-time want to work full-time but cannot find full-time jobs or pick up extra hours. Meanwhile, they are struggling to juggle work with child care.

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[Dr Eilidh Whiteford] As others have said, notably the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), we all need to take responsibility for the way in which we portray people who are unemployed. We need to recognise that those who are jobless should not necessarily be blamed for their joblessness, and that the rises and falls in unemployment are caused by wider economic factors more than by individuals’ aspirations. We also need to recognise that the greater part of the savings made here will be taken from people who are working, often in very physically demanding and fairly unrewarding jobs. Like the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron), I was struck by the comments of the Citizens Advice Bureau on the impact assessment. We had seen no impact assessment until this afternoon, and we have still seen no equality impact assessment. According to the CAB’s calculations, a family consisting of two full-time workers earning the minimum wage with two children, living in private rented accommodation, will be losing £12 a week by 2015. Disabled lone parents will suffer, as will families with a single earner. What those examples mask, however, is the disproportionate impact of the rising cost of living on households with very low incomes. The worst of the cold winter weather is probably still ahead of us, but the rises in domestic fuel bills will cause a very nasty hangover in the spring. Christopher Pincher: Will the hon. Lady give way? Dr Whiteford: I will give way briefly. Christopher Pincher: The hon. Lady talks of the impact on low-income families. Is she aware that, as a result of the Chancellor’s autumn statement last year, some 1,400 people in her constituency are being taken out of tax, and 30,000-odd are better off in tax? Dr Whiteford: I am delighted to be able to respond to that point. What has been shown by the monitoring of the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and by the Government’s own impact assessment—which we received very belatedly—is that the combination of the tax and benefit changes will hit the lowest deciles of the income spectrum much harder than the middle and upper deciles. The lowest five deciles are hit hardest, and within that the lowest three are hit worst of all. Many of those are hard-working people and they deserve more. We have heard much criticism of the tax credit system this afternoon, but the Government have failed to address the reason why we need a tax system when people who are working full-time in demanding jobs cannot afford to bring up their children without depending on extra support from the state. That is the underlying issue, and until we have heard how the Government plan to address poverty for working people, we should not even be talking about a below-inflation rise in benefits. The other issue that should be taken into account, which has been raised by other Members, is that food prices are rising. That is to do with the bad harvest that we have had here due to the very wet summer but, more importantly at a global level, bad harvests in the US and Russia have put the prices of basic commodities way up. In the past year potatoes, probably the great staple of our own food economy, have gone up in price

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by more than 40%. That is having a disproportionate impact on very poor people, compared to people like us. A 1% increase in an MP’s salary would give us an extra £600 a year. The increase of 71p or 72p for a jobseeker does not compare. There is a quantitative, material difference. The cap means that there would be a 4% cumulative cut in support to low and middle income families, which will increase material deprivation. The Government have got their priorities all wrong. Asking low and middle income families to bear the brunt of cuts while insulating the very richest is the wrong choice to make, and I look forward to the day when in Scotland we can make these decisions for ourselves. 6.11 pm Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) (Lab): The Chancellor’s statement last autumn was an admission that the Government were failing in their economic policy. They had failed on their two fiscal targets and they now say that they will need two Parliaments to meet those targets. The Chancellor needs to divert attention from his economic policy and is doing so by the crudest of politics. The Bill is a wedge between one party and another for electoral advantage. It hits the low paid, the unemployed, of whom there are 2.5 million, and the under-employed—many, many people on low wages, decent, hard-working people, including nurses, primary school teachers and armed forces personnel—and to play politics with them through the Bill is wrong. Part-time workers need help and support, yes, and I would support a reform that helps them, but to penalise them at this time is completely and utterly wrong. The Chancellor is not known for his consistency. In his autumn statement in 2011 he said: “I also want to protect . . . those who, through no fault of their own, have lost jobs and are trying to find work”.—[Official Report, 29 November 2011; Vol. 536, c. 802.]

Those are the very people who, 12 months later, he is going to hit hardest. I can understand some of those on the Conservative Benches thinking that the wedge is very clever, but I cannot understand the Liberal Democrats supporting it. There are not many of them— John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD) rose— Albert Owen: I will not take an intervention as the hon. Gentleman has not been here throughout and there are not many of his colleagues here today. My constituency suffered from high unemployment in the 1930s, the 1980s and the 1990s—mass unemployment in the 1930s. My constituency has a strong Liberal tradition. Megan Lloyd-George, one of my predecessors, refused promotion in the coalition Government because she wanted to stand up for the unemployed, the underemployed and the low paid, and she wanted to support the welfare state. Breaking the link today between the increase and inflation is in many ways a treacherous act for a Liberal. John Hemming rose— Albert Owen: I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman for the reasons that I gave and the limitations. Had he been here at the beginning, he would have heard many of the arguments.

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The Liberal Democrats have a lack of conviction, but they can make up for that. I know that some honourable ones will, and will vote for the amendment tonight and against Second Reading, because the Bill is completely wrong. There was no need for a Bill. The change could have been made as it has been in the past, but it was chosen for political theatre. After losing Corby, the Government in desperation went to Crosby, and Crosby introduced the wedge. The crudest of Australian politics has been imported to the United Kingdom. Too many of my constituents—decent, honest, hardworking people—will see their benefits cut if the Bill goes through tonight. I appeal to the Liberal Democrats and those decent Conservatives who genuinely care about the underemployed, the unemployed and the low paid to join us by voting for the amendment and against a Second Reading and standing up—I make no apologies for this—for the decent, honest, hard-working people, the low-paid, the unemployed and the underemployed, who are under attack from this Government measure. 6.15 pm Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab): The Bill represents an unprecedented break with the principles underpinning the social contract that has characterised British society in the post-war period. No other Government—not even the Thatcher Government— have broken with the uprating principle to the degree that this Government have done so, and for very good reasons, because the loss of income incurred over time merely stores up problems for the future. Earlier today my right hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (David Miliband) outlined the case for genuine welfare reform, on the basis that economic and demographic changes make such reform vital. I argue that at the heart of the debate is the need to look again at how we get people back into work. Labour’s job guarantee for the young and the long-term unemployed would be a good start on the road to proper, meaningful welfare reform, whereas the Government’s proposals, as laid out in the Bill, do not represent reform. Rather, they represent an old-fashioned attack on the victims of the Government’s double-dip recession: the low-paid and their children. The attack on the jobless and the low-paid is simple to explain. In the context of the welfare changes already announced, which will take £18 billion out of the welfare budget for the working-age population, the 1% freeze represents an appalling but audacious decision on the part of the Con-Dem coalition to force those on the lowest incomes to pay the cost of the Government’s failure to inject demand into the economy, with borrowing going up and austerity measures being extended well beyond 2015. While £3.4 billion is given away as a tax cut to millionaires, the very lowest paid in society are being asked to pay for the Government’s economic failures. Even worse, it is those in work who will bear the greatest impact of the freeze inscribed in the Bill. According to the IFS, as we have heard many times today, 68% of those affected by the decision will be in work. Yesterday we heard the Deputy Prime Minister—a Liberal MP—excuse his support for what is clearly an unfair and vicious attack on those who are least able to pay the price for economic incompetence by claiming that there is no alternative. The truth is that these savings, which amount to £3.7 billion, must be seen in

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the context of the £3.4 billion give-away to the very richest in society. On top of that, we all know that there is only one sure way of getting the deficit down in the long term: getting the economy growing again and getting people back into work. The real victims of today’s measure are, of course, children—blameless children who will feel the impact of squeezed budgets. Many already know what it is like to see their parents fall back on food banks to keep them fed. Children are primarily the responsibility of those who bring them into the world, their parents, but we understand that society, too, has a responsibility towards them. After all, the young are our future. Society needs to nurture that future, invest in it and give it the best possible chance of delivering the prosperity we all need. I will draw my remarks to a conclusion with one further point. The Government think that they are clever in the way they are shaping their savings profile. They think that they will escape the consequences of what they are doing because the jobless, the low-paid and the young vote in lower numbers than we all wish to see. The Government should think again, because that will not necessarily prove to be the case in 2015. 6.19 pm Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab): Hardly a week goes by without an individual or couple coming to my surgery, rather downcast, and saying something like, “You know, I’m very happy that we’re cracking down on scroungers, because it needs to be sorted out.” Then they pause and say, “But look what’s happened to me.” They might have lost their job at Lloyds TSB, Tata or Kimberly-Clark. They will say, “I’m out of work for the first time, so am I really supposed to work for such little money?” They might have the threat of the bedroom tax to pay and might be worried about where they will find the money. That demonstrates that in the same individuals can be the rhetoric and the reality. They can swallow the rhetoric of the right-wing press—some of which some Government Members, to their shame, have reiterated this afternoon— while understanding when the reality hits what the reality is. The fact is that 60% of those affected by the cut in support that will take place if the Bill is voted through are people in work. As the Children’s Society has demonstrated, nearly 12 million adults with children and 11.5 million children will be affected by the proposal. Parents affected include 300,000 nurses, 150,000 primary school teachers and 40,000 armed services personnel. The Bill and the rhetoric used by some on the Government Benches—to their credit, not by all—is designed to break the cross-party consensus that has existed since the Beveridge report. That consensus said that we were a society that looked after people in their hour of need and supported people through the bad times; that we were one nation who supported each other. It is not surprising, therefore, that some in the party of Beveridge are deeply unhappy at the tone and substance of the debate. I pay tribute to the contributions made by the hon. Members for Bradford East (Mr Ward) and for Brent Central (Sarah Teather). Barnardo’s has pointed to the impact that the Bill will have on children: “This policy will punish children the most by trapping them in poverty and impacting on their lives, leading to poor health, poor qualifications and unemployment.”

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[Nic Dakin] That is the risk we take if we go ahead. Finally, the policy is not only unfair but economically inept. As many have pointed out, people on the lowest incomes spend their money in local economies, and the last thing that we need is a further contraction in demand in local economies. We need a virtuous circle of a one-nation United Kingdom, which will be created if we deliver the compulsory jobs guarantee proposed in the Labour amendment. I will be proud to be supporting the 7,700 people on tax credits in my constituency by voting against what my right hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (David Miliband) rightly dubbed “this rancid Bill”. 6.22 pm Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab): How can it be that we are the seventh richest nation in the world but our children are getting rickets? How is it possible that in our rich nation 13 million people live below the poverty line—or that 200,000 people had to go to food banks last year, or that the poor have to make a choice between heating and eating, or that children are going to school hungry? The reason is that this rotten, heartless Government have given a tax cut to millionaires but with this Bill make the poor suffer even more. They have the cheek to label the 2.5 million people who are desperate for work as “shirkers”. How dare they? Do the Government want to tell Allan, who was working for an agency that gradually reduced his hours to the point where he lost his home—he is now sofasurfing—that he is a shirker? What about Nicola, who lost her tax credits while she was on maternity leave, or 59-year-old Patricia who, having worked all her life, has become unemployed due to an injury and already cannot heat her house? What about Stephen, who has just got custody of his three boys aged under seven and has had to give up his job as a chef because he could not get care for the children at night? What about Peter, who was about to set up home with his girlfriend until he lost his job three weeks before Christmas? Government Members do not have a clue. What would they like to say to my neighbour Leah, a single mum of two working 16 hours a week on the minimum wage? She uses her £101 a week wages to pay her rent, utilities, council tax and other household bills. She uses her tax credits to buy food, clothes, school dinners and her £18-a-week bus fares. What will she cut out when her money will not cover her basics? Should she beg for food at a food bank, stop her children from going swimming, stop heating the house or do what so many other parents have to do at the moment—skip meals just so that she can feed the children? Sixty-eight per cent. of the people hit by this Bill are, like Leah, in work. They are nurses, soldiers, shop workers, cleaners, teachers, admin workers and care workers. Many are already struggling to make ends meet, and this will put them over the edge. What about the others who are affected—carers and the disabled, and people desperate for work? Government Members should be ashamed of themselves. This policy is also going to harm the economy. The IMF has already warned the Government that their annual cut of £24 billion to benefits and tax credits will

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reduce economic output by up to £40 billion. Not only are they heartless; they are incompetent too. The way to get down the benefits bill is to get people into decently paid work. By already having a double-dip recession and heading for a triple dip, the Government have demonstrated that we cannot cut our way out of a recession—we have to grow our way out. Punishing the poor and bringing them to desperation will not grow the economy; it will simply make it worse. The Government boast that they are creating jobs but fail to tell us how many of those jobs are unpaid, because unbelievably they are including unpaid workfare placements in the figure for jobs created. They are silent on the number of those jobs that are under 16 hours a week, and they do not tell us how many of these so-called new jobs are really public sector jobs that are simply being transferred to the private sector. Yes, the Government need to get a grip on the economy, but not by driving the disabled to suicide and the poor to despair. They need to take action to grow the economy, not starve the poor. This Bill is a disgrace and I will be proud to vote against it and stand up for my constituents, both in work and out, who need a system that will support them and their families in good times and bad. 6.26 pm Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab): I object to the Government’s proposals to limit to 1% for the next three years any rise in income-maintenance benefits to low-income households, over 68% of which go to households in work, not households out of work. It is grossly unfair, hits the poorest hardest and will cause genuine hardship; it makes no economic sense whatsoever. Making real-terms cuts to low-income families will have a disastrous effect on local economies. People on low incomes and families who are struggling to make ends meet immediately, through necessity, spend what money they have and any increase they receive on basic essentials, putting that money back into the local economy. They have no choice about that. Low-income families have already been disproportionately badly hit because of rising food and fuel prices. Implementing these real-terms cuts will suck money out of the local economy, leading to more difficulties for local businesses, more shops on our high streets closing, and more job losses. This will particularly affect economically depressed areas where it is already hard to find another job, and more people unemployed means more people needing to claim benefits. Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/ Co-op): My hon. Friend makes an important point about jobs. The benefits bill is rising because of this Government’s failure on the economy and jobs. Does she agree that the Welsh Labour Government are showing the way with their Jobs Growth Wales fund, which is already ahead of target, in stark contrast to the failure of the Work programme, which has seen only two in 100 people put into work? Nia Griffith: Indeed. What the Welsh Government are doing is absolute proof that we mean business in our motion and in saying that we need to create opportunities and make sure that people get back to work. The great thing about the Welsh Government’s programme is that they have been targeting private

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sector jobs having previously concentrated on public sector jobs. That is making a huge difference to the people who are able to take part. The Bill will suck more money out of the economy. For example, House of Commons Library figures show that over the next three years the Government’s economic decisions will mean cuts in welfare benefits taking some £3.6 billion out of Wales. If we also add in the £2.4 billion in extra VAT that people will be paying, that amounts to a massive £7 billion coming out of the Welsh economy during this Government’s term of office. That is no way to foster economic growth. It is a complete myth that people receive massive, generous amounts. Comparisons with actual living costs have consistently shown that what people receive is not generous to start with, but over the years there has at least been a recognition by Governments of all colours that allowances should be regularly upgraded to reflect inflation. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) said, a decision to limit increases in the rate of income-maintenance benefits to below inflation for a sustained period is historically unprecedented. At a time when benefit allowances are down as a percentage of full-time earnings and prices of essential items are rising, this will lead to increased hardship and increased child poverty. House of Commons Library research shows that, as a result of these proposals, the real value of benefits and their value as a percentage of average full-time earnings will fall. Much has been made by the Lib Dems of the raising of the personal tax threshold, but in reality this is a regressive measure. An analysis by Citizens Advice and the Resolution Foundation shows that the impact of capping benefits and tax credits will wipe out any gains from the increase in the personal tax allowance for those on low incomes—precisely the people it is meant to help. I received a distressing letter recently from a woman who has been diagnosed with cancer that will require extensive surgery and follow-up treatment. She has been alarmed to discover the amount that she is expected to live on as statutory sick pay. She has worked all her life and made contributions. She has enough to cope with without having to worry about money. This Government’s Bill will make matters far worse for people such as her. To make a real-terms cut to statutory sick pay for one year, never mind three years, is an absolute disgrace. This Bill will not help people on low incomes—in fact, it will make life extremely difficult for them—and neither will it help to get the economy going. What we really need is real growth strategy to get the economy going, and then we can talk about paying back the deficit. 6.30 pm Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP): It is pantomime season and during much of today’s debate we have heard a lot of caricature, exaggeration and hyperbole, particularly from Government Members, with the honourable exceptions of the hon. Members for Brent Central (Sarah Teather) and for Bradford East (Mr Ward). I have sat throughout the whole debate and listened to insidious arguments in favour of this invidious Bill. It is a completely unnecessary Bill, a political contrivance. The Government are engaged in a classic act of

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misdirection. They are telling some of our people, “We are giving you the confection of increased personal allowances and taking you out of taxation,” and, “We are going to hit the spongers and confiscate from them,” but that is all designed to make sure that people do not realise that they will be hit with stealth cuts and stealth taxes. That is the plan and purpose of this Government. The theatre surrounding the Bill is part of that, which is why I am happy to oppose it. I am particularly glad that the official Opposition will also oppose its Second Reading, having many times found themselves boxed in by the fear of what the Daily Mail might say about some of this Government’s other measures. The fact is that this Bill will not just hit the benefits of those people who are out of work through no fault of their own; it will also hit the circumstances and living standards of families who are working, struggling to work and who hope that they will still work, but do not know whether they will able to, as a result of this Bill. That is why it is so unfair. The Bill is also unnecessary. I am not in denial about the scale of the deficit or any of the other hard choices that have to be made, but the idea that this is the measure that is needed now to deal with the deficit, and that it is absolutely necessary or in any way fair, is completely wrong. Nor do I believe the delusion accepted by the hon. Member for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) that this is a temporary measure. The Chancellor, who has inspired this Bill, has already said that he wants £10 billion-worth of cuts in welfare in the next spending review period and he will still look for those cuts. It is only today that the Government have produced their impact assessment for a Bill with such major implications, even though all sorts of other foundations and think tanks, such as Citizens Advice, have been able to produce their impact appraisals sooner. The Government’s impact assessment tells us: “The legislation is in place for two years after which the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will review the up-rating of benefits annually in line with statutory requirements. In a similar way Government will consider the up-rating of Tax Credits and Child Benefit at appropriate fiscal events, Budgets, Autumn Statements etc.”

Just as we were given no notice of this Bill until the autumn statement, we should be under no illusions that there will not be a further grinding agenda if the Chancellor gets a mandate to get his way in the future. That is why the introduction of the Bill fundamentally changes things with regard to the commitments that we have all made to the social security system for all the reasons given by so many hon. Members. I represent a constituency where enduring high unemployment is a chronic problem. For those who are in work, low pay and under-employment are too much a part of their experience. All those people will be hit. In a constituency such as mine, the problem is not a lack of work ethic, but a lack of work. A firm that opened recently interviewed 23 people for every job that it had. That is not a lack of work ethic. Those people who want jobs are being insulted by this Bill. 6.34 pm Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green): The Bill is part of a war on the poor, waged largely by the very rich, who are deliberately doing all they can to divide

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[Caroline Lucas] individuals and set communities against each other. It is a reckless and dangerous measure that is likely to be massively counter-productive and to destabilise already struggling groups in society, pushing them into greater despair and desperation. The Bill is not only hugely socially divisive, but is likely to be entirely counter-productive, even in the economic terms that the Government say are driving this set of policies. It will be counter-productive because as people are pushed into greater desperation, they are more likely to be forced to make greater calls on the state, for example as those who are struggling to pay rent are finally pushed into homelessness or as those who are struggling with mental disability or mental illness are finally tipped into greater ill health. It will be counter-productive because, as many hon. Members have said, if we want to get the economy moving again, the best way to do so is to put money into the pockets of the poorest, because they are the ones who will spend it in the local economy, not the very rich. This is a mean and miserable Bill from a mean and miserable Government. I hope that it will be reversed at the first opportunity. I apologise if I have missed this, but I would love to hear a firm commitment from Labour that if it forms the next Government, it will reverse this Act, as it will then be. I have been asking myself how this wretched Bill has got any currency at all. It is, of course, because of the deliberate lies, myths and misinformation that have surrounded it. There is the picture of the shirkers on benefits who have apparently enjoyed a lavish 20% income increase over the past five years. What a neatly seductive and simple picture that paints, but what a false and unfair one, particularly to the 2,136 jobseeker’s allowance claimants in my constituency, who come to me on a regular basis, desperately searching for work. What does this lavish 20% increase mean in cash terms? I checked with the House of Commons Library. It means that in 2007, JSA was £59.15 a week and that five years later in 2012, it had gone up to just £71 a week. That is hardly a princely increase. The truth is that 20% of very little is still very, very little—but how useful it is to the Government to spin this attack on the poor! No wonder they never say what the 20% actually represents in cash terms. Similarly, there is the 10% increase in average earnings for people who are in work. Again, the Government never say what that percentage means. For people on average earnings, that 10% increase means an increase in their weekly take-home pay of about £11 in each of the last five years. That is not enough and I oppose the public sector pay freezes, but it is still nearly four and a half times more in hard cash terms than the £2.50 annual increase for those on JSA. It is therefore an outrageous and disingenuous attack on people who are seeking work to suggest that they are getting more than people who are in work when, in cash terms, they have got more than four times less. As the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather) said so eloquently, it is cash terms, not percentages, that mean the most to ordinary people. Getting tough on welfare is lazy, mean politics. It relies on misleading people and on conning the public into thinking that the system is more generous than it is

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and riddled with fraud. A poll commissioned by the TUC shows that, on average, people think that 27% of the welfare budget is claimed fraudulently. The Government’s figure is 0.7%. Instead of feeding those misconceptions, the Government should be challenging them. Instead of penalising the poor, the Government should be supporting them. I say again that this is a mean, miserable Bill. I hope that Members will reject it and I hope that I hear from Labour that it will reverse the Act if it gets into government next time around. 6.39 pm Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Coop): A lot of figures have been bandied about, so I will start with a few. There have been 34 Back-Bench speakers, including 13 from the Government Benches, two of whom were critical of the Government; and the Government ran out of speakers an hour before the debate was due to finish. What message does that send to people who want to know what the Government’s plans are and what will happen to their benefits? We have heard a number of powerful speeches and a number of others that I do not think were what people watching the debate would have wanted to hear. There have been so many speakers that I cannot list them all, but Opposition Members have been consistent in standing up for the people whom the Government have consistently let down. Ahead of the debate, this was described as a watershed moment. Perhaps it has turned out to be one, but maybe not in the way that the Government expected. On the very day of their coalition relaunch, the former Minister with responsibility for children and families, the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), condemned the coalition’s policy on welfare, the Leader of the House of Lords resigned with an admission that he had criticisms of his coalition partners, and we heard that the Deputy Prime Minister is apparently not entirely comfortable with the coalition’s approach to welfare, but as ever he is going to go along with the policy anyway. On the back of a report showing that the Work programme has been worse than doing nothing, we hear that a senior Minister briefed that the much heralded universal credit plans are not just in disarray but a “disaster waiting to happen”. Far from a Ronseal relaunch, the Government have had to reach for the Polyfilla to try to plug the gaping cracks in their own ranks and in the coalition in general. Let us talk about the Bill. We have been clear that we need to get the overall costs down, but we have heard that there are different ways to do that. There is the way that the Government propose, which we do not support, and there is the way that Labour proposes—getting people into work. Welfare spending is rising to pay for the costs of the Government’s failure on the economy. As we have heard time after time, the Bill will mean a real-terms cut in support for both people in work and those looking for work. It will mean a rise of 1%, while inflation is set to rise by between 2% and 3.7% over the same period. The Chancellor, who I understand has not been able to make it back in time for the winding-up speeches, talked about the unfairness of those on benefits keeping their blinds down while others head out to work. Sadly, some Government Members—not all, to be fair—have

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used such language today. The Tories in particular have tried to continue the myth that the Bill will only hit people who are somehow slacking or skiving. As we have heard time and time again, the Library analysis shows that just 23% of the savings will come from out-of-work benefits. The harsh reality is that most will come from people in work and on the lowest incomes, whether from tax credits, child benefit, maternity pay or sick pay. It will come from the most vulnerable in our society—the people we should be protecting most. We have heard about the research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which shows that more than 6 million people in working households are in poverty, while the Department’s own research shows that 60% of children living in poverty come from families in which at least one parent works. As the projections of the Institute for Fiscal Studies show, an extra 1 million children will be pushed into relative poverty by 2020 as a result of Government measures. Ministers ought to listen to that and take account of it, because that is all before we take into account the effect of the cuts that we are debating today. The IFS figures confirm that all the measures announced in the autumn statement, including the rise in the personal allowance and the measures in the Bill, will mean that a one-earner family with children will be an average of £534 a year worse off by 2015. That might not seem much to some Government Members, or to the millionaires who will get a tax cut that will give them £2,000 a week while those who get jobseeker’s allowance will have an extra 71p and there will be an extra 20p on child benefit. However, as we have heard time after time from Opposition Members, for a family on a low income those few pounds every week make the difference between a nutritious meal on the table for the children and just a snack. It is the difference between a child being able to go to a club, after-school event or school outing, or keeping the heating on during the coldest days of the year. The Chancellor’s view is of people who are out of work lying in bed with the blinds down, but many of those I know who are out of work are staffing charity shops, volunteering for food banks or helping out at the local youth centre. Those people would jump at the chance to have a job if there was one for them, and as we have heard, although they are unemployed at the moment, many have not always been so and may have moved in and out of work or had to reduce the number of hours worked during the week. Such people would take up the opportunities offered by our work guarantee scheme; they want to pay their way but need a job that will allow them to do so. We are calling for an approach to welfare reform that focuses on getting people back into work. Some Members have asked what the Labour party would do were it in government, and we would look at the position of the economy at the time. We will, however, be tough and fair, and under our jobs guarantee scheme every adult who is long-term unemployed will get a job that will be paid at the minimum wage for at least six months. If a job exists, people have a responsibility to take it. Our scheme will be structured—this point is important for those who have asked about how it would work—in a way that will allow people to look for permanent work at the same time as getting experience, and over the course of a year we expect it to help around 263,000 people.

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I was pleased to hear that the SNP will support the Labour party in today’s vote, but will the Minister clarify a point relating to disabled people—[Interruption.] There was me thinking that the cheer was for me being about to ask the Minister a hard question, but that turns out not to be the case. I have a question for the Minister and if he does not know the answer perhaps he will check with the Secretary of State. Questions have been raised about the impact of these measures on disabled people, particularly those in the support group. Will the Minister clarify that the changes will indeed penalise disabled people, even those in the support group, because 70% of the out-of-work support they rely on comes from benefits that will be subject to the 1% uprating? That needs to be clarified in the context of the Secretary of State’s suggestion that disabled people will not be affected. Several hon. Members rose— Cathy Jamieson: I must conclude because I have only a couple more minutes left. If the Government will not listen to Opposition Members or to those on their own Benches, including the hon. Members for Brent Central and for Bradford East (Mr Ward), both of whom raised concerns, perhaps they will listen to the voices of people outside this House and the 69% of the public who believe that benefits should rise at least in line with inflation because that is the fair thing to do. Perhaps they will listen to those who work on the front line and see the effects of poverty day in, day out, or to charity leaders across the UK, including Oxfam, the Children’s Society, Citizens Advice and Barnardo’s who wrote an open letter earlier this week. If that is not enough, will the Government at least listen to what they themselves have said in the past? It is good to see the Chancellor back in his place because in the 2011 autumn statement he said that he wanted to “protect those who are not able to work because of their disabilities and those who, through no fault of their own, have lost jobs and are trying to find work.”—[Official Report, 29 November 2011; Vol. 536, c. 802.]

If the Prime Minister and the Chancellor really believe that, they need to show it in their actions. Unfortunately, we have today seen a real divide between the Government’s approach and the fair approach from the Opposition. This watershed moment shows that those warm words have been replaced by a chilling reality—that the Government simply do not care. The true character of the Government has been exposed. There are tax cuts for millionaires while millions of working people pay the price for their economic failure. We need real welfare reform—Labour’s jobs guarantee—that is tough and fair, and that works. We do not need an unfair attack on striving families trying to do their best from this out-oftouch and failing Government. 6.50 pm The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid): Let me start with some comments on tone. The Government have been wrongly accused by many on the Opposition Benches of using inflammatory language on this most important issue, but let me refer to some of the inflammatory language that has been used: “Let’s face the tough truth—that many people on the doorstep at the last election felt that too often we were for shirkers not workers.”

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[Sajid Javid] Those are not the words of any Government Member, but those of the shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, so let us hear no more about tone from Opposition Members. I thank all 36 hon. Members who have made contributions to the debate. They have shown how passionate they are about this issue, not least my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State Work and Pensions, who has devoted nearly a decade of his career to this important matter. While he was chairing the Centre for Social Justice and looking for ways to lift the poorest out of poverty, the Opposition spokesperson, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne), was at the Treasury, dishing out money like there was no tomorrow. I therefore find it quite bizarre that he, the man who so eloquently summed up the economic legacy in another quote of his— “I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left”—

has told us from the Opposition Dispatch Box how to spend even more. He has told us to commit more money to public spending—money he knows we do not have. Spending money is something that the right hon. Gentleman and the Opposition have an excellent record on. In the decade before the financial crisis and despite a growing economy, welfare spending increased by 20% and has continued to rise from 11% of gross domestic product in 2008 to more than 13% by 2012. Ian Lucas: Will the Minister give way? Sajid Javid: I will give way just this once. Ian Lucas: Will the Minister confirm that the Bill has been introduced because of the Government’s failure to deliver on the economic pledges they made in 2010? Sajid Javid: The hon. Gentleman should ask that question of the shadow Secretary of State. There is no money left! Let me put it simply: welfare spending costs the UK— Mr Byrne: Will the Minister give way? Sajid Javid: I will give way on that point. Mr Byrne: Will the Minister confirm to the House by how much extra borrowing has gone up over and above his initial forecast because of his failure to deliver growth and jobs in the economy? Sajid Javid: We are dealing with the economic mismanagement of the Government of whom he was part and the deficit is already down by 25% since we came to office. We are spending more than £200 billion a year on welfare. That is almost £1 in every £3 raised in taxes—more than the budgets for health, education and defence combined. After 13 years of economic mismanagement and overspending, the British people want a country that lives within its means once again. We need to find savings across the Government, and the uprating measures announced in the autumn statement are forecast to save £2.5 billion by 2015-16. It is interesting that not one

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Opposition Member addressed how they would fill that funding gap by opposing the Bill. That proves they have no answers for the problems the Government face. Several hon. Members rose— Sajid Javid: As a Treasury Minister, I know only too well how crucial those savings are—[Interruption.] Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. The Minister has said he is not giving way, so we do not need people shouting from the side of the Chamber that he should do so. It is up to him. Sajid Javid: I have five minutes left to sum up the whole debate and I need to take that time. These savings are crucial. They show that the Government are dealing with the record budget deficit they inherited. They will help to build confidence that the UK is a country in which it is safe to invest in the long term. Meanwhile, in the short term, these are savings that we can reinvest to make a real difference for a stronger economy. Several of my hon. Friends raised the issue of fairness, including my hon. Friends the Members for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) and for Cannock Chase (Mr Burley). We need to continue to get Britain back to work, but we also need to ensure that being at work pays. Since the beginning of the financial crisis, those in work have seen their average earnings increase by 10%, while those out of work have seen their benefits rise by 20%. This is not fair on taxpayers. It is not fair for my working constituents to pay out more to sustain welfare benefits at the exact time they are facing pressures to stretch their wages further. Nor is it fair to benefit claimants if we ensnare them in a position where it pays to claim benefits rather than to get out and find work. It is worth reminding the Opposition that those people who work in the public sector, whom this Government employ to carry out their work—such as the people whom the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill used to send out to buy his soup when he was a Cabinet Minister—have seen their pay frozen for two years and will see it increase by 1% for a further two years. The Opposition supported that course of action, but they do not think it is right to have the same restraint—a rise of 1%--applied to benefits and tax credits. Several hon. Members also rightly raised the issue of protecting the most vulnerable. Welfare spending is all about protecting the most vulnerable members of society. My hon. Friends the Members for Erewash (Jessica Lee), for Keighley (Kris Hopkins) and for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke) made that point very well, and that is why the disability carer and pension elements of working age benefits and tax credits will be protected. It is why the basic state pension will continue to increase by the triple guarantee—the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%. Even in the most difficult times, we need to protect those most in need and the changes in this Bill will achieve just that. We have heard some sensible opinions this afternoon, although it has to be said that they have come almost exclusively from this side of the House. We have also heard some vehement and misguided opposition from the other side of the House. The Labour party opposed the Welfare Reform Bill. The Labour party opposed the

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benefit cap. Now the Labour party opposes this Bill. The Opposition want to spend billions increasing benefits while people up and down the country face pay freezes. They want to spend billions increasing benefits when they have supported our decision to freeze public sector pay at 1%. Given Labour’s opposition to this Bill, they really need to tell the British people where they would find that £2.5 billion for 2015-16. Would they cut the jobs of 70,000 teachers, or perhaps 40,000 doctors? Perhaps they would raise income tax by nearly 1%. If they do not want to do any of those things, perhaps they need to be honest and admit that the Labour party is for something for nothing, and is the same old Labour party that would borrow billions more to pay for higher benefits. We are taking sensible, measured steps to put right the economic mess that the Labour party left behind, and I commend the Bill to the House. Question put, That the amendment be made. The House divided: Ayes 262, Noes 328. Division No. 128]

[6.59 pm

AYES Abbott, Ms Diane Abrahams, Debbie Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Allen, Mr Graham Ashworth, Jonathan Austin, Ian Bailey, Mr Adrian Bain, Mr William Balls, rh Ed Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Beckett, rh Dame Margaret Begg, Dame Anne Benn, rh Hilary Benton, Mr Joe Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, rh Mr Gordon Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Gregory Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Champion, Sarah Chapman, Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon

Connarty, Michael Cooper, Rosie Cooper, rh Yvette Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cruddas, Jon Cryer, John Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Sir Tony Curran, Margaret Danczuk, Simon David, Wayne Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Denham, rh Mr John Dobbin, Jim Dobson, rh Frank Docherty, Thomas Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donaldson, rh Mr Jeffrey M. Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doughty, Stephen Dowd, Jim Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Elliott, Julie Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Farrelly, Paul Fitzpatrick, Jim Flello, Robert Flint, rh Caroline Flynn, Paul Fovargue, Yvonne

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Glindon, Mrs Mary Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hamilton, Mr David Hamilton, Fabian Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hendrick, Mark Hepburn, Mr Stephen Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hoey, Kate Hood, Mr Jim Hopkins, Kelvin Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw Jackson, Glenda Jamieson, Cathy Jarvis, Dan Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Dame Tessa Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Llwyd, rh Mr Elfyn Long, Naomi Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Malhotra, Seema Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCabe, Steve McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McCrea, Dr William McDonagh, Siobhain McDonald, Andy

272

McDonnell, John McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Alison McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKenzie, Mr Iain McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Meale, Sir Alan Mearns, Ian Miliband, rh David Miliband, rh Edward Miller, Andrew Mitchell, Austin Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela O’Donnell, Fiona Osborne, Sandra Owen, Albert Paisley, Ian Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Powell, Lucy Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reed, Mr Jamie Reed, Steve Reeves, Rachel Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Ritchie, Ms Margaret Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Dame Joan Sarwar, Anas Sawford, Andy Seabeck, Alison Shannon, Jim Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simpson, David Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, rh Mr Andrew Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Tami, Mark Thomas, Mr Gareth

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Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Weir, Mr Mike Whiteford, Dr Eilidh

8 JANUARY 2013

Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Wood, Mike Woodcock, John Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Ayes: Nic Dakin and Graham Jones

NOES Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Amess, Mr David Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Baker, Steve Baldry, Sir Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, rh Gregory Baron, Mr John Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Bellingham, Mr Henry Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bone, Mr Peter Bottomley, Sir Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, rh Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brine, Steve Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Sir Malcolm Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burns, rh Mr Simon Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, rh Paul Burt, Alistair Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cameron, rh Mr David Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, rh Mr Alistair Carswell, Mr Douglas

Cash, Mr William Chishti, Rehman Chope, Mr Christopher Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clegg, rh Mr Nick Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, rh Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davies, Philip de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Drax, Richard Duddridge, James Duncan, rh Mr Alan Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Eustice, George Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, rh Michael Farron, Tim Field, Mark Foster, rh Mr Don Fox, rh Dr Liam Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Freer, Mike Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Sir Roger Garnier, Sir Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goldsmith, Zac Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Grant, Mrs Helen Grayling, rh Chris Greening, rh Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Gyimah, Mr Sam Hague, rh Mr William Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, rh Mr Philip Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Hayes, Mr John Heald, Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hinds, Damian Hoban, Mr Mark Hollingbery, George Hollobone, Mr Philip Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Howarth, Sir Gerald Howell, John Hughes, rh Simon Hunt, rh Mr Jeremy Huppert, Dr Julian Jackson, Mr Stewart James, Margot Javid, Sajid Jenkin, Mr Bernard Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, rh Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Kennedy, rh Mr Charles Kirby, Simon Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Lansley, rh Mr Andrew Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Letwin, rh Mr Oliver Lewis, Brandon Lewis, Dr Julian

Liddell-Grainger, Mr Ian Lidington, rh Mr David Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Main, Mrs Anne Maude, rh Mr Francis May, rh Mrs Theresa Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McIntosh, Miss Anne McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, rh Maria Mills, Nigel Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Norman, Jesse Nuttall, Mr David O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Dr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Osborne, rh Mr George Ottaway, Richard Paice, rh Sir James Parish, Neil Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Phillips, Stephen Pickles, rh Mr Eric Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reevell, Simon

274

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Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robertson, rh Hugh Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Rudd, Amber Russell, Sir Bob Rutley, David Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Shepherd, Sir Richard Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Henry Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, rh Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Spencer, Mr Mark Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, rh Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, rh Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, rh Mr Hugo

8 JANUARY 2013

Syms, Mr Robert Tapsell, rh Sir Peter Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Turner, Mr Andrew Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vara, Mr Shailesh Vickers, Martin Walker, Mr Charles Wallace, Mr Ben Walter, Mr Robert Watkinson, Dame Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Wilson, Mr Rob Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Jeremy Wright, Simon Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Noes: Mark Hunter and Anne Milton

Question accordingly negatived. Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 62(2)), That the Bill be now read a Second time. The House divided: Ayes 324, Noes 268. Division No. 129]

[7.13 pm

AYES Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Amess, Mr David Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Baker, Steve Baldry, Sir Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, rh Gregory Baron, Mr John Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Bellingham, Mr Henry Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew

Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bone, Mr Peter Bottomley, Sir Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, rh Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brine, Steve Brokenshire, James Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Sir Malcolm Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burns, rh Mr Simon

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, rh Paul Burt, Alistair Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cameron, rh Mr David Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, rh Mr Alistair Carswell, Mr Douglas Cash, Mr William Chishti, Rehman Chope, Mr Christopher Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clegg, rh Mr Nick Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, rh Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davies, Philip de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Drax, Richard Duddridge, James Duncan, rh Mr Alan Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Eustice, George Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, rh Michael Farron, Tim Field, Mark Foster, rh Mr Don Fox, rh Dr Liam Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Freer, Mike Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Sir Roger Garnier, Sir Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goldsmith, Zac Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Grant, Mrs Helen Grayling, rh Chris

Greening, rh Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Gyimah, Mr Sam Hague, rh Mr William Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, rh Mr Philip Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Hayes, Mr John Heald, Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hinds, Damian Hoban, Mr Mark Hollingbery, George Hollobone, Mr Philip Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Howarth, Sir Gerald Howell, John Hughes, rh Simon Hunt, rh Mr Jeremy Jackson, Mr Stewart James, Margot Javid, Sajid Jenkin, Mr Bernard Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, rh Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Kennedy, rh Mr Charles Kirby, Simon Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lansley, rh Mr Andrew Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Letwin, rh Mr Oliver Lewis, Brandon Lewis, Dr Julian Liddell-Grainger, Mr Ian Lidington, rh Mr David Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen

276

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Macleod, Mary Main, Mrs Anne Maude, rh Mr Francis May, rh Mrs Theresa Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McIntosh, Miss Anne McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, rh Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Norman, Jesse Nuttall, Mr David O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Dr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Osborne, rh Mr George Ottaway, Richard Paice, rh Sir James Parish, Neil Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Phillips, Stephen Pickles, rh Mr Eric Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reevell, Simon Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robertson, rh Hugh Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Rudd, Amber Russell, Sir Bob

8 JANUARY 2013

Rutley, David Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Shepherd, Sir Richard Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Henry Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, rh Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Spencer, Mr Mark Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, rh Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, rh Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, rh Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Tapsell, rh Sir Peter Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Turner, Mr Andrew Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vara, Mr Shailesh Vickers, Martin Walker, Mr Charles Wallace, Mr Ben Walter, Mr Robert Watkinson, Dame Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Wilson, Mr Rob Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Jeremy Wright, Simon Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Ayes: Mark Lancaster and Mark Hunter

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill NOES

Abbott, Ms Diane Abrahams, Debbie Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Allen, Mr Graham Ashworth, Jonathan Austin, Ian Bailey, Mr Adrian Bain, Mr William Balls, rh Ed Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Beckett, rh Dame Margaret Begg, Dame Anne Benn, rh Hilary Benton, Mr Joe Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, rh Mr Gordon Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Gregory Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Champion, Sarah Chapman, Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Connarty, Michael Cooper, Rosie Cooper, rh Yvette Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cruddas, Jon Cryer, John Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Sir Tony Curran, Margaret Danczuk, Simon David, Wayne Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Denham, rh Mr John Dobbin, Jim Dobson, rh Frank Docherty, Thomas Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donaldson, rh Mr Jeffrey M.

Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doughty, Stephen Dowd, Jim Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Elliott, Julie Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Farrelly, Paul Fitzpatrick, Jim Flello, Robert Flint, rh Caroline Flynn, Paul Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry George, Andrew Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Glindon, Mrs Mary Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hamilton, Mr David Hamilton, Fabian Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hendrick, Mark Hepburn, Mr Stephen Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hoey, Kate Hood, Mr Jim Hopkins, Kelvin Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Huppert, Dr Julian Irranca-Davies, Huw Jackson, Glenda Jamieson, Cathy Jarvis, Dan Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Dame Tessa Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara

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Kendall, Liz Kennedy, rh Mr Charles Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leech, Mr John Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Llwyd, rh Mr Elfyn Long, Naomi Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Malhotra, Seema Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCabe, Steve McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McCrea, Dr William McDonagh, Siobhain McDonald, Andy McDonnell, John McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Alison McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKenzie, Mr Iain McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Meale, Sir Alan Mearns, Ian Miliband, rh David Miliband, rh Edward Miller, Andrew Mitchell, Austin Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela O’Donnell, Fiona Osborne, Sandra Owen, Albert Paisley, Ian Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Powell, Lucy Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reed, Mr Jamie Reed, Steve

8 JANUARY 2013

Reeves, Rachel Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Ritchie, Ms Margaret Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Dame Joan Sarwar, Anas Sawford, Andy Seabeck, Alison Shannon, Jim Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simpson, David Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, rh Mr Andrew Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Tami, Mark Teather, Sarah Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Ward, Mr David Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Weir, Mr Mike Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Wood, Mike Woodcock, John Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Noes: Nic Dakin and Graham Jones

Question accordingly agreed to. Bill read a Second time.

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

280

WELFARE UP-RATING BILL (PROGRAMME) Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 83A(7)), That the following provisions shall apply to the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill: Committal 1. The Bill shall be committed to a Committee of the whole House. Proceedings in Committee, on Consideration and Third Reading 2. Proceedings in Committee, any proceedings on Consideration and proceedings on Third Reading shall be taken in one day in accordance with the following provisions of this Order. 3. Proceedings in Committee and any proceedings on Consideration shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion one hour before the moment of interruption on the day on which proceedings in Committee are commenced. 4. Proceedings on Third Reading shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at the moment of interruption on that day. 5. Standing Order No. 83B (Programming committees) shall not apply to proceedings in Committee, to any proceedings on Consideration or to proceedings on Third Reading. Other proceedings 6. Any other proceedings on the Bill (including any proceedings on consideration of Lords Amendments or on any further messages from the Lords) may be programmed. —(Karen Bradley.)

The House divided: Ayes 322, Noes 261. Division No. 130]

[7.29 pm

AYES Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Amess, Mr David Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Baker, Steve Baldry, Sir Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, rh Gregory Baron, Mr John Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Bellingham, Mr Henry Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bone, Mr Peter Bottomley, Sir Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, rh Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brine, Steve Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy

Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Sir Malcolm Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burns, rh Mr Simon Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, rh Paul Burt, Alistair Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cameron, rh Mr David Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, rh Mr Alistair Carswell, Mr Douglas Cash, Mr William Chishti, Rehman Chope, Mr Christopher Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, rh Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davies, Philip de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Doyle-Price, Jackie

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Drax, Richard Duddridge, James Duncan, rh Mr Alan Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Eustice, George Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, rh Michael Farron, Tim Field, Mark Foster, rh Mr Don Fox, rh Dr Liam Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Freer, Mike Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Sir Roger Garnier, Sir Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goldsmith, Zac Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Grant, Mrs Helen Grayling, rh Chris Greening, rh Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Gyimah, Mr Sam Hague, rh Mr William Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, rh Mr Philip Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Hayes, Mr John Heald, Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hinds, Damian Hoban, Mr Mark Hollingbery, George Hollobone, Mr Philip Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Howarth, Sir Gerald Howell, John Hughes, rh Simon Hunt, rh Mr Jeremy

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Huppert, Dr Julian Jackson, Mr Stewart James, Margot Javid, Sajid Jenkin, Mr Bernard Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, rh Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Kennedy, rh Mr Charles Kirby, Simon Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Lansley, rh Mr Andrew Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Letwin, rh Mr Oliver Lewis, Brandon Lewis, Dr Julian Liddell-Grainger, Mr Ian Lidington, rh Mr David Lloyd, Stephen Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Maude, rh Mr Francis Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McIntosh, Miss Anne McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, rh Maria Mills, Nigel Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Norman, Jesse Nuttall, Mr David O’Brien, Mr Stephen

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Offord, Dr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Osborne, rh Mr George Ottaway, Richard Paice, rh Sir James Parish, Neil Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Phillips, Stephen Pickles, rh Mr Eric Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reevell, Simon Reid, Mr Alan Robertson, rh Hugh Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Rudd, Amber Russell, Sir Bob Rutley, David Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Shepherd, Sir Richard Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Henry Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, rh Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Spencer, Mr Mark Stanley, rh Sir John

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Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, rh Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, rh Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, rh Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Tapsell, rh Sir Peter Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Turner, Mr Andrew Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vara, Mr Shailesh Vickers, Martin Walker, Mr Charles Wallace, Mr Ben Walter, Mr Robert Watkinson, Dame Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Wilson, Mr Rob Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Jeremy Wright, Simon Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Ayes: Mark Hunter and Anne Milton

NOES Abbott, Ms Diane Abrahams, Debbie Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Allen, Mr Graham Ashworth, Jonathan Austin, Ian Bailey, Mr Adrian Bain, Mr William Balls, rh Ed Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Beckett, rh Dame Margaret

Begg, Dame Anne Benn, rh Hilary Benton, Mr Joe Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, rh Mr Gordon Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell

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Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Gregory Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Champion, Sarah Chapman, Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Connarty, Michael Cooper, Rosie Cooper, rh Yvette Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cruddas, Jon Cryer, John Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Sir Tony Curran, Margaret Danczuk, Simon David, Wayne Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Denham, rh Mr John Dobbin, Jim Dobson, rh Frank Docherty, Thomas Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donaldson, rh Mr Jeffrey M. Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doughty, Stephen Dowd, Jim Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Elliott, Julie Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Farrelly, Paul Fitzpatrick, Jim Flello, Robert Flint, rh Caroline Flynn, Paul Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat

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Glindon, Mrs Mary Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hamilton, Mr David Hamilton, Fabian Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hendrick, Mark Hepburn, Mr Stephen Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hoey, Kate Hood, Mr Jim Hopkins, Kelvin Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw Jamieson, Cathy Jarvis, Dan Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Dame Tessa Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Llwyd, rh Mr Elfyn Long, Naomi Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Malhotra, Seema Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCabe, Steve McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McCrea, Dr William McDonagh, Siobhain McDonald, Andy McDonnell, John

McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Alison McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKenzie, Mr Iain McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Meale, Sir Alan Mearns, Ian Miliband, rh David Miliband, rh Edward Miller, Andrew Mitchell, Austin Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela O’Donnell, Fiona Osborne, Sandra Owen, Albert Paisley, Ian Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Powell, Lucy Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reed, Mr Jamie Reed, Steve Reeves, Rachel Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Ritchie, Ms Margaret Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Dame Joan

Sarwar, Anas Sawford, Andy Seabeck, Alison Shannon, Jim Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simpson, David Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, rh Mr Andrew Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Mr Graham Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Tami, Mark Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Weir, Mr Mike Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Wood, Mike Woodcock, John Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Noes: Nic Dakin and Graham Jones

Question accordingly agreed to.

Business without Debate BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Ordered, That, at the sitting on Tuesday 15 January, notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order No. 16 (Proceedings under an Act or on European Union documents), the Speaker shall put the Questions necessary to dispose of proceedings on the Motion in the name of Mr Secretary Moore relating to Constitutional Law not later than 7.00 pm.——(Karen Bradley.)

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Newcastle upon Tyne City Council Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Karen Bradley.) 7.41 pm Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab): I am grateful to have this opportunity to discuss what may well be one of the most urgent and pressing issues affecting my city: the budgetary black hole currently faced by Newcastle city council as a result of the reductions in funding received from central Government, alongside ever increasing cost pressures faced by the authority. I am particularly pleased to be joined by my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown), who is keen to contribute to the debate. Before turning to the effects of the reduction in funding for Newcastle city council, I want briefly to analyse the frankly dire financial position in which the council finds itself. To make up for the significant shortfall in funding that it faces, the local authority anticipates, following analysis by the city treasurer of figures published by Ministers just before Christmas, a shortfall of £100 million over the next three years. So about £39.3 million of the funding black hole is a direct result of reductions in central Government grant funding. The remainder of the funding gap results from unavoidable cost pressures that the council has to absorb. They include rising costs caused by inflation—of goods and services, heating and electricity—and an ageing population that means that an increasing number of people require support to live independently in the later years. Worryingly, an increasing number of vulnerable children are also being taken into care. The economic downturn is also having a big impact on the level of income that the council is able to raise from the goods and services that it provides, such as retail lettings and car parking. There is simply less money going round. The council could, of course, have looked to increase council tax to reduce its funding gap, but has decided that that would be the wrong decision at what remains an incredibly difficult economic time for household budgets. I support its decision, for which the Government have made some resources available. In light of the severity of the situation, the council took the decision to publish a medium-term, three-year indicative budget, believing that an open and honest approach is the best way to ensure that core local services remain affordable and sustainable into the future. However, that three-year budget and the ongoing public consultation on the proposals that it contains have caused significant concern in Newcastle and beyond, as the council has been forced to make difficult, if not impossible, decisions about the services and activities it can simply no longer afford to fund. Perhaps the most vocal has been the campaign against the council’s proposal to cut, in phases, 100% of its funding to certain local arts organisations, many of which are of national significance. Leading well known Geordies, including Sting, Jimmy Nail, Mark Knopfler and Lee Hall, have publicly castigated the council for the proposal, which would impact heavily on treasured assets such as the Theatre Royal, Northern Stage, Dance City, Live Theatre, the Tyneside cinema and Seven Stories, recently renamed the National Centre for Children’s

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Books. A campaign is also under way to protect Newcastle city hall—our 85-year-old music venue whose long-term future I genuinely hope can be secured. The council further proposes a 50% cut in funding to Tyne and Wear museums, which will mean a significant reduction for the Discovery museum, the Laing art gallery and the Great North museum. Nobody needs to persuade me of the importance of any of those institutions to our city. Indeed, they have all played a central role in the remarkable culture-led regeneration that has taken place on Tyneside over the past decade or so under the Labour Government, and many of them mean that creative opportunities and experiences are available to people of all ages in Newcastle that simply did not exist when I was a child. A recent economic impact assessment for NewcastleGateshead Cultural Venues found that for every £1 of public money invested in cultural venues there was a return on investment of £4. These organisations directly employ about 1,000 people and support the local economy, procuring at least two thirds of their goods and services from north-east suppliers. Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD): I am keen to work with the hon. Lady on trying to persuade the Government that, as with previous Governments, the funding formula is not satisfactory, but she must recognise that other authorities such as Labour Gateshead and Liberal Democrat Northumberland have not slashed 100% of their arts budget or closed their swimming pool. Catherine McKinnell: I am pleased by the right hon. Gentleman’s support. I will go on to address the issue that he raises, because it is a matter of perception that needs to be properly understood. By significantly improving the quality of people’s lives, these organisations make Newcastle a place in which people want to live, study, work, do business and invest. That is why I am angry about the invidious position in which Newcastle city council now finds itself in being forced to choose between services that make Newcastle the fun, vibrant, economically viable city it is, and services such as protecting the most vulnerable children in our community. A further vociferous campaign by well known authors has been launched against the council’s proposal to close 10 of its 18 libraries across the city, which for my constituency will mean the branch in Dinnington closing in June this year and those in Newbiggin Hall and Fawdon closing in March 2015. As a mother of two young children, I am all too well aware of the vital role played by local libraries in our communities, whether in encouraging a love of reading, providing a place to study, or offering toy-lending services or access to IT facilities. I am dismayed that the council’s financial situation is so dire that it is closing what, to me, represents part of the great Victorian ideal of municipal service provision—facilities that, once closed, will probably be lost for ever. Equally saddening are proposals to close City pool by 2016, and in my constituency to reduce funding for Newburn leisure centre while seeking alternative arrangements to manage Outer West pool and Gosforth pool. This scenario is frankly devastating coming just

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after what must have been Britain’s most successful ever sporting year and a London Olympics that was intended to “inspire a generation”. Then there are the proposals to cut funding for play and youth services, while a £5 million reduction in funding will, by 2015-16, see the end of Sure Start centre provision in Brunswick, Fawdon, Denton and Westerhope, Lemington, Newbiggin Hall and Newburn— and that is just in my constituency. The importance of Sure Start services in supporting young children and families is absolutely invaluable, and I have serious concerns about the sheer number of places in my constituency that will no longer be able to access such facilities, which have become embedded in local communities. Possibly of greatest significance in impact on individual lives is the proposed closure of Cheviot View, which opened only in 2008 in Newbiggin Hall to provide overnight residential short-break care for children and young people with disabilities. Many families are extremely concerned about the potential effect on their quality of life if the closure of Cheviot View is to go ahead. Those are just some of the ways in which cuts to Newcastle city council’s budget will impact on local residents and organisations. Of course, the council is not just reducing front-line services; it is also cutting 1,300 of its remaining 8,000 staff over the next three years. I expect that the Minister will want to characterise these people as “pen-pushers” doing “non-jobs”, but let me assure him that they are not. They are dinner ladies, refuse collectors, people working in children’s services—real people with real lives and real families to support, now looking for work elsewhere at a time when opportunities are pretty scarce. Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab): Is my hon. Friend aware of the misleading statement by the Prime Minister last week, and does she think that it is mere coincidence that the areas hardest hit are those with the greatest need? Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. I need the hon. Gentleman to rephrase what he thought about the Prime Minister’s statement. He cannot make that accusation. He can say another word rather than “misleading”, and I would like him to do it now. Steve Rotheram: The Prime Minister has already admitted that the statistics he gave only last week were misleading. He said that he was poorly briefed, but the statistics were misleading. Catherine McKinnell: I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and clarification. I will go on to address some of the misleading information that has been circulating and the concern that it has caused. What has the Government’s response been to the situation in which Newcastle and other local authorities throughout the country now find themselves? Sadly, it seems to be one of complete disdain. I, like many others, am extremely concerned about the way in which the Secretary of State has attempted to dismiss and downplay the very real concerns about the impact of his funding decisions.

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Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op): Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s withdrawal of funding is undermining local communities in Liverpool as well as Newcastle? Catherine McKinnell: It is obviously for my hon. Friend to speak on behalf of the people of Liverpool, but I have no doubt that the cuts are impacting on all of the core cities and I will make the economic point about that later in my speech. Baroness Eaton, who was until recently the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association, described the Secretary of State’s understanding of the effect of local government cuts as “detached from the reality councils are dealing with”.

I could not agree more. Meanwhile, Sir Merrick Cockell has called the cuts “unsustainable” and the Tory leader of Kent says that his county “can’t cope” with further reductions and is “running on empty”. When deliberating on what I would raise in this debate —unfortunately time is short and it has been difficult to cut down my speech—I decided to think about what the Minister would say in response. That is fairly predictable, so I will use this opportunity to respond now to what I believe he will say. I am sure that the Minister will claim, like the Secretary of State before him, that the average reduction in council spending power across the country has been only 1.7% and, indeed, that Newcastle has fared pretty well, because its spending power has fallen by only 1.5% in cash terms as a result of the recent funding settlement. I say to him that that is disingenuous at best and seriously misleading at worst. The headline figure, which applies to only the first year of the settlement—2013-14—has in fact already been shown to be inaccurate and substantially understated, with the Department for Communities and Local Government double-counting the council tax support grant and council tax income for both 2012-13 and 2013-14. Other errors include the cut in the early intervention grant being significantly understated. Newcastle city council believes a more realistic estimate of the cut to be 3.2%, which is more than double the published figure, or a 4.9% cut in grant funding. I therefore ask the Minister to make a commitment this evening to ensure that statements made about the level of spending power cuts are formally corrected. The 1.7% headline figure also completely masks the far greater cuts that will take place in year 2 of the settlement. Newcastle faces a 6.8% drop in spending power by 2014-15, compared with a 5.5% average fall in England and only 1.6% in Surrey. The Minister will no doubt try to persuade me that the cuts being experienced by Newcastle are fair and not disproportionate when compared with other parts of the country, but the facts show clearly that over the next three years the cuts will be much higher in northern areas and a few inner-London boroughs. According to DCLG’s own figures, the cut in Newcastle’s spending power between 2012-13 and 2014-15 will be £218 per person, compared with a national average of £134 and a cut of only £27 per head in Wokingham. I refer to Wokingham because, in returning to my predictions, I assume that the Minister intends to make the time-honoured comparison between Newcastle’s

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[Catherine McKinnell] situation and that of the Berkshire town. He will inform us that Newcastle sill has a spending power per household that is more than £700 greater than that in Wokingham. Nobody doubts that that is the case and let me be clear: I have nothing against Wokingham. I use that example because it is the one that Ministers always bring up whenever challenged on their approach to spending cuts. I thought it might be helpful to clarify for the Minister precisely why Newcastle receives a higher grant than Wokingham—it is because our needs are higher. Newcastle has four times more children in care, greater homelessness needs, higher council tax support needs and fewer people who are able to self-fund their own elderly care. Compared with Wokingham, Newcastle receives four times as much funding for the statutory concessionary fares scheme, yet it faces costs that are nine times higher due to the sheer number of poorer pensioners who use bus services. Mr Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con): Will the hon. Lady give way? Catherine McKinnell: I am sorry, but I do not have much time to complete my speech. Where local government finance becomes completely inexplicable is in the fact that Wokingham receives £124 more funding per household than Newcastle for “damping”, or protection against excessive loss of grant. Wokingham will receive an increase next year in resources to protect against excessive grant cuts that is three times greater than that in Newcastle. A system that was originally intended to protect councils from high levels of grant reductions is instead providing more protection to some of the wealthiest councils which have faced the smallest cuts in their spending power. I suspect that the Minister will also mention the £16 billion in reserves, on which the Secretary of State believes councils are blithely sitting. However, he knows that the £16 billion figure across the country includes £12 billion of reserves that are earmarked for specific purposes, such as funding capital investment commitments in future years, meeting insurance claims, meeting equal pay or redundancy costs, and meeting the cost of flood damage that cannot be claimed under the Bellwin scheme. The latter point is of particular relevance to Newcastle, given the devastating flooding in parts of the city last year. Indeed, reserves were referred to in the Secretary of State’s somewhat patronising document on 50 “sensible savings” that was published last month. I point out to the Minister that Newcastle city council has already made efficiencies of £100 million over the past three years and has undertaken almost all of the Department’s savings proposals. In conclusion, Newcastle city council believes that it is in an impossibly difficult situation. Newcastle and other members of the Core Cities Group are having to write to the Secretary of State to inform him that “there will be no money for anything but social care and refuse collection later in this decade”

unless the current funding plans are changed. The Secretary of State and his Ministers appear complacent, dismissive and even indifferent to the concerns that are being raised.

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All I am asking is that they treat Newcastle city council and my constituents with the respect that they deserve and act urgently on their concerns. 7.57 pm Mr Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East) (Lab): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) on securing this important debate for the people of the city that we both have the honour and privilege to represent. It is an unfortunate fact that the map of the cuts distribution and the political map of England are almost identical. The average cut per head for Labour councils is £107, while for Tory and Liberal Democrat councils the average cut is just £36 and £38 respectively. Of the councils with a cut of more than £100 a head, 86% are Labour controlled and only 5.4% are Tory run. As a matter of urgency, the Government should review the way in which the funding formula distributes the cuts burden across different local authorities. I support the call made today by the leader of Newcastle city council, Nick Forbes, to establish an independent body to determine objectively council funding arrangements. Other issues are specific to Newcastle. In 2009, Newcastle was in the top seven of the 36 metropolitan councils in England for indebtedness. In 2004, when the Liberal Democrats gained control of Newcastle city council, the municipal debt was £431 million. By 2010-11, under the Liberal Democrat administration, that had risen to £962 million. The cost of servicing that debt is more than £40 million a year. That comes straight out of the local authority’s budget. It cannot be adjusted downwards, and if interest rates rise, it will go in the opposite direction. Newcastle has to meet the costs of cared-for people, out of all proportion to its tax base. There are currently 522 children in care in Newcastle. That translates to 100 children in care per 10,000 children, compared with the England average of 59 per 10,000 children. The situation is the same with the elderly. In 2011-12, the council helped to support nearly 10,000 adults with substantial or critical care needs and more than 17,000 people with lower care needs. In Newcastle, 63 adults per 10,000 are receiving permanent or temporary residential or nursing care. The England average is 39 per 10,000 adults. Pressure on those services is mounting rather than declining, yet the existing position is not even inflation-proofed. In 2003, the town of Gateshead and the city of Newcastle bid together for capital of culture designation and made a very credible case. The current Government’s policies have forced the council to consult on ending the culture budget, which totals some £1.6 million a year. That is so far removed from anything that Newcastle citizens would want, and from any rational, economic development-based view of the role of the arts in creating employment in a regional centre such as Newcastle, that it serves as an exemplar of how far the council has been forced into considering unpalatable decisions. The situation is all the more ironic because under the Liberal Democrat administration, the council scandalously spent millions of pounds on the mismanaged Waygood art gallery project, which totalled many times more than the council’s annual cultural budget today.

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Even essential services such as Sure Start cannot avoid a reduction. The council has taken steps to try to reduce the cost burden on that important service in the short term, but with the added cuts announced by the Government it looks likely that larger reductions will be needed. That flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s pre-election pledge to protect Sure Start. We cannot even get help from the Government on relatively small things. Months ago, on 4 July 2012, I raised the issue of estate agents’ “To Let” signs. The Government promised to help, yet so far nothing has been forthcoming. Overshadowing all that is the employment situation in the north-east. More than 3,200 people are unemployed in Newcastle upon Tyne East, nearly 1,000 of whom have been unemployed for more than a year. There are 10 jobseeker’s allowance claimants for every advertised vacancy at the jobcentre, and unemployment is heavily concentrated in the former shipbuilding riverside communities, with an unemployment rate of 14% in Byker and more than 18% in Walker, compared with an average rate of 9.5% for the north-east as a whole and 7.8% for England. The council’s contribution to the economic development of the east end and the riverside is significant and underpins what is easily the best prospect for building the employment base of the east end of Newcastle. Logically, that should be in the Government’s best interests as well, and they should offer a helping hand. 8.1 pm TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof StateforCommunities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis): I first join the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) in congratulating the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) on securing the debate and giving us the opportunity to go through some of the principles behind the Government’s work on the local government finance settlement. As the hon. Lady will know, there is currently a consultation process. This week—I think on Thursday—I will be meeting representatives from the councils of Newcastle to go through specific issues, and I will take on board their comments. The proposals that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State set out on 19 December are out for consultation. I want to be clear that we believe that it is vital that councils continue to play their part in tackling the inherited budget deficit by making sensible savings and delivering value for money for the taxpayer. The settlement recognises the responsibility of local government to find sensible savings and make better use of its resources, and it marks a new type of settlement for local government based on self-determination and financial independence. It is a move from the begging bowl to pride in locality, and it is the start of the biggest shake-up of local government finance in a generation. As the Secretary of State said, we are shifting power from Whitehall directly to the town hall, and we are providing a direct financial incentive for councils to promote growth and jobs in their area. From April, authorities will directly retain nearly £11 billion of business rates instead of returning it to the Treasury, and they will be able to keep the growth on that share of business rates. Striving councils will benefit by doing

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the right thing by their communities. If they bring in jobs and businesses, they will be rewarded. That could be particularly opportune in the context of the hon. Lady’s comments about the investment in culture that she feels the council should maintain. I will come back to that in a moment, but I hope she wins that debate with the council. Research suggests that allowing councils to keep a share of the business rates could generate an additional £10 billion for the national economy by 2020. Our reforms will enable about 70% of local authority income to be raised locally, compared with a little more than half under the current formula grant system. That is a giant step forward for localism. The start-up funding assessment, which gives each council a share of the funding, will mean £26 billion being shared between councils across the country, with the smallest reductions being for the councils that are most reliant on Government funding. Recent analysis by the House of Commons Library states: “For each of the expenditure/funding measures the more deprived areas generally receive higher per capita allocations than less deprived areas”

and percentage reductions are “generally smaller for the most deprived and larger for the less deprived areas.”

It goes on to say that: “The group of authorities more dependent on formula grant to finance their budget—generally the more deprived areas—is set the highest floor level, representing the smallest reduction.”

We have worked closely with local government in developing the rates retention scheme and listened to what councils have told us during the extensive consultation process last year. For example, we have reduced the amounts we are setting aside for the new homes bonus and academies funding, which in total means an additional £1.9 billion for local authorities up front in 2013-14. We have put in place a safety-net arrangement to provide protection for councils that might be affected by the closure of a large local employer. We have set the safety net at the most generous level in the range consulted on, meaning that councils will be guaranteed 92.5% of their original baseline funding under the scheme. Local authorities told us that they wanted a stronger growth incentive and we were happy to respond. We have made the scheme more generous, ensuring that at least 25p in every pound of business rate growth will be retained locally. The settlement leaves councils with considerable spending power. Mr Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con): We have heard an impassioned case on behalf of Newcastle but the settlement inherited from the previous Government was not only a toxic debt but a situation in which funding for local government is 50% higher in urban than rural areas, despite the fact that delivering so many services in rural areas is more expensive. The real injustice is the historic underfunding of rural areas and the danger that that could be held in place all the way to 2020. It is not so much about Newcastle, although the challenges are everywhere, but we are seeing real injustice in rural areas. Brandon Lewis: I have already met a number of councils that have made that case about rural areas. The detrimental impact of damping on some of those areas

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[Brandon Lewis] has been made clear to us in the consultation so far and we are very aware of the issue. My hon. Friend makes a strong point with great passion. A small number of authorities will require larger savings to be made, but our proposals indicate that no council will face a loss of more than 8.8% in its spending power thanks to a new efficiency support grant. I will declare an interest and return in a moment to the figures mentioned by the hon. Lady because authorities such as mine in Great Yarmouth are suffering thanks to the problems inherited from the previous Labour Government’s funding structure. As the name implies, councils must improve services to qualify for the efficiency support grant. It is unfair to expect, as currently happens, the rest of local government to subsidise other councils’ failure to embrace modernity or move forward to a more efficient delivery of services. The settlement is not about what councils can take but about helping them take the most from what they can make. Predictably, the doom mongers have been consulting their Mayan calendars and issuing dire warnings about the end of the world as we know it and a billion pound black hole in local budgets. Concerns that the poorest councils or those in the north will suffer disproportionately are well wide of the mark, as made clear in the report by the House of Commons that I cited a moment ago. In fact, the spending power for places in the north compares well—in fact, favourably—with those in the south. Catherine McKinnell: As I said, it is concerning that the Minister and the Secretary of State are referring to just the first year of the budget settlement, rather than the full spending period. The way that core urban city Labour council areas compare with other places—I gave the example of Surrey and Wokingham—is quite significant over the full spending period. Brandon Lewis: I think that Members from Surrey would make the opposite argument in terms of the effect that damping has on their areas, but if the hon. Lady will bear with me, I will move on and try to answer

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some of the points raised. I have no doubt that some of these issues will be raised in a meeting with Newcastle councils on Thursday. She predicted, quite rightly, that I would mention some of the numbers involved, and I do not want to disappoint her. As the hon. Lady will know, Newcastle has expected spending power per household of £2,522. She is right that that is almost £700 more than we proposed for Wokingham, but let us not single out Wokingham. I could reel off a list of councils that would love £2,500 spending power per household. My council in Great Yarmouth, which has two of the most deprived wards in the country, is on about £500 less per household. Such deprived areas get far less than areas such as Newcastle, so it is not right to pick out Wokingham. I could run off a list of councils, but Madam Deputy Speaker would not thank me for listing the majority of councils, which get far less than Newcastle. The figure quoted at the moment compares well with Newcastle’s per household figure for last year, but as the hon. Lady has said, we are still in the consultation process. We expect that Newcastle could do better than the national average next year in terms of overall spending power, and for Liverpool, its co-signatory, to be at the average. We have maintained the system of damping, which I have mentioned. Some authorities have concerns with damping, but the Government have set a floor below which council funding will not fall. In the autumn statement, the Chancellor recognised that the sector has risen to the challenge thus far. That is why, unlike most of central Government, local government was exempted from the further 1% top slice next year, which is worth approximately £240 million to councils. However, towards 2014 and beyond, local government needs to continue to find better, more efficient ways of doing things. We need to remember that the money is not created by a central Government money tree; it is hard-earned taxpayers’ money that— 8.11 pm House adjourned without Question put (Standing Order No. 9(7)).

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Westminster Hall Tuesday 8 January 2013 [MR PHILIP HOLLOBONE in the Chair]

Sri Lanka Motion made, and Question proposed, That the sitting be now adjourned.—(Mr Swayne.) 9.30 am Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab): May I wish you, Mr Hollobone, and—through you— everybody in this Chamber, a very happy new year? I hope that this debate will mark a small step in the attempts of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka to gain justice. I called this debate in response to last November’s publication of the United Nations investigation of its handling of war crimes in Sri Lanka, which concluded that the response from the international community to the tragedy of the Tamils was inadequate. According to the internal review, UN staff in Colombo and New York simply did not perceive prevention of the killing of civilians as their responsibility. Despite the International Committee of the Red Cross reporting an “unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe”, the UN suppressed information on casualty figures and hid the Sri Lankan Government’s responsibility for the lives lost. Following intimidation and threats from the Government, the UN unquestionably relocated its staff away from the fighting. Rather than trying to stop the atrocities, the international community turned a blind eye. Tens of thousands of people were being massacred, yet at the time the international community pretended that it was not happening. Oppression on a barely imaginable scale took place. Thanks to the fearless reporting of a small number of journalists, the truth is out. Channel 4’s documentary, “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, deserves special praise. Anyone who doubts why we need justice should watch that astonishing documentary. The images broadcast by Channel 4 are among the most harrowing ever to appear on television. They showed what the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings concluded was evidence of “definitive war crimes” and what the UN Secretary-General’s panel of experts admitted was “a grave assault on the entire regime of international law”.

Last year, I nominated “Channel 4 News” for the Nobel peace prize. In my nomination letter, I said: “By bringing to light the breaches of international conventions by the Government of Sri Lanka in a bold manner and by piecing together numerous forms of evidence in a coherent way, the value of independent journalism to the building of a peaceful global order in the century ahead has been amply demonstrated.”

I want to pay my respects to the amazing Marie Colvin, one of the most astonishing people whom I have ever had the privilege to meet. Marie was a veteran war correspondent for The Sunday Times, and won numerous awards, including best foreign correspondent. She was fearless in her reporting of Sri Lanka’s troubles. In fact, she was so unafraid of getting close enough to find out the truth that, in 2001, she sustained shrapnel wounds to her eyes, chest and arms while reporting from Sri Lanka. In March 2009, I invited her to speak at a meeting of the all-party group on Tamils, which I

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then chaired, and she was hypnotic. She explained how the Sri Lankan Government tried to prevent reporting of what was going on. They would not allow in independent journalists, but, thanks to her persistence and courage, Marie was able to present evidence that the Government were firing cluster bombs, white phosphorus and rockets on civilian areas, including hospitals and so-called safe zones. She was a trailblazer and a wonderful woman. I was fortunate to meet her on several later occasions, and she made a lasting impression not just on me but on everyone who met her. Unfortunately, she was killed last year while reporting from Syria, where there are many parallels with Sri Lanka. Her death was not only a terrible loss for journalism, but a real blow to those of us who want to know the truth about conflicts that the rest of the international community is happy to keep under wraps. In relation to Sri Lanka, her bravery contrasts with the cowardice of the international community. As the internal review has proved, the international community knew about the abuses that Marie Colvin put herself in danger to uncover, but it still failed to protect tens of thousands of innocent people. The international community’s weakness shames us all. We now need to deal with that shame. Human Rights Watch has said that although Ban Ki-moon “deserves credit for starting a process he knew could tarnish his office, he will now be judged on his willingness to implement the report’s recommendations and push for justice for Sri Lanka’s victims.”

The international community was weak in its handling of this tragedy as it unfolded; we should not be weak when it comes to imposing justice after it has happened. No regime in the world should be able to think that if it commits the most heinous crimes, it will be left untouched. The UN has an overriding responsibility to protect that supersedes sovereignty. We should have used the responsibility to protect during the conflict. If we had, thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils would still be alive. We now surely have a responsibility to hold to account a Government who have treated their citizens in such an appalling way. As Amnesty International has said: “This report is…a wake-up call for UN member states that have not pushed hard enough for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes… The report clearly illustrates the Sri Lankan government’s lack of will to protect civilians or account for very serious violations. There is no evidence that has changed”.

Responsibility to protect is a concept at the heart of modern international relations. It has three core elements: first, states are responsible for protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing and from their incitement, but, secondly, the international community has a responsibility to ensure that states fulfil that requirement and, thirdly, the international community—that is us—has a responsibility to use diplomatic, humanitarian and other means to protect populations from those crimes. If a state manifestly fails to protect its population, the international community must be prepared to take collective action to do so. All three pillars of the responsibility to protect were broken in Sri Lanka. Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) (LD): I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this debate, and many others in this House on their work campaigning on the terrible and tragic war in Sri Lanka and the abuse and

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[Paul Burstow] terrible suffering of many Tamils. She raises the issue of international pressure. Sri Lanka will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2013. Does she agree that unless the Sri Lankan Government live up to their promises and start a genuine process of peace and reconciliation, and unless there is an international inquiry, the British Government should not be represented at that summit? Siobhain McDonagh: I strongly support the right hon. Gentleman’s intervention, which I hope to address later. The UN internal review proved that war crimes and human rights violations took place, but it admitted that UN staff did not think that preventing those killings was their responsibility and that they deliberately suppressed casualty figures. According to the review, when the UN began collating information on casualties the “reports pointed to the large majority of civilian killings as being the result of Government shelling and aerial bombardment, with a smaller proportion of killings resulting from the LTTE actions.”

However, the UN played down evidence about the scale of what was happening, and the truth was portrayed as propaganda from Tamil Tiger terrorists. In fact, as outlined by the Secretary-General’s panel of experts on Sri Lanka in 2011, and as we were told by Marie Colvin in 2009, there was systematic shelling of hospitals and civilians by Government forces, as well as restrictions on humanitarian aid and assistance. The panel of experts speaks of “tens of thousands” of casualties—perhaps up to 40,000—and even worse figures are now emerging. The Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, has stated that over 146,000 remain unaccounted for, and the former BBC journalist Frances Harrison cites a World Bank estimate of 100,000 people still missing. All that only emphasises the importance of having an independent, international inquiry into the conduct of both sides during the conflict. Credible investigations into war crimes allegations and human rights abuses are a duty under domestic and international law. However, Sri Lanka’s own inquiry, the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, has failed completely to provide the accountability required. It has been described as “deeply flawed” by the panel of experts, which has called for an independent, international investigation into war crimes. The LLRC was not independent or international, and our fears about it have been shown to be well founded. Government forces were largely exonerated of culpability. Only military rather than independent courts of inquiry have been established to look into the few abuse cases that were deemed worthy of further consideration by the LLRC. Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way and pay tribute to the work that she has done over many years in exposing what has been going on. Does she recall that, in a previous debate on the LLRC, the Minister said that the Government would see what action the LLRC took, and if it were not substantial they would take much stronger action and do precisely what the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow) said and review again the decision to hold the Commonwealth

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Heads of Government meeting in Colombo later this year? I hope that we will see such a view reflected in the Minister’s response today. Siobhain McDonagh: I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We all have faith in the Minister, and we ask him to take action. As there is no justice or accountability with the LLRC, what we see instead is a culture of impunity— enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, gender-based violence as well as the recent trumped-up impeachment proceedings against the Chief Justice—which is testament to the breakdown of the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Just as we had a responsibility to protect civilians at the time of the killings, so too do we now for ensuring that there is accountability. Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op): Does my hon. Friend accept that there are credible reports that torture is routinely being used against the Tamil community remaining in Sri Lanka? Constituents have come to my surgery with clear evidence of torture, which backs up the more widespread reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that torture is still going on routinely in the country. Siobhain McDonagh: I completely accept what my hon. Friend says about the ongoing torture against Tamils in Sri Lanka. It must be said though that other ethnic groups are also being tortured now. Without accountability, we are seeing torture, disappearances and killings, yet the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting is still scheduled to take place in Colombo in November. What sort of message does that send out? The Commonwealth was right a couple of years ago to take away from Sri Lanka the honour of hosting a summit. If it was right to do that then, how can it be right now to let Sri Lanka have that honour when our fears about its Government have been confirmed? Canada has bravely stated that it will not attend the 2013 summit unless significant progress is made on human rights and accountability. Why cannot Britain show the same leadership? Why are we so determined to brush accountability under the carpet, just as the UN did with the evidence of atrocities four years ago? In November, I wrote to the Prime Minister imploring him to do the responsible thing. I pointed out that the number of people who had been killed in the space of just five months was roughly the same as the entire population of the major towns of his constituency: Witney, Carterton and Chipping Norton. Those poor people were herded into an area smaller than the Prime Minister’s constituency, tricked into believing that it was a safe zone and then relentlessly targeted while the institutions of the international community made a deliberate choice not to help, even though they knew what was happening. I pointed out that Britain’s Tamil community, which numbers more than 250,000 people, is still grieving. I asked what the British Government were doing to ensure that there is justice for Tamils now. In particular, I said that it would send out a terrible message if Sri Lanka were permitted the honour of hosting the CHOGM. I said: “If a nation had systematically killed every single person you knew in Witney, Carterton and Chipping Norton, raping and murdering in cold blood, I do not think that you would find it acceptable for that Government to host an event as prestigious as

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a Commonwealth summit, or for our Government to attend… The international community has admitted it failed to help Tamils before, and cancelling the summit will ensure that mistake is not compounded.”

Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): I understand the hon. Lady’s concerns, but does she accept that there were human rights violations on both sides of the community in Sri Lanka—certainly during the war and in the immediate post-war period—and that the relationship between the communities has improved in recent years? Secondly, does she accept that hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting would mean that Sri Lanka had a global audience looking at it, and that that in itself may produce the result that she is looking for? Siobhain McDonagh: I totally disagree with the hon. Gentleman. I am sure that his motivations are entirely good, but he misreads how the Sri Lankan Government interpret representations from foreign Governments. If the Queen were to put her foot on the soil in Colombo it would be regarded as a vindication of the Sri Lankan Government’s actions—and this is at a time when at least 40,000 people are still dying or missing. Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): I am startled by the view that if Her Majesty were to put her foot on the soil of Sri Lanka it would be an insult to democracy. Recently, Her Majesty had to shake the hand of the leader of the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland in an effort to demonstrate that peace happens through process and progress. Sri Lanka should be hearing the message that we are here to help. We should stretch out our hand to Sri Lanka; we should not step on Sri Lanka. I must say that I am amazed by the hon. Lady’s position. Siobhain McDonagh: I am amazed by the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. As he knows, the process towards reconciliation has taken 600 years in Ireland. It is a struggle with which I am well acquainted because of my own family background. Unlike the Sri Lankan Government, the British Government under different parties accepted that there were things that they could and could not do. I accept that there were atrocities and human rights violations on the part of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Democratically elected Governments are always judged to a higher standard. Let me continue with what I said to the Prime Minister: “The international community has admitted it failed to help Tamils before, and cancelling the summit will ensure that mistake is not compounded. I believe it is in the international community’s best interests—and the best interests of the United Kingdom, as well as of Sri Lanka—for there to be an independent international investigation into war crimes in order to bring a lasting peace in Sri Lanka after such a long period of ethnic conflict. However, while this continues not to take place, Sri Lanka should not be hosting the Commonwealth summit.”

The response was weak. The Prime Minister himself did not answer my letter, passing it instead to the Foreign Secretary. The reply was very disappointing. First, instead of supporting an international inquiry into Sri Lanka’s behaviour, he said that the Government “believe that the process of reconciliation has a greater chance of success if investigations are Sri Lankan-led rather than externally imposed.”

He said that the British Government were concerned about the human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, such as “disappearances, political violence and reports of torture in custody.”

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However, what will the British Government do about them? We have not stopped deporting Tamils who are claiming asylum, even though most reasonable people would think that any Tamil who made a big deal about hating the Sri Lankan Government when they were in the UK might be most at risk of disappearance, violence and torture. Mr Thomas: Is my hon. Friend aware of the recent report by Human Rights Watch, which cites examples of a number of asylum seekers deported from Britain and a number of other European countries who were tortured on their return to Sri Lanka? Siobhain McDonagh: I am aware of that report, and I have also read appeal judgments and documents from the Medical Institute for Victims of Torture. I am well aware of some of the cases involved; indeed, some of them involve my constituents or my hon. Friend’s constituents. The Foreign Secretary said: “We seek to promote progress through direct lobbying, working with international partners, and funding human rights projects.”

I have to say that it is not very reassuring to learn that the Government’s approach to getting Sri Lanka to behave is to give it more money. Finally, the Foreign Secretary fails to offer any support for the idea of a boycott of the Commonwealth summit, although he says the UK Government “believe that the host of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting should uphold the Commonwealth values of good governance and respect for human rights. We will look to Sri Lanka to demonstrate its commitment to these values, both now and in the run up to the meeting in 2013.”

I would be grateful if the Minister could expand a little upon that in his response to the debate. In what possible way does he think that Sri Lanka is currently demonstrating “commitment to these values”? I note that the Minister is going to Sri Lanka later this year. No doubt his presence will be portrayed by the Government there as yet another vindication of their murderous approach. If he wants to ensure that his visit is not another public relations victory for a regime that feels it is immune from accountability for war crimes, will he use his visit as an opportunity to warn his hosts that Britain and the Queen will not be attending a summit that is built on blood? When my right hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (David Miliband) visited Sri Lanka in 2009, he was not afraid to confront the Rajapaksa regime. When the Minister visits Sri Lanka later this month, will he do the same as my right hon. Friend did, or will he have meetings about trade? Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con): The hon. Lady mentions the fact that lots of people visit Sri Lanka. May I ask her when she last visited Sri Lanka? She has mentioned lots of second-hand evidence in her speech so far, but when did she last visit Sri Lanka and see for herself—at first hand—some of the things that she is alleging are happening there? Siobhain McDonagh: I have never been to Sri Lanka, but I respect the views of the UN special envoy to Sri Lanka, the UN, the Canadian Government, the

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[Siobhain McDonagh] Australian Government, the US Government, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Are all of those organisations bogus? Do we not believe anything that any of them say? Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con): My hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Mr Burley) made exactly the same point that I will now make. I do not think that anyone is suggesting that those organisations are bogus, or that the claims of constituents are bogus. We are asking the hon. Lady about her opinion. Siobhain McDonagh: Just as I have not been to Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and—it has to be said—most countries in the world, I have not been to Sri Lanka and I determine my views of the country on the basis of the evidence provided by those organisations and by people whom I respect, including the many organisations that I have just named and my own constituents. In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to give an apology to my constituents because in 2008 and 2009, when they told me that cluster bombs were being dropped on their relatives by a democratically elected Government and that tens of thousands of people were being herded into a tiny area, I did not believe them immediately; it was only when they became more desperate and told me more that I began to believe them. The problem is that too many of the institutions that we respect did not believe them either and did not accept what they were saying, which is precisely why we are in the position that we are in now. David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con): I can thoroughly understand the hon. Lady’s approach to this whole debate. It is on a very emotive subject, and more to the point there have been atrocities committed on both sides—that is evident. However, I say to her that we are now years ahead from where we were. My hon. Friend the Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) is living proof of reconciliation—after 600 years—here in this House. We should move on. As I say, I understand where you are coming from and I also understand what you have said has happened. I think that everybody in this Chamber accepts that there have been some irregularities in Sri Lanka, to say the least. But we are at a point now where we must move on, we must help Sri Lanka to improve and we must have reconciliation. I have been to Rwanda and I have seen what has happened there. The perpetrators of war crimes there are back in their own communities and being productive. If you go to Sri Lanka, and I am sure that the Government there will invite you, and probably have invited you already, you will see what progress has been made— Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair): Order. Thank you, Mr Morris. Interventions on another Member’s speech should be brief. Also, I remind new Members, who have now been in the House for more than two years, that they should not use the word “you” to refer to another Member in the Chamber.

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Siobhain McDonagh: Thank you, Mr Hollobone. May I say to the hon. Gentleman that I have never been invited to Sri Lanka? Generally, I do not do international travel in my role as an MP, because I am constituencyfocused. I secured this debate, and I have become involved in the Tamil cause, because of the Tamil community in my constituency and because of the information that I have received from them. I have become aware of the despair and distress that they experience. My own experience as someone who is London-Irish—I have Irish parents— is that people cannot just ignore what happened in the past. People cannot just move on and forget, because people do not forget. If we do nothing now, we will say to the next young generation that violent struggle will continue. We must address the issues now, in order to make progress. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab): I compliment my hon. Friend on her work and I urge her to resist the temptations from the Sri Lankan Government lobby that is in Westminster Hall today and trying to claim that all is well in Sri Lanka when the reality is that it certainly is not. Furthermore, holding the Commonwealth conference in the country would be an endorsement of the Sri Lankan Government’s policies on the Tamil people, and would be extremely damaging to the cause of human rights, to the image of Sri Lanka and indeed to the prospect of a peaceful future for the country. Siobhain McDonagh: I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and I will obviously take his views on board. Mr Thomas: I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way again. As she knows, I had the privilege of being a Minister in the Department for International Development during the last Government. As a result, I saw the private assessments of the situation in Sri Lanka, the type of which the Minister now has the opportunity to see. What was clear then was the scale of the human rights abuses that were being perpetrated. I do not think that we knew then the level of detail that has come out since, but we certainly knew that the Sri Lankan Government—through their military and paramilitary police, for example—were perpetrating considerable human rights abuses. That was part of the reason why Britain led in Europe on the withdrawal of the GSP plus trading arrangements—the generalised scheme of preferences— which signalled our concern about human rights. My hon. Friend is rightly demanding that this Government show the same commitment as the last Government in demanding action by the Sri Lankan Government. It is a pity that we have not yet heard cross-party support for the aspiration for our Government to get a bit tougher with the Sri Lankan Government. Siobhain McDonagh: I totally agree with my hon. Friend’s comments. Although I completely understand the duty of any Government—most importantly during a recession—to travel to gain more trade and support, I ask the Minister to consider whether that is appropriate in the case of Sri Lanka. I say that because the last thing that the international community needs right now, after the failings of the past few years, is for Governments such as our own to

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put the pursuit of profit ahead of the responsibility to protect. The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria and the developing situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—two countries that I have never been to—both show why we need to be strong. A credible and robust approach to international relations by the UK, and more widely by the international community through the UN, is vital. When the UN internal review was published in November, Ban Ki-moon said: “Our obligation to all humanity is to overcome our setbacks, learn from our mistakes, strengthen our responses, and act meaningfully and effectively for the future.”

However, I am very much afraid that the international community would rather move on and pretend that these events in Sri Lanka never happened, just as it turned a blind eye while the atrocities in the country were taking place. If we are not strong now, we will abdicate our moral authority over Sri Lanka. Regimes such as those in Syria and DRC will see that there is nothing to lose and that justice will not be served. We have a responsibility to ensure that the international community’s failures in Sri Lanka are addressed. Accountability and reconciliation must take place. When the 22nd session of the UN’s Human Rights Council commences next month, our Government should take a lead. The issue of whether Sri Lanka has complied with previous resolutions on accountability and reconciliation should be a priority. The UN’s HRC, with Britain to the fore, must be prepared to take urgent action to initiate credible, independent investigations in Sri Lanka. For the sake of other civilians around the world who are under threat from their own Government, we have a responsibility to be strong. We should tell Sri Lanka in no uncertain terms that we cannot support its hosting the Commonwealth summit while its reputation is under a cloud. We have a duty to protect, and we cannot fulfil that responsibility by continuing to be weak, weak, weak. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair): Order. Seven Members contacted me before the debate seeking to speak, and another Member has contacted me from the Floor. In a moment, I will call the first speaker, Lee Scott, followed by Barry Gardiner. With Members’ consent, I propose that the running order will then be Robert Halfon, Ian Paisley, James Wharton, Jeremy Corbyn, Aidan Burley and Simon Hughes. Personally, I am keen for all those Members to contribute, but if they are to do that, Members will need to keep their remarks to within five minutes; if they run over, the last speakers will not be called. I propose to call the Opposition Front-Bench spokesman at 10.40 am and the Minister at 10.50 am. 10 am Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) on securing this vital debate. Perhaps I can prevent any interventions and save some time by saying that I, too, have not visited Sri Lanka: someone who is criticised for everything they say because none of it suits the Sri Lankan Government is hardly likely to be taken to Sri Lanka and shown what they want to see in an uninhibited way. Like the hon. Lady, I

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would be delighted to make an unfettered, unhindered visit to Sri Lanka so that I could go wherever I wished to go, ask whatever questions I wished to ask and see whatever I needed to see. In that spirit, I look forward, in my role as the chairman of the all-party group on Tamils, to me and my deputy chairman receiving such an invite, but I will not hold my breath. You will be pleased to hear, Mr Hollobone, that I am not going to repeat what has been said and that I want to look at different aspects of this issue. It is easy to say that one should forget the past, but if we do, we predict what will happen in the future. Should we forget Auschwitz, Rwanda or the atrocities committed in Northern Ireland? No, we should not. That would be an insult to the memories of the people who lost their lives on all sides, and that is not acceptable. If we are to move on, there must be reconciliation and true justice for all. It is not my role as a non-Sri Lankan and a non-Tamil to say who was or was not responsible. Anyone who has watched “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” or listened to independent evidence knows that atrocities were committed, and people need to be brought to justice. Simply saying, “It wasn’t us who did it” is not acceptable. Someone took out women and children, someone raped people and someone interned people. Someone has not said where missing children are, when relatives in the Tamil diaspora around the world want to know what has happened to their families. Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) on securing the debate. Is my hon. Friend aware that there are nearly 94,000 internally displaced Tamils without proper facilities, following the terrible tragedy that took place a few years ago? Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair): Order. Those who are listed to speak should bear in mind that they will have a turn. By making an intervention, they will just knock somebody else off the end. Please can we restrain ourselves so that we can get everybody in? Mr Scott: Thank you, Mr Hollobone. Can I have 30 seconds back for that? All I really want to say is that I want justice for the Tamil people and for all Sri Lankans. For that to happen, however, the UN must play its role. Over a number of years, it let down the Tamil people and allowed things to happen that should never have been allowed. Mr Thomas: I note the Chair’s comments about the time, and I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Does he share the view of my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) that it would be wrong for Britain to attend the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka unless there is a dramatic change in the situation on the ground? Mr Scott: I hope the Minister will address the issues that have been raised— Mr Thomas: Where do you stand? Mr Scott: Where do I stand? I am sorry, Mr Hollobone. The hon. Gentleman and I should not be having a conversation across the room. I apologise for that, as I

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[Mr Scott] am sure he does. Where do I stand? I want to see reconciliation and justice before any such thing happens. I think that is clear. In my final 20 seconds, I should say that the Tamil people have suffered, and their diaspora suffers. There must be justice for all, but most importantly, at the UN’s meetings in March, I would like to hear what the Sri Lankan Government will do to ensure that an international inquiry shows what has happened and who is responsible so that those involved are brought to justice. I have gone five seconds over, Mr Hollobone, so I apologise. 10.5 am Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab): I thank you for calling me to speak in this important debate, Mr Hollobone. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh). She knows more and has researched more than anybody in the House, and she has done more to keep this issue at the forefront of its debates and of the Government’s mind, as they consider their obligations to the international community. I arrived here this morning with a speech that detailed many of the things in the UN internal report and the way in which the UN had looked at its own failure. It is important to understand that it was extraordinarily courageous of Ban Ki-moon to establish a report looking at the UN’s failure properly to protect people and to intervene at the right time in the war in Sri Lanka. Although it was a courageous report, however, it now needs to be followed up. It highlighted many of the actions that took place at the time, but the international community must now see whether the reconciliation that we all wish for has actually taken place. My hon. Friend spoke of the LLRC. At the time, many of us said it was a smokescreen intended to avoid having the independent international review that was being called for. However, the Minister said, “Let’s give it space. Let’s see what it comes up with. Let’s see whether it actually delivers. If it does, we should judge it on that basis.” Well, it has now produced its report, but it has not delivered. The international community, from the UN right through to Amnesty International, has acknowledged and documented the LLRC’s failings. Initially, the commission made absolutely no mention of war crimes; subsequently, under pressure, the Sri Lankan Government made further moves to switch the international community’s focus. When the Minister sums up, I would ask him to be true to his words in our previous debate: we should judge the Sri Lankan Government by their actions. On any international standard, they have failed. I said I had come with a speech that I had prepared. What I was not prepared for, however, was the schoolboy nonsense from the Government side—“Oh well, have you ever been to Sri Lanka?”—and the sniggering when my hon. Friend said that, no, of course she had not been there. Does that in any way reduce the value and the quality of her research? Absolutely not. I wish I had not been to Sri Lanka, because I could have stood with my hon. Friend, but I have been there. A decade or so ago, the then Foreign Office Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr Hain), asked me to become involved in the second tier of the

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negotiations that were going on at the time. I was partly responsible for Anton Balasingham coming here with his wife, Adele. I also went to Sri Lanka and met all the parties there. When I was a Minister in Northern Ireland, I invited Mahinda Rajapaksa to dinner there to discuss speaking to the communities in Northern Ireland to see exactly how reconciliation could be achieved and how a country could move on. At that stage, I hoped he would go back to his country to try to implement some of those ideals, but he did not: he went back and turned Sri Lanka into a kleptocracy, in which the Rajapaksa family controls absolutely everything. How is it that the President’s brother, Gotabaya, is Secretary of Defence? Another of his brothers, Basil, is Minister of Economic Development. Chamal, the third brother, is Speaker of the Parliament. They have carved up the country between them and there is absolutely no economic freedom. If we take the Commonwealth Heads of Government or the Commonwealth Business Council there, what will we be doing? We will be putting money into the pockets not of Sri Lankan people, but of one family: the Rajapaksas. Anybody who pretends to be part of this debate without acknowledging what is going on in that country currently is fooling themselves. Those Members on the Government Benches may or may not have gone to Sri Lanka, but if they have, they have not looked into the detail of what is happening in that land, because it is corruption and it must end. The Government of this country should not allow Her Majesty the Queen to set foot on Sri Lankan soil. 10.10 am Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone, this morning. The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) has set out three compelling arguments, but before I go on to those, I want to say that I have never been to Sri Lanka. I would not want to go to Sri Lanka as it is currently constituted, just as I would not want to visit President Assad or the President of Iran—because I would be going to a bloodstained nation. First, with every day that passes, it is clear that there is terrible persecution of the Tamils, especially of students, women, journalists and families. Secondly, because of our historic relationship and our economic ties, we can make a difference. I welcome what the Minister is doing to exert pressure on Sri Lanka’s rulers. Thirdly, the international community must show the Sri Lankan regime that there will be consequences if it does not respect and implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con): Does my hon. Friend share my disappointment at the tone of the debate so far? Should not we all agree that both sides must be held accountable for the crimes that are committed and that there has to be a genuine process of reconciliation? Until that starts, the Government need to think carefully about the level of representation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Robert Halfon: I agree that it is important that we have a debate on both sides, but my firm view is that the emphasis must be to expose what has really been going on in Sri Lanka and how the Tamils have been maltreated.

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Like the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden, I believe strongly in the responsibility to protect. As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office acknowledges on its website, after the civil war ended in 2009, approximately 300,000 Tamil civilians were displaced or caged in internment camps. The FCO website states: “The Sri Lankan Prevention of Terrorism Act permits prolonged detention without charge or trial.”

We know that that power is routinely abused, most recently with the detention of four Jaffna University students just before Christmas. They were locked away without trial or any meaningful right of appeal. The regime also forbids the free movement of people, especially journalists, in many Tamil areas. At the end of November 2012, an estimated 94,000 people were still internally displaced. In November 2011, the UN Committee against Torture even reported that the Sri Lankan military behave as if they are above the law. In 2011, Sri Lanka was ranked fourth highest in the entire planet for cases of unsolved journalist murders. Tens of thousands of Tamil men and women continue to live without security, shelter or independence. I believe that Britain can put peaceful and diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka. We are already Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner, their second largest investor behind China and their main source of western tourism. If the UN were to move towards economic sanctions under the responsibility to protect, British involvement would have a huge impact on the Sri Lankan economy. It is very rare for me to disagree with the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley), but the Government need seriously to consider, as the Canadians have done, boycotting the Commonwealth event. I do not believe that appeasement works. If the Government said that there would be a boycott unless things dramatically improved, that would have a significant impact on the Sri Lankan regime. On the responsibility to protect, the lesson, as we have seen in recent years, is that in almost every case where the UN has shouldered its responsibility and stepped in, such as in Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s or more recently in Libya in 2011, catastrophe has been averted and it has led to economic growth and the beginnings of democratic reform. Where the United Nations has done nothing, such as in Syria, things have worsened. We have to use everything at our disposal to make clear to Sri Lanka that it can no longer behave like a rogue nation. Concrete steps have to be taken to demilitarise the north and east, civil administration should be restored and Tamils should be given their basic human rights: the rights to life and a fair trial, freedom of expression, movement and assembly, property rights and the rule of law. Sri Lanka should publish a list of all prisoners and where they are being held. The International Committee of the Red Cross must have access to all detention centres and a neutral commission should be appointed by the UN to safeguard property rights in Tamil areas and all resettlement programmes. Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission should implement the recommendations made in its interim report. Above all, Sri Lanka must comply with the recommendations of the report by the UN panel of experts and arrive at a durable justice for the Tamils.

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Clearly the Tamil Tigers are no longer a threat to the Sri Lankan Government and can no longer be used as an excuse, but persecution continues. The excuse of security was used as a cover for genocide, and it is now being used for an attempt to wipe out the inheritance of the Tamil-speaking minority. The UN, as the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden said, has a responsibility to protect if a regime is abusing its own people. If we can put peaceful, legitimate but tough pressure on Sri Lanka, whether through sanctions or a boycott of the Commonwealth summit, that is what we must do. 10.16 am Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): On my journey to the House this morning, I drove through the memorial gates near the Mall. The words “Sri Lanka” are carved in granite on those gates to remind us that the Indian subcontinent, during the two great world wars, gave 5 million volunteers to this nation to defend freedom. When we hear the aggression from Argentina over the Falklands this week, we are reminded that the only country that stood with us in the international community in the original attempt to take back the Falklands was Sri Lanka. When a country that has supported us in the past comes under pressure, we should not kick it in the teeth. We stretch out the hand of forbearance and say, “We will help you through the difficult, post-conflict situation that you are clearly in. We will give you our experience and our help. We will not give you our hatred and our anger.” That is an important lesson that we, in a nation part of which is in a post-conflict situation, should recognise. I have visited Sri Lanka on a number of occasions, both as a private individual and with constituents who had business there, as well as on a cross-party parliamentary trip. My experience was very different from what I have heard from propagandists not in Sri Lanka. The people on the ground gave a very different message from the out-of-touch one that I have heard from the self-appointed diaspora, both in Canada and here in the United Kingdom. I have visited Jaffna, the most disputed part of Sri Lanka in the north. There I saw new housing settlements, with Tamils living in them. I had tea with some of those families, whose interests are fishing and farming. They did not talk to me about the past, even though they had opportunity to do so. Indeed, when I raised the past—I was with them on my own—they wanted to talk about their future, their children and their new housing settlements, which were supported by money given by our country through the EU to help rebuild their country. They wanted to talk about moving forward. I have met both Tamil and Sinhalese families, and their united wish was to present a picture of hope for their country, not a picture of division. It was a community that wanted to move forward. They did not want to hear the international community talking about what happened in the past; they wanted the international community to help them to move to a better future. On one occasion, two of my guides were a Tamil gentleman and a Sinhalese gentleman who had been at war with each other. At the end of my visit, in tears they embraced each other, and they spoke about how they were now new brothers in a new land. Whenever I raised with them issues that I had heard in the propaganda in the United Kingdom, they could not understand them. They said that they bore no resemblance to their

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[Ian Paisley] reality on the ground. In many aspects, Sri Lanka has made more measurable gains post-conflict than Northern Ireland. That is what I have seen on the ground, and we should recognise it and stop the suffocation of a country by its past and help Sri Lanka to move forward to a better future. I took a day out and spent it with the leader of Tamil National Alliance, Mr Sampanthan. I spoke to him and his party colleagues at length, and I waited for him because I wanted to hear from him at first hand, without his being pushed or prodded into some of the difficult issues about the past. He did not raise with me the issue of the disappeared; he did not take time to raise with me the issue of war crimes; he did not take time to talk about routine torture, in his country, of his people. He had a politician with him from this nation and he did not want to talk about those things. In fact, he actively applauded the Government, whom he opposes. He applauded them on their investment in the country—in parts of the north—and he said that the most effective thing that many of his people required was practical help to get bicycles and other tools to help them to work and run their country. That was the message of the man who is leading the opposition. If people took the time to speak to the active politicians on the ground who are representatives of their community, they might have a slightly different perspective than that in some of the propaganda that we have seen and heard. I urge the Minister to appeal publicly today to Sampanthan to stop his boycott of the political process, to lead his people and his party, and to join with other parties in the parliamentary select committee of Sri Lanka to find a political solution to the problems. We learnt the lesson the hard way. People find a political solution by engaging in politics, not by asking for a boycott or for the international community to do their work for them—they do it themselves. I appeal to our Government to say to Sampanthan, “Lead your people and do not boycott the process any longer.” Politics, not a boycott, will work. The international community will not solve Sri Lanka’s problems. It will be the people of Sri Lanka, living in Sri Lanka, who will fix the problems of Sri Lanka, and we should actively encourage them in that. The biggest mistake that this Government could make would be to send the message to Sri Lanka that they were going to pull out of the Commonwealth talks later this year and punish a country that needs help, not more persecution.

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I have been to Sri Lanka a number of times, and the visits are all declared in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I have gone there with colleagues, some of whom are here today. What worries me is how much misinformation is out there about what is happening on the ground. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Mr Scott), who follows matters in Sri Lanka keenly, has a different position to mine, but it is a genuinely felt one. He was absolutely right to say that we must not forget the past, but we must not misinterpret or misrepresent it either. A problem that Sri Lanka has faced in the debate in the western world, in this Parliament, in the media and in other places across the globe is that, for a variety of reasons, too many people try to change what happened in the past, to change the accepted facts of what went on. The reality is that a lot of what we see is not based on facts or in reality. I have raised the point before in the House that even the Darusman report, which preceded the UN report that has led to the debate today, specifically states, in paragraph 53: “This account should not be taken as proven facts, and any effort to determine specific liabilities would require a higher threshold.”

It is made clear that the report establishes a narrative that can be used to work forwards but that none of the data—for example, on the numbers of casualties—should be quoted as specific figures. The facts on the ground regarding the provision of food and medical supplies are starkly different to some of the evidence given by unnamed sources to the expert committee that put together the report. I am conscious of the time, so I just want to draw the House’s attention to a few areas in which progress is being made in Sri Lanka. Most of the 300,000 internally displaced persons have now been resettled. I visited Menik farm, one of the welfare camps set up to house the huge numbers of people displaced by conflict in January of last year. There were about 6,000 people left, and the camp has now closed and the people have gone home. They have been able to do so because demining operations have proceeded at an amazing pace, with more than 900,000 mines and unexploded ordnance having been cleared, primarily by the Sri Lankan army but also by the HALO Trust with support from UK aid, and I congratulate the UK on its contribution.

10.23 am

More than 120,000 houses have been constructed in the north and the east, nearly 600 child soldiers have been rehabilitated and more than 10,000 adult combatants have been rehabilitated or reintegrated into Sri Lankan society. Some 900 Tamil speakers have been recruited into the police force in the north and east, and that is important in building trust in a community that does not have historic trust in its Government and the organisations that represent it. Investment is key, as is infrastructure, so that the economy can grow and people can improve their lives.

James Wharton (Stockton South) (Con): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley), who speaks passionately, with experience of post-conflict life and of rebuilding communities after a very difficult period. He gives us all cause to pause and to reflect on what the debate is really about. There was a great deal that I wanted to say, but as I have a very short time, I will significantly cut down my comments.

When I went to Sri Lanka with the charity International Alert, we visited a group of young Tamil people in the Vanni, and they talked about jobs and employment prospects, about what they were going to do and what they wanted to do. They talked about the challenges that they faced at home and about how they wanted to get education and the cost of education. They talked about the same things that young people in colleges in

Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair): If our remaining four speakers take no more than four minutes each, they will all get in. They are James Wharton, Jeremy Corbyn, Aidan Burley and Simon Hughes.

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my constituency talk to me about; they share some of the same problems. They wanted to look forward and go forward. The tone of debate in the House too often worries me, because we focus on what we can do to punish the Government of Sri Lanka, whether by the removal of the generalised system of preferences or the UK’s pulling out of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Such things will not damage the Government of Sri Lanka; they will damage progress towards peace and the prosperity of the people who live in Sri Lanka. The tone of the debate here needs to change. We need to work constructively with the Government of Sri Lanka to put pressure where it is due and, where we can, to deliver improvement. 10.27 am Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab): I will be brief, Mr Hollobone, so that the other Members can get in. I compliment you on your chairing of the debate and on your announcing in advance the line of speakers. That is helpful, and it is a good precedent for Westminster Hall debates. I compliment my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) and the hon. Member for Ilford North (Mr Scott) on their contributions and on their work within the all-party group for Tamils and in support of the Tamil diaspora. The right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) and I have been involved in issues regarding the Tamil people and Sri Lanka ever since 1983, when we were both first elected to the House, and I have never forgotten the huge demonstration that took place in July of that year in London because of the problems that there then were in Sri Lanka. There has been a litany of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka for the past 30 years and beyond. It is not an accident that there is a large Tamil diaspora in London. Many Tamil people came to this country to seek a place of safety because of the civil war in Sri Lanka in the 1980s and the years before. I pay tribute to the diaspora community for pulling together. It supported the hunger strikes that took place out here in Parliament square and mobilised 200,000 people to march through London in support of the rights and survival of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. Mobilising 200,000—almost the entire diaspora community—was a remarkable achievement; but, disgracefully, the British media routinely and almost totally ignored it. They were more concerned about traffic disruption in Parliament square than about human rights in Sri Lanka. I recognise that things have changed and that things have to move on. There has to be a peace process, reconciliation and a reckoning with the past, which we are looking at to move forward. My two essential points are that the UN report of last November specifically refers to the shelling of hospitals and civilian areas by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the way in which UN staff were driven away from the areas of conflict in 2008. I hope those issues will be seriously examined at the UN Human Rights Council meeting next month, which I hope to attend, as I have attended many Human Rights Council events If we do not consider those issues, if we do not ensure the closure of what I do not refer to as welfare camps—at the end of the conflict, they were more like concentration camps—and if we do not address rights and opportunities

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for Tamil people in Sri Lanka, the war will return in a different form at a later stage. It is not a question of the Sri Lankan Government claiming victory over the Tamil people and the Tigers, as they have done; it has to be a question of their perception of the future of that country, otherwise in 10, 20 or 30 years’ time, if any of us are still here, we will be debating the same thing again: yet another massacre of Tamil people and yet another wave of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka trying to flee to a place of safety. I hope that the Minister is able to tell us that the Government will be robust on the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting and will play a robust role at the UN Human Rights Council next month to show that the UN, the Human Rights Council and the human rights of the Tamil people matter in bringing about long-term peace in Sri Lanka. 10.31 am Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con): Many speakers this morning have started by declaring whether they have visited Sir Lanka, and I intervened on the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) to ask whether she has done so, because I visited Sri Lanka in July 2012 and spent eight days travelling all over the country. I did not just fly into Colombo; I went to the north, the east and the south. I went to Jaffna and Kilinochchi, Trincomalee, Kandy and Hambantota. I went to all the rural areas, not just to the towns and cities. I went to the Jaffna teaching hospital and discussed the lack of medical equipment with some of the doctors. I went to the chamber of commerce and discussed inward investment with business leaders. I visited resettlement projects in Ariyalai and mine clearing in Kilinochchi with the HALO Trust, which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South (James Wharton) mentioned, is partly funded through the Department for International Development. I met the President in Kandy. I also met, Mr Sampanthan, a leader of the opposition, for several hours in Trincomalee—I recognise the comments of the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley)—and I remember him telling us that he wanted a bicycle for every one of his people, which is his main priority. I have detailed my trip because I strongly believe that people can only speak authoritatively and honestly about a subject if they have first-hand experience, seeing things with their own eyes and forming their own impressions, rather than just watching a Channel 4 documentary. After all, would a person buy a house just because someone told them it was nice, or would they want to see the property first hand? Would a person move to an area just because someone said it was a nice place to live, or would they want to visit the area first? Everywhere I went on my eight-day trip to Sri Lanka last year, I saw the same thing first hand: Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims living harmoniously with each other, getting on with their lives and rebuilding their country. I saw the different communities and faiths living beside one another after their horrendous civil war. I saw Sinhalese boys and Tamil girls playing together in the playgrounds of the schools that we visited. That is why I wanted to speak in this debate. The UK should be

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[Mr Aidan Burley] helping Sri Lanka, our former colony, to rebuild itself. British politicians should understand Sri Lanka’s reconciliation and help it to demine, so that communities can move back to their own lands. I saw that happening with my own eyes; I saw the minefields being cleared through the HALO Trust, and I saw houses being rebuilt and crops being grown on the old minefields. That is constructive. We saw HSBC and Marks and Spencer in Sri Lanka. I learnt that the software that runs the UK stock market is based in Sri Lanka. All that is positive—it is about jobs and livelihoods—and we should be having a debate on encouraging trade to Sri Lanka. British politicians should be leading business trips and delegations of British companies to Sri Lanka to encourage Sri Lankan and British businesses to work together. Britain has the second-highest number of tourists to Sri Lanka—a country that desperately needs tourists’ pounds. I do not believe this debate will help that rebuilding process; it is a negative debate that perpetuates old myths and stereotypes and is based on narrow interest groups in the UK that have their own agendas. The hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) said that he was astonished to see the Sri Lankan Government lobbying here. I know lobbyists for the Sri Lankan Government. My constituency is 99% white, and there is no diaspora. I have no candle to hold for the Sri Lankan Government; I am just recounting the first-hand impressions that I witnessed for myself by bothering to go to the country. The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden should go to Sri Lanka and speak to the people of Sri Lanka, not to the people of Mitcham and Morden, and listen to what they have to say. I found a country at peace with itself. That is what we should be debating and supporting: helping Sri Lanka to build a better future for itself, rather than letting extremists in the UK divide it. 10.35 am Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD): I thank you for your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I appreciate the initiation of this debate by the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh). I remind some colleagues, who I think have forgotten, that the subject of the debate is Sri Lanka and the UN responsibility to protect. As the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) said, I have taken an interest in the subject during all my time in the House—not because I have a significant number of Sri Lankan, Tamil or Sinhalese constituents, but because I am a human rights lawyer and I think minority rights need to be protected. I have been to Sri Lanka, and I paid for myself—I had political meetings some years ago. I was not allowed to go everywhere I wanted to go, particularly in the north. I regularly engage with Sri Lankan Ministers and high commissioners, sometimes very frustratingly, when they have been in this country. I am a co-founder of the all-party group on conflict issues. I have worked with the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Elders to ensure that young people from both communities have gone to Sri Lanka. I found the civil war one of the most depressing, frightening and unhappy periods of my time in the House. I was with the Tamil community out on Parliament

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square pretty much every day, and I arranged to go with them to the White House to try to get the US to press the UN and the Sri Lankan Government. They met the Commonwealth secretary-general and the leader of the European Foreign Affairs Council. I had a conversation with the UN and the Tamils, and the UN was unable to do anything; it failed abysmally. The UN agreed in 2005 that there should be a responsibility to protect, but it did not do any protecting. The UN pulled out, which was absolutely scandalous and shameful. The UN proved itself to be a totally ineffective organisation at that time. My interest now is to ensure that the UN learns those lessons, with the UK’s help, and that the Sri Lankan Government learns those lessons, too, because Sri Lanka is not yet a wonderful democracy. Sri Lanka is nepotistic, as has been described. Disappearances have not been explained. Sri Lanka has one of the worst records for journalistic freedom in the world on all objective indices. Assassinations have happened, and no one has been brought to trial for them. Not all people are allowed to go back to their own community, and I say that not because I am pro-Tamil and anti-Sinhala—I am a member of both all-party groups—but because, so far, minorities have not had an equal opportunity to play a part in Sri Lanka. I know the commitment of my hon. Friend the Minister to peacekeeping and bridge-building from our work together over the years. Given that the UN set up its panel of experts, which reported to Ban Ki-moon in November 2012, and given that the UN Human Rights Council agreed a resolution in Geneva—we supported that resolution, which will come back for assessment this spring—what are we doing to ensure that the UN responsibility to protect means something in future? That responsibility does not yet mean something, and an amendment to the way that the Security Council and the UN work is needed. What will we do in Geneva in the next few weeks to ensure that the accountability that was sought is implemented? What do we do to ensure that the Sri Lankan Government are held to account for war crimes? There were war crimes on both sides, but Governments have a particular responsibility not to commit war crimes, and they need to be held to account. What will we do about the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting? It should not have been agreed to hold it in Colombo. Unless Colombo shows that it is moving in a fundamentally different direction, the UK should not support the Commonwealth, which has been weak on the issue, or endorse the Commonwealth’s support for the regime by its presence in Colombo. That would not be the right approach for the British Government. I hope that the Minister will be robust. We need Britain to be robust, in the interests of everybody in Sri Lanka and of a successful future for Sri Lanka as a whole. 10.40 am Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab): Mr Hollobone, I join in congratulating you on how you have chaired this debate and managed to call all the speakers. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) on securing this debate. I have participated with her in previous debates on Sri Lanka, and she is not just passionate but knowledgeable about the situation there, despite not having visited the country.

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It is interesting that the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Mr Burley) discussed the eight-day trip to Sri Lanka in July, which was arranged by the Sri Lankan high commission. Nine Conservative MPs went on that trip, plus the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley). I certainly was not invited. As I am the Opposition spokesperson on Sri Lanka, one might think that I would have been the first port of call if the high commission genuinely wanted it to be a cross-party trip. It is obviously useful and important to visit countries and see the situation on the ground, but the experience on such trips and the lessons learned tend to depend on what one is shown and who is the host. This debate has amply demonstrated how going to see things on the ground does not necessarily give the whole picture. Dr Offord: Will the shadow Minister give way? Kerry McCarthy: I will not, because it is important that we give the Minister time to respond. I want to use less than my time if possible. Like the Government, we welcome the report of the internal review panel on UN action in Sri Lanka, and we note the panel’s conclusion that the Secretary-General took a courageous step in commissioning the review, but that in itself is not enough; we must learn lessons from it. We must not just focus on the extent to which the Sri Lankan people were let down by the international community; we must see how we can move forward. The temptation with any review is to focus on the past. We should not forget the atrocities committed on Sri Lanka’s killing fields, the tens of thousands who needlessly lost their lives during the civil war or the many other civilians who have been affected. I do not support calls to draw a line under those atrocities; I do not think that the time has come to say that we can now move on and forget what happened. Many people have not been held to account for the crimes that they committed, and we must still focus on that. I thought it quite shocking that one Government Member referred to irregularities in the past. They were much more than irregularities. It is also shocking that people cast doubt on the evidence, such as was shown in the Channel 4 programme, about what happened in Sri Lanka. It is well documented by international organisations. As the head of Amnesty International’s UN New York office stated, the review is “a wake-up call for UN member states that have not pushed hard enough for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes”.

Amnesty warned that there is “no evidence” that “the Sri Lankan Government’s lack of will to protect civilians or account for very serious violations…has changed”.

The most pertinent conclusions on which we must now focus are that the report’s recommendations provide “an urgent and compelling platform for action”

and that the “UN’s failure to adequately respond to events like those that occurred in Sri Lanka should not happen again.”

Many have been shocked by the review’s finding that UN staff “did not perceive the prevention of killing civilians as their responsibility”.

On the concept of a responsibility to protect, the review warned:

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“Differing perceptions among member states and the Secretariat of the concept’s meaning and use had become so contentious as to nullify its potential value. Indeed, making references to the responsibility to protect was seen as more likely to weaken rather than strengthen UN action.”

The panel concluded that there is an “urgent need for the UN to update its strategy for engagement with member states in situations where civilian populations…are not protected”.

Will the Minister outline the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s current interpretation of the responsibility to protect doctrine? What discussions have the Government had with international colleagues about the internal review and how the situation can move forward? During the past year, the final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission has been published, but as has been widely acknowledged, it failed to address the credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides in the conflict, as highlighted by the UN panel of experts. The LLRC’s composition and narrow terms of reference were deeply flawed, as is borne out in its report, which fails even to mention torture, despite the fact that the UN Committee against Torture noted “continued and consistent allegations” of its widespread use. The LLRC was in no way adequate, but some of its recommendations offered a foundation on which we could build, providing that they are properly implemented. In accordance with the UN Human Rights Council resolution passed in March, the Sri Lankan Government developed their national action plan, about which I have asked the Minister before, but there remain few signs of meaningful progress, as noted by many countries and non-governmental organisations during Sri Lanka’s universal periodic review towards the end of last year. What contact has the UK had with the Sri Lankan authorities since the periodic review? Will the UK set out identifiable goals that can be assessed at the UN human rights plenary session in March, which must take the opportunity to reassure the people of Sri Lanka that the UN can help them? The year 2013 could prove to be a crossroads for Sri Lanka, but the UN is not the only institution with a pivotal role to play. Many Members have mentioned the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit later this year. The UK’s stance to date has been ambiguous compared to, for example, that of the Canadian Prime Minister, who stated unequivocally that, unless there were clear signs of improvement in Sri Lanka’s human rights record, he would boycott the summit. Is the UK Prime Minister’s attendance at CHOGM provisional? If so, what conditions must the Sri Lankan Government meet if the UK is to be present? We must also consider the UK’s duty to protect. Will the Minister update us on the Foreign Office’s discussions with the Home Office regarding deportations to Sri Lanka, which other hon. Members have mentioned? Finally, given the UN’s clear failures to protect civilians and recognise the Government’s human rights abuses and the shortcomings of the LLRC, does the Minister agree that the people of Sri Lanka deserve an independent international investigation to provide not only answers and accountability but a clear way forward for their country?

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10.47 am The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Alistair Burt): I add my thanks to those of my colleagues, Mr Hollobone, for your chairing of this debate. I also thank the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) for her brevity and her remarks. I start, as always, by congratulating the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) on securing this debate. Her deep and committed interest in Sri Lankan issues is well known. I welcome the opportunity to state the Government’s position and the opportunity that she has once again provided the House to discuss the issue. I welcome the interventions of a number of colleagues in this debate. They have been passionate, thoughtful and honest. The difference of views expressed across the Chamber emphasises the complexity of the issue. In an effort to defuse a little of the heat, may I say that, bearing in mind the history of the issue and who was in Government in 2009, a degree of humility in all parties is helpful? Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The contributions of colleagues with personal experience of reconciliation in parts of the UK were particularly important in bringing to the surface some of the difficulties involved. The UK’s relationship with Sri Lanka is long-standing, strong and based on close historical, cultural, educational, commercial and family ties that will not weaken. The United Kingdom is fortunate to have a large Sri Lankan diaspora community, which contributes much to our rich and diverse culture. Over the past couple of years, I have met regularly with Sri Lankan Ministers, parliamentarians from different parties and members of the diaspora in the United Kingdom. As has been noted, in two weeks’ time, I will make my second visit to the country. The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden suggested that my visit might be taken as a vindication of the Government. I assure her and the House that judging from experience over the past couple of years, my remarks are not always taken in that way by the Government, who are entitled to see them as they wish. I do not think that that is a particular risk. There are different ways of visiting a country. People do not always have to go on a Government-sponsored visit; non-governmental organisations are operating, for example. People should declare everything and of course they must be on guard, no matter who takes them on a visit. It is helpful to visit and get a picture, if it is possible to do so, although that does not preclude views from those who have not visited but know a great deal about the issue. The decades-long war in Sri Lanka, which ended in 2009 with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, devastated the country and deeply scarred its population. Sri Lankans deserve lasting peace and reconciliation and where the United Kingdom and international organisations, such as the UN, are able to encourage and support the process it is right to do so. I want to deal with three elements that came out of this debate: the situation of the UN; progress being made in Sri Lanka; and issues to do with the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. In essence, I agree with and support the remarks made by the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden. It is right that the UN has been through an intense process, examining its

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role in relation to the conclusion of events in Sri Lanka. We welcome the report by the panel of experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2011, which found credible allegations that both sides were involved in violations of international humanitarian law, and its setting up its own independent internal report to consider what happened with regard to the UN’s role. We agree that shortcomings were identified. In following that up, we note that the UN has moved swiftly to put in place a lessons-learned programme overseen by a panel chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General’s office. It is there that we will make our contribution to how the UN is going to repair what it failed to do in relation to the responsibility to protect, and we will follow that panel’s progress closely. I expect that questions will be raised about that over time. We are committed to and support the concept of responsibility to protect, which was supported by all UN member states in 2005. The difficulty that was found in 2009 was that a pillar III responsibility-to-protect response required the agreement of the UN Security Council. It was clear at the time—former Ministers in this Chamber know this better than I—that there was not widespread support in the wider international community for a more assertive position towards the parties to the conflict. This turns out to have been a tragedy. The United Kingdom’s primary concerns during the final offensive were to ensure unimpeded access by humanitarian agencies and compliance with international humanitarian law, including investigations of allegations of violations. The UK focused, therefore, on the parties’ obligations to protect the civilian population. Barry Gardiner: In the light of what he has just said, will the Minister comment on paragraph 15 of the internal report? It says that there was “concern that the moment that humanitarian organizations leave, the Government will begin bombing Killinochchi town and that the physical security of the civilian population will be at increased risk”.

It is implicit that there is safety by the UN organisation’s very presence and that there is supervision. Alistair Burt: Yes. As we have all said during the debate, the UN is examining its processes carefully as it finds fault in what it did in the past and emphasises the importance of UN engagement in the most difficult circumstances. Of course, we see in Syria today how difficult that has become. No doubt, the UN panel will look carefully at how it failed to meet that obligation and what might be done in difficult circumstances in future. The LTTE is a brutal, ruthless organisation that rightly remains proscribed in the UK, but a military victory alone cannot deliver the stable, lasting peace all Sri Lankans deserve. Addressing events during the final days of the conflict is important and the UK has consistently called for an independent investigation into allegations of violation of international humanitarian law on both sides. There needs to be a more fundamental approach that goes beyond accountability. Colleagues have mentioned this in terms of the context of the future of Sri Lanka being for Sri Lankans themselves and how they take this forward. Therefore, we support the view, widely held in Sri Lanka and outside, that long-term peace can best be achieved through an inclusive

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political settlement that addresses the underlying causes of the conflict. Such a settlement must also take into account the legitimate grievances and aspirations of all Sri Lanka’s communities. On the progress that has been made, the Sri Lankan Government recognised that in appointing the LLRC, which submitted its report in December 2011 and made more than 200 recommendations, including calls for credible investigations of alleged judicial killings and disappearances, demilitarisation of the north, implementation of impartial land-dispute resolution mechanisms and protection of freedom of expression. Although we welcome the recommendations that were made, as I said at the time, the Government’s view is that the report left gaps and unanswered questions on alleged violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. We were disappointed by the report’s conclusions and recommendations on accountability. None the less, as colleagues have said, the recommendations, if implemented in full, would go a long way to achieving the reconciliation that we believe will achieve lasting peace. What progress has there been and, in answer to colleagues who have asked what we are looking for, what have we measured? The UK recognises and welcomes progress made in various areas. UK officials have visited all nine provinces of Sri Lanka in the past 12 months and have seen much to welcome. The absence of conflict has brought greater security and opened up economic development—the demining was mentioned by colleagues—with UK financial support, freeing up yet more land for resettlement and agriculture. Rehabilitation of thousands of ex-combatants, including child soldiers, has allowed many individuals to integrate back into society. The majority of internally displaced persons have now moved out of camps, although there is still work to be done in ensuring that “permanent homes” means just that, and does not mean people being deposited in places that they came from. Troop numbers are well below those in 2009. Although that is positive, there still remains more to be done to ensure that there is lasting peace and prosperity. The March 2012 Human Rights Council resolution, supported by the UK and a number of member states, called on the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the LLRC recommendations and address alleged violations of international law. I assure hon. Members that we will be robust in pursuing that in the March 2013 council meeting. We wish that action plan, with deadlines from

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early this year for the implementation of LLRC recommendations, to be carried forward. It only covers about half of the LLRC recommendations. When I go to Sri Lanka in a couple of weeks, I will see if Sri Lanka will consider implementing all the recommendations and, if so, how to take it forward. It is too soon to talk about our attendance plans for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. We will not move from that position for a period of time. Sri Lanka was scheduled to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2011, but given ongoing concerns about the humanitarian and human rights situation, the UK and other Commonwealth members did not support its bid. However, Commonwealth members decided that Sri Lanka would host in 2013. To reopen that decision would require a consensus of all member states and I do not think that is likely. I have listened carefully to exchanges between hon. Members. The intensity of views and the sharp divide between colleagues emphasises how difficult and complex the situation is. A decision on the location of CHOGM is not for the UK; it is for the Commonwealth. The meeting will discuss many issues, not just Sri Lanka, but as Sri Lanka well knows it will inevitably shine a spotlight on the host country, demonstrating either its progress or lack of it. It is up to Sri Lanka to choose what will be seen. As the Foreign Secretary has said, we expect the Sri Lankan Government to demonstrate that they uphold the values of the Commonwealth. Colleagues have said that the UK should not let Her Majesty the Queen go to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. It is important to clarify that she attends that meeting as head of the Commonwealth, not the UK head of state. Her attendance is not a decision for the UK Government. If she were to ask for advice, it would be from all Commonwealth members. Following the resolution of the conflict, it is clear that long-term reconciliation is an issue. The hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), perceptive as he often is, said that unless that is done the problem will come back at some stage to haunt everyone in Sri Lanka. The process of reconciliation is not easy. Some progress has been made in implementing some of the recommendations in the LLRC report. More needs to be done. The LLRC needs to be given time and good will must be there on all sides to see the process through. Nothing has been swept under the carpet and we are mindful of what has happened in the past and of the wishes of all Sri Lankans for the future.

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Female Genital Mutilation 11 am Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab): It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone, which I have done on many occasions. I am delighted to have secured this important debate on what I believe to be a national scandal, with thousands of victims violated and failed every year. Although the scandalous practice of female genital mutilation is shrouded in secrecy, the Government estimate that 20,000 girls under 15 in England and Wales could be at high risk of FGM. That is more than 50 young victims every day. It is happening now, as we speak in the debate. The issue is not party political, and has been raised by Government and Opposition Members. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison), who is recognised in this place and outside the House for her tremendous work in raising the matter. Eradicating the practice will take not only cross-party support but cross-departmental work involving the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Department of Health and the Foreign Office. The subject is complex, but I want to use today’s debate to understand the Ministry of Justice’s role in dealing with FGM and to press the Minister responsible for victims of crime on what the Government are doing to ensure that those voiceless victims are protected. I want to know what her Department is doing to champion that cause and what she is doing not only to prevent people from becoming victims in future, but to seek justice for existing victims. I understand that several failings fall under the remit of the Home Office, but my concern is that no Minister is specifically responsible for FGM. Given that there are 20,000 victims every year, the victims Minister should perhaps shoulder a fair proportion of that responsibility. Female genital mutilation has been a criminal offence in this country since 1985, but some may argue that it has been a criminal offence for much longer, under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. In my respectful submission, FGM is without a shadow of a doubt grievous bodily harm. It is an appalling practice. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 made it illegal to take children abroad for the purposes of FGM. Despite that, however, it is astonishing that there has not been a single prosecution. I welcome the recent efforts of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the publication of the Crown Prosecution Service action plan. Keir Starmer QC stated: “It is critical that everything possible is done to ensure we bring the people who commit these offences against young girls and women to justice”.

Right hon. and hon. Members will welcome that commitment, but those words need to translate into justice for thousands of victims. Despite those recent developments, I am confused as to why it has taken such a long time for basic questions to be asked about why there has been a failure to prosecute this most despicable child abuse. It is a criminal offence, and it is not good enough for the prosecuting authorities to try to mitigate inaction by suggesting that prosecutions are made difficult, or even impossible, merely because young girls do not present themselves at a police station to report their parents for this vile abuse. It is a criminal offence and it needs to be tackled.

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Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab): I am pleased that my hon. Friend has secured today’s debate. When I raised the issue of female genital mutilation and questioned the lack of prosecutions, the problem did not seem to be at the Crown Prosecution Service end; the police were simply not referring cases to it. I think that there were three cases in which the CPS had to make a decision on whether to prosecute, but it felt that there was not enough evidence. Does he agree that the police also need to make female genital mutilation a much greater priority? Karl Turner: I agree entirely with my hon. Friend, who has raised the issue on several occasions in the House. She is absolutely right that the police need to do much more, and they need to work with other authorities. Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con): I am pleased and grateful to the hon. Gentleman for securing today’s debate. To pick up on that last point, there is one thing that the police need to think about. There was a recent and well-known exposé in a major national paper. Some hon. Members were present at the annual general meeting of the all-party group on female genital mutilation when the Director of Public Prosecutions explained that prosecutions were not possible on the back of that exposé. However, the idea of going after the aiders and abettors, for which the 2003 Act more than makes provision, is one thing that we need more heft behind, because it is obviously a more promising route than trying to get children to report their parents. Karl Turner: The hon. Lady makes a good point. I had the opportunity through Hilary Burrage, who has campaigned tirelessly on female genital mutilation, to meet the leading French prosecutor. What the hon. Lady suggests is exactly the action being taken in France. Working in that way clearly helps to prevent perpetrators from committing the offence. I am pleased that we now have a victims commissioner. It is not a party-political point, but it has taken at least 12 months for that to happen. I am sure that Baroness Newlove will do an excellent job and continue the good work of Louise Casey. I want to know the Minister’s thoughts on how much the victims commissioner should prioritise female genital mutilation. Over recent months, we have heard many positive words, but I am concerned that positive words are not reducing the shocking number of victims on the ground or delivering the justice that victims deserve. The NSPCC rightly states that preventing future victims should remain a priority, but we need to see justice for the 50 victims who will suffer the abuse this very day. Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con): Does the hon. Gentleman feel that other measures ought to be brought into play? In other countries, nurses in schools automatically have to ensure that the authorities are informed about such matters. That does not seem to happen in this country. Karl Turner: I agree with the hon. Lady that the authorities need to work more closely together, and to share information with teachers, nurses and GPs. I have spoken to many professionals who avoid the issue either because of the sensitivities or, as was suggested to me

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recently, because they are struggling with their departmental budgets. They avoid dealing with the matter. The hon. Lady does not seem terribly impressed at that comment, but that point was put to me very recently. The reduction in social services budgets is definitely an issue, because female genital mutilation is not the priority that it should be. The lack of evidence and witnesses is also an issue. The lack of prosecutions is compounded by many factors. The police are not investigating FGM with enough vigour, as was suggested earlier. It is estimated that of the 20,000 suspected cases some 6,000 will be based in London. The Metropolitan police’s Project Azure was set up to tackle the problem, but a freedom of information request showed that the team consisted of only two police officers—one full-time and one part-time. It is ridiculous to suggest that such policing is sufficient to tackle this shocking issue. Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op): I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. Has he considered whether the authorities can work with individuals in the communities involved who are concerned about what is happening? Does he have any views on that? Karl Turner: I do have views, and my hon. Friend makes an excellent point. She has raised the matter in the House on numerous occasions. An issue that follows from that is the obvious lack of data collection. It is accepted that robust data collection and assessment of the problem are urgently needed. A Government equality impact assessment was published last year and stated: “Lack of data is an ongoing issue in the government’s work to prevent and tackle FGM.”

It will be impossible to tackle the problem without robust systems in place to identify its true level and at-risk children. I am pleased that this is now a priority in the Crown Prosecution Service’s action plan, but the Home Office assessment said that a large-scale communitybased study would have a very high cost, and that the Department will continue to examine alternative options and to consider how existing data may capture information about FGM. Jane Ellison: I apologise for intervening again. On that specific point, the House may like to know that nearly a year ago Quality Now! led a Home Office-funded two-day expert methodological workshop. It made specific recommendations on how robust data could be gathered in ways that would be less expensive than those that the hon. Gentleman described. That report and the recommendations have been sitting in the Home Office for almost a year. It is good that it funded the original workshop, but a plan exists and could be funded crossdepartmentally to get us away from relying on data that are extrapolated from the 2001 census. Hon. Members will be aware of how much Britain’s demography has changed since the 2001 census. Karl Turner: I entirely agree with the hon. Lady. She is more expert in the matter than I am, and has raised the issue consistently since being elected to the House. I welcome her thoughts on the issue. I have said previously that the Crown Prosecution Service action plan is a step in the right direction, and I welcome it, but I would be interested to know whether the Director of Public Prosecutions believes that current

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legislation should be reviewed, and whether evidence to prosecute under other legislation is easier to support. The CPS action plan is not the silver bullet. We need a national action plan—an integrated cross-departmental plan—that is adequately funded to stop this despicable crime. I am concerned that for many years there has been interdepartmental buck passing. When I say that the issue is not party political, I mean that sincerely. The reality is that the previous Government failed dreadfully in tackling the issue. They had 13 years in which to take the matter on, and since then the current Government have not done a lot. We must have a national action plan because the issue needs strong political will, not just warm words. Given that this crime produces 20,000 victims every year, I suggest that the Minister’s Department has a single Minister with specific responsibility for providing justice to victims. As the NSPCC rightly states, female genital mutilation is a form of physical child abuse that should be dealt with through the child protection system. Reticence or failure to intervene effectively is not acceptable in other instances of child abuse, nor should it be in the case of FGM. We need a standardised FGM data collection policy. I wholeheartedly welcome last month’s landmark passing of the UN resolution calling for a global ban on FGM, and I hope that the UK will now act on the issue with focused priority. Finally, I suggest that statutory teaching of sex education in primary school may assist in helping to eradicate this vile practice. 11.15 am The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mrs Helen Grant): It is a pleasure, Mr Hollobone, to serve under your chairmanship. I earnestly congratulate the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) on securing this debate on victims of the abhorrent crime of female genital mutilation. I also congratulate the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Heather Wheeler). the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs Ellman) and my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison) on their important interventions. I congratulate particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea on her tireless work over many years, and as chair of the all-party group on female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is an extremely painful and harmful practice that blights the lives of many young girls and women. The Government roundly condemn the practice and are determined to see it eradicated in this country and elsewhere. In my joint role as Minister for Victims and the Courts and Minister for Women and Equalities, I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity of responding to this debate. The practice of female genital mutilation is an age-old one that is deeply steeped in the culture and tradition of practising communities. Those who practise it no doubt genuinely believe that it is in their children’s best interests to conform to the prevailing custom of their community, but that does not excuse the gross violation of human rights. It is wholly unacceptable to allow a practice that can have such devastating consequences for the health of a young girl. The physical and psychological effects

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[Mrs Helen Grant] can last throughout her life. The mutilation and impairment of young girls and women have no place in a modern society where equality is prized. My Department is responsible for the criminal law in this area. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 extended significantly the protection that the law affords these vulnerable young victims. It created extraterritorial offences to deter people from taking girls abroad for mutilation. To reflect the serious harm caused, it increased the maximum penalty for female genital mutilation from five to 14 years. Sadly, like the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 that it replaced, the 2003 Act has yet to result in a successful prosecution, which is a source of considerable frustration. That is not, as some have suggested, a reflection of the effectiveness of the law itself. The law is perfectly capable of dealing with perpetrators if offences are reported to the police, and evidential and public interest tests for prosecution are met. At the time of mutilation, however, victims may be too young, too vulnerable, or too afraid to report offences, and they may be reluctant to implicate family members. The simple fact is that no law can be effective in this area unless the barriers to prosecution are overcome. Karl Turner: Before being elected to this place, I practised as a criminal lawyer, and I worked on behalf of defendants who were charged with serious sexual abuse of children. It is not often suggested that it is difficult to bring such cases to prosecution, and the same issues are involved. Will the Minister explain her point? Mrs Grant: I am aware of the hon. Gentleman’s criminal law experience. The law is robust, extensive and adequate but, unfortunately, dealing with the issue often involves very young children who are frightened and reluctant to take action against family members. There is often pressure within their community not to give evidence and not to say anything. Karl Turner: It is the same with sexual abuse. Mrs Grant: I would disagree, but obviously, the adequacy of the law is something that we will always keep under review. I know that the Director of Public Prosecutions has had conversations with the Home Office and Ministry of Justice officials—I think the hon. Gentleman is aware of those—on the effectiveness of the law, and whether new laws or other legislation, such as the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims (Amendment) Act 2012, might help in those areas. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the matter will be kept under review, but I will discuss a number of other things in my speech that can be done in the interim. Jane Ellison: The Minister may well be moving on to this point, but I just want to agree with what the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) said. If the police wanted to go after the people who were organising this, they could. I hope that the Minister will address in her remaining comments the fact that, ultimately, there is a lack of will. We all know that children are not going to report it. They are too young. They are not going to report their parents, but people

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are setting up the travel and the medical care when the children get back, and they are meeting them at the other end. Where there is a will, there is a way. This has been held back by some misguided notion that it would be racist to pursue the issue. It is racist not to. If these girls were white middle-class children, we would be protecting them a lot better than we are now. Mrs Grant: I hear everything that my hon. Friend has to say, and I am aware that she knows a considerable amount about the matter. I do not accept that there is a lack of will, but I hear what she has to say, and I will make sure that as much action as possible is taken to deal with the issues that she highlighted. I very much welcome the action plan that the Director of Public Prosecutions published recently, with a view to bringing a successful prosecution for female genital mutilation. The willingness of victims and others to come forward and give evidence in court is crucial. We need to create a climate in which victims, and those close to them, feel able to report offences to the police and to receive the help and support that they need to give evidence, so that perpetrators of this unacceptable, dreadful practice can be brought to justice. Of course, the law is only one part of tackling the problem of female genital mutilation in this country, and prosecution after the fact does not relieve the victim from a lifetime of pain and discomfort. Ideally, we want to prevent the mutilation from happening in the first place. We need to educate people and change their attitudes— sometimes long-established attitudes. A holistic approach and a multi-agency response are vital. Heather Wheeler: The Minister talks about a multidisciplinary approach. I wonder whether she could open up discussions with the health authorities, because I understand that, under the NHS, restorative medical treatment is not granted automatically. Mrs Grant: I note what my hon. Friend says. I shall come on to health and cross-Government, inter-agency multi-practice in a moment, but if I do not cover her specific point, I will be happy to write to her. A joined-up approach within Government is also important. The Government’s approach to tackling female genital mutilation is set out in our “Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls” action plan. Our key focus is prevention, and cross-Government work, co-ordinated by the Home Office, has seen significant progress in raising awareness of female genital mutilation and supporting professionals to intervene. Central to that work are the multi-agency practice guidelines on female genital mutilation, which were published in February 2011. They highlight the risk factors that teachers, nurses, GPs, police officers and social workers should be looking out for in their work, and they set out what action they should take. Above all, they stress the need for a collaborative effort to protect girls at risk. A review of the use and effectiveness of the guidelines was launched by the Home Office in August 2012, and a report on the findings of that review will be published later this year. Additionally, over 40,000 information leaflets and posters about female genital mutilation have been distributed to schools, health services, charities and community groups around the country.

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We also continue to support front-line organisations that work with communities to challenge their long-held beliefs about the practice. The Home Office launched a £50,000 fund in November 2012, from which organisations may bid for grants of £2,000 to £5,000. That follows from the success of the 2011 fund, which supported 10 organisations working to tackle FGM across England and Wales. Another recent initiative is the declaration against FGM launched by the Home Office in November. Based on the Dutch document known as the “health passport”, it sets out the law and penalties for female genital mutilation. It is supported by and carries the signatures of relevant Ministers, including my own and those of the Minister of State, Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Mr Browne) and the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), as well as that of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Department of Health continues to ensure that health professionals are able to respond appropriately to girls and women who may be at risk of genital mutilation and to those whose have already been subjected to it. In May 2012, the then Health Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Anne Milton), wrote to the royal colleges and NHS agencies encouraging them to raise awareness of the problem among professionals, and the Department’s chief medical officer and the director of nursing, with the support of the royal colleges, wrote to health professionals drawing their attention to the multi-agency practice guidelines. It is clear from the responses received that all are committed to playing their part in eradicating this dreadful practice. Work is continuing across Government to look at all possible ways of tackling this complex issue. To that end, in two days’ time, the Minister with responsibility for crime prevention, my honourable Friend the Member for Taunton Deane, will be co-hosting, with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a round-table meeting with key professionals. The meeting’s purpose is to explore how those working with children can work together to detect potential victims of FGM and deter those from considering carrying out the act. The public health Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe, and the Minister with responsibility for children, my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson), will also be attending.

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Ultimately, the eradication of female genital mutilation in this country will require the practising communities themselves to abandon this awful practice. It is a sad fact that older women, who are themselves victims of genital mutilation, are often the strongest advocates for the continuance of the practice. Such attitudes are deeply ingrained. The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East asked what the Victims Commissioner’s role might be in relation to the issue. The Victims Commissioner has a statutory duty to promote the interests of victims of crime, including victims of female genital mutilation. I hope that she will be taking up her position later this month, and I look forward to working closely with her on those matters. He also asked about my role as victims Minister, with particular reference to female genital mutilation, and I can tell him that I will be working closely with the Home Office in a crossGovernment capacity on an issue that, as I think he knows, is also very close to my heart. In a wider context, I am responsible for looking after victims and doing everything that I can to care for, support and help them, including, of course, victims of female genital mutilation. I will be working with the police and crime commissioners to make sure that they do everything that they possibly can to eradicate the practice, and working with the police in their new capacities. We will be reforming the victims code, which will hopefully make it easier for victims—including victims of female genital mutilation—to navigate their way through the criminal justice system, which can often be very confusing and intimidating, as I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware, having worked in it for many years. In conclusion, the Government remain committed to protecting young girls and women from the abuse, and to ensuring that those living with its consequences get the care and support that they need and deserve. I thank all hon. Members who have contributed to the debate, and I hope that it will serve to keep this important issue firmly on the agenda. 11.29 am Sitting suspended.

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Liverpool Care Pathway [MR MIKE WEIR in the Chair] 2.30 pm Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con): Mr Weir, I would like to say how much of a pleasure it is to serve under the chairmanship of a fellow Celt. I declare an interest as a board member of Living and Dying Well, which specialises in research into and opposition to the legalisation of assisted suicide. I shall begin with a summary of the current position. The “Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient” was developed by the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool as a framework for health professionals to use to ensure that people who are dying have as comfortable and dignified a death as possible. The pathway was developed and has been in use since the 1990s. Today, about 130,000 of the 450,000 patients who die in hospital care every year die while being cared for on the pathway. It has also been exported and is now in use in more than 20 other countries. However, during the past few months, the Liverpool care pathway has been the subject of some very serious criticisms and allegations in the media, which has led to questions about whether it is indeed a worthy process. I shall explain why I sought this debate and the outcomes that I would like to achieve before considering in greater detail the criticisms that have been made of the pathway. By any measure, the Liverpool care pathway plays a very significant role in how the end of life is managed in our country. Its role is much greater than most of us realise: 30% of patients who die in hospital care die while on the pathway. The sheer scale of this is why I believe that debate about it is too important to be led by national newspapers, although I certainly do not criticise those newspapers for reporting stories in the way they have done. Indeed, they have served a valuable purpose by raising public awareness of such an important issue. However, there is, almost inevitably, a tendency for newspapers to couch the debate in sensationalist terms. It is up to us as parliamentarians to ensure that this complex and potentially controversial issue is subject to balanced and thorough debate in the House of Commons. The outcome that I seek today is calm reflection by parliamentarians, including those on the Front Benches, on this most sensitive of issues—calm reflection on the issues without encouraging the spread of alarm and despondency among those entering care, which can result from sensationalist allegations. I also seek a response from Government—from the Minister—that they will ensure that the review on which they have already embarked includes careful and thorough investigation of the allegations that have been made of bad practice. It is important to know whether the allegations are accurate and, if they are, where the weaknesses lie and what needs to be done to put those matters right. I am a supporter of the Liverpool care pathway, but my aim today is not to defend or to attack the pathway, those who have made allegations of shocking bad practice, or the media, which have given the allegations such great publicity. It is to promote open and genuine debate in Parliament. In any case, I am not in a position to judge how much substance there is to the various

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criticisms that have been made, but I do know that we cannot avoid death and I also believe that most people do not fear death so much as they fear the process of death. The aim of the Liverpool care pathway is to ensure that the process is as compassionate, dignified and free from pain and discomfort as possible and, importantly, consistent with public safety. Our aim should be that the pathway is used in a way that retains public confidence—that it is being used in accordance with the principles on which the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute developed it. I hope that the Minister will agree that we must ensure that the pathway is subject to the very highest levels of scrutiny and that the framework can be allowed to be implemented only against a background of total transparency. There must be discussion with patients or with patients’ families or carers and there must be clearly available avenues through which complaints and concerns can be channelled. I hope that the Minister will assure us that the very serious allegations reported in the media will be thoroughly investigated and that, if any examples of bad practice are found, action will be taken to expose those responsible, to hold them to account and to do everything possible to prevent it from happening again. The experiences at Winterbourne View and hospitals in Worcestershire and the appalling and chilling events that took place in Stafford are too raw in the memory to allow anything else. It is only through audit and disciplinary measures, if and when appropriate, that the Liverpool care pathway will retain the integrity needed for it to be acceptable and the confidence of those who might use it. Two years ago, I had never heard of the Liverpool care pathway. I first took an interest in it as a consequence of my concerns about and opposition to the legalisation of assisted dying. I was hugely surprised by how widely the pathway was in use. I had no idea that 130,000 patients in hospital care died while on the pathway every year and I do not think that many people realise that today. Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North) (Con): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way to a fellow Celt. I congratulate him not just on securing the debate, but on the tone in which he has introduced it. He referred to the number of people who are on the Liverpool care pathway, but to help the debate has he done any work on the expansion in numbers since the 1990s? Did we swiftly move to 130,000? Is that a consistent number, or has there been a gradual increase over time? I ask that because of course it is the rolling out of the pathway that may lead to some people having less expertise—less skill—and then, as a result of that, some of the instances that my hon. Friend refers to some poor reporting of ? Glyn Davies: My hon. Friend makes a very important point about the need for training and expertise for all those who are responsible for putting people on the pathway and for looking after them when they are on it. I want to come to that later in my comments. The negative coverage in our national media has probably increased awareness of the Liverpool care pathway. To that extent, I think that it has been a very good thing, but because I do not believe that the scale of the pathway is widely known, I think that it is right to say something about what the Liverpool care pathway is and what it is not in order to set out the context of the

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debate,. It is certainly not and must never be any form of “euthanasia by the back door”—a phrase that I have heard—nor is it a form of clinical treatment or even any specific type of care. It does not instruct doctors or nurses to provide this or that treatment. What it does is prompt them to consider whether certain treatments are appropriate in individual circumstances. It supports—it does not replace—clinical care. It is no more than a framework of good practice, backed up by training and education, to guide doctors, nurses and other health professionals towards delivering the high levels of palliative care that have been available in hospices for many years. It enables them to be transferred to hospitals, care homes and patients’ homes. It is about the appropriate way to look after a patient who is clearly dying through the last few days and hours of life. Some other points should be made in this debate. The Liverpool care pathway does not recommend, as some have suggested, that dying patients should be deprived of food and water, although food and water may be withdrawn in individual cases if clinicians believe that that is the right step to take. The Liverpool care pathway does recommend to doctors and nurses that they explain to dying patients, or more often their next of kin, exactly what is happening and why. Secrecy forms no part of the Liverpool care pathway whatever. It is also important to emphasise that there is nothing irreversible about being placed on the Liverpool care pathway. Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): Will my hon. Friend give way on that point? Glyn Davies: On that point, I will, yes. Andrew Bridgen: I thank my hon. Friend for calling this very important debate. I, too, share some of his concerns about the consistency with which the Liverpool care pathway is implemented across the country. I made some inquiries in the hospitals that serve my constituents, but information seemed to be lacking on the implementation of the care pathway. I am particularly concerned that patients placed on the pathway may have no opportunity to be taken off it if they improve. There are no figures on the number of patients for whom care has been reintroduced after being placed on the pathway. One of the hospitals told me, anecdotally, that no one there could remember anyone being taken off the pathway. I find that worrying. Glyn Davies: My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Patients on the pathway should be monitored regularly, and if the patient shows signs of rallying, as does happen in a minority of cases, the treatment should be modified to support recovery. If that is not happening, the pathway is not being implemented properly. The Liverpool care pathway is not a pathway to death —a phrase I have seen used often, but which I think is unbelievably awful. It is a travesty of the truth to describe it as a form of euthanasia. Why have we reached the point of huge public controversy, which has caused so much angst and fear? It has arisen from allegations—serious allegations, some of them from doctors and nurses—that the pattern of end-of-life care I have described has not been followed in some cases. There have been stories of dying patients

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being deprived of the food and water they needed and others being kept continuously sedated until they died; and of patients being placed on the pathway without consultation with them or their families, or to meet targets. The fear of that is especially shocking, and I hope the Minister will comment specifically on the issue of targets. Let me look at some of the allegations in more detail. According to the Daily Mail in June last year, “NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds”.

The report is based on a presentation to the Royal Society of Medicine by Professor Patrick Pullicino, a consultant neurologist. He stated: “The lack of evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway makes it an assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway.”

That is the debate being led by the Daily Mail. Professor Pullicino continued: “Very likely many elderly patients who could live substantially longer are being killed by the LCP.”

Imagine how a frail elderly person entering hospital a few weeks after reading that would feel. Professor Pullicino added: “Patients are frequently put on the pathway without a proper analysis of their condition.”

According to the Daily Telegraph, in September, a group of experts stated in a letter that “dying patients…can…have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.”

The letter—again according to the Daily Telegraph—spoke of a “national crisis” in patient care, and “a national wave of discontent…building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients.”

According to the newspaper, some patients were wrongly being put on the pathway, which created a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that they would die. The report continued: “Patients who are allowed to become dehydrated and then become confused can be wrongly put on this pathway”,

and, “many doctors were not checking the progress of patients enough to notice improvement in their condition.”

Those are shockingly serious allegations. If they are true, urgent corrective action is needed. There is another side to the equation, however. More than 20 respected organisations, including the Department of Health, Age UK, the Alzheimer’s Society, Macmillan Cancer Support, and the Royal Colleges of Physicians, General Practitioners and Nursing, have signed a declaration that: “Since the late 1990s, the Liverpool Care Pathway has been helping to spread elements of the hospice model of care into other healthcare settings”.

It mentions: “Published misconceptions and often inaccurate information”—

referring, I think, to the stories in national newspapers I have quoted. Our task and the Minister’s is to reconcile the support of all those organisations for the Liverpool care pathway with the allegations made—in good faith, I am sure—by people who believe that the pathway is what they call a pathway to death. Any tool is only as good as the workman who uses it. The declaration states clearly that the Liverpool care pathway:

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[Glyn Davies] “Relies on staff being trained to have a thorough understanding of how to care for people who are in their last days or hours of life.”

We have to face the fact that, in most professions, there are instances of excellence and malpractice, and health care is no exception. It would be surprising if, when 130,000 people a year are dying on the Liverpool care pathway, there were no cases in which the pathway had been misapplied. That applies to every branch of medicine and, indeed, every occupation. There are good and less good doctors and nurses; there are well run and less well run hospitals; but to lay the blame at the door of the Liverpool care pathway is like tearing up “The Highway Code” because there are some bad drivers. Where there is bad practice and poor care, it should be rooted out and replaced with good care. It seems to me that the review the Government recently launched provides an excellent opportunity to consider thoroughly all those issues. It is urgently needed. The review should call for any evidence of poor end-of-life care. We need the Minister to assure us this afternoon that the stories I have quoted will not simply be taken at face value, but will be investigated in detail, so that we can establish the scale of poor end-of-life care, and understand the causes and correct them. Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab): I am listening carefully to the important points the hon. Gentleman is making. My constituents John and Mary Roche lost their mother five years ago. They came to see me because, having seen the media reports, they were concerned about her care toward the end of her life—she had been admitted to hospital and subsequently had her food and nutrition withdrawn. Does he think my constituents and others like them should be encouraged to share their stories, so that they can be taken into account in the Government’s review of the Liverpool care pathway and its appropriate use? Glyn Davies: I thank the hon. Lady for making that point, because I most certainly do agree. I hope that, as a result of today’s debate, more people will come forward to put their experiences, especially of bad practice, in front of the Minister and the review. We must not forget that it is necessary not to allow the shortcomings of some end-of-life care providers to undermine the outstanding work that the majority of doctors and nurses perform. It is easy to forget that, for those caring for people in the last days and hours of their life, alarmist stories cause real problems, misleading vulnerable people and their relatives into thinking that the unhappy experiences reported so prominently are typical of end-of-life care as a whole, making them reluctant to accept care that is genuinely beneficial, and generating fear of going into any sort of care setting. My sense is that the high profile given to these serious allegations, unaccompanied by supporting evidence, is analogous to shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. We need to know that the Minister will consider all the allegations that are made, including those that have been reported, look at the evidence, and institute whatever changes are needed to ensure safety and thereby confidence in the integrity of the Liverpool care pathway.

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I end with a general observation. I was appalled, as I am sure everyone in the Chamber was, by the recent revelations of poor care in a Worcestershire hospital, in Winterbourne View and in Stafford hospital. I was moved, as many of us will have been, by the observations made in the main Chamber before the Christmas recess by the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) regarding the inadequate and cruel care given to her late husband. We are reading about too many such cases. Considerable advances have been made in medical science, but we must ensure that, at the same time, we do not lose commitment in the NHS to basic care. I cannot help wondering whether the examples of poor end-of-life care that some relatives believe was given to their loved ones stem from the wider malaise of forgetting how to care for the sick, rather than from any specific clinical protocols such as the Liverpool care pathway. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Mike Weir (in the Chair): Order. Several Members wish to speak. I want to call the first of the Front Benchers no later than 3.40 pm. A quick calculation suggests that, if Members keep their speeches to about seven minutes—and interventions are brief—I will be able to call everyone. 2.49 pm Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Weir. I congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing this essential and timely debate. As hon. Members and the Minister will know, opinions on this end-of-life care framework tend to be polarised, but I believe that fundamental questions need to be answered about how the Liverpool care pathway has fallen into such disrepute, when it was developed to help doctors and nurses provide quality end-of-life care for the dying. That involves palliative care options for patients in the final hours or days of life, not a procedure that some members of the public now regard as a way prematurely to kill off the terminally ill or senior citizens. The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire has outlined the process in which the Liverpool care pathway should work, involving significant communication if possible with the patient, but certainly with their next of kin and family. I share his support for the framework when it operates properly and allows the dying to die with dignity and free of pain. Why are there so many stories in the press of distressed families complaining that they did not know that a relative had been put on the pathway? The huge problem lies in the human application of the rules, not necessarily in the rules themselves. One in three families of those dying say that they never received the leaflet explaining the LCP process that they should have been given. Why is it not mandatory to evidence in the notes discussions with the patient or the family about the Liverpool care pathway? Some would say that the difference between a multidisciplinary team decision, taken with the family’s knowledge and consent, and a decision taken in isolation could be seen as murder or at least manslaughter. The stark reality of the Liverpool care pathway is that 57,000 patients a year are dying without being told that efforts to keep them alive have been stopped. In some respects, there are parallels with the cases of Mid

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Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which were supposed to be operating the same system as that in every other NHS trust in the country and yet somehow ended up abjectly failing their patients, so that people died unnecessarily. The sheer scale of the failure to inform people, or their relatives, that they are on the pathway opens up the practice to attack. People talk about back-door euthanasia and some say that it is tantamount to assisted death, except that in 57,000 cases people were not aware that they were being assisted. That has to be added to the cocktail of the timing and the context of where we are now. The NHS is saving £20 billion over four years. There are service pressures—the lack of available beds and severe cuts in social services budgets that result in bed blocking, together with the demands of an aging society—but, frighteningly, as we have become aware via the press, at the same time hospital trusts receive financial incentives for achieving certain performance targets in putting people on the Liverpool care pathway. Let me be clear—not for one second am I suggesting that those factors are part of the decision-making process; I use them merely to highlight the fundamental problem of the pathway and the perception that exists in the wider public, especially among the elderly. Why do hospital trusts require any financial incentive to follow the Liverpool care pathway? For me, that question goes to the very heart of our national health service and our absolute understanding of what the medical profession stands for in people’s eyes. We believe that it is the role of the NHS and medical professionals to take every conceivable step to preserve life until the options are exhausted. The Department of Health has proposed to enshrine in the NHS constitution, as a patient right, an entitlement to be informed of any consideration about placing a patient on the Liverpool care pathway. Why can that not be made a legal requirement, so that everybody knows—and we are sure that everybody knows—and can be assured that taking such a decision is right? Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab): I add my congratulations to the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing this important debate. To go back to the hon. Lady’s point about the financial incentives for hospitals, it appals me, too. Surely, if patients or their families are not consulted, the Liverpool care pathway is not being followed, so any payment by the Department of Health to a hospital for having supposedly had someone supported by the pathway is money paid wrongfully, deceitfully and possibly unlawfully. Does she therefore agree that the Department should tell hospitals that have failed to consult family and friends or the patients themselves that the Department wants back some of that money? Rosie Cooper: That takes me back to my earlier point that we should document the conversations with families, so that that would be the tick box for payments. I am running out of time, so I shall move on quickly. Will the Minister elucidate how the NHS constitution requirement will make a difference? Procedures are already in place, yet 50% of patients on the pathway were not informed, or their families were not consulted. It is time that the soundbite, “No decision about me

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without me” became a principle and a value, rather than the vacuous phrase that it currently is. There is no politics in that—it is really important; it is the core of everything. Through Lord Alton of Liverpool, I am aware that Liverpool medical school requires all its students to undertake one month’s training in the care pathway, working in a hospice during their fourth year. Such good practice should surely be a core component nationwide, and in the light of a recent study, there is perhaps an argument for making it mandatory across the country. That kind of training needs to be given to those already qualified and working on our wards—not just doctors, but nurses and all members of the multidisciplinary team who are called on to make decisions. If there have to be financial incentives, they should follow the training to ensure that all those who care for the terminally ill and dying are properly equipped with the skills that they need, in what for all concerned are traumatic and often complex situations. Good training costs money and must be externally validated, and I invite the Minister to respond specifically about that need. I see merits in a system that manages end-of-life care effectively—it is a measure of our humanity that we seek ways to ease suffering—but my concerns about the application of the Liverpool care pathway remain. There is far too little reassurance in the system, which has allowed the pathway to move from an end-of-life care system to one that is held up as hastening death. We can talk about the theory of how the LCP should be followed, but the fact remains that, in practice, it is not always implemented as intended. It should never be seen as a conveyor belt to the cemetery. Some 80,000 patients are supported by—not put on—the Liverpool care pathway, and many receive the finest care, but many is not good enough. It is said that about 1% of cases go badly wrong, but just one case—never mind 1% of cases—is one too many. Those who founded the pathway did so because of their respect for the dignity of patients; those who implement it need to understand and share that view or face the legal consequences and their own consciences. 2.59 pm Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): When I first entered the House of Commons some 30 years ago, I became the founder secretary of the all-party hospice support group, and Jack Ashley was the founder chairman. I am glad to say that that group has now become the all-party parliamentary group on hospice and palliative care. During those 30 years, an enormous amount of work has been done on enhancing palliative care in hospitals. We are fortunate in this country in having an outstanding hospice movement. Part of the purpose of the Liverpool care pathway was to ensure that the good practice of palliative care, which had been developed in hospices, could be spread to other health care settings, such as hospitals and care homes. Extending it to people’s own homes was also important because if people are asked where they would like to die, most say at home. The reality for each one of us is that we will die. The Liverpool care pathway requires staff to ensure that all decisions to continue or to stop treatment are taken in the best interests of each patient, and emphasises that patients should be involved in decisions about their

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[Sir Tony Baldry] care and that carers and families should always be included in the decision-making process. An evaluation in 2011 showed that in 94% of cases, there had been such involvement. The idea of documenting conversations, which the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) mentioned, is sensible. In our own professional lives, and, indeed, as Members of Parliament, we all know that people, especially family members, do not always take on board news that may be distressing. Often it is quite a shock to be told that a loved one is near to death. Very often, the instinctive reaction is to want to ensure that life can be preserved for as long as possible, but we also have a duty of care to ensure that in people’s last days and hours they die well and painlessly and with as much dignity as possible. I was very struck by two contributions in the Library briefing. One was a brave article by a specialist registrar who herself is a terminally ill cancer patient. Of the Liverpool care pathway, she said: “It prompts us to have open discussions with relatives, and, if possible, patients, to stop unnecessary medication, to discontinue futile medical interventions, and to shift our focus of care to symptom-control, comfort and dignity… Most patients on the LCP, in my experience, are too poorly to eat or drink, but where a patient is alert enough to swallow we certainly continue to offer them food and fluids in my hospital. They are not ‘starved to death’. The problem with intravenous fluids is that cannulae need to be inserted to administer them. This is painful, often very difficult and sometimes near impossible in patients who have been in hospital for a number of weeks.”

Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): Although the hon. Gentleman makes a pertinent point, surely the issue must also be about those people who are not convinced about the system and who are suspicious and worried about what they have been told. There are people who have been denied fluids, and also drink and food. Does the hon. Gentleman think that there should be some protection in the system for such families so that they can feel assured that there is care? The point I am trying to make is that this should be about care and not killing, but many of us suspect that there is more emphasis on the killing than on the care. Sir Tony Baldry: Very few of us can have the confidence of Cardinal Basil Hume who, in his book “The Mystery of the Cross”, observed: “Death is a formidable foe until we learn to make it a friend. Death is to be feared if we do not learn to welcome it. Death is the ultimate absurdity if we do not see it as fulfilment. Death haunts us when viewed as a journey into nothingness rather than a pilgrimage to a place where true happiness is found . . . Death is not the end of the road, but a gateway to a better place.”

Few of us, irrespective of our faith, have that clear courage and confidence, but we all recognise that we will die. There is nothing about 21st century medicine that is going to keep the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) or myself, or any of us, alive for ever. Death, and the process of death, can be extremely painful, and it is our collective duty and responsibility to try to ensure that people die as painlessly as possible and with as much dignity as possible. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that people do not go into the medical profession to kill. My father became a doctor and my mother a nurse to ensure that they could give people the best quality of care. Although the

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press have published a number of stories about relatives who have expressed concern about how the local care pathway has been used, there is no systemic evidence to suggest that the policy is being abused. A consensus statement was published last year by several nongovernmental organisations and charities, all of which are much respected in this House, supporting the Liverpool care pathway. They include Age UK, the Alzheimer’s Society, the British Heart Foundation, Help the Hospices, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Nursing, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Royal College of Physicians. Jim Shannon rose— Sir Tony Baldry: No, I will not give way because others want to speak. This is an important issue, but we must ensure that we put it in perspective. If we are not careful, all the work that has been done over the past 30 years by a whole number of organisations, including those that I have just mentioned, to enhance and improve palliative care could be undone. Sadly, people die every day; that is the reality. It is not a failure of the NHS that people die. It is only a failure of the NHS if people do not die well. We need to ensure that all improvements, whether they be to records or to communication with patients and their families, are undertaken, but nothing should deter us from trying to ensure that everyone in this country gets the best possible end of life and the best possible palliative care. 3.7 pm Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/ Co-op): I am pleased to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Weir. I congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing this debate on such an important issue. I represent St Joseph’s hospice on Mare street in Hackney, which is a beacon of good practice in end-of-life care. Under the expert leadership of its chief executive, Michael Kerin, its medical director, Dr Anjali Mullick, and the Sisters of Charity, who founded it more than 100 years ago, the hospice ensures that people in their last stages of life receive care and die with the respect and dignity that they deserve, and that is what we are talking about today. It is worth reiterating here what end-of-life care should offer. It is about treating someone who is dying as a person, and not as a number or a patient, and about looking at that individual’s needs in the round. It is not about giving a mechanistic response. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) said, surely once a clinical decision has been made about someone’s life chances, we, as a compassionate society, should try to ease suffering and support them to die well. The Liverpool care pathway, which is used only when someone is in the last hours or, in some circumstances, the last days of their life, aims to provide the tools to enable rest and care rather than making active interventions that would cause a person to die less well. Those fine principles are great, although they may not always be adhered to fully. Good leadership and training of staff are vital, and that is one of the issues I want to address in the short time I have to speak.

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We face an important challenge as a society as we consider the end-of-life care we aspire to. Most of us want a choice of where we die. If we had a free choice, most of us would choose to die at home, supported by organisations such as Marie Curie or hospices such as St Joseph’s, whose nurses go out and care for people in the community. Where individual practitioners are out and about and are not being overseen, that will create greater challenges in the future for regimes such as the Liverpool care pathway, but that is no reason to dismiss it or not to see it as an important way of helping and supporting people as they die. That raises an important issue for us as a society. If we agree that dying well is important, we need to recognise that practical and policy issues need to be addressed. Patient and family choice about where to die works only if proper 24/7 care is provided, whether in the home, the hospice, the hospital or another setting, and we need to make sure that proper resources and support are available. Often, that is about training practitioners in general so that they know what best practice is. If we look to our inner humanity, we all know what we would want, leaving aside all the medical trappings, if we were dying: we would not want to be poked and prodded in the last hours of our lives; we would want to have a good, well-supported death. Training and development are vital, and I welcome the work done by trainee doctors in Liverpool, which my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire mentioned. When the hospice movement started, it was rare for doctors to get proper training; indeed, I think they spent about a day on the bedside manner for dealing with a dying patient and speaking to their family. Things have moved on a lot since then, and it is vital that, in the debate about the Liverpool care pathway, we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The LCP has done good things, although improvements could probably be made at any point to any such approach. None the less, it is vital that we maintain the approach that dying well is important and should be available to all in every setting.

away, which was agonising for her and heart-rending for the members of her family, as they waited and waited for their wife and mother to die. Again, there was no discussion or consultation with the daughter, although perhaps there was with the father. He was an elderly man in his 80s, and he was now lying in bed himself, about to be put on a similar regime. After her mother died, the daughter felt a terrible guilt. Perhaps it had taken too long for her mother to die. Perhaps the daughter should have asked more questions. Perhaps she should not have let her mother suffer so much. With no medical background, however, she was left rather sad and confused. When the nurse announced that the hospital was putting her father on the Liverpool care pathway, the daughter, knowing a little more about it by this time, immediately contacted her sister, and the next day their father was moved to a nursing home. There, his needs were attended to in a positive and caring way. There, he did not die; in fact, he got better.

3.12 pm

John Glen (Salisbury) (Con): My hon. Friend is making a powerful case, and it is obviously painful for her. Does she agree that there is a distinction between accepting the notion that a life must end and accepting that there is an inevitable time frame in which that life must end? We must not make premature assumptions about that period, so it is critical that there is a clear understanding of what the Liverpool pathway means and how it can affect the timings of an event we do not know the actual trajectory of.

Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) not only on securing the debate but on the calm and measured way in which he introduced it—his was exactly the constructive tone in which we should discuss this concerning issue. Last year, an 83-year-old widower was taken into hospital feeling very unwell. His eldest daughter visited him every day. No particular illness was diagnosed, but he was certainly weak and frail. After a few days, the daughter asked a nurse in the corridor, “How is he today?” Almost casually, the nurse said, “Oh, he’s not very well at all. He has not long to live. We are putting him on the Liverpool care pathway.” There was no discussion, no explanation, no consultation—just an announcement, a statement of fact, almost in passing. The daughter was shocked. As his eldest child, she thought, “Surely there should be more formality, more dignity, more of a clear process.” What gave her particular cause for concern was that her mother had become frail just two or so years earlier—admittedly after a brain tumour operation—and had been put on a regime of limited food and fluids. It had taken her weeks to pass

Now, well over six months later, that elderly man is very much alive. He is still being cared for. He is eating well, getting up when he wants to and resting when he does not want to get up. He enjoys visits from his family, although he does not enjoy it when his favourite football team loses in the last minute or so of a match, as happened last Saturday. He is listening to tapes of Sadler’s Wells opera company singing Gilbert and Sullivan, and he is joining in with “Songs of Praise”. He is having intelligent and considered discussions about his finances and looking forward to his 85th birthday. It is not a fantastic quality of life, but it is a life, and as he told his doctor in the nursing home, “I want to live.” Minister, Mr Weir, concerned Members, I know all that is true, because the lady who passed away so distressingly was my mother, and the elderly man I have described is my father. I, their daughter, witnessed all those events first hand. In one sense, I am not sure I need to say much else to support the points that have been made, but the application of the LCP needs to be looked into.

Fiona Bruce: I thank my hon. Friend for that intelligent comment, and I will talk further about that. I want to speak now as a vice-chair of the all-party group on dying well and the all-party pro-life group. Despite my personal experiences, I believe the main intent of the Liverpool care pathway is compassionate and good. It is fundamentally aimed at what is increasingly called a good death. When correctly administered, the principles behind it are those of good palliative care, and they are fully in accordance with the view, which I hold, that all life is God-given and should be allowed to run its course, without death being hastened through unnatural intervention.

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Jim Shannon: I congratulate the hon. Lady on the passionate way in which she has dealt with this issue. Does she agree that it is important that those who work in the Liverpool pathway are highly skilled? If such care is left in the hands of those who are less skilled, there is a possibility that what could be termed voluntary euthanasia will take place. Does she agree that only highly skilled people should be involved in the Liverpool care pathway? Fiona Bruce: I do, and this is where training is so important. Without the proper application of the Liverpool care pathway, death can be hastened, and that is not the intent of the pathway. Occasionally, even with correct application, it can be the unintended consequence—for example, through the use of narcotics to alleviate severe discomfort and facilitate a more peaceful passing. I wholeheartedly welcome the Minister’s decision to hold an independent public inquiry into the LCP. I have met him, and I thank him for his open-minded, calm and reasoned approach and for the fact that he has had ears to hear concerns about the LCP. Without wishing to prejudge the terms of the inquiry, may I make the following suggestions for it to consider? First, a number of pressures might subvert the proper implementation of the LCP, and I am grateful to Professor David Albert Jones of Oxford, who is an authority on this topic, for highlighting them. He says they are: “the subjective character of judgments about how soon someone is going to die…the fact that the LCP may be initiated by people who are not senior clinicians familiar with the individual patient’s case and have not consulted with palliative care physicians… the influence of managerial pressures to reduce bed occupancy …reluctance to face the difficulties of continuing care of certain difficult patients…the euthanasiast outlook of some clinicians…the possibility of doctors or nurses regarding the LCP as a set of ‘tick boxes’…rather than assessing the needs of the patient…Other NHS organizational/staffing procedures or constraints”.

He adds: “Research shows that care of the dying is poorest in the hospital setting”

in contrast to care in hospices, which I believe we all admire. I also urge that the inquiry consider the following measures: that no patient should be placed on the LCP unless they are imminently, irreversibly and inevitably dying, which I understand to mean perhaps within 36 hours; no one should be placed on the LCP without its being discussed with a designated relative or carer; every patient placed on the LCP must be continuously monitored and reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team; documentation must be simplified and standardised, so that those implementing the LCP can easily follow the guidelines; training and supervision should be mandatory, as well as standardised and improved; non-clinical priorities in the use of the pathway must be eradicated and every patient must be treated solely according to their needs; payment for such care must be reconsidered; and the communication to relatives should be substantially improved. I believe that, if it is well used, the LCP can improve standards of end-of-life care, especially in hospitals. It should promote better palliative care and support the kind of good death that we would all wish for ourselves and our loved ones. I sincerely hope that the independent inquiry will be a major step in facilitating that.

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3.20 pm John Pugh (Southport) (LD): I also congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on introducing this important debate in such a measured and sympathetic way. It was effective indeed. I do not like the term “Liverpool care pathway”; I prefer talking about guidelines for palliative care. That is probably a less contentious way of discussing it. The Liverpool care pathway was developed in Broadgreen, and I was born in Broadgreen. More importantly, my grandmother died there, having been readmitted several times. The last time she was admitted she had declined somewhat at home and I can remember the expression of horror on her face indicating that that was not the right way to treat her. She knew that she was going to die and she wanted to die at home, and she was being admitted unnecessarily to hospital. I regret that we arranged for that to happen. It is very important to get the last years, months and weeks of people’s lives correct and we certainly did not; hence there is a need for things such as the Liverpool care pathway and a more understanding, measured and sensible approach to affairs. There is a need for the hospice movement, but the reality is that most people do not die in hospices; they die in the NHS and there is a need for the NHS to have some clinical guidelines to follow. That is particularly the case for those in their last hours, day, weeks and months, whose death is imminent and who cannot have that death prevented or, realistically, postponed. That is quite a high threshold to be met, and finance should in no way come into meeting that threshold. When finance does come into it, it can only corrupt the process. The Liverpool care pathway guidelines imply constant review and no one wants that coloured by financial incentives. After all, there is always the remote possibility of people getting the diagnosis wrong. That is not a case against having guidelines at all or against thinking that we sometimes need to opt for a palliative choice rather than a remedial one, if there is no realistic remedial choice available. If that choice has to be made, there is no in-principle case for involving relatives and the patient in it, with the important caveat that what is done should be in the patient’s interest. I am not always sure there is an obligation to clarify the situation for the patient or their relatives, if they prefer to die in hope or expectation of recovery and find the thought of their inevitable demise insupportable, particularly if it will not change clinical behaviour and the only option is palliative care for that person. That is a difficult issue, which every clinician needs to face and be guided on in facing it. There is certainly a need to inform the patient and/or relatives if expectations about care are starting to differ, or if the nature of the palliative care offered is unclear. That might be the case if a patient is wrongly categorised, or if there is a debate about the palliative care itself, and it is seen as substandard. Some of the episodes of dehydration that have been described in the national newspapers have seemed to me to be substandard palliative care. The bottom line is that palliative care should not worsen the condition or augment the suffering of somebody who inevitably will die, unless the patient chooses it. In certain circumstances, I can imagine somebody trading pain for more life.

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Care can be worsened in two quite different ways: it can be worsened by disruptive, painful, pointless, futile interventions, and it can equally be worsened by neglect, and indifference to people’s symptoms and the manner of their decline. My aunt recently died in the Royal Liverpool, which has taken over Broadgreen. I remember going to her bedside and seeing the signs that said, “Nil by mouth”, and wondering whether we should offer her a drink while we sat there and talked. We never managed to get round to having a sensible conversation about that with the medical staff. I was never sure what I was confronted with. It might have been wise care; there may have been a genuine risk of choking, which I believe is one of the reasons why people are not given liquids at that stage. It might just have been neglect or absence of thought. What did not happen—and should have—was a discussion about treatment: a sort of negotiation. If palliative care is the path chosen—it should only be chosen when it is, in a sense, the only path—there needs to be a negotiation. It is the trick of getting that negotiation right that is the difficult thing. We need to respect the rights of all people concerned, and the patient’s rights sometimes differ slightly from the family’s rights. The family fearing bereavement can only wish the patient to live at all costs. That may not always be the patient’s aspiration in that circumstance. The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire has started us along the path of having a measured discussion and review of these matters and I hope it continues. Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con): I respect what my hon. Friend says on communication with the patient, but I would like to clarify something. A survey by the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool and the Royal College of Physicians said that half of those on the LCP are never told that they are on such a pathway. Also, the LCP is not just a framework of good practice but a pathway, taking the patient towards the presumed outcome of death. Surely, therefore, it is important to make it clear that there should be communication with the patient; it should not be only the best half who know. John Pugh: That in part is the dilemma. I know that the saying is “No treatment about me, without me”, but there are certain circumstances that we will all be aware of where the patient is dying and the clinician is in an acute moral dilemma over whether to inform them that that is the case—that there is no hope and that they will be given purely palliative treatment. I am fairly confident that a good number of people will die in our hospitals for years to come, despite the Liverpool care pathway or any other guidelines that we put in place, who will, until the moment of their decease, expect recovery. Mr Mike Weir (in the Chair): We have just under 12 minutes left and two speakers to go. I ask that they bear that in mind. 3.28 pm Mr Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con): I am glad to have this opportunity and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) for raising this important subject. We all know that the Liverpool care pathway was devised with the best of intentions. I assure my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) that none of us wants to end

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or take away palliative care. We all want to relieve pain and we all want people to die with dignity, but there are serious concerns about the Liverpool care pathway and that is why this debate is so important. Those concerns have been expressed by physicians. It was physicians— ethicists—who started this debate, not the newspapers. The newspapers did not start the ball rolling and we should be aware of that. Professor Peter Millard, emeritus professor of geriatrics at the university of London, and Dr Peter Hargreaves, palliative care consultant at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, have warned of the risk of “backdoor euthanasia”—their words—and that economic factors are being included when treatment is considered. We must be aware of these concerns, which were originally expressed by clinicians. However, I believe that it is one of the chief duties of those of us in this House who are not clinicians to speak up in defence of the vulnerable, the voiceless and those who are sometimes forgotten. It is simply unacceptable that vulnerable people, including the poor, the elderly and those who do not have close friends and family to look after them, come to a premature death—an unnecessarily early death. As my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) and others have said, in numerous cases, even friends and family caring for a loved one have not been informed that they have been put on the LCP. May I say that my hon. Friend’s speech was a wonderful speech? It drew on her personal experience and was one of the most moving speeches that I have heard in this place over many years. I sat with my best friend, Piers Merchant, as he was dying; he was a former MP and my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) will remember him well. I saw the morphine being pumped through his body. I am sure that he died early—perhaps a few hours or even a few days early, I do not know—from the morphine. Those of us who loved him wanted him to be cared for properly, but we also did not want him, or any of our loved ones, to be put on an irreversible path to death where that was avoidable. I welcome the statement by the Department of Health that it “has consistently made clear that care provision, including for people at the end of life, should be based on need.”

But the question that we need to ask in this debate is this: how are the Department’s intentions implemented on the front line of medicine and hospital care? No doubt there is wonderful care being given in many hospices, but is that gold standard being replicated in all our hospitals? It is undoubtedly true that the LCP has led to the premature death—it may not be premature by much, but it is still a premature death—of as many as 130,000 hospital patients each year. This is a vital issue that we must address in this House; with 450,000 hospital deaths in Britain each year, that figure of 130,000 is about 29% of the total number of hospital deaths. In fact, this is a frightfully serious issue. Robert Flello: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Mr Leigh: Does the hon. Gentleman mind if I do not give way? I just want to make my speech and give my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Oliver Colvile) a chance to speak too.

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[Mr Leigh] Professor Pullicino, who was quoted earlier, has himself personally intervened to have a patient taken off the LCP who went on to be successfully treated. So, despite the fact that we must listen to clinicians, it is simply impossible to determine satisfactorily that a patient has hours or days left to live, which is one of the worrying flaws of the LCP. In November, an independent inquiry into the LCP was announced, and I welcome that announcement. My hon. Friend the Minister is doing his job extremely well in this regard, and we respect him as somebody who will genuinely try to get to the truth. He himself has said that there have been too many cases of patients dying on the pathway while their families were not informed, so he is quite right to zero in on that issue. He has said, “This is simply unacceptable.” I echo those words and I hope that he will repeat them when he winds up the debate. Of course there are people who speak on both sides of this issue, but I believe that any inquiry must be conducted by a suitable variety of individuals and not just by supporters of the LCP. It is not good enough to state, as the Department of Health sometimes does, that the LCP is not euthanasia. It might not be euthanasia and, of course, if it is implemented properly it is not euthanasia. However, it has become obvious to many people that the LCP can be employed, and indeed has been employed, in cases that are highly questionable. I say to those who have spoken today that what worries me is this: why is it that the average time to death on the LCP is 33 hours? An identical figure for average time to death was found in two consecutive national audits that were conducted two years apart. In the view of many people, that shows that the LCP has a machine-like efficiency in producing death within 33 hours, and that is why some people say that the LCP is in effect a “lethal care pathway”. Statistics suggest that fewer than 5% of patients put on the LCP are taken off it. Why only 5%? There is something wrong here, and the inquiry needs to get to the bottom of it. I believe that we should appoint a member of the judiciary rather than a medical expert, to carry out the inquiry. Of course, they will have medical advisers, but we should appoint a member of the judiciary rather than just a medical expert to lead the inquiry, so that they can look at this complicated issue with a fresh perspective and a judicial mind. Thank you for calling me to speak, Mr Weir. In conclusion, I believe that we have a duty to instil confidence in each of the citizens and residents of this country that they live in a society that believes in their inviolable dignity as human beings, and that takes the necessary steps to ensure that they are cared for and looked after when they are ill, especially in the closing moments of their life. 3.35 pm Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con): Thank you very much indeed, Mr Weir, for calling me to speak. It is a pleasure to serve under you. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing this important debate. I suspect that I am not particularly well qualified

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to speak about the Liverpool care pathway, but neither are an awful lot of my constituents. Therefore, it is very important that what we talk about today is how we can look after their interests, and the interests of others, in this regard. I am very aware of what kind of death I want to end up having. Some six years ago, my father died while driving his car. He came out of his office, at the age of 89, to go and have lunch with the Archdeacon of Canterbury. My father had a massive heart attack, pulled over to the side of the road—thank goodness he did not take anyone with him—and duly died. It was just yards away from the church and I know very well that God decided, probably in his infinite wisdom, that the one thing that he was not going to do was allow my father, a former naval commander, to give the archdeacon a difficult time. However, I am very aware that—frankly—an awful lot of us do not have that kind of option about how we end up dying, if we have an option at all. Many people find themselves having to go into hospital, and dying there. Many of us have a great deal of notice about dying. So, in the next few minutes, I want to talk about an individual constituency case that I had—an appalling story about the death of the father of one of my constituents in the Derriford hospital in Plymouth. In doing so, I want to ensure that the public are aware of the controversial approach to ending life and that we have a discussion about it. My constituent’s father went to Derriford hospital from Mount Gould hospital, which is also in Plymouth, in April 2011 because he had become bedridden. He was put on the Liverpool care pathway without any food and water. That was supposed to last for up to two days, but he lived for 12 more days, finally dying on 8 May 2011. My constituent claims that during the time that her father was on the LCP, he perked up and was even watching television. Despite that, he remained on the LCP. My constituent’s family feel, and I rather agree with them, that giving someone 12 days to die is not what this system should be about. Although Derriford hospital claims that staff spoke to the family on the ward, my constituent and her siblings dispute that. They claim that they did not know that their father was on the LCP until the car park attendant told them. To give Derriford hospital its due, the chief executive— who is new to the job and was not at the hospital when this case happened—has dealt with the case subsequently, recognising that the clinical teams may not have explained fully to my constituent’s family what was going to happen and what was actually involved in the LCP. The family feel that they were forced to watch their father die under very distressing circumstances. Despite having his food, water and medication withdrawn, the family were horrified to see him biting the sponge that was being used to wipe his lips, because he was so hungry and thirsty. Unfortunately, my constituent has also had a subsequent —and completely different—experience of the LCP when her brother-in-law died at a hospice. It must be remembered that hospice staff are specialists in helping patients at the end of their lives, and the more that we can encourage people who are suffering in that situation to be dealt with by hospices, the better. Certainly a lot

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of hospitals are very busy indeed and their staff do not necessarily have the time to carry out the kind of checking that we feel they should do. I am very aware that the death of a close relative is a traumatic time. One should remember that patients’ relatives do not always take in the full story that they are being told and that they can become confused about what they are being told. However, we must ensure that a system is in place that avoids those kind of complications. I am very aware that the Government are taking this whole matter very seriously and I am grateful to them for that. I thank my hon. Friend the Minister and his colleagues for the review, about which he wrote to me just today, and their proposal to produce a new pledge on care planning. To help my constituent, and many other people like her, we need to ensure that we have a timetable for that. I pay tribute to bereavement charities, such as Cruse Bereavement Care. They do an enormously good job in helping families through the whole grieving process. I ask for more training, and for more information for families so that they can be assured that their relatives will get the best care possible. By giving detail to the Government’s proposals, the Minister would be giving certainty to Benjamin Franklin. Members might remember that he wrote, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789, that the only things we can be certain of are birth, death and taxes. 3.40 pm Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Weir. I congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing this extremely important debate and on his heartfelt but calm and thoughtful opening speech, which set exactly the right tone. How we care for the dying is a measure of how we care for all sick and vulnerable people. It is a litmus test not only for the NHS and the wider care system but for society as whole. This debate comes at an important time because, as the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire said, in recent months growing media attention has been paid to the Liverpool care pathway. Several Members have talked about the misconceptions and the inaccurate information that has been published about it. I have read the recent consensus statement from 22 patient and professional organisations and also the full care pathway documentation, and it is clear to me that the Liverpool care pathway is not in any way about ending someone’s life but about supporting the delivery of excellent end-of-life care. The pathway does not seek to replace clinical judgment; it is not a treatment but a framework for good practice. It does not seek to hasten or indeed delay death, but to ensure that the right type of care is available for people in the last days or hours of life, when all the reversible possibilities for their condition have been considered. I do not believe that it is a deadly or lethal one-way street. Precisely because it is not always easy to tell whether someone is very close to death, the pathway emphasises the need for constant and regular review, and if a patient’s prognosis changes, their care needs should be reassessed and, if appropriate, the use of the pathway stopped. The pathway does not preclude the use of clinically assisted nutrition or hydration; in fact, it explicitly states that patients will be supported to eat and drink

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for as long as possible. It absolutely emphasises that wherever possible patients must be involved in decisions about their care, and that carers and families should always be included in decision making. Such involvement of patients and families is enshrined at the very heart of the Liverpool care pathway. Robert Flello: Does my hon. Friend agree that if there is no consultation, and there is denial of care and of treatment that eases pain, it is not the Liverpool care pathway? Liz Kendall: I absolutely agree. The issue we face is less about the pathway itself and absolutely about how it is implemented in practice. The pathway document states on its very first page that the pathway is only as good as the teams who use it. There has clearly been an issue about taking a pathway that was developed by experts in one part of the country over several years, with regular training and audit, and trying to implement it across the wider NHS. Individual patients and families—as we have heard—and also the national audit of the Liverpool care pathway, suggest that there are genuine problems with communication. Too many patients and families are not properly informed about what the pathway is and how it works, and they are not effectively involved and their consent not sought at every stage and on all the necessary decisions. One incident in which patients and families are not fully and sensitively involved is one too many. It is not acceptable, and it directly contradicts the very essence of the Liverpool care pathway and its key principles and values. Rosie Cooper: Will my hon. Friend give way? Liz Kendall: If my hon. Friend does not mind, I will not give way as I do not have much time. I welcome the fact that the issues are now being looked into. I understand that three separate reviews are being undertaken. The national end-of-life care programme is doing a short, snapshot review of complaints about the use of the Liverpool care pathway, the Dying Matters coalition is working with families whose loved ones have been on the pathway, to see what worked well and what did not, and the Association for Palliative Medicine and a range of other national organisations are talking to clinicians, to get their opinions regarding integrated care pathways in the last days of life, of which the Liverpool care pathway is one. In November, the Minister said he would appoint an independent chair to co-ordinate the work of the different reviews, so I ask him: has a chair now been appointed? Will the chair, the Department of Health or any other organisations consider any additional issues, alongside the work that is under way? For example, will the way in which the Liverpool care pathway is paid for be reviewed? It is important that hospitals receive proper payment for the care they give and for any associated training, but any evidence that patients are being put on a pathway for financial reasons is a serious matter and is totally unacceptable. Will there also be a review of the education and training in end-of-life care for new and existing staff, in particular training in how to discuss difficult, complex and emotional issues with patients and their families? One of the real challenges is that the process of death

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[Liz Kendall] and dying is so uncertain. A patient’s prognosis is not always clear; the situation changes. Doctors are used to treating and curing, giving clear evidence, treatment and advice—or they are trained to do so—but it is not always possible. I want to finish on a broader point, which is important for us in this House. The difficulty that NHS and care staff, the media, families and the public have in discussing end-of-life care reflects wider society’s lack of familiarity with death and dying, which was not the case 100 years ago. Age, cause and place of death are generally very different now from what they were at the beginning of the last century, when a far greater proportion of deaths occurred in childhood or early adult life, often from acute infections, with most people dying at home. Now, more than two thirds of the 500,000 deaths a year are among people aged over 75, most of them following a long-term illness such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic respiratory disease or dementia, and most are in hospitals and care homes. Many people do not, therefore, experience the death of a loved one until they are well into mid-life. We do not see dying people and dead bodies—not for real. We see them on television and in computer games but not in real life, and we do not talk openly in society about death. I know that in all our families it is difficult to discuss death, but in the century of the ageing society, with chronic conditions as the major cause of death and disease, that must change. As the hon. Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) said, death comes to us all, and we should strive for as good a death as possible. That will, of course, mean different things to different people—I would like to go quickly, and I hope that the people I love go quickly, too, and do not have a long, slow death. Rosie Cooper: We will not be bumped off. Liz Kendall: Indeed, or have a premature death. For many of us, a good death means being treated as an individual with dignity and respect, without pain and suffering wherever possible, and in a familiar environment surrounded by the people we love. We need a full and frank debate about these difficult issues, handled calmly and sensitively and based on evidence and fact rather than on myths and misconceptions. Dying matters, not just to the NHS and the wider care system but to us all, and for that reason I am grateful to the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire for securing the debate. 3.48 pm The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb): I do not have a Parliamentary Private Secretary sitting behind me, and I am most grateful therefore to you, Mr Weir, for your assistance with some Members’ constituencies. I congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing the debate, and on the sober, serious and rational tone he deployed in his contribution. The whole debate, in fact, has been exemplary in that regard. I suspect that all of us in this room are after the same thing; it is how we secure it that matters so much. I have just over 11 minutes, which is not really enough to

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do justice to every contribution, so as soon as I possibly can, I will write to all the Members who have taken part, to update them. I take the Liverpool care pathway extremely seriously. It has been much discussed recently: many hon. Members and members of the public have written to the Department of Health expressing their concerns, and there have been numerous parliamentary questions, too, all of which stems from a lot of media interest over the past few months. Several stories have appeared discussing the ways in which the LCP is used and what it is for. In particular, there have been a number of reports in the media alleging that patients are being placed on the LCP secretly, with no consultation with them or their relatives. It has been suggested that the LCP routinely involves medical staff withdrawing treatment, including food and fluids, from patients. Perhaps most seriously, the LCP has been accused of being a way to kill patients to save the NHS money. There have been suggestions that the Department of Health bribes hospitals with extra money for every patient placed on the pathway. Those accusations paint a misleading picture of the purpose of the Liverpool care pathway, yet I take seriously the concerns raised by the families of patients who have experienced extremely poor end-of-life care. I am horrified by some of the stories that people have told me about the withdrawal of food and fluids from sick relatives in hospital and about the failure to inform loved ones that the patient has been placed on the pathway. The hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) spoke movingly of her experience, and I am pleased that she came to the round table that I held to discuss those concerns. As the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr Leigh) made clear, the concerns are legitimate and should be taken seriously, not dismissed because of exaggerated reporting. What happens on the front line and how we translate theory into practice are so important. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Southport (John Pugh). I dislike the jargon: what on earth does “Liverpool care pathway” mean to patients and their families? We must use language that ordinary people understand, particularly at a most traumatic time for all involved. That is one thing we need to address. One aspect of care that receives almost universal praise, as the hon. Members for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) and for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) have made clear, is the hospice movement, which grew from Dame Cicely Saunders’s belief that, however ill, people matter at the end of their life and should never be abandoned. That is why the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool, led by Professor John Ellershaw, developed the Liverpool care pathway in the late 1990s. The pathway was designed to transfer the principles of hospice care—the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), made this point—so that terminally ill patients always get the best treatment, even if they do not receive specialist palliative care. The Liverpool care pathway is not a treatment but a framework for managing treatments, which is important to understand. As the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire made clear, the LCP, when used correctly, is one way to ensure that the last hours or days of a patient’s life are as comfortable as possible. The guidance for using the LCP makes it clear that the aim is to support, not

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replace, clinical judgment. Sometimes there are questions about clinical judgment, but not about the pathway itself. The Liverpool care pathway guidance sets out the following objectives and considerations for taking care of patients: determining whether any further medications and tests would be helpful; ensuring that the patient is as comfortable as possible—surely we all agree with that; helping the patient to take on food and drink for as long as possible, which means not denying them food and drink, as we sometimes hear; and taking care of the patient’s spiritual and religious needs, which is of acute importance to many people. The guidance reminds clinicians that unnecessary treatment or tests may cause harm rather than good. The guidance states that regular review is acutely important. If their condition improves, the patient should be taken off the pathway. The 5% figure to which the hon. Member for Gainsborough referred is of concern and should be considered; it is essential that the medical team discusses the pathway with the patient, their family or their carers. Those people need to be fully involved in decisions about end-of-life care, even though those discussions may be very difficult. Obviously, those conversations need to happen as quickly as possible. The Liverpool care pathway can work as intended only if each patient is fully consulted, unless that is not possible. Even then, the family must be fully involved. Through his interventions, the hon. Member for Stokeon-Trent South (Robert Flello) made that point strongly. The opening section of the information sheet that comes with the pathway cites the absolute importance of discussion with the family. Staff must talk to the patient and their family as much as they need and want, to explain what is happening and why. That is non-negotiable. Any failure to do so is completely unacceptable. The hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) mentioned documentation, which is best practice and should always happen so that everyone can see what has been discussed. She also mentioned the constitution, and we are considering how we can give it greater traction. There is a sense that everyone agrees with the constitution, but what value is it? How can we make the constitution provide real power to patients in the NHS? I agree with the shadow Minister’s concerns about translating across the whole system something that has been designed by experts. Such translation can be problematic and needs further attention. Rosie Cooper rose— Norman Lamb: I am conscious that time is tight. I will write to the hon. Lady. If she wants to raise issues with me later, I will be happy to address them, but I need to respond to the debate. From what people have said, it is clear that there are too many cases where patients have been put on the pathway without proper explanation, without the

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involvement of their family and sometimes without any notification, which is totally unacceptable. Yet again, we see how right Dame Cicely Saunders was when she said: “How people die remains in the memory of those who live on”.

The impact is profound. My wife works for Cruse Bereavement Care, which does magnificent work helping people who have suffered bereavement. We have a duty to give such people the best possible experience as they lose a loved one. On 26 November, I hosted a round-table meeting with patients, families and professionals—both supporters and critics of the pathway were represented—and at that meeting I announced that we will appoint an independent chair to consider how the LCP is used and experienced and to examine the accusations made in the press. We expect to announce the chair of that review very soon, and we expect that the chair will want to identify a small panel of independent experts from a range of backgrounds, including representatives from faith groups, which is important. I reassure hon. Members that the review will be independent. The Liverpool care pathway is internationally recognised as good practice, and it is widely supported by organisations involved in end-of-life care. If people do not feel that they have received the best care or, worse, if patients cease to trust the pathway, that is a problem that needs to be addressed. Training is fundamental, as the hon. Members for Hackney South and Shoreditch and for Congleton and the shadow Minister said, and it will be considered as part of the review. The review will systematically examine the experience of the Liverpool care pathway by patients, families and health professionals, and it will seek evidence to support or refute the accusations and to see where improvements might be needed. The review will hear directly from families. There will be a session dedicated to families so that they can tell the panel about their experiences. The review will also consider the role of financial incentives in the use of the LCP. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Southport, the hon. Member for West Lancashire and others, I have concerns about the use of financial incentives. The review will report both to the Department of Health and to the NHS Commissioning Board by the summer. Everyone wants their loved ones’ final hours to be as pain-free and dignified as possible. Used as intended, the Liverpool care pathway can help achieve that. The pathway prioritises comfort, dignity and appropriate care, but all that is undermined if the public distrust the pathway and if clinicians do not apply it properly. We do not dismiss people’s concerns, which I take extremely seriously. Instead, we have to ensure that care in the last few days and hours of life is always of the highest standard. Reinforcing the absolute importance of involving patients and their families in discussions on their care and treatment is essential.

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Education Funding (Cambridgeshire) 4 pm Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Weir. I am delighted to have secured this debate on an issue affecting every pupil in Cambridgeshire. Educating our young people to the highest possible standard is vital for a fair and stable society. Every child should be given an equal and fair opportunity and educated to the best of their ability, no matter what their skills. Education should be the priority. Whatever financial situation that we find ourselves in, we must never bankrupt our children’s future. They get only one shot. The pupil premium was on the front page of the Liberal Democrat manifesto, and we are now delivering it in government. In Cambridgeshire, our schools are getting £1.8 million to help 2,100 children from poorer backgrounds get a good start in school, with critical flexibility for heads to work out how best to spend it for their pupils. Every child deserves a fair start in life. However, Cambridgeshire has a systematic problem with basic funding for pupils. Ever since the Tory county council under Baroness Blatch cut funding for schools in the 1980s, Cambridgeshire schools have been consistently under-resourced. Her cuts have been perpetuated, as central funding for schools has been based on previous years’ funding, with no opportunity to close the gaps that have grown. The Tory cuts have been perpetuated by the Labour Government and this Government so far. Children now are paying for poor decisions made in the ’80s. Pupils in Cambridgeshire get far less funding than pupils almost anywhere else in the country. In 2009-10, Cambridgeshire got £34 million less funding than the English average, and that trend has continued. For the financial year 2012-13, the dedicated schools grant placed Cambridgeshire 143rd in funding out of 151 local authorities. That funding covers nursery provision, mainstream schools, special schools and all high-needs pupils. The Government’s new approach makes the problem even more obvious. Basic school funding is, reasonably and sensibly, being separated out from early years and high-needs funding, so that people can see what is happening. The schools element of the funding for 2013-14 gives Cambridgeshire the least of any of the 151 local authorities, at £3,950 per pupil per year. The English average is £4,550. What possible reason can the Government give for why pupils in Cambridgeshire deserve 13% less funding than the rest of the country? Other than historical accident—I hope that the Minister agrees that it is wholly wrong to punish kids now for political decisions made in the ’80s—why do pupils in Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Peterborough deserve more cash? Of course schools serving more challenging communities should receive more funding, but that is supposed to be addressed, at least in part, by the pupil premium, and Cambridgeshire has challenging communities. Educational attainment in the north of Cambridge and the north of the county, in the fenland area, is significantly lower

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than it ought to be. I can see why people in expensive areas could argue for more funding—teachers must be paid enough to be able to afford to live near their schools—but Cambridge is a very expensive area. The Cambridgeshire Schools Forum has been campaigning for a number of years to narrow the funding gap between the higher and lower-funded local authorities. I have been delighted to support it over many years, both when I served on Cambridgeshire county council and now as MP for Cambridge. Two years ago, on 7 February 2011, I raised the issue in education questions: “Cambridgeshire gets less school funding per pupil than almost anywhere in the country. If we received the per pupil average across England, we would have some £34 million more for education. Can the Secretary of State explain why pupils in Cambridgeshire deserve so much less money, and will he review that?”

The Secretary of State for Education replied: “They deserve to be treated like every other student. We are reviewing funding and will be publishing a paper in the spring to try to ensure greater equity in the allocation of schools funding.”— [Official Report, 7 February 2011; Vol. 523, c. 19.]

I agree with everything that he said. Pupils in Cambridgeshire deserve to be treated like every other student. That is all we ask. The Cambridgeshire Schools Forum and I, and many others, were delighted by the promise of greater equity in the allocation of schools funding. We know that it takes time, and we know that we may not end up exactly at the English average, but a commitment to greater equity was what we wanted. Instead, the gap has widened. We receive £600 less per pupil than the English average for schools block funding, and with 73,800 pupils, according to the Department for Education’s figures, so we are now short by £44.3 million across the county, compared with the English average. For an average two-form entry primary school, that is a difference of £250,000 a year in funding—enough for seven teachers on average pay. Alternatively, the money could be spent on more teaching assistants, better teaching materials, more activities or better school buildings; there are so many options. Yes, the national budget is limited, but Cambridgeshire kids deserve what everyone else gets. We had hoped that the national funding reforms might start to address those inequalities. However, it now appears that the earliest any such change might be possible is 2015-16. That is having a real effect on children’s lives. Philip Hodgson is chair of the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum, and I served with him as a governor. He says that “standards in Cambridgeshire are slipping in some areas or not improving at the same rate as better-funded local authorities. Cambridgeshire schoolchildren will suffer from the underfunding for even longer unless action is taken now to begin the introduction of fair funding”.

The gap in Cambridgeshire is widening because there is not enough resource to close it. I have been in contact with my local head teachers to ask them about their individual situations. They are positive about the pupil premium. Many heads have said that it allows them to do things they had never been able to do before. At Chesterton community college, for example, the principal, Mark Patterson, has been able to fund specialist reading teachers to deal with the handful of pupils who reach secondary school every

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year unable to read at an appropriate level. Rather than having them continue to fall behind, he can give them the right support to keep up, which is fantastic. However, all the heads are concerned about the tightness of the funding that they in Cambridgeshire face. Chris Beddow of Abbey Meadows says: “As a school serving a challenging demographic area, we receive a considerable amount of extra funding. However, when compared to a school of similar size in Peterborough, we receive £80,000 less, due to funding differentials between authorities. How is this justifiable as our costs are the same? Cambridge is growing and as a school we are building extra capacity and growing. This year will see our numbers grow by 10%; however, our funding will only grow by 6%. Again, I fail to see how this gap is justifiable.”

To give another example, I recently heard from Steve Jordan, the head teacher of St Paul’s primary school in my constituency. The school, which is small, has been working on an extremely tight budget. Although it has been just about able to stay in the black, it has had to keep eroding its reserves to do so. It has a capital budget of about £7,000 a year. The school’s management cannot maintain the standard of the school site as they wish. The school field needs replacing. It is becoming a health and safety hazard, with rubble beneath the soil gradually working through, and drainage is being affected by tree roots in the pipe work, which the school cannot afford to repair. It is shocking that schools such as St Paul’s are so stretched that they cannot carry out small but necessary repairs. It is not a new problem; it has happened because decades of under-investment have compounded it in those schools. I welcome the Government support for new school buildings. Cambridgeshire has a demographic bulge at the moment, and the county is frantically opening new primary school places to cope. The bulge will then move on to secondary school, and we will then need financial support to deal with that. I specifically welcome the inclusion of the Manor school in the Government’s priority school building programme. It will make a huge difference to the school, which was visited by the Minister’s predecessor, and the services that it can provide. It is especially welcome because it will be a grant, not tied to any PFI constraints. While I am mentioning the Manor, I pay tribute to Ben Slade, the school’s former principal, who was energetic and inspirational to many pupils and others. Our problem with schools is that the deal is simply unfair. In Cambridge, there is a range of 16-to-19 education providers, including the excellent Cambridge regional college, which will sponsor the new university technical college in Cambridge, and two sixth-form colleges, Hills Road and Long Road, which educate thousands of 16 to 19-year-olds to a consistently high standard. I have spoken to both principals, Linda Sinclair and Chris Sherwin. They describe a funding situation in which they are struggling to keep their heads above water. The problem is not unique to Cambridgeshire. Sixth form colleges across the country are suffering from the same problems. Although there are only 94 sixthform colleges in England, they educate more than 150,000 16 to 19-year-olds and send more people to higher education than independent schools, with almost a third of those young people coming from the least

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advantaged areas of the country. Almost three quarters of those colleges are rated as either good or outstanding by Ofsted. Hills Road sixth form college does phenomenally well at getting pupils into Oxbridge, beating every school in the country, other than Westminster and Eton, which is a great achievement for a state-funded school. The state sector can work wonders at much lower cost than any private education, but it needs appropriate funding and does not get that. Sixth-form colleges face particular inequity. They have to pay VAT on goods and services, with a couple of exemptions, whereas schools and academies are reimbursed for those costs. That costs the sixth-form college sector some £30 million per year—about £320,000 per college— which could be spent on education. Can the Minister try to persuade the Treasury to fix that bizarre discrepancy, which also applies to regional colleges? Anne Constantine of Cambridge regional college highlights that “The VAT bill on revenue spend at this college in the last financial year was £1.2 million of non-recoverable VAT, most of which was incurred in relation to 16-18 learners, a sum”

that could be reinvested in learning if they were treated the same as schools. Pupils at sixth-form colleges are ineligible for free school meals. Will the Minister support the Association of Colleges “No free lunch” campaign to ensure that students in sixth-form colleges get the same as they would at a maintained school sixth form, an academy, a free school, a university or a technical college? Sixth-form colleges are funded less than the alternative providers, and that funding is also being reduced. Hills Road sixth-form college, for example, devised a plan to cope with average funding of £4,500 per student—a fairly small amount, compared to what is available at key stage 4 in a number of other providers—but the more recent announcement of a simplified pro-rata funding scheme from 2016-17, at a rate of £3,900 per student, means a further 13% budget cut. That pro-rata funding system is a redistribution of funding between 16-to-19 institutions and not a national cut—it does not save money for the national purse—but it means that sixth-form colleges, such as Hills Road, that deliver large programmes with high success rates will lose heavily. They will no longer be able to act as an exemplar in the state system. The new figure of £3,900 per pupil per year is less than available at key stage 4, but must be used for the much wider aspirations of those aged 16 to 19. It does not allow for enrichment activities and does not cover extra costs of subjects, such as experimental sciences, and does not allow pupils to have funding to study a fourth A-level, which is particularly important for those who want to do double maths and go on to study sciences at a number of universities. A particular problem is that sixth-form colleges cannot cross-subsidise between different age groups, because they have only have a narrow intake. A particular issue affects Long Road sixth-form college. There is large growth in sixth-form places, as schools and academies expand into sixth-form provision, benefited by their financial advantages over sixth-form colleges, but without the matching increase in the numbers seeking to go on to sixth form. That makes the financial pressures far worse at Long Road, for example, and both Hills

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[Dr Julian Huppert] Road and Long Road colleges are facing serious cuts to their budgets. That will affect their ability to provide the quality of education that their students deserve. It is not even clear how these changes will affect those colleges. Institutions that currently deliver larger than average-sized programmes, such as Hills Road, will have to reduce them by 2016-17 to match the new funded level. That will have to be managed gradually over the next three years, because the prospect of doing it all at once in 2016, as they face the cliff edge, would be too painful to contemplate. Can the Minister confirm whether institutions that reduce their programme sizes gradually over three years will be fully protected until 2015-16, in terms of funding per learner, by the formula protection mechanism, or will they be penalised for trying to avoid a cliff edge? Can he confirm—this is an issue for Long Road in particular—whether guided learning hours that are focused on enrichment, rather than specifically on qualifications, will also be included in that protection? If the Minister needs further details, I am sure that the principals will be delighted to talk to him. Sixth-form colleges are not clear how their funding will operate. They need certainty. They are also concerned about the combined impact of all the changes happening at once. The decrease in income due to the decrease in student numbers as a result of expanded post-16 provision without demographic growth, the continued removal of entitlement funding and the decrease in income as a result of the new funding methodology will all hit at the same time, and they are already being hit. The 2011-12 funding impact survey of sixth-form colleges showed that almost half of sixth- form colleges have already had to drop courses. Several reported that science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses were removed from the curriculum, and a quarter indicated that at least one modern foreign language had been dropped. They are also having to reduce or remove enrichment activities, such as sport, music and drama and careers guidance. Schools and sixth-form colleges in Cambridgeshire do a good job on limited resources. I am not asking for favours or special treatment. I simply ask for fairness: fair funding for Cambridgeshire pupils, so that they no longer get the least per pupil in the country, and fair treatment for sixth-form colleges, so they no longer face lower funding and higher costs that other providers. If we are to build a strong economy and a fair society, we must ensure that everyone can get on in life. 4.15 pm The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr Weir. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert) on securing this important debate, which will be of great interest in his constituency and in the county that he represents. I am grateful for the opportunity to address a number of issues that he has raised. The Department accepts that Cambridgeshire is, on our latest figures, the 143rd lowest-funded authority in England. My hon. Friend knows that the Government are determined to address the injustices in our funding system and to seek, over time, to introduce a fairer

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national funding formula. We are still committed to doing that. I will explain later precisely how we will deliver that in the years ahead. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend, head teachers and college principals from his constituency in the weeks ahead if he feels that there are further points to be made about funding fairness for Cambridgeshire and the other issues that he has mentioned, and should he want the opportunity for head teachers and principals to put those points directly to me. I am grateful for the opportunity to address the important concerns that were raised today, which will be of interest to many families in Cambridge and Cambridgeshire and many of the people who work in the educational establishments that my hon. Friend mentioned. We intend to move to a fairer funding formula across the country, and I will explain how we will do so. Our aim is for every child to be able to succeed at school, regardless of their background and where they live. That is why the Government, despite having to make difficult decisions on public spending since we took power in May 2010, have protected pre-16 school funding in real terms over the spending review period. As part of that, we introduced the pupil premium, which we advocated in our general election manifesto and which, by the end of this Parliament, will have targeted an additional £2.5 billion per year to disadvantaged pupils. My hon. Friend mentioned how much additional money his county—his constituency—is receiving. He will be pleased to know that the per-pupil amount of the pupil premium will be rising from some £623 per pupil in the current recent educational year to £900 per pupil in the year that we are heading into, which will be a big help to many educational institutions with a large number of disadvantaged youngsters. However, we need an underlying system to support that investment and to ensure that pupils are not disadvantaged as a result of a national school funding system that, frankly, does not distribute funding fairly. My hon. Friend has highlighted some reasons why the current system for funding schools is in desperate need of reform. It is based on an assessment of need that dates back to at least 2005-06 and it has not kept pace with the changing demographics and needs of pupils. It is also complicated, so head teachers, governors and parents are unable, usually, to understand how their school budgets have been calculated and what the justification is. In addition, the current system is not designed to support the successful expansion of academies. Therefore, it is difficult to demonstrate that schools maintained by local authorities and academies are being funded equitably, which is the Government’s intention. For the lowest-funded authorities, such as Cambridge, that outdated system may well mean an allocation that does not reflect the current needs of schools in the county. It is not right that schools with similar circumstances in different areas of the country can receive vastly different funding for no clearly identifiable reason. That is why, on 26 March 2012, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education announced our intention to introduce a new national funding formula during the next spending review period. That formula would distribute money fairly across the country, targeting need and getting rid of some of the anomalies that make the current system so unfair and irrational. However, reforming

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such a complex system—particularly in an environment where, for understandable reasons, all Departments’ budgets are so constrained—is far from easy, and it is important that we do it at a pace that schools can manage, including schools in parts of the country that have been better funded in the past. The last thing that we want is to cause destabilising changes to school budgets, which cause anxiety and distract schools from delivering high educational standards for their pupils. We are moving gradually towards introducing a new funding system at a pace that gives us sufficient time to agree to the construction of a new formula and that allows schools enough time to adjust to changes in their funding arrangements. At present, we are planning to introduce the national funding formula in the next spending review period. In the meantime, from April, the local system will be simpler and more transparent, meaning far less complexity for us to untangle when we come to address the national system. Our first step is to ensure greater transparency and consistency in the allocation of funding locally. For 2013-14, the dedicated schools grant has been allocated in three clearly identifiable spending blocks: schools, early years education and high-needs pupils. We set each block for each local authority using details of its spending in 2012-13 and then agreed the blocks with each authority. The spending blocks provide greater transparency over how much has been spent in each of those areas. We are also making changes to how funding is allocated to schools, so that, within local areas, pupils to the age of 16 begin to attract similar funding regardless of where they go to school. Moving to a more consistent way of funding schools may mean that local authorities and their schools forums have to think radically about how they distribute money to their schools, and a new local formula will inevitably generate shifts in school budgets. That may be uncomfortable, but if we can start to iron out some of the inconsistencies and unfairness that pupils and schools currently experience, that will ultimately help to pave the way towards a fairer, more pupil-led system. Local authorities have worked hard under the new arrangements to build new formulae that adequately reflect the needs of their schools. However, for some areas, particularly Cambridge, that has proved problematic, and some schools are facing considerable budget changes. I also understand why in Cambridge, as a lower-funded authority, my hon. Friend is worried about how the changes will be managed. Although the budget changes are necessary to reflect a new system, we are clear that they should not be unmanageable, not least in areas such as his. That is why the Secretary of State announced in June that schools will continue to have planning certainty through the minimum funding guarantee. Therefore, in most cases, schools will not lose more than 1.5% of their budget per pupil in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and many schools will gain. In addition, the Secretary of State and I confirmed in October last year that we will continue to operate a minimum funding guarantee beyond 2014-15. We cannot confirm its exact value until the new spending review period, but we are absolutely committed to protecting school budgets from unmanageable changes.

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I reassure my hon. Friend that we will carry out a thorough review this year of the impact of the new simpler formula on pre-16 funding, making any necessary changes based on that evidence in 2014-15. Over the coming weeks, we will start to work with local authorities to explore the effects of different factors, such as the lump sum and deprivation factors, so that we can ensure that a robust system is in place for 2014. The Secretary of State announced on 2 July 2012 that, from April 2013, we are introducing a new national funding formula for 16 to 19-year-olds in education and training. That new formula will be based on the principle of funding per student, rather than the existing system of funding per qualification, which my hon. Friend mentioned. That will allow sufficient income for each student to undertake a full programme of study, whether vocational or academic. Our objective is to introduce a system of fair funding that will provide a place in education or training for every young person who wants one and will support full participation by 16 and 17-year-olds by 2015. The new formula will give many benefits, including taking into account the needs of the disadvantaged, implementing the recommendations of the Wolf report and supporting the envisaged A-level reforms. The new formula will fund full-time students for an average of 600 teaching hours, which will be sufficient to offer a significant programme of study. The formula will mean that all students aged 16 to 19 will be funded using the same formula, removing the historical differences between schools and academies and sixth-form colleges. I understand that some school sixth forms and sixth-form colleges that offer a predominately academic programme to their students, such as Hills Road in my hon. Friend’s constituency, are concerned about their funding under the new 16-to-19 funding formula. I am aware of that institution’s reputation, not only in Cambridge, but across the country. In response to my hon. Friend’s question, I confirm that we will provide at least three years of full funding protection from the formula changes, while we continue our reform of qualifications, including the forthcoming A-level reforms. I also confirm that the 30 hours currently focused on enrichment activities are included in that protection. Detailed allocations of funding for 2013-14 will be announced in March. Arrangements beyond 2014-15 will not be announced until the next spending review has been completed. As part of the process, we have established a ministerial working group with key sector representatives to consider the best way to implement the reforms to programmes of study and associated funding changes, as well as to help us to ensure that the reforms work in the best interests of all young people. My hon. Friend mentioned VAT, and I am sympathetic to the concerns expressed about the different VAT treatment that sixth-form colleges receive from the Government. I have asked officials to raise the matter with the Treasury and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and to report back to me. On free school meals, it is only the entitlement to a free meal that is different for schools and academies compared with colleges. There is no actual funding given by the Department for free school meals for sixthform pupils, even in the school and academy sector,

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[Mr David Laws] which complicates dealing with the injustice in entitlement. We are currently looking at options for extending eligibility further across the 16-to-19 sector. We also seek to address concerns around capital funding, which my hon. Friend mentioned. We have more than doubled the capital funding that will be made available in this spending review period to support specifically the provision of additional places to those made available in the same period by the previous Administration. We have made £2.8 billion available for basic needs in this spending review. Most recently, in last year’s autumn statement, the Chancellor announced £980 million of additional capital funding for basic needs over the next two years. That will help us to expand good and outstanding schools where there are shortages of places and to establish new academies and free schools where there is that basic need. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing attention in this relatively short debate to the funding issues faced by schools and sixth-form colleges in Cambridgeshire. I hope that I have provided some reassurance that our aim in making these reforms is ultimately to ensure that England has a fair and transparent funding system precisely to deal with some of the injustices that areas such as Cambridgeshire may have suffered in the past. A new national funding formula will reassess need across the country and will allocate funding accordingly. A refreshed distribution of funding will renew confidence in the system, but only if we put the right formula in place. The Department is working actively on the issues now in the run up to the spending review that will happen before the summer, and it is a preoccupation of mine. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend and any representatives from the education sector in his constituency to discuss this further.

Charities (Donations) 4.30 pm John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab): It is a pleasure, Mr Weir, to serve under your chairmanship in this important debate. Towards the end of last year, charity donations had dropped by 20%, and one in six charities said that they face closure in 2013. We rely on charities to support some of the most vulnerable people in our society, and when 73% believe that they are unable to fulfil their philanthropic goals because of lack of funding, there is real cause for concern. In May 2010, the Government launched their big society idea. The Prime Minister said that it was about allowing charities, social enterprises and companies to provide public services, devolving power to neighbourhoods, and making government more accountable. We are now relying on charities to provide much needed support, but only yesterday Sir Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, said: “The reality many charities now face is crippling spending cuts”.

The Government would like us to rely on charities, but they have neglected to support them in their time of need. What we need now is a Government initiative to support, not one led by charities. In recent years, the public have become increasingly wary of giving to charities following reports of aggressive campaigning. That may be going too far, so we need innovative solutions to access gift aid money, instead of pestering people to give more than they can afford. Some charities are the only providers for many people, and sometimes they provide niche services to the most vulnerable people in communities. The Marie Collins Foundation provides support for children who have suffered sexual abuse via the internet or mobile technology and has unique expertise in this area. The One in Four charity supports people who were sexually abused as children and is facing an unprecedented amount of work following recent media attention. It relies on donations and volunteers, yet 80% of its clients are referred by the NHS. It is clear that those charities play a role that is genuinely needed in our society. The problem lies in the reduction of grants and funding available to charities. The SHARE Community says: “There’s less money available from charitable trusts, and more competition for what there is.”

This debate is not about the fundamental structural changes needed in Government financing to give better support to our charities, although I am sure that an assessment of how that works would be appreciated by many. It is about how to harness the British public’s generosity into a more successful donation record for charities, big and small. Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con): Will the hon. Gentleman give way? John Robertson: I am sorry, but the hon. Gentleman did not come to me before the debate, so I will not give way. People want to give, but they simply cannot afford to give as much as they used to. The problem is reaching breaking point. With the recent child benefit reductions and welfare reform at the forefront of hundreds of

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thousands of people’s minds, charities are being stretched in two directions. For many families, the reduction in income will mean they simply cannot afford to give as much as they used to, leading to reduced budgets for charities. We recently had a debate in the Chamber on food banks, which are classic examples of the strain facing charities during the financial crisis. For example, in the last year, the Trussell Trust almost doubled the number of food banks it oversees from 149 to 293. The BBC recently ran a report about a mother who is a full-time carer to one of her children and is relying on that charity for emergency food parcels. Her words echoed those of many people throughout the country: “I choose between whether to pay my electricity company...or feed my kids”.

I am sure that the Minister is aware that I often criticise energy companies for their selfishness when raising their prices, and that should be addressed, but we can help to ease the burden in the face of corporate greed by making it easier for charities, such as the Trussell Trust, to secure donations. Similarly, the homelessness charity, Shelter, has seen an 80% increase in demand for homelessness services in the last three years. Additional funding is needed immediately to support its work, and as we enter the coldest part of the year more will be needed. Elderly people—I have many in my constituency—are also struggling with cuts and rising living costs. In Glasgow, there are now more senior citizens than 16-yearolds. That is a growing trend, and the growing proportion of elderly people will put more strain on our resources. Charities such as the excellent Glasgow Old People’s Welfare Association face rising demands on their resources and rely heavily on increased donations. We must support their work so that they can support elderly people. Demand on such charities will only increase as people start to feel the pinch of years of austerity policies. Last week, there were reports that a triple dip recession is feared, so 2013 will be a difficult year for many. More and more people will turn to charities for support in their time of need. The Margaret Carey Foundation says: “Were the charity sector to go into steep decline, the state would have to step in or…just stand by and watch people suffer as a consequence of not having a support system.”

Due to the enormity of Government cuts, I fear it would be the latter. Supporting our charities is an absolute priority, but 20% say they fear they may close this year. We must do something urgently to secure their financing structures. Unlike many businesses, charities do not have the luxury of reserves to cover income shortfalls, and this year will be a breaking point. The Charities Aid Foundation reports a £300 million deficit in the funds of more than 90% of small and medium-sized charities, and those not facing closure will reduce services. A key aspect of harnessing donations is to make them more secure and effective, especially with the 20% drop in the last year. It is increasingly difficult to get the other 80%. Cystic Fibrosis Dream Holidays says: “It is becoming more and more difficult to raise the funds we need. We seem to be doing twice the work to raise half the income!”

The Refugee Youth Project, a charity that provides support to young people who have fled to the UK, relies

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heavily on donations. Some significant costs on charities are not covered by project budgets, so they desperately need unrestricted funding, primarily from donations, to stay alive. Funding from donations is also used to develop research and to pilot new initiatives with young people, allowing the charity to grow and to increase its effectiveness. Project budgets may be financed by Government grants, but that is no good if the backbone of the charity is not supported by donations. Many charities also rely on the selling of unwanted goods in shops around the country, but Age UK has noted a 20% drop in doorstep donations of unwanted goods, and I am worried that that will only increase as the world moves to online shopping. Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, make it easier and quicker to sell unwanted items, and that is increasing. The British people are finding that they cannot get such books, CDs and other items in charity shops, and the number of those shops will decline. Comic Relief and Sport Relief are doing an excellent job, but we cannot rely all the time on the money that they are raising. It is easier for them to do so, but the lifeline and money that are needed are not there. The fact that charities now have to consider UK problems as a more pressing priority means that international charities will get less, so there will be a reduction in money to developing countries. Donations from UK residents are dropping, and I suggest that, if that trend continues, donations to charities that distribute in the UK will be given priority by donors. That is shown by the food banks that we discussed earlier. Some things must be done. I was privileged to chair the Committee that considered the Small Charitable Donations Bill, which aimed to make gift aid simpler. However, in the face of such a crisis, that is simply not enough. Charities employ the most successful fundraisers and they are very good at what they do, but a few steps from Government could make a huge difference to the amount they receive. Over £750 million of gift aid goes unclaimed each year. It is clear that more needs to be done to get that to those who need it most. Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab): That is a significant amount of money—£750 million unclaimed. Do my hon. Friend or the Minister have any idea where that money is and how it can be accessed by charities, including a number of charities on my own patch? Erskine, which looks after disabled service personnel, would very much welcome access to that kind of money. John Robertson: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Erskine hospital fund is greatly supported by many companies, as well as many people in the Glasgow area, but it may find that it does not get the funding that it has had in the past. Perhaps the Minister could answer what happens to that £750 million. Please do not tell me, Minister, that it goes back to the Treasury, when people really need it and we can direct it to some of those charities, rather than giving it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We desperately need to modernise an outdated system. The fact that people fill in a gift aid form each and every time they donate is ridiculous. We could have a central database of gift aid donors, which would allow charities to claim it much more easily. They could check their

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[John Robertson] donor quickly and easily against the system, so that they would not need to rely on people making extra effort each and every time they donate. We also need an awareness campaign on the gift aid scheme. Many people do not use gift aid, because they simply do not know it exists. An awareness campaign could encourage thousands of people to take that extra step and allow gift aid, which is a great benefit to charities, at no additional cost to the donor. If charities were able to claim gift aid on doorstep donations, we could also mitigate the crisis with our charity shops. Charities may see donations decreasing, but that step from Government could see smaller amounts of donations go further. Following the reduction in donations, Age UK has seen a real-terms reduction in potential income of £750,000. Payroll giving—whereby money is taken out of employees’pay packets—is also massively underused. Only 2% of employees use it, and yet giving £10 could cost them as little as £5. We need to push that further, and education is needed. We also need to help charity donations to move into the new millennium. Many small charities cannot benefit from text donations due to high—actual or perceived— set-up costs. However, a key issue is that Apple, for example, does not allow direct donations from applications on smart phones. That is ridiculous. It would be simple to donate. The Government have been looking publicly into the issue since around 2011, so why has nothing been done? We also need the Government to act on data about donating habits. We know that older people donate more. Why, and how can we harness that? We know that younger people donate less. How can we target them specifically? Are the Government scrutinising that data? We welcome the Innovation in Giving Fund, which will give rise to the use of new technologies targeting that group, but we need to ensure that any innovations are available to smaller charities as well. As our move towards new technologies may reduce the role of our charity shop culture, we need to look at how we can move it online. It seems that the rise of e-books, for example, is a huge blow to the second-hand book trade. With Amazon taking a huge profit from that technology—while paying no corporation tax, it must be stressed—here is a chance for it to play a role in facilitating a charity book culture online. Could Kindle users donate their old books to a charity marketplace, and could they be resold with donations shared between Amazon and chosen charities? Could the same work be done with music? We owe it to Britain’s charities to look into how such a scheme might work, and how else online shopping could be used to benefit our voluntary organisations. We also need a way for people to identify how their donations are distributed and what percentage actually gets to the people who are being targeted. There is some concern that a small minority of charities are not reputable. We believe that it is necessary to encourage people to trust the majority of charities that truly help people. Therefore, I would like to see a central portal where we can see how reputable they are and how donations are spent. Finally, we need to protect our smaller charities. They are often disadvantaged through a lack of expertise in fundraising techniques. We need a system of sharing

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that knowledge. The Government should work together with charities of all sizes to provide training on fundraising techniques and on the ways in which they can reach the full potential of each donation given. There is also a role for business to play in training, and employees should be encouraged to donate their time to smaller charities to help them to modernise fundraising systems. We are facing a crisis in the economy and a knock-on crisis in the charity sector. People want to donate, but I do not believe that they know the full potential of what they can do. Charities provide a vital service that we cannot do without, and we need to tackle the problems now before it is too late. I call on the Government to set to work on a comprehensive strategy to save our charities. 4.47 pm The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Miss Chloe Smith): I thank the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson) for a thoughtful, wideranging speech, and I welcome the additional comments provided by the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Jim Sheridan). I venture to guess that my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) was going to mention his valuable work on introducing the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, which I congratulate him on as well. I turn to the comments made and the issues raised by the hon. Member for Glasgow North West in the debate today. I agree that charities play an important role in our society, and I take this opportunity to extend my thanks to the charitable organisations in this country that work so hard, and to those who work in them. They will be glad to see us taking these issues seriously in the House, and I know that there is much more that we must do. I start with a general point that the hon. Gentleman will be well aware of. Matters pertaining to donations to charities in Scotland are, of course, devolved matters. He is nodding, and he will know as well as I do that it is for the Scottish Government to comment on those matters. Perhaps they have a clear idea of what they wish to do in the long term in Scotland about such things, but he and I can take that into a different debate any time that he wishes. I turn to the broad issue of current donations and the health of the sector, which was raised in the hon. Gentleman’s speech and in reports a short while ago. Much has been said about the health of the sector generally, and I add that the picture is very mixed. Clear trends are not easy to discern at this stage. The evidence of recent reports from the Charities Aid Foundation suggests that charitable donations are down, while other evidence, such as the Taking Part survey commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, finds that there is a slight increase in the proportion of people giving to charity. Similarly, the overall effect on the health of the charitable sector is unclear. There are, however, grounds for optimism. Some reports suggest that the total income of registered charities has grown from £52 billion in 2009 to almost £59 billion now and that there are 2,000 more registered charities now than in 2009. Those figures are to be welcomed and cast an interesting light on the debate that we are having here today. What appears clear is that no one can say for certain whether donations are decreasing and certainly

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not at what rate. There is some debate in the sector about whether a decrease is what charities are experiencing on the ground. We will need to wait and see if there is a clear trend in donations, but regardless of what trends emerge, it is also true that life goes on. We need to acknowledge that it is a challenging environment for charities and, clearly, for the people they serve. We should all make every effort to help the sector to raise money efficiently and effectively to meet the challenges, and that is exactly what we are doing. If the hon. Gentleman will allow me, I will go on to deal with a couple of ways in which the Government are seeking to play their part. The hon. Gentleman referred to face-to-face fundraising, often referred to as chugging. That is certainly seen regularly in Norwich. Indeed, only recently I was corresponding with a constituent on exactly that matter. It is an important and successful method of fundraising, which can bring millions of pounds into the charitable sector every year, but I welcome the announcement in November by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association and the Local Government Association of an agreed template for voluntary site management agreements as a way for local authorities to control chugging in their areas. I think that more than 50 site agreements are in place, with more being negotiated. Much more is being done by this Government to support the sector, including by supporting a culture of giving both money and time—an important area of debate—by opening up new sources of income and finance through social investment or delivering public services where organisations decide that that is right for them and by providing wider support for the sector, thereby making it easier to set up and run a charity or social enterprise. All those actions support the health of the sector, either through increasing access to income of various kinds or through reducing costs and burdens, so that that income goes further. The debate has focused on charitable donations, and perhaps the biggest help that the Government give to the sector is gift aid, which the hon. Gentleman went through in some detail. He will know that it is a matter for the Treasury. Although I used to be that Minister, I would not dream of going on to such territory here today, but he did mention his pride in chairing the debates in Committee on the gift aid small donations scheme, and I was the Minister responsible for much of the work on that and was deeply proud to be so, because it is a very good avenue of further help—up to £100 million a year, we hope—for the sector. I shall say more on that in a second. I want first to deal with the administration of gift aid and ways in which traditional gift aid can be made better for the sector. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the autumn statement that an examination would be carried out to identify ways to improve the administration of gift aid to reflect new ways of giving money to charity and, in particular, digital giving, to which the hon. Gentleman referred. Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con) rose— John Robertson: I accept what the Minister is saying. I have no doubt that she is right and I think that gift aid is a good idea. The problem is that the small and

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medium-sized charities seem to be suffering the most, and they do not seem to have the access to gift aid that the larger charities have. Miss Smith: I shall be very happy to answer that, but first I shall take the other intervention. Richard Fuller: On a similar note to what has been said by the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson), rather than looking to reform gift aid, would my hon. Friend the Minister consider scrapping gift aid entirely and putting in place a system whereby people can make direct deductions from their taxation? If we want to create a culture of giving, nothing is better than letting people write a cheque to a charity. That is one way in which smaller charities would benefit, rather than having to go through the more cumbersome process of gift aid. Miss Smith: My hon. Friend makes a fascinating point, and I am always very interested to hear his ideas, some of which I have time to debate at length with him in this Chamber. I shall ensure that that idea goes where it can be well considered. In answer to the point made by the hon. Member for Glasgow North West, the instigator of the debate, I think that the most important way to help smaller charities is to reduce the costs and burdens associated with what the state can provide to charities. That includes what we did in Budget 2011, which made it clear that we intend to make it easier for charities to claim gift aid by introducing a new IT system that will allow charities to claim gift aid online and through, as I mentioned, the gift aid small donations scheme, which will allow charities of all shapes and sizes—we hope that it will be of particular benefit to small local charities—to claim top-up payments equivalent to gift aid on small cash donations of up to £5,000 a year, without the need to have gift aid declarations from donors. That scheme should commence in April of this year, and as I mentioned, it is expected that it will increase the amounts received by charities by about £100 million a year. It is my sincere hope that it will be put to very good use by smaller charities as well as others. Jim Sheridan: Can the Minister confirm whether the figure of £750 million is correct and, if it is correct, how small charities in particular access it? Miss Smith: If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I shall have to write to him on the figures because I did not catch the one that he was referring to. I will ensure that he gets the correct Minister’s response to the figure given. He does give me the opportunity to answer a question that was posed earlier: what happens to unclaimed gift aid? I think that both he and the hon. Member for Glasgow North West mentioned a £750 million figure in that regard. If they will forgive me for making a particularly political point at this stage, it is important to note that there is no such thing as a Treasury coffer that just sits there. There is no such thing as the Chancellor wishing to stockpile. There is every such thing as public spending, and if money that is within the public finances is not spent on one thing, it is spent on another. That is a very important point to note. I could also note plenty of other things that past Governments failed to do with public spending, such as control it properly, but I think

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[Miss Chloe Smith] that what is most helpful in this debate is to come back to the reasons why gift aid may be unclaimed. I want to return to that because I think that it is the constructive area for us to debate. We need to ensure that everyone who has a reasonable business claiming gift aid can do so easily, without costs and burdens. I want to go on to payroll giving. The Cabinet Office, the Treasury and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will come together to produce a joint consultation document on payroll giving in due course. I hope that that reassures the hon. Member for Glasgow North West on some of his points. We are further supporting giving at the top end by ensuring that people who donate at least 10% of their estate to charity will be eligible for a reduction in their inheritance tax bill from 40% to 36%. That is an incentive to help giving as well. The hon. Gentleman suggested a number of other ideas to increase giving, and I am grateful for them. We will look at many of them; we will constantly look at this issue. We are making £10 million available to the Innovation in Giving fund. Many of the schemes use technology to further their aims. That fund will be delivered by NESTA—the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. In England only, I should note, the fund will find and support the growth of the most promising ideas with potential to create a step change in giving. That is something that we can all welcome. In addition, the Institute of Fundraising, which is one of Government’s strategic partners, provides training and guidance to small organisations on fundraising issues. We are also doing much to support the giving of time and wider community action, such as through the National Citizen Service, which gives young people the chance to do voluntary activities, meet new people and put something back into their communities. We are supporting Join In, to encourage people to volunteer and get involved in local sports clubs.

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We are also supporting the sector to find other forms of income. We launched Big Society Capital with up to £600 million. That is the world’s first social investment institution. We have provided support with a wider package of social investment measures. In addition, the Cabinet Office recently published guidance entitled “Making it easier for civil society to work with the state”, which brings together the range of reforms across the Government and the wider public sector. That is aimed at making it easier to set up and run a charity. Part of that is that charities and social enterprises should be able to shape and deliver public services. We are doing much to support charities to work better, including finding sources of income, through the £30 million Transforming Local Infrastructure fund, to help 74 local support organisations to improve their performance in supporting front-line organisations locally. We have looked at the bureaucracy that frustrates charities and adds to their costs and expenses. We are making good progress in implementing the recommendations on red tape that Lord Hodgson made in 2011 and are undertaking a red tape challenge for the civil society sector. I should like to make one brief point on the international aspect, which the hon. Gentleman’s comments very interestingly turned to. I am sure that he would welcome, in both the coalition agreement early on and yesterday’s mid-term review, the reinforcement of this country’s aim to give 0.7% of our GDP to development aid. That is an important way to fulfil the aspiration that his speech articulated, and we should not forget it. The Government recognise that charities face a challenging time in the current economic conditions. We will continue to work with the sector to help them. Question put and agreed to. 4.59 pm Sitting adjourned.

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Written Ministerial Statements Tuesday 8 January 2013 BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS Competition and Markets Authority The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable): I am pleased to announce Alex Chisholm as the new chief executive-designate of the Competition and Markets Authority. This follows the appointment of Lord Currie as chair-designate on 3 September 2012. Alex Chisholm will commence his appointment on 25 March 2013. His appointment will be subject to parliamentary processes including the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which establishes the Competition and Markets Authority, receiving Royal Assent and will be for a five-year term. The appointment has been made in accordance with the Civil Service Commissioner’s recruitment principles. Alex Chisholm is currently commissioner and chairperson of the Commission for Communications Regulation, Ireland. He has been communications commissioner since October 2007, and chairperson of the commission since February 2010. Since April 2011, Alex has also served as chair of the economic regulators network in Ireland. The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) is the national regulatory agency responsible for regulation of the communications sector in Ireland. Prior to joining ComReg, Alex held a number of executive positions in the media, IT and communications industries. He began his career at the Department for Trade and Industry and spent four years at the Office of Fair Trading, specialising in competition and the communications and financial services sectors. A copy of Alex Chisholm’s biography will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. HEALTH South London Healthcare Trust The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): I wish to inform the House that the trust special administrator appointed to South London Healthcare NHS Trust provided me with his final report on 7 January 2013. It makes recommendations to me in relation to securing a sustainable future for services provided by that organisation. Details about the appointment of the administrator, Matthew Kershaw, were given in a written ministerial statement issued on 12 July 2012, Official Report, columns 47- 48WS. The report was provided to me in accordance with chapter 5A of the National Health Service Act 2006, as introduced by the Health Act 2009, and has today been laid before Parliament and made publicly available at: www.dh.gov.uk/health/2013/01/south-london-healthcare/

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Copies are available to hon. Members from the Vote Office and to noble Lords from the Printed Paper Office. I would like to thank Matthew Kershaw for the work he has carried out in producing his report. This is the first time the trust special administrator’s regime has been used since the last Government introduced the provisions which were enacted in the Health Act 2009. In accordance with the legislation, in addition to producing his recommendations on the future of the trust, Mr Kershaw has also been responsible for managing South London Healthcare NHS Trust and maintaining services for patients while the board is suspended pending the outcome of the regime. I do not underestimate the demands this has placed on him. In triggering this regime, the Government’s priority was to ensure that patients continue to receive high-quality, sustainable NHS services. At the time Mr Kershaw was appointed last July, South London Healthcare NHS Trust was overspending by £1 million a week. In the last financial year, the trust had a deficit at over £65 million, the largest in the country. Left to itself, the trust’s very severe financial position would have continued in a downward spiral of continuing deficits and ultimately threaten the quality of care for patients across south-east London. The challenges facing South London Healthcare NHS Trust are complex and long standing. To date, it has not proved possible to ensure that South London Healthcare NHS Trust is able to secure a sustainable future for its services within its existing configuration and organisational form. The Government’s priority is to ensure the delivery of a long-term, viable solution for services provided by the trust if it cannot be made sustainable. All responses to my predecessor’s statutory consultation on whether to trigger the regime, including from South London Healthcare NHS Trust itself, stated that a solution for the trust cannot be viewed in isolation from broader service provision within south-east London. In accordance with my statutory duty, I will consider the trust special administrator’s recommendations carefully and make a final decision by 1 February that can secure sustainable services for the people of south-east London. In considering the recommendations, I will examine particularly: whether the recommendations are likely to provide a sustainable long-term financial position which will secure high-quality services in the local area for the future; and whether the recommendations have regard to the Government’s four key tests for local service reconfiguration. These are support from GP commissioners, strengthened public and patient engagement, clarity on the clinical evidence base and support for patient choice.

Ultimately, my priority is to ensure that all NHS hospitals live within their budgets and achieve the best quality care, best patient outcomes and best patient experience for all their NHS patients. I will inform the House of my decision as soon as reasonably possible afterwards. JUSTICE Victims Commissioner The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling): On 21 December 2012, I announced that Baroness Helen Newlove has been appointed as the new Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses—the Victims Commissioner.

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The role of the Victims Commissioner, as set out in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, is to promote the interests of victims and witnesses, encourage good practice in their treatment and keep under review the operation of the statutory victims code. We are committed to strengthening the voice of victims who too often feel like they are treated as an afterthought in the criminal justice system. The appointment of Baroness Newlove as the new Victims Commissioner will ensure that as our strategy to improve services and support for victims and witnesses is implemented, the views of victims are represented. Youth Justice Board Triennial Review The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jeremy Wright): In March 2011 the Government responded to the Public Administration Select Committee report “Smaller Government: Shrinking the Quango state” setting out the coalition’s plans for reforming the public bodies sector. It includes the requirement to undertake triennial reviews of Executive and advisory nondepartmental public bodies (NDPBs). The Youth Justice Board is an Executive nondepartmental public body of the Ministry of Justice established in 2000 by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Its principal aims are: monitoring the operation of the youth justice system in England and Wales; advising the Secretary of State for Justice on the operation of the youth justice system, national standards, and on how to prevent offending by children and young people; making grants to youth offending teams and other

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organisations to support development and delivery of good practice; placing young people in custody; and providing secure accommodation for both remanded and sentenced children and young persons. To deliver the coalition Government’s commitment to transparency and accountability the Youth Justice Board will be subject to a triennial review. As part of the triennial review process, the Ministry of Justice, as the sponsoring Department, has today launched a consultation which will last until 15 February 2013 inviting views. The review will be conducted fully in line with Cabinet Office guidance: “Guidance on Reviews of Non Departmental Public Bodies” and will consider the following: the continuing need for the Youth Justice Board to carry out each of its functions in their current form; and where it is agreed that the individual functions should remain, to review the control and governance arrangements in place to ensure that the public body is complying with recognised principles of good corporate governance.

In conducting the triennial review, officials will be engaging with a range of stakeholders of the Youth Justice Board. In addition, the triennial review will take into account evidence collated during previous reviews where still relevant. In 2011, the Government decided not to pursue abolition of the Youth Justice Board as part of the Public Bodies Act 2011, re-stating their commitment to maintaining a distinct focus on the needs of children and young people in the youth justice system. It is against this backdrop that this triennial review is taking place. The final report and findings will be laid in this House.

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Written Answers to Questions Tuesday 8 January 2013 FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE Temporary Employment Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what amount his Department spent on interim staff as defined by the National Audit Office in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; [135170] and if he will make a statement. Mr Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent (a) £6,731,574 on interim staff in the financial year (FY) 2010-11 and (b) £4,876,632 on interim staff in the FY 2011-12. These figures are for spend in the UK only. To obtain the figures for all of our 200 plus posts would involve trawling posts for this information and would incur disproportionate cost.

Written Answers

Jo Swinson: This Government remains fully committed to equality and to equal pay in every work force. However, local authorities are independent employers in their own right and the Government has no role in the way they manage their work forces, including how they exercise their responsibilities in relation to equal pay. The Local Government Association, as the representative body of local authorities, has produced guidance for local authorities undertaking equal pay reviews. In announcing the Provisional Local Government Settlement (on 19 December 2012), the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles) confirmed that he would be taking steps to enable authorities to use capital receipts from asset sales raised from 2012-13, for equal pay costs. TRANSPORT Broadband Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether his Department has had discussions with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Network Rail over the potential use of ducts and land owned by those bodies as a platform for fibre access to support the provision of broadband across the UK.

World War II: Military Decorations Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the oral answer from the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport of 19 December 2012, Official Report, column 841, whether he plans to allow veterans of the Arctic Convoys to receive the Russian Ushakov medal as well as awarding [135143] a British honour. Mark Simmonds: The current British rules on the acceptance of foreign awards state that permission will not be given for UK citizens to accept a foreign award if they have received, or are expected to receive, a UK award for the same services (double medalling). The double medalling rule was a factor in the original decision not to give permission for the Ushakov medal to be accepted because service on the Arctic Convoys was included in the eligibility criteria for the Atlantic Star. With the Prime Minister’s announcement of a specific British medal for veterans of the Arctic Convoys, the double medalling consideration becomes even more relevant. Under current rules, permission cannot be given for veterans to accept the Ushakov medal for the same service. However, as you may be aware, the Government has asked Sir John Holmes to review the rules on the acceptance of foreign awards including the double medalling rule. As Sir John is already carrying out this work, it is right that we should await the outcome of his work. WOMEN AND EQUALITIES Equal Pay: Local Government Guy Opperman: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what steps the Government is able to take to expedite the resolution of those equal pay claims by women employed by local authorities in the north-east [135837] which have not yet reached court.

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Mr Simon Burns: The Departments have discussed this issue with Network Rail. There is a recognition by all parties that access to Network Rail ducts and land could potentially enable improved broadband services across the UK. We look to Network Rail to propose an approach that does not negatively impact rail operations or safety. We will continue to work together to enable a positive way forward. ATTORNEY-GENERAL Serious Fraud Office Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Attorney-General what steps he plans to take to address issues identified in the report by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate on the Serious Fraud Office published in November [135613] 2012. The Attorney-General: The Director of the Serious Fraud Office has accepted all the recommendations made by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate in its report. An action plan has been devised in response to the recommendations and work has already begun to make the necessary improvements. The Director has invited the Inspectorate to return in 2014 to evaluate progress and inspect again. In addition I have said that I would like the inspection of the SFO to be put on a statutory footing and this will be done as soon as parliamentary time allows. LEADER OF THE HOUSE Olympic Games 2012 Hugh Bayley: To ask the Leader of the House which events at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were attended by each Minister in his office using

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tickets or passes for which they did not pay personally; and what the cost was of attending each such event for members of the public who used comparable seats or [135645] had comparable access. Mr Lansley: The Government pledged to publish these details following the Olympic and Paralympic games and will do so shortly. BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS Arms Trade: Israel Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he took to ensure that in issuing arms export licences to Israel, notably those categorised as ML1, ML3, ML4 and ML10, weapons could not be used for internal [135392] repression; and if he will make a statement. Michael Fallon [holding answer 7 January 2013]: All export licences for military goods are assessed on a case by case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. An export licence will not be issued if the decision is not consistent with the criteria. Assessments of export licence applications for military goods to Israel will take account of the continuing tensions over Gaza. The following criteria are relevant: Criterion 2 The respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country of final destination. A licence will not be issued if there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression;

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four1 from the hon. Member. I have received some other representations on the success of the mentorsme website including positive words welcoming the initiative. Working with the mentoring community, the BBA have identified and are making a number of enhancements to mentorsme.co.uk in order to improve the customer experience and enable the site to be a key channel for the promotion of mentoring. The new refreshed version of the site will be launched at the end of January 2013. 1

PQ 81007, 21 November 2011, Official Report, column 159W PQs 81008 and 81009, 22 November 2011, Official Report, columns 330-31W PQ 135349, being answered today

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the success of the Mentorsme website; [135349] and if he will make a statement. Michael Fallon: mentorsme.co.uk, the national mentoring portal, which is funded and operated by the British Bankers Association (BBA), has expanded dramatically over the last year. The site now provides a single point of access to over 114 mentoring organisations—more than double the number we started with in July 2012. This is good progress and we continue to work closely with the BBA to expand and develop the site further as the single point of access to mentoring provision across the UK. Over 200 people visit the site every day. Latest data from the BBA’s Finance Monitor indicates that 23% of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) population are aware of the national mentoring network.

Criterion 3 The internal situation in the country of final destination, as a function of the existence of tensions or armed conflicts. The Government will not issue export licences for exports which would provoke or prolong armed conflicts or aggravate existing tensions or conflicts in the country of final destination;

Written Answers

Business: Government Assistance Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many firms are participating in his Growth Accelerator programme. [135348]

Preservation of regional peace, security and stability. The Government will not issue an export licence if there is a clear risk that the intended recipient would use the proposed export aggressively against another country, or to assert by force a territorial claim.

Michael Fallon: As of 2 January 2013, 2,339 companies are already on the programme and a further 2,382 businesses have applied to join.

Business: Advisory Services Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what representations he has received on the success of the Mentorsme website.

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much he has budgeted to be spent on the Growth Accelerator scheme in each year from 2012-13 to 2014-15. [135359]

[135083]

Michael Fallon: The information is as follows: mentorsme.co.uk, the national mentoring portal, which is funded and operated by the British Bankers Association (BBA), now provides a single point of access to over 114 mentoring organisations—more than double the number we started with in July 2012. This is good progress progress and we continue to work closely with the BBA to expand and develop the site further. According to research published by this Department in September 2012, almost two-thirds of mentoring providers registered on the site would recommend that others do so and the large majority of organisations listed on the site have seen demand increase. A number of parliamentary questions have been answered regarding the success of the site, including

Michael Fallon: The budget for Growth Accelerator in each year from 2012-13 to 2014-15 is set out in the following table. This includes funding for the Leadership and Management Advisory Service which is now delivered through Growth Accelerator: Budget (£) 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

38,582,284 70,725,828 70,102,755

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much he has spent on the Growth Accelerator scheme in each month of [135360] 2012-13 to date.

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Michael Fallon: The expenditure on Growth Accelerator in each month of 2012-13 to end November 2012 is shown in the following table. This includes funding to establish the scheme initially in the period before it was formally launched in May 2012. 2012

£

January February March April May June July August September October November

0 1,996,407.00 2,838,203.00 2,877,545.00 2,877,711.57 2,877,711.57 2,658,338.88 2,658,338.88 2,658,338.88 3,390,104.24 3,390,183.40

Export Credit Guarantees: Grenada Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the amount of Grenada’s [134579] debt to UK Export Finance is. Michael Fallon: As at 30 November 2012 the amount of Grenada’s outstanding debt to UK Export Finance was GBP 1,783,141. Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much of the debt owed by Grenada to UK Export Finance relates to airport

Written Answers

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projects; when such loans were made; and to which bodies they were made. [134580] Michael Fallon: In November 2012, UK Export Finance, formally the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), published information, available in the Libraries of the House, about sovereign debts due to ECGD. Paragraph 10 of the explanatory note sets out that, due to the age and incomplete nature of some of the records, judgement has to be made in some instances as to the precise nature of the goods and services. I refer the hon. Member to the answer I am giving to parliamentary question 134579 today for the amount of Grenada’s debt outstanding as at end November 2012. This debt has been rescheduled at the Paris Club and it is not possible to disaggregate the value of the current outstanding debt between the original contracts. However, the original debt of £891,255 (61% in terms of value) attributable to airport projects related to an airport project that was guaranteed by ECGD in 1982. The buyer was the Ministry of Finance, Government of Grenada. Export Credit Guarantees: Iraq Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will publish a list of the specific exports of vehicle spare parts to Iraq that led to sovereign debt from that country being owed to UK Export Finance; what vehicles such spare parts were used for; when those exports were made; and who [134644] the customer was in each case. Michael Fallon: The available information is set out as follows.

Spare parts

Date contract performed

Buyer

Dennis Trucks Mobile Cranes Engine Spares

1988 1989 1988, 1989

Agricultural Tractor Spares (balancer units and piston ring sets) Vehicle Components Vehicle Parts (clutch plates, gear trains, drive belts and fuel pumps) for Leyland Trucks Vehicle Parts Car Tyres (various sizes) Vehicle Spare Parts, (exhaust valve, starter motor, oil pump crankshaft, distributor, alternator, calliper, rear jump hose, tailgate and glass, gearbox, rear axle and front shock kit)

1989 1989 1989, 1990

General Automobile Trading Company State Machinery Trading Company Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform General Automobile and Machinery Trading Company Baghdad Sewerage Board State Establishment for Passenger Services

Two contracts performed in 1989 1988, 1989 Two contracts performed in 1998 and 1999

State Establishment for Passenger Services State Company for Iraqi Trading Ministry of Defence

Export Credit Guarantees: Kenya Mrs Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills which exports account for the proportion of Kenya’s sovereign debt owed to UK Export Finance relating to the power sector. [134723]

Michael Fallon [holding answer 7 January 2013]: UK Export Finance, formally the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) recently placed information in the Libraries of the House, about sovereign debts due to ECGD. Paragraph 10 of the explanatory note

accompanying that information sets out that, due to the age and incomplete nature of some of the records, judgment had to be made in some instances as to the precise nature of the goods and services that were supplied. Further detailed examination of the relevant files show that in fact 12%, in terms of value, of the original sovereign debt owed to ECGD related to the power sector. The exports were for consultancy services for a hydro electric power project, the design, supply, erection and commissioning of a cable form factory and associated goods and services, and the design and construction of a hydro-electric dam.

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Export Credit Guarantees: Zimbabwe Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of Zimbabwe’s sovereign debt currently owed to UK Export Finance was accrued through the export of oil pipelines; what the location is of such pipelines; what exports are the source of such debt; whether the exports were to government or private companies; and [135116] if he will make a statement. Michael Fallon: UK Export Finance, formally the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), recently placed information in the Libraries of the House, about sovereign debts due to ECGD. Paragraph 10 of the explanatory note accompanying that information sets out that, due to the age and incomplete nature of some of the records, judgment had to be made in some instances as to the precise nature of the goods and services that were supplied. Further detailed examination of the relevant files show that about 1%, in terms of value, of the original sovereign debt owed to UK Export Finance was accrued through the export of oil pipelines. This relates to the supply of goods and services for the design, survey, construction and commissioning of an oil pipeline from Feruka to Harare and associated facilities. The buyer/ borrower was Petrozim Line (Private) Ltd, a private company. A third party guarantee of payment was given by the Government of Zimbabwe.

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Information on the number of private sector businesses in the West Midlands at the start of 2012 by broad industry group is available in Table 15 of the detailed data tables that accompany this publication—see: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/16402/bpe_2012_data.xls

Met Office Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the value was of the commercial products and services provided by the Met Office to UK companies engaged in (a) on- and off-shore wind energy and (b) other energy generation [134946] in each of the last three years. Michael Fallon: I have asked the chief executive officer of the Met Office to respond directly to the hon. Member. Letter from John Hirst, dated 3 January 2013 I am replying on behalf of the Met Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 18 December 2012, UIN 134946 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Met Office works with energy companies within the UK and internationally in both the planning and management of their assets and capacity management. The details requested are commercially sensitive but in total this business accounts for around only 1.5% of the Met Office’s income.

Natural Gas: Exploration

Green Investment Bank Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the Autumn Statement 2012, what discussions he has held with (a) the chairman of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) and (b) prospective borrowers from the GIB on the implications for GIB’s ability to borrow from 2015. [135027]

Michael Fallon: The Government are fully committed to providing the UK Green Investment Bank (UK GIB) with the funding it needs to be an enduring and effective financial institution. With £3 billion to 2015, the UK GIB is being amply funded so that it will not need to borrow in the short to medium term. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), has had discussions with Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of UK GIB, about the Bank’s future ability to borrow. As set out during second reading of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Smith’s focus is on building a well run organisation with a good track record worthy of the injection of more capital or borrowing money in capital markets. Manufacturing Industries: West Midlands Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent estimate he has made of the balance of industries [135795] within the West Midlands. Michael Fallon: BIS publish annual National Statistics estimating the total number of private sector businesses in the UK in the publication ’Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions’.

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will publish all correspondence and minutes relating to meetings between (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department and (i) Cuadrilla and (ii) any other [134689] fracking or shale gas company. Michael Fallon: There are no plans to publish such correspondence and minutes. Redundancy Mr Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many Civil Service posts have been made redundant by his Department in each year since 1999; and what has been the cost of [135474] redundancies in each such year. Jo Swinson: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was created on 5 June 2009 via a merger of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) which both ceased to exist from that date. Data on the number and cost of redundancies and voluntary paid exits have been provided from this date. Number of redundancies

Number of voluntary paid exits

Total cost of exits (£)

2009-10

0

21

3,195,578

2010-11

0

330

26,552,976

2011-12

254

0

15,529,155

2012-13

5

2

154,653

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TREASURY

Taxation: Preston

Broadband

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much (a) national insurance and (b) income tax was paid by non-UK EU nationals living in Preston constituency in tax year 2011-12. [134683]

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the range of estimates made by his Department was for the revenue from the sale of the [134954] 4G spectrum. Danny Alexander: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie) on 17 December 2012, Official Report, column 558W. Gift Aid Graeme Morrice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent steps he has taken to modernise and promote (a) Gift Aid and (b) payroll giving. [134646]

Sajid Javid: The Government has introduced a number of measures to modernise and promote Gift Aid. The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme will be introduced in April 2013 which will enable qualifying charities to claim top-up payments equivalent to Gift Aid on small cash donations of up to £5,000 each year without requiring the donor to provide a Gift Aid declaration. The scheme is expected to increase the amounts received by charities by around £100 million by 2015. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is introducing a new online system for making Gift Aid claims from April 2013. This will make it faster and easier for charities to claim repayments of tax under Gift Aid and top-up payments under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. In addition, just recently HMRC announced changes which will lift the administrative burdens for charities claiming Gift Aid on the proceeds of donors’ goods sold in charity shops. Currently charities have to write to the donor before the charity can claim Gift Aid on the proceeds from each sale. The changes will make Gift Aid simpler and less costly for charity shops, as a letter will be required only when proceeds exceed an agreed amount of either £100 or £1,000. The Chancellor announced in the autumn statement that an examination will be carried out to identify ways to improve the administration of Gift Aid to reflect new ways of giving money to charity, in particular digital giving. A public consultation will be held on Payroll Giving in the coming weeks. This will seek to raise the levels of payroll giving by improving and modernising the process. The consultation document will be published jointly by the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and HMRC. Public Expenditure Chris Leslie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect of his decision in the autumn statement to underspend in 2012-13 through reduced reserves on Government [134682] Departments. Danny Alexander: Decisions on forecast departmental underspends are made by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Mr Gauke: The information is available only at disproportionate cost. ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE EU Law Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which regulations his Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2011 and (b) 2012 to date; which regulations his Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2013 and (ii) the next two years; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) [133700] public purse and (B) private sector. Gregory Barker: The information requested is not held centrally and is currently being compiled. I will write to my hon. Friend as soon the information is available and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House. Redundancy Mr Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many civil service posts have been made redundant by his Department in each year since 1999; and what the cost of redundancies has been [135487] in each such year. Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was created in October 2008. Therefore there is no data prior to that date. DECC is one of the smallest Departments in Whitehall (less than 1,700 staff) and has not made any of its civil servants redundant since its inception and has therefore not incurred any such costs. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Olympic Games 2012 Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which events at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were attended by each Minister in her Department using tickets or passes for which they did not pay personally; and what the cost was of attending each such event for members of the public who used comparable seats or had [135642] comparable access. Mr Duncan: The Government pledged to publish these details following the Olympic and Paralympic Games and will do so shortly. CABINET OFFICE Charitable Donations John Robertson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made in the change in public donations to UK registered charities in each of [135293] the last seven years.

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Mr Hurd: The National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) publishes data from charity accounts on the level of income received by UK charities from individuals: http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk

Data are available up until 2009-10 and show levels of donations have been increasing year-on-year over the last decade: £ billion 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04

14.3 14.1 14.0 14.0 13.3 12.3 12.3

Civil Servants: Recruitment Kate Green: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what consideration he has given to whether the policy of advertising all civil service jobs as available on a full-time, part-time or flexible working basis should [135073] be extended to all public sector jobs. Mr Maude: It is for responsible authorities in the wider public sector to consider whether advertising jobs in this way is appropriate. Electronic Government Gregg McClymont: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which organisations are allowed to [135702] advertise jobs on gov.uk. Mr Hurd: All jobs currently advertised on GOV.UK are through the Universal Job Match, which is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions:

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Redundancy Mr Weir: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) how many civil service posts have been made redundant by his Department in each year since 1999; and what has been the cost of redundancies in each such year; [135472] (2) how many posts have been declared redundant by each of his Department’s executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1999; and what has been the cost of those redundancies [135473] in each such year. Mr Maude: Information on redundancies and other paid departures in the Cabinet Office are published each year in the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts. Copies of these documents for the years 1998 to 2007 are available from the National Archives website at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100416132449/ http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/about_the_cabinet_office/ reports.aspx

More recent copies of the annual report and accounts are available on the Cabinet Office website at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinetoffice-annual-reports-and-accounts

The Government Procurement Service is an executive agency of the Cabinet Office and its annual report and accounts are available at: http://gps.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/about-governmentprocurement-service/annual-report-and-accounts

Other bodies that have been agencies of the Cabinet Office in the past include the Central Office of Information, the National School of Government, Commission for the Compact, and CapacityBuilders. Copies of their annual report and accounts are available from: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/

WORK AND PENSIONS Back Pain

www.gov.uk/jobs-jobsearch

Flexible Working Kate Green: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department meets the Government’s aspiration for the civil service to be an exemplar in flexible working practices when carrying out reviews of terms and [135072] conditions of employment; (2) with reference to the conclusion in the response from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to the Modern Workplaces consultation that flexible working increases productivity and commitment, improves retention and widens the talent pool so that employers are able to recruit people with more skills, whether he plans to review flexible working [135074] policies in the civil service. Mr Maude: Departments are currently conducting a review of their terms and conditions of employment in line with the commitment made in the Civil Service Reform Plan.

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what information and resources his Department provides to employers to support people diagnosed with lower back pain to remain in work. [133559]

Mr Hoban: We are committed to working with a wide range of stakeholders such as employers to support people with health conditions including back pain to remain in work. The health, work and wellbeing pages on the DWP website provide information and guidance for a range of groups including employers. This includes promoting best practice and sharing success stories from a wide range of organisations that have helped their staff manage musculoskeletal conditions. We also fund the national occupational health advice service pilots for small businesses. These provide employers and employees in small and medium sized businesses with access to high quality, professional occupational health advice in response to help employers support employee issues with health problems including back pain.

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People who are off work sick for longer than seven calendar days with problems like back pain need to provide fit notes from their doctor. My Department has developed guidance for employers on using fit notes, which is available on our website and will be revised shortly. Finally, our Access to Work programme provides practical and financial support to disabled people and those with physical or mental health conditions—such as back pain—who are in employment or self-employed, to help them overcome barriers to starting or keeping a job. Access to Work helps employers retain an employee who develops a long term health condition, keeping valuable skills and saving both time and money recruiting a replacement. Conditions of Employment Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of staff in his Department requested (a) part-time, (b) job-share or (c) other flexible working arrangements in each of the last five years; and how many such requests were [134990] granted. Mr Hoban: The information requested is not held centrally on the personnel computer system, and to provide this information would incur disproportionate costs. Council Tax Benefits Margot James: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households that receive council tax benefit have (a) one child, (b) two children, (c) three children, (d) four children, (e) five children, (f) six children, (g) seven children and (h) [134606] eight or more children. Steve Webb: The requested information is in the following table: Council tax benefit recipients by number of child dependants—August 2012 Number of child dependants Caseload 1 787,040 2 555,690 3 259,920 4 94,990 5 30,240 6 9,600 7 3,240 8 or more 1,720 Notes: 1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data is available monthly from November 2008 and August 2012 is the most recent available. 4. Caseload: Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 5. Number of child dependants: Only count child dependants resident in the household on the extract date who are less than 20 years old. 6. Figures in this table may be affected by the introduction of new tax credits in April 2003. Source: Single housing benefit extract (SHBE)

Written Answers

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Employment and Support Allowance John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what monitoring has taken place of the provision of information and advice to employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants by staff of his Department concerning ESA regulations 29 and 35 relating to exceptional circumstances; [133364]

(2) how many claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA) have sought exception in their claim under ESA regulations 29 and 35 relating to exceptional circumstances; and how many such claimants have been successful in seeking exception. [133365]

Mr Hoban: The DWP regularly undertakes monitoring in connection with our services and activities but does not specifically monitor information and advice provided by DWP staff to employment and support allowance claimants concerning regulations 29 and 35 of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008. Guidance for DWP staff who provide information and advice to claimants is regularly reviewed. We do not collect data on whether claimants have sought exception under these regulations. The Department regularly publishes official statistics on employment and support allowance (ESA) and the work capability assessment (WCA). The latest report was published in October 2012 and can be found at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/ index.php?page=esa_wca

Table 6 of the supplementary tables details reasons for placement into the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG). The column referring to ‘Medical Reasons’ includes ESA claimants placed into the WRAG on the basis of regulation 29. Note that the category ‘Medical Reasons’ also includes some other reasons for assignment and assignments on the basis of regulation 29 only cannot be separated out. Table 5 of the supplementary tables details reasons for placement into the Support Group (SG). The columns for ‘Chemotherapy’, ‘Physical or mental health risk’, ‘Pregnancy risk’, and ‘Terminally ill’ include all claimants being placed into the SG on the basis of regulation 35. Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of claims for employment and support allowance were unsuccessful in each of the last four years for which figures are [135109] available. Mr Hoban: The Department regularly publishes of official statistics on the outcomes of claims for employment and support allowance (USA) and the work capability assessment (WCA). The latest report was published in October 2012 and can be found at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/ index.php?page=esa_wca

Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what medical reasons can be cited in claims for payment of employment and support allowance; and how many people have made a claim for employment and support allowance for each such medical reason in each of the last four years. [135110]

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Mr Hoban: Entitlement to employment and support allowance (ESA) is based on functional impairment rather than being limited to particular medical conditions. ESA on flows data by primary medical condition (based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, published by the World Health Organisation) are available from the Department’s tabulation tool, which can found at: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool

Farms: Safety Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the implications of (a) poor mobile telephone coverage and (b) poor broadband access for health and safety on farms; and if he will make a statement. [132993]

Mr Hoban: HSE has not carried out any specific assessment of poor mobile telephone coverage and/or poor broadband access for health and safety on farms. None the less, HSE recognises the implications and supports efforts to promote mobile phone availability and coverage to facilitate swift and efficient emergency responses in the event of an accident in remote rural areas. Housing Benefit Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of recently announced changes to levels of housing benefit on the long-term viability of sheltered housing. [135439]

Steve Webb: We have made no assessment of the long term viability of sheltered housing. The housing benefit rules and levels of housing benefit payable for those living in sheltered housing remain unchanged. John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which areas will be exempt from the one per cent increase in local housing allowance in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and if he will place a copy of the criteria [135941] used to choose these areas in the Library.

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Immigration Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the additional cost of the delivery of those public services for which his Department is responsible arising from inward migration since 1997. [134304] Mr Hoban: The Department does not routinely produce estimates of this nature. To do so would require the Department to incur disproportionate cost. Industrial Health and Safety Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of compliance in the UK with EU regulations in relation to the maximum 24 hour exposure to hand-arm vibration for workers in the construction [134256] industry. Mr Hoban: The prevention and control of hand-arm vibration is one of the many construction workplace health risks that are considered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) construction inspectors when carrying out interventions. HSE is currently in dialogue with industry on the practical implementation of the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005, as part of the EU’s review of health and safety directives, to obtain their views relating to compliance in respect of hand-arm vibration. Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions he has had with employer organisations and employee representatives in relation to the effect on employee [134257] health of hand-arm vibration. Mr Hoban: The Health and Safety Executive attends industry-led quarterly partnership meetings, where the effect of hand-arm vibration is discussed as part of wider discussions on employee health with employer organisations and employee representatives. The partnership encourages the sharing of good control and management practices, and aims to bring about improved employee health through changed attitudes and behaviours towards hand-arm vibration in the workplace. Internet

Steve Webb: In 2014-15 and 2015-16, increases to local housing allowance rates will be capped at 1%, in line with increases in other benefits. We have set aside 30% of the forecasts savings from this measure—£45 million in 2014-15 and £95 million in 2015-16 to target further help on people most affected. Our intention is that this funding will be used to increase the local housing allowance rates by more than 1% in areas where rent increases are causing a shortage of affordable accommodation. This funding will be available from 2014-15 and we will consider how it is targeted using available evidence, including annual market data collected by independent rent officers, to ensure that the funding is targeted in a transparent and objective way. Final details of the 2014-15 arrangements will be made available in autumn 2013, both to enable us to consider the latest evidence and also to give claimants and landlords time to plan.

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department has made a further assessment on whether the unused IPv4 addresses it holds have material value that could be [135429] realised. Mr Hoban: The Department for Work and Pensions is continuing to seek legal advice to evaluate whether it has the right of ownership of its spare IPv4 addresses and will take the necessary steps to act on that advice. Jobcentre Plus Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 27 November 2012, Official Report, column 142W, on Jobcentre Plus, how many and what proportion of those staff in the Operations structure are employed in [135453] face-to-face services.

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Mr Hoban: Within the Operations structure the majority of people that deliver face-to-face services are based within the Jobcentre network. As at September 2012, there were 38,316 people delivering these face-to-face services, which is 47.92% of the total number of people provided in the answer of 27 November 2012, Official Report, column 142W. The number quoted for delivering face-to-face services will also include people in direct managerial and support roles of those people delivering services. There are also large numbers of other people within the DWP Operations structure that provide services through telephony and on-line options and they are not included in the number quoted as providing the face-to-face service. Long Term Unemployed People: Mental Health Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of the influence of long-term unemployment on [134265] individual mental health and well-being. Mr Hoban: There is a body of evidence which shows that unemployment is associated with poorer mental health and well-being. Work can be therapeutic and can lead to improvements in self-esteem and mental health and well-being. We recently published the National Study of Work-search and Wellbeing, a large-scale study on the extent of mental health conditions among claimants of jobseeker’s allowance. This showed that more than one in five people who claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance for about six months had a common mental health condition compared with one in six of those who flowed off jobseeker’s allowance before six months. Evidence published as part of the study also shows that the chance of having a common mental health condition increased with the number of years out of work. These findings are supportive of wider research on the association of unemployment with mental health, including reviews of academic literature. We recognise the study’s findings that entering employment can support recovery and offer specialist support to claimants with mental health problems through disability employment advisers. Additionally, Mental Health and Well-being Partnership Managers support our Jobcentre Plus staff by improving and facilitating links between local mental health and employment services, identifying the availability of local support that advisers may signpost claimants to and by providing a support role through team meetings and awareness sessions. We have also introduced the Work programme, which is designed to help people who are at risk of becoming long term unemployed. The Work programme is currently supporting 837,000 participants, and is expected to support 3.3 million over the life time of the contract. We also have specialist disability employment programmes, such as Access to Work and Work Choice, which aim to identify and meet the needs of disabled people, including those with mental health conditions.

Written Answers

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Olympic Games 2012 Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which events at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were attended by each Minister in his Department using tickets or passes for which they did not pay personally; and what the cost was of attending each such event for members of the public who used comparable seats or had comparable access. [135651] Mr Hoban: The Government pledged to publish these details following the Olympic and Paralympic games and will do so shortly. Remploy Mr Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons Remploy factory sites that were earmarked for sale have not yet been sold. [134502]

Esther McVey: All stage 1 businesses were put up for sale. We also provided funding to support employee-led bids. For some businesses, no interest was received, reflecting the commercial standing and nature of the businesses. I understand from Remploy that in some instances where initial interest was received from bidders, no final offers were submitted by bidders. In some instances bids were rejected because they did not meet published criteria, including on retaining the employment of disabled employees, sustainability of employment or value for money and in some cases bidders withdrew from the process. Sick Leave Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 12 November 2012, Official Report, columns 87-8W, on sick leave, what assessment he has made of the difference in the proportion of working days lost due to ill health between officers at A/AA grade and at SCS grade; and what assessment he has made of the use of mindfulness-based therapies in reducing the proportion [132699] of working days lost in his Department. Mr Hoban: Higher absence levels are recorded for junior grades in DWP this is common across both the public and private sectors. DWP has a range of interventions in place to help reduce sickness absence and increase the health, wellbeing and resilience of its work force irrespective of grade. Within DWP assessment is made of mindfulness-based therapies through the monitoring and evaluation of the Department’s Employee Assistance Programme which provides such therapies as part of its counselling support service. State Retirement Pensions Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what reciprocal agreements need to be agreed with the government of Namibia so that UK citizens living in Namibia who conduct financial arrangements in the UK at their own expense, pay income tax in the UK and pay for money transfers

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from the UK to Namibia requiring no input from the government of Namibia receive the cost of living [134043] increase to their state pension. Mr Hoban: The increasing cost of unfreezing pensions has meant that no commitments have been made to enter into any new reciprocal agreements since 1981. The Government has no plans to enter into discussions on annual pension increases with countries where those increases are not currently payable. There are no plans to change the current arrangements for pensions paid overseas. Temporary Employment Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what amount his Department spent on interim staff as defined by the National Audit Office in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement. [135189] Mr Hoban: The amount spent by the Department for Work and Pensions on interim staff as defined by the National Audit Office in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 20.11-12 was: (a) 2010-11: £26,012,567 (b) 2011-12: £12,298,427

This represents a considerable reduction against the spend of £52,623,645 on interim personnel in 2009-10.

Written Answers

202W

Mr Hoban: The level of a household’s universal credit award is determined by their personal circumstances and is made up of a standard allowance and potentially five elements, one of which is an element for housing. The information requested is in the following table; for each household type requested a typical monthly universal credit award is shown for (i) where the household has no housing costs, and (ii) where the household has rent of £435 per month (£100 per week). Monthly UC award (£)

(i) No housing costs (£)

(ii) £435 rent per month

0 0 426 491 438 540

249 426 555 620 669 770

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

UC will be paid on a monthly basis and therefore amounts are monthly and are presented in 2013/14 prices. Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what support he will make available to local authorities participating in the universal credit pathfinder to enable them to provide budgeting and money management advice to claimants moving from [135294] weekly to monthly benefit payments.

Unemployment Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many (a) job vacancies and (b) jobseekers there were in each (i) parliamentary constituency, (ii) ward, (iii) lower layer super output area and (iv) Jobcentre Plus district on 1 April in each [135326] year for which figures are available; (2) how many jobseekers there were in each (a) parliamentary constituency (b) ward, (c) lower layer super output area and (d) Jobcentre Plus district on 1 [135327] October 2012. Mr Hoban: The available information will be placed in the House of Commons Library. Universal Credit Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to his Department’s announcement of 10 December 2012, on universal credit, how much universal credit will be received by (a) a single person aged over 25 years with no children who earns £217 per week and has no other income or savings, (b) a couple aged over 25 years with no children, one of whom earns £217 per week and who both have no other income or savings, (c) a lone parent (aged under 25 years with one child) who earns £217 per week and has no other income or savings, (d) a lone parent (aged over 25 years with one child) who earns £217 per week and has no other income or savings, (e) a couple (aged under 25 years with one child), one of whom earns £217 per week and who both have no other income or savings and (f) a couple (aged over 25 years with one child), one of whom earns £217 per week and who both have no other income or [133775] savings.

Mr Hoban: The Universal Credit programme is currently working with local authorities in the pathfinder area to develop a process that will provide the necessary personal budgeting support to universal credit claimants. Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he has put in place to monitor the potential effects on homelessness and crime of the introduction of universal credit in those local authority areas which are pathfinder areas. [135295]

Mr Hoban: Universal Credit Pathfinder is about ensuring we learn lessons before universal credit is rolled out nationally. As part of our learning, we will be undertaking research with: DWP Staff; claimants; local authorities; and the local welfare advice sector to help understand the effects of universal credit in the pathfinder areas.

Vacancies Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time vacancies were advertised in Jobcentre Plus in (i) Bury St Edmunds constituency, (ii) Suffolk and (iii) the UK in each quarter in each of the last three [134471] years. Mr Hoban: The following tables contain number of (a) full-time and (b) part-time vacancies were advertised in Jobcentre Plus in (i) Bury St Edmunds constituency, (ii) Suffolk and (iii) the GB in each quarter since 2009.

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8 JANUARY 2013 Vacancies advertised in Jobcentre Plus Full-time vacancies

Bury St Edmunds

Suffolk

GB

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

JanMar

AprJun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

JanMar

AprJun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

Oct-Dec

2009

831

978

1,302

1,137

4,575

5,619

7,478

6,689

475,191

534,700

641,539

698,928

2010

1,241

1,264

944

1,531

7,229

7,816

5,505

7,846

585,104

741,275

534,726

773,032

2011

1,498

1,427

1,667

1,649

7,359

7,794

9,012

8,220

602,486

678,325

790,811

857,410

2012

1,419

1,774

1,715



7,528

8,488

10,269



673,274

917,100

1,054,035



Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

Oct-Dec 285,934

Part-time vacancies Bury St Edmunds Q1

Q2

Suffolk

GB

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Jul-Sep

OctDec

JanMar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

JanMar

Apr-Jun

2009

628

492

527

649

2,488

2,373

4,085

3,506

187,587

230,698

258,864

2010

566

628

1,092

738

2,744

3,473

2,748

3,973

219,630

268,465

171,520

322,801

2011

707

754

710

827

2,869

3,498

3,363

4,046

218,155

242,286

264,955

305,154

2012

589

683

1,124



3,246

4,213

4,595



283,200

340,178

311,824



Note: September 2010 figures are not available due to a technical issue of NOMIS data.

Amber Rudd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time vacancies were advertised in Jobcentre Plus in (i) Hastings and Rye constituency, (ii) East Sussex and (iii) the UK in each quarter of the last three years.

Mr Hoban: The following tables contain number of (a) full-time and (b) part-time vacancies were advertised in Jobcentre Plus in (i) Hastings and Rye constituency, (ii) East Sussex and (iii) the GB in each quarter since 2009.

[134918] Vacancies advertised in Jobcentre Plus Full-time vacancies Hastings and Rye Q1 JanMar

Q2

East Sussex

Q3

Q4

Q1

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

JanMar

Q2

GB Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

Oct-Dec 698,928

2009

769

566

690

792

2,185

2,222

2,772

2,862

475,191

534,700

641,539

2010

756

1,305

548

1,112

2,578

3,888

2,661

4,012

585,104

741,275

534,726

773,032

2011

722

863

832

1,205

2,617

3,368

3,667

3,759

602,486

678,325

790,811

857,410

2012

775

889

923



3,280

3,779

4,310



673,274

917,100

1,054,035



Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

Oct-Dec

Part-time vacancies Hastings and Rye Q1

Q2

East Sussex Q2

GB

Q3

Q4

Q1 JanMar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

JanMar

Apr-Jun

Jul-Sep

OctDec

2009

314

488

429

428

932-

1,603

1,837

1,659

187,587

230,698

258,864

285,934

2010

913

360

628

668

1,801

1,433

1,394

2,146

219,630

268,465

171,520

322,801

2011

665

237

324

404

1,576

1,268

1,567

1,890

218,155

242,286

264,955

305,154

2012

222

512

312



1,265

2,970

1,922



283,200

340,178

311,824



Note: September 2010 figures are not available. Source: NOMIS.

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies there were in each (a) parliamentary constituency, (b) ward, (c) lower layer super output area and (d) Jobcentre Plus [135328] district on 1 October 2012. Mr Hoban: The available information will be placed in the House of Commons Library. Work Programme Mr Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) St Helens

South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside, (c) the North West and (d) the UK who have been referred to the Work programme have found (i) part-time and (ii) full-time employment that lasted (A) less than and (B) more than six months to date. [134996]

Mr Hoban: Statistics on the number of people in (a) St Helens South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside, (c) the North West and (d) the UK who have been referred to the Work programme have found (i) part-time

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and (ii) full-time employment that lasted (A) less than and (B) more than six months are not available. Mr Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) St Helens South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside, (c) the North West and (d) the UK have been referred to [135011] the Work Programme to date. Mr Hoban: Official statistics on Work programme referrals can be found on the Department’s website via the DWP Tabulation Tool: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool

Work Programme: East of England Mr Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on the Work programme in (a) the East of England and (b) [135098] Huntingdon constituency. Mr Hoban: The total paid to Work programme providers in the UK is £337.9 million from the start of the programme through to 30 July 2012, i.e. the period covered by the Statistical Release. Due to commercial in confidence considerations, we are not able to release financial data below the national level at this time. Mr Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of Work programme participants in the East of England are resident in [135099] Huntingdon constituency. Mr Hoban: Statistics on what proportion of Work programme participants in the East of England are resident in Huntingdon constituency can be found at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool

Guidance for users is available at:

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Work Programme: Wales Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have come off benefits after joining the Work programme in (a) Aberconwy [134940] and (b) North Wales to date. Mr Hoban: The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Guidance on use of the tabulation tool can be found at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/guidance.pdf

Written Answers

Dogs: Litter Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many fines have been issued to dog owners who failed to clear up their dog’s faeces in England and Wales in the last [135346] 10 years. Richard Benyon: Until 2008-09, DEFRA requested figures on the number of fixed penalty notices issued by local authorities. The collection of these figures was then discontinued following the decision by the coalition Government, which deemed this as an unnecessary data burden on local authorities. The following table reflects the number of fixed penalty notices issued for dog fouling for the period 2002-09. Fixed penalty notices 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

2,063 2,742 2,515 3,782 3,675 1,938 2,082

Livestock: Transport

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/guidance.pdf

Mr Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job outcomes under the Work programme there have been in (a) the East of England [135100] and (b) Huntingdon constituency. Mr Hoban: Statistics on how many job outcomes under the Work programme there have been in (a) the East of England and (b) Huntingdon constituency can be found at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool

Guidance for users can be found at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/guidance.pdf

Mr Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what reduction in long-term unemployment there has been since the start of the Work programme in (a) the East of England and (b) [135102] Huntingdon constituency. Mr Hoban: Statistics on what reduction in long-term unemployment there has been since the start of the Work programme in (a) the East of England and (b) Huntingdon constituency can be found at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, column 529, on live animal exports, on how many occasions he has reported concerns over live animal export transporters to the competent authorities of other EU member states. [135852] Mr Heath: The following paragraphs are extracts from the most recent Annual Report (for 2011) to the EU Commission on inspections and follow-up action under article 27 of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005, concerning the protection of animals during transport: “The United Kingdom continued to communicate and work with Member State (MS) contact points regarding potential contraventions of EC/1/2005 and information exchange under Article 26 of EC/1/2005. Similar to 2010, there were no serious welfare infringements reported by other MS regarding UK transporters during 2011. In 2011 there were seven notifications regarding UK transporters from other MS, three of which referred to a failure to return journey logs and included a continued case from the previous year. This is an improvement on 2010 where 8 out of a total of 12 notifications/elated to failed return of journey logs. Information exchange included confirmation of a transporter’s competence following relocation to another MS and enquiries on AHVLA guidance on requirements for transport of horses through Eurotunnel.

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Written Answers

208W

Thirty notifications were made by the UK to other MS in 2011 including a notification to all other MS of the temporary suspension of a UK transporter’s authorisation in 2011. Whilst this was a 200% increase in number of MS notifications from 2010, only one of the notifications related to transport of an unfit animal, the remainder being technical or documentary non-compliances where animal welfare had not been directly impacted. This is in contrast with, and an excellent improvement on 2010 where 9 of the total 11 notifications had been related to the transport of unfit animals. It is believed that the UK’s persistence in reporting such activities and widespread communication to both trade and professional journals in 2010-2011 had a positive impact in reducing the risk of unfit animals being transported to the UK from other MS.”

At the meeting of the Council of Agriculture Ministers on 18 June 2012, my predecessor the right hon. Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Sir James Paice), made it clear by means of a note for the Minutes of the meeting, that the UK shared the Commission’s view that better enforcement of the existing legislation across the EU, should be the number one priority in relation to further work in this legislative area. The Government will take every opportunity to reinforce this message at Agriculture Council meetings in the future when the welfare in transport legislation is discussed.

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, columns 529-42, on live animal exports, what steps he could take to intervene in live animal transport to another EU member state if there is (a) evidence of or (b) reasonable grounds to believe that mistreatment of animals is occurring after they leave the UK.

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, column 529, on live animal exports, what his policy is on a zero tolerance enforcement of animal welfare provisions; and if he will make a statement.

[135853]

Mr Heath: Where there is a significant risk of animals being transported in breach of the strict EU rules on the protection of animals during transport, I will ensure that inspection rates are increased to reflect this risk. This is why 100% of livestock consignments exported for slaughter from, Ramsgate are now inspected by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency at the point of loading. I also made it clear in my speech during the debate on live animal exports (see column 532) that this Government will not tolerate the use of sub-standard or faulty vehicles when used to transport animals.

Mr Heath: Article 26 of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005 sets out the procedures for the notification of any infringements of the welfare in transport legislation to the relevant competent authority which may have occurred after animals have left the UK. In particular, paragraph 6 permits member states to temporarily suspend the transporter or means of transport, in the case of repeated or serious infringements. The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) have used these powers to suspend the use of a total of 10 vehicles that have been approved and certified in another member state, until such a time as the identified faults have been addressed In addition, the AHVLA will report any suspected serious breach of the welfare in transport legislation to the relevant local authority with a view to investigation and possible prosecution. Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, column 531, on live animal exports, what discussions he has had with the European Commission on the (a) enforcement of animal welfare provisions and (b) equal enforcement of all animal welfare provisions relating to live animal exports across the [135857] EU; (2) pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, columns 524-42, on live animal exports, whether he will raise equal enforcement of animal welfare provisions within the EU live export trade at the next meeting of the European Council. [135858]

Mr Heath: The comments referred to in column 531. of the debate on live animal exports concerned my bilateral discussions with competent authorities in other member states. Should the outcome of any of these bilateral discussions be unsatisfactory, the issue will be subsequently raised with the EU Commission. As regards direct discussions with the EU Commission, DEFRA officials are in frequent contact with them on a wide range of enforcement issues concerning a wide range of animal species subject to the welfare in transport legislation.

[135859]

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his contributions 13 December 2012, Official Report, column 529, on live animal exports, what instructions or criteria he has issued to the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratory Agency to implement a zero tolerance policy; and what measures he will take against (a) transporters authorised to operate in the UK and (b) transporters authorised to operate in [135860] other EU member states under this policy. Mr Heath: The changes made in relation to Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency operational activities in relation to exports via Ramsgate are being reflected in the terms of their Operations Manual. Transporters are not separately authorised to operate in this country and in other member states. Once authorised, a transporter can operate in any member state it so chooses. Any regulatory action taken by DEFRA against transporters authorised in another member state must be in accordance with the requirements of article 26 of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005. Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, columns 524-42, on live animal exports, what assessment he has made of other EU member states which receive live animal exports from the UK and their compliance to animal welfare provisions that govern the live animal export trade in Europe. [135861]

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Mr Heath: The performance of other member states in relation to their own implementation of, and compliance to, the requirements of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005, is monitored and reported on by inspectors of the Food and Veterinary Office part of the EU Commission. Their inspection reports are made publicly available. Under these circumstances, it would not be appropriate for the UK to undertake any separate assessment of individual member state performance. Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his contributions of 13 December 2012, Official Report, columns 524-42, on live animal exports, whether he has raised the inadequate enforcement of animal welfare provisions with (a) Ministers of other EU member states which receive live animal exports from the UK and (b) the European Commission in the [135862] last six months. Mr Heath: Day to day questions relating to the enforcement of animal welfare during transport rules are normally dealt with by DEFRA officials in conjunction with their counterparts in the competent authority concerned, in line with the requirements for mutual assistance and exchange of information laid down in Article 24 of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005. If the problem is suitably serious or complex in nature, possibly involving both animal health and welfare issues, DEFRA’s chief veterinary officer will discuss the issue or write to the equivalent head of veterinary services in the country concerned, copying any correspondence to the EU Commission as appropriate. This has generally been successful in the past in resolving specific technical issues relating to enforcement of the welfare in transport legislation. The last ministerial discussion on the welfare in transport legislation (which included the EU Commission in an observational capacity) took place in the Agriculture Council meeting on 18 June. Ministers agreed at this meeting that in moving forward, the number one priority should be an improvement in the enforcement of the existing requirements of the legislation across the EU.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT Aerials: Haslingden Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will update the Haslingden television transmitter following the loss of television channels by people living in that area. [134978]

Mr Vaizey [holding answer 7 January 2013]: It is a matter for the commercial multiplex operators as to whether or not the Haslingden relay is upgraded to carry the commercial multiplexes. I understand that the operator of the wind farm which necessitated the aerial realignment of a number of households from the Winter Hill relay, which carries the commercial multiplexes, to the Haslingden relay, has offered to help those households affected to switch to Freesat if they wish.

Written Answers

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BBC: Accountancy Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with the BBC Trust on providing the National Audit Office with unrestricted access to BBC accounts. [134815]

Mr Vaizey: There have been no recent discussions because in September 2011 the then Secretary of State laid before Parliament an amended version of the Agreement which gave the National Audit Office (NAO) full access to the BBC for carrying out value for money reviews. Under the amended Agreement the NAO is required to provide the BBC with an annual schedule of value for money reviews which can be amended on a specified date every quarter. Broadband Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether her Department has had discussions with Network Rail on use of its ducts and land for a platform for fibre access to support the [134481] provision of broadband across the UK. Mr Vaizey: Network Rail were one of the companies that considered becoming a BDUK framework supplier, but later withdrew from the process. The company would have considered how best to use its network during that time, but there have been no subsequent discussions with the company on this subject. Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assistance her Department is offering to local authorities to help them complete the relevant procurement work for the [134766] rollout of broadband. Mr Vaizey: To assist local authorities with the procurement process, Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) has put in place a framework delivery contract. Local authorities can run mini competitions from the framework to select a pre-qualified supplier to deliver broadband services for a local project. In addition, BDUK provides a range of logistical, technical, commercial and legal support to local authority project teams to support the delivery of the local projects. Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps her Department is taking to encourage small and mediumsized enterprises to bid for contracts relating to [134767] broadband rollout. Mr Vaizey: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) may benefit in two ways from Broadband Delivery UK’s (BDUK) £530 million broadband funding. Firstly, through subcontracts as part of the delivery supply chain, for example in carrying out civil works, and secondly through increased business opportunities from the improved connectivity. Both the rural and urban programmes require local authorities bidding for funding to demonstrate that their proposals fit with the Government’s approach to using SMEs in delivering Government projects. The requirements of the Urban

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Written Answers

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Broadband Fund explicitly require cities to link the roll-out of faster broadband to increasing the capabilities of SMEs. In addition there is a £20 million joint Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)BDUK Rural Community Broadband Fund aimed at community projects, for which smaller suppliers could be beneficiaries and small companies located in those communities could be beneficiaries from improved broadband connectivity.

is complete. If the project keeps to the timetable that we have set out we would expect it to be possible for a contract to be agreed by April 2013.

Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the area of the UK that is not yet served by high speed digital broadband; and if she will make a [135382] statement.

Mr Vaizey: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) worked closely with the Commission during the preparation and submission of its state aid notification between 2010 and 2012. During this period DCMS officials had a number of face-to-face meetings, conference calls and email exchanges with Commission officials that related to, or informed, either discussion papers, the pre-notification or the notification of state aid to the UK’s national superfast broadband scheme.

Mr Vaizey [holding answer 7 January 2013]: The Ofcom Infrastructure Report update, published on 16 November 2012, estimates that superfast broadband from commercial suppliers was available to 65% of UK premises at that time. The £530 million Government investment programme, combined with a similar level of local authority investment, aims to increase availability of superfast broadband to 90% of UK premises and universal access to a minimum service of 2 Mbps.

Broadband: Rural Areas Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what meetings her Department has had with EU officials on broadband rollout since 2010. [134765]

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of Broadband Delivery UK’s annual budget has been spent on expanding broadband within rural areas in each of the last three years (a) in cash terms and (b) [134769] as a proportion of its expenditure.

Broadband Delivery UK Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to Broadband UK’s (BDUK) annual report and accounts of 2011-12, in respect of what BDUK’s £10 million expenditure on external consultants was made. [134768] Mr Vaizey: Over the course of more than two years. Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) spent approximately £9.8 million on external consultants for the provision of procurement, technical, modelling and state aid expertise, legal advice, commercial and project support for local authorities and the devolved Administrations and additional programme administration support.

Mr Vaizey: The proportion of Broadband Delivery UK’s (BDUK) administration budget spent on the rural broadband delivery programme in (a) cash and (b) as a proportion of expenditure is: in 2010-11 (a) £1 million and (b) 100%; in 2011-12 (a) £5.85 million and (b) 94%; and to the end of November 2012-13 (a) £3.8 million and (b) 63%. The decline in the proportion of the funding spent on the rural broadband programme reflects the addition of the Mobile Infrastructure Project and the Urban Broadband Fund to BDUK’s responsibilities in October 2011 and April 2012 respectively. BDUK programme expenditure to date is £366,600, spent this year. The proportion of this expenditure spent on the rural broadband delivery programme is (a) £276,000 and (b) 75%.

Broadband: Hartlepool Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 7 September 2012, Official Report, columns 478-79W, on broadband: Hartlepool, if she will bring forward proposals to improve broadband (a) connectivity and (b) speed for Dalton Piercy village in Hartlepool constituency; what discussions her Department has had with (i) Dalton Piercy Parish Council, (ii) Hartlepool Borough Council, (iii) Durham County Council and (iv) private providers on connectivity of Dalton Piercy village; and if she will make a statement.

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on rural [134770] broadband. Mr Vaizey: Ministers from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regularly meet colleagues from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to discuss rural broadband. Digital Broadcasting

[135026]

Mr Vaizey: The Dalton Piercy village falls within the Durham Partnership local broadband plan area. The Government has allocated £9.88 million to support broadband delivery within the area covered by the partnership. As stated in my answer of 7 September, Durham county council is the lead authority for the local broadband project for that area, and is best placed to advise on the plans for deployment there. Detailed plans will not be available until the procurement process

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the potential costs of a shift of digital terrestrial broadcasting to the 600 MGHz band; and if she will [134482] make a statement. Mr Vaizey: The question raised is one for the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom). On 16 November Ofcom published a statement on its plans to enable the release of new airwaves for future generations

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of mobile devices, which will help meet consumers’ growing demand for data on the move. The plan includes the spectrum at 700 MHz and 600 MHz. The Department has made no estimate of the potential costs of a shift of digital terrestrial broadcasting to the 600 MHz band. It is too early to make assessments of any impact or benefit associated with any such move. Internet John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the number of (a) pensioners and (b) people from low-income backgrounds with access to the internet in (i) Glasgow North West constituency, (ii) Glasgow, (iii) [134493] Scotland and (iv) the UK. Mr Vaizey: Ofcom’s Communication Infrastructure Report 2012 stated that current generation broadband is available in close to 100% of premises in the UK. Ofcom estimated that 1.3% of UK premises were in potential broadband notspots (1.7% in Scotland), but noted that where broadband is not available via fixed access networks, customers may have access via other technologies such as satellite and mobile services or local community schemes. Take-up—as opposed to availability—of fixed access broadband was 63.7% in Glasgow, 66.9% in Scotland and 71% in the UK. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has made no additional estimate to Ofcom’s of the number of pensioners or people from low income backgrounds with access to the internet. Internet: Business Stephen McPartland: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she plans to take to ensure that small businesses with .co.uk addresses are not put at a disadvantage by the creation [135025] of the .uk domain name. Mr Vaizey: Nominet is recognised by the Government as the registry with responsibility for oversight of the “.uk” top level internet domain. It is a private sector, not for profit, public purpose company. Its day-to-day operations are not subject to regulation by the Government. Nominet welcomes suggestions about “.uk” policy development. It is currently carrying out a public consultation on proposals to create a new shorter “.uk” domain with enhanced security features which would allow for the first time registrations at the second level immediately before the dot (e.g. “culture.uk”). Nominet has informed Government that its consultation is gathering perspectives from a broad range of stakeholders—including small businesses and their representatives—to inform their decision-making. Nominet has stated that it will be carefully considering that feedback in line with the company’s public purpose. Procurement Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many procurement officers in her Department have relevant procurement [135738] qualifications. Hugh Robertson: All three procurement officers employed in the Department are professional members of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS qualified).

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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER Elected Office: Access 8. Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to widen access to elected office and to support people with disabilities to become hon. Members. [135554] Miss Chloe Smith: The Access to Elected Office Strategy, launched by the Government in July last year, aims to provide practical support for disabled people who want to become an elected representative. It includes a new £2.6 million fund to help disabled candidates meet the additional costs they face; free online training; three paid internships for disabled people on the Speaker’s parliamentary placement scheme; and new guidance for political parties on making reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of disabled Members and candidates. In addition, the Government are pleased to be supporting the hon. Member for Croydon Central’s Private Member’s Bill. City Deals 9. Lorely Burt: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the outcome of bids for the second round of city [135555] deals will be announced. The Deputy Prime Minister: The second wave of “city deals” was launched on 29 October 2012. We have invited 20 cities to submit expressions of interest by no later than 15 January. Ministers will review these submissions and decide on which cities should go forward to negotiate a city deal. We aim to make these decisions by March and to have concluded deals with successful cities by November 2013. Peers 10. Nic Dakin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the Government’s policy is on the creation of new [135556] peers. Miss Chloe Smith: As stated in the Programme for Government, appointments will be made to the House of Lords with the objective of creating a second Chamber that reflects the share of the vote secured by the political parties at the last general election. All-postal Primaries 11. John Cryer: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what progress he has made on implementing the coalition agreement commitment on all-postal [135557] primaries. Miss Chloe Smith: Government committed to fund 200 all-postal primaries, targeting seats that have not changed hands for many years. Following legislation in 2011, the Boundary Commissions for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are consulting on changes to constituency boundaries, which will have implications for most existing constituencies. The Government will take this into account in determining the way forward on this proposal. Electoral Register 12. Rushanara Ali: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the most effective ways of ensuring the completeness and accuracy of the [135558] electoral register.

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Miss Chloe Smith: The Government are committed to doing all they can to maximise registration and are looking to modernise the system to make it as easy and convenient as possible for people to register to vote. The Government have carried out a detailed programme of research so that we could see the scale of the problem. This includes funding an Electoral Commission study on the completeness and accuracy of the electoral register; a literature review of all currently available research into electoral registration by an independent academic; and a qualitative study exploring the barriers to registration for those groups missing from the register under the current system. Central Government: Devolution 13. Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what recent steps he has taken to devolve power from [135559] central Government. The Deputy Prime Minister: Since the coalition came to power, this Government have passed the Localism Act; created LEPs to bring together civic and private sector leaders to drive growth; agreed ‘city deals’ with the eight core cities and begun a second wave of city deals offering a further 20 cities the opportunity to devolve powers and budgets to the local level. We delivered a referendum in Wales which resulted in the Assembly assuming primary law making powers in all 20 devolved policy areas and we established the Silk Commission which continues its work to review the present financial and constitutional arrangements in Wales. In addition, the UK and Scottish Governments are working together to ensure the smooth implementation of Scotland Act 2012 which represents the greatest devolution of fiscal powers in 300 years. Social Mobility Strategy 15. Mel Stride: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the contribution of shared parental leave arrangements to his social [135561] mobility strategy. The Deputy Prime Minister: Good parenting has a crucial influence on child development, ensuring that children gain the cognitive and social skills they need to do well.

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The social mobility strategy set out our intention to help parents better balance work and home life. Last year I announced a range of new policies which will do just that: replacing the outdated and inflexible system of maternity, paternity and adoption leave with a system which gives families the rights they need to choose what works best for them. HOME DEPARTMENT Arrests: Greater London Mr Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people arrested for (a) theft and (b) robbery in the Metropolitan police area were (i) UK nationals, (ii) nationals of eastern European countries and (iii) other nationals in the last year for which figures are available. [R] [135823] Damian Green [holding answer 7 January 2013]: In 2010-11, 45,105 persons were arrested for offences relating to theft and handling stolen goods and 12,236 were arrested for robbery in the Metropolitan police area. Information on the nationality of those arrested is not collected centrally. Data for 2011-12 is scheduled for publication in spring 2013. Arrests: Young People Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people under the age of 18 have been (a) arrested and (b) cautioned in each [134914] region in each month since May 2005. Damian Green: Available information on arrests relates to the number of persons aged under 18 arrested for notifiable offences, by quarter, from April to June 2005 to January to March 2011 and are given in table A. Data for 2011-12 will be available in spring 2013. Data on arrests broken down by month are not reported to the Home Office. Data on offenders cautioned for all criminal offences, between 2005 and 2011, provided by the Ministry of Justice, are given in table B. Since the data in table A are based on notifiable offences by quarter, and the data in table B are based on all criminal offences and by month, data in the two tables may not be directly comparable.

Table A: Number of persons aged under 181 arrested for notifiable offences, by region and quarter, England and Wales 2005-06 to 2010-11 North East

North West

Yorkshire and the Humber

East Midlands

West Midlands

Eastern Region

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

7,021

14,322

12,450

6,635

7,451

7,461

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

6,300

13,573

11,404

6,848

6,945

8,415

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

6,652

13,623

12,505

6,748

6,502

7,597

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

6,624

13,224

11,506

5,645

5,408

5,891

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

6,957

14,101

10,899

6,111

6,932

6,257

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

6,693

14,023

10,348

6,469

6,745

6,496

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

6,514

13,993

11,106

7,072

6,797

7,848

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

7,234

13,484

10,793

6,677

6,810

8,025

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

6,658

13,593

10,614

6,860

6,553

8,686

Quarter 2

2005-06

2006-073

2007-08

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218W

Table A: Number of persons aged under 181 arrested for notifiable offences, by region and quarter, England and Wales 2005-06 to 2010-11 North East

North West

Yorkshire and the Humber

East Midlands

West Midlands

Eastern Region

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

5,778

12,226

9,410

6,089

6,292

7,436

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

4,964

11,158

8,532

5,693

5,736

6,610

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

5,234

10,886

8,629

5,398

5,726

7,088

Quarter

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

5,397

11,211

8,028

5,556

5,901

7,585

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

4,903

10,602

7,558

5,063

5,418

7,155

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

4,597

9,170

6,990

4,873

5,055

6,595

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

4,762

9,154

6,990

4,641

4,739

6,162

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

4,720

9,731

7,457

4,788

4,591

6,997

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

3,910

8,982

7,043

4,574

4,071

6,275

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

3,495

7,910

5,961

4,126

3,810

5,665

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

3,645

8,193

6,015

4,199

3,721

5,228

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

4,223

8,706

6,230

4,719

3,794

5,439

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

3,846

8,137

5,857

4,457

3,355

5,330

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

3,307

6,681

4,650

3,808

2,956

4,433

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

3,196

6,697

5,198

3,723

2,906

4,262

Quarter 2005-062

2006-073

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

1

London

South East

South West

Wales

Total

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

11,134

14,740

5,980

5,327

92,521

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

10,234

13,206

5,738

5,111

87,774

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

11,005

12,630

6,249

5,231

88,742

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

11,541

11,801

5,271

4,827

81,738

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

12,780

13,118







Q2 (Jul-Sep)

11,442

12,181







Q3 (Oct-Dec)

12,817

12,958







Q4 (Jan-Mar)

13,780

12,241

(23,625)

(20,490)

(353,816)

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

13,016

12,921

6,002

4,672

89,575

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

11,138

11,681

5,468

4,586

80,104

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

10,627

10,536

5,142

4,207

73,205

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

11,102

10,300

4,644

3,675

72,682

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

11,320

10,482

4,939

3,912

74,331

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

10,529

9,929

4,633

4,068

69,858

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

10,287

9,325

4,342

3,934

65,168

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

10,520

9,356

3,889

3,782

63,995

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

11,385

9,653

4,441

3,936

67,699

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

10,106

9,037

4,223

3,695

61,916

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

9,834

7,712

3,779

3,374

55,666

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

11,344

7,317

3,360

3,194

56,216

Q1 (Apr-Jun)

11,821

8,058

4,062

3,094

60,146

Q2 (Jul-Sep)

10,702

7,256

3,867

2,918

55,725

Q3 (Oct-Dec)

9,569

6,228

3,159

2,448

47,239

Q4 (Jan-Mar)

10,253

6,281

2,753

2,304

47,573

The minimum age at which persons in England and Wales may be arrested is 10. On occasion however, a person under 10 may be arrested if their age is not known at the time of arrest. All arrests of persons aged under 18, including those under 10 are included in the table. Data for Q1 for the East Midlands region excludes data for Lincolnshire, as they were unable to provide data on the age breakdown of persons arrested for that quarter. 3 In 2006-07, Wiltshire and South Wales police force areas were unable to provide a quarterly breakdown for arrests. The full years data were provided in quarter 4. As a result, a total for all four quarters only is provided for 2006-07. 2

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Table B: Juvenile1 offenders cautioned2, 3 in each region4 in each month, 2005 to 2011, England and Wales Government Office Region

January

February

March

April

May

June

East

834

765

849

1,013

1,006

1,008

East Midlands

642

751

759

861

739

817

London

929

825

920

883

882

1,030

2005

North East

682

681

676

702

773

750

North West

1,152

1,198

1,430

1,367

1,391

1,480

South East

1,569

1,491

1,737

1,614

1,686

1,700

South West

613

707

713

788

793

923

Wales

519

469

525

594

549

632

West Midlands

947

891

1,120

1,119

1,160

1,314

Yorkshire and Humberside

967

1,048

1,276

1,190

1,317

1,168

8,854

8,826

10,005

10,131

10,296

10,822

1,070

1,031

1,152

1,062

1,201

1,484

985

819

929

861

1,033

782

1,014

1,030

1,123

902

1,090

1,097

Total 2006 East East Midlands London North East

818

776

822

935

869

916

North West

1,069

1,174

1,242

1,385

1,347

1,374

South East

1,289

1,379

1,600

1,453

1,593

1,552

South West

890

840

940

880

897

962

Wales

527

532

634

609

653

722

West Midlands

1,065

1,127

1,284

1,358

1,333

1,319

Yorkshire and Humberside

1,214

1,229

1,488

1,333

1,114

1,181

Total

9,941

9,937

11,214

10,778

11,130

11,389

1,259

1,200

1,361

1,251

1,139

1,241

843

874

927

874

853

907

1,246

1,209

1,335

1,105

1,172

1,154

2007 East East Midlands London North East

909

695

771

865

973

778

North West

1,294

1,205

1,594

1,306

1,365

1,314

South East

1,548

1,430

1,633

1,446

1,682

1,712

South West

918

833

1,187

1,106

1,191

1,151

Wales West Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside

483

449

496

566

601

550

1,282

1,105

1,601

1,197

1,517

1,313

1,261

1,305

1,438

1,377

1,376

1,229

11,043

10,305

12,343

11,093

11,869

11,349

East

923

972

941

934

1,045

907

East Midlands

727

708

747

739

719

657

London

956

1,024

1,059

953

959

939

North East

720

613

732

791

652

680

North West

967

1,032

1,099

1,159

1,069

1,167

South East

1,044

1,000

1,203

1,196

1,200

1,145

South West

913

962

967

1,134

915

1,015

Wales

501

585

527

494

511

481

West Midlands

918

926

947

919

772

953

Yorkshire and Humberside

826

1,057

1,027

939

924

833

8,495

8,879

9,249

9,258

8,766

8,777

East

697

795

936

998

971

830

East Midlands

510

501

570

527

480

536

London

704

772

940

755

844

885

North East

475

511

651

612

577

565

North West

780

771

898

781

886

894

South East

963

1,501

1,704

1,235

993

1,081

Total 2008

Total

2009

South West

533

510

577

550

491

559

Wales

527

569

470

424

325

571

West Midlands

589

682

852

520

603

541

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Table B: Juvenile1 offenders cautioned2, 3 in each region4 in each month, 2005 to 2011, England and Wales Government Office Region

January

Yorkshire and Humberside

February

March

April

May

June

652

671

793

817

885

811

6,430

7,283

8,391

7,219

7,055

7,273

East

541

487

693

777

662

561

East Midlands

361

378

427

402

423

443

London

458

551

603

540

463

533

North East

287

289

334

310

306

325

North West

548

655

687

650

608

704

South East

646

689

836

629

650

681

South West

381

348

477

417

394

439

Wales

304

256

279

280

335

279

West Midlands

370

391

453

366

392

407

Yorkshire and Humberside

455

437

538

442

404

457

4,351

4,481

5,327

4,813

4,637

4,829

East

452

419

492

428

493

454

East Midlands

405

376

401

420

435

392

London

335

362

404

342

369

379

North East

231

194

258

238

276

277

North West

459

473

502

442

489

534

South East

604

558

589

536

481

565

South West

360

356

389

363

368

450

Wales

227

209

253

201

246

230

West Midlands

299

307

340

333

339

321

Yorkshire and Humberside

340

356

375

393

414

402

3,712

3,610

4,003

3,696

3,910

4,004

East

5,776

5,669

6,424

6,463

6,517

6,485

East Midlands

4,473

4,407

4,760

4,684

4,682

4,534

London

5,642

5,773

6,384

5,480

5,779

6,017

North East

4,122

3,759

4,244

4,453

4,426

4,291

North West

6,269

6,508

7,452

7,090

7,155

7,467

South East

7,663

8,048

9,302

8,109

8,285

8,436

South West

4,608

4,556

5,250

5,238

5,049

5,499

Wales

3,088

3,069

3,184

3,168

3,220

3,465

West Midlands

5,470

5,429

6,597

5,812

6,116

6,168

Yorkshire and Humberside

5,715

6,103

6,935

6,491

6,434

6,081

52,826

53,321

60,532

56,988

57,663

58,443

Total 2010

Total 2011

Total

England and Wales

Total Government Office Region

July

August

September

October

November

December

Total

East

943

981

922

1,012

East Midlands

950

838

782

883

978

783

11,094

910

880

London

996

888

776

931

1,002

9,812

997

11,059

2005

North East

783

619

813

790

705

557

8,531

North West

1,257

1,283

1,106

1,306

1,369

1,126

15,465

South East

1,636

1,625

1,371

1,433

1,513

1,416

18,791

South West

845

834

805

863

822

876

9,582

Wales

647

533

490

588

513

533

6,592

West Midlands

1,213

1,206

1,117

1,177

1,205

1,055

13,524

Yorkshire and Humberside

1,135

1,180

1,048

1,365

1,393

1,335

14,422

10,405

9,987

9,230

10,348

10,410

9,558

118,872

1,235

1,053

1,099

1,342

1,277

1,137

14,143

927

819

826

890

919

951

10,741

Total 2006 East East Midlands London

1,147

996

909

1,194

1,209

1,142

12,853

North East

780

852

803

811

874

775

10,031

North West

1,423

1,509

1,231

1,504

1,350

1,154

15,762

223W Government Office Region

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8 JANUARY 2013

July

August

September

October

South East

1,504

1,445

1,298

South West

847

890

894

Wales West Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside Total

224W

November

December

Total

1,463

1,679

1,357

17,612

815

1,001

882

10,738

563

657

651

701

584

515

7,348

1,132

1,243

1,104

1,449

1,336

1,098

14,848

1,188

1,076

965

1,396

1,502

1,299

14,985

10,746

10,540

9,780

11,565

11,731

10,310

129,061

1,654

1,351

1,114

986

1,111

1,122

14,789

899

903

771

747

837

706

10,141 13,186

2007 East East Midlands London

1,257

1,033

919

1,021

916

819

North East

890

901

609

758

688

594

9,431

North West

1,426

1,255

1,090

1,288

1,217

905

15,259

South East

1,712

1,456

1,206

1,332

1,316

1,096

17,569

South West

1,131

957

955

1,003

985

774

12,191

589

489

548

695

502

452

6,420

1,152

1,026

991

1,018

1,023

831

14,056

Wales West Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside

1,301

1,170

889

1,102

967

869

14,284

12,011

10,541

9,092

9,950

9,562

8,168

127,326

East

938

720

669

851

698

660

10,258

East Midlands

687

527

527

612

594

561

7,805

1,070

809

799

960

841

837

11,206

North East

750

566

523

596

607

455

7,685

North West

1,139

890

891

989

818

712

11,932

South East

1,204

1,123

927

1,090

959

876

12,967

South West

962

660

744

681

582

487

10,022

Wales

619

571

473

525

464

355

6,106

West Midlands

895

778

763

784

642

648

9,945

Yorkshire and Humberside

877

756

766

803

778

663

10,249

9,141

7,400

7,082

7,891

6,983

6,254

98,175

East

909

817

731

827

693

672

9,876

East Midlands

524

483

401

432

441

434

5,839

London

739

568

556

568

580

468

8,379

North East

529

467

397

371

305

313

5,773

North West

794

817

779

663

655

499

9,217

South East

1,093

945

903

874

716

701

12,709

Total 2008

London

Total 2009

South West

595

471

498

486

466

362

6,098

Wales

787

700

413

455

459

316

6,016

West Midlands

512

446

473

502

413

389

6,522

Yorkshire and Humberside

761

629

589

555

550

537

8,250

7,243

6,343

5,740

5,733

5,278

4,691

78,679

East

624

571

521

559

486

404

6,886

East Midlands

445

396

384

347

388

287

4,681

London

517

462

395

424

390

319

5,655

North East

298

256

271

296

287

232

3,491

North West

606

554

479

484

501

346

6,822

South East

712

641

643

646

666

540

7,979

South West

499

347

444

443

371

291

4,851

Wales

282

248

269

302

300

196

3,330

West Midlands

417

330

330

334

347

279

4,416

Yorkshire and Humberside

454

370

362

374

345

240

4,878

4,854

4,175

4,098

4,209

4,081

3,134

52,989

East

512

420

362

454

421

382

5,289

East Midlands

398

379

352

338

321

293

4,510

London

383

308

260

247

281

219

3,889

Total 2010

Total

2011

225W

Written Answers

226W

Written Answers

8 JANUARY 2013

Government Office Region

July

August

September

October

November

December

Total

North East

252

239

205

257

238

206

2,871

North West

564

477

416

380

394

362

5,492

South East

534

582

462

464

437

366

6,178

South West

415

374

357

354

338

277

4,401

Wales

232

228

242

229

200

153

2,650

West Midlands

336

283

250

284

259

233

3,584

Yorkshire and Humberside

396

352

328

359

294

252

4,261

4,022

3,642

3,234

3,366

3,183

2,743

43,125

East

6,815

5,913

5,418

6,031

5,664

5,160

72,335

East Midlands

4,830

4,345

4,043

4,249

4,410

4,112

53,529

London

6,109

5,064

4,614

5,345

5,219

4,801

66,227

North East

4,282

3,900

3,621

3,879

3,704

3,132

47,813

North West

7,209

6,785

5,992

6,614

6,304

5,104

79,949

South East

8,395

7,817

6,810

7,302

7,286

6,352

93,805

South West

5,294

4,533

4,697

4,645

4,565

3,949

57,883

Wales

3,719

3,426

3,086

3,495

3,022

2,520

38,462

West Midlands

5,657

5,312

5,028

5,548

5,225

4,533

66,895

Yorkshire and Humberside

6,112

5,533

4,947

5,954

5,829

5,195

71,329

58,422

52,628

48,256

53,062

51,228

44,858

648,227

Total England and Wales

Total 1

Defined as being aged 10 to 17. The cautions statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When an offender has been cautioned for two or more offences at the same time the principal offence is the more serious offence. 3 From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and warnings, which is what is presented in this table. 4 Defined as comprising the following police force areas: East—Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex. East Midlands—Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire. London—City of London, Metropolitan police. North East—Cleveland, Durham, Northumbria. North West—Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester. South East—Sussex, Thames Valley, Hampshire, Surrey, Kent. South West—Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Wales—Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys, North Wales. West Midlands—West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia. Yorkshire and Humberside—North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humberside. Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services within the Ministry of Justice 2

Bramshill Police College Mr Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much capital investment there has been in Bramshill police college in each financial [134835] year between 2009-10 and 2012-13. Damian Green: The National Policing Improvement Agency as freehold owner of the Bramshill site spent £19.7 million of capital on estates assets at the site across the period requested. This figure can be broken down as follows: £ million 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13

14.3 3.3 1.4 0.7

Carbon Monoxide: Poisoning Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make an assessment of the potential benefit of conducting a national television advertising campaign on raising awareness of the carbon monoxide risk associated with taking [134499] barbecues into tents.

Jo Swinson: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Department has not carried out public awareness campaigns for a number of years and has no plans to make an assessment of a television campaign. This is because we believe bodies such as the Carbon Monoxide and Gas Safety Society, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, and the Camping and Caravanning Club are better placed to determine how to direct such campaigns. Recent examples include the Gas Safe Society’s leaflet campaign, available at: http://www.co-gassafety.co.uk/downloads/ 25885_GasSafe_CO_Campaign_DL_Leaflet_2pp_AW_v1_lr.pdf

and advice on the Camping and Caravanning Club website: http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/ helpandadvice/camping-safety/carbon-monoxide-poisoning/

Closed Circuit Television Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment her Department has made of likely trends in the number of CCTV cameras in operation in the UK up to 2015. [135579]

James Brokenshire [holding answer 7 January 2013]: The Home Office has made no assessment of the likely trends in the number of CCTV cameras in operation in the UK up to 2015.

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Communications Data Bill (Draft) Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her latest estimate is of the cost of fully implementing the draft Communications [134909] Data Bill. James Brokenshire: The Communications Capabilities Development Programme’s business case is being revised at present. We will provide the new estimates in an impact assessment alongside a revised Bill. Crimes of Violence: Arrests Graeme Morrice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) arrested and (b) charged with offences relating to assault on (i) shop workers and (ii) other public-facing [134919] workers in the last 12 months. Mr Jeremy Browne: This information is not collected centrally. Crimes of Violence: Females Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many female victims of (a) grievous bodily harm and (b) actual bodily harm there were (i) of each age and (ii) in each ward in the [135321] latest year for which figures are available. Mr Jeremy Browne: The information requested is not available from the police recorded data collected by the Home Office. While statistics are held on the number of recorded offences of grievous bodily harm (GBH) and actual bodily harm (ABH), it is not possible to identify either the gender or the age of the victim. In addition, recorded crime data is not available at ward level. Databases: Telecommunications Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what her policy is on the recommendations made by the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill that the Interception of Communications Commissioner should be given increased powers to monitor communications data requests, including testing of necessity and [134890] proportionality; (2) whether she plans to propose changes to the legal definitions of communications data and content to [134902] reflect current communications practices; (3) what her policy is towards the establishment of a specialised single point of contact unit for communications data requests by infrequent users; and what assessment she has made of the effect that such a [134906] unit would have on operational practice; (4) if she will keep communications monitoring laws under regular review and if necessary bring forward legislative proposals to amend those laws in the light of the fast changing nature of communications practices. [134908]

Written Answers

228W

James Brokenshire: The Government has received the report of the Joint Committee on the Communications Data Bill and accepted the substance of all its recommendations. We will discuss these issues with the incoming Interception of Communications Commissioner, in order to ensure that he has the powers and resources he requires to fulfil his duties under the proposed legislation. We are looking at the definitions of communications data, given the wide array of information held by some social media platforms. We will address this issue in consultation with communications service providers. We also accept the Committee’s proposal for a centralised Single Point of Contact (SPoC), on the basis that it will ensure the appropriate expertise is in place to safeguard access to communications data. A full response to the Committee’s report will be issued to Parliament in due course. The Government is committed to post-legislative scrutiny of its legislation. Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the training of law enforcement officers in understanding and using communications intercept powers; and whether she has any plans to improve that [134903] training. James Brokenshire: The responsibility for delivering training to law enforcement officers is transferring from the National Police Improvement Agency to the new College of Policing. We are working with them to ensure that training across law enforcement takes proper account of how communications technology, the communications industry and communications usage are changing and how this might affect criminal behaviour. The primary requirement in law enforcement is to develop a broad-based knowledge and understanding of communications technology and usage, what information may be obtained from industry when authorised, and how this can be used to assist investigations. In his evidence to the Joint Committee on the CD Bill, DCI Steve Higgins (NPIA) said that since October 2010, a five-day course for investigators and analysts has been rolled out to over 5,000 police officers and staff. Measures are in place to evaluate this programme—all classroom based training, for example, is assessed three months after courses. The latest statistics show that 91% of officers completing the core skills course believe it has improved their ability to support investigations. Surveys and data on communication data applications will be used to evaluate the long-term success of the programme. The learning delivered by the programme is coordinated with regular briefings for police forces. Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the effectiveness with which law enforcement agencies use their powers to intercept communications under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers [134904] Act 2000. James Brokenshire: The 2008 Privy Council Review of Intercept as Evidence stated that interception “is essential for national security and so must be retained

229W

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8 JANUARY 2013

and protected”. In his 2011 report, the Interception of Communications Commissioner states that: “lawful interception and the use of communications data represent significant, cost-effective tools in the fight against the growing number and variety of threats faced by the citizens of the UK.”

Interception is used as part of a range of investigative techniques to combat terrorism and tackle serious crime. Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the long-term viability of the current voluntary system of provision of communications data by overseas companies to UK public authorities. [134905] James Brokenshire: There are constructive working relationships between overseas providers and UK public authorities. Our aim is to maintain and enhance these relationships so public authorities can get better access to communications data. The new legislation will provide us with an updated legal mandate to work collaboratively with overseas providers to invest in systems to ensure that the data is retained appropriately and is available (subject to robust safeguards) to public authorities in a form that is accessible to them. Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many public authorities are currently allowed access to communications data and whether she plans to increase or decrease the number of authorities that will be covered by the powers contained in the draft Communications Data [134907] Bill. James Brokenshire: A full list of those authorities currently approved by Parliament to access communications data is contained in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data) Order 2010. In terms of the current proposals, only four bodies or types of body are currently listed on the face of the Bill: the police, intelligence agencies, the National Crime Agency and HM Revenue and Customs. The Bill draft already makes clear that local authorities will not have access to additional data generated under the Bill and if other bodies cannot justify their access, they will not receive it. Parliament will scrutinise and approve the proposed list of public authorities, the data they can access, and the purposes for which it can be accessed. Deportation: Sri Lanka Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations she has received from human rights groups on the [135481] UK’s returns policy to Sri Lanka. Mr Harper: Representations have been made by Freedom from Torture who have made allegations as to mistreatment of Tamil returnees to Sri Lanka from the UK. Similar representations and allegations have been made by Human Rights Watch and Tamils against Genocide. Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent consideration she has given to the UK’s returns policy to Sri Lanka. [135482]

Written Answers

230W

Mr Harper: The alleged mistreatment of returnees to Sri Lanka has been fully considered by the UK Border Agency. Guidance was issued in a country policy bulletin for Sri Lanka, published on the UK Border Agency website in October 2012. Following consideration of the evidence published by Freedom from Torture, Human Rights Watch and Tamils against Genocide it was concluded that it did not support the assertion that a change in the UK Border Agency’s policy on returns to Sri Lanka is warranted. Employment Agencies Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total spending on recruitment agencies by her Department was in each [135204] month from July to December 2012. James Brokenshire: The Home Office accounting system does not separately identify spending on recruitment agencies. Entry Clearances Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many migrants have entered the country on a tourist visa and then not returned to their country of origin in each of the last [132265] five years. Mr Harper: Since the phasing out of embarkation controls in 1994, no Government has ever been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally. By its very nature, it is impossible to quantify accurately and that remains the case. Information on the number of tourist visitors to the United Kingdom who overstayed their visa over the last five years could be obtained only by the detailed examination of individual case records at disproportionate cost. e-Borders screens over 64% of passenger movements in and out of the UK (including 100% of commercial aviation routes from outside the EEA). e-Borders enables us to target the most harmful individuals and supports the ability to undertake effective exit checks as passengers leave the UK. It processes in excess of 138 million passenger and crew movements a year across more than 4,300 routes. e-Borders is one of a comprehensive suite of checks being carried out at the border. Through screening passenger data against wider watchlists and databases, the system has proved successful in detecting previously unknown individuals and providing an intelligence-led basis to undertaking interventions at ports of arrival or departure and elsewhere across the globe. Entry Clearances: India Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visitor visas were applied for by people from India in each of the last three years; and how many such applications were [127782] granted. Mr Harper: Visit visa applications can be submitted worldwide at any of the UK Border Agency’s visa application centres, regardless of the applicants’ nationality. The figures provided are for visit visa applications submitted by Indian nationals in India only.

231W

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8 JANUARY 2013

Total visitors Financial year

Applications

Issued

2009-10 269,885 236,240 2010-11 292,293 255,140 2011-12 292,610 265,301 Note: These data are based on internal UK Border Agency Management Information. It is provisional and subject to change.

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visitor visas for people from India were decided (a) within four weeks, (b) between four and eight weeks, (c) between eight and 12 weeks and (d) after more than 12 weeks in the last [127783] year. Mr Harper: Visit visa applications can be submitted worldwide at any of the UK Border Agency’s visa application centres, regardless of the applicants’ nationality. The figures provided are the processing times for visit visa applications for Indian nationals applying from India in the financial year 2011-12. Visitors

Number

Resolved cases Of which

291,504

Within 4 weeks 276,949 4-8 weeks 13,760 8-12 weeks 401 Over 12 weeks 394 Note: These data are based on internal UK Border Agency Management Information. It is provisional and subject to change.

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much revenue was earned from applications for visitor visas from people from India in [127784] each of the last three years. Mr Harper: Visit visa applications can be submitted worldwide at any of the UK Border Agency’s visa application centres, regardless of the applicants’ nationality. The data provided in the table is for applications and income received for visit visa applications submitted by Indian nationals in India. Financial year

Applications

Income (£)

2009-10 269,885 24,191,549 2010-11 292,293 27,020,814 2011-12 292,610 30,108,361 Note: These data are based on internal UK Border Agency Management Information. It is provisional and subject to change.

Entry Clearances: Overseas Students Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the applicants who applied for sponsor status between 1 July and 30 September 2012 and have had their sponsor status approved received a pre-registration visit before [134379] approval by points-based system tier.

Written Answers

232W

Mr Harper [holding answer 18 December 2012]: Of successful applications submitted between 1 July and 30 September 2012, the following received a pre-licence visit: Percentage Tier 2 Tier 4 Tier 5

8.22 47.05 4.54.

The decision to undertake a pre-licence visit is taken on the basis of an assessment of risk. Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with the UK Border Agency on issues affecting tier 4 visas for (a) London Metropolitan university and (b) other higher education institutions; and if she will make a [134794] statement. Mr Harper [holding answer 20 December 2012]: The UK Border Agency has kept Ministers fully informed about all of its decisions in relation to the case of London Metropolitan university, in particular the decisions to suspend and revoke the university’s tier 4 sponsorship licence. The UK Border Agency has also kept Ministers fully informed, where it has decided to take compliance action against other higher education institutions. Entry Clearances: Pakistan Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many student visitor visas were issued to Pakistani nationals in each of the last [131773] three years. Mr Harper: There were 199, 304 and 440 entry clearance student visitor visas (main applicants) issued to Pakistani nationals in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively (based on published immigration statistics for 2010 and 2011 and on provisional internal UK Border Agency management information for 2009). The latest Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visas issued is published in the release Immigration Statistics release, which is available at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-researchstatistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/ immigration-q3-2012/

A copy of the latest release “Immigration Statistics July-September 2012” has been placed in the House Library. Immigration Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will estimate the additional cost of the delivery of those public services for which her Department is responsible arising from inward [134290] migration since 1997. Mr Harper: The Department does not routinely collate the information needed to provide such estimates, and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.

233W

Written Answers

8 JANUARY 2013

Written Answers

234W

Immigration Controls

Licensing Laws

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times Warnings Index checks have been suspended at ports of entry in the last year; and at which ports of entry have these [133121] suspensions taken place.

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if she will broaden the definition of ancillary sale for the purposes of easing the licensing burdens for businesses currently covered [135096] by such a definition; (2) what steps she is taking to reduce the licensing burdens on ancillary sellers of alcohol; and what barriers she is putting in place to prevent the abuse of such a reduction in alcohol licensing requirements.

Mr Harper [holding answer 12 December 2012]: All passengers who present themselves at the PCP on arrival to the UK or juxtaposed controls are examined by a Border Force officer and checked against a Home Office database before being allowed into the UK. Giving more detailed information would prejudice the security of the UK Border. Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the UK Border Agency’s service standard targets are for processing in-country immigration applications for limited leave to remain and permanent leave to remain by (a) points-based [134119] system tier and (b) category. Mr Harper [holding answer 17 December 2012]: The UK Border Agency’s service targets for processing in-country immigration applications for limited leave to remain and permanent leave to remain are published on their website and the following table is taken from the document available at the following link: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/ aboutus/percentage-of-migration/ In-country applications—Postal service standards 2010-12 Percentage

Time

2012-13 Percentage

Time

Family

65

In 4 weeks

65

In 4 weeks

Visiting the UK

65

In 4 week

80

In 4 weeks

Employment

75

In 4 weeks

90

In 4 weeks

Study

75

In 4 weeks

85

In 4 weeks

Permanent Residence

95

In 6 months

99

In 6 months

European Casework, ECAA and Bulgaria and Romania Casework

95

In 6 months

99

In 6 months

Accession

95

In 4 weeks

99

In 4 weeks

British Citizenship

95

In 6 months

99

In 6 months

In 4 weeks

80

In 4 weeks

Sponsor Licensing

65

[135097]

Mr Jeremy Browne: The Government is committed to reducing unnecessary regulation for businesses. Reducing the licensing burdens on ancillary sellers of alcohol is one of the proposals in the alcohol strategy on which we are currently consulting. This includes seeking views on the definition of ancillary sales and the impact this proposal could have on the licensing objectives. We will publish our response to the consultation in due course, after it has closed on 6 February. Passports John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of passports that were issued for residents of (a) Glasgow, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK in (i) 2009, [133789] (ii) 2010, (iii) 2011 and (iv) 2012. Mr Harper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 5 December 2012, Official Report, column 801W. While the Identity and Passport Service does not normally hold information on the geographical location of the applicant, work has been carried out on the location of the address from which applications have been made in the UK. The following table sets out the number of passports issued in each of the requested years by virtue of the address from which the application has been received. Providing evidence of place of residence is not a requirement in considering an application for a passport. Number Calendar year

PPT’s issued to Scottish postcodes

PPT’s issued to Glasgow postcodes

IPS PPT’s issued to all UK

2009

542,752

151,159

5,105,698

2010

532,933

143,489

5,367,259

2011

541,550

151,800

5,259,835

20121

561,498

150,704

5,122,180

1

Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of in-country immigration applications for limited leave to remain and permanent leave to remain were processed within the UK Border Agency’s service standard target between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2012 by (a) [134121] points-based system tier and (b) category. Mr Harper [holding answer 17 December 2012]: Data on the number of points-based system applications decided and the proportion of those decided within service standard is published on an annual and quarterly basis. Latest figures are available on the UK Border Agency website at the following link: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/ aboutus/percentage-of-migration/

2012 information up to month end November. Source: Data—HQ Ml Services monthly OUTPUT database for Scotland and Glasgow PPT’s

Police Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were for every 100,000 residents in (a) the west midlands, (b) Birmingham and (c) each police authority area in [135056] each year since 2008. Damian Green: The number of police officers per 100,000 population, by police force area and Birmingham basic command unit, as at 31 March 2008 to 2012 (full-time equivalent) can be seen in the following table. Figures at basic command unit level ceased to be collected from 2011-12 by the Home Office.

235W

Written Answers

8 JANUARY 2013

Number of police officers per 100,000 population, by police force area and Birmingham basic command unit as at 31 March 2008 to 31 March 20121,2,3,4

Written Answers

236W

Police: Finance

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Avon and Somerset

218

213

207

200

187

Bedfordshire

204

209

208

201

188

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the policing budget will be protected from the planned reduction in departmental spending in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Cambridgeshire

183

191

191

180

174

[134955]

Cheshire

218

217

215

207

199

Dorset

216

213

209

205

193

Durham

272

263

249

236

223

Essex

203

206

211

208

196

Gloucestershire

234

235

223

214

204

Greater Manchester

315

321

316

300

285

Damian Green: I refer the hon. Member to the statement I made in the House on 19 December 2012, Official Report, columns 112-18WS. I have decided to protect the police from the reductions in 2013-14 as a result of the reduction in the Department’s budget announced by the Chancellor at the autumn statement. I have also taken the decision to protect the police from reductions as a result of the public sector pay restraint announced at autumn statement 2011. I have not yet made a decision on police funding allocations for 2014-15.

Hampshire

214

207

202

196

182

Procurement

Cleveland

303

314

309

296

271

Cumbria

251

258

250

238

228

Derbyshire

212

215

207

201

180

Devon and Cornwall

214

213

213

206

192

Hertfordshire

204

204

196

187

179

Humberside

248

233

225

213

201

Kent

227

231

229

220

208

Lancashire

254

259

253

¦239

229

Leicestershire

233

243

236

224

215

Lincolnshire

175

177

173

172

162

*

*

*

*

*

Merseyside

331

333

334

318

302

Metropolitan Police

430

432

436

430

411

Norfolk

190

198

196

187

179

Northamptonshire

196

196

198

191

180

Northumbria

285

294

298

289

274,

North Yorkshire

202

185

188

183

175

Nottinghamshire

224

227

225

215

200

South Yorkshire

248

235

226

219

209

Staffordshire

214

208

203

195

182

Suffolk

. 188

182

175

174

163

Surrey

179

170

172

169

175

Sussex

201

208

207

199

188

Thames Valley

194

198

201

197

, 193

London, City of

Warwickshire

198

189

182

172

157

West Mercia

210

208

201

189

184

West Midlands

324

332

329

309

295

West Yorkshire

269

268

261

249

232

Wiltshire

190

191

182

168

160

Dyfed-Powys

237

236

236

229

223

Gwent

266

257

257

268

258

North Wales

234

234

234

225

214

South Wales

264

255

253

247

231

Total of all 43 forces

264

266

264

254

243

Birmingham

304

307

303

225



Note: 1. This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. 2. Officers per 100,000 population for City of London and Metropolitan police are combined. 3. The number of police officers for Birmingham basic command unit for 31 March 2011 is the sum of Birmingham East, Birmingham North, Birmingham South and Birmingham West and Central. The number of police officers for 31 March 2008 to 2010 for Birmingham basic command unit are the sum of West Midlands D1-03, E1-E3 and F1-F3 basic command units. 4. Figures at basic command unit level ceased to be collected from 2011/12 following Lord Wasserman’s assessment.

Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the monetary value was of contracts awarded by her Department to (a) management consultancies and (b) IT companies in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if she will make a [135173] statement. James Brokenshire: The value of contracts awarded by the Home Department and its Executive agencies to management companies and IT companies in 2010-11 and 2011-12 was as follows: £ million Management consultancies

ICT companies

2010-11

37.71

164.62

2011-12

30.74

107.68

Financial year

Redundancy Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many civil service posts have been made redundant by her Department in each year since 1999; and what the cost of redundancies has [135499] been in each such year; (2) how many posts have been declared redundant by each of her Department’s Executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1999; and what the cost of those redundancies has [135500] been. James Brokenshire: Information on compulsory redundancies is held on employees rather than the number of posts made redundant within the Department. Between 1998-99 and 2010-11, there were no compulsory redundancies in the Home Office and its agencies. In 2011-12, there were 27 compulsory redundancies in the Home Department and its Executive agencies and in 2012-13 (to 30 November 2012), there have been 23. In 2012-13 (to 30 November 2012), the Home Department has been charged the following amounts in relation to compulsory redundancies: (i) £136,906.30 for the Home Department; and (ii) £406,698.14 for the Executive agencies.

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The costs for redundancies in 2011-12 have fallen to be accounted in 2012-13 and therefore the above figures cover the cost of compulsory redundancies for both years. Information on the number of compulsory redundancies in the non-departmental public bodies could be made available only at disproportionate cost. Redundancy Pay Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total amount of redundancy pay paid to civil servants in her Department was in each month from July to December [135202] 2012. James Brokenshire: The amounts of redundancy pay, paid to civil servants in the Home Office in the months July to December 2012 is shown in the following table: Table A £ July August September October November December

26,279.290 0 60,044.45 126,079.75 0 79,717.59

Temporary Employment Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what amount her Department spent on interim staff as defined by the National Audit Office in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if she will [135174] make a statement. James Brokenshire: The Home Office has spent the following amounts on contingent labour and agency staff as published in the Home Office Report and Accounts: £ million 2010-11 2011-12

34.7 21.4

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many temporary staff have been recruited in her Department in each month from [135203] July to December 2012. James Brokenshire: The Home Office, including its Executive agencies, recruited a total of 361 temporary staff during the period July to December 2012 as follows: Table 1: Home Office Group and its Executive agencies (CRB, IPS and UKBA) Number July August September October November December

129 34 49 75 14 60

Written Answers

238W

UK Border Agency Mrs Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 31 October 2012, Official Report, column 248W, on UK Border Agency, what steps she plans to take to monitor (a) the quality of asylum claims interviews and (b) the quality of decision-making in respect of asylum claims made by women; and if she will make a [133407] statement. Mr Harper: The information is as follows: (a) The UK Border Agency continues to audit 10% of all first instance asylum interviews and decisions against a detailed quality assurance framework drawn up and agreed with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In the 12-month period to November 2012, 1,402 cases were sampled, and average quality scores were: Interview: 91.5%, decision: 89.7%. The quality benchmark is considered to be 90%.

A new quality assurance process is being developed to re-design the agency’s existing framework, providing a more detailed analysis of quality and expanding the scope to measure success at each stage of the end-to-end asylum system, looking at the critical elements of the process. (b) The existing quality assurance process is essentially the same for male and female applicants; however, the gender of the applicant in each audit is recorded, and the criteria for assessment includes how the interviewer and decision maker handled gender-related issues. The agency’s monthly analysis of figures does not currently include a breakdown of claims by gender but a thematic review of asylum claims based on or featuring gender-related persecution and gender issues was completed in June 2011, and this highlighted areas for improvement which are being addressed. Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what advice she has given to the UK Border Agency on dealing with representations by hon. Members on reviewing decisions on visit visa applications in cases when the usual appeals process is [134029] not appropriate due to time constraints. Mr Harper: UK Border Agency officials will consider representations from hon. Members outside the normal appeal procedures due to time constraints where exceptional, compassionate circumstances are involved, such as the serious illness or the death of a close family member. Further evidence will be requested from the applicant and the application reviewed on that basis. If there is enough strong evidence presented, the refusal may be overturned and entry clearance issued. Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the estimated cost to the public purse was of ultimately successful appeals against UK Border Agency decisions in (a) 2008, (b) 2009, (c) 2010, (d) 2011 and (e) 2012 to date; [135419]

(2) what the total number of appeals made against UK Border Agency decisions for asylum cases was in the latest period for which figures are available; what the total number of successful appeals was; and what [135420] the total cost to the public purse was;

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8 JANUARY 2013

(3) what the average cost to the public purse is of an appeal against a UK Border Agency decision. [135421] Mr Harper: Regarding the question(s) of cost: Appeals are managed by the UK Border Agency (the Agency). Information about the agency’s overall litigation expenditure is contained in its annual Resource Accounts. However, the agency does not record litigation expenditure in the format which would enable it to answer the questions posed and to do so would incur disproportionate costs. Regarding the question of appeals numbers/statistics for the latest period: The latest published figures show that in Q3 2012 (July to September), the total number of appeal applications made is 1,920 and the total number of appeals allowed is 521. The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of appeal applications and determinations. These are available in Table as.14 (annual) and Table as.14.q (quarterly) of asylum excel tables volume four of the quarterly Immigration Statistics. The latest release Immigration Statistics July to September 2012 is available in the Library of the House and from the Home Office Science website at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-researchstatistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/ immigration-tabs-q3-2012

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what proportion of cases referred to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) were processed on time according to UKBA’s targets in each [135423] year since the agency’s creation; (2) what the UK Border Agency’s target for the amount of time to process an average individual case [135426] is; (3) what the average amount of time that the UK Border Agency takes to process an average individual [135427] case is. Mr Harper: The UK Border Agency publishes extensive information on its performance as part of its commitment to transparency. This includes information on the proportion of cases processed in time, average processing times and service standards. This information has been published for the last two financial years and is updated on a quarterly or annual basis depending on the publication. The transparency publications include information on asylum, migration and international case loads; they can be found here: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/our-performance

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the performance of the UK Border Agency in [135424] processing its caseload. Mr Harper: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), gave her most recent assessment in oral evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 18 December 2012 (HC 563-ii).

Written Answers

240W

Young Offenders Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people of each age group up to 18 years in each region of the UK have been (a) arrested and (b) charged with a crime in the last 12 months. [135146] Mr Jeremy Browne [holding answer 7 January 2013]: Arrests data for England and Wales are collected by the Home Office and published on an annual basis in the National Statistics series ‘Police Powers and Procedures’. Available data currently relate to 2010-11 for the age groups ‘Under 10 years’ and ‘10 to 17 years’ and are included in table A.06 of the latest internet-only release, which is available via: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-researchstatistics/research-statistics/police-research/police-powersprocedures-201011

Data for 2011-12 are scheduled to be published in spring 2013. The Ministry of Justice has advised that data on persons charged are not collected centrally.

JUSTICE Chief Coroner Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many staff are employed in the office of the newly-appointed Chief Coroner; [135250] (2) what the budget is of the office of the Chief [135255] Coroner. Mrs Grant: There are currently three staff employed in the Chief Coroner’s office, although the Judicial Office is in the process of recruiting additional members of staff. The budget of the office for 2013-14 is £1.2 million, which includes the Chief Coroner’s salary and coroner training budget. Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the Chief Coroner will make an annual report to the Lord Chancellor under section 36 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009; and if this report will [135256] be laid before Parliament. Mrs Grant: The Chief Coroner will make an annual report to the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chancellor will lay a copy of the report before Parliament as required under section 36 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. They will fulfil these duties once section 36 of the 2009 Act has been brought into force. Civil Justice Council Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice in which areas he expects the Civil Justice Council to make savings in the financial year 2012-13. [135275]

Mrs Grant: The Civil Justice Council (CJC) will deliver two types of savings on expenditure in 2012-13: staff salaries and other expenditure. In relation to staff salaries, the CJC has employed two full-time members of staff during 2012-13—an assistant secretary and a finance and project manager. The post of secretary to the CJC was merged during

241W

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8 JANUARY 2013

this financial year with firstly the post of secretary to the Family Justice Council and latterly the post of private secretary to the Master of the Rolls. In addition, the post of communications manager for the CJC/FJC has not been filled. These decisions have undoubtedly generated savings, although the precise sums are hard to quantify given the shared nature of the roles. With regard to other expenditure, the CJC was allocated £54,140 in 2012-13. It is anticipated that £40,640 will be spent organising various conferences, an independent review of court forms and leaflets to assist self-represented litigants, research into the impact of court fees on litigants, and a public legal education initiative in the current financial year. £13,500 that could not be used before 1 April 2013 has been surrendered to the Ministry of Justice. Courts: Lancashire Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many employees of magistrates and Crown courts in Lancashire (1) were made redundant in each [134685] of the last two years; (2) were (a) on permanent contracts, (b) on fixed-term contracts and (c) employed by an agency [134686] on 30 September (i) 2011 and (ii) 2012. Mrs Grant: No employees of magistrates or Crown courts in Lancashire have been made compulsorily redundant in the last two calendar years (2011 and to 30 November 2012). Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) records indicate that two employees have left HMCTS under the voluntary redundancy scheme. The number of permanent and fixed-term contract and agency employees of magistrates and Crown courts in Lancashire for the requested years are as follows:

Permanent staff Fixed term staff Agency workers

At 30 September 2011

Headcount At 30 September 2012

331 6 3

301 0 11

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the First Report from the draft Communications Data Bill Joint Committee and the inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press by the right hon. Lord Justice Leveson, what his policy is on bringing into force sections 77 and 78 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. [135118]

Mrs Grant: Section 77 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 creates a power to alter the penalty (which can include a custodial sentence) for the unlawful obtaining of personal data, which is an offence under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. Section 78 of the 2008 Act creates a new defence for journalistic, literary or artistic purposes. These provisions were introduced by Government amendment to the then Bill but custodial penalties were not introduced nor the new defence commenced by the previous Government after the Bill received Royal Assent.

Written Answers

242W

Following the report of the Joint Committee and the inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press, the Government is giving careful consideration to the question of whether these provisions should now be introduced given the potential consequences in particular for the conduct of responsible investigative journalism in the public interest. Dangerous Dogs Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward measures to improve compensation arrangements for victims of dog attacks. [134773]

Mrs Grant: There are several routes of redress open to victims of dog attacks. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 included a provision which places a positive duty on the courts to consider ordering compensation in all cases where an offender is convicted of a dangerous dog offence that injures or causes loss or damage to a victim. This provision came into force on 3 December 2012. The victim can also pursue civil damages. Under the recently reformed Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012, victims of dog attacks may continue to claim compensation where a dog was set upon them intentionally to cause injury. Cases where a dog is not kept under proper control and causes injury to a person do not fall within the core purpose of the scheme, which is to compensate direct victims of crimes of violence. Employment Tribunals Service Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what evidential basis he used in developing his proposals on employment tribunal users as [135792] announced in July 2012. Mrs Grant: A broad evidence base was used to develop the proposals to introduce fees into employment tribunals, including: previous Government consultations, independent research, responses to the consultation on a fee-charging regime, national surveys of tribunal users, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service annual reports and information published by the Office of National Statistics. The impact assessment and equality impact assessment published with the consultation response provide full details of the evidence base used and they are available on the Ministry of Justice website at the following link: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/et-feecharging-regime-cp22-2011

Family Proceedings Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will reform the family court system to reduce the extent to which women participating in [135308] proceedings feel vulnerable and exposed. Mrs Grant: The Government already has a number of provisions in place to help women who feel vulnerable or exposed in family proceedings. The Revised Private Law Programme for proceedings under the Children Act 1989 requires the court to identify risks or allegations of harm at an early stage in residence and contact proceedings so that it can consider what action is required to safeguard the affected parties.

243W

Written Answers

Written Answers

8 JANUARY 2013

Under Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996, a party can apply for a non-molestation order to deter someone from causing or threatening violence or molestation to the applicant or to any children. Within the courts themselves, special measures such as separate secure waiting rooms, video links and facilities to screen witnesses from the accused are available to support vulnerable and intimidated victims and witnesses. Human Trafficking Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) nationality and (b) gender was of each suspected victim of trafficking referred to the Trafficking Victim Support Scheme operated by the Salvation Army in November 2012; in which local authority area each of the suspected victims was initially found; and which agency referred each case to [134088] the scheme. Mrs Grant: In November 2012, there were 58 referrals to the Government-funded support service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales administered by the Salvation Army. Details are provided in the following table.

Nationality

Gender

Region

244W Referring agency

Albanian

Female

North West

UKBA

Vietnamese

Male

South East

NGO

Nigerian

Female

South East

UKBA

Slovakian

Male

South East

NGO

Slovakian

Female

South East

NGO

Nigerian

Female

South East

NGO

Albanian

Female

South East

Local Authority

Romanian

Female

South East

NGO

Gambian

Female

South East

UKBA

Romanian

Male

South East

Police

Lithuanian

Female

South East

Other

Romanian

Male

South West

Police

Nigerian

Male

Yorkshire

UKBA

Nigerian

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Albanian

Female

West Midlands

UKBA

Nigerian

Female

South East

NGO

Nigerian

Female

South East

Local Authority

Chinese

Female

South East

NGO

Albanian

Female

South East

UKBA

Albanian

Female

South East

NGO

Vietnamese

Female

South

UKBA

Judicial Review Nationality

Gender

Region

Referring agency

Afghan

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Pakistani

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Pakistani

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Slovakian

Male

South East

NGO

Slovakian

Male

South East

NGO

Slovakian

Male

South East

NGO

Albanian

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Albanian

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Cameroon

Male

Yorkshire

NGO

Vietnamese

Male

South East

Legal Representative

Albanian

Female

North West

NGO

Ethiopian

Female

Yorkshire

UKBA

Czech

Female

North West

Police

Nigerian

Female

North West

UKBA

Nigerian

Female

North West

UKBA

Hungarian

Female

North West

Police

Romanian

Female

South East

Police

Nigerian

Female

Not known

Self Referral

British

Male

Not known

Probation

Lithuanian

Female

North West

Police

Chinese

Female

South East

Self Referral

Polish

Male

Yorkshire

NGO

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 19 November 2012, Official Report, column 22WS, on judicial review, by what method he has estimated the effect on (a) GDP and (b) other macro-economic indicators of (i) applications for permission to apply for judicial review, (ii) permissions to proceed to determination by the court and (iii) judicial reviews granted in cases related to planning or infrastructure proposals; what these estimates were; and if he will [135771] make a statement. Mrs Grant: The public engagement exercise “Judicial Review: proposals for reform”, published on 13 December 2012, contained proposals designed to strike the right balance between maintaining access to justice and the rule of law and reducing burdens on public services. The document was accompanied by an impact assessment covering the main possible effects of the proposals. Landlords: Prosecutions

Slovakian

Female

South East

Police

Jamaican

Female

North East

UKBA

Vietnamese

Male

South East

Social Services

Gambian

Female

North West

UKBA

Vietnamese

Male

North West

NGO

Vietnamese

Male

South East

Legal Representative

Nigerian

Female

South East

UKBA

Czech

Male

North East

NGO

Albanian

Female

South East

NHS

Albanian

Female

South East

NGO

Eritrean

Female

West Midlands

UKBA

Kenyan

Female

Not known

Legal Representative

Ethiopian

Female

North West

UKBA

comply with an improvement notice (section 30);

Sierra Leone

Female

South East

NGO

Romanian

Female

North West

NGO

comply with a prohibition order (section 32); or

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent assessment he has made of the number of prosecutions of private sector landlords for breaches of category one and two regulations. [135614] Jeremy Wright: The Ministry of Justice has not undertaken any assessment of the number of prosecutions of private sector landlords arising from the presence of category one and two hazards under the Housing Act 2004. The presence of category one and category two hazards is not an offence that can be prosecuted unless there is subsequently a failure to:

allow action to be taken on the premises (section 35).

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Prisoners: Foreign Nationals Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many foreign national prisoners have remained in custody beyond their earliest release date in each of [134165] the last five years; (2) how many foreign national prisoners were in custody beyond their earliest release date in the most recent period for which figures are available; and for [134166] what length of time in each case. Mr Harper: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Department. The following table provides a snapshot, for each April from 2010 to 2012, of the number of foreign national offenders detained beyond the end of their sentence in both prisons and immigration removal centres. Please note that data prior to 2010 are not considered sufficiently reliable to provide. Please note that individuals may appear in the figures for more than one month.

As at April each year: 2010 2011 2012

Foreign national offenders detained in prisons beyond the end of their sentence

Number Foreign national offenders detained in immigration removal centres beyond the end of their sentence

701 516 552

1,213 945 812

In September 2012, 547 foreign national offenders were detained by the UK Border Agency in prisons following completion of their custodial sentence. A further 919 foreign national offenders were detained beyond the end of their sentence in immigration removal centres. To provide details of the length of time each individual had been detained would incur a disproportionate cost. Please note that we have been unable to provide the data in respect of the earliest release date and have therefore interpreted the question as asking how many FNOs subject to deportation proceeding have remained in custody beyond their actual release date. Additionally it should be noted that the Prison Service run a number of immigration removal centres on behalf of the UK Border Agency.

Written Answers

246W

Mrs Grant: We expect the new Victims’ Commissioner to take up her post in January 2013. The offices of the Victims’ Commissioner will be located in Ashley House, Westminster, which is part of the Ministry of Justice estate. We anticipate that two full-time members of staff will be employed in the office of the Victims’ Commissioner. The budget for the office of the Victims’ Commissioner will be approximately £250,000 per year, including staff costs. Once the new Victims’ Commissioner has taken up her role, the Ministry of Justice will consider any changes to the scope of the post, if necessary, in consultation with the new Victims’ Commissioner. The Ministry of Justice does not intend to review the role of the Chief Coroner. Written Questions Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice in how many answers to Parliamentary Questions his Department has referred hon. Members to somewhere they would be able to find the information for themselves in the latest period for [134911] which figures are available. Mrs Grant: The Ministers in the Department answered 6,437 Commons written PQs during the 2010 to 2012 session. It would only be possible to determine in how many answers hon. Members were referred to somewhere they would be able to find the information by manually checking each answer. This would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold. Youth Justice Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has to upgrade the youth courts [135305] system. Mrs Grant: The Government is committed to maintaining a distinct youth justice system, reflecting the separate needs of children and young people. To this end, the efficiency and effectiveness of the youth courts system is kept under review.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT Advantage West Midlands: Assets

Victims’ Commissioner Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) when does he intend the Victims [135251] Commissioner to begin his role; (2) where the offices of the Victims Commissioner [135253] will be; (3) how many staff are employed in the office of the [135257] Victims Commissioner; (4) what the budget will be for the office of the Victims Commissioner; [135258] Victims’ Commissioner and Chief Coroner (5) whether his Department intends to review the role of the (a) Victims Commissioner and (b) Chief [135263] Coroner.

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 23 May 2011, Official Report, column 466W, on Advantage West Midlands: assets, what assets previously owned by Advantage West Midlands have been sold; how much has been raised for the Exchequer as a result of such sales; and what assets the [134645] Department still plans to sell. Mr Prisk: A list of the assets disposed of by the Homes and Communities Agency since August/September 2011, and details of the associated receipts, have been placed in the Library of the House. The sale proceeds of land and property assets (“inventory”) sold by Advantage West Midlands in the financial year 2011/12 can be determined from their audited annual report and accounts 2011-12 as £4.43 million.

247W

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Written Answers

248W

The Homes and Communities Agency has published its disposal and development plan at:

Fire Services

http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/sites/default/files/ our-work/land_development_and_disposal_plan.pdf

Chris Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the ability of fire and rescue services to maintain services if further spending reductions are [135318] made.

The long term strategy is to get all former Regional Development Agency owned sites in the best possible condition for disposal, by reinvesting receipts. These assets were bought by the national tax-payer and therefore it is right that ultimately the receipts are used nationally. This programme uses the Local Stewardship Model which recycles money to improve sites to create local benefits. This means that receipts will be spent on meeting the legal commitments that we have inherited from the former Regional Development Agencies. In total, the current estimate of commitments is equivalent to £310.3 million (in the hon. Member’s own locality, the cost of the former Advantage West Midlands’ commitments is an estimated £40.2 million). Affordable Housing: Suffolk Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much affordable housing has been built in (a) Bury St Edmunds constituency and (b) Suffolk in each of the [134574] last five years. Mr Prisk: Information about affordable housing by constituency is not held centrally. Statistics on additional affordable housing provided in each local authority area are published in the Department’s live tables 1006, 1007 and 1008, which are available at the following link. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/livetables-on-affordable-housing-supply

These figures include both newly built housing, which accounts for around 85% of additional affordable housing over the last five years, and acquisitions from the private sector.

Brandon Lewis: All fire and rescue authorities in England are required by the Fire and Rescue National Framework to have in place and maintain an Integrated Risk Management Plan, which identifies local need and sets out plans to tackle effectively both existing and potential risks to communities. The Integrated Risk Management Plan, which is subject to consultation with the local community, enables each fire and rescue authority to tailor the allocation of its resources to local circumstances—evaluating where risk is greatest and determining its policies and standards for prevention and intervention accordingly. As a front line service, fire and rescue authorities have been protected by back loading formula grant reductions into years three and four of the current spending review period to provide them with the necessary time to make the changes necessary to meet the reductions without impacting on the quality of services provided to their communities. As I outlined in my written ministerial statement of 17 December 2012, Official Report, columns 69-70WS, there is significant scope for fire and rescue authorities to make sensible savings, such as through reforms to flexible staffing and crewing arrangements, better procurement; shared services, collaboration with emergency services and other organisations on service delivery and estates, sickness management; sharing of senior staff, locally led mergers and operational collaborations, new fire-fighting technology, preventative approaches and working with local businesses. Fracking

Environmental Impact Assessment Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if his Department will take steps to streamline the [135301] environmental impact assessment process. Nick Boles: I refer my hon. Friend to the written ministerial statement of 6 December 2012, Official Report, column 71-72WS. Equality Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of staff in his Department have received training in equality and diversity and the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, within the last three years. [134588] Brandon Lewis: This information is not centrally held. I would note that DCLG offers an e-learning package which is accessible to all staff. More detail on the Department’s equality objectives can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dclg-equalityobjectives-2012-to-2016

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will consider further ways of safeguarding (a) landscape character and (b) visual amenity in the planning [135088] process for fracking rig installation. Nick Boles: The National Planning Policy Framework already expects the planning system to protect and enhance valued landscapes and, where appropriate, that landscape character assessments are prepared to inform the preparation of local plans. Minerals plans are also expected to set out environmental criteria so as to ensure that permitted operations do not have an unacceptable adverse impact on the natural or historic environment, which may include visual intrusion. Mineral planning authorities must also decide if an environmental impact assessment is required to inform consideration of individual proposals, in which case the assessment will set out the impact on the local environment and possible mitigation measures. Local Government Finance Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to item 37 of his Department’s document, 50 Ways to

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Save: Examples of Sensible Saving in Local Government, what he meant by (a) sock puppet and (b) fake charity; and which local authorities have entered into arrangements with such organisations. [135443]

Brandon Lewis: As 50 Ways to Save explains, the footnote source referenced is the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Discussion Paper, “Sock puppets: How the government lobbies itself and why”, June 2012, This can be found online, and it includes definitions of such arrangements and case studies. www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/sock-puppets-how-thegovernment-lobbies-itself-and-why

50 Ways to Save also references the Taxpayers’ Alliance research paper, “Taxpayer funded lobbying and political campaigning”, which includes further examples. www.taxpayersalliance.com/tflpc.pdf

To assist the hon. Member in his visualisation of a sock puppet, I would observe that DCLG Ministers in the last Administration authorised £38,200 of taxpayers’ money to bankroll lobbyists, LLM Communications; in turn, LLM then ran the supposedly independent ’Campaign for More and Better Homes’ which campaigned in favour of the last Administration’s Regional Spatial Strategies, and issued press releases praising the (then) Government’s policies and attacking the Government’s critics. Members: Correspondence Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will obtain a reply to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, who wrote to him on 19 October 2012 with regard to Joyce Lyons, and whose letter he referred to the Planning Inspectorate, who have not responded. [135764]

Nick Boles: The Planning Inspectorate replied on 14 November. Social Rented Housing Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will take steps to ensure that the collection and collation by local authorities of lettings data in respect of the allocation of social housing is (a) properly undertaken and (b) [134986] accurate; and if he will make a statement. Mr Prisk: Local authorities are required to provide data on social and affordable rent lettings as part of the Department’s single data list. We are committed to ensuring that local authorities fully participate. All authorities are monitored on an ongoing basis for provision, completeness and accuracy of data. We will continue to monitor and intervene where necessary. We are open to representations on what further steps can be taken to assist scrutiny and transparency in this area. Wind Power: Planning Permission Dr Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what advice he has received regarding the compatibility of EU

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Directive 2009/28/EC with the introduction of minimum separation distances between wind turbines and dwellings by local authorities through supplementary planning guidance. [135541] Nick Boles: The EU Directive 2009/28/EC does not make any reference to minimum separation distances between wind turbines and dwellings. HEALTH Arthritis Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2012, Official Report, column 384W, on arthritis, what assessment his Department has made of data collection for people with (a) ankylosing spondylitis, (b) psoriatic arthritis and (c) rheumatoid arthritis attending rheumatology [133392] departments. Norman Lamb: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 19 November 2012, Official Report, column 384W. Information for both out-patient attendances and in-patient episodes is available from the NHS Information Centre’s Hospital Episode Statistics collection at the level of the four-digit codes of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Information is therefore available for ankylosing spondylitis (M45), psoriatic arthritis (M07) and rheumatoid arthritis (M05, M06), subject to the limitation that information on primary diagnosis of out-patient attendances is not mandatory and is available only for a proportion of cases. Carers Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on the identification of carers in each of the last three years; and how much it has (a) budgeted and (b) spent in [135039] 2012-13 on such activities. Norman Lamb: The Carers Strategy “Recognised, valued and supported: Next steps for the Carers Strategy” made a commitment that the Department will provide additional resources for training health care professionals, to increase their awareness and understanding of carers’ needs for support. To take forward this commitment, the Department has provided central programme funding over the last three years, as follows: £69,095 in 2009-10 to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to pilot training workshops for GPs to help them better to understand carers’ needs; £96,003 in 2010-11 to the RCGP to deliver further workshops on carer awareness training for GPs and practice staff; and £850,000 in 2011-12 to the RCGP, Carers UK and the Carers Trust to develop a range of initiatives to increase awareness and understanding of carers’ health needs in primary care.

The Department has budgeted up to £1 million for projects in 2012-13 building upon previous years’ work. Bids have been received from five organisations and are being considered, with a view to making payment shortly. Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the NHS Commissioning Board plans to take to satisfy (a) itself and (b) his Department that funding allocated for carers support and breaks is being spent for that purpose; and if he [135040] will make a statement.

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Norman Lamb: The NHS Outcomes Framework 2012-13 includes overarching indicators to enhance the health-related quality of life for carers, with a complementary indicator in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework; and to capture how well the national health service is supporting people with long-term conditions and their carers, to live as normal a life as possible. These indicators are reflected in the recently published mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board, which contains a clear objective on enhancing the quality of life of people with long-term conditions and their carers, to ensure the NHS becomes dramatically better at involving patients and their carers. Achieving this objective will mean that by 2015, the 5 million carers looking after friends and family members will routinely have access to information and advice about the support available— including respite care. As set out in the mandate to the board, the Government expects the principle of ensuring equal access for equal need to be at the heart of the board’s approach to allocating budgets. From 2013-14, the allocation of resources to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will be a matter for the NHS Commissioning Board. It will be for CCGs with health and wellbeing boards to ensure appropriate investment for carers support and breaks, in the new system. It is for each health and wellbeing board to determine its local priorities, including how it should support carers through the contributions made by local authority and NHS partners.

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cooling, but did show a significant improvement in several secondary neurologic outcomes among survivors. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued interventional procedures guidance on the use of therapeutic hypothermia with intracorporeal temperature monitoring for hypoxic perinatal brain injury in May 2010. The guidance assesses the efficacy and safety of interventional procedures, with the aim of protecting patients and helping clinicians, health care organisations and the NHS to introduce procedures appropriately. The guidance is available at: http://publications.nice.org.uk/therapeutic-hypothermia-withintracorporeal-temperature-monitoring-for-hypoxicperinatal-brain-ipg347

Information on how many newborn babies have experienced oxygen starvation during birth in the last 30 years; and what the long-term effects were in each such case is not available as the ICD-10 codes used to classify conditions do not identify ″oxygen starvation″ in its classification system. Conditions of Employment Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of staff in his Department requested (a) part-time, (b) job-share or (c) other flexible working arrangements in each of the last five years; and how many such requests were granted. [134992]

Childbirth Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of brain-cooling treatments for newborn [135345] babies starved of oxygen during birth; (2) how many newborn babies have experienced oxygen starvation during birth in the last 30 years; and what the long-term effects were in each such case; [135358]

(3) which NHS trusts have facilities for brain-cooling treatment for newborn babies who have been starved of [135431] oxygen. Dr Poulter: Information on the national health service trusts that have facilities for brain-cooling treatment for newborn babies who have been starved of oxygen is not collected centrally by the Department. The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) has a UK TOBY Cooling Register of cooled babies, funded by the UK Medical Research Council, which has information on the number of centres offering therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal encephalopathy, medical intervention to reduce brain damage, and improve an infant’s chance for a normal survival. The register provides clinical guidance in order to promote uniform practice, to avoid inappropriate treatment and to foster continuing collaboration in future studies of neuroprotection following asphyxia. The register is available at: www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/tobyregister

From 1 January 2013 registration of cooled infants in the UK will transfer to Badger.Net (Clevermed). The UK TOBY Cooling Register did not show a significant reduction in the combined rates of death and severe disability with cooling, as compared with no

Dr Poulter: The proportion of staff working part-time for the Department has been made available on the Office for National Statistics website at: Civil Service Statistics 2011 and 2012: www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/index.html? pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection=none&new query=%22civil+service+statistics%22

Civil Service Statistics 2008-10: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110426084705/ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/ Product.asp?vlnk=2899&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=422

The Department does not centrally collect data on the proportion of staff job-sharing. The Department encourages staff to work flexibly through providing opportunities such as part-time working, job sharing, term time only working, working from home and the use of flexitime. These flexible working arrangements within the Department are subject to local managers’ discretion and therefore are not recorded centrally so the actual numbers of staff working flexibly is not available. However, it is likely to be a large proportion of the work force that work flexibly. Drugs: Prisons Dr Thérèse Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what his policy is on the role of abstinence [134582] in drug treatment courses in prisons; (2) how many prisoners in each prison undertook drug treatment courses, by type of treatment, in each of [134583] the last three years; (3) what the cost was of providing integrated drug treatment systems to each (a) primary care trust and (b) prison (i) in total and (ii) by prisoner in (A) [134584] 2011-12 and (B) 2012-13 to date.

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Norman Lamb: The Government is committed to rehabilitating prisoners with a drug dependency to live drug-free lives whenever possible. Current clinical guidance on whether to offer abstinence (detoxification) drug treatment is based on an individual need assessment and sentence length. Recently updated clinical guidance states that, where a prisoner receives a sentence longer than six months, abstinence should be the treatment objective. Unless there are clinical reasons to the contrary, drug dependent prisoners spending any significant period in custody will be stabilised, safely detoxified and released into the community drug-free. For remand and short sentence prisoners, it is good clinical practice to either continue the treatment the prisoner had before arrest, or prepare them for the treatment they will receive on release and for opiate users, maintenance prescribing is often the most appropriate treatment. For this group of prisoners the priority is to ensure continuity of care and reduce the risk of drug related death on release. Data is collected centrally by the National Offender Management Service on the total number of drug treatment courses provided nationally. Information for the last three years for which data is available is shown in the following table. Drug treatment courses provided in prisons in England between 2009 and 2011: Total, maintenance prescribing; and detoxification (abstinence) treatments Total

Total maintenance prescriptions

Total detoxification treatments

2009-10

60,067

23,744

36,323

2010-11

61,109

30,650

30,459

2011-12

64,916

33,198

31,718

Source: National Offender Management Service

Caveats apply to the data. Firstly, the data show the number of treatments, not the number of prisoners receiving treatment and an individual could receive more than one treatment in the course of a year. Secondly, this data only records the clinical intervention that prisoners received when they first entered custody. It does not record those prisoners who start on a maintenance prescription and later received detoxification treatment. Data on the provision of integrated drug treatment systems to each primary care trust and prison, by total cost and by cost per prisoner for 2011-12 and 2012-13 has been placed in the Library. Health: Screening Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people have taken the NHS health check [135512] since its creation;

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(2) how many new cases of diabetes have been [135516] detected through the NHS Health Check. Anna Soubry: The number of eligible people between 40 and 74 who have had a NHS Health Check from April 2011 has been published on the Department’s website at: http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/?p=20297

These data show that 1,703,085 people have received a NHS Health Check since April 2011. Prior to this, there were no comprehensive central data collections in place to measure the number of NHS Health Checks received by eligible 40 to 74-year-olds. The number of cases of previously undetected diabetes found through the programme is not held centrally. Hospitals: Food Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce guidelines to hospitals on the use of gluctose-fructose syrup in meals served to patients. [135517]

Dr Poulter: The Department will not be introducing specific guidelines to hospitals on the use of glucose-fructose syrup in meals served to patients. The Department’s ’Improving Hospital Food’ project highlights eight fundamental principles that patients should expect from hospital food. One of the principles is that Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF) should be adopted where practical and supported by procurement practices. These standards address sustainability, animal welfare and nutrition; including reducing sugar content. GBSF were launched in June 2011 and are mandatory for central Government Departments and are promoted to the wider public sector, including the national heath service. Human Papilloma Virus: Vaccination Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of girls aged 12 to 17 years have received the HPV vaccination in England and Wales through the NHS in the latest period for which [135357] figures are available. Anna Soubry: The latest period for which published figures are available is the 2010-11 academic year, published by the Department in the report ‘Annual HPV vaccine coverage in England in 2010/2011’ a copy of which has already been placed in the Library. HPV vaccine uptake for the 2010-11 academic year taken from the report is shown in the following table. The Department is not responsible for monitoring HPV vaccine uptake in Wales.

HPV vaccine coverage (three-dose course) of all routine and catch-up cohorts as at September 20111 Cohorts

Vaccine coverage (%) Age in years in academic year 2010-11

Number in cohorts

At least one dose

At least two doses

All three doses

(1 September 1997 to 31 August1998)

12 to 13

297,392

88.9

87.5

84.2

(1 September 1996 to 31 August1997)

13 to 14

304,747

85.9

84.1

80.9

(1 September 1995 to 31 August 1996)

14 to 15

304,062

89.4

87.7

84.4

(1 September 1994 to 31 August 1995)

15 to 16

306,007

81.9

79.6

75.7

Born 2010-11 estimates

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HPV vaccine coverage (three-dose course) of all routine and catch-up cohorts as at September 20111 Cohorts

Vaccine coverage (%) Age in years in academic year 2010-11

Number in cohorts

At least one dose

At least two doses

All three doses

(1 September 1993 to 31 August1994)

16 to 17

310,595

78.4

75.8

70.8

(1 September 1992 to 31 August1993)

17 to 18

319,065

59.8

55.9

48.1

(1 September 1991 to 31 August1990)

18 to 19

323,826

55.6

50.3

38.9

(1 September 1990 to 31 August1991)

19 to 20

328,004

66.1

59.3

47.4

(1 September 1990 to 31 August1998)

12 to 20

2,493,698

75.4

72.1

65.8

Born

1

Estimates have been updated (where possible) to include mop up vaccinations of eligible females that had not received the full course of vaccinations.

Influenza: Vaccination Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in England and Wales have been issued with the influenza vaccine in the last five [135448] years. Anna Soubry: Information on the number of people in England who received influenza vaccine from their general practitioners in 2007-08 - 2011-12 as part of the national health service annual influenza immunisation programme is shown in the following table: Influenza season/year

Number of people in England vaccinated

2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

7,911,879 8,284,935 8,300,213 9,046,742 9,677,663

Information about influenza immunisation in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Assembly Government. Meningitis Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to promote preventative (a) clinical work and (b) medication for [134987] meningitis; and if he will make a statement.

The uptake rates of all of the childhood immunisations recorded at ages one, two and five years increased in 2011-12 compared with the previous year, and are some of the highest up take levels on record. The Health Protection Agency updated its ‘Guidance for public health management of meningococcal disease in the UK’ in March 2012. This recommends that chemoprophylaxis should be offered to close contacts of cases, irrespective of vaccination status, subject to certain criteria. A copy has already been placed in the Library, and the full guidance is available at: www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/ 1194947389261

Mental Health Services Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the NHS Commissioning Board plans to take to ensure continuity and sustained roll out of the (a) adult and (b) children and young people improving access to talking therapy programmes; and [135038] if he will make a statement. Norman Lamb: The NHS Commissioning Board will take responsibility for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme (IAPT) from 1 April 2013. The Department’s mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board and the NHS Outcomes Framework will ensure the sustainability of both the Adult, and Children and Young People’s IAPT programme. Mental Health Services: Training

Anna Soubry: The United Kingdom routine immunisation programme provides vaccinations against causes of meningitis including: meningococcal C, many pneumococcal and Haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria as well as mumps virus. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation—the independent experts that advise the Government on immunisation—is also conducting an evaluation of the impact and costeffectiveness of possible meningococcal B vaccination strategies as a vaccine against meningococcal B bacteria is likely to be authorised. The Department publishes leaflets and other material as appropriate on MenC and other vaccinations; these are available to general practice surgeries, health care centres and other settings, where immunisations are being given (for example in schools). The need for additional publicity, for example seasonal campaigns or campaigns targeted at raising awareness among specific groups is kept under review so that additional action of this kind can be taken if there is any evidence, such as a. fall in uptake levels, to suggest this would be beneficial in protecting public health.

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2012, Official Report, column 634W, on mental health services, how many trainees were funded in each year for each modality of therapy; what the planned number of trainees was in each year; and how many trainees will be funded in each modality from 2012-13 to [135037] 2014-15; and if he will make a statement. Norman Lamb: The original training target for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme was to train 3,600 new cognitive behavioural therapists to expand the psychological therapy work force in the first three years of the programme, 2008-11. The IAPT programme achieved this target with a total of 3,868 trainees entering training in the academic years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. ‘Talking Therapies—a four-year plan of action’, published in 2011, committed the programme to train a further 2,400 new therapists during the academic years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14.

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The following table shows the number of trainees in each modality of therapy for each academic year: Number Therapy

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Total

Step 2 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (low intensity)

510

727

517

536

459

2,749

Step 3 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (high intensity)

487

1,004

623

291

322

2,727

Counselling for Depression

0

0

64

68

132

264

Couples Therapy for Depression

0

0

44

69

1

99

212 148

1

Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy

0

0

63

27

58

Interpersonal Psychotherapy

0

0

86

82

155

323

997

1,731

1,397

1,073

1,225

6,423

Total 1

Includes trainees undertaking National Institute for Clinical Excellence approved Behavioural Couples Therapy.

local authorities to provide adult social care; and if he will make a statement. [135356]

Norovirus Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of norovirus were recorded by his Department in (a) England and (b) Birmingham [135355] in each year since 2010. Anna Soubry: The information requested is in the following tables: Number of laboratory reports of norovirus recorded in England since 2010 Number 2010 2011 20121

11,311 8,335 9,645

Number of laboratory reports of norovirus recorded in Birmingham since 2010 Number 2010 2011 20121 1 Provisional data. Data for 2012 are not yet complete. Source: Health Protection Agency

248 176 221

Not all individuals with norovirus will present to health services and laboratory reports represent only a small fraction of the true number of cases of norovirus each year, therefore the data in the tables do not represent the true burden of norovirus infections. Respiratory System Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he proposes that there will be an individual responsible for the strategic overview of improvements in outcomes for respiratory patients in [135299] the reformed NHS. Anna Soubry: The NHS Commissioning Board is currently advertising the post of National Clinical Director (NCD) for Respiratory Diseases as one of a number of senior clinical appointments. The NCD will take the clinical lead in driving improvement in quality across all relevant domains of the NHS Outcomes Framework for respiratory diseases. Social Services Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the NHS of reductions in funding for

Norman Lamb: In the last spending review, we protected social care in the context of a tough settlement for local government by providing an extra £7.2 billion. Independent research from the King’s Fund supported our view that this was enough for councils to maintain services, provided they focused on efficiency. In addition, the Care and Support White Paper announced that the national health service would transfer an extra £100 million in 2013-14 and £200 million in 2014-15 for adult social care. The NHS and local authorities will work together to decide how to use this money so that it benefits both health and social care and promotes integrated working. Staff Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in his Department earning over £50,000 per year have been employed (a) as special advisers and (b) in a political role in each year since 2010; and how many were employed in the latest [134832] period for which figures are available. Dr Poulter: Details of all special advisers including salaries are published quarterly in arrears and are available on the Cabinet Office website. The latest data up to 19 October 2012 can be found here: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/special-adviserdata-releases

The Department has employed no other staff in a political role other than the documented special advisers. DEFENCE Written Questions Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence to how many and what proportion of questions for written answer on a named day his Department had not provided a substantive written answer by the day named in each of the last 12 months. [133551]

Mr Francois [holding answer 13 December 2012]: The Ministry of Defence strives to answer all parliamentary questions on time, but it is often challenging to answer substantively within the limited timescale for named day questions. However, 83% of named day questions for answer between 1 December 2011 and 30 November 2012 were answered on or within five days of the day named.

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The information requested is shown in the following table.

Month

Number of named day questions received

Number not receiving a substantive written answer on the day named

Percentage not answered on the day named

73

42

58

2012 January

128

78

61

February

95

55

58 70

March

105

73

April

98

53

54

May

61

37

61

June

83

47

57

July

100

78

78

September

68

55

80

October

77

57

74

126

100

79

1,014

675

67

November Total

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Mr Laws: We are still considering some of the recommendations in the Capital Review across Government, taking time to consider the implications carefully before implementing any changes to the capital funding system. We intend to issue an update in the early part of 2013 and plan to publish the consultation report at the same time. Schools: Inspections

2011 December

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The Government has committed to providing the Procedure Committee with information relating to written parliamentary question performance on a sessional basis and will provide full information to the Committee at the end of the current Session. Statistics relating to performance for the 2010-12 parliamentary Session are available on the Parliament website at the following link: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/ procedure/P35_Memorandum_Leader_of_the_House_ Monitoring_PQs.pdf

EDUCATION Early Intervention Grant Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answer of 29 October 2012, Official Report, columns 44-5W, on local government finance and the oral answer to the hon. Members for Mid Dorset and North Poole and Feltham and Heston, of 29 October 2012, Official Report, column 5, on early intervention, from which funding source will the shortfall in funding for early intervention be provided; and which activities will be funded (a) centrally and [128313] (b) by local authorities. Mr Laws [holding answer 13 November 2012]: The Early Intervention Grant (EIG) was established in April 2011 to give local authorities the freedom to make decisions on how best to target resources on supporting early intervention and other valuable services to meet the needs of their communities. Following the transfer of the EIG into the new Business Rates Retention system of local government finance, local authorities will retain this flexibility to make the most effective and most efficient use of funding available. Education Capital Review Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when his Department will publish the consultation responses to the Independent Capital [134348] Review.

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Education which schools judged to be inadequate at their last inspection are being (a) closed and (b) [135367] converted to academies. Mr Laws [holding answer 7 January 2013]: As of November 2012, four schools judged to be inadequate at their last inspection have been proposed for closure: St Mary’s Church of England Junior School, Slade Green Junior School, Sydney Smith School and St Catherine’s Catholic High School. A decision will be reached once the required statutory process has concluded. 132 schools judged to be inadequate are becoming academies. A full list of these schools will be placed in the House Libraries. Special Educational Needs Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what progress his Department has made in drafting a definition of independent special schools for the purposes of the Children and Families Bill; [134739]

(2) if he will include provision for independent special schools in the Children and Families Bill in order that children with complex needs are able to [134740] access such specialist support in their area. Mr Timpson [holding answer 20 December 2012]: I refer the hon. Member to the response I made to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Robert Flello) on 10 December 2012, Official Report, column 98W. University Technical Colleges Mr Gyimah: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what criteria his Department uses to decide whether to approve the creation of a university [135761] technical college in a particular area. Matthew Hancock: In assessing University Technical College applications, the Department uses the criteria published in the ’How to Apply’ guidance. This covers the education vision and plan, evidence of demand for the UTC, the capacity and capability of the applicant group, and the financial viability of the UTC. Applicant groups also inform the Department about their site proposals but these are not part of the assessed criteria. The guidance for the current competitive application round is available on the Department’s website and can be found at http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/h/ utcs%20%20%20how%20to%20apply%20guidance.pdf

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Young People: Databases John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to (a) ensure that academies and free schools co-operate with local authorities to support the participation of people aged 16 and 17 following the raising of the participation age and (b) provide the relevant data for the national client [135759] caseload information system.

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It is for local authorities to agree with academies and free schools how data should be provided to ensure that they have accurate information about the participation of young people in their area. Local authorities record this on their local client caseload information system database. Information from local databases is then used to update the national system, from which headline data on participation by local area is made available on the Department’s website. Young People: Unemployment

Mr Laws: The Education Act 2011 places a duty on schools to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance on the full range of 16-18 education and training options. The model funding agreements used when setting up academies and free schools make them subject to this duty. The Government announced recently that it plans to extend this duty to years 8-13 in schools from September 2013. We trust the head teachers of academies and free schools to focus on the best interests of their pupils, including supporting them to progress into suitable education or training at age 16 and 17. Under the 2008 Education and Skills Act, educational institutions (including academies and free schools funded by the Education Funding Agency), are required to provide relevant information about pupils to local authority support services. Educational institutions will also be required to inform their local authority if a 16 or 17-year-old drops out of education or training when the participation age is raised so that they can be supported back into learning by the local authority.

Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many and what proportion of (a) 16, (b) 17 and (c) 18 year-olds are not in full-time education or training in each local education authority [134920] area in England and Wales. Mr Laws: The following table shows the number and proportion of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds not in full-time education or training in each local authority area in England. Information about the education of young people in Wales can be obtained from the Welsh Assembly Government. This information has been drawn from records maintained by local authorities in England, who have responsibility for tracking young people’s participation in education and training. The number of young people not in full-time education or training includes some whose current activity is not known to the local authority as well as those who are known to be in employment or taking a gap year.

Number and proportion of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds not in full-time education or training, December 2011 Age 16

England

Age 17

Age 18

Number

Percentage

Number

Percentage

Number

Percentage

47,720

8

98,280

16

216,750

36

90

7

240

19

470

170

7

400

16

1,220

South East Bracknell Forest Brighton and Hove

39 1

50

Buckinghamshire

310

5

600

10

1,430

East Sussex

480

9

1,060

1

19

2,810

1

51

Hampshire

1,240

9

4,470

1

31

7,510

1

51

120

8

280

18

650

1

42

1,290

8

3,040

17

7,020

40

440

13

700

19

910

24

Isle of Wight Kent Medway Milton Keynes

240

8

370

Oxfordshire

570

9

1,660

1

25

12

1,030

26

3,270

1

51

35 1

46

Portsmouth

180

9

350

17

970

Reading

130

9

310

20

580

Slough

130

8

250

15

410

1

27

Southampton

180

8

450

20

1,180

1

48

Surrey

580

6

1,330

13

4,850

1

49

West Berkshire

150

9

300

18

650

West Sussex

550

7

1,230

14

2,900

Windsor and Maidenhead

140

12

170

13

390

1

32

Wokingham

110

6

210

12

540

1

33

17

800

1

31

11

1,460

1

46

16

820

1

28

7

390

27

1,360

1

38

40

38 36

London Barking and Dagenham

230

9

450

Barnet

300

9

390

Bexley

120

4

470

Brent

180

6

240

Bromley

890

27

1,000

1

1

1

1

11

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Written Answers

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8 JANUARY 2013

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Number and proportion of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds not in full-time education or training, December 2011 Age 16 Number

Age 17 Percentage

Number

Camden

190

14

280

City of London

260

1

97

10

1,260

1

31

1,290

Croydon

Age 18 Percentage 1

1

Number

19

310

6

20

30

1,670

Percentage 1

24

1

40

11

Ealing

160

5

240

7

560

Enfield

270

7

530

13

1,130

1

29

Greenwich

220

9

370

Hackney

260

12

430

90

9

120

28

620

Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey

660

1

1

1

17

13

820

1

27

18

530

1

23

10

180

25

1,400

1

53

1

37

Harrow

70

3

120

5

340

Havering

150

5

480

16

1,090

15 14

Hillingdon

140

5

280

9

530

18

Hounslow

150

7

230

9

440

17

Islington

240

1

16

350

1

20

450

1

27

Kensington and Chelsea

110

1

22

170

1

25

210

1

31

Kingston

170

1

12

180

12

410

1

27

Lambeth

170

8

480

1

20

760

1

30

Lewisham

330

1

13

530

1

17

1,810

1

52

Merton

300

1

17

390

1

21

580

1

30

Newham

190

5

560

15

1,300

1

32

Redbridge

120

4

220

6

580

Richmond

310

1

30

350

1

30

440

1

36

9

630

1

24

700

1

31

1

13

310

1

13

730

1

35

11

670

1

28

17

Southwark

220

Sutton

280

Tower Hamlets

170

7

270

Waltham Forest

340

12

690

1

22

1,110

1

35

Wandsworth

200

13

330

1

20

480

1

28

Westminster

140

13

270

1

23

270

1

25

Bedford Borough

110

6

210

12

430

Cambridgeshire

480

7

830

12

2,100

Central Bedfordshire

220

8

490

17

870

1

32

1,670

10

4,200

25

11,100

1

66

Hertfordshire

730

6

1,760

13

4,370

34

Luton

140

6

300

12

640

28

Norfolk

920

10

2,110

22

4,260

Peterborough

200

9

360

15

820

Southend

140

7

240

11

Suffolk

660

8

1,480

Thurrock

130

7

Bath and NE Somerset

100

Bournemouth Bristol

1

East of England

Essex

1

24 32

1

47

780

1

36

18

3,450

1

42

380

20

920

1

46

6

230

13

600

1

34

130

8

260

15

520

360

9

740

18

1,610

1

40

36

South West

30

Cornwall and IoS

330

6

780

13

1,990

32

Devon

640

8

1,330

16

3,000

37

Dorset

360

8

730

16

1,680

Gloucestershire

560

9

1,250

18

2,930

38 1

44

North Somerset

110

5

240

11

620

28

Plymouth

220

8

460

15

1,030

34

Poole

150

10

310

19

670

40

Somerset

320

6

530

9

820

South Gloucestershire

210

7

410

13

980

1

31

1

39

14

Swindon

220

8

500

19

1,030

Torbay

110

7

200

12

470

Wiltshire

510

10

990

19

2,570

1

52

Birmingham

830

7

1,580

12

4,760

1

35

Coventry

210

6

600

15

1,560

1

40

30

West Midlands

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Number and proportion of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds not in full-time education or training, December 2011 Age 16

Age 17

Age 18

Number

Percentage

Number

Percentage

Number

Percentage

Dudley

250

7

440

11

1,260

1

34

Herefordshire

170

9

360

18

890

1

46

Sandwell

250

6

470

12

1,170

1

30

Shropshire

260

8

510

16

1,050

35

Solihull

140

6

370

14

910

34

Staffordshire

580

6

1,460

15

3,360

1

35

Stoke-on-Trent

250

9

520

18

1,170

1

38

Telford and Wrekin

200

10

590

28

1,380

1

65

Walsall

230

7

560

17

970

1

28

Warwickshire

380

6

950

15

3,530

1

58

Wolverhampton

260

9

500

15

980

1

31

Worcestershire

410

7

850

14

1,860

1

31

Derby City

290

10

600

20

1,310

1

42

Derbyshire

810

9

1,610

18

3,630

1

40

Leicester City

280

7

670

16

1,300

1

32

Leicestershire County

490

6

960

13

2,430

1

32

Lincolnshire

920

10

1,700

19

6,050

1

67

Northamptonshire

620

8

1,250

16

2,690

1

35

Nottingham

250

8

450

13

890

1

26

Nottinghamshire

580

7

1,270

14

2,430

17

40

12

330

1

93

1

27

1

28

1

East Midlands

Rutland

60

1

1

27

Yorks and Humber Barnsley

200

7

360

13

780

Bradford

500

8

930

14

1,450

Calderdale

210

8

330

13

730

Doncaster

300

8

580

15

1,320

22 34

East Riding Kingston upon Hull

290

9

630

19

1,500

1

42

Kirklees

400

8

780

15

1,640

1

31

Leeds

660

9

1,360

17

3,170

1

38

North East Lincolnshire

130

6

310

13

640

North Lincolnshire

110

5

310

14

810

1

36

North Yorkshire

480

8

890

14

2,340

1

35

Rotherham

240

7

550

16

1,090

Sheffield

460

8

1,030

18

2,210

1

37

Wakefield

410

10

680

16

1,430

34

York

130

7

240

12

450

24

28

33

6,330

8

13,330

16

26,300

1

30

Blackburn-Darwen

200

10

280

14

540

1

27

Blackpool

180

10

270

14

560

1

29

Bolton

270

8

960

26

1,520

1

42

Bury

180

8

310

13

810

1

33

Cheshire East

270

7

690

16

1,370

1

33

Cheshire W and Chester

270

7

580

15

1,170

1

31

Cumbria

470

8

830

14

1,880

32

Halton

110

7

260

16

610

39

North West

Knowsley

1

150

7

340

16

720

1,120

8

2,340

16

4,450

Liverpool

430

8

910

17

1,930

Manchester

380

8

740

14

1,040

19

Oldham

240

8

540

18

810

26

Rochdale

190

8

360

12

490

18

Salford

250

10

370

14

590

22

Sefton

180

6

400

13

1,010

30

St. Helens

120

6

250

13

630

Stockport

270

8

560

16

1,050

Lancashire

Tameside

230

8

400

14

660

Trafford

150

6

320

12

760

35 1

31 35

31 1

32

1

28

22

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8 JANUARY 2013

268W

Number and proportion of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds not in full-time education or training, December 2011 Age 16 Number

Age 17 Percentage

Number

Age 18 Percentage

Number

Warrington

120

5

280

11

670

Wigan

270

7

680

17

1,860

Wirral

300

8

670

16

1,200

Percentage 27 1

47 29

North East 1

County Durham

520

9

1,570

26

2,990

Darlington

130

11

240

19

500

Gateshead

170

8

390

18

780

Hartlepool

1

47

1

35

38

80

6

160

12

390

Middlesbrough

160

9

350

19

810

1

42

Newcastle

320

11

610

20

1,130

1

35

North Tyneside

140

6

220

10

590

1

24

Northumberland

230

6

560

15

1,100

Redcar and Cleveland

170

10

390

21

780

1

43

South Tyneside

110

6

310

17

710

1

35

Stockton on Tees

190

8

410

17

860

34

Sunderland

230

7

460

13

970

27

1

31

29

Areas where the current activity of more than 10 of 16, 17 or 18-year-olds is not known. The proportion not in full-time education or training may be understated in these areas. Notes: 1. The ages stated in the table are young people’s academic age; ie their age on 1 September. 2. East Riding has not provided the Department with information on the activity of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds.

1MC

Ministerial Corrections

Ministerial Corrections Tuesday 8 January 2013

DEFENCE Afghanistan Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people have served on tours of duty of longer than six months in Afghanistan; and what the (a) tour dates, (b) rank, (c) regiment and (d) [128512] reasons for the length of tour was. [Official Report, 21 November 2012, Vol. 553, c. 491-92W.] Army ranks (or equivalent) represented

Ministerial Corrections

8 JANUARY 2013

2MC

Letter of correction from Dr Murrison: An error has been identified in the written answer given to the right hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr Murphy) on 21 November 2012. The full answer given was as follows: Dr Murrison [holding answer 19 November 2012]: The Ministry of Defence does not hold this information centrally in the form requested, and in the interests of anonymity we do not release information of individual tours. The MOD is able to confirm that at present around 110 posts out of 9,500 in Afghanistan are subject to tour lengths of longer than six months to provide continuity to the campaign. These posts are broken down as shown in the following table:

Length of continuity posting (months)

Number of personnel (to the nearest 10)

8

10

9

20

12

50

Major

18