Thursday Volume 574 23 January 2014 No. 110

HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD)

Thursday 23 January 2014

£5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2014 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 419 23 JANUARY 2014 420

Vince Cable: I cannot give my hon. Friend a precise House of Commons number, but I know that a depth of engineering talent is arising from the island’s successful companies, both in Thursday 23 January 2014 the maritime sector and in aerospace. We want to build on that, and I would be absolutely delighted to meet The House met at half-past Nine o’clock him and his engineers on the Isle of Wight—I always enjoy a walk on Tennyson down. PRAYERS Oliver Colvile: As my right hon. Friend knows, Devonport dockyard is the only naval dockyard in the [Mr Speaker in the Chair] country that refits and refurbishes our nuclear submarines. How have the Government helped—and how can we help—to make sure that we protect Britain’s nuclear Oral Answers to Questions engineering skills base and ensure that the work force are not lured away to Hinkley C, just up the peninsula?

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS Vince Cable: My hon. Friend is right to say that in an environment where there is an acute shortage of professional The Secretary of State was asked— engineers and craftsmen, there is a tendency to poach skills. We see that happening in other sectors, like the 1. Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) motor car industry, oil and gas and so on. The answer is (Con): What steps he is taking to encourage more to produce more engineers, and he will be aware that in people to become engineers. [902128] his constituency, or certainly in the city of Plymouth, we have the 600-place university technology college, 12. Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): What which is growing with support from the Government. steps he is taking to encourage more people to become That is a very positive step forward, and I am sure he engineers. [902143] will be pleased with it. 14. Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con): What steps he is taking to encourage more Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab): Does people to become engineers. [902147] the Secretary of State agree that today’s good news from the automotive sector should encourage more The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills people to become engineers, but that there is still a real (Vince Cable): The Government are working with issue to address to ensure that the automotive supply employers, professional bodies and higher and further chain gets the engineers it needs and that young people education institutions to implement the Perkins review are encouraged to go into it? Does that not involve of engineering skills and boost careers in engineering, doing more to ensure that training meets the needs of particularly for women. In September we announced the supply chain and that small businesses in that sector a £400 million boost for STEM—science, technology, get the investment they need, which requires a different engineering and maths—teaching in universities. approach from finance houses? Stephen Metcalfe: In a recent Science and Technology Committee report “Educating tomorrow’s engineers”, Vince Cable: The hon. Gentleman is right to say that we recommended that the key challenge now faced by the car industry, which “learned societies, professional engineering institutions and trade is a great success story, is to progress the success of bodies put an obligation on their members to systematically OEMs—original equipment manufacturers—which are engage in promoting engineering and technology as a career expanding, down through their supply chains, which through a structured programme of educational engagement.” were hollowed out in earlier years. We are addressing What progress, if any, has been made in making that that issue through the Automotive Council and the come to fruition? industry strategy. That is progressing well, but it does need a great deal of support for the training base and Vince Cable: There is a recognition of the seriousness the training of engineers, which is what we are doing of the shortage of engineers, and we are trying to through our apprenticeship programme. address that in a variety of ways. On the particular programmes that my hon. Friend has described, we are working with the professional associations on work Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab): Young experience for students and industrial placements for people across Plymouth are telling me that they feel as teachers, because we have to change the perceptions of though they are little more than walking pots of money young people in schools. when it comes to careers advice and that schools are almost harassing them at times to keep them in school. Mr Turner: I welcome my right hon. Friend’s initiatives That obviously militates against some of them going to to encourage more people into engineering. I founded do engineering apprenticeships, as my neighbour the the Isle of Wight Technology Group to help engineering hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport and technology companies work together on training, (Oliver Colvile) has pointed out. What more can the recruitment and other issues. Will he say how many new Secretary of State do to set up an independent careers engineers are being grown on the island, and will he advice arrangement, so that these young people can get come to the Isle of Wight to see for himself the good broader advice, not specific and closed advice from work that technology companies are doing? their schools? 421 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 422

Vince Cable: Yes indeed. The all-age careers service Apprenticeships that we have put in place is now generally acknowledged to be giving successful advice through the age range. On 2. Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con): schools, we recognise that there is an issue to address on What steps he is taking to ensure that apprenticeships the career paths of the non-academic—the more respond to employers’ needs. [902129] vocationally trained. We shall shortly be issuing guidance to schools on how to access independent advice. The Minister for Skills and Enterprise (Matthew Hancock): Our apprenticeship reforms are responding to the needs Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): The aerospace industry of employers by putting them in the driving seat. has shown marked improvement in the past few months. Trailblazers, led by employers and professional bodies, Just last week, Magellan Aerospace in Belfast announced is leading the way in developing new standards in a wide a new job contract through the Prime Minister, and jobs range of sectors. and opportunities were created. Is it now time for higher education and for industry, particularly aerospace, to work together to make sure that those jobs are taken Sheryll Murray: Will my hon. Friend join me in by young people from universities and colleges at this congratulating the 300 in 100 campaign in Cornwall on time? its aim to get 300 new apprenticeships in 100 days? I participated in the campaign in St Mellion a few weeks ago along with many employers in my constituency. Vince Cable: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. I was in Belfast recently and met a Matthew Hancock: I would love to congratulate my combination of Northern Ireland universities and industry. hon. Friend, who has teamed up with other MPs across They are working together and realise that a recovery is Cornwall including my hon. Friends the Members for taking place, despite the problems of the traditional Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), for Truro industries around Belfast. Such work requires the kind and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) and for St Ives (Andrew of collaboration he has described. George) and many others. Many Members of this House have been part of the 100 in 100 campaigns to Sir Peter Luff (Mid Worcestershire) (Con): Will the get 100 apprentices in 100 days, and Cornwall is taking Secretary of State reassure me that he regards the it just that bit further. excellent John Perkins review of engineering skills as the irreducible minimum necessary to address the urgent Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op): shortages in engineering skills in our country, and that The number of apprentices in the 16-to-18 age group is his Department will remain open to ideas better to dropping at the moment, with serious implication for market engineering to young people, and to address the our long-term skills base. Will the Minister look again appalling gender stereotyping that is frustrating so many at the proposals of the Business, Innovation and Skills women’s ambitions to get into engineering? Committee to use public procurement contracts to ensure a certain level of recruitment for that age group in the Vince Cable: Yes, it is an exceptionally good report. way in which the previous Government did and local The challenge is a massive one. There is an acute authorities are doing? shortage of engineers, and the problem is particularly serious among women. I believe that something in the Matthew Hancock: Of course, Crossrail, which is the order of one in 10 professional engineers is a woman, biggest public construction project in Europe, has in it and about one in 20 in advanced apprenticeships. We exactly what the hon. Gentleman describes. He will are actively seeking to address that with the professional have seen last week that we announced 2,000 new institutions. apprentices as part of High Speed 2. I entirely agree about the need to drive up the number of apprentices. Mr Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) (Lab): I We introduced a rule that every apprenticeship had to too wish to ask the Secretary of State about the engineers be a minimum of a year, and the number of apprenticeships of the future. The mismanaged free-for-all that gave for those aged between 16 to 19 lasting a year or more private students unfettered access to the student loan has gone up sharply. We must be careful to consider the system has now cost his Department so dear that big reason for the numbers. Apprenticeships of under a cuts are being discussed. On top of the huge cuts for year, in many cases without a job attached, are not educating 18-year-olds in college, we now hear rumours really apprenticeships at all. that the student opportunity fund that helps poorer future engineers will be completely axed. Will the Secretary Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Does my hon. Friend of State take this opportunity to promise the House agree that one of the best ways of increasing the skills that he will not sacrifice social mobility to pay for the of apprenticeships is the creation of pre-apprenticeship chaos in his Department’s budget? schools, otherwise known as university technical colleges? Will he look at expanding the Government’s programme Vince Cable: The right hon. Gentleman could perhaps of 24 UTCs, one of which will be in Harlow, so that do a little better than rely on rumours that have very there is one in every town across the country? little foundation. The substance of the matter is that in the autumn statement, we were committed to additional Matthew Hancock: I absolutely support my hon. investment of £400 million in STEM teaching to provide Friend in his enthusiasm for UTCs, not only the one in modern facilities that were neglected during the years Harlow, for which, I know, he is a great campaigner, but he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury. those across the country. 423 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 424

Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): But why have yesterday announced a major enhancement of the Ministers failed to match their rhetoric with action? programme that will see an expanded regional network Something like what my hon. Friend the Member for of advisers in UK Trade & Investment, with some Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) suggests in his 28 advisers in place across all nine English regions, Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) specifically targeted to drive up the number of mid-sized Bill would create thousands of new quality apprenticeship businesses that might be deciding to export for the first opportunities by requiring all major suppliers on large time or to increase their performance. public projects to offer apprenticeships. Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/ Matthew Hancock: As I said, we do that on some of Co-op): Given the recent comments from Nissan and the largest procurements. If we are talking about action, other manufacturers about the importance of Britain’s the fact that a record number of people are in staying in the EU, does the Minister agree that it is vital apprenticeships is action that we should support, and that Britain stay in the European Union and that the the fact that 1.5 million people across the country have current uncertainty about Britain’s future membership started apprenticeships since 2010 is also action we that we see in some quarters is damaging to the future should all be proud of. of British job prospects? Exports Michael Fallon: What is important for car manufacturers from overseas, such as Nissan, and for all foreign investors 3. Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con): What recent assessment in Britain is that the single market is strengthened and he has made of the level of UK exports. [902131] available to them. One of the purposes of our reform programme in Europe is to ensure that the member The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation states that do not wish to become enmeshed in the and Skills (Michael Fallon): The latest figures from the eurozone can still enjoy the full protection and opportunities Office for National Statistics, released on 9 January, of the single market. show that UK exports totalled more than £494 billion in 2012, the highest level on record. Exports in the first 11 months of 2013 were in excess of £40 billion a Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): May I month. warmly congratulate UK Trade & Investment on its work with the Department for Environment, Food and Stuart Andrew: I am grateful for that answer. It has Rural Affairs promoting the food and drink sector and been very encouraging to hear a number of businesses also the GREAT Britain campaign, which is, I think, in my constituency, including the Hainsworth mill in genuinely great? Will my right hon. Friend set aside a Stanningley, reporting increased exports in recent months. small promotional budget to support our presence at Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the international food fairs? We are outgunned by other performance of UK exports in some of the newer countries, and a pavilion that showed off the best of growth markets? British produce would bring dividends.

Michael Fallon: In spite of tough trading conditions, Michael Fallon: I shall certainly see what more we can British exports of goods have increased under this do in that regard. I know that food and drink exports Government—to China by 98%, India by 56%, Russia will be one of the themes of our commitment to Expo by 110% and Brazil by 45%. in Milan later this year and I shall be discussing our pavilion in Milan this evening and tomorrow. Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab): The Minister will be aware of the importance of Airbus to UK Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab): I detect a real exports. Is he as concerned as I am about the billions of note of complacency in the Minister’s remarks. Let us pounds of subsidy to Boeing that has been announced not crack open the imported champagne just yet. The by Washington state and sanctioned by the US Secretary of State’s trade and investment White Paper Government? of 2011 stated: “The UK now needs to rebalance its economy…toward increased Michael Fallon: These are issues I discuss with Airbus exports and investment.” from time to time. The hon. Gentleman will be aware of action under the World Trade Organisation on two Yet the value of exports fell in the last quarter and net cases, one involving subsidies to Boeing and the other trade acted as a drag on GDP growth for much of 2013. involving alleged subsidies to Airbus. I hope that some Given that the trade gap remains persistently high and of those issues can be resolved in discussions on the is growing, manufacturing as a share of our economy transatlantic trade partnership. has fallen under this Government, and investment has continued to flatline, will the Minister now concede that Mr Mark Prisk (Hertford and Stortford) (Con): In an export-led recovery has not materialised? Germany, the Mittelstand leads the way in exports. What steps are the Government taking to target our Michael Fallon: I am disappointed that the hon. mid-sized businesses, particularly for emerging markets? Gentleman should talk down British exporting and British manufacturing at precisely the time we see a Michael Fallon: I recognise the enormous amount of renaissance not only in our automotive industry but in work my hon. Friend did when he served in the Department our aerospace and other industries. Of course trading before me. We have a target of assisting some 1,500 mid- conditions are tough, not least with problems in the size businesses by 2015. My noble Friend Lord Livingston eurozone and elsewhere, but exports are up and we 425 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 426 continue to help drive increased export performance board of Royal Mail is about to propose a significant through supporting small and medium-sized enterprises pay increase for the chief executive to bring her in line and mid-sized businesses. with those in other FTSE 100 companies. The Business Secretary says that he will use the Government’s remaining Royal Mail Shares stake as the largest stakeholder to veto the proposals. Does the Minister agree with the Secretary of State, his 4. Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and boss, or is this just froth? Kirkintilloch East) (Lab): What assessment he has made of the value for money achieved for the public Michael Fallon: If this were a fire sale, it would purse through the recent sale of shares in Royal Mail. certainly, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough [902132] (Sir Edward Leigh) has said, be one of the longest fire sales in history, given that Governments have been The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation trying to sell Royal Mail for over 20 years. I think we and Skills (Michael Fallon): With permission, Mr Speaker, should salute Moya Greene’s achievement in transforming I will answer this question together with Question 5. a loss-making public corporation into one of Britain’s top 100 companies and congratulate her, as one of all Mr Speaker: Unfortunately not. It is perfectly reasonable too few female chief executives, on her award as business for the Minister of State to seek to do so, but the person of the year. We have yet to receive any proposal attempted grouping falls because I fear that the hon. from the remuneration committee. Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) is not Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con): When I last visited present in the Chamber. Stroud sorting office just before Christmas, I noticed that the much-needed modernisation programme was Michael Fallon: I was hoping there would be some being started. Does the Minister agree that that has interest in this question. been made possible by the sale of shares and that it We believe that value for money should be assessed represents a Government success? over the long term and should consider not merely the proceeds from the initial sale but the value of the Michael Fallon: Yes. The purpose of the sale was to taxpayer’s retained stake in Royal Mail and the reduced enable Royal Mail to have access to private capital so risk to the taxpayer and the six-day-a-week universal that it would not be dependent on the taxpayer for service of a stable company with access now to private ensuring the successful delivery of the six-day-a-week capital. universal service on which we and all our constituents rely. Gregg McClymont: Given the botched and imprudent Women in Business sale of the first tranche of Royal Mail shares by this Government at the expense of taxpayers, the public will 6. Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op): be concerned about the emerging reports that the What steps he is taking to support women in business. Government intend to sell off the remaining family [902135] silver before the next election. Will the Minister confirm whether those reports are accurate? The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Jenny Willott): This Government Michael Fallon: I can confirm, first, that the sale of want to see as many women as possible going into and Royal Mail was a success. Unlike the hon. Gentleman, I progressing in business. We commissioned the Women’s am delighted that the shares have risen in value, reflecting Business Council to look at what barriers prevent women Royal Mail’s interim trading results and the long-overdue from reaching their potential and how to maximise agreement with the union. Any decision on a sale of the their contribution to economic growth. We work closely remaining stake is still to be taken. with Lord Davies to increase the number of women on boards. Women now account for 20.4% of board members Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Ind): One of the in FTSE 100 companies, up from 12.5% in February hidden values for money is the fact that of the 150,000 2011. eligible hard-working postmen and women who could Seema Malhotra: Last week I met a woman called take up their free allocation, only 368 said no. That Adele who has set up a child care business. A few years means that as the company goes from strength to strength, ago her bank refused to lend to her because, in her view, those who directly work for Royal Mail will now financially it just did not understand her business plan. Such was benefit from that. Is not that a very good thing? her belief in her business that she remortgaged her home and her business has now expanded to look after Michael Fallon: Yes. I would have thought that Labour 300 children. Given the lower levels of finance being Members would welcome this extension of employee offered to British female entrepreneurs compared with share ownership. I am delighted that 99% of Royal their European counterparts, does the Minister support Mail’s employees took up the offer and now have a Labour’s proposal for regional banks, which could be stake in the success of that company as it moves forward. better placed to understand and support local small and medium-sized enterprises? Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab): As my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Jenny Willott: The Government are doing quite a lot Kirkintilloch East (Gregg McClymont) said, the fire to ensure that women entrepreneurs have access to sale of Royal Mail has cost the taxpayer in excess of finance, and it sounds as though the hon. Lady’s constituent £750 million, but it has not taken it long to enjoy its new is a very good example of that. The Government Equalities privatised status. Reports in the media suggest that the Office offers child care grants to men and women, but 427 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 428 primarily to women, who want to set up businesses in the Government are doing to help women in particular that particular area. The Government also support the is the Get Mentoring scheme, into which we have put Aspire fund, which aims to get equity into businesses nearly £2 million. More than 40% of the mentors run by women. The Start-Up Loans Company has already trained are women. The scheme is designed to offered 12,500 start-up loans and well over a third of try to get more women to start up businesses and to be them have gone to women to help them set up businesses as successful as his constituent. that I hope will be as successful as that run by the hon. Lady’s constituent. Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op): Will the Minister set out how, in her quest to have more women Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): on boards, she intends to ensure that we do not just see Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating those the same women on more boards or, indeed, more women in rural businesses, primarily farms? Women are women on fewer boards? the backbone of the farming community and have taken the opportunity to diversify locally. Examples Jenny Willott: I am sure that the hon. Lady will join include Shepherds Purse cheese makers, Get Ahead me in rejoicing at the fact that the FTSE 100 now has Hats and countless other business opportunities for only two companies with all-male boards. A couple of women. years ago, the figure was 24 boards, so there has been significant progress. To increase the number of women going on to boards, we are doing everything we can to Jenny Willott: The hon. Lady highlights some extremely improve the pipeline, which means that more women important businesses, and similar examples can be found below board level can get the support, mentoring and across the whole of the UK and in a lot of our rural advice that they need to make themselves ready for and areas. Women are extremely good at identifying new to get into board positions. We are doing what we can to opportunities to diversify businesses in more remote increase the number of women on boards and to increase areas. They are often incredibly business savvy and can the flow of women, so that we can bring new blood on make a real success of it. to the boards of Britain’s businesses. 17. [902150] Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab): Bank Lending Many women see their careers stall when they become pregnant. The Equality and Human Rights 7. Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab): Commission is carrying out a welcome, if belated, Whether net lending to businesses by banks has risen in inquiry into pregnancy discrimination, but it will be any of the last 24 months. [902136] many months before we have the findings. In the meantime, is the Equality Advisory Support Service The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills monitoring the number and nature of pregnancy and (Vince Cable): The answer is yes. The most recent data maternity-related queries so that the Minister can take from the Bank of England show that net lending to early action on systemic patterns of discrimination? small and medium-sized enterprises was positive in March, June and November, and the Bank of England’s most Jenny Willott: As the hon. Lady undoubtedly knows, recent “Trends in Lending” and “Credit Conditions” it is about 10 years since the last research was done to reports show that confidence is beginning to return, look properly at the rate of discrimination against helped by interventions such as the British business women as a result of pregnancy. That 2005 report bank. showed that about 30,000 women had lost their jobs as Alex Cunningham: According to the chamber of a result of pregnancy. As the hon. Lady has said, the commerce, unemployment in the north-east has gone Government have commissioned the EHRC to do a up by 1,000 in the past quarter and by 16,000 in the past proper piece of research to identify what the situation is year, of whom 13,000 are women. We agree that small now, and we hope that will give us a good idea of what and medium-sized businesses should be driving the needs to be done. It is clear that discrimination against economy up and unemployment down, but I am told women on the basis of pregnancy is completely illegal, that many in my region see confusing Government and it also makes terribly bad business sense for businesses schemes and the banks as failing to give them the help across the country.This Government want to do something and resources they need. What specific things will the to ensure that we get rid of that type of discrimination. Secretary of State do to help people in the north-east and let our people share in the so-called upturn? Mr Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con): Will the Minister join me in congratulating a constituent of mine, Jennifer Vince Cable: Anybody who looks at yesterday’s Davies, who has set up a small company called Get employment figures will realise that we are in a very Customised, which produces a range of customised positive trend on employment—far in excess of what products? She is going from strength to strength, not was predicted. Specifically in relation to the north-east, simply because of her determination and dedication, the hon. Gentleman will know that the main mechanism but because of the benefits she has received from a the Government use to support jobs and companies is Government-backed start-up loan. the regional growth fund, and I think that the north-east has received more regional growth fund support than Jenny Willott: I am very glad to hear of the success of almost any other part of the country. some of the start-up loans provided by this Government, and that the right hon. Gentleman has been able to Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): Does the identify an example in his constituency. Businesses across Secretary of State agree that as businesses expand and the country are going extremely well as a result of get more sales, they generate more cash, so we would support from this Government. Another scheme that not necessarily expect net lending to go up? 429 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 430

Vince Cable: That is certainly a factor. Indeed, many over the past year, UK Trade & Investment has helped individual companies—quite apart from the banks—have more than 30,000 businesses to export; and, in April become highly risk-averse, but I do not doubt that the this year, a new employer allowance will cut £2,000 from supply of credit is a serious problem. That is why we the national insurance bill of every company in the have made interventions, such as the British business country. bank, that are already making a significant difference. Mark Pawsey: Located at the crossroads of the UK 19. [902152]Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/ motorway network, Rugby is a great place to do business. Co-op): May I tell the Secretary of State that in Our excellent small businesses can benefit from the Yorkshire, too, small and medium-sized businesses in initiatives that the Minister has outlined. What would particular find it difficult to borrow money from he say to small businesses that want to grow as the conventional banks, which is why they increasingly economy expands, but are unable to find larger premises look to crowdfunding for finance? Has he seen that because many of the older buildings have been demolished Nicola Horlick has set up a new organisation to get and speculative development of the type they need has into the crowdfunding market, because she too believes not taken place? that conventional banks do not respond fast enough or efficiently enough? Matthew Hancock: Ensuring that the commercial property market works effectively is an important part Vince Cable: The hon. Gentleman is quite right. of reforming the banking system and getting it back on Indeed, one of the more encouraging signs over the past its feet after the crisis. That market is one of the main year is that unconventional forms of lending, such as routes through which we can open up more development crowdfunding, are becoming increasingly common. The and ensure that there is more capacity, so that when Government are supporting two of the main schemes small businesses want to expand, they have the physical that operate on a peer-to-peer lending basis. Lending is space in which to do so. expanding very rapidly in that sector for the small and medium-sized companies that need it. Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con): Small businesses on Worcester’s High street are looking forward to the Life Sciences Sector employment allowance and to the generous rebate on business rates that was announced in the autumn statement. 8. Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con): What support Will the Minister join me in urging Worcester’s Labour-led he is providing to the life sciences sector. [902139] city council not to put up parking charges by 10%, which would be a kick in the teeth for the High street? The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts): We are supporting this key sector through our Matthew Hancock: Ensuring that any agency of life sciences and agri-tech strategies, which back research Government or any council can live within its means is and development and promote manufacturing. Since a crucial part of good governance in these difficult the Prime Minister launched our strategy two years ago, times. The approach that the Government have taken is industry has announced investment of £2 billion, which to do that through making savings, difficult as it is. That is a vote of confidence in what we are doing. is clearly working and I recommend it to the Labour-led council in Worcester. Julian Sturdy: I welcome the Government’s commitment to encouraging the nation’s agri-tech industry and to Manufacturing recognising the importance of food security. The Minister and the Secretary of State will no doubt be aware of York and north Yorkshire’s huge potential to become a 10. Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con): What assessment global leader in food manufacturing, agri-tech and he has made of innovation in the UK manufacturing biorenewables industries. As such, will the Minister sector. [902141] clarify whether there are any plans to announce further catapult centres in this field? The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts): Manufacturing businesses are among the most Mr Willetts: There is a lot of interest in our new innovative in the UK. In 2012, they spent £12 billion on centres for agricultural innovation. We expect to announce research and development. We are investing in R and D the bidding process for the first one in the spring and we alongside them. In particular, we are backing eight will consult on themes for the other centres. I congratulate great technologies that are shaping the industries of the my hon. Friend on reminding us of the case for York as future. a possible centre. Of course, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was brought up there, but we will try Laura Sandys: The Government focus a lot on labour not to allow that to affect our decision. productivity, but what support are they giving to innovation in resource productivity, which accounts for two thirds Small Businesses of the costs in manufacturing?

9. Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con): What steps he is Mr Willetts: I congratulate my hon. Friend on the taking to support small businesses. [902140] interesting and imaginative work she is doing on this subject with other hon. Friends. Through our support The Minister for Skills and Enterprise (Matthew Hancock): for R and D—notably but not solely through our catapult We are passionate supporters of small businesses. centres—we are rewarding innovation that ensures that More than 12,000 start-up loans have been approved; businesses operate with lower overheads. 431 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 432

National Minimum Wage predecessor, have followed the advice of the Low Pay Commission. The levels that have been set reflect that 11. Andrew Griffiths (Burton) (Con): What his policy independent advice. is on the national minimum wage. [902142] Female Entrepreneurs 15. Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): What his policy is on the national minimum wage. [902148] 13. Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab): What recent estimate he has made of the number of female entrepreneurs. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [902144] (Vince Cable): Our aim is to maximise the wages of the low paid without damaging their employment prospects. TheMinisterforSkillsandEnterprise(MatthewHancock): We fully support the work of the independent Low Pay There are now a record 4.9 million businesses in the Commission in framing the pay rate recommendations UK, and we estimate that 880,000 of them are led by for 2014. I have also asked it to consider the conditions women, which is 18% of the total. That demonstrates that would be needed for faster, above inflation, increases the opportunity for this country, should we manage to in the national minimum wage. get that proportion up.

Andrew Griffiths: I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s Lyn Brown: Evidence shows that companies with announcement of his support for raising the national more women in positions of power outperform their minimum wage, which would be of huge benefit to the rivals. Does the Minister agree that we cannot afford lowest paid in Burton and Uttoxeter, and across the not to make progress in securing more women in positions country. Does the Secretary of State accept that it of power? If so, what will he do about it if companies would also place extra costs on business, particularly on do not hear him asking them nicely? small business? Will he consider what could be done to reduce business taxes and regulatory burdens to help Matthew Hancock: I, too, have seen the research those businesses pay for an increase in the minimum showing that companies with women at the top tend to wage? perform better than those that have only men. That balance in the boardroom is vital, and I am a strong Vince Cable: Yes, of course we are conscious of the supporter of the agenda the hon. Lady promotes. More extra cost that would fall on business. That is why the than 4,000 start-up loans have gone to women, and we Low Pay Commission tries to make a balanced judgment are bringing in a new partner directed precisely at between the impact on employment and the increase in people who are returning to work after having children. earnings for workers. It must be left to make its judgments For the bigger picture, ensuring that we have more and its independence must be respected. On the tax women on boards is a campaign we are working on implications, given that the Chancellor is now heavily across the Government. involved in this proposal and supportive of it, I am sure that he will be helpful on that front as well. Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): The start-up loans scheme has been the most monumental success, Sir Tony Baldry: Some 14 million people are on the but many female entrepreneurs ask me for more focused minimum wage, most of whom work in retail, hospitality sectoral mentoring as part of that scheme. May I encourage or cleaning. They earn just over £12,000 a year and are the Minister to promote that as he develops the scheme hard-working people. It is rightly the ambition of the further? coalition to make work pay more than benefit. Does my right hon. Friend imagine that anyone thinks that an Matthew Hancock: A scheme exactly like the one my above-inflation increase in the minimum wage would hon. Friend calls for is coming his way very soon. not pay for itself and should not be available to help those who are working hard? Apprenticeships (Minimum Wage)

Vince Cable: My right hon. Friend reflects the thinking 16. Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab): What recent that framed the advice I gave to the Low Pay Commission. estimate he has made of the number of apprentices Indeed, such thinking is not merely attractive in that it being paid at a rate below the apprenticeship minimum gives an incentive for people to work and improve their wage. [902149] earnings, but it has positive implications for public finances. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Jenny Willott): The Government Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab): The have zero tolerance for employers who break the law, Government would have us believe that they are now which is why we have introduced a range of enhanced great supporters of the national minimum wage, yet we enforcement measures to crack down on rogue employers. know that many sitting on the Government Benches HMRC prioritises apprentice enforcement cases, and today voted against it in 1997. If the national minimum the Government have overseen one of the most successful wage is so important to the coalition, why have the expansions of apprenticeships with around 1.5 million Government allowed its value to fall by 5% since the apprenticeship starts in England since 2010. election? Julie Hilling: Does the Minister agree it is worrying Vince Cable: The real value of the minimum wage that the proportion of apprentices who are not being started to fall under my predecessors in the wake of the paid the apprentice minimum wage has increased to financial crisis, and on each occasion, I, like my Labour more than one in four? What action is she taking to 433 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 434 clamp down on rising non-compliance of employers Karen Lumley: Will my right hon. Friend join me in with the apprentice national minimum wage, which is congratulating Bee Design Consultancy, which I visited increasing under her watch? last Friday in my constituency? In the past few years, it has gone from having two employees to 19, and it now Jenny Willott: The hon. Lady is right and the exports its skills all over the world, recently to Lamborghini Government are also concerned about the level of non- in Italy. I invite him to come to Redditch to visit the compliance. Since 1 July, HMRC has been prioritising company next time he is in the west midlands. complaints from apprentices about non-payment of the national minimum wage, and we are ensuring that every Vince Cable: I would be delighted to come to my hon. single case is investigated. We also started an awareness Friend’s constituency and share that success. It is not campaign in November that targets schools, colleges just about mainstream car producers, but specialists, as and jobcentres and so on, so that those starting she describes. apprenticeships are aware of what they are entitled to. From 1 October the skills Minister has been writing to Mr Chuka Umunna (Streatham) (Lab): The Secretary all apprentices starting a Government-funded scheme of State talked about the importance of strengthening to ensure that they know what they are entitled to and the national minimum wage, which Labour established that businesses know what they must pay, so that we in office to secure a fairer deal for workers. With that in reduce non-compliance. mind, does he agree that for an employer to mislead workers into purchasing personal accident insurance, Reshoring the charges for which would take workers’ pay under the minimum and the purchase of which is not necessary 18. Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con): What given employers’ own insurance cover, would be completely assessment he has made of the potential for reshoring indefensible and possibly unlawful? and import substitution in the UK economy. [902151] Vince Cable: Yes, I agree that that would be indefensible The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David and I think it is unlawful. I have been advised that this Willetts): There is great potential for business reshoring practice has happened. The relevant body, the employment to Britain. We surveyed manufacturing small and medium- agency standards inspectorate, is investigating individual sized enterprises and found that 11% have reshored cases and will take enforcement action. If it proves to be some production to the UK in the past 12 months. The a widespread practice, there will clearly be a case for a Automotive Council has identified £3 billion of additional broadly based inquiry. sourcing opportunities. Businesses are bringing activities back to Britain as we become a more flexible and Mr Umunna: I asked the question because it is precisely competitive economy. what employment agencies employing workers on, or close to, the minimum wage appear to have been doing. Richard Graham: I believe there is more we can do to I have been passed evidence that suggests Blue Arrow, help reshoring, for example by making cash contributions Staffline, Acorn, Taskmaster, Randstad and Meridian, to regional growth funds, cutting business rates locally employment agencies employing more than 100,000 for manufacturers bringing back jobs and adding reshoring workers, have been mis-selling personal accident insurance to the UK Trade & Investment job description. Does to workers which they arguably do not need and from the Minister agree that on import substitution there is a which those agencies have been profiteering. There is real opportunity to encourage supply chains to get local even a company, Gee 7 Group, which specialises in suppliers to compete for business? For example, putting together these dubious arrangements for agencies. Gloucestershire-based ADEY Professional Heating Further to my questions on this topic since October last Solutions recently gave a £1.5 million contract to Future year, will the Secretary of State now commit to holding Advanced Manufacture, business that was previously a full inquiry into this shabby practice? being done in China. Vince Cable: I will commit to ensuring that we have Mr Willetts: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We proper enforcement procedure. The hon. Gentleman are, of course, an open economy and we export and has listed more companies today. We will investigate welcome companies from abroad that invest here, but them and that may well merit a more broadly based we can do more to support our supply chains so that inquiry. I will say that the information he has made more prime manufacturers in Britain also purchase available, which I think has already been publicised, from SMEs across the country. Indeed, I remember depends on the information that has been obtained visiting the company to which he refers. It is an excellent from a whistleblower in a company. The Government’s example of what we are talking about. reforms will strengthen the rights of whistleblowers and put them and others in a stronger position. The hon. Topical Questions Gentleman has identified a legitimate case of abuse and I recognise that we have to deal with it. T1. [902153] Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con): If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities. T2. [902154] Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con): Will the Minister outline the work the Government are doing to The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and increase the number of engineers who will be needed to Skills (Vince Cable): My Department is concerned with work in the energy sector in Suffolk and Norfolk, and the promotion of growth, recovery and a rebalanced to build on the excellent work being done by Lowestoft economy. college? 435 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 436

TheMinisterforSkillsandEnterprise(MatthewHancock): The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Yes, I am a great supporter of Lowestoft college, which Willetts): There are of course no caps on the number of it was a pleasure to visit last year with my hon. Friend. legitimate, properly qualified students who can come to It has a centre for the promotion of engineering and study in Britain, and I take every opportunity to visit training in the offshore industry, which is so important India, as does the Prime Minister, to communicate that to the town, and I will do everything I can to support it. message there. Properly qualified Indian students are welcome here. T4. [902157] Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): Blacklisting is a scourge of any civilised society. Will the Secretary T8. [902161] Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab): of State guarantee to the House that the confidential The Financial Times this morning quotes a Treasury documents currently being withheld by the Government spokesman as saying that an interest rate rise is relating to the Shrewsbury 24 dispute in 1973 do not “not something we are worried about” include extensive details relating to individuals who and a “sign of success”. Does the Secretary of State have been blacklisted and the companies operating this concur with that view? very sharp practice? Vince Cable: Fortunately, my many responsibilities Vince Cable: We have debated this issue in the House do not include the setting of interest rates. I am happy before—I think the hon. Gentleman spoke on it, and I to leave that to the Governor of the Bank of England, responded—and we take it very seriously. I have had who has made an admirable impression. conversations with the Information Commissioner to ensure that the injustices of the past are properly dealt T6. [902159] Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) with, and as I have said to the hon. Gentleman and the (Con): Did the science Minister hear the excellent Opposition spokesman, if Members have more concrete Radio 4 programme about Malvern’s cyber-security evidence that has not been properly investigated, they hub, and will he clear his diary to come and open the should bring it directly to me. private sector-led national cyber-skills centre in Malvern?

T3. [902155] Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and Mr Willetts: My hon. Friend is a great advocate for East Thurrock) (Con): Suppliers to top-tier Government the Malvern cyber-security hub, and I do indeed very contractors still complain that payments made under much hope to visit it. I am sure it is well worth a visit. the prompt payment code are not forthcoming. What more can the Government do to improve the situation T9. [902162] Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) and release billions of pounds back into the economy to (Lab): Is the Secretary of State aware that all the new support our long-term economic plan? oil and gas platform construction projects for this year have been either cancelled or postponed, which will Matthew Hancock: The problems of people failing have a devastating effect on employment in my either to make prompt payments or to honour payment constituency and others in the north-east, as well as terms—two related, but slightly different points—need those in Scotland? Will he, together with the Secretary to be addressed. They are largely problems that negatively of State for Energy and Climate Change, take affect small companies, and we are currently consulting immediate steps to address this matter? on how radical we need to be to get the balance right and address them. Vince Cable: There is an enormous amount of investment in the North sea—about £13 billion last year, which was T7. [902160] Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) a big increase. One of my and my colleagues’ objectives, (Lab): Will the Secretary of State confirm that business through the industrial strategy, is to ensure that as investment has flatlined over the last year and that this much of the supply chain as possible originates in the is one of the major causes of Britain’s worsening UK, and we are working with the industry on that. I productivity problem? What are he and the Government frequently meet oil companies and fabricators to try to going to do about it? progress that.

Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) (LD): I wholly support Vince Cable: As everybody acknowledges, business the Government’s move to increase the education leaving investment has been badly hit since the financial crisis, age to 18, but while the Department for Education but with the economy rapidly recovering, I think we all budget is protected, the further education budget, which expect—and the surveys suggest—that there will be a comes under the Department for Business, Innovation movement forward in terms of business investment, and Skills and which will now be educating far more once capacity has been fully utilised. people up to 18 than schools, is not. This will put a huge strain on FE budgets. Will the responsible BIS Minister T5. [902158] Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con): The talk to the Secretary of State for Education to ask for number of students coming from India has dropped by assistance? 25% since the new restrictions were introduced, which means we have fallen below the United States as Matthew Hancock: I frequently talk to the Secretary destination of choice. What is my right hon. Friend of State for Education. The change to funding for doing to ensure that we attract the brightest and the 18 year olds was not one made lightly; dealing with best to our universities for the best education in the the deficit requires difficult decisions. We published world? the impact assessment on the consequences, which 437 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 438 show that disadvantaged students are not affected John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): The Minister disproportionately. If we did not have a budget deficit confirmed just a few minutes ago that women who of £100 billion, life would undoubtedly be easier. become pregnant can and do face discrimination at work. Why, then, are the Government going to charge Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab): Queen those women £1,200 to go to an industrial tribunal? Victoria was on the throne when the Dunlop Motorsport factory first produced wooden wheels and then rubber The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, tyres in Erdington. Now, 125 years of history and 300 Innovation and Skills (Jenny Willott): I am disappointed highly skilled jobs are at risk. Jaguar Land Rover needs that this figure is being bandied around yet again. It the land for its welcome expansion. Birmingham city does not cost women more than £1,000 to go to a council has identified an alternative site about three tribunal. It costs only £250 to start a claim, and most miles away. But the global board, based in Ohio, has yet cases are finalised well before a hearing. For those who to commit to Birmingham and Britain—with only nine end up going to a hearing, fee remission applies in many months left before the lease runs out. In thanking the cases, and if the women win their case, costs are often Secretary of State for the welcome steps he has already awarded against their former employers. It does not taken, may I ask whether he will convene a top-level cost what the hon. Gentleman suggests, it is scaremongering meeting with Goodyear Dunlop, involving both him by Labour Members, and I am concerned that this will and me, so that we can get a decision made that a great put women off taking cases against their employers piece of our manufacturing history remains part of a when they have been unfairly discriminated against. great manufacturing future in this country? Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): On the Secretary Vince Cable: I am well aware of this issue and its of State’s undoubtedly enjoyable trip to meet my hon. importance to British manufacturing, and, indeed, to Friend the Member for Redditch (Karen Lumley), will Birmingham. I would be happy, as I am sure would the he break his journey in Wellingborough so that I can Minister of State, to meet the key people in order to show him the success of local businesses? More importantly, make sure that we get the right decision. this would not cost the taxpayer a penny because both Wellingborough council and East Northamptonshire Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con): Given the council have free car parking, which encourages local enthusiasm of both the public and employees for buying business. If possible, I look forward to seeing him soon. shares in Royal Mail, will the Secretary of State look at what other assets in the public sector could be successfully Vince Cable: I should be delighted to go to transferred to the private sector? Wellingborough. Indeed, I should like to make the visit Vince Cable: Asset sales are an important part of a political one as well, and, on behalf of my Department, Government economic policy. They have been very to express my appreciation of someone who has given [Laughter.] successful in raising cash and enabling the Government so much support to the coalition. to invest more than would otherwise be the case. We approach this on a practical basis, aiming to get value Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab): Last year, for money for the taxpayer. Sheffield Hallam university received £6.9 million as part of its share of the student opportunity fund. That Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab): Will the not only helped it to recruit 30% of its undergraduate Secretary of State update us on his latest decision on intake from low-income households—a commendable article 7 of the proposed EU consumer products safety achievement—but to engage in critical retention work regulations on origin marking, which, if agreed, would with the most disadvantaged learners. Yesterday, in the mean that quality ceramics made in Stoke-on-Trent Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, the Secretary would be labelled “Made in the UK”? Is it not time that of State agreed with me that the fund’s work would be we put an end to misleading consumer product marking? damaged if its resources were cut. Can the Minister reassure the House that that will not happen? Vince Cable: I thank the hon. Lady and her colleagues from the potteries who have been to see me about this Mr Willetts: We certainly understand the value of the specific issue. Apparently, there was a meeting of what I work of the student opportunity fund. Indeed, I have think is called COREPER on Monday, but no agreement visited Sheffield Hallam university and have seen the was reached. There is a divided view on the role of excellent work that it does. mandatory regulation to deal with this problem. I take a close interest in this matter, and I will follow it up. Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): As the Prime Minister’s recent excellent trip to China has Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): For the 150,000 shown, there are phenomenal opportunities for Britain posties who are now shareholders in Royal Mail, will to trade with the Chinese. May I urge the Department the Secretary of State or the Post Office Minister tell us to continue to lobby for the simplification of visas for what the average value of their individual shareholdings Chinese visitors and entrepreneurs? was at flotation and what their average value is now? Vince Cable: Yes, and we will do so. I understand that The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation my colleague the Home Secretary has already introduced and Skills (Michael Fallon): It has undoubtedly increased, a revamped system which is much faster and which and we should all welcome that, particularly the gives those who have secured British visas speedy access commitment of Royal Mail employees to the future to the Schengen countries. We are very conscious of the success of the company. Perhaps I shall write to my importance of Chinese visitors, and we will do our best hon. Friend with the exact information he requests. to make it clear that they are welcome. 439 Oral Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Oral Answers 440

Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/ Hackney who are concerned about the matter, to discuss Co-op): Two able pupils at a Hackney secondary school how we can tackle it and ensure that there is proper in one of the most deprived parts of my constituency social mobility in this country? have been offered a place at a good university on Mr Willetts: I should be happy to meet the hon. Lady condition that they secure two As and a B in their to discuss the matter, but let me make two things clear. A-levels. The university is willing to negotiate on those First, universities decide their own admissions criteria, grades, but will not discuss their C grades in GCSE which is right, and secondly, as we increase the number maths: they will need B grades. If they were foreign of students and remove artificial caps, it will be possible students, they would be given coaching by the university. for universities to recruit all the students who are qualified Will the Minister meet me, and some of the people in to benefit from going to university. 441 23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 442

Business of the House pausing and rewriting Bills, so the House could be forgiven for thinking the Immigration Bill will look very different when it finally reappears in the Chamber next 10.32 am week. I hear that rebel amendments are already being Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab): Will the Leader of tabled, and the Government’s highly unusual decision the House please give us the suddenly changed business to table the Bill on a Thursday means a maximum of for next week? only four and a half hours will be available for that crucial debate. Will the Leader of the House confirm The Leader of the House of Commons (Mr Andrew that that is the case, and tell us whether the amendments Lansley): The business for next week will be as follows: mean that they have done a behind-the-scenes deal with their rebels? Will he also guarantee that Labour’s important MONDAY 27 JANUARY—Consideration in Committee amendments and new clauses on private landlords, on and remaining stages of the European Union (Approvals) the minimum wage and on abolition of appeals tribunals Bill [Lords], followed by a general debate on the law on will have time to be heard in that shortened debate? dangerous driving. The subject of the general debate was determined by the Backbench Business Committee. Last week the Leader of the House refused to rule out scheduling the Queen’s Speech during pre-election TUESDAY 28 JANUARY—Second Reading of the Consumer purdah, giving the impression that the Government are Rights Bill. still considering ignoring conventions and politicising WEDNESDAY 29 JANUARY—Opposition Day [19th Allotted the Queen’s Speech. Is the Leader of the House finally Day]. There will be a debate on the UNHCR Syrian willing to rule that out, or is there another reason for refugee programme, followed by a debate on teacher him being so coy? Some reports have suggested the state qualifications. Both debates will arise on an official opening might be delayed until well into June because Opposition motion, and will be followed by, if necessary, the coalition parties have no idea what their legislative consideration of Lords amendments. programme will be for the final year of this Parliament. THURSDAY 30 JANUARY—Remaining stages of the Could the Leader of the House tell us what is actually Immigration Bill. going on? Does he now regret the Government’s rush to FRIDAY 31 JANUARY—The House will not be sitting. legislate for a five-year Parliament, and why did the Government settle on five years as the appropriate The provisional business for the following week will length for a fixed term given that it is obvious that they include the following: have nothing to do in the final year but fight and fall MONDAY 3FEBRUARY—Second Reading of the out? Deregulation Bill. This feels increasingly like a zombie Government TUESDAY 4FEBRUARY—Consideration of Lords marking time to the next general election. We all know amendments, followed by business to be nominated by this coalition of convenience is heading rapidly towards the Backbench Business Committee. an inevitable and messy divorce. After all if they are not WEDNESDAY 5FEBRUARY—Opposition Day [20th Allotted fighting each other, they are fighting among themselves. Day]. There will be a debate on an Opposition motion; Last week 95 Tory Back Benchers signed a letter demanding subject to be announced. that the Prime Minister deliver an impossible veto on all THURSDAY 6FEBRUARY—A general debate on Scotland’s EU legislation. This week they were denounced as place in the UK, followed by a general debate on “thick” by an unnamed Tory Minister, and The Times international wildlife crime. The subjects of both debates claimed to have uncovered a fifth column of Tory MPs were determined by the Backbench Business Committee. who want the Prime Minister to lose the election. On top of that, the hon. Member for Loughborough (Nicky FRIDAY 7FEBRUARY—The House will not be sitting. Morgan), a Treasury Minister, complained that the I should also inform the House that the business in Tory message was far too negative, confirming what we Westminster Hall for 30 January and 6 February will be all know already: the nasty party is well and truly back. as follows: By comparison, the Liberal Democrats have been THURSDAY 30 JANUARY—A debate on the manifesto having a quiet time. The Deputy Prime Minister has “The 1001 Critical Days”and early childhood development. been denounced by one of his most eminent colleagues THURSDAY 6FEBRUARY—A debate on the third report for acting like a mixture of Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell of the Communities and Local Government Committee, and North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un rolled into “Community Budgets”, and the Government’s response, one, and Liberal Democrat peers seem to think the followed by a debate on fire sprinkler week. party is in need of a truth and reconciliation process similar to that used in post-apartheid South Africa. It is Ms Eagle: I thank the Leader of the House for clear that the Deputy Prime Minister has no authority announcing yet another agenda that is jam-packed with over his own party, so can we have a debate on whether thrilling Government business. I wonder what on earth he is capable of helping to run the country? he will do with all the endless spare time when the Not only have this Government run out of ideas for Backbench Business Committee has used up its allocation future business, they are running out of ways of hiding of 35 days. their record, too. This week alone we have learned that I note that the elusive Immigration Bill has made a they are sitting on a report on EU migration because it sudden and dramatic reappearance this morning. After does not support the nasty caricatures demanded by nine weeks of radio silence, we now have an eleventh-hour Lynton Crosby to fit in with his nasty election campaign change to Government business, which The Spectator plans. We have had to correct their misleading figures seems to have managed to find out about before anyone on flood defence spending. The crime figures have lost else. I know the Leader of the House is an expert at their kite mark because they cannot be trusted. This 443 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 444 morning the National Audit Office has said the NHS The shadow Leader of the House did not tell us waiting list figures cannot be trusted either, and there is anything much about the recent good news. She might still no sign of the reports on food banks, on garden have asked me for a debate on some of the forecasting cities and the risk assessment for Help to Buy. This issues. It is quite interesting. We have heard the IMF Government have been ticked off for fiddling the figures forecast that Britain will be the fastest- growing major more times than the Chancellor has had to amend his European economy this year. The OECD forecasts likewise. plans to balance the books. They have sat on more Business confidence, according to a Lloyds TSB survey reports than the Liberal Democrats have sat on fences, this month, has reached its strongest level since January and they have flip-flopped so many times that I keep 1994. British Chambers of Commerce referred to thinking summer has come early—although if I listen manufacturing confidence and intentions being at to UKIP’s flood warnings I now realise why summer their highest for several years. This week we had the will never come for me. unemployment data: unemployment is down to 7.1%, down 0.8 points since the election. The employment Mr Lansley: I am grateful to the shadow Leader for level is above 30 million. It would have been interesting her response. I am sure that the sun shines in many for the shadow Leader of the House at least to have places in this country, contrary to the views of at least suggested a debate about forecasting since it contrasts one member of UKIP. with the forecast of the Leader of the Opposition that our economic plan would lead to the disappearance of It is curious—the shadow Leader asked me last week a million jobs. On the contrary, we can see that it has led and the week before to bring forward the remaining to the success of our economic plan and of enterprise in stages of the Immigration Bill; this week I have done it this country. and she complains. We are just bringing forward Government business. I explained previously that we The shadow Leader of the House asked about crime have been dealing with other Bills and now we are stats and NHS waiting data. The crime stats this morning proceeding with the Immigration Bill. I am afraid she show that crime levels are down to the lowest level for chose rather a bad day to make a speech written in 32 years. The shadow Leader knows perfectly well that advance saying that the Government lacked ideas for in addition to those crime statistics, the British crime future business when today we are publishing the Consumer survey shows a similar substantial reduction in crime, Rights Bill and the Deregulation Bill and I have announced which shows that our police reforms are working and that we will debate those two Bills and the Immigration crime is falling. As for NHS waiting times, she will Bill next week. I am afraid that her prior argument has recall that at the time of the last election 18,458 people been thoroughly disproved. had waited over a year for their treatment. Now that number has come down to 218. We have dealt with the The hon. Lady asked about the Queen’s Speech— people who are waiting the longest. We have reduced by 35,000 the number waiting beyond 18 weeks, and the Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central) (Lab): What average time that people wait is still low and stable. about the rebel amendments? Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con): The Secretary of Mr Lansley: I thought I had answered the point on State for Transport has not made a statement today on the Immigration Bill. We have a running commentary the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment relating to from the silent one. Sometimes on days when we have HS2, which many people will find surprising. An important remaining stages we lose time as a consequence of aspect of that judgment pertains to the legislative supremacy urgent questions or statements, but we will endeavour of Parliament, which is being carefully examined at the to do whatever we can to avoid any additional statements moment. In that context, will the Leader of the House beyond the business question next Thursday. Of course, consider giving time to my own Bill, the United Kingdom there will be opportunity through the usual channels to Parliament (Sovereignty) Bill, in order to resolve those discuss the timing of debates. As the Opposition will questions? know, we always attempt to ensure that subjects can be debated properly. Mr Lansley: The Supreme Court handed down its judgment on those cases yesterday. It found unanimously I told the shadow Leader of the House last week that in favour of the Government and rejected the challenges last year I announced the date of the Queen’s Speech on to HS2, both in relation to the strategic environmental 7 March. We are still in January; we are before the point assessment directive and on the question whether the at which on recent precedent the date of the Queen’s Bill process breached the environmental impact assessment Speech is announced. When I can, I will tell the House directive. So the Government won both those cases. the date of the Queen’s Speech. All this speculation is literally nothing more than that. Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire) (Lab): Given The shadow Leader of the House will understand that next week’s Back-Bench business has been moved that I will not comment on her points about the Liberal at extremely short notice, will the Leader of the House Democrats. I do not know whether she was commending work closely with the Members affected to ensure that Thomas Cromwell. Having read “Wolf Hall” and “Bring their debates can take place as soon as possible, and Up the Bodies”, we have not reached the point yet at perhaps look into giving them time on a day other than which Thomas Cromwell became the Lord Privy Seal a Thursday as compensation? and, speaking as the Lord Privy Seal, I am quite looking forward to that moment for a little potential guidance. Mr Lansley: I am very happy to discuss that matter It might give me some forewarning of the point at further with the Chair of the Backbench Business which I might be the subject of what we might term my Committee, although I am sure she is aware that we own Henry VIII clause. have made a day available for Back-Bench business each 445 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 446

[Mr Lansley] Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab): Two weeks ago, I asked the Leader of the House to make a statement week recently. We are also increasingly adopting the on when the Government would publish their report on approach of trying to identify occasions on which there food banks. Given the fact that it has still not been is scope for holding a Back-Bench-led debate on other published, may we have an urgent statement to tell us days in the week, even though it is not the principal when the report will be made public? business on that day. That has been quite successful in recent weeks. Mr Lansley: I confess that I do not have a publication date, but I will, of course, speak to my right hon. Friend Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and if he The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee can update the House, I am sure he will. recently reported on rural communities and highlighted the importance of bus travel in those areas. May we Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD): May we have a debate at the earliest opportunity on any legislative have a debate on the housing targets used by local changes that might be required to allow bus travellers— authorities? The housing targets used by Leeds city especially concessionary fare travellers—in rural areas council are being challenged, including by Dr Rachael to contribute to the cost of their bus service rather than Unsworth at Leeds university and Wharfedale and Airedale losing it completely following the withdrawal of the bus Review Development. May we debate whether the targets subsidy? are accurate before we see huge swathes of north Leeds and Wharfedale being built on? Mr Lansley: I cannot offer an immediate opportunity for a debate on that subject, although I recognise that it Mr Lansley: What my hon. Friend says is interesting. is an important one. We have recently had a more I will ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for general debate on rural communities, in which my hon. Communities and Local Government to look at it. One Friend was involved. I will none the less raise the issue of the essential things for local authorities to do, as part with my colleagues at the Department for Transport, in of the national planning policy framework, is to ensure the hope that they will be able to discuss it further with that they meet five years’ demand for housing in their her. areas. So what that demand is and what the targets ought to be are important questions, but of course, they Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab): Many can be challenged on appeal to the inspectorate if people were shocked by the recent report from the someone thinks that a local plan is inaccurate. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which showed that the majority of the people living in poverty in Britain were Mr Elfyn Llwyd (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC): Just in working families—6.7 million people. Is it not time before the Offender Rehabilitation Bill was considered we had a debate on the need for real action on low pay, on Report, the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the as Labour is proposing, given that, under this Government, hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy employment no longer appears to be a route out of Wright), met the Liberal Democrat group and warned poverty? them not to vote for any piloting of the procedures because they were too far advanced. At the end of last Mr Lansley: I think we all agree that the principal week, he slipped out a written statement to say that the route out of poverty is through work. The number of timeline has been set back two months. May we now workless households has gone down to its lowest ever have a debate in Government time on the Government’s level, and the number of people in work is now above lack of candour and complete incompetence with regard 30 million. People who are in work but low paid are to the Bill? increasingly seeing their tax burden coming down, because the personal tax allowance is now taking some 3 million Mr Lansley: The House has just debated the Offender people out of tax altogether. Rehabilitation Bill and these issues were discussed. My recollection is that, in particular, the issue was not a Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): The Leader of lack of time, but that the related piloting—for example, the House will know of the importance of rural broadband. in Peterborough—has illustrated the benefits of the May we have a debate on that issue? Also, does he share approach taken by my right hon. Friend the Secretary my surprise that Labour-led Telford and Wrekin council of State for Justice. has rejected the Government’s proposed co-funding for broadband in the area, given that Conservative-led Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con): Will my right hon. Shropshire council has embraced it, helping local residents Friend find time in the programme for a discussion on and businesses? provision for young people with dyslexia? The Government have gone a long way, and we are publishing a new code Mr Lansley: I completely concur with my hon. Friend of practice, but the issue is how things are working in on the importance of rural broadband, and I am surprised schools and getting early intervention to help those by what he says about the attitude of Telford and with dyslexia to be able to perform adequately in schools. Wrekin council. In my own constituency and elsewhere in Cambridgeshire, the Connecting Cambridgeshire Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend is absolutely right that campaign has a contract and is aiming for 98% superfast these are important issues. Indeed, there are often broadband coverage by the end of 2015 or early 2016. opportunities—I hope that they will continue—through Such coverage is tremendously important in rural areas, the Backbench Business Committee to discuss them. Of particularly for supporting the new enterprises that are course, in the wider sense for children with special setting up there. educational needs, the Children and Families Bill contains 447 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 448 important new provisions. It is in the House of Lords It would be worth exploring that, if the Leader of the now, so to that extent, we have debated it here. Some House could see his way to having a debate on the amendments might come from the House of Lords in matter. due course that will afford an opportunity to debate some of the issues that my hon. Friend raises, and I Mr Lansley: I cannot immediately promise a debate, hope that he has that chance. but the right hon. Gentleman raises an interesting issue. I know that my Treasury colleagues will always be Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab): May we have willing to discuss it with him, and I will encourage them an urgent debate on the complete failure of Capita in to respond to him on that subject. relation to personal independence payments? Many people have been waiting six or seven months for their Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con): assessments to get from Capita to the Department for As the number of people in employment rises and the Work and Pensions. The DWP helpline for MPs is in number of claimants falls—such progress has been despair. The Capita website, contact e-mail and telephone made in my constituency that it now has just 95 young numbers do not respond. What is happening to desperately people claiming jobseeker’s allowance—may we have a ill people is awful. The Secretary of State has said that debate about how we further target the benefits system his policies are about changing lives, not just saving to support people in getting back into work? money. They are changing lives, but not for the better, and he is certainly saving a lot of money from desperately ill people. Mr Lansley: I would welcome such a debate, and my hon. Friend is right to seek one. It would give us an opportunity to examine how the Work programme has, Mr Lansley: I cannot offer an immediate debate on according to industry figures, brought 444,000 people that, and the hon. Lady will know that questions to the into work; to look at how the youth claimant count has Secretary of State for Work and Pensions are— been reduced by 114,000 since the election; and to celebrate the one and two thirds million more private Mrs Moon: I asked a question during DWP questions. sector jobs created in this country since the last election.

Mr Lansley: Yes, exactly. Therefore, the next questions Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab): We are some way off. To be as helpful as I can to the hon. warned what the consequences would be of cutting Lady, I will ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of more than 10,000 front-line police officers. Today’s State to address to her specifically the points that she figures show that theft was up in 24 of the 43 force raises. areas, shoplifting was up in 28 and sexual crime was up in 40. Given those disturbing trends, taken together Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater and West Somerset) with today’s revelations that last year half a million (Con):Yesterday, we had a debate in Westminster Hall crimes were screened out and not even investigated, will about the situation in Somerset. People are now looking the Leader of the House agree to a debate on the at setting up gold command, which is one stage below growing consequences of the Government’s actions, as a major incident. Surely, the time has come to have a the thin blue line is stretched ever thinner? debate in the House on the Environment Agency and flooding throughout the United Kingdom. We cannot Mr Lansley: I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is go on, year on year, having a situation where emergency just in denial, as his party so often is on so many services are stretched and local councils are getting subjects. Both the crime statistics and the crime survey more stretched, yet we cannot get them to dredge rivers show that crime has fallen by more than 10% under this and live up to the job that they should be doing. Government, which makes us the safest we have been for decades. It shows that the Government’s reforms are Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend rightly raised this issue working and that police forces are rising to the challenge last week, and I was glad that the business gave him the of delivering savings while reducing crime. opportunity to raise it in Westminster Hall, as he says. I cannot offer him an immediate prospect of a debate, Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con): Empire, Golcar, but I know that we will discuss this matter with the Hand Drawn Monkey, Magic Rock, Milltown, Nook, Backbench Business Committee, because, as I said last Riverhead and Summer Wine are all microbreweries in week, Members from across the House will want to my constituency. They employ dozens of people, and debate it in the light of the exceptional weather conditions. export to Australia and eastern Europe. We had a I should say that in many cases they will want to do so debate earlier this week on pubcos, but may we please not least to express their appreciation of the success of have a debate on the role that microbreweries are playing the Environment Agency and emergency services, as in our booming food and drink exports? well as to identify where more needs to be done. Mr Lansley: It would be a joy to have a further Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP): May we debate; it seems that the Opposition day debate on have a debate in Government time on the operation of, pubcos the other day, for which we are grateful, has and criteria for inclusion in, the rural fuel rebate scheme, not assuaged the thirst for such discussion in this House. because, amazingly, despite Northern Ireland having My hon. Friend makes a good point, because the highest petrol and diesel prices in the UK—prices microbreweries are doing a fantastic thing in bringing are the highest in Europe in some parts of the Province—no innovation into an industry and really responding to part of Northern Ireland qualifies under the scheme? customer preference. It is now such a joy for beer 449 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 450

[Mr Lansley] and planning are partly an issue for the Welsh Assembly Government as well. None the less, I will raise it because drinkers as compared with the time when I was but a I know how important it is to his constituents. lad; I recall taking Watneys Red Barrel to a party, but that was a day in the past. Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Ind): May we have a debate on the state of Britain’s roads because they Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op): appear to be getting worse, especially in Lancashire and I very much welcome today’s short Backbench Business the Ribble Valley? Annually, local authorities pay Committee debate on Holocaust memorial day. However, £30 million in compensation to motorists, so motorists given continuing holocaust denial and increasing anti- themselves end up paying £2.8 billion in repairs because Semitic discourse, including the Anelka incident, may of the number of potholes and craters in the roads. A we have a debate on these issues in Government time? debate would enable us to focus on how much money is spent on the roads and to ensure that the money is spent Mr Lansley: The House is grateful to the Backbench equally in counties such as Lancashire, including in Business Committee for scheduling a debate this afternoon. rural areas such as the Ribble Valley. As I said last week, the recent European report highlighting the number of anti-Semitic incidents across Europe Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend knows that this Government does give rise for concern, and it is something that we have made available additional resources to assist highways should continue to debate. However, although one incident authorities to deal with potholes, and I hope that that is one too many, we can take some comfort from the is making a difference. None the less, it is a constant fact that there is a relatively low number of such incidents effort, not least because of some of the exceptional in this country. That means that communities here can weather conditions we have experienced this winter and feel relatively confident compared with those in other the previous one. European countries. Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab): Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con): I have been The Leader of the House may recall that during the contacted by several constituents who were the victims recent industrial dispute at the Grangemouth refinery of theft, so will a Minister to come to the Dispatch Box in Scotland, the Prime Minister, from the Dispatch Box, to make a statement on whether the Government will described as a rogue the then Unite union convenor, consider the introduction of digital monitoring of blue Stevie Dean. Since then, and following a police investigation, badges as part of a drive to tackle misuse and assist Mr Dean has been cleared of all the allegations levelled genuine users? against him. Will the Leader of the House arrange for the Prime Minister to come back to the Dispatch Box Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend makes an important and apologise to Mr Dean and his family? point. He will recall that the Disabled Persons’ Parking Badges Act 2013, which was piloted through this House Mr Lansley: Perhaps in the first instance, the Labour by my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown party would like to publish its own internal report (Simon Kirby), secured its Royal Assent about this time relating to the events in Falkirk and then we will see last year. The reforms to the blue badge scheme are now where we go from there. delivering some comprehensive changes, which will include a national shared database of all blue badge holders. John Glen (Salisbury) (Con): Tomorrow, stakeholders That will enable enforcement officers anywhere in the from across the south-west are meeting to discuss once country to use handheld devices to check badge details again the future of the A303. Will my right hon. Friend in real time against that nationwide database. I hope allow time for a statement to confirm that the work will that that will help in the issues that my hon. Friend expedite a solution as quickly as possible, take advantage raises. of the studies that have been undertaken over the past 20 years and ensure that Stonehenge and the stretch of Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) (Lab): Now that both coalition the A303 around it will not be forgotten or decoupled parties are in favour of new nuclear and offshore wind, from the work? may we have a debate in Government time on transmission and the national grid, so that the new connections can Mr Lansley: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for be looked at fairly and objectively when we are considering raising this matter with me again. As he says, a meeting subsea, underground and overground proposals? That is due to take place tomorrow with local authorities and is a serious issue to which the Government have not local enterprise partnerships to consider the issue. I can given much time or attention. tell him—I will ask my colleagues to follow up on this with him and other interested Members—that we recognise Mr Lansley: Yes, it is an important matter. It should the need to find solutions to the issues on the A303/A30/ be noted that this Government are now making progress A358 corridor. We commit to identifying and funding on the new nuclear build. About 10 years ago, the Trade solutions in the future and to ensure that we build on and Industry Committee, of which I was a member, previous and recent work, including that done by Somerset asked the previous Government for such a debate, but it county council and others, rather than starting from did not happen. They kept saying then that they were scratch. keeping the door open, but skills, opportunity and investment were leaving the country. Now they are Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab): coming back. It is an important matter, especially at Earlier this year, my local former Scottish National Wylfa in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. I will, if I party MSP, Mr Bill Walker, was convicted of 23 counts may, discuss it with my colleagues. Of course the grid of domestic abuse and one charge of breaking a frying 451 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 452 pan over his stepdaughter’s head. He was sentenced to Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): Tomorrow, the maximum sentence available, which was only one as the Leader of the House travels to Corby to support year, so the Scottish Parliament did not have the power the excellent Conservative candidate, Tom Pursglove, he automatically to expel him. Will the Leader of the will have to drive through my constituency. As he does, House ask the Cabinet Office to consider the outdated will he reflect on the fact that when Labour left power rule that someone must have a jail sentence of one year 2,757 people were unemployed and now fewer than and one day before they can be disqualified from this 2,000 are unemployed? Would it be possible to ensure place or any of the devolved Assemblies and Parliaments? that there is not a debate on the economy next week so that the Opposition are not embarrassed? Mr Lansley: Of course, these are matters for me. As regards this House, I would want to proceed on the Mr Lansley: I often drive through my hon. Friend’s basis of an understanding of consensus and I will be constituency, and I look forward to doing so to visit glad to discuss the question with colleagues, the shadow Corby in east Northamptonshire tomorrow evening. Of Leader of the House and others. In this House, we have course, the Opposition had an Opposition day available already seen—I hope that this would be reflected in to them next week but chose not to debate the recent other Parliaments—that when Members are convicted economic good news, so, as he correctly observes, they of serious offences, even if they have not necessarily are not willing or keen to be embarrassed. been given a sentence of more than 12 months, they have either resigned from the House or action has been Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) taken against them on a recommendation from the (Lab): May we have a statement on what plans the Standards Committee. Government have to support the north-east economy, in particular? Yesterday we saw that the north-east still has the highest level of unemployment in the country, Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con): with too many young people out of work and rising Wolverhampton central youth theatre is one of many levels of long-term unemployment. I wish Portsmouth organisations that will have its funding cut if well, but who in Government is going to get to grips Wolverhampton council moves £1.6 million from the with the challenge that we face in the north-east? voluntary sector budget. Given that last night Wolverhampton council deferred the decision, may we Hon. Members: They do not care. use this pause to have a debate on the importance of voluntary sector organisations and wider civil society? Mr Lansley: I hear the sedentary comments from the Opposition. Let me make it absolutely clear that we do Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend raises an important care. That is why we are pursuing a long-term economic point for his constituents, but there is a general point, plan which, among its many benefits, is getting many too. In many cases, local authorities are making effective more people into work, with 1.68 million private sector decisions about how they can reduce costs, increase jobs. We were left with an enormous deficit and we have efficiencies and maintain services for their public, but had to deal with that. We said at the outset that that they should never take the easy route out. They should would necessitate a reduction in public sector jobs. always look for the opportunity to reduce their costs Labour Members and the Leader of the Opposition while maintaining their ability to support the services said, “It will never happen. Jobs will be lost in the and expenditure that are of most importance to their public sector but the private sector could not possibly constituents. create equivalent numbers of jobs.” There are now four private sector jobs for every public sector job lost. The hon. Lady and other north-east MPs should be on their Ian Lucas (Wrexham) (Lab): There was a deeply feet extolling the successes in the north-east. This week, disturbing report on the “Today”programme this morning Nissan, with a new Qashqai model coming off its concerning Oakwood prison in Staffordshire, the largest production lines, is a fantastic example of the potential prison in the UK. In my constituency of Wrexham, an in this country and in the north-east to produce world- even bigger prison is planned by the Government but beating manufacturing. many major decisions concerning it have not yet been made. May we please have a debate so that we can Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con): consider prison capacity and the effectiveness of Oakwood Many local residents and members of Medway council prison and so that we know what the Government have have raised concerns about the proposed closure of A planned for my constituency? block, based at Medway hospital and run by Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, which Mr Lansley: I hope that the hon. Gentleman supports provides in-patient mental health care facilities. I know the decision made by this Government to establish a that the Government have done a lot on the provision of large new prison in Wrexham. On the specific question mental health care facilities across the country, but may of HMP Oakwood, he knows that the incident there I ask the Leader of the House for an urgent debate on was resolved successfully in the early hours of 6 January. such provision across the country, looking at levels of I cannot comment further on that particular issue, but in-patient and community-based treatment? he will know from what my colleagues have said that large category C prisons elsewhere in the prison estate Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend asks his question often operate very successfully. The number and type of at a good moment, not least because earlier this incidents Oakwood has experienced over the past six week my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister months are not notably different from those experienced published the Government’s update of the mental health by other such prisons. strategy, with some important further commitments on 453 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 454

[Mr Lansley] ensure that our laws and regulations properly protect the public, but the longer this particular matter takes to the availability of mental health services, especially the be resolved, the less likely that appears to be the case. ability for services to become more seamless at the point Will the Leader of the House ensure that we get the at which young people are treated as adults, which opportunity to debate the matter? makes a big difference. My hon. Friend raises an important local point. When the Secretary of State for Health Mr Lansley: I will, if I may, talk to my hon. Friend decided on 20 November last year to support the the pensions Minister so that he can update me. I Independent Reconfiguration Panel’s recommendation, cannot promise a debate, but I will, of course, make he made it clear that the matter should be allowed to sure that if there is anything we can do to assist in the proceed as soon as possible. Knowing my hon. Friend’s matter that the hon. Gentleman has rightly raised, we local hospitals, I think that, for example, there is a very will try to do so. good in-patient unit at Darent Valley.I hope his constituents will appreciate that there continue to be high-quality Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con): Could in-patient services locally. we have a long debate in Government time on jobs and growth? It would allow hon. Members on both sides of Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab): Today the House to highlight some of the remarkable statistics The Daily Telegraph reports the plight of my former in the current numbers, such as the fact that workless constituent, Mrs Afsana Lachaux, who is stranded in households are at a record low, that the number of Dubai having being abused by her former husband, children in absolute poverty is at a record low, that the who is now threatened with jail by the Dubai police and number of professional science and technical jobs are authorities. I have bid for an Adjournment debate on growing very fast, that long-term unemployment is this matter, and I am seeking a meeting with the relevant coming down and, above all, that, unlike the previous Minister at the Foreign Office. In the interim, may we Government, this Government are creating British jobs have a statement from the Foreign Office on the outcome for British workers. of the representations that have been made by our consular officials in Dubai to Foreign Office staff? Mr Lansley: I thought that was an excellent application for a debate and I am very grateful to my hon. Friend Mr Lansley: I hope that the hon. Gentleman might for it. Without repeating what she has rightly said is the have some success in his quest for a debate, because this basis for such a debate, it would, if we could find time is clearly a distressing matter for his constituents and for it, afford an opportunity to take particular note of their friends and families. I will of course talk to my her last point that, under the previous Government, in ministerial colleague at the Foreign and Commonwealth the five years up to the last general election the number Office, who will be in contact with the hon. Gentleman. of British people in a job dropped by 413,000, while the I hope, too, that if there are wider issues the Minister number of foreign workers in employment in this country will take whatever opportunity he can to update the went up by 736,000. By contrast, in the three years after House. the election, the number of British people in a job has risen by 538,000 and the number of foreign workers by Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con): Farmers in Staffordshire 247,000. That trend is, if anything, accelerating. According and other parts of the country who have seen their to the most recent figures from 2012-13, 90% of jobs pedigree herds slaughtered as a result of bovine TB face went to UK nationals, meaning 348,000 more British a double loss: the loss of their herds, into which they people in work and 26,000 additional foreign workers. put so much effort, and a loss of compensation, because they are compensated at an average level. May we have Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab): For more a debate on fair compensation for farmers who lose than two years I have been meeting Ministers and their cattle as a result of this terrible disease? industry experts to look in detail at the issue of internet trolling. Just this week we have seen further evidence of Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend will know that we are the inadequate response of social media sites to online doing everything we can to try to reduce the high racist and misogynist abuse. Will the Leader of the incidence of bovine TB. This is a very important issue House agree to a debate on internet trolling so that and whenever we debate the mechanisms of the badger Parliament can send a message to Facebook, Twitter cull we should never forget that it meets a very important and others that we are watching what they are doing purpose. I understand my hon. Friend’s point about and that thus far we are not impressed? compensation. I will raise it with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and ask Mr Lansley: I cannot immediately offer a debate, but him to respond to my hon. Friend. a lot of people have rightly been concerned about the character of internet trolling. I will, if I may, talk to my Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab): For some time I right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, have been working with the pensions Minister—the Media and Sport. The House has had some opportunities Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, to discuss the issue. We have focused in the past on the the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb)— danger to and exploitation of children, but there are and the Yorkshire Post to bring about a satisfactory wider issues such as balancing freedom of speech with conclusion to the Carrington Wire pension fund saga, the general legal basis on which people have a right not which affects hundreds of pensioners in Yorkshire, including to be abused. in my constituency. The case is important because it represents the way in which the Government protect Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Has my right hon. UK pension holders. I believe it is our responsibility to Friend seen my early-day motion 974? 455 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 456

[That this House recognises that Harlow Mecca Bingo study with the aim of putting a brand new Hindu free is one of the biggest bingo clubs in the country, with school on Whitchurch playing fields in my constituency. 54,000 members; notes that their staff are second-to-none; May we have an urgent debate on the principle of further notes that Harlow Mecca Bingo provides an important religious schools, particularly in relation to their impact role in Harlow’s community; acknowledges that despite on Britain, so that Britain’s 1.6 million Hindus have the being recognised as a soft form of gambling that plays an right to provide an education of their choice for their important social role within many local communities in children? the UK, bingo is subject to a gross profits tax of 20 per cent, as opposed to the 15 per cent charged on other forms Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend raises an important of gambling; and therefore urges the Government to point, and I wish him well with the plans that his reduce this tax to 15 per cent in line with other forms of constituents are putting together. As he will know, our gambling, to ensure that Harlow Mecca Bingo continues view is that there is a valuable long-standing tradition to have a strong future.] of faith schools in this country, and we support the Is my right hon. Friend aware that Harlow Mecca contribution that they make. They are often high- Bingo club has 54,000 members, that 100,000 people performing schools that are popular with parents, and have walked though its doors over the past year and many of them are therefore over-subscribed. Two Hindu that it has 10,000 active members? Will he do what he free schools have thus far been established—the Krishna can and arrange a debate on the “boost bingo” campaign, Avanti primary school in Leicester and the Avanti House so that we can secure a future for bingo clubs such as school in London, which opened in 2012. I hope that that in Harlow and ensure that they are on a level this continuing trend of support for faith schools will be playing field and not taxed at 20% when other forms of sustained. gambling are taxed at 15%? Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab): The Mr Lansley: Yes, I have seen early-day motion 974, in Leader of the House has rightly commended the work which my hon. Friend makes a point about Harlow of the emergency services in tackling flooding, and I Mecca Bingo, whose fame has spread far and wide. I particularly draw attention to the fire service. My local suspect that there are probably even people in South firefighters are somewhat bemused that they do not Cambridgeshire who go to Harlow to enjoy bingo. have a statutory duty to attend flooding incidents. May Before the 1997 general election, when you and I first we therefore have a debate on the implications of there entered the House, Mr Speaker, the Bingo Association being no statutory duty, so that we can ask the fire asked me whether I wanted to call the numbers at a Minister, the Under-Secretary of State for Communities bingo club in my constituency. Unfortunately, there was and Local Government, the hon. Member for Great no bingo club in my constituency, so I lost out on that Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), to explain why that is still one, and my hon. Friend therefore has the advantage of the position? me. I note that the fame of Harlow Mecca Bingo is so great that the hon. Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell) Mr Lansley: I will gladly raise that point with the has signed the early-day motion, so the campaign is a Minister with responsibility for fire services, and he may national one. The question of duty is of course a matter like to reply to the hon. Lady. I have to say that I do not for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. think that fire services would generally regard themselves as in any way constrained by their statutory responsibilities Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab): in attending whenever they felt there was a public need Government spokesmen now say that they intend to for them to do so. increase economic security for the average household. May we debate that so that I can answer my constituents Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con): Last week, Thales who are wondering which is the better indicator— UK won a £120 million export order to Indonesia, 25 people off the claimant count, or the fact that a place securing important aerospace jobs. That is just one such as Birmingham, Selly Oak is now in the top 20% of example of the importance of the Government strategy constituencies for unemployment? to rebalance the economy by supporting manufacturing, promoting apprenticeships and exporting to high-growth Mr Lansley: It is very important to give people a countries. Does my right hon. Friend agree that one greater sense of security and peace of mind, and that is of the strategy’s most important consequences is the what we have set out to do. The fact that the number of opportunity for young people, and that it is one of the households in which nobody is in work is at a record major reasons why youth unemployment in my constituency low makes an enormous difference. The fact that the fell by 45% during 2013? Does he agree that this is a latest data show that inflation is at 2%—it has come good moment for a debate on youth unemployment to down to its target level—also gives people a sense of see what more we can do to maintain this encouraging security. The fact that we are dealing with the deficit is momentum? not just some debate at a global or national level, but a practical matter: if we stick to the long-term economic Mr Lansley: My hon. Friend is right. The rate of plan to bring down the deficit, that will increasingly youth unemployment is lower than at the time of the allow us to do what we have done with the money election and the youth claimant count has fallen for available, which is to relieve the tax burden, not least on 19 months in a row. That is a reflection of the success of the low-paid. the Government’s long-term economic plan. We can see practical benefits from that plan, not least for our Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con): On Monday, we young people, but it is also about businesses. We should had the welcome news that Harrow council and the always reflect on the success of enterprise and on the Department for Education are conducting a feasibility hundreds of thousands of new businesses that are being 457 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 458

[Mr Lansley] Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab): Earlier, my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead established. In particular, as the Secretary of State for (John Cryer) asked the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills made clear in questions, Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for we must support small businesses and increase the Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott) whether it was fair that proportion of small businesses that are exporting, a woman who is discriminated against at work because particularly to the fast-growing economies around the she is pregnant has to pay £1,200 to enter a tribunal. world, because that will drive growth in the future. The Minister said that that was not true. Given that it is true—this is not a point of order, Mr Speaker—may we Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): I have an urgent debate on how the Government’s decision urge the Leader of the House to arrange an early debate to introduce fees for employment tribunals is choking on the welfare state. The welfare state in this country off access to justice? has provided wonderful support for tens of millions of people. It is a wonderful creation. In the light of the Mr Lansley: I think the hon. Gentleman should Channel 4 programme, “Benefits Street”, I suggest that simply have listened to the reply given by my hon. everyone in the House reads Caitlin Moran’s article in Friend earlier today. The Times on the benefits that the great welfare state has brought to tens of millions of people as preparation Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East for that debate. The welfare state in this country is Cleveland) (Lab): In Middlesbrough South and East something to be proud of, not to be derided. Cleveland, average weekly gross pay has fallen by 32.5% since 2010, and the number of under-25s who have Mr Lansley: I suggest that Members would be better claimed jobseeker’s allowance for more than 12 months advised to read the speech that is being made today by has increased by 223% since December 2010. May we my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work have a debate on the cost of living, and on yesterday’s and Pensions. They will find that we are returning to the news that the unemployment count in the north-east original intention of the welfare state, which is to encourage went up by 1,000? people to be in work and to help those who are most in need, not to create the opportunity for a lifestyle of Mr Lansley: There were regional variations in the living on benefits. People must contribute the most that employment data yesterday, but having predicted the they can not only to society, but to their own family by loss of 1 million jobs, it ill behoves the Labour party not taking up the opportunities for work that the economy to celebrate the fact that there are one and two-thirds is creating. million more private sector jobs in this country than there were at the general election. I am afraid the Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) Labour party is in complete denial about the inevitable (Con): Although I fully recognise the need to invest in fact that, as a consequence of its policies, the deepest flood defences, I understand that the Environment Agency recession this country has experienced took the equivalent put a spade in the ground two weeks ago to start work of about £100 billion from the country’s wealth. It is on flood defences for Exeter—a part of the world that not possible for everybody in a country to have more my right hon. Friend knows well, having been to university money at the same time as it has been made £100 billion there—which could have a significant impact on the poorer. railways from Exeter to Plymouth and onwards to Cornwall. May we please have a debate on that matter? Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab): A young man in my constituency has a zero-hours contract, but Mr Lansley: I cannot promise an immediate debate, when he has worked he impressed his employer who but I can tell my hon. Friend that Network Rail has offered him a six-week training course, leading to a identified 10 projects to improve flood resilience on its permanent job. I am sure the Leader of the House will western route. That programme might take several years want to join me in celebrating that young man’s success— and the funding mechanism is still to be determined, except for the fact that he has been told by the job but it will be important to him. Network Rail is liaising centre that he has not been on the Work programme closely with the Environment Agency and will continue long enough and cannot take up the offer. May we to do so. please have a debate on the mess that is the Work programme, which—not for the first time—has denied Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): At the beginning of one of my constituents a proper job with real prospects? the year, the Cabinet Office released documents under the 30-year rule relating to the miners’ strike. The Mr Lansley: It is the Government’s intention to support documents clearly show that the then Prime Minister, young people back into work, and that is what the Work Margaret Thatcher, and senior Cabinet Ministers interfered programme and our Youth Contract are all about. It is greatly in the miners’ strike, deliberately misled the the largest such programme to support young people, country and potentially misled Parliament. May we and as a consequence 114,000 fewer young people are have a debate on that matter? among the claimant count. If the hon. Gentleman sends me the particular circumstances of his constituent, Mr Lansley: I do not recognise the hon. Gentleman’s I shall of course ask for a response from my hon. description of 1984. I was a civil servant at the time, so Friends at the Department for Work and Pensions. I was completely non-partisan in those matters, but I remember them. I remember well that the Government Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): One supermarket were making absolutely sure that the economy of this in my constituency offers free newspapers and coffee, country was not held to ransom. That was really important. another has opened a new carwash and dry cleaner as it 459 Business of the House23 JANUARY 2014 Business of the House 460 competes for customers, and that of course has a significant Mr Lansley: I hope the hon. Lady was in her place effect on local independent retailers. May we have a yesterday and able to hear the Prime Minister make it debate on the balance needed between the actions of clear that this country is making the second biggest the supermarkets and the need to look after our small contribution to meeting the humanitarian needs of shopkeepers, and on how we provide support for local refugees from Syria, and proportionately we are doing independent retailers? more than anybody else to support those refugees. We are responding to and fully meeting our commitments Mr Lansley: It is important for the hon. Gentleman to those seeking asylum, and as she knows, last year to recognise that competition is, as they say, the tide there were around 1,100 asylum applications from Syrian that lifts every boat. In his constituency, as elsewhere, refugees. The Prime Minister made it clear yesterday competition will in the end deliver the best consumer that we will look at individual cases, but we will not do benefits. what some other countries have done who think that taking a relatively modest given number of refugees Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab): Everybody away from refugee camps somehow meets their obligations wants this country to maintain its economic improvement, to the millions of refugees who want to be supported in but may we have a debate about cuts to local government their camps, and not to leave and give up hope of education budgets? It seems contradictory to demand returning to Syria soon. an increase in skills to compete with the world, while also cutting education at its source. Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/ Co-op): My hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield Mr Lansley: Not withstanding the fact that we had (Mr Sheerman) called for a debate on welfare. We had a to deal with the largest deficit of any country in the debate on welfare just 10 days ago, when the House of OECD, this Government made the commitment—among Commons voted by a majority of 123 in favour of a others—to protect school budgets, which we have done. commission of inquiry into the Government’s welfare The hon. Gentleman should celebrate the fact that, reform policies. When I asked the Leader of the House together with our coalition colleagues, we have put last week when he was going to establish the commission, about £2.5 billion into the pupil premium to ensure that he rather derisively told me that he had no plans to do schools with some of the most disadvantaged children so. The House voted for a commission. Will he to agree have additional resources to help them achieve success to set up such a commission, or is it the Government’s in future. policy that Back-Bench motions are ignored and to be of no account whatsoever in this House? Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab): In September I asked the Prime Minister whether he would adopt a similar approach to that of Sweden and other European Mr Lansley: I think the hon. Gentleman imputes a countries in accommodating Syrian refugees. He dismissed motive to me that certainly was not there. He asked the me, simply saying, “No, we are not going to do that.” question last week and I will repeat my answer today. Will the Leader of the House assure me that should the The Government consider carefully all motions approved Government have a change of heart in the next few by this House. As I told him last week, I was not in a days, the Prime Minister will come to the Chamber to position to advise him that we had any plans to establish make any announcement? such a commission. 461 23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 462

Armed Forces Restructuring deployments. The redundancy programme will not impact adversely on current operations in Afghanistan. Personnel assessed as being permanently below the level of fitness 11.36 am required to remain in the forces will not be considered The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond): for redundancy and will instead leave through the medical With permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a statement discharge route at the appropriate point in their recovery. on the final part of the armed forces redundancy As a way of reducing still further the number of programme. As the House will be aware, following the personnel to be made redundant, we will continue to decisions set out in the 2010 strategic defence and encourage personnel to transfer from areas of surplus security review, the first such review for 12 years, we to areas of shortage. Specific vacancies have been identified have been significantly restructuring and reshaping our across all three services and those identified as at risk of armed forces to ensure we can sustain their world-class redundancy will be encouraged to transfer to areas for capabilities in the future. As we move from more than a which they have appropriate skills and will be offered decade of enduring operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, retraining, as necessary. The chain of command will and as we bring our troops back from Germany, we are continue to inform these personnel of the transfer constructing a new force, Future Force 2020, to protect opportunities available to them at all stages of this this country against future threats. process. Restructuring the armed forces has required us to I have also instructed the services to seek to maximise transfer personnel and resources between regiments the number of volunteers in order to minimise the and trades to ensure that we can invest in new areas of number of compulsory redundancies. However, noting priority, such as cyber and ISTAR—intelligence, that 84% of personnel made redundant in tranche 3 surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance. We were applicants, it is likely that the percentage of volunteers have also needed to ensure that our armed forces retain overall in this final tranche will be lower owing to the the right age profile and skills as they reduce in size. low historical level of volunteers among Gurkhas—one Achieving that outcome has, unfortunately, required a of the fields eligible in this round—and the fact that a limited redundancy programme. number of specialist fields will face 100% selection, Today, the armed forces are announcing the specialist meaning that there is little or no incentive to volunteer. areas from which they will select personnel to be made redundant in this, the fourth and final tranche. By Throughout the whole redundancy programme since strongly encouraging transfers between different parts 2010, approximately 500 Gurkhas have been transferred of the Army in particular, we have deliberately sought to other parts of the Army, significantly reducing the to keep the number of redundancies to an absolute requirement for Gurkha redundancies. However, there minimum. Hon. Members will no doubt have seen remains a surplus of personnel in the Brigade of Gurkhas, recent speculation in the press about the size of the final which is due largely to the changes in their terms and tranche. As a result of the steps we have taken, I can conditions in 2007 that aligned their service periods confirm that the overall number of redundancies required with that of the Regular Army—from 15 years to is considerably lower than that predicted in some recent 22 years—and a raised recruitment level to compensate press articles and lower than in each of the three previous for some soldiers’ previous long periods of leave in tranches. It will comprise up to 1,425 members of the Nepal. Gurkha personnel now serve on the same terms Army, up to 70 medical and dental officers and nurses and conditions as the rest of the Army and are therefore from the Royal Air Force, and up to 10 from the Royal eligible for the redundancy programme, like other personnel Navy. currently employed in areas of surplus. Tranche 4 will apply the same selection principles I fully recognise the challenges for servicemen and within the eligible cohorts as were used in the last three women of transition to civilian life. My Department tranches. Selection for redundancy will be based on has worked hard throughout this programme to ensure three criteria only: performance, potential and employability. that all those selected for redundancy receive not only This is viewed by the individual services as the fairest an extensive redundancy package but comprehensive methodology to all who fall into the redundancy bracket. resettlement support to help them find work and settle Individuals will be informed of the outcome of the into life outside the armed forces. The career transition selection process on 12 June 2014. Applicants for voluntary partnership, which provides briefings, advice and guidance redundancy will leave six months later and non-applicants on such issues as housing and obtaining future employment, 12 months later. As with previous tranches, there are a is highly successful in assisting service leavers to find number of important exclusions from eligibility for work, and our latest figures indicate that approximately compulsory redundancy: those serving on specified 90% of service leavers seeking employment find it within operations any time between today and the date of six months of leaving the armed forces—a better result notification of selection for redundancy, 12 Jun 2014; than for the population in general. and those who, on the date of notification of selection To support service people leaving the armed forces for redundancy, have been warned for specified operations still further, I can announce an additional measure commencing on or before 12 December 2014. today. Last year, we announced a new £200 million Unlike tranche 3, those who volunteer for redundancy Forces Help to Buy scheme for service personnel. Ownership having been formally warned for specified operations of a family home provides security and peace of mind deploying before 12 December 2014 may still be directed and will help to smooth the transition to civilian life. I to deploy by their chain of command. This is to ensure have therefore extended the scheme to allow personnel that their places do not have to be backfilled at short leaving in tranche 4 who do not own a home to apply notice owing to the notification period occurring over for a loan in advance of their redundancy package the handover between the Herrick 19 and Herrick 20 to allow them to purchase a home during the period 463 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 464 between notification of redundancy and the actual date the good of the country and the sensitivity required for on which they leave the armed forces and receive their the good of the individuals involved and their families? lump sum redundancy payment. Let us not forget: this is about people. As an organisation that is fed from the bottom up, The Secretary of State has simply not made a convincing the armed forces are always recruiting, and this must case for further redundancies in the armed forces or for and will remain a priority. There is a constant need to reducing capability at an even quicker rate. Does he replace with new talent those who are promoted or who accept that there are real concerns that by pressing complete their service. The armed forces require a constant ahead with these redundancies, the Government are flow of young, fit recruits to maintain the structure taking risks with Britain’s safety and security? It was required. That is why a major multi-media Army recruiting clear last year that the required uplift in the number campaign began earlier this month for both regular and of reserves—the 10,000 new recruits to replace the reserve recruits, which we are confident will raise awareness 30,000 regulars—was not happening at anywhere near of Army recruiting and provide the backdrop to a the speed required. The Government hardly met a third reinvigorated recruitment effort at all levels over the of their own targets. We said then, as did Members next couple of years to deliver the numbers required to from across the House, that the Government should man our future structures, both regular and reserve. pause their reductions in Army numbers until it was For the men and women of our armed forces, I know clear that their reserve recruitment was on track. That is that this has been a painful process, but completion of still the case today. this final tranche will mark a turning point. With the On this specific round of redundancies, will the Defence bulk of our troops back from Afghanistan by the end of Secretary tell us how many of them will be compulsory this year, and coming back from Germany over the next and from which regiments and squadrons the redundancies four years, as we build Future Force 2020 they will be will be drawn? Does he not agree with me that this is a able to enjoy the peace of mind that comes from belonging shocking way to repay the dedicated service that these to armed forces that have put a period of change and people have given their country? Is he concerned about restructuring behind them and are focused on building a loss of skills, particularly on pinch points, and what is their skills and capabilities for the future. he doing to address the problem? Will he confirm at After a decade of unfunded promises and shortages least that no one will be made redundant in a way that of key equipment under the previous Government, our affects their pension entitlement? Is it true that a small personnel will have certainty about the future size and number of military personnel have been made redundant shape of our armed forces, and confidence that they just days before they meet a service requirement for a will have the kit, equipment and platforms they need. pension to which they are entitled? If that is the case, it Just as important, the country can have confidence that is not fair. Will the Secretary of State say more about its armed forces will not only be affordable and sustainable, the support he will give those who are leaving the but among the most battle-hardened, best-equipped service and making the transition to civilian life? and best-trained forces in the world, able to ensure that The Gurkhas are one of the finest fighting forces in Britain remains safe and secure in the future. I commend the British Army. Does the Secretary of State accept this statement to the House. that they have been affected disproportionately by cuts in the Army? In 2011, more than half the redundancies 11.46 pm fell on the Gurkhas, and in the second tranche of redundancies in January 2012, when the rest of the Vernon Coaker (Gedling) (Lab): I thank the Secretary infantry lost only 500 men, they lost 400. Does the of State for advance notice of his statement and for Secretary of State think that that is fair? What does he early sight of it, which I appreciate. think about the public perception that those redundancies Have we not come a long way since the Conservative are a result of the increased cost of the Gurkhas following party said before the last election that they would have a their rightly successful campaign for better pay and bigger Army for a safer Britain? What happened to, conditions? “Put simply, we need to have a larger Army and we need The sense that I have today is one of amazement. more infantry”? When did that change? It changed How does the Secretary of State do it? A recruitment when the party entered government; it was a broken campaign started last week amid great fanfare, but was promise. There were more broken promises from them followed a day later by the revelation of an IT crisis that even in government. After his Government’s defence had prevented people from signing up, and now by a review, the Prime Minister said in 2010: parliamentary statement announcing redundancies. If “we will retain a large, well-equipped Army, numbering around the Secretary of State were a football referee, the crowd— 95,500 by 2015—7,000 fewer than today.”—[Official Report, and it would have to be a charitable crowd—would be 19 October 2010; Vol. 516, c. 799.] chanting, “You don’t know what you’re doing”—and Why did that change? Will the Secretary of State accept they would be right. that this Government have let down the armed forces The Government are letting down our armed forces and their families? and their families, and taking risks with our country’s No one underestimates the challenges of reconfiguring safety and security. The Secretary of State’s story is one our armed forces and at the same time maintaining the of failure, on procurement, recruitment and redundancies. British military’s reputation as the best in the world. He is getting it wrong and he knows it, and today’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the presence statement only reinforces that. in Germany means that there is, of course, a need for an appropriate reduction in personnel across all three armed Mr Hammond: Dear oh dear! Let us start from the forces. That is sensible and fair, and we support it. Is it beginning. The hon. Member for Gedling trotted out not the case, however, that the Secretary of State is some well-known lines that he has used before, and I failing to approach this with the strategy required for shall respond to them as I have done before. 465 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 466

[Mr Philip Hammond] The hon. Gentleman asked about the Gurkhas and raised again the question of fairness. He asked explicitly The hon. Gentleman began by asking when the whether the increased cost of Gurkha service was driving Government had changed their aspiration to have larger these redundancies. The answer is no, but it is the armed forces. Perhaps some of my hon. Friends can change in their terms and conditions. Previously Gurkhas help me with that, but I would guess that it was at about served under different terms and conditions. The size the time when Labour was wrecking our economy, and and level of recruitment to the Brigade of Gurkhas was we were recognising that we would have to recalibrate designed around 15 years of service. We now have to our ambitions in all sorts of areas in order to govern the deal with the bulge caused by a change in the terms and country responsibly. We understand, above all else, that conditions so that Gurkhas serve for 22 years. That is a a strong defence of this country can be built only on a structural challenge in the Brigade of Gurkhas. We have strong economy. We must first repair the damage that also seen a change to the terms and conditions of Labour has done to our economy and then repair the service, which no longer provide for Gurkhas to take damage that it has done to our society, after which, long periods of leave to return home to Nepal. That was hopefully, we shall in due course be able to afford to put previously covered through an over-manning by about more money into our armed forces as our economy and 370 individuals in the Brigade of Gurkhas, which allowed our public finances recover. for those periods of extended leave at home that are no longer available now that the terms and conditions of The hon. Gentleman said that we had let the armed service are standardised across the Army. So what we forces down. I say that it is Labour, through its wrecking are seeing here is not an unfairness; we are seeing the of our economy, that has let our armed forces down, as consequences of a decision to apply fairly the terms and it has let the rest of the country down. As for the hon. conditions of service to the Brigade of Gurkhas as they Gentleman’s comments on this particular tranche of are applied to the rest of the Army. redundancies, what I hear from him is total confusion. He accepts the need for downsizing and restructuring of Mr James Arbuthnot (North East Hampshire) (Con): the Army, but says that we have not made the case for My right hon. Friend has said this is the final tranche; using the redundancy process to do that. He is talking well, thank God for that. What commitment can he give nonsense. We have set out a structure for our armed that this is the very last of these unwelcome statements forces in “Future Force 2020”. They will be smaller for many years to come? than they have been previously, but, crucially, they will have a different structure, relying on reserves, on civilian Mr Hammond: I can tell my right hon. Friend that support and on contractors in some specialist areas. As the resizing of the Army announced as an outcome of a consequence, the redundancy process needs to address the strategic defence and security review 2010 will be the structural imbalance in the Army, taking out areas achieved by the redundancies that have been announced of capability that we no longer need in our regular over the last three tranches and the redundancies that forces. will be announced in this tranche. This will deliver us the size of the armed forces we need for Future Force As the hon. Gentleman will understand if he listened 2020. I cannot predict or predetermine the outcome of to my statement, I cannot tell him in advance what the next SDSR, which will take place after the general percentage of the redundancies will be compulsory; election in 2015. that will depend on how many people volunteer. However, I have been very upfront with the House. As there will Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab): The be a significant number of Gurkha redundancies and Secretary of State recently confirmed in a written answer Gurkhas traditionally do not volunteer for redundancy, that we have deployed military personnel in a US base and as the fact that 100% of the numbers in some fields in Djibouti. Please will he tell me what their role is? Are of redundancy will be made redundant, giving little they involved in the drones programme in Yemen, and incentive to volunteer, we expect the overall percentage will they be affected by this cuts announcement? of volunteers to be lower in this final round of redundancies than it has been in the past. Mr Hammond: I can tell the hon. Gentleman that personnel deployed on overseas operations will not be The hon. Gentleman made two points about fairness. affected by the redundancy announcement I have made First, he asked whether I thought it was fair that people today. approaching their immediate pension point—the point at which they can leave the Army and draw an immediate Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con): While many annual cash pension—should be eligible for redundancy. will remain baffled at this Government’s priorities in We have thought very carefully about this over the increasing overseas aid by £2.5 billion this year and period of the redundancy programme. The truth is that continuing to inflict these long-planned cuts on the wherever we draw the line there will be somebody just Army, will my right hon. Friend nevertheless accept on the other side of it who feels hard done by, and that had it not been for the fact that the Ministry of understandably so, but we concluded that it would be Defence was starved of its share of the increase in unfair to take into account length of service—proximity public expenditure under the last Government, the base to immediate pension point—as a criterion for redundancy from which we would have had to restructure the MOD and we have stuck to that position throughout all four under this Government would have been a jolly sight tranches of redundancy. Given the nature of the fields better than it has been? we are looking at in this tranche, we expect the number of people potentially at risk of redundancy who are Mr Hammond: My hon. Friend has a good point. within a year of their immediate pension point to be The hon. Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) lectures very small compared with previous tranches. me from the Opposition Front Bench, but it is noticeable 467 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 468 that during that long period after 2001 when there Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con): Some people suggest appeared to be no limit to the scale of public spending that there will not be much support for expeditionary and no limit to the level of taxation and borrowing and warfare among the public again. In my experience, the spending that the then Government were prepared to public can be very fickle, especially when events and engage in, the armed forces did not share in that cornucopia horrors happen. With this tranche of redundancies, we and the consequences are here for all of us to see today. now have the smallest armed forces we have had for a long time. May I ask the Secretary of State to say what John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) (Lab/Co-op): everyone in this House feels—that our armed forces will The Conservative party continued to promise a larger now be up to any challenge that they are asked to meet Army even once the scale of the challenge facing our within their small numbers, and that our people should public finances and the country was known. Does he rest assured that they will do that extremely well when accept that that did a disservice to the British public called on to do it? and the armed forces on whom we rely? Mr Hammond: My hon. Friend observes that we shall Mr Hammond: I know that Opposition Members do have the smallest Army for a number of years when we not like this, but the truth is that we discovered a black have completed this restructuring, but we might also hole in the finances of the Ministry of Defence that had remind ourselves that we still have the fourth largest to be dealt with if we were going to have sustainable defence budget in the world and, on any fair and armed forces in the future and eliminate our armed objective assessment, the second most capable expeditionary forces being asked to deploy without the equipment and armed force capability in the world after the United protective personal equipment that they required to States. The public can rest assured that our armed do so safely. We had to put that right. That has meant forces will do their duty and protect this country wherever, that some tough decisions have been made, but my whenever and however called upon to do so. understanding is that the Opposition accept the restructuring and resizing of our armed forces and that Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP): I thank the Secretary we have to have an Army of 82,000 going forward. If I of State for giving me advance sight of his statement. am wrong about that, I should be happy to be corrected The UK Government have acknowledged that personnel from the Front Bench and to have an explanation of reductions in Scotland have been disproportionate. The how the Opposition propose to pay for a larger Army. right hon. Gentleman’s predecessor confirmed that there would be cuts of 27.9% in Scotland, compared with 11.6% across the UK. Will the Secretary of State confirm Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) (Con): When the that personnel numbers are at a record low in Scotland, withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete, the RAF will at around 11,000? That is significantly lower than the have only about four aeroplanes and a few hundred level of 15,000 planned by the Scottish Government for people deployed abroad, yet it retains 220 combat jets, after independence. 650 support aircraft and 36,000 men. It is not clear to me what these are for, given that there is no discernible Mr Hammond: I was thinking about how to answer air threat to the United Kingdom. Will my right hon. the hon. Gentleman’s question, but he has just given me Friend be a little less timid and have a close look at how the solution. The Scottish Government’s so-called plans military aircraft assets are held in this country and set for the future Scottish defence force exist in cloud about some vastly needed and urgent reform? cuckoo land. Their numbers simply do not add up, and our analysis shows that they would require about 30% Mr Hammond: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend more than they are proposing to spend to deliver the for his suggestion. The balance between the different full structure that they have outlined in their White arms and the focus that we put on different parts of our Paper. I look forward to coming to Scotland in due defence infrastructure is quite properly reviewed in the course and deconstructing, yet again, the rubbish coming strategic defence and security review process. I am glad, out of the Scottish National party. and I am sure he will be too, that we have now placed this on a firm quinquennial footing so that the issues Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) can be reopened and re-examined regularly. It is quite (Con): Can my right hon. Friend confirm for my proper to do so. constituents that we still have a well-equipped, properly staffed and professionally led defence force that is capable Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab): of meeting present and future challenges and defending Is not the failure of the Army recruitment strategy the our nation? reason the redundancy numbers are smaller than originally envisaged? Mr Hammond: Yes. Future Force 2020 will be able to deliver the outputs specified in the strategic defence and Mr Hammond: We constantly look at all the levers—as security review, in which we set out clearly what we the Army calls them—of manning. The levers are expect our armed forces to do and how we expect them recruitment levels, voluntary outflow—people leaving to work, frequently in partnership with allies. I am the service before the last possible date—and redundancy, confident that they will be able to deliver those outputs which is always the last resort. There is a constant for the benefit of our nation. rebalancing. We had already reduced intended recruiting numbers to minimise redundancy, but we cannot do the Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab): What whole restructuring through the recruitment lever alone can the Secretary of State tell us about his longer-term because in some areas we have to take personnel out of recruitment plans for the Gurkhas, or is this just the the structure in order to deliver Future Force 2020. beginning of the end for them? 469 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 470

Mr Hammond: No, we maintain recruitment of Gurkhas, Mr Hammond: My hon. Friend makes the good point but we have to deal with the structural imbalance caused that, as we look to the challenges of the future, we must by the changes made in 2007. Once we have done that be prepared to take difficult decisions to flex how we restructuring, the pattern of sustainment in the Brigade spend the budgets and resources that we have available. of Gurkhas will require continued recruiting as we Even half a decade ago, no one was talking about move to a normal pattern of 22 years’ service for investing in cyber-warfare. Now, it is the No. 1 issue on Gurkha servicemen. everyone’s agenda. As our defence budgets are not getting larger, to invest in this critical new area, we have Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): The Prime Minister’s to disinvest in other areas. That is the nature of the approach to defence is the most complacent I have difficult challenges we face, and we will continue to take known in my lifetime. A few days ago, the former US those difficult decisions in Britain’s best interests. Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, said: “With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab): Clearly, as we Great Britain, what we’re finding is that it won’t have full spectrum draw down the Regular Army, the plan is to increase capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past.” our reservist capability. All the people in the Army Reserve whom I talk to say that we must still do more to Does the Secretary of State accept that assessment from persuade particularly small and medium-sized employers someone who knows what he is talking about? to support their employees serving as reservists. What Mr Hammond: The hon. Gentleman mentioned the more can the Government do to support them in releasing Prime Minister. I wonder whether he remembered the their people to serve? previous Prime Minister’s attitude to defence when he made that sweeping assertion. I have a great deal of Mr Hammond: I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s question, respect for former Secretary Gates, but he has been out and he is right: a big part of getting the reserve recruitment of office for a couple of years now. I also noted that, in agenda right, and for that matter the reserve retention the interview in question, he seemed distinctly vague agenda right, is engagement with employers. Engagement about some of the details of our defence policy. He with large employers, including public sector employers, could not even quite remember what our position was is well advanced, but he is absolutely right to put his on aircraft carriers, and it seemed to have completely finger on the fact that engagement with smaller employers passed him by that we were building the two largest is, first, more difficult and, secondly, crucial to the ships in the Royal Navy’s history right now, not only to success of this project. The Defence Reform Bill, which replace the carrier capability but hugely to enhance it. I is in the other place, which I am not supposed to call the absolutely reject his suggestion that we will not be able other place any more—currently, in the House of Lords— to be a worthy and preferred partner for the United States in the future. Just last week, I met the commander Vernon Coaker: Where did that happen? of the United States fifth fleet, who told me specifically that the Royal Navy was, and will remain, the fifth Mr Hammond: In the Procedure Committee, I believe. fleet’s partner of preference and that, in their joint The Bill contains provisions that will allow us for the operations in the Gulf, the dividing line between the first time to pay bounties to small and medium employers Royal Navy and the fifth fleet was invisible. That is the when their reservist employees are mobilised. That is way we want it to be, and that is the way we will ensure not perhaps a differentiator in itself, but it sends an it remains. important signal to small and medium employers that we recognise the cost burden that they take on when Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): Does they allow a member of their staff to become a reservist. the Secretary of State agree—he will not like this—that the great British public are not stupid and cannot be Mr Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) (Con): As fooled and that we know, our allies know, our enemies the British Army rebalances its Regular-reservist ratio, know, our admirals know and our generals know that, will the Secretary of State confirm that, once the Defence today at the Dispatch Box, he has run up a flag that tells Reform Bill becomes law, the large pool of reservists the world that we are no longer a serious world power? will be considered for all future operations on equal [Interruption.] That is the truth, and he cannot disguise merits as the regulars and that the call-up process will that fact. be a lot simpler and without fear of financial loss to the Mr Hammond: Well, I have heard some rubbish in my reservists? time. Although we might disagree, the hon. Gentleman could have tackled me on a range of issues about the Mr Hammond: Well, there were a lot of multiple impact of the changes that we have made in the structure questions in there. First, I should like to make it clear and funding of our armed forces, but this final tranche that the restructuring of the Regular Army is predicated of redundancy today—about 1,500 people across the on a number of things. The growth of the reserves is armed forces—is not a big structural change and certainly one of them, but an increased use of civil support and does not warrant the accusation he has made. contractors to provide some of the support functions is also an important part. Once we have built the reserve Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con): Does my right force to the level that we have set out by 2018, there will hon. Friend accept that the unpalatable and difficult be certain areas where we use reservists routinely on decisions that he has had to take on manpower were an operations because we only hold those capabilities in absolute requirement to enable us to fund the rebuilding the reserve force. But of course, a core function of the of the fleet, which has always traditionally been, and reservists will always be to provide resilience and should remain for a country that is an island dependent reinforcement for an enduring deployment of the nature on trade, our No. 1 defence priority? of what we have been doing in Afghanistan. 471 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 472

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab): Does the Secretary areas and different parts of the country to see what of State not recognise the public’s disillusionment that works best. What is clear to me is that, as I said in the the cost of being the fourth highest spender on defence House last week, we must focus back on using front-line in the world has been the loss of the lives of 626 British reserve units as the principal tool of recruitment to the soldiers in two avoidable wars? Does not punching reserve. We can support that with national campaigns above our weight militarily always mean dying beyond and a nationally managed IT platform, but we must rely our responsibilities? on front-line reservists recruiting their fellow reservists. Everything that I have seen reinforces that, and it will be Mr Hammond: I do not think the hon. Gentleman is one of the driving requirements in how we manage this doing a great service to the families and memories of campaign. our brave servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the two campaigns that he refers to. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab): May I I do not think that many hon. Members or, indeed, clarify that the Secretary of State is promising the many of the British public think that it is either right or House that RAF redundancies will be confined to a in our interests to turn our backs on the world. We are maximum of 70 medical and dental officers and nurses? an open nation and a trading nation that depends on the maintenance of the rules-based system of international Mr Hammond: I can confirm that. law and trade. We should remain fully engaged in the future, and our armed forces are but one—a very important Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con): The one—of the many levers that we have available to plan to replace 20,000 regulars with 30,000 reservists is maintain our influence in the world. beset with problems, including more than £50 million Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): The armed forces wasted on a botched IT system, missed recruitment recognise, as does everyone else, what had to be done to targets, cancelled reserve courses and a widening capability clear up the mess that the last Labour Government left gap. Given that the previous Secretary of State recently the country in, but they want, as we all do, some confirmed in this House that the original plan was to stability and certainty in their lives, so will my right hold the regulars in place until the reservists were able hon. Friend reiterate and make it clear to the House to take their place, can this Secretary of State inform that, once this last tranche of redundancies has been the House why and when that plan changed? completed, that is it—this is the final tranche—so that everyone in the armed forces knows that they have some Mr Hammond: First, my hon. Friend continually asserts, stability and certainty? and I continually rebut, the idea that we are trying to replace 20,000 regular soldiers with 30,000 reservists— Mr Hammond: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, that is not what we are doing. We are restructuring the and that is exactly what I want to convey today. This has regular force; the regular force will be smaller. We will been a difficult time: a period of uncertainty and change, use civilians in a different way from how we have used and no one likes uncertainty or change. The armed them in the past. We will use contractors more effectively, forces will now be able to concentrate on the future and learning the lessons, particularly from the US experience on building the skills and capabilities that we have set of using contractors to support combat operations. We out for Future Force 2020, knowing that we have completed will also use reservists, but it is simply wrong for him to the draw-down in size and the major restructuring that suggest that this is a straightforward swap of 20,000 regulars we have undertaken. That provides a very robust base replaced by 30,000 reservists. That is not how it works. to build for the future, with armed forces that will My hon. Friend knows very well the answer to the remain one of the most experienced combat-hardened second part of his question: there is not the budgetary and capable armed forces in the world. capacity to maintain the Regular Army at 102,000 while building the reserve to 30,000 by 2018. That simply Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland cannot be done without imposing new and unwanted West) (Lab): Will the Secretary of State clarify whether cuts elsewhere. personnel who are serving on operations will be accepted or refused if they apply for redundancy? Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab): I listened Mr Hammond: I am happy to clarify that for the hon. carefully to what the Secretary of State had to say about Lady. Personnel who are serving on operations are, of individuals being made redundant just before their course, eligible to apply for redundancy if they wish to immediate pension point. What he failed to say, of do so, but if they are serving on operations at any point course, was that for some long-serving officers this loss between now and the announcement date on 12 June, can amount to tens of thousands of pounds in forgone they will not be eligible for compulsory redundancy. So pension payments. Does he really believe that that scale if they do not volunteer, they will be exempt from of loss is consistent with the spirit of the military redundancy. covenant? Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con): Will Mr Hammond: Let me just be clear about what we are the Secretary of State say a little more about the talking about, as although the hon. Lady may understand reinvigorated recruitment effort that he told the House this, perhaps not all hon. Members do. When people about? In particular, will he be open to different methods, reach their immediate pension point they can leave the so that we can see more of what works? Army, notwithstanding the fact that they may be only in their 40s, and take an immediate pension. When Mr Hammond: As my hon. Friend might well imagine, somebody is close to, but has not reached, their immediate Ministers and senior officials are vigorously examining pension point when they leave the Army through a different approaches that have been tried in different redundancy, they receive an enhanced lump sum 473 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 474

[Mr Philip Hammond] Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab): I am sure that members of the RAF will feel the shock that I felt redundancy package to reflect that fact and they still, of at the announcement that 70 medical and dental officers course, retain their pension rights when they reach their and nurses are to be made redundant. In evidence to the pensionable age of 60 or 65, depending on what pension Select Committee on Defence, those were identified as scheme they are in. We have looked at the alternatives “pinch trades” in some aspects of the armed forces. The and concluded that all of them would deliver at least as Secretary of State has talked about the ability for people much unfairness to other groups, and that this is the to retrain. Will he say something about the support fairest and most appropriate way to proceed. given for people to leave one branch of the armed forces and move into another branch, where there may well be Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con): We were vacancies they can fill? told, understandably, that the armed forces had to take their share of pain through the time of recession. Surely, Mr Hammond: First, I reassure the hon. Lady that by the same coin, as the economy is growing they can nobody will be made redundant in a pinch-point trade; take their share of the gain. If the reserve recruitment these redundancies are happening only in areas where programme does not go as well as we all hope it will go, we are carrying surpluses. As a result of restructuring, a can we at least keep the door open—I am not asking for change in the way we deliver the service means that the a commitment now—to once again recruiting more for posts of 16 RAF dental officers, nine RAF dental the Regular Army in the future and increasing it to meet nurses and five RAF dental technicians are no longer our commitments as they arise? required. She is right to raise the issue of retraining, and I recall that she raised it in respect of previous tranches Mr Hammond: I can say two things on that to my of redundancy. We have put in a lot of effort in this hon. Friend. First, unfortunately, the scale of the damage tranche to make sure that we put even more emphasis to our public finances is such that, as the Chancellor set behind the opportunities for retraining. Where people out a couple of weeks ago, although the economy may have the skills and the willingness to retrain, they will be be recovering, we have not yet dealt with the structural fully supported through the chain of command to retrain deficit we inherited from the Labour party, and it will and redeploy within the armed forces. We have no wish take some years yet to correct the fiscal imbalances that or ability to lose talent and skills that we have, so long we face in this country. However, he is right to say that as we can deploy them in a way that is usable within the we should never say never, and one of the key drivers in new structure that we are putting together. our restructuring of the Army is to ensure that we retain a capability to regenerate force, so that if at some Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) future point our public priorities change or external (Con): What impact will this announcement have on circumstances force us to change them, we will have the Devonport-based ships and the Royal Marines based in capability within our armed forces to expand again and my constituency? Will he ensure that we can recruit regenerate that capability. more doctors and dentists, bearing in mind that we have one of the finest medical schools in the country? Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab): How many Gurkhas will lose their jobs? What percentage of Mr Hammond: As I have been at pains to point out, such redundancies will be voluntary? the fact that we are making people redundant in certain areas does not always mean that we will not be continuing Mr Hammond: I can tell the hon. Lady that the to recruit in those areas. The armed forces are bottom-fed expected number of redundancies in the Gurkha areas organisations, and we have to get the correct rank are: 71 in the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment; structure within each of the specialisms. My hon. Friend 28 in the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers; 246 in the Royal will have heard me say that the maximum number of Gurkha Rifles; and nine among Gurkha staff and personnel Royal Navy redundancies will be 10, all of which will be support functions. On voluntary versus compulsory in the medical and dental field. I expect the impact on redundancy, all I can tell her is that historically the the Royal Navy to be very limited. We will, however, uptake of voluntary redundancy by Gurkhas has been have smaller medical and dental services in the future, very, very low. Therefore, on a pessimistic projection, I to reflect the way in which we provide those services to have to assume that the majority of those redundancies our armed forces in peacetime. will be compulsory. David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con): Will my right Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con): My right hon. Friend remind the House of the scale of the hon. Friend has already confirmed that the UK has the financial challenge faced by the MOD in 2010 compared fourth largest defence budget in the world. Will he also with that in other nations? Will he also tell the House confirm that the UK, along with the United States and, what steps are being taken to ensure that we do not face ironically, Greece, is one of only three of the 28 NATO such challenges again? members to be achieving the 2% of GDP level on defence expenditure? Mr Hammond: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that. I know that Opposition Members do not like it Mr Hammond: I am pleased to be able to tell my hon. being said that we inherited a £38 billion black hole in Friend, as my colleague the Estonian Defence Minister the defence budget. We have dealt with that and we have would never forgive me for not mentioning this, that put in place a balanced equipment plan that is fully Estonia has joined the elite band of countries that meet funded with a contingency of £4.5 billion in it. More the 2% of GDP defence spending target. Just four importantly, we have put in place mechanisms to ensure countries in NATO meet that target. that projects do not get signed off willy-nilly by politicians 475 Armed Forces Restructuring23 JANUARY 2014 Armed Forces Restructuring 476 when the resources are not in place to pay for them. recruiting and open for business. However, we are conscious That ensures that we have a coherent defence budget that the inevitability of a redundancy programme sends and that we never again find ourselves in the position of out a somewhat mixed message. I can also confirm that the former Labour Defence Secretary Lord Hutton military redundees receive generous compensation packages. who, for the want of £300 million over two years, was I have announced today help with housing purchase, forced to delay the aircraft carrier project and drive and there is an excellent programme in place for supporting £1.6 billion of additional costs into that programme. people to acquire the skills they need for dealing with We will not get ourselves into that position. the civilian world, including employment search. I am confident that we have done everything we can to make John Glen (Salisbury) (Con): Some of my constituents the transition from military to civilian life as smooth as have been alarmed by recent reports of unfilled vacancies possible for those who will be affected by the programme. in key roles such as intelligence officers, radiologists and electronic warfare system operators. Will my right Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con): A hon. Friend confirm that the announcement today will question has been raised about the armed forces covenant. take account of the need to maintain all capabilities and Will the Secretary of State clarify and confirm that it avoid expensive short-term replacements from outside was brought about by this Government in 2011, helping the armed services? armed forces personnel and their families. Will he also clarify whether, following the post-2014 restructuring Mr Hammond: As I said in an earlier reply, we will that will take place after Afghanistan, the United Kingdom not be making any redundancies in those pinch-point will retain all its Reaper drones, and whether those fields. We face, across the armed forces, a number of drones will play a part in our long-term strategy? areas in which we directly compete with very highly Mr Hammond: I can confirm that it is this Government paid civilian occupations. I am talking about engineering who have enshrined the armed forces covenant in law of all types—nuclear, aircraft and airworthiness speciality and have very positively driven the armed forces covenant skills. In those areas, it is a constant challenge to programme since that time, creating the community recruit and retain staff, but those are challenges that the covenant and the corporate covenant, which now play single services manage extraordinarily effectively in the an important part in the overall programme. My hon. circumstances. Friend also asked me about Reaper drones post- Afghanistan, stretching the statement on redundancy Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con): How many of to its maximum limit. None the less, I say to him that we those currently working at the Allied Rapid Reaction expect unmanned aerial vehicles to form a permanent Corps, many of whom are constituents of mine, will be and significant part of our future aerial capability. affected by this programme? Will the Defence Secretary confirm that all those made redundant will receive a Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): If 18 medical generous compensation package and help with housing and dental posts are to be lost from the RAF and the and new jobs? We need to work closely with counties Royal Navy, what efforts are being made, and what such as Gloucestershire, which have signed the military incentives are being provided, to ensure that such covenant, and to emphasise to the young of our county experienced and dedicated personnel find new careers and my city that there are still real opportunities to join in the NHS where their skills are badly needed? the Army and learn skills, for example as bricklayers and electricians. Mr Hammond: Such people are inherently employable. Almost all of them will be absorbed pretty much Mr Hammond: Those opportunities do indeed remain, immediately into the NHS. The priority challenge for us and the purpose of the current marketing campaign is is to ensure that as they make that transition into the to emphasise to people that all areas of the military—the NHS, they join the reserves to continue playing a part in Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the Marines—are delivering Britain’s military capability. 477 23 JANUARY 2014 Points of Order 478

Points of Order Madam Deputy Speaker: I thank the Secretary of State for his helpful provision of information. 12.36 pm Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab): On a Vernon Coaker (Gedling) (Lab): On a point of order, point of order, Madam Speaker. Earlier today, I asked a Madam Deputy Speaker. May I ask the Secretary of flooding-related question of the Leader of the House. State—[Interruption.] May I ask you, Madam Deputy My husband has a direct interest in and is on the Speaker— register of the Fire Protection Association, which is a not-for-profit organisation. As the fire service is the Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing): Order. common thread there, it is probably appropriate that I If the hon. Gentleman is making a point of order, it has make a reference to an indirect interest. to be just that. It cannot be a question to a Minister, Madam Deputy Speaker: It is indeed appropriate, and and I cannot answer questions on behalf of the Minister. I thank the hon. Lady for setting the record straight so quickly. Vernon Coaker: On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Would it not have been appropriate for the Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab): Secretary of State to make available to the House before On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am sure the statement a document that broke down some of the that you are an avid reader of the Daily Mirror and will numbers relating to the redundancies? For example, he therefore have seen the story this morning about the referred to it in answer to the question from my hon. rusting Russian cruise hulk that is apparently drifting Friend the Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin towards the United Kingdom and is populated by cannibal Qureshi) about the Gurkha regiments. rats. Has the Department for Transport or the Home Office said whether a Minister will be coming to the Madam Deputy Speaker: If the Secretary of State has House to update us on what on earth is going on? an answer to that question as it concerns the workings Madam Deputy Speaker: I will not enlighten the House of the House, I will ask him to comment. about the number of times a week I read the Daily Mirror, but although I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s ingenuity The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond): in bringing this clearly important and worrying story to Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. the attention of Members and of Ministers—[Interruption.] I am not sure whether it would be in order, but if you Order. I have at this stage had no indication that any say that it is, I will happily place in the Library of the Minister intends to come to the House to make a House a document that shows the fields. This document statement. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman’s concerns will have been circulated in the Army today and it will will have been heard and taken on board by those on become publicly available, but I am happy to put it in the Government Front Bench. the Library of the House. BILLS PRESENTED Madam Deputy Speaker: It is certainly in order for the Secretary of State and his Ministers to give information CONSUMER RIGHTS BILL to Members of this House. I am grateful to him for Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57) reacting so quickly to a request to do so. Secretary Vince Cable, supported by the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Chancellor of the Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con): Further to Exchequer, Mr Secretary Pickles and Jenny Willott, that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Will my presented a Bill to amend the law relating to the rights right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence of consumers and protection of their interests; to make confirm that what he proposes to put in the Library—I provision about investigatory powers for enforcing the hope it will be today—is the announcement of the regulation of traders; to make provision about private specialist areas from which they will select personnel to actions in competition law; and for connected purposes. be made redundant, to which he referred in his statement? Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time Will he confirm whether that is what he is proposing to tomorrow, and to be printed (Bill 161) with explanatory put in the Library? I wonder whether that will give us an notes (Bill 161-EN). understanding of the geographic breakdown across the country. DEREGULATION BILL Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57) Madam Deputy Speaker: The hon. Gentleman knows Oliver Letwin, supported by the Prime Minister, the that it is inappropriate and out of order now to carry on Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary Chris Grayling, Secretary the arguments rehearsed during the statement. However, Michael Gove, Mr Secretary Pickles, Mr Secretary Paterson, if the Secretary of State would like to give further Mr Secretary Davey, Mr Secretary McLoughlin, Secretary information on a point of order about information to Maria Miller, Mr Kenneth Clarke and Michael Fallon, Members of this House, I will allow him so to do. presented a Bill to make provision for the reduction of burdens resulting from legislation for businesses or Mr Hammond: Further to that point of order, Madam other organisations or for individuals; to make provision Deputy Speaker. You will be interested to know that the for the repeal of legislation which no longer has practical document I intend to place in the Library will set out use; to make provision about the exercise of regulatory the fields and the numbers against each field. However, functions; and for connected purposes. unless my hon. Friend is a very credible detective, I Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time doubt that he will be able to determine much about the tomorrow, and to be printed (Bill 162) with explanatory geographical distribution of those redundancies. notes (Bill 162-EN). 479 23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 480

Daniel Kawczynski: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman Backbench Business for giving way, and I hope that his debate will be balanced. He talks about the need to protect people’s Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) rights and about violence, so I very much hope that in preparation for the debate he spoke, as I have, to some of the police officers in Shrewsbury and some of the 12.41 pm people in the building trade who experienced great violence and intimidation from those people at that Mr David Anderson (Blaydon) (Lab): I beg to move, time. That this House is seriously concerned at the decision of the Government to refuse to release papers related to the building dispute in 1972 and subsequent prosecutions of the workers Mr Anderson: I am sure that if the hon. Gentleman known as the Shrewsbury 24 and calls on it to reverse this listens to what I have to say, he will realise what went on position as a matter of urgency. in Shrewsbury, including evidence from the police— The debate is long overdue but I urge colleagues not to intervene unless they feel they have to, because there Daniel Kawczynski: Has he spoken to the people are a number of Members who wish to speak and time there? will obviously be limited. Nineteen seventy-two was a momentous year for Mr Anderson: I will run the debate; the hon. Gentleman industrial relations in this country. A weak Government should just sit there and listen. had twice declared states of emergency, first in February during the first miners’ strike for almost half a century, In 1972, the unions, exasperated at the failure to and secondly in August during the national dockworkers’ achieve progress, called the first and so far only national strike. Matters were made worse by the Government’s building strike ever held. Four months later, the strike attempts to prevent unions from defending their members’ was called off after the unions forced their employers to rights, wages and conditions at work. It was clear that concede the biggest increase in basic pay rates ever. It of all the work forces in the United Kingdom, the was a victory for the working man, but a bitter blow for building industry was a bigger mess than all the rest put the employers, who were determined on revenge. They together. Wages were low, there was no job security and were not alone. The Tory Government were rattled by exploitation was rife through a system known as “the the success of one of the least well-organised groups of lump.” workers in this country and were determined to help their friends in the building industry. Jim McGovern (Dundee West) (Lab): Will my hon. To pursue that revenge the employers’ body, the Friend give way? National Federation of Building Trades Employers, went on what can only be described as a fishing expedition. Mr Anderson: Quickly. It wrote to its members on 20 September 1972, two weeks after the strike ended, seeking any information Jim McGovern: As I am sure my hon. Friend is aware, related to possible violence and intimidation during the the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs, of which I am strike. The clear intention of the federation was to pass a member, has conducted an inquiry into blacklisting. the dossier on to the Home Secretary for his consideration Would it be fair to say that the Shrewsbury 24 would so that he could tighten up the law on picketing in most certainly have been blacklisted after the strike in industrial disputes. The federation specifically asked its 1972? members for information on any incidents available to them, including signed statements from any eye-witnesses; Mr Anderson: I thank and forgive my hon. Friend for copies of any photographs from local newspaper his intervention. There is absolutely no doubt about it: photographers of, as the federation said, “the more people were blacklisted. One real sadness about what notorious occurrences” that would give strong support we are discussing today is that 40 years on from that to the submissions; and any other kind of suitable disgrace, similar things are still taking place. The Scottish evidence that members might have come across, such as Affairs Committee should be congratulated on the great tape recordings and personal photographs. work it has done in this area. It was not just the members of the federation who The lump was a system whereby people were paid were being written to. In a letter to the Commissioner of cash in hand, meaning not only that no income tax or the Metropolitan Police, Robert McAlpine complained national insurance contributions were paid—so the state that there was no problem with the law governing was robbed—but, vitally, that workers were uninsured pickets and their activities, but that the problem was against accidents or worse while they were at work. rather down to That was extremely serious. A building worker was “the lack of enforcement of the law by the police”. dying every day on average on building sites across the UK and, in the three years before 1972, almost a That was a clear shot across the bows of the people who quarter of a million industrial injuries were reported, had the responsibility of ensuring that the law was with many more not being reported. adhered to on the ground. The police, in whom we put our faith to ensure that the law is upheld properly, were Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con): being told by an employer that they had not done their Will the hon. Gentleman give way? job properly.

Mr Anderson: In exasperation, I give way to the hon. Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab): Will Gentleman. my hon. Friend give way? 481 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 482

Mr Anderson: Yes, but will my hon. Friend please be So how did these workers become embroiled in this quick? legal minefield? On 31 August, a joint meeting of members of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Mr Cunningham: I will be as quick as I can. It is not Technicians and the Transport and General Workers only in the building trade that blacklisting has gone on Union was held in the Ball and Stirrup pub in Chester. since the ’70s; it has gone on in other industries. We At the meeting, which was the first time many of those have recently had debates about that. More importantly, present had met each other, a request was read out from the Tories have not changed. Look at the Transparency union members in the Shropshire area seeking support of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union from other comrades throughout the north-west to Administration Bill, because that tells us a lot. They successfully prosecute their case in their area. The meeting want to make the law worse for working people. agreed that a group of pickets would travel down to Mr Anderson: My hon. Friend is right. Some things, Oswestry on 6 September to meet local activists and sadly, never change. then decide which locations to picket. When the dossier was completed in October 1972, it That meeting is crucial to the issue. Anyone who has was passed on to the then Home Secretary, Robert Carr, ever been involved in picketing—looking round this who immediately instructed the chief constables of West room, I see a number of people who have been—knows Mercia and Gwynedd to investigate events in one particular that, especially when you are going outside your own part of the country—that is, the area in and around area, you have to plan properly—basic stuff including north Wales. He obviously wanted to pursue the agenda where people are going to be picked up, when they can laid out by the employers in the dossier despite reports expect to get home, and where they are likely to be such as those in the Financial Times—hardly the workers’ throughout the day. You also need to ensure that anybody friend—that said: going picketing is aware of the need to behave properly “This document is itself flawed since it suggests the existence at all times and give them clear information in case of a sinister plot without being able to substantiate the allegations.” there are problems. The meeting was simply a planning Those involved who are in the House to listen to the meeting, but crucially, when the case went to court, it debate today believe that the Home Secretary gave was classed as a meeting to conspire to intimidate the job to the police so that they would put bones on the workers on the ground. No evidence was ever laid to case that the employers were trying to make. substantiate that claim, but it was the crux of the case Why was that important? If it could be shown that and it was what led to imprisonment. the activities of the pickets were deliberately planned to The prosecution were so intent on getting jail sentences intimidate, the charges laid against them could be much imposed that they even charged a person with conspiracy more serious than those for the argy-bargy that was the who was not present at the planning meeting. John norm on picket lines. In particular, if conspiracy could McKinsie Jones had been collecting union subs in the be proven, the potential to lock up some of the leaders downstairs bar of the pub, and he left before the planning of the dispute for a very long time became a reality. meeting even began. He was nowhere near the meeting, The choice of north Wales as the focus for police yet amazingly he ended up being sentenced to nine action was not an accident. Despite evidence of much months in jail for conspiracy to intimidate. How on more aggressive activity in other parts of the country, earth can someone be part of a conspiracy when they the Home Secretary deliberately focused on north Wales. are not even at the meeting where it is discussed? That might be purely coincidental, but I can assure the House that no one involved in the campaign believes It is interesting to compare what happened to the that to be so. North Wales was a part of the world pickets who were charged with 242 offences between where the McAlpine family had a huge amount of them and those at other courts who had been involved political influence. They were not only influential players in similar activities. Earlier in the year, two trials were in the Tory party but one of the biggest developers held in Mold. At the first trial, only minor charges were in the building industry, including at the site in upheld by the jury and the maximum fine was £50. At Brookside in Shrewsbury that was the epicentre of the the second trial, the jury found all defendants not guilty case against the pickets. In addition—again, this may be of anything. One of the main reasons for this was that purely coincidental, but I doubt it—the high sheriff of in Mold, prior to the jury being selected, the lawyers for Denbighshire, the man responsible for law and order in the defendants exercised their long-held right to challenge the area, just happened to be the ninth member of the potential jurors. As was the right of the defence laywers, McAlpine family in succession to have held that post. they were looking for people who might have connections As the police investigation gained momentum, 31 pickets with the building industry or might be hostile to trade were arrested on 14 November—two months after the unions. As a result of the cross-examination, a number end of the dispute. The men were released without of prospective jurors were excluded from the jury. charge, but three months later, on Valentine’s day 1974, However—again, forgive my scepticism—after those 24 of them were rearrested. A barrage of charges— trials, but before the Shrewsbury ones began, the Lord 242 in total—were levelled at these men, all of whom Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, another part of the Tory were charged with intimidation. Much more seriously, hierarchy, unilaterally banished the right of lawyers to the first six to go on trial were charged with conspiracy challenge jurors. This was done without warning and to intimidate contrary to common law. This was the contrary to decades of practice, and without any prior charge that the employers’ body wanted to see, because consultation with the legal system or other interested it gave the establishment the chance to send pickets to parties. In order to try to get a fair trial despite these jail for long periods. The intent was clear—lock these clearly deliberately motivated changes to the legal process, people up and the rest of the trade union movement will the defendants’ lawyers requested that the trial of those know that legitimate trade union activity, including charged in relation to picketing in Shrewsbury be held picketing, could now be treated as a criminal act. in Mold or be moved to an area of the country that was 483 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 484 more neutral than Shrewsbury would have been. The That was the highest legal advice in the land. We judge flatly turned down that request and set 3 October remember how, in the previous Parliament, my party 1973 as the date for the first hearing. was, quite rightly, lectured by then Opposition Members The trial judge, Mr Justice Mais, was a surprise about the failure of Tony Blair to listen to the Attorney- choice for such a high-profile, politically charged case. General in relation to the Iraq war. In this instance, the He had little, if any, experience in cases of this magnitude, same authority advised the Home Secretary not to or in criminal cases at all; his expertise was mainly in pursue the case. The Home Secretary ignored him, and rural and ecclesiastical matters. His behaviour throughout we have to ask why. The people who went to jail are the case led many to question his capability and impartiality. clear about the reason. They have no doubt that that the A number of issues gave rise to this concern. For pressure from the building industry, particularly from a example, when the jury were called to bring in the man who would soon be appointed as deputy treasurer verdict, they were unable to come to a majority decision— and chief fundraiser to the Tory party, was overwhelmingly they were tied at eight to four. The judge asked them to more important than the views of the people entrusted keep going but they said, “We’re too tired to go on with advising on legal issues at the highest level. today—we need to have a break.” So he agreed to give We must remember that this pressure had been felt by them a break and let them stop in a hotel overnight, but the police at the highest level, with the result that in the he closed by saying: autumn of 1972 they set up a huge fishing expedition. A team of detectives were billeted in north Wales and 800 “You should go to the accommodation prepared for you…and I suggest that you continue your deliberations there.” statements were taken, of which 600 were discarded. This was despite the fact that on the day in question—6 That was an extraordinary thing to suggest. The only September 1972—not only were no arrests made, but place where a jury should consider any case is in the the police actually congratulated the leaders of the jury room and nowhere else, be it a hotel or anywhere pickets on the disciplined way in which they conducted else. their activities. We must also remember that this was all If that were the judge’s only error, it would still be done at the behest of the building employers’ federation. wrong, but throughout the trial his behaviour was, to Another issue of grave concern was the decision say the least, questionable. The campaigners provided during the trial to allow an inflammatory television me and other Members of this House with reports from programme to be aired on the very night of the prosecution’s David Altaras, a junior barrister who defended Ricky summing up. Under the title, “Red under the Bed”, the Tomlinson at the first trial. In 2012, he gave a statement programme was an attack on this country’s left-wing in which he said: political parties and trade union activity. It specifically “Given the fact that I regularly adjudicate criminal trials referred to the ongoing trial. The day after it was aired, myself I have no hesitation in saying that, during the trial, the Judge Mais dismissed the defence’s attempts to have the Judge’s conduct towards the defence frequently crossed the line TV company charged with contempt. Indeed, he criticised between permissible and impermissible behaviour and amounted the defence for having the temerity to raise the matter. to a display of obvious hostility towards the defendants. He took What is of even greater concern is that the papers that particular exception to John Platt-Mills who represented Des Warren and to Des Warren himself. I vividly recall an occasion have already been released show that the then Government, when Mr Platt-Mills was cross-examining a witness (probably a right up to the then Prime Minister, were involved in police officer) and the Judge took off his wig and threw it on the assisting the programme to be produced. bench in irritation. I recall occasions when he threw his pen down There is clear evidence in the paperwork already in and turned to face the wall when either a defendant was giving the public domain that a special unit was set up in evidence or the defence were adducing evidence in cross-examination. In addition, I can remember his rather rude interruptions during Government to undermine legitimate trade union activity cross-examination.” and to paint left-wing political activity and parties as subversive, despite their legitimate right to agitate in a He went on: modern democracy. That was all being done behind “During the Judge’s various outbursts, I remember members closed doors and it would never have been exposed of the jury nudging one another. My own view at the time, a view without the determination of those who still seek justice shared by other members of the Defence team with whom I today. discussed the Judge’s behaviour, was that the jury (a) could have been in no doubt where the judge’s sympathy lay and (b) could These men went to jail as a direct result of the have absolutely no doubt that he loathed Mr Platt-Mills.” onslaught of the establishment over a prolonged period, which was clearly designed to deter the wider labour So we had a court case where the legal system had been movement from using industrial action to pursue its changed to deny jury challenges, that was held in an legitimate claims. Des Warren was given a three-year area where the defendant’s legal team were genuinely jail sentence and Ricky Tomlinson a two-year sentence, concerned about the lack of neutrality and was presided and John McKinsie Jones—the man who was not even over by a judge whose inexperience was matched only present at the so-called conspiracy meeting—went to by his partiality. jail for nine months. Other men received suspended jail But it gets even worse. The campaign team’s researcher, sentences. At the second trial, three more pickets—Brian Eileen Turnbull, has trawled through documentation Williams, Arthur Murray and Mike Pierce—were given that is in the archives at Kew. She has uncovered a letter jail sentences. At this and the subsequent third trial, dated 25 January 1973 from the then Attorney-General, others were also given suspended jail sentences. Peter Rawlinson, to the then Home Secretary, Robert These men and those who have been campaigning for Carr, in which he advised the Home Secretary that in more than four decades contend that they went to jail his view, having discussed the case with Treasury Counsel and got criminal records as a direct result of direct and the Director of Public Prosecutions, these political interference in this country’s political and judicial “proceedings should not be instituted.” systems by very strong personalities who pressurised 485 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 486

[Mr Anderson] Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab): Will the hon. Gentleman give way? politicians, senior police and members of the judiciary to take part in a witch hunt and to send out a clear Sir Gerald Howarth: No, I am not going to give way message of intent that people involved in industrial at the moment. It is very important that people should disputes would face exceedingly serious consequences. understand the conditions that applied at the time. People who were going about their ordinary activities Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) were subjected to intimidation. I became the hon. Member (SNP): I am listening intently to the worrying case for Cannock and Burntwood in 1983 and I saw constituents being made by the hon. Gentleman. Is he able to of mine who were trying to go to work in Littleton enlighten me on whether there was a financial link colliery having bags of urine thrown at them by striking between the employers and the party then in government? miners from south Wales. In other words, were the employers funding that political party? Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab): Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Mr Anderson: I cannot say for certain that that was the case, but it is clear that one of the main protagonists Sir Gerald Howarth: No, I will not give way. This was was Mr McAlpine, who became the deputy treasurer of in the day of the flying pickets. These people would go the Conservative party within a matter of months after around the country supporting trade unions that were the trial ended and who was also one of the party’s chief engaged in that kind of intimidation, even though they fundraisers for decades. themselves had absolutely nothing to do with the strike The ongoing refusal to release all the documentation or industry in question. related to this case only hardens the suspicions of those The statistics make interesting reading, because it involved. The morass of papers already in the public was at this time after the second world war that Britain domain show clear evidence of the pattern of pressure was going substantially down the tubes. Successive that was applied in order to get the results the employers Conservative Governments had failed not only to turn wanted. Today we have a chance to set in train the back but to arrest the ratchet of socialism that had process that should lead those in power to come to a driven through this country in the immediate post-war view that it is in the real public interest and, clearly, a years. [Interruption.] I see that that has huge support matter of natural justice that the remaining papers be on the Opposition Benches. released. Only then will we really be able to see just how far the tentacles of big business spread into the public Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab): Will realm. Whether we like it or not, we are responsible for the hon. Gentleman give way? the failures of the state in the past. Today, collectively, we can start to address those failings. Sir Gerald Howarth: The hon. Gentleman is a Labour Member for whom I have an immense amount of time. He was a very good Transport Minister and it would 1.3 pm give me enormous pleasure to give way to him. Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con): It is very interesting to see no fewer than 34 Labour Members Jim Fitzpatrick: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman present. for giving way. He will forgive me if I disagree with pretty much everything he has said so far, even though Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab): And trade we do agree on certain aspects of life in politics. The unionists. motion calls for the publication of papers. It does not call for anybody to make judgments for and against; it asks for the papers to be published so that the public Sir Gerald Howarth: And trade unionists; I thank the can make a judgment call. Some of us believe that those hon. Gentleman for that helpful intervention. It is quite papers will show certain things and, obviously, Conservative clear that old Labour is still alive and well and, in some colleagues think they might show something else, but respects, seeking both to justify and to romanticise mob surely we can agree on transparency in politics and the rule and violence and intimidation. publication of documents.

Mr Ronnie Campbell: You have not been listening. Sir Gerald Howarth: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman and I am slightly relieved to hear that he does not agree Sir Gerald Howarth: Not only have I been listening, with what I have said, because that makes my life easier but I was party to the public debate at the time, for I had and it probably makes his life easier as well. I will not a letter published in The Times on 14 January 1975, resile from my personal affection for the hon. Gentleman when I was director of Freedom Under Law, calling on and I will address his point. the then Home Secretary to allow the law to be upheld The hon. Member for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) was and for the jail sentences of Tomlinson and Warren to on his feet for about half an hour, during which he be maintained, so I have an interest in the matter. talked about the circumstances that prevailed at the It is important for Labour Members to realise that if time. We heard about the way in which the workers were they wish to secure the support of the British people at being ground down by the employers and, of course, the next election, they need to make it clear that they every possible opportunity was taken to associate those renounce the kind of practices that prevailed in the employers not only with the Conservative party, but 1970s and 1980s. with its fundraising efforts. It is important that there is a 487 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 488 public understanding of the conditions that prevailed at taking them out of the hands of their politically motivated the time and how it came about that these men were leaders. We were acting very much in line with the spirit jailed. of the British people. I want to draw attention to the record of days lost to industrial action at the time. In 1970, when Ted Heath Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab): This history became Prime Minister, nearly 11 million days were lesson is very interesting from the hon. Gentleman’s lost. In 1971, the number of days lost was 13.5 million; point of view, but for the third time, will he give us a in 1972—the year in question—it was nearly 24 million; straightforward answer: does he believe that the papers in 1973 it was 7 million; and in 1974 it was 14.75 million. should be published—yes or no? That illustrates just what was going on in the country at the time. [Interruption.] There was indeed a Tory Sir Gerald Howarth: The hon. Gentleman, who is Government. There was also a concerted effort by the also a friend, will have to be patient. I will deal with that trade union leaders, whom Margaret Thatcher described point in my own time. [HON.MEMBERS: “When?”] In my in her book as being first, second and third socialist own time. politicians. They were not trade union leaders and they were not looking after the interests of their members. Secondary picketing was eventually outlawed in 1984, They were in pursuit of a political objective, which was during the Parliament in which I first served in this to support the socialist party under the guise of the House. Much has been said about the cases of Warren Labour party at the time. That is what they were trying and Tomlinson, but it is very important to put some of to do. The Conservative Government at the time did the facts on the record. To quote from my letter in The not have a majority and, I submit, probably did not Times of 14 January 1975: have the conviction to roll back socialism and tackle the “It is worth reminding them”— trade union reform that was necessary, which was of those who took the same line as the hon. Member for course addressed by Margaret Thatcher and the 1979 Blaydon— Government. “of the words of Mr Justice Mais, the trial judge, in passing sentence on December 20, 1973. Of one of those jailed, he said: Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): I invite the hon. ‘You took part in violence and encouraged violence… You are Gentleman to respond to the question put to him about prepared to impose your views on others by violence if need the motion. I do not want to hear a re-enactment of the be.’”— events of 40 years ago. The general public are entitled to see the papers relating to what happened then. Does he Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab): agree that the papers should be published so that both On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On three sides can see exactly what happened 40 years ago? occasions, the hon. Gentleman has been asked to clarify his position and to address the motion. He is not in any way discussing the motion. Will you perhaps advise me? Sir Gerald Howarth: I told the hon. Member for Time is moving on and many hon. Members wish to Poplar and Limehouse (Jim Fitzpatrick), who is a friend, speak, but he is clearly filibustering to waste time. that I would address that point, and that I would do so in my own time, not in his. The Liberals, typically, are sitting on the fence. I forgive my hon. Friend the Member Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing): I for Colchester (Sir Bob Russell). It is absolutely right appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s point, but it is not and proper, and important—[Interruption.] I know possible for a Member of the House to filibuster while I that we are in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, but am listening carefully to what is said and making sure there we go. that it is relevant to the matter before us. The hon. Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) has explained Britain was the sick man of Europe in the 1970s. One that he is coming to the main point of his argument. I reason for that was the kind of trade union activities have allowed him to develop his argument, as is perfectly that were going on. The hon. Member for Blaydon has in order, but he is an experienced parliamentarian and given his romanticised version of what went on, and I will know that he must come to the very point of the am absolutely determined to put an alternative case, matter. I will be very strict this afternoon in making and I hope that I am in order to do so, Madam Deputy sure that all speeches are within the scope of the matter Speaker. That alternative case will not be uttered by any before us and are properly in order. Opposition Members. I suspect that the only other person to do so will be my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski), who of Sir Gerald Howarth: I am most grateful to you, course has a vested interest in his constituency. Madam Deputy Speaker. Hon. Members should accept [Interruption.] I thank the hon. Member for Blaydon, that the question whether the remaining papers that and I will indeed continue. have not been released to the National Archives are revealed is a pertinent one. In debating, as we are, the I have set out the pattern of industrial action that was issues surrounding the cases, particularly two of the cases, destroying Britain, and of which the country was absolutely it is highly relevant to question whether the papers fed up. An opinion poll in The Times in January 1980 should be revealed. said that 71% of the people surveyed about the kind of measures that the Thatcher Government were introducing Before I was interrupted, I was quoting Mr Justice —to restrain secondary picketing and intimidation—wanted Mais, the trial judge. He went on to tell the six people those measures to be taken, as, interestingly, did 62% of before him: trade unionists. One of the successes of the Thatcher “Some of you were clearly determined to strike terror in the period was to restore trade unions back to their members, hearts of those who continued to work.” 489 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 490

[Sir Gerald Howarth] Sir Gerald Howarth: I will give way to the hon. Lady in a minute. That was a very serious crime indeed. Furthermore, the I remind Opposition Members that in Margaret case went to appeal and, to quote The Times editorial of Thatcher’s excellent book, “The Downing Street Years”, 20 December 1974, the Court of Appeal judge said: she wrote about the Government’s attempts to deal with “There was at each site a terrifying display by pickets of force trade union legislation. At one point she says that and violence actually committed or threatened against buildings, “when a dispute did occur the trade union was able to exercise plant and equipment; at some sites, if not at others, acts of what amounted to intimidation over its members—‘lawful personal violence and threats of violence to the person were intimidation’ in the unhappy phrase coined by Labour’s former committed and made. Persons working on the sites and residents Attorney-General, Sam Silkin.” near by were put in fear.” At the highest levels of the Labour party at that time, That should not be tolerated in our country, and it such practices were basically endorsed. I say to right should not be supported by Opposition Members. hon. and hon. Members on the Opposition Benches that the country has moved on. If the Labour party Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP): The hon. Gentleman wishes to occupy the Government Benches once again—I has quoted the Court of Appeal judge. He was the same very much hope that it will not—its Members must judge on whose verdict the hon. Gentleman relied for understand that the public out there do not want to see many years in resisting the case for a new inquiry into any return to such behaviour or to hear any sympathy Bloody Sunday and so on. Is he confident that his expressed for it. reliance on Widgery today— The hon. Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi) has been extremely persistent and I am delighted Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. In interventions as to give way to her. well as speeches, hon. Members will stick to the matter before us. [Interruption.] Order. The hon. Gentleman Yasmin Qureshi: I thank the hon. Gentleman for may make his point, but he must refer to the matter giving way. He is talking about the dispute. The motion before us, from which he was straying very considerably. is about the request for papers. The Government cite national security as a reason for not disclosing those Sir Gerald Howarth: I also want to refer to people papers. What does national security have to do with an who have spoken more recently about the issue. An industrial dispute? article from Wales on Sunday of 27 January 2013 in the debate pack provided to Members—so it must be relevant, Sir Gerald Howarth: I will address that point in one Madam Deputy Speaker—states that moment. I only wish to make two further points and “Peter Starbuck, who says he was Oswestry’s largest contractor at one of them will address the hon. Lady’s question. the time, claims violence and intimidation were a routine part of Robert Carr, who became a peer in the other place—I the strikers’ tactics and the convictions are sound. And bricklayer’s labourer Clifford Growcott has described how he was ‘punched will continue to refer to it as the other place, Madam and kicked like a football’ during the strike.” Deputy Speaker—was accused of conniving with the police and the security forces at the behest of the I am astonished that Opposition Members want to side construction industry. That is a conspiracy theory. Those with people convicted of using that sort of violence of us who knew Robert Carr cannot imagine that he against their fellow human beings. was anything other than a charming, polite and reasonable Home Secretary. I do not think that he was in the Mr Anderson: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? business of conniving. Let me conclude by coming to the point that has been Yasmin Qureshi: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? raised a number of times.

Sir Gerald Howarth: I give way to the hon. Gentleman Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing): Order. who proposed the motion. I say to the House and to the hon. Gentleman that if he concludes his speech in the next two to three minutes, he Mr Anderson: I take from what the hon. Gentleman will have taken the same amount of time as the proposer has said that the Court of Appeal judge was Lord of the motion. That would be reasonable. Widgery. On the point about the litany of activities that are supposed to have happened—if it is correct that Sir Gerald Howarth: I am most grateful, Madam those events happened, they are very serious—why was Deputy Speaker, for that guidance. I will fully comply not one person arrested on the day that they happened with the implicit request. or are alleged to have happened? Lots of policemen I put it to Opposition Members that it is not only the were there, so why did they not pick those people up current Lord Chancellor who has reviewed these matters. and arrest them? Why did that happen five months I have not spoken to him about the matter, but I down the line, when they were effectively stitched up by understand that he has done so recently.He has considered the case against them? that there is no reason to change the decision of previous Lord Chancellors. Lord Irvine was Lord Chancellor in Sir Gerald Howarth: The hon. Gentleman obviously 2002 when the 30-year rule would have applied. The knows the answer to that question. I have no idea. I was right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw) later not involved in the trial and I was not at the trial, but I became Lord Chancellor. Labour’s Lord Chancellors was involved in the public debate at the time. all concluded that it was not appropriate for certain of the papers to be revealed. [HON.MEMBERS: “Where are Yasmin Qureshi: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? they?”] Labour Members must address that question 491 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 492 to the right hon. Member for Blackburn. I have no “I know my children when they are old enough, will understand responsibility for bringing him to the Chamber to provide that the struggle we took part in was for their benefit and for the answers on these matters. He is a Member of the benefit and interest of building workers and their families.” Labour party, not of my party. When I was indentured as an apprentice bricklayer in It is important that we put it on the record that 1978, notwithstanding the introduction of the Health successive Lord Chancellors have looked at this issue and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Britain’s building and deemed it appropriate that certain papers, supplied sites were still workplaces of great danger and the or otherwise relating to the intelligence services, should conditions for workers were shockingly poor. On most not be released to the National Archives. I am not privy sites, there were no proper toilets, washbasins or lockers. to what those papers are. I dare say that I would like There were certainly no hard hats, goggles, gloves and to look at them. However, I repose my trust in Lord masks as standard personal protective equipment. People Chancellors, whether Conservative or Labour. They died daily. should be responsible for determining whether our national When workers had the audacity to ask the state to security would be imperilled. take action and stop the carnage, the Government of To conclude, in the 1970s, when the nation was being the day interfered in the business of the judiciary, held to ransom by strikes all over the country, people resulting in the most political and corrupt criminal trial like me and my new wife were stocking up with provisions that had been seen in peacetime Britain. in case there was a shutdown, and Ross McWhirter of Ian Mearns (Gateshead) (Lab): If the strike and the the “Guinness Book of Records” and I were looking at prosecutions are a matter of such importance to national how we might produce a newspaper to get information security that the papers will not be released 40 years out to the public when the newspapers were being later, why did it take the police five months to make any closed down by trade union militants. That was the arrests? mood of the nation at the time. It is important that the country understands that. This case arose out of that Steve Rotheram: I will develop that point at the end of mood. my speech and explain why it is so wrong that it has Thank goodness for this country that we had a taken so long even for the matter to be debated in this Conservative Government, led by a real Conservative in House. Margaret Thatcher, who restored the power in trade The people we are talking about were arrested on unions to their members. Today, we have the evidence. trumped-up charges, received a dodgy trial and were The number of working days lost to strikes in 2012 was given unsound convictions. That would not be allowed not 10 million, let alone 30 million. It was not even and would not be acceptable today, and it should not 1 million. It was 250,000. That is testimony to the have been allowed and should not have been acceptable fundamental reform of trade union relations that was then. It was a legal process that would shame a third-world carried out in this country. The United Kingdom has dictatorship. prospered ever since. As my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon has suggested, the exploitation of workers and the unacceptable 1.25 pm and unsafe working conditions in which workers were Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab): The hon. forced to operate were the bedrock of the first ever Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) claims to national building workers’ strike in 1972. As a result of be a member of the most transparent Government ever. that national strike, which was settled on 16 September Ricky Tomlinson might have a couple of words to say 1972, the building workers succeeded in achieving an about that. I congratulate—[Laughter.] Someone’s just across-the-board increase for all trades working in the got it! construction industry. There was, however, enormous I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon political anxiety as a result of that victory, fuelled by a (Mr Anderson) on the tenacity he deployed to secure targeted lobbying campaign by the National Federation today’s debate. I thank the Backbench Business Committee, of Building Trades Employers. Shrewsbury 24 campaigners which has been persuaded, unlike those on the Government firmly believe that the end of the strike was in fact the Benches, that this issue is important enough to warrant beginning of the employers’ campaign to have pickets a full parliamentary debate. It is important that we stick prosecuted, and to use that as a deterrent should they to the terms of the motion. ever have the temerity to take further industrial action. It is true to say that this debate has been a long, long time coming. We now know more than ever about the Mr David Hamilton (Midlothian) (Lab): Does my political, judicial, media and police manipulation that hon. Friend accept that that was the precedent that scarred the working lives of 24 ordinary men, who were started the ball rolling for all the disputes that came wrongly convicted on trumped-up charges, with six of after? That dispute set the goal, which is why it is them unjustly jailed. As John Platt-Mills, QC, said: important to have transparency. After that court case came ‘74, ‘84, and the miners’ strike—the legal position “The trial of the Shrewsbury Pickets is the only case I know of where the government has ordered a prosecution in defiance of changed at that point. the advice of senior police and prosecution authorities”. Steve Rotheram: Absolutely, it was used as a battering I want to praise on the record the remarkable persistence ram to send a message not just to construction workers of the campaigners over the past four decades. In but to working class people throughout the country particular, I praise Ricky Tomlinson for the way in who decided to take industrial action. which he has used his fame as an actor to highlight this injustice. Despite his success, he has remained steadfastly Daniel Kawczynski: My hon. Friend the Member for shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the other Shrewsbury Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) mentioned previous pickets and their families. Ricky said from the dock Labour Lord Chancellors, particularly the right hon. during his trial: Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw). Has the hon. 493 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 494

[Daniel Kawczynski] Steve Rotheram: My hon. Friend makes the point very well. Gentleman had any discussions with previous Labour Lord Chancellors about why the information has not Several hon. Members rose— been released? Steve Rotheram: The hon. Gentleman should not Steve Rotheram: I will not take any further interventions. think I am going to stand here and defend the indefensible. I intended to take 11 minutes but my speech has gone We had an opportunity when in government to do what over that because of the interventions. we are asking for today, but we did not take it. However, Six pickets were singled out for special treatment and that does not stop people continuing to campaign and to stand trial for the common law offence of conspiracy trying to persuade the Government—no matter what to intimidate. They were arrested while the other 18 were colour—that that is the right thing to do. That is what summoned to appear, thereby indicating the distinction we are doing today. in the severity of their roles to the court. That strikes me as odd. Given that the police made no arrests and Mr MacNeil: Is there another consideration, because undertook no immediate investigation after the picketing since previous Lord Chancellors considered the issue in and around Shrewsbury on 6 September, where did and refused to release the papers more research has the “’disturbing evidence” that Robert Carr referred come forward from campaigners that now makes it to come from? Campaigners will never know until all more materially important to release the papers and be documents are released. transparent? In addition to the submission of the dossier, other Steve Rotheram: That is a good point, and as things less transparent forms of lobbying took place, as develop more and more information is known. Some documented in a letter to the Commissioner of Police further information has been gathered by Eileen Turnbull, of the Metropolis—the highest ranking police officer and I am sure other Members will refer to that in their in the country—from Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons in contributions. February ‘73. That was followed by personal representations On 20 September 1972, a letter was sent to all NFBTE to the Home Office, and questions to Ministers designed regional secretaries around the country from its head to turn up the pressure for the police to pursue pickets. office in London. It was headed “Imitation Dossier”. As we have heard several times, there were no reports of The dossier was presented to the Home Secretary, Robert violence on the picket lines, and no arrests made at the Carr, who had previously been Secretary of State for time of the strike. Employment and overseen the introduction of the We have recently seen documents relating to the contentious Industrial Relations Act 1971. Out of 85 Brixton riots, the Lockerbie bombing, Mrs Thatcher’s instances of alleged intimidation and violence detailed attempted use of the Army against the miners, as well as in the dossier, only six related to north Wales. Despite details of how she made no effort whatsoever to make the undeniable fact that most incidents occurred elsewhere, the case for the release of Nelson Mandela. Most the Home Secretary instructed the chief constables of surprisingly, perhaps, in November 2013 The Guardian West Mercia and Gwynedd police forces to carry out an reported details about the release of secret memos inquiry into picketing in north Wales during the strike. relating to the efforts of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to Let us not forget that, as was said earlier, none of the maintain a Cypriot base. Given the political, strategic pickets was cautioned or arrested on the day, the unions and geographical importance of that base, it is surprising— did not receive any complaints from the police about certainly to all Opposition Members—that an issue of the conduct of the pickets, and photographic evidence such magnitude does not warrant an extension of the shows that the police were present and mingling freely security and intelligence instrument of the Public Records with strikers. Some police had their hands in their Act 1958, yet documents relating to a couple of dozen pockets—hardly intimidation. strikers during a building workers dispute 40-odd years We now know that of the 900 statements taken, ago are deemed to be a risk to our national security! It 600 were disregarded by the authorities, presumably would be farcical if it was not so serious for those whose because they failed to corroborate what the police hoped lives have been deeply scared by this miscarriage of they would say. On 11 October 1972, Robert Carr told justice, and I can see no reason whatsoever for the this House that in his opinion there was no deficiency in Government to withhold the release of those papers. the law as it stood, and the problem lay with enforcement. Yes, it will probably be politically embarrassing for In other words, he was pressuring the police who he the Conservative party; yes, it will be another shameful believed had failed to do their job properly. A few days exposé of Britain’s dark past in which the powerful ran later, the then Attorney-General, Sir Peter Rawlinson roughshod over the weak; and, yes, it will be an indictment QC, gave a speech to the Tory 1922 committee in which of how the British establishment—including the hon. he used strikingly similar language. Following that, we Member for Aldershot—believed it was above the law know that of the 200 or so pickets identified, just when it conspired to fit up individuals or groups whose 24 were carefully selected for a political show trial at politics it feared. But it would be the right thing to do. Shrewsbury Crown court, and charged with the offence of intimidation under section 7 of the Conspiracy and I will conclude by placing this debate in a much wider Protection of Property Act 1875. context. We are at a juncture in our country where we have the chance systematically to cleanse the wrongs of Yasmin Qureshi: As my hon. Friend may be aware, our recent history. From Bloody Sunday to historic criminal lawyers in the legal community know that child and sexual abuse cases; from Amritsar to Stephen conspiracy charges are always used when there is no Lawrence; and, yes, from Hillsborough to—who knows?— evidence of a substantive proper charge. It is the last perhaps Orgreave and beyond. I believe that the House resort. must act upon this moment. The Shrewsbury campaign 495 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 496 may well have been the first in a series of injustices that Opposition Members is correct. If the papers were to be have spanned more than 40 years, leaving heartache and released, we would be able to make that judgment, and grief in their wake, but the time has come for the that is what we are calling for in this debate. obfuscation to end, for campaigning to succeed, for documents to be released, and for justice to be done. Daniel Kawczynski: If the hon. Lady allows me to Several hon. Members rose— finish, I will come on to exactly that point. Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. A Obviously, I have also spoken to many people in the large number of Members want to participate in the building trade in the past few days, in advance of this debate so I am imposing a time limit of six minutes for debate, for their first-hand accounts. If any hon. Members each Back-Bench speech, starting immediately. We will are genuinely interested in finding out what the people see how we go through the afternoon, but it may be on the ground felt at that time about the violence, I very necessary for that limit to be reduced further if we do much hope they will approach me. not have enough time to fit everybody in. Coming on to the point raised by the hon. Lady, the hon. Member for Blaydon asked for the documents to 1.39 pm be released. I have two questions. I will be very brief Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con): and let other hon. Members contribute. I reiterate the As the hon. Member for Shrewsbury, this matter is point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot: obviously of great interest to me. I want to put into we have to ask why, over a long period—the Labour context my initial question to the hon. Member for party was in office for three terms—former Labour Blaydon (Mr Anderson). To have a strong debate and a Lord Chancellors decided not to release this information. point of view, we need to try to understand the other That is a perfectly legitimate question to ask. If Opposition person’s perspective. That is why I asked him how much Members feel passionately about this issue—I clearly time he had spent in Shrewsbury interacting with the see that they do—they should challenge and scrutinise local people trying to find out their interpretation of their colleagues to ask why the Labour Government did what happened at that time. I say to him, and to other not release it. hon. Members, that, being the Member for this beautiful I am very interested to hear from the Minister whether Shropshire town, I have spoken to a lot of my constituents he will release the documents and, if not, why he is not who were there at the time. I was born in 1972 when prepared to release them. I have been approached by these incidents occurred, so I have to rely on the first-hand constituents who have a different perspective. They feel accounts and experiences of my constituents. It was that they do not want documents to be withheld from disappointing to have been shouted down by Opposition the public domain if there is the potential for a cover-up Members when I tried to make that point. of some kind, or some form of inappropriate behaviour. As my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Sir As a community, I think the argument is evenly balanced Gerald Howarth) said, 1972 was a time of great industrial in Shrewsbury. There are people who want to remember strife. Some people felt that they had the right to the violence. We are a wonderful but quiet Salopian intimidate and use to violence to achieve their political town. This was an extraordinary event in our history objectives. Margaret Thatcher saw the danger to democracy and they want people to remember the violence they of allowing this to continue. She saw a great danger to experienced. They also want the Government to account our parliamentary process and to the rule of law by not for why they will not release the documents. tackling people who felt that the use of violence was a perfectly legitimate tool to pursue their aims. We must not forget how damaging militant trade union vandalism Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab): In the was, and we must never allow it to return. book “The Key to My Cell” by one of the pickets, Des Warren, he says that when, on 6 September 1972, they I spoke to the police officer who was first on the visited the first site at Kingswood, they were greeted by scene, Mr Aubrey Kirkham. He is a respected member the son of the contractor who had a shotgun in his hand of the Shrewsbury community. He described the people and was threatening to use it. Does the hon. Gentleman descending on our small town that day—400 people, I accept that he seems to be presenting to the House a think he said to me, came on coaches from outside one-sided version of what happened? Shropshire—as a “marauding mob”. He felt that they meted out huge intimidation to local people and massive violence to local workers. Police suffered great violence Daniel Kawczynski: As I have said repeatedly, both and were massively outnumbered. He told me of one sides of the argument have to be taken into consideration. bricklayer from Heathgates in Shrewsbury who had a I felt it appropriate to come here today, as the Member brick thrown at him for refusing to come down from representing Shrewsbury, to outline some of the things scaffolding. He subsequently fell and a year later he that leading members of my community have stated. died. Some of his family think that he died as a direct Clearly, there are other perspectives. I hope the Minister result of that incident. will explain, if he is not going to release the documents, Many constituents say that these people have been why he will not do so. tried and convicted by a jury, and they are bewildered that this debate has even been called. They think that Mark Durkan rose— Parliament should be looking at other, more pressing priorities. Daniel Kawczynski: I am not going to give way, Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab): The issue we are because I am going to end my remarks. Clearly, we can debating is not whether what the hon. Gentleman is see tremendous passion from the Opposition for this saying is correct, or whether what is being said by issue to be resolved. 497 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 498

1.46 pm “a paragraph from a memorandum from Sir Michael Hanley, Director General of the Security Service to Sir John at the Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab): I congratulate my Cabinet Office…a copy of the report which was enclosed with hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) the…memorandum…a paragraph from…Sir John Hunt to a on securing this important debate about working conditions Mr Armstrong dated 13 January” in the 1970s. It is about a time when, in that three-year and period, 571 people were killed and 224,000 were injured “a paragraph from a memorandum to Sir John Hunt relating to on building sites. It is about an industrial campaign to this report”. ensure that those working conditions changed. It is It is important that this information be in the public about a trial that led to the results that my hon. Friend domain. The Government are currently reviewing the outlined. It is about a campaign, to which I pay tribute, 30-year rule and reducing it to 20 years, yet in this case, that has lasted now for 40 years to get documents into when there is 40 years of information, they are seeking the public domain to ensure that people have the full to extend the period, and so withhold the information, facts on why action was taken and why the judgment until 2022. That seems unfair. was made. My colleague Terry Renshaw has been a councillor The motion states simply that the Government should for years, he has served on the police authority, he is a release the papers referring to all aspects of the trial and lecturer, he has been mayor of the town I live in, he is the case. The motion is a fair one. I say to both the hon. a respected citizen, yet even today they will not let him Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) into the United States of America because of that and the hon. Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) conviction. My constituent Arthur Murray, a decent that the judgment of this House can be made, as can the man, served six months in prison, and made the point judgment of the public, on the information contained to me that my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, in that simple motion, which calls on the Government Walton (Steve Rotheram) made about John Platt-Mills, to reverse their position as a matter of urgency and to who said: release the papers. “The trial of the Shrewsbury Pickets is the only case I know where the government has ordered a prosecution in defiance of Sir Gerald Howarth: Will the right hon. Gentleman the advice of senior police and prosecution authorities.” give way? My constituent John McKinsie Jones said only last year: Mr Hanson: I will not give way. A lot of Members “I have lived for almost 40 years with the stigma of being want to speak and time is pressing. arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned for conspiracy. My This is a simple motion, but for my constituents it is family were devastated… Like a lot of the other pickets I had not a simple matter, nor has it been for the past 40 years. never been in trouble in my life. We were completely innocent of For my constituent Arthur Murray it meant six months these charges. We were branded as criminals by the media. We were blacklisted”. in prison and a lifetime of concern about the impact of that sentence. For my constituent John McKinsie Jones This debate is about the lives of people in my it meant nine months in prison and concern about his constituency; it is about the lives of people who dedicated employability, his future and his peace of mind. For their lives to the trade union movement and who were my constituent Terry Renshaw it meant a four-month only doing their jobs. I want these papers released. I suspended sentence for two years, which has had an might have to leave before the end of the debate, because impact on his life. They are currently bringing a case for of a long-standing constituency engagement this evening, the Criminal Cases Review Commission to consider but this debate has my support, and my constituents their convictions to see if they were sound. The material have my support. that is not in the public domain could well be relevant to Sir Bob Russell rose— the case, and that is why they want it to be released. I have written to the Secretary of State for Justice on Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab) rose— several occasions. When I was a Minister in the Justice Department, I pressed my right hon. Friend the Member Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): I call for Blackburn (Mr Straw), as a constituency MP, to Dennis Skinner. [Interruption.] I am sorry. I will call release the information. The judgment was made, under the hon. Member for Colchester (Sir Bob Russell) next. the Labour Government, to release the information in 2012. Being the kind, open soul that I am, I wrote to the 1.52 pm then Secretary of State for Justice the right hon. and Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab): Well, that has learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) in 2010 to put the Lib Dems in their place, hasn’t it? I have always ask whether he could confirm that it would be released wanted to do it. I know Clegg’s got a sour face— in 2012. He wrote back to me on 8 November 2010, [Interruption.] saying that the “blanket” covering was still in place until Anyway, we live in the age of transparency, don’t we? 2012. I wrote to him again on 23 March 2011, and he We have transparency coming out of every pore. Every said he was reviewing the matter and would make a day I turn up in the House of Commons, from all sides I decision. I wrote again on 20 November 2012, and was am assailed by people saying, “We need transparency.” told by the now Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State At the beginning, I was unsure what it meant; I am sure for Justice, the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell now. It is a class thing. It applies only to the things that (Chris Grayling): affect us, but it does not give us an inch when we are “On 19 December 2011 Kenneth Clarke signed a new instrument asking for something from the other side. We can have which records that he has given his approval for the retention of transparency about hospitals, care homes, schools, and the records”. everything else, but not about this. Isn’t it strange that The retained records include: we are being told again today, by this tin-pot coalition, 499 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 500 that we cannot have it? [Laughter.] It really is tin-pot, My time is running out. I compliment all those who although I know the last Labour Government did not have taken part, but I want to pay my final compliment pull their weight either. It has to be put on the record. to that face I saw in Lincoln prison, Des Warren, But this is a debate about class, and we do not get fighting the establishment, and when I call for transparency, many of those in here. Every so often, it erupts, and we it is the face of Des Warren— talk about class. That is what this is. It was the same with Hillsborough, when my hon. Friend the Member Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) got that debate, and it was the same with Thatcher and the funeral and Sir Bob Russell rose— all the rest of it. I do not want to go into that, but the truth is that it is very rare. Here are a few people who Madam Deputy Speaker: Sir Bob Russell, I apologise were on the picket line, they ordered a bus from a bus about earlier. As the House will know, we alternate company, and they talk about conspiracies—all the between sides. Follow that, in six minutes. records are there! I know it was not the age of social media, Twitter and God knows what else—if it had 1.58 pm been, they would have won, because they would all have had a mobile phone, with a camera, and they could have Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): I am delighted took some pictures. Yes, it’s about class, and that is why that the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner) went we are here today, thanks to my hon. Friend the Member before me. My only regret is that he was not gracious for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) and other colleagues. enough to me, given that we are almost family. It is not I was here in the 1970s, and I could not believe it the generally known that my nephew, who lives in Clay moment I got to London: we were on picket lines, and Cross, is the partner of the hon. Gentleman’s second winning—winning! It does not happen very often, so we cousin. If they got married, we would be related by have to treasure every moment. My father worked for marriage—but we are still working on that. 50 years in the pits, and when we won the 1972 strike, he I would like to welcome the Minister of State, Ministry said, “It’s the first time in my life.” Yet there is all this of Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for talk, some how or other, about workers having power. It Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes), to is not true, and this is another example where they do the Dispatch Box. I am sure he would have wished for a not have it, or otherwise the papers would have been better occasion to make his debut, but there we are—we released and, what’s more, this whole episode would not have to take the rough with the smooth. Nevertheless, have begun. It began because of the climate of 1970 I congratulate him on his new position. onwards. The establishment, the Heath Government, The right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson) has were defeated by the miners in 1972, after a seven-week made the most powerful speech so far. The motion strike. It is true there was a bit of pushing and shoving, before us is quite clear. I intervened on the hon. Member but by and large it was a relatively peaceful affair. The for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth). I do not want to police were wearing long stockings underneath their rehearse here this afternoon incidents from 40 years trousers. I told Tom Swain, and he said, “I’m getting a ago, but we must have all the relevant papers published. pair.” That’s what it was like, by and large. It has been acknowledged that successive Governments— What happened then? The Upper Clyde shipbuilders perhaps the motion should have incorporated the term had a sit-in and won. Then there was Vic Turner and “successive Governments”—have failed to do so. It is Bernie Steer saying, “We’re going to put some pickets also important to recognise, as the right hon. Member on down at the docks”—at what is now Covent Garden— for Delyn said, how many advances have been made in and they got put in Pentonville jail. The Industrial the safety of building sites over the last four decades. Relations Act had just got Royal Assent, but what The trade unions can certainly take credit for that, as happened? After Vic Turner was put in jail with his can anyone involved in health and safety and, indeed, mates, the Official Solicitor had to turn up, representing employers. When the London Olympic stadium was all the echelons of the establishment, saying, “They built, not a single life was lost. We should contrast that won’t purge their own contempt. We’ve got to do it for with what is happening at other major sporting venues them.” We said, “Yes, but at a price”, and so they had to around the world. Let us acknowledge the positives kick the Act into the long grass. here. In the middle of all this, some people, such as those I I conclude briefly by saying that many lessons have should not speak about in the Gallery, decided also to been learned, not least in health and safety. We need all battle for better wages. They had never had great wages, these papers to be released. If there is a silver lining to but UCATT and the building workers had had a lot of this dark cloud, if it had not been for the Shrewsbury injuries, so they decided in that climate to take a chance 24, we would never have had the brilliant comedy actor, and fight for better wages and conditions. That is all it Mr Tomlinson, on our screens. was. The evidence was there, as we have heard, but the establishment decided that somebody needed a lesson: Several hon. Members rose— “We’ll take these on. We lost to the miners. We lost to Upper Clyde. We lost the Industrial Relations Act. Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. We’ve got to have a victory.” That was what this was all Before I call the next speaker, I inform the House that I about, and let no one kid themselves: when the echelons am reducing the time limit further to five minutes. I am of the state decide to take action, the judiciary join doing my best to fit in all those who want to speak. I ask them, and I do not care what their names are. It has Members to pay attention and to assist colleagues to been apparent for so many years, and it is still apparent make their points; it is not necessary to take five minutes, today. but five minutes is the maximum from now on. 501 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 502

2.1 pm the trade unions gave to that Select Committee. Even today, trade union organisers are refused access to Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab): building sites, simply because they want to raise health First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for and safety issues that the employer does not want to Blaydon (Mr Anderson) on securing this debate. I must listen to. Ordinary trade unions are still struggling to say from the beginning that I am not a man of violence, get recognition. but the contribution from the hon. Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) certainly stretched my tolerance The Shrewsbury 24 hired six coaches and picketed level. He reminded us exactly what the Tories are about large sites around Shrewsbury, which were chosen because and what they think the workers should be—seen and they were not as well organised as some places in the not heard, shall we say. bigger cities. It was peaceful—there were no cautions and no arrests. They had the permission of site owners. Chief Superintendent Meredith even shook the hand of Sir Gerald Howarth: Will the hon. Gentleman give Des Warren and thanked him for the co-operation of way? the UCATT and the then Transport and General Workers Union. Jim Sheridan: No. The hon. Gentleman has had For that reason, when 24 men were arrested on enough time. conspiracy charges months later, they were shocked and I apologise to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to confused. Six were sent to jail, and over four decades the outside world if I sound somewhat repetitive, but I later, the pickets still deny that they were guilty of any genuinely believe that the more people that say this and of the charges levelled against them. The sentences had listen to it, the more likely we are eventually to get a devastating impact on these men. While in prison, Des somewhere on the issue of transparency. If we look at Warren was regularly forced to drink “liquid cosh”, the Press Gallery, we see that there is very little interest which has been blamed for his death from Parkinson’s in this issue from the press—apart from, of course, the disease in 2004. These men struggled to get work afterwards. regular and reliable Morning Star. For some reason, Let me finish by saying that if there were any sort of other newspapers, apart from some in the Trinity Mirror national security issue, it would never be viewed as group, are not covering it. acceptable in this day and age that information for In a week when we have discussed the Transparency which people are looking should be denied to them. of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, we can see how difficult it is, when 2.6 pm it comes to what happened 40 years ago, to get transparency Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab): What from this coalition Government. It is somewhat ironic lies behind this motion is a belief by many that there has that we are still discussing this issue in 2014. been an abuse of state power and a subversion of the To reflect on the Shrewsbury 24 issue, the conditions legal process. Successive Governments have said repeatedly that existed in the building industry in the 1970s were a that there are just a handful of files relating to the blight on our society. Sites with hundreds of thousands Shrewsbury trials. I would like to focus today on just of men were given two rat-infested, filthy toilets. There one single file—PREM 15/2011, with which I hope the was nowhere to change, so if workers got soaked in the Minister can acquaint himself. It is described as “Woodrow rain, they would either have to go home and lose their Wyatt’s TV programme, ‘Red Under the Bed’”. On pay, or continue to work—sodden and freezing. The 27 August 2012, the National Archives website said that health and safety conditions were appalling. In 1973 this file was “retained” by the Cabinet Office under alone, there were 231 fatal accidents in construction. section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958. Why would When talking about this issue, I am reminded of why such a file be kept back when it relates to a current these people were victimised—it was because they were affairs programme that was broadcast on ITV in November raising serious health and safety concerns to ensure that 1973? Following a freedom of information request by workers were safe in the workplace. That is why the then the Shrewsbury 24 campaign’s incisive researcher in employers turned against the trade unions—to make August 2013, the Cabinet Office finally conceded and sure that health and safety issues were not raised at the released some of the papers. appropriate time. The employers’ agenda was not about Why is this file relevant? It is relevant because the film looking after their workers. was broadcast on 13 November 1973, the day on which We look on some of the working conditions in some the prosecution completed its case against the pickets. It countries with disgust, and we call on UK-based companies was featured in the TV listing section of the local working in those other countries to look at their supply evening newspaper, the Shropshire Star, which would chains and improve their human rights records. The have been read by many of the jurors. The film included Shrewsbury 24 were picketing in conditions that we a highly tendentious commentary by Woodrow Wyatt, would be horrified at today, so the calm and dignified interspersed with footage that showed the following: protest they led is to be commended. It was a difficult two of the six defendants, John Carpenter and Des task—something that has not been repeated—trying to Warren; Shrewsbury Crown Court, surrounded by police organise building workers who often moved to new officers, with a group of demonstrators attending a temporary sites and it was a struggle to organise them meeting nearby; images of a march through Shrewsbury on account of that. The Shrewsbury 24 wanted to in which the defendants could be made out; violence highlight the issues caused by colleagues “on the lump”, and damage alleged to have been caused by pickets on but they did not get violent and did nothing illegal. At building sites during the national building strike of this stage, I am reminded of what the Scottish Affairs 1972; and violence and damage alleged to have been Select Committee is doing on the issue of blacklisting. caused by pickets during a recent coal strike and a Only yesterday I listened to some of the evidence that recent dock strike. 503 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 504

The next day, the defence applied to the judge for the Mr Jim Cunningham: My hon. Friend may not recall television company to be held in contempt. The judge that at that time a number of employers’ organisations, viewed the film and dismissed the application, even including Aims of Industry, were trying to influence criticising the defence for raising the point. The file industrial relations. shows that the film, which lasted for one hour, was followed by a studio discussion of 30 minutes. Interestingly, Mr Watson: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. the discussion was not broadcast in every ITV region— So we have evidence that the Government and the Granada, for example—but it was transmitted by ATV, security services were working closely with television the region covering Shrewsbury. The final words of that production companies, newspapers and secretive discussion were from the then Conservative MP Geoffrey organisations that were the forerunners of today’s Stewart-Smith. He was asked by the studio chairman, blacklisters to produce propaganda to discredit trade the late Richard Whiteley: unionists. The present Government posted a response “Can you give me one example in 1973 of blatant communist to the e-petition on the website, claiming that the influence?” withholding of the information was due to an “intelligence Stewart-Smith replies and security instrument”. Why? This was a strike organised “The violence in the building strike was called by a group, The by building workers 40 years ago with the aim of Building Workers Charter, operating in defiance of the union improving their pay and conditions of work. leadership indulging in violence and flying pickets and this is an If Members want to know the thinking of industrialists example of these people operating, opposing free trade unions”. at the time, they should read Lord McAlpine’s book Can you imagine anything more blatantly prejudicial to “The Servant”. He wrote that the servant a trial than that, Madam Deputy Speaker? Imagine “must have his own network of informants and men who will what the reaction would be today. Just think of any assist him. The servant must always know how to use the network current high-profile trial, and what a defence team of the State. would say, and how that would be reported in the print Dealing in deceit, as the servant must, great caution must be media now. required. Avoid small deceits: like barnacles on the bottom of a We have to ask ourselves why that film was made, and ship, they build in the minds of people whom you may need to why it was shown on that particular date. It is my convince in a large deceit”. contention that the file reveals the highest level of What greater deceit can Members imagine than depriving collusion between the Government, the security services those young men of their freedom and liberty? and the producers of the film. The first document in the The Stasi published their files after the Berlin wall came file is a memo from Mr Thomas Barker of the Information down in 1989. I think that we can publish ours now. Research Department to a Mr Norman Reddaway. For the benefit of younger Members, I should explain that Several hon. Members rose— the IRD was formed after the second world war as a covert anti-communist propaganda unit operating within Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. I the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and was closed am now reducing the speaking time limit to four minutes. down in the late 1970s. Mr Barker boasts: Everyone who wishes to speak will be able to do so if all “We had a discreet but considerable hand in this programme....In Members stick to that limit. general, this film, given national networking, can only have done good.” 2.14 pm He praises the studio discussion after the broadcast. The file contains more documents, including a note John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab): The Johannesburg from the Prime Minister, Ted Heath, supporting the principles were written a long time ago, but let me quote film after being sent a copy of the transcript by the from them now. This is what was said about freedom of Cabinet Secretary. information and the state: “A restriction sought to be justified on the ground of national Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland security is not legitimate unless its genuine purpose and demonstrable West) (Lab): Is it possible to view the documentary now, effect is to protect a country’s existence or its territorial integrity or is it banned? against the use or threat of force, or its capacity to respond to the use or threat of force, whether from an external source, such as a military threat, or an internal source, such as incitement to Mr Watson: It is not possible to view it. However, the violent overthrow of the government...In particular, a restriction file reveals that sought to be justified on the ground of national security is not “In February” legitimate if its genuine purpose or demonstrable effect is to —that is, in February 1973— protect interests unrelated to national security, including, for example, to protect a government from embarrassment or exposure “Mr Wyatt approached us direct for help. We consulted the of wrongdoing, or to conceal information about the functioning Department of Employment and the Security Service through of its public institutions, or to entrench a particular ideology, or Mr Conrad Heron’s Group, which has been meeting approximately to suppress industrial unrest.” fortnightly for the past year.” That was not written about this country. It was written So many meetings; so much consultation. Where are the in Johannesburg about South Africa under apartheid, documents relating to that? Were those people involved about North Korea, about China, and about all the rest in the discussions that led to the decision to prosecute of them. However, it applies to this Government now. the pickets? If it had happened today, there would be That Tory from Aldershot has gone now, but when he outrage in the House. quoted from his letter, he forgot to mention the capacity Having seen the transcript of the film, the then Prime in which he wrote it. At the time, he was secretary of the Minister replied to the Cabinet Secretary: Society for Individual Freedom. He did not tell us what “We want as much as possible of this.” that organisation was about, but I can tell the House 505 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 506

[John Mann] Freedom is about the right to go about your business. It is about the right to engage in protest, including industrial that it worked with BOSS, the South African Bureau of protest. It is about the right to hold your Government State Security. A book has been written about it, and to account, and to ensure that if there are documents this is how it described that Aldershot MP’s organisation: out there, they are brought to light. Such documents are “it’s almost certainly a British intelligence front organization already slowly emerging. We have seen the documents which is mainly used for disseminating Establishment-type about Hillsborough, and in future we will see documents propaganda.” about Orgreave and the miners’ strike, and many, many That was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the hon. more. There is an information revolution going on in Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) went on this country, because people are fed up with the secrecy to form a new organisation called “Freedom Under of the state and those misfits around it who set up Law”, along with Francis Bennion, to counter anti- organisations claiming conspiracies when there is no apartheid. And what did Francis Bennion do in 1972 to conspiracy because it suits their political ends—and my right hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr Hain), some of them clearly even participate in events like this who was campaigning against apartheid? He took out a but are still elected to this Parliament. private prosecution against him for criminal conspiracy. If this is a coalition Government, this Liberal Minister This is what has been going on, and this is why people needs to demonstrate that he is part of the coalition. do not want those files to come out. The Liberals have always told us they stand for individual Who was it who funded the Economic League’s secret freedoms. Well, prove it; release these documents. These committee—a secret committee in a secret organisation? people who have had to fight against this for years McAlpine. Even I was put on a blacklist. Who put me deserve it, but there is a bigger cause, too: the rest of us. on it? I believe that it was one Russell Walters, who This is about defining freedom in this country. That is today works as Tory researcher, and who was chief of what this debate is about, and why this Liberal Minister staff for that would-be Tory leader, the hon. Member has to act. for Windsor (Adam Afriyie). He was working for the Economic League. There was also a bloke called Ned 2.20 pm Walsh, a liar, who said throughout these events that he Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): The lack of Members worked for the unions. In fact, during the 1960s and on the Government Benches shows exactly how much 1970s he was working for the Economic League, infiltrating interest there is in this topic from this coalition Government the unions. That is the conspiracy. of Tories and Liberals. This Shrewsbury 24 debacle represents a catastrophic Katy Clark: I am intervening on my hon. Friend and deliberate miscarriage of justice by the state against because I think that my hon. Friend may need some working individuals. I say again for the record that this more time. Does he think that this quotation from was deliberate. This attack on the Shrewsbury 24 was a Construction News, published on 17 December 1970—a deliberate, calculated miscarriage of justice. It is a catalogue very long time ago—gives some indication of the power of deceit, deception, secrecy and discrimination worthy and influence of the construction industry? The paper of the best of the best North Korean governmental said of a private Christmas dinner organised by McAlpine political plots. It truly is a must-read true-life story of in 1977: thriller proportions. The covert, politically inspired “Anyone who can hold a private party and make it virtually interference of faceless decision-makers, be they politicians, impossible to get a Cabinet quorum cannot be without influence civil servants, police or the judiciary, made life hell for of friends.” ordinary hard-working people whose only crime was to dare to take industrial action against the mega cash-rich Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. building companies of that time. The hon. Gentleman may need more time, but it will come out of the hon. Lady’s time, because the winding-up These people—the Shrewsbury pickets—were fighting speeches must start at 2.40 pm. for £30 for 30 hours and better health and safety on the building sites, where, as has been mentioned on more than one occasion, 571 people in the construction industry John Mann: The fact is that McAlpine was based in were killed in three years. Is that not fair? Is that not that part of the world, and it is no coincidence that this what we should be seeking in a modern-day society—health was picked on. and safety, preventing people from being abused and We know what these people do. They did the same killed when they take their sandwiches to work and during the miners’ strike. What they do is randomly want to return to see their families at night? Is that a pick out people and claim conspiracy, which is exactly crime? Should they have been punished—should they what they tried to do to my right hon. Friend the been imprisoned, as the six Shrewsbury pickets were? Member for Neath and others in the anti-apartheid The answer to that is of course not. movement. That is the mindset of some of these people. I have tremendous experience of picketing, and I am They believe that they have some sort of supreme proud of having been a picket during many disputes. I knowledge, and then they claim to defend freedom. witnessed what happened on the picket lines during the These people are not the friends of freedom; these miners strike. It was absolutely disgraceful. What we people are the enemies of freedom. That is why those have seen in the last two or three weeks is again a Johannesburg principles were written, and that is why Government refusing to allow papers—confidential and they apply not just to South Africa under apartheid, secret papers—relating to that dispute to be released. not just to North Korea and the lunatic running it, not What we have seen is absolutely ludicrous. There has just to China and the repression of working people not been the outrage there should be, but we have seen there, but to this country and to western democracies. that senior Cabinet Ministers in a previous Government 507 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 508 and a Prime Minister—Thatcher—stood at the Dispatch In construction, the lack of a structured, organised Box and deliberately misled the Commons, and deliberately business caused industrial carnage as many colleagues misled the Government. Where is the public outcry have mentioned, with nearly 600 dead on building sites from the press? There is not one, because they are not in three years. The lump set worker against worker and interested in ordinary people. kept the industry in the dark ages. They were dark A lot can be said about this but I would like to finish times, indeed, not only for the country but for individuals on this point. We cannot even begin to understand how thrust into the front-line—the Five, the 24 and others. these men and their families felt when they were hammered The ’70s was a decade of massive industrial unrest; I am by the state—by the Government. They were offered old enough to have been on strike in the ’70s with the lesser charges and they would have been freed. They fire service—against a Labour Government. It is surely stood by their principles so that people in the future time for the Government to come clean. The Government would benefit, and they went to prison. We cannot should publish the papers—I am looking forward to begin to think what it was like for these people, who hearing what the Minister has to say—so that these could have been free—“£50 fine and you can go home decent men and their families, as my right hon. Friend tonight and be home by 3 o’clock.” That was the the Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson) has outlined, can agreement, but they stood by their principles. We cannot understand what happened and why it happened and begin to imagine how they suffered in their time in hopefully be able to put behind them what I believe will prison. be shown to be another shameful part of our history. Let me say a word on Des Warren, who was treated very badly in his time in prison. The liquid cosh killed 2.27 pm him and as a result we are where we are today. Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab): I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) 2.24 pm for securing this debate. I also want to thank the hon. Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab): It is a Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth)—I am pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for delighted he is back in the Chamber—for his stout Wansbeck (Ian Lavery), and I congratulate my hon. defence of exploitative and abusive employment practices Friend the Member for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) and and his argument for sustaining one of the most grievous our other hon. Friends on securing this debate. miscarriages of justice in living memory, because it reminds me of exactly why I came into politics. It is important to say, as all Members have said so far, that this is not about defending violence or picket line This is an immensely significant case and one that violence. It is about justice. This is about making the has already shone a light into some of the darkest case to publish documents so that the truth can come recesses of the British establishment. What is abundantly out. I believe that case has been made overwhelmingly clear is that this case will continue to be a running sore by Opposition colleagues who have spoken and it has until such times as all Government and Cabinet and even been agreed by Conservative colleagues. The only other documents over the relevant period from the early reason not to publish is that it would prove the political ’70s to date in connection with this matter are released. interference and perhaps the source of some of the The sooner the nettle is grasped the better. evidence that was offered against the individuals. The Government’s determination to keep documents It is important to remember that these were different secret and to keep information from the appellants casts times, different issues, different perspectives. The a very dark and long shadow over our democracy and establishment was paranoid. It was not just the Tory serves only to heighten concerns that there has indeed establishment. Harold Wilson saw political manipulation been a conspiracy—not a conspiracy to cause affray at in the NUS strike in the ’60s. That is when the NUS was a building site, but one politically to engineer criminal the National Union of Seamen, not the National Union charges and to interfere with the criminal justice system. of Students. This is not just a Tory crisis, therefore. My It can hardly be more serious. hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner) said This campaign will ultimately succeed, and when the this period saw the height of trade union membership full truth emerges it will not be a good day for this and power, with working people trying to come to terms country. The longer it goes on, the worse it will get. It is with the UK’s industrial decline and trying to hold on a travesty that men have already gone to their graves to what they had in the face of the establishment without this matter having been resolved. The campaigners’ coming at them. case is simple: they were wholly innocent of the charges Times were difficult and the establishment felt threatened. made against them. The dispute had come to an end, The Shrewsbury 24 came in the wake of the Pentonville and no complaint had been made about their conduct Five and the collapse of the industrial relations court. at the time. The subsequent investigations many months My hon. Friend mentioned Vic Turner. He was one of later, the prosecution and then the sentences imposed my councillors. He was mayor of Newham. When I upon them were draconian, wholly inappropriate and, knew him he was a very gentle and decent man, and he worst of all, politically motivated. I want to spend some was one of the five who were locked up. Incidentally, for time talking about the sacrifices that the men made, but the information of the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan time does not permit me to do so. an Iar (Mr MacNeil), I will say that when I was the At this remove, the demands of the workers seem so secretary of the Scottish nationalist trade union association modest and reasonable, but in the dark days of 1972 I issued a statement supporting the release of the Pentonville they were seen as other things altogether. However, Five and was contacted by Edinburgh and told to their cause was just and right. They vehemently opposed withdraw the press release or be expelled from the SNP. and exposed the abuses and exploitative and blackmailing That was the end of my romance with the Scottish practices endemic in the construction industry, which National party. provided workers with absolutely no security of 509 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 510

[Andy McDonald] much to ask for, for crying out loud. It was about health and safety on building sites to protect young apprentices employment. They were working on the lump for appalling such as me. I could have been killed because there was pay and, as has been said, fatalities were a regular no handrail on the scaffolding. occurrence. Robert Carr wrote a letter at the time. He The strike was also about the lump—the disgraceful said: lump that was endemic in the building trade at that “I intend once again to draw the attention of Chief Constables time. We had a vindictive Tory Government. I will not to the provision of the law and discuss with them what further repeat the comments that have been eloquently made by action they might take to defeat such violence and intimidation in my hon. Friends about the disgraceful treatment of industrial disputes.” those pickets, but they were charged with intimidation. So much for the operational independence of the police. I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. The The Attorney-General wrote to him at the time and people who were responsible for intimidation were the said: vindictive Tory Government, who sent ordinary working “A number of instances … have been submitted to me recently people to prison for standing up for their rights, for in which the intimidation consisted of threatening words and in their comrades, for decent working conditions. which there was no evidence against any particular person of So of course the papers should be released. That is violence or damage to property.” the very minimum that should happen. The convictions He recommended that proceedings should not be instituted. that were imposed on those brave trade unionists—one We have clear, unambiguous advice from the country’s of whom, Ricky Tomlinson, I am proud to say, is in the leading law officer that proceedings should not be instituted, public gallery now, although I know I should not mention yet despite that, charges were laid and prosecutions it—should be overturned. I hope that we hear the taken. He was also of the view that a jury trial would Minister support that when he gets to his feet. lead to an acquittal, so Treasury Counsel advised that the principle of jury trial should be abandoned. 2.34 pm It is scandalous that successive Governments have Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab): This refused to release all the papers about this matter. We is a highly politicised debate. It touches on the desirability are led to believe that it would compromise national and necessity of workers organising themselves in the security. It is much more likely that individuals and workplace to ensure that they are treated well and have previous Governments will be ashamed and embarrassed decent health and safety and terms and conditions. It by their dreadful cover-up, and the time has come for has been clear from the speeches that there are different the Government to do the right thing. These men and views about that on either side of the House. their families have waited far too long for the truth to come out and they should wait no longer. As Ricky Colleagues have been correct to try to explain the Tomlinson himself might say, “Guilty? My goodness context of the industrial dispute. My family were some me, nothing could be further from the truth.” of those involved in the dispute. My grandfather, Barney Davies, who is still alive, and Larry McKay, my uncle, Several hon. Members rose— were members of the Transport and General Workers Union and worked in the construction industry all their lives. They were clear with me why they thought it was Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Order. I important to have strong trade unions in the construction am taking the time limit down to three minutes to get industry, in particular for health and safety. Indeed, three more speakers in before the wind-ups start. they supported the closed shop, because they felt it was the only way that progress would be made in the 2.31 pm construction industry. Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab): I congratulate It is necessary to say clearly that this type of organisation my hon. Friend and comrade the Member for Blaydon and the 1972 strike were seen as a significant threat to (Mr Anderson) on securing this vital debate. I regret those who owned the construction industry and made that he is not in his place at the moment. I was reminded huge profits from it. The more we find out about the of Aneurin Bevan’s description of the Tory party when Shrewsbury 24, the more murky it gets. The motion I listened to the shameful contribution from the hon. today is simple: it calls for the release of the documents. Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth). The way It will be interesting to see how the Minister responds to in which this dispute was handled by the Government that request. It is difficult to see after 40 years how they of the day and subsequent Governments represents a can contain anything that seriously threatens national disgraceful and shameful chapter in the long history of security. If we are not successful now in getting the hostility towards working people on the part of the documents, the issue will not be looked at again until Conservative party. 50 years after the dispute. Some of the people directly My dad was involved in that building workers strike, involved have already died, one of them probably as a and he could well have been one of the victims of the direct result of drug-induced Parkinson’s and the treatment Tory party who were sent to prison for their principles. that he received against his wishes in prison. I would The following year I started as an apprentice bricklayer ask the Minister to look at this seriously. If he believes in the building trade. Hon. Friends have already pointed in freedom of information and transparency, he should to the 571 fatalities between 1970 and 1973 and the please take action to release the papers. 224,000 industrial injuries that took place in the construction trade. I was one of those statistics, because health and 2.37 pm safety on the building sites that I worked on in 1973 John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab): I were disgraceful. That was what the strike was all shall give the last word in this debate to the person who about. It was about decent pay—£30 a week. It is not cannot be here, which is Dessie Warren. Dessie went 511 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 512 into the dock against the advice of his lawyers. They remaining documents relating to the case. I hope that advised him, “Dessie if you go in, you will most probably there will be some movement on that from the Minister be sentenced double,” and that is most probably what this afternoon, rather than just a repeat of the recital of happened, but he addressed the central question we the Secretary of State’s view that the Government wish have asked here today: was there a conspiracy? Let me to park the issue until 2022. use Dessie’s words: I should like to thank my hon. Friend the Member “Was there a conspiracy? Ten members of the jury have said for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) and the Backbench Business there was. There was a conspiracy, but not by the pickets. The Committee for securing the debate. I also want to thank conspiracy began with the miners giving the government a good those Opposition Members who have spoken today, not hiding last year. It developed when the government was forced to perform legal gymnastics in getting five dockers out of jail after least my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Mr they had only just been put there. The conspiracy was between the Hanson), who spoke on behalf of his constituents, and Home Secretary, the employers and the police. It was not done my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington with a nod and a wink. It was conceived after pressure from Tory (John McDonnell), who has tabled an early-day motion Members of Parliament who demanded changes in picketing on this subject that has so far attracted 62 signatures, laws.” mainly of Labour MPs but also of six Members from He was asked about the law. He said: other parties. “the law is, quite clearly, an instrument of the state, to be used in Most of all, I would like to acknowledge the tireless the interests of a tiny minority against the majority. It is biased; it work over those 40 years of the campaigners. They is class law, and nowhere has that been demonstrated more than include the late Dessie Warren and Ricky Tomlinson, in the prosecution case in this trial. The very nature of the charges, the delving into ancient Acts of Parliament, dredging up who has proved such an effective figurehead and given conspiracy, shows this to be so.” the campaign some of its best soundbites, including Then he was asked about intimidation. He said: “a threat to social security perhaps, national security never”. “The jury in this trial were asked to look upon the word They include Eileen Turnbull, whose six years of ‘intimidation’ as having the ordinary everyday meaning. My painstaking research has already uncovered many troubling interpretation is ‘to make timid’, or ‘to dispirit’, and when the facts in the case, Unite the union, which has offered pickets came to this town to speak to the building workers it was much in the way of practical and moral support, not with the intention of intimidating them. We came here with Thompsons solicitors and Len McCluskey, who has the intention of instilling the trade union spirit into them, and not to make them timid, but to give them the courage to fight the taken a close personal interest in achieving justice for intimidation of the employers in this area.” the 24. They also include the tens of thousands of trade That is the spirit that has been instilled in us for the unionists who have marched, protested, and signed the past 30 years, all the way through this campaign. It is petition that led to today’s debate. also the spirit that has been instilled in all those others, This shows the trade union movement at its democratic including Ricky Tomlinson, Eileen Turnbull and the and campaigning best. In that sense, history is repeating others who have been campaigning over this period. In itself, because it was the successful national building that spirit, we will not let go until the truth is revealed, workers’ strike of 1972 against the appalling health and until we have full openness and transparency, until safety record of the industry and the exploitation of those people’s names are cleared and until it is accepted lump labour that led to the arrest and prosecution of that this was a class attack. It was a class attack involving the Shrewsbury 24. In an era before the Health and the intimidation of a group of workers to ensure that Safety at Work etc Act 1974, 200 building workers were others did not fight in what was, and is, a class struggle being killed on sites every year. to improve wages and conditions and, yes, to assert some sort of power and control over people’s working Sir Gerald Howarth: Will the hon. Gentleman give conditions. I support that struggle; that is what this way? debate today is all about. Mr Slaughter: Given the time, I am reluctant to give 2.40 pm way. Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab): I congratulate Summary dismissal and blacklisting were commonplace the Minister of State, the right hon. Member for for anyone who complained about poor pay and working Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes), on conditions. After years of refusal to act by Government his new position. It has been a long time coming. I hope and employers, trade unions across the sector organised we can have a constructive working relationship, and I the biggest national strike since 1926. They were calling look forward to hearing his views on a number of for fair terms and conditions, fair pay and safe and issues, not least the damaging effects of the Government’s secure working practices. I do not intend to repeat the complete dismantling of legal aid. I know he was highly story of the strike, the arrests, the trials and the subsequent critical of that himself until very recently. attempts to find justice, which my hon. Friend the This has been a powerful and emotional, but reasoned, Member for Blaydon and others have already described. debate that does credit to everyone who has spoken What I would like to do is explain why this issue from from these Benches and to the House. For 40 years, the 40 years ago still matters not just to those directly treatment of the Shrewsbury 24 has raised questions affected, but to all of us in this House and in the that successive Governments have not been prepared to country. answer, and those who were convicted and their families, The picketing that led to the charges was peaceful friends and supporters have campaigned for justice, and heavily policed, and it passed without incident or transparency and fairness. It is right that this issue comment. The arrests months later, the conduct of the should be debated fully here and that the House should trials, the use of conspiracy charges, the sentences handed place demands on the current Government—or, failing down, the involvement of the Government and the that, the next Labour Government—to disclose the close relations between senior figures in the Government 513 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 514

[Mr Slaughter] that, or if he wishes not to judge the events that led to the conviction of the Shrewsbury 24 but to give others and the building employers all raise suspicions that the ability to do so, he should agree to this motion, these were not normal proceedings. The use of section release the withheld documents and show that his 23 of the Freedom of Information Act to withhold Government have nothing to hide. Ricky Tomlinson selective documents, the continuing refusal of the present also said recently that it felt as though the Tories were Government to engage with the campaigners, and the waiting for the 24 to die before they would reveal the postponement of consideration for another 10 years truth. The Minister might not be responsible for the also suggest that there is a desire to sweep this issue Tory party, but he is responsible for freedom of information under the carpet. Whether that suggestion is right or and for upholding transparency in government. He and wrong could be determined by releasing the papers. his colleagues should support the motion today. That would also provide closure for those convicted, of whom all those who are still alive are of pension age. 2.48 pm I would like to ask the Minister these questions. If he is not prepared to agree to the motion today, will he TheMinisterof State,Ministryof Justice(SimonHughes): explain more fully why? Will he tell us how many I congratulate sincerely the hon. Member for Blaydon documents are being withheld, what issues they deal (Mr Anderson) on initiating the debate and the Backbench with and why—specifically, rather than using civil service Business Committee on agreeing to it. This is exactly catch-all jargon—they are deemed not to be publishable? the sort of issue that we should debate, and I respect I get the impression that this is an embarrassment, an entirely the views expressed on a very important matter, irrelevance or an inconvenience to the Secretary of which, at its heart, is about the freedom to see documents State. To the 24, it is a matter that has dominated their even though they relate to events 40 years ago. lives and that continues to do so. I am aware that the Government have been noticing This is not an issue only of historical importance; it this campaign’s growing momentum over the years. continues to affect those convicted today. It affects This is the first debate on this issue that Parliament has them in practical ways, such as through the travel restrictions had in either House. Questions have been asked and we have heard about. It affects them emotionally, and it letters written, but we have never had a debate, so I am also affects them because they are men who have an very pleased and honoured to reply to it. ingrained sense of justice who in many cases have I am very conscious of my responsibility, and I devoted their lives to the service of their communities. am grateful to the hon. Member for Hammersmith It matters to them, and to us on this side of the House. (Mr Slaughter) for his kind words of welcome. I am a It should also matter to the Minister and to his party, Justice Minister, responsible for freedom of information which, whatever its historic antipathy to the trade unions, and the National Archives. I believe in justice. In our has often claimed the moral high ground on civil liberties Department, we want maximum freedom of information, and transparency issues. and we want maximum revelation in the National Archives Sadly, the Minister is now part of a Government with of documents that have been in the public domain. So I a terrible record on such matters. Under the coalition am very clear about where we should be going and what we have seen: an expansion of the use of secret courts the principles are. across the civil justice system; attacks on the Human I do not see it as my job as being here to defend the Rights Act and the European convention; the use of Government in the 1970s or any political party. That is judicial review being severely curtailed; unprecedented not part of my brief. cuts in legal aid and advice; and restriction on access to justice for everyone from unfairly dismissed employees Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op): to mesothelioma victims. And yesterday, we had the Ohyesitis. absolute disgrace of the gagging Bill, which threatens to shackle and silence the voluntary sector and the trade Simon Hughes: No, it is not. I am here to deal with an union movement under the guise of tackling lobbyists. issue that, if I may just make the obvious and, I hope, We have seen blacklisting continue as it did in 1970s. We only party political point, was not dealt with differently have also seen a Government more closely aligned with by Labour or Conservative Administrations—a point special interests and corporate greed, and less on the that has been accepted by colleagues around the House. side of employees or consumers, than the Heath or even the Thatcher Governments. Several hon. Members rose— In trade union history, the case of the Shrewsbury 24 stands alongside the miners’ strike, the Taff Vale case Simon Hughes: I shall be as quick as I can, and if and Tolpuddle as examples of how the state, and the colleagues will accept— Conservative party and its allies and funders in the corporate sector, use the law and officers of the law to Chris Williamson: Will the Minister give way? restrict and subdue organised labour. This is a struggle that has gone on for hundreds of years, and it will Simon Hughes: No, I want to try to be helpful, and continue far into the future. out of respect for the hon. Member for Blaydon, let me, In his autobiography, Ricky Tomlinson asks: please, unusually for me, be uninterrupted; I want to “Will the day come when it will be a crime in itself to be a respond to as much as I can. member of a trade union?” May I tell the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton Certainly there has not been such a sustained attack on (Steve Rotheram) and other colleagues that, not just as trade union rights by the governing party and its allies the Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, I in the media for 30 years. If the Minister wishes to deny completely understand the issue to do with health and 515 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 516 safety and decent wages generally and in the building The current approval that governs security and industry in particular? I have campaigned on this issue. intelligence records was, as colleagues have said—the I understand the dreadful health and safety record in right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson) referred to the past. Strong trade unions, particularly in the building it—given by the right hon. and learned Member for industry over the past 40 years, were hugely important Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) when he was Lord Chancellor in ensuring that wages and conditions were better, which, on 19 December 2011. That does indeed last until 2021. thank God, they are now. I pay tribute to those who That is public; it has been on the website. However, were part of that effort. these papers are due to be reviewed by the Cabinet At the end of this episode, there were convictions for Office for their security and sensitivity every 10 years, as affray, unlawful assembly and conspiracy to intimidate. all other papers are, and they will fall to be reviewed They are serious offences. They have led to people going next year, in 2015. I should like to tell the hon. Member to prison. I will return in a second to how the justice for Blaydon respectfully that I suggest that he and his issues may be addressed. I know about the intensity of colleagues, who have a rightful interest in their being people’s views. I know about the efforts made to get the revealed, address that office and that deadline, and I petition to the current number of signatures. I am clear will personally take an interest in this issue in the time what people hope I can say. up to next year, when they fall to be reviewed for their The Government are, of course, committed to security. transparency. We are agreed that as much information What are the specific documents? One is a Security as possible should be in the public domain. The public Service report, and the other three are single paragraphs, would expect that, and the principles of the Freedom of each of which has been redacted from letters and Information Act, enacted by the Labour Government memorandums. The first was in a letter from the director and now fully in force, are ones that we are expected to general of the Security Service to the Cabinet Secretary implement. dated 10 January 1975, which is public apart from one Most of the papers that relate to the Shrewsbury 24 redacted paragraph. It refers—it is not a secret—to the are already available in the National Archives for public fact that the assessment was that there was a Communist inspection. Of the records that date back to 1972, over party activity in relation to the campaign. The second 90% are available. Only 625 documents, I am told, are was in a minute dated 13 January 1975 from the Cabinet not yet publicly available—[HON.MEMBERS: “Only.”]— Office to No. 10, which has been released apart from a across the Government, in relation to that year. The single paragraph. The third was in a minute from No. 10 only material held by the Cabinet Office that is not to the Cabinet Office dated 15 January 1975. available and that is the information at the heart of this debate is one report and three paragraphs—one in each Chris Williamson: Is the Communist party a banned of three separate documents—which I shall return to later. organisation then? Yasmin Qureshi: Will the Minister give way? Simon Hughes: Of course it is not. I am just saying Simon Hughes: No. If I have time a bit later, I will, what the documents revealed have said, and they are in but I am trying to make sure that all the information is the public domain. The Ministry of Justice has no on the record. relevant information retained. I do not know whether There has already been a decision, taken in principle any other Departments have retained any. I am not by the Labour Government and implemented by this privy to that information, but I am clear that four pieces Government, to reduce the age at which historical records of information are retained by the Cabinet Office and are made available. The period is coming down now are open to review next year. from 30 to 20 years. [Interruption.] No “buts”. In parallel with that, we are reducing the maximum duration As hon. Members know, under the Freedom of of the exemptions from disclosure from 30 to 20 years. Information Act people can request that information. That has started this year, and the period will also They then, in particular, have to confront the question reduce, so that people in future will not have to wait as as to whether it is covered by the exemption in section 23 long to see records. So those are good changes, but let of the Act. The application was refused in this case. It us be specific about the matters that relate to the request went to the Information Commissioner and he decided for these papers today. on 2 July 2008 that the four documents do relate to the The current law is, and the consistent practice has intelligence agencies and therefore fall within the scope been, that under section 34 of the Public Records Act of the exemption. The exemption is designed to protect 1958, public bodies are allowed but not required to “Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with retain records after they would usually be required to be security matters”. transferred to the National Archives—so, after the old The view of the Government has always been—all 30-year period, which is reducing. Retention is allowed Governments have said—that to provide details of the where it is necessary for administrative purposes or for national security risks that might posed by the release “any other special reason”. of information of this sort would be detrimental to the Since 1967, when Lord Gardiner was Lord Chancellor purposes of the exemption set out in the Act. So that is in the Labour Government, all Lord Chancellors—five the view of the Cabinet Office, but these things will be Labour, five Conservative—have been satisfied that where reviewed next year. The Lord Chancellor has asked me the transfer of security and intelligence records would to say that he has personally looked at these documents prejudice national security, they can be retained on the and come to the same view. I know that that will be “other special reason” basis. That approval is recorded disappointing and frustrating to people, but the position in an instrument, signed by the Lord Chancellor, which is that those documents cannot therefore be revealed is more commonly referred to as the security instrument. now. 517 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers)23 JANUARY 2014 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 518

[Simon Hughes] castration. My sister worked as a nurse in the Army, and she said that the two weeks she looked after Des However, one other matter is very important. There Warren was the hardest work she had ever done in her is currently a legal challenge to the convictions, and the life. All that man did was to try to make life better for case went to the Court of Appeal. Miscarriages of the many he represented. He tried to create a safer justice are not matters for the Government to consider; working environment and to ensure that employers did they are matters for the Criminal Cases Review the right thing and paid income tax and national insurance Commission—ultimately, for the courts. The hon. Member contributions. For that, he and five other men went to for Blaydon set out the arguments for a miscarriage of jail and 18 others had their lives destroyed. This is a justice review, and I understand them. The cases of at matter of justice. I heard what the Minister had to say, least some of the Shrewsbury 24 have been referred to and it was not good enough. the Criminal Cases Review Commission and it is currently Question put. assessing that set of applications. It has the power to require, when it is reasonable, that any information held The House divided: Ayes 120, Noes 3. by any public body in relation to any case under review Division No. 191] [3.1 pm can be retained for, and produced to, it, irrespective of confidentiality.The Commission therefore has, potentially, AYES the access to information of the highest sensitivity, Abrahams, Debbie Hodgson, Mrs Sharon including material withheld by the Cabinet Office—the Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Hollobone, Mr Philip Commission has the power to see that. My understanding Alexander, Heidi Hood, Mr Jim is that the Commission has asked for this information. Anderson, Mr David Jarvis, Dan It is currently considering the application for a review, Austin, Ian Johnson, Diana with this information before it. If the Commission Bayley, Hugh Jones, Susan Elan sends a case to the courts, the courts have the power to Begg, Dame Anne Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald see the information, and I would entirely expect them to Benn, rh Hilary Khan, rh Sadiq be able to do so. Blenkinsop, Tom Lavery, Ian Blomfield, Paul Lazarowicz, Mark There are two routes ahead, and they include the Brown, Lyn Leech, Mr John point made by the hon. Member for West Bromwich Burden, Richard Leslie, Chris East (Mr Watson). One is the review that is coming up Burnham, rh Andy Lewell-Buck, Mrs Emma next year by the Cabinet Office. The second is the Campbell, Mr Alan Love, Mr Andrew miscarriage of justice review, which is currently actively Campbell, Mr Ronnie Lucas, Caroline being pursued. I hope that colleagues understand that I Clwyd, rh Ann MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan am, at the moment, unable to change the position that Cooper, rh Yvette Malhotra, Seema Governments have adopted over the years, but there are Corbyn, Jeremy Mann, John ways in which this matter can be reviewed again. I Crausby, Mr David McCabe, Steve accept that. That is proper and appropriate, and therefore Creasy, Stella McCann, Mr Michael the efforts of the hon. Member for Blaydon, and those Cruddas, Jon McCarthy, Kerry of the petitioners and colleagues, are not in vain. Cunningham, Alex McClymont, Gregg Cunningham, Mr Jim McDonald, Andy Cunningham, Sir Tony McDonnell, John 2.59 pm David, Wayne McGovern, Alison Mr Anderson: I welcome the Minister to his post, and Davidson, Mr Ian McGuire, rh Mrs Anne Dobson, rh Frank Meale, Sir Alan I will look very closely at what he had to say. The Docherty, Thomas Mearns, Ian youngest picket is 65 and the oldest is 87. One of the Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Miller, Andrew people who is central to this debate died last week. The Doughty, Stephen Morris, Grahame M. reality is that people may need to be brought to book, Dugher, Michael (Easington) and if we go on hiding information, those people will be Durkan, Mark Munn, Meg long gone before there is a chance to find out exactly Eagle, Ms Angela Onwurah, Chi what went on. Eagle, Maria Osborne, Sandra The Minister talked about national security. That has Elliott, Julie Owen, Albert been quoted in this House for the past 40 years. It was Ellman, Mrs Louise Percy, Andrew quoted over Bloody Sunday; shoot-to-kill; the setting Engel, Natascha Pound, Stephen up of a secret terror force in Northern Ireland; the Esterson, Bill Qureshi, Yasmin fitting up of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Flint, rh Caroline Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Four; the picket at Orgreave; the allegations of rioting Flynn, Paul Reed, Mr Jamie at Mansfield during the miners’ strike; and, despicably, Francis, Dr Hywel Reeves, Rachel the Hillsborough decision. Gapes, Mike Rotheram, Steve Gardiner, Barry Russell, Sir Bob The people of this country do not have faith in those Goodman, Helen Shannon, Jim who control the state, because they have seen how the Green, Kate Sharma, Mr Virendra words “national security” have, for so long, meant Griffith, Nia Sheerman, Mr Barry national cover-up. They do not want to live in a country Gwynne, Andrew Shuker, Gavin where secrets are used to abuse the people, and the Hamilton, Mr David Skinner, Mr Dennis people in the Public Gallery today were abused. Des Hanson, rh Mr David Slaughter, Mr Andy Warren went to his death bed as a direct result of being Havard, Mr Dai Smith, Angela locked up for something he did not do. My sister nursed Hepburn, Mr Stephen Smith, Nick him in 1988, 15 years after he had been in jail and Hilling, Julie Smith, Owen subjected to what has been described to me as chemical Hodge, rh Margaret Stunell, rh Sir Andrew 519 Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) 23 JANUARY 2014 520

Thomas, Mr Gareth Whitehead, Dr Alan Holocaust Memorial Day Thornberry, Emily Williamson, Chris Timms, rh Stephen Wilson, Phil Trickett, Jon Winterton, rh Ms Rosie 3.13 pm Turner, Karl Wood, Mike Alistair Burt (North East Bedfordshire) (Con): I beg Twigg, Stephen Wright, Mr Iain to move, Umunna, Mr Chuka Tellers for the Ayes: That this House has considered Holocaust Memorial Day. Vaz, Valerie Katy Clark and I am pleased and honoured to be asked to open Watson, Mr Tom Jim Sheridan the debate to commemorate Holocaust memorial day. This debate has been held in the House since 2008. As NOES colleagues will know, it is timed to be close to Holocaust Davies, Philip Tellers for the Noes: memorial day, 27 January—the day that is linked to the Nuttall, Mr David Jim Fitzpatrick and liberation of the most notorious of the Nazi death Percy, Andrew John Cryer camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau. I welcome the support from my right hon. Friend the Question accordingly agreed to. Member for Eddisbury (Mr O’Brien) and my hon. Resolved, Friends the Members for Eastbourne (Stephen Lloyd), That this House is seriously concerned at the decision of the for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs Ellman), for Weaver Vale Government to refuse to release papers related to the building (Graham Evans) and for Hertsmere (Mr Clappison), dispute in 1972 and subsequent prosecutions of the workers who represented me at the Backbench Business Committee known as the Shrewsbury 24 and calls on it to reverse this in order to see this debate put on. I also thank colleagues position as a matter of urgency. in all parts of the House who signed the early-day motion associated with the debate and a commemoration Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): I ask of the memorial day. Members to leave the Chamber quietly and quickly so I thank—on behalf of all of us, I am sure—the that we can start the next important Back-Bench debate. Holocaust Educational Trust for its briefings and support, and for its extraordinary work in ensuring that a memory of the holocaust is kept alive by providing resources for education, the opportunity to visit Auschwitz, and the chance to meet remaining survivors. I am conscious that a number of schools watch and read this debate and encourage their students to do so, and I think that one of my duties in leading it is to explain exactly what the holocaust was, what it all means to us personally and why it remains necessary to remember it. I am conscious of time and that a number of colleagues want to get in, so I will do my best to be as brief as is necessary. What was the holocaust and why does it matter to me? I was born just 10 years after the end of the second world war and brought up in north Manchester, one of the main centres of the Jewish community outside London. Jewish boys and girls were a key part of our Bury grammar school community and I was aware of them from my earliest days at five years old. As friends, we played and grew up together, and I picked up quite naturally on their different holidays and why Saturdays, not Sundays, were religiously important to them. As I got older and learned more about the war that fate decreed I had avoided, I became aware that my carefree childhood and youth had been bought at a terrible price by an older generation who had fought for my freedom. I also became aware of something else: although a number of the families of my friends had shared that war against tyranny, they had also experienced something so profoundly shocking and beyond comprehension that it could in those days hardly be spoken of. They had experienced it not because of anything they had done, but just because of who they were: Jewish. It was the holocaust. A good definition of the holocaust is provided in the opening displays of the permanent exhibition at the Imperial War museum in London: “Under the cover of the Second World War, for the sake of their ‘new order,’ the Nazis sought to destroy all the Jews of Europe. For the first time in history, industrial methods were used 521 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 522

[Alistair Burt] army barracks in the suburbs of a small Polish city. Auschwitz-Birkenau was actually three separate camps for the mass extermination of a whole people. Six million were with three different purposes, but Birkenau—also known murdered, including 1,500,000 children. This event is called the as Auschwitz II—was the main death camp, built in Holocaust. 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, 3 km from The Nazis enslaved and murdered millions of others as well. Auschwitz. The overall number of victims at Auschwitz- Gypsies, people with physical and mental disabilities, Poles, Soviet Birkenau in the years 1940 to 1945 is estimated to be prisoners of war, trade unionists, political opponents, prisoners of conscience, homosexuals, and others were killed in vast numbers.” just over 1 million—between 1.1 million and 1.5 million— It started, of course, with politics—the free and people, the majority of whom were Jews and died in the democratic election of Hitler and his Nazi party in gas chambers. 1933—and it then continued with the law. In April Those are the facts about the holocaust. I did not 1933, the law for the restoration of the professional civil know all that when I was young, and I did not at once service excluded Jews from professions. In September understand it all. My holocaust education and experience 1935, the Nuremberg laws banned intermarriage and has continued throughout my life and my political sexual relations between Jews and Aryans and stripped career. As a student, I paid my first visit to Israel, and Jews of their citizenship and all legal rights. Gradually, the first of a number of visits to Yad Vashem, which the civil rights of Jews across Germany were taken many other hon. Members have visited. That great away—from being banned from being members of sports centre tells the story of the holocaust through painful clubs in April 1933 to not being allowed to buy milk or documentary, but, most poignantly of all, though family eggs in July 1942. pictures and artefacts of the lost—the lost people and And then the war. Shortly after Germany invaded their lost homes, villages and towns. Poland in September 1939, Nazis began to force Jews We will all have our own memories of Yad Vashem, under their control to move into ghettos. This short-term and know the points in the building at which we are measure soon developed into a long-term policy. The stopped in our tracks. For many, it is the pile of children’s first ghetto in Poland was set up in October 1939. The shoes, but for me it has always been the children’s Nazis established more than 1,000 ghettos in Poland memorial, where, surrounded by everlasting light, the and the Soviet Union alone. Living conditions were names of the children of the holocaust are read out, abysmal. Often several families lived where before there with their age and location. It represents the most had been one. Jews were not allowed to leave or have painful loss of all—the loss of innocence and of promise. any contact with the outside world. Food rations were Yad Vashem, and other excellent memorials, such as at starvation level and disease was rife through lack of that designed by Daniel Libeskind in Berlin and the clean water and sanitation. Hundreds of thousands of Washington holocaust centre, I have found profoundly people died in the ghettos. In the wake of the Warsaw moving. Auschwitz, where many colleagues in the Chamber ghetto revolt in April 1943, the Nazis decided to liquidate have been, should be part of people’s life journey to the remaining large ghettos. Eventually, those who lived understand their world. I particularly commend the in the ghettos were deported in cattle trucks, without Holocaust Educational Trust’s work in providing such a food, sanitation or water, to concentration camps. chance to so many young people. Strangely, it is one Let me quote from a remarkable memoir entitled, visit I have not yet made. I do not know why. Perhaps, “Out of the Depths”, for which I am indebted to Israeli with all I now know, I am afraid to confront the Ambassador Daniel Taub, who gave it to me at Christmas. emotion of being there, but I know that the time is It is the memoir of a small boy who survived deportation coming when it will be right for me to go. from Piotrków in Poland to the concentration camp of One place I have been is Warsaw. I have long been Buchenwald and who grew up to become Israel’s Chief inspired by the extraordinary story of the rising of the Rabbi: Israel Meir Lau. His father, also a rabbi, is Warsaw ghetto—the just over one mile square area that attacked during the process of deportation, and Rabbi housed some 400,000 men, women and children. After Lau writes not only of the incident, but of how it was so some 250,000 had been deported by 1943, to die at important to him—and the Jewish people—in surviving Treblinka, the ghetto rose. The fiercest fighting was the years to come. He says: between mid-April and 16 May 1943, after which both “Today, looking back on the six years of that war, I realize that life and the ghetto were extinguished. Some of the the worst thing I endured in the Holocaust was not the hunger, world’s most harrowing images of war and suffering the cold, or the beatings; it was the humiliation. It is almost impossible to bear the helplessness of unjustified humiliation. come from the ghetto. Helplessness becomes linked with that dishonor… There is little left of the ghetto—the Soviet empire When a young boy sees his father beaten by a Gestapo captain had no wish to commemorate or preserve the area, and with a maikeh”— built upon it—but I spent a morning tracing a couple of a rubber club— buildings, a handful of cobbles, the tramlines and the “kicked with nailed boots, threatened by dogs, falter from the renowned wall on Sienna street, just to connect in some force of the blow, and suffer public shaming, he carries that physical way with what had happened. Remarkably, terrible scene with him for the rest of his life. Yet I also carry the there is a synagogue, which was saved because it was image of Father, with astonishing spiritual strength, bracing used as a stables by the Wehrmacht. There is a memorial himself from falling, refusing to beg for his life, and standing tall once again before the Gestapo captain. For me, that image of his at the Umschlagplatz, the station used for people to inner spiritual strength completely nullifies the helplessness that begin their journey to Treblinka. accompanied the humiliation.” The stories of survivors such as Chief Rabbi Lau, so The Nazis established hundreds of concentration painstakingly preserved, remain vital to the memory of camps across Europe and six extermination camps located what happened. Reading them is graphic. Meeting survivors in Poland. The largest of the camps was Auschwitz- is both humbling and inspiring, and I have been fortunate Birkenau, established by the Nazis in 1940 at a Polish to meet several over the years. I commend the UK’s 523 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 524 ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, and his team for constituency that contains the Jewish museum, where their inspiration in co-ordinating funding from the UK the national launch of the Holocaust memorial day to create a remarkable series of centres called Café commemoration will take place on Monday. Does he Britannia. share my view, which I have expressed to the Home Nearly one in every three senior citizens in Israel Secretary, that she should use the powers that she has to survived the camps or lived under Nazi occupation. keep this stinking, rotten, neo-Nazi alien out of this According to a survey that was released earlier this year country? by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, 37 Israeli holocaust survivors pass away each Alistair Burt: I share the concern of the right hon. day. Of those who remain, many live alone and in Gentleman and the views of the Jewish community, poverty, psychologically and physically scarred by the which have been expressed in exactly the same way. I trauma of their experiences. Those survivors often carry hope that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary a deep need to share their stories, both to ease their takes due note of what has been said by so many. personal pain and to educate others. In some cases, they crave the company of their fellow survivors—the only Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con): ones who can genuinely relate to their feelings and My right hon. Friend has mentioned all the people who memories. As time goes by, the window of opportunity were killed in Auschwitz. As somebody of Polish origin, for reaching out to those ageing, vulnerable citizens I know that this issue is very important for all of us. grows smaller. Will he pay tribute to the many people in Poland and The UK has been involved in co-ordinating finance throughout Europe who hid Jewish families, at great from the Jewish community and others in this country risk to themselves and their families, because many to fund a series of centres where survivors can meet socially. people were spared the concentration camps by people More than 1,000 survivors are now enjoying company who realised that what the Nazis were doing was so and activities through the Café Britannia network, which deplorable? represents 20% of all the social clubs for survivors in Israel. In January 2011, while I was Minister for the Alistair Burt: My hon. Friend makes an extremely middle east, I visited one such centre to find people valid point. Colleagues will appreciate that when opening from Manchester and hear about their extraordinary a debate it is not possible to cover everything, but the backgrounds. Thus, history and the contemporary meet. role of the righteous gentile, appropriately recorded at Yad Vashem and other places, is an honourable one. That leads me to my last point, which is why we still Year after year we hear more stories of people who did need to remember. The holocaust is unique. There is no extraordinary work, putting themselves at risk, and parallel—it was a cataclysmic event of such size and those in Poland who did that are to be as well thought quantity that there can be none. Although its facts are of as any, bearing in mind the horror of Nazi occupation. unique, the evil heart that created the horror still beats. As Solzhenitsyn said in “The Gulag Archipelago”: John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab): I congratulate my right “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good hon. Friend—I see him as a Friend in this—on securing and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human this debate. Does he agree with me about the Jobbik heart—and through all human hearts.” leader and the problems originating from that? I am It is because of that universal appeal that I am pleased going shortly to see the Hungarian ambassador about that Holocaust memorial day embraces the genocide in that matter. Does my right hon. Friend agree that Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia and Darfur. I do not believe inter-parliamentary co-operation in dealing with racism that the unique nature of the holocaust is devalued by and anti-Semitism is essential in stopping the spread of recognising the horrors that have occurred since. The that kind of vehemently racist party? generosity of the Jewish community in being inclusive reminds all of us of our common humanity. However, Alistair Burt: My hon. Friend’s record on this issue is we should still choose our words and descriptions with one of great courage and hard work over many years, care so as never to minimise the scale of what the and he again makes a good point. Parliamentarians holocaust represents. If that heart of evil has produced need to work with each other to prevent abuse of what it has since, it can do so again. The greatest enemy parliamentarians and loss of their rights in certain of those who wish to cause us harm is memory—the places—the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann human conviction never to forget, so as to warn others. Clwyd) does an invaluable job in the Inter-Parliamentary Union on that—and I and other colleagues would be The evidence that we need to do so is all around us. interested to hear more about how co-operation between Anti-Semitism remains on some university campuses in parliamentarians, particularly in Europe, can counter the United Kingdom and appears to fuel the rise of that scourge. proto-fascist parties in continental Europe. Other Members might raise Jobbik in Hungary and the potential visit of I am conscious of time, so let me move to a conclusion. an individual to the United Kingdom. Jobbik holds Anti-Semitism also pains the people of France, who 12% of the parliamentary seats in Hungary. It has been saw three Jewish children murdered in Toulouse in May reported that in 2012, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman 2012, and where we currently see public demonstrations called for a list to be compiled of all Hungarian citizens of support outside synagogues for an entertainer of of Jewish origin as they were a “national threat”. clear anti-Semitic views, who has allowed a holocaust denier to share his stage. This man is associated with a Frank Dobson (Holborn and St Pancras) (Lab): The salute—the quenelle—made notorious in this country right hon. Gentleman has referred to a Hungarian through its use by the footballer Nicolas Anelka. It is neo-Nazi who intends to come to my constituency this for Mr Anelka to answer the charges laid against him Sunday to organise an anti-Semitic rally. That is the and I do not intend to make him the subject of our 525 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 526

[Alistair Burt] 3.35 pm Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and debate, but I would contrast his behaviour with that of Lesmahagow) (Lab): It is pleasure to follow the right the English football team who, with the support of the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Holocaust Educational Trust, made a journey to Auschwitz Burt), who is respected across the House, and his compelling during the European Championships of 2012. Captain and emotional opening contribution. Steven Gerrard spoke of the impact of that visit on the players, their awareness of their privileged life and their The holocaust has always baffled me. If we are going position as role models, and their understanding of to give away our age, I was born 20 years after those that. I think those are the footballers whose views we events. I have never understood how human beings in should note today, and we should watch the film of their millions could be so seduced by a message of hate their time there made by the Football Association and that they could stand by and watch as other human the Holocaust Educational Trust. That is what schools beings were degraded, humiliated and murdered; how should look at as representing role models in this country. people could have stayed at the entrance to the gas chambers in Auschwitz, stripping people of their belongings Last January I attended the commemoration of and their last remnants of dignity, knowing that the fate Holocaust memorial day at the London Jewish Cultural that lay in store for them was a 20-minute, excruciatingly Centre in north London, at the request of one of my painful journey to death. longest standing and much loved friends from college, We are in the month of January and the phrase, Mandy King. I took part in a moving morning of music “Man’s inhumanity to man” was first introduced in a and verse, with predominantly young people drawn poem by Robert Burns titled, “Man Was Made to Mourn”. from diverse communities. I was proud to follow at that As poignant as those words are, I still do not think they ceremony a young girl from the Islamic Foundation. convey the horrors that took place over 70 years ago. What a statement from both Jew and Muslim that they Probably like everybody else in the House, I have read could stand together, because in my recent role I have the books and watched the documentaries. I have watched been more acutely aware than ever of the pain in the “Schindler’s List”, “Band of Brothers”, in which the Islamic world from so many sources, of the misery 101st Airborne Division liberated a sub-camp of Dachau inflicted every day through sectarian violence, of that concentration camp, and “The World at War”. All those evil which flows through too many human hearts, and depictions of what took place, however, fail to equal the the pain of unresolved injustice, which perhaps this insight offered to me by a survivor, Harry Bibring. year might finally be addressed. All could be put aside in remembering the uniqueness of holocaust, while the I had the privilege of meeting Harry in 2012. The generosity of the Jewish community in sharing the pain Holocaust Educational Trust suggested that I might now has powerful resonance throughout the country. like to encourage my local authority to have a survivor meet and talk to older pupils from high schools in my With many thanks to those who work so hard around area. Harry was born in 1925 and lived in Vienna with the country to remember this weekend and involve so his mother and father and his sister, Gertie. His father many, let me conclude with Primo Levi’s haunting owned a men’s clothing shop and, for that time and poem, “Shema”, which echoes the pain of his existence place, his family were relatively well-off. The young in Auschwitz: Harry remembered having family holidays. He enjoyed “You who live secure swimming and ice-skating, and his mother and father In your warm houses, were well-off enough to be able to give him a season Who return at evening to find ticket membership to an ice-skating rink. He remembered hanging out of a window in Vienna watching the Germans Hot food and friendly faces: march in, in 1938. He remembered liking the soldiers Consider whether this is a man marching and the bright flags, but little did he know as Who labours in the mud a child that they were Nazi soldiers and that those Who knows no peace bright flags were swastikas. Who fights for a crust of bread Harry’s membership of the ice-skating rink was revoked just days later, when a “No Jews Allowed” sign was Who dies at a yes or a no. erected. In November 1938, Harry’s father’s business Consider whether this is a woman, was destroyed during Kristallnacht. He was arrested Without hair or name soon after. After he was released from prison, the family With no more strength to remember intended to flee to Shanghai, but his dad was robbed on his way to purchase the tickets. Thinking, as any mother Eyes empty and womb cold and father would, of the safety of their children, Harry’s As a frog in winter parents arranged for him and his sister to flee on a Consider that this has been: Kindertransport to the United Kingdom. I commend these words to you Harry’s father had arranged for guarantors to pick them up when they arrived in the UK. Harry said: Engrave them on your hearts “I remember going to the Vienna West Bahnhof with my sister When you are in your house, when you walk on your way. and our parents to get on the train at 10pm on the 13th March When you go to bed, when you rise. 1939 with about 600 other kids. The following day the train went slowly through Germany until it reached the Dutch border. Once Repeat them to your children. it crossed over into Holland we were met on the platform by Or may your house crumble. Jewish volunteers from Holland who gave us sweets and toys. We crossed to England on the night ferry from Hook of Holland to Disease render you powerless. Harwich and arrived at Liverpool Street station in the afternoon Your offspring avert their faces from you.” of the 15th March 1939.” 527 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 528

Harry was not to know, when he left Vienna, that that she was picked up by a soldier. She told the soldier that was the last time he would ever see his mother and he could not touch her because she was Jewish, and he father. They were killed by the Nazis. Harry and his replied, fighting back the tears, “I’m Jewish too.” The sister Gertie survived. Harry is still with us, and the gentleman was a GI. After the war, they married and world is an immeasurably better place with him in it. they settled in the United States of America—a triumph Looking back from 2014, I would like to think that I of the human spirit over evil and another reason we would not have followed the crowd had I been in should all observe Holocaust memorial day. Germany at that time. I would like to think that I would have behaved like Irena Sendler, a Polish lady—the hon. Several hon. Members rose— Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) mentioned such people from Poland—who did so much Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing): Order. to protect Jewish people. She was honoured in 1965 by As the House will be aware, several Members wish to the state of Israel as “Righteous among the nations”. speak and there is limited time, so I am imposing a During world war two, Irena served as a plumber seven-minute time limit on Back-Bench speeches. working in the Warsaw ghetto. She smuggled Jewish babies out of the ghetto in the bottom of her toolbox. 3.43 pm At the back of a truck, she kept a dog she had trained to Mr Stephen O’Brien (Eddisbury) (Con): It is a privilege bark to cover the noise of the infants when Nazi soldiers to follow the outstanding opening speech by my right approached. The Nazis eventually caught her, sentenced hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire her to death and broke both her arms and legs, but she (Alistair Burt) and the genuinely moving speech by the managed to evade execution and survived the war. She hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and kept details of all the children she saved in a glass jar Lesmahagow (Mr McCann). she buried in her back garden, and she tried to locate their parents after the war, but sadly most had perished It will come as no surprise, with the name O’Brien, in the gas chambers. I wonder if I would have been that I am not Jewish, but it is critical to remember that brave enough to do something like that. we are all survivors and collectively have a duty to work together to avert an atrocity such as the Holocaust ever Holocaust memorial day allows us to remember those happening again. As has been said, ultimately the causes who perished, those who survived and those who were were as political as anything else, and so, being engaged brave beyond our comprehension, and it challenges us in politics, we have that duty. to learn from history to prevent such events from happening again. That is our aspiration, but sadly Bosnia, Darfur As someone born in Africa, I do not deny the unsettling and Rwanda remind us that history can repeat itself. parallels with what has happened in places such as Rwanda—it is 20 years since those events—and although Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con): We need we were rightly warned to be extremely careful not to to observe Holocaust memorial day, given that across confuse the word “genocide” with “holocaust”, given Europe we have national list systems for elections, meaning the gravity of the holocaust, which we have to respect, that a small percentage of a population can elect neo-Nazis. none the less there were many lessons that humanity We have to remember that this is happening, and we could and should have learned that could have helped need to reinforce to people that 6 million of the Jewish us to avert the genocides on the continent of my birth. community were murdered. We must not forget that In that sense, we are all participants and all survivors. Hitler came up partly through democratic institutions, Above all, I want to pay tribute in my brief contribution and we must ensure that such a thing never happens to the Holocaust Educational Trust. I have been a again. beneficiary over the last 12 months, and I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau with the trust in what is a Mr McCann: I agree entirely with the hon. Gentleman. Government-funded programme. We are accountable I appreciate that others want to speak, so I shall move in respect of how worth while the experience is—and of on without taking any further interventions. However, that, I am in no doubt. Although I have been to Israel, the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire including to Yad Vashem, with the Conservative Friends said that politics was at the heart of the matter, and we of Israel, nothing quite prepares one for the first visit to must remember that it was the treaty of Versailles that witness what took place at Auschwitz-Birkenau. gave Hitler a platform on which to build the hatred that It was a privilege to make this visit accompanied by a led to the terrible atrocities of the second world war. group of sixth formers from my constituency, which It was a twisted variety of politics, but politics none made the experience all the more powerful. As someone the less. in their 50s, I was travelling for the first time to this I want to finish on a positive note. I have been very place with young people; the cross-generational learning lucky in my life. I have visited both the Holocaust and deep emotional experience that was shared between museum in Washington DC and Yad Vashem. These us helped us to understand what it means to witness museums are grim, and going through their exhibits can what amounts to an appalling assault on the eyes, the be an emotionally draining experience. At the end of mind and the heart. We all took away different things the museum in Washington, the visitor passes down from the day. Some things shocked us, and then there long corridors, either side of which are huge glass were odd things, such as the very normality of life containers filled with the spectacles, shoes, luggage and around Auschwitz that carries on today, and the possessions of the Holocaust victims—a haunting end extraordinary bewilderment at how a herd of human to an experience that you can never forget—but at the beings could have persuaded themselves not to stop this very end is a video loop in which a woman explains her happening at the time. It was difficult to manage the personal story of liberation. When she was emaciated, sense of disbelief, horror and outrage as we went through dehydrated and thought she was near the end of her life, this vicarious experience. When we returned on the 529 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 530

[Mr Stephen O’Brien] right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) on the very moving and sincere way in which he plane, there was a not a shocked silence—more a sense opened this extremely important debate. of relief from a discussion of shared experiences. We gained The first Holocaust memorial day was held here in a nearer—never a perfect, but a nearer—understanding the United Kingdom in 2001, as a result of a cross-party of what had taken place there. decision by Parliament following a private Member’s For those who have the privilege of living in the UK, Bill presented by Andrew Dismore. At that time, there one particularly telling item was a map on the walls of were doubters who were not sure that it was appropriate Auschwitz, showing the railway lines along which all to have a Holocaust memorial day focusing on the the people had been transported from around Europe. holocaust itself. Now that date is firmly in the national Huge distances—from Norway or Hungary, for example— calendar, and I think that very few people would question were involved, but there was no line through the UK. the correctness of our decision. We were not invaded by the Nazis, and were not subject It is absolutely essential for new generations to receive to these appalling transportations, so all the more for us education about the brutality, the depravity, and the learn from the experience. We all carried with us the racial hatred involved in the organisation of the calculated shocking images and the sense of outrage, and we mass murder of 6 million people. That lesson needs to recalled the point on the tracks where the trucks were be learnt so that people not only know about the unique parted, the dolls’ clothing, the names on the suitcases, horror of the holocaust, but understand where hatred the sheer industrial scale of Birkenau, and the candle and bigotry can lead, because that affects all of our lighting ceremony at the end. These experiences created society and all the people in it. The Holocaust Educational a deep impression and will be for ever remembered. I Trust’s “lessons from Auschwitz” programme enables would like to pay particular personal tribute to the wise generations of young people and their teachers to visit leadership and spiritual input of Rabbi Marcus, who is Auschwitz, as part of a wider educational programme deeply involved in the visits. to provide a greater understanding of the holocaust and One of the benefits of these trips is the ability to its impact for everyone. broadcast a longer message through local newspapers, This week I attended the trust’s annual Merlyn Rees for example, and students can be encouraged to be part memorial lecture, which was given by Thomas Harding. of communicating the message and sharing it with their He spoke of the search for Rudolf Höss, the Kommandant peers. It was a harrowing and tough day for all of us of Auschwitz. That served as a reminder of the need to and the horror of what saw and the reactions and bring war criminals to account, and also as a reminder emotions we experienced will stay with us for the rest of of the nature of evil. Rudolf Höss led an apparently our lives. One cannot overstate the importance of visiting normal family life, with a loving wife and loving children, Auschwitz-Birkenau or of recognising the full extent of in the midst of the horrors and the butchery of Auschwitz. the ghastly industrialised nature of the holocaust. These Perhaps we should reflect on the nature of evil, and on events might have taken place 70 years ago, but as our what people can do. society bears witness, we need to continue to teach the lessons of the holocaust to the younger generation in Also this week, the Football Association decided to order to fight bigotry and hatred today. After witnessing charge Anelka following his celebration of having scored what happened, it is impossible to understand how a goal by making an “inverted Nazi symbol” salute, the there could be holocaust denial. “quenelle” . What I found even more disturbing than what Anelka did was his defence, which was that he had We do see some anti-Semitic behaviour in our midst acted in support of his friend Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, today—on the football terraces, for example. There who is a French performer, a holocaust denier, an have been some recent arrests. I take note of what my anti-Semite, and someone whose offences include inviting right hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire the holocaust denier Robert Faurisson on stage as part said about focusing on positive things, but let us be of his performances. The people who support this performer absolutely clear that there should be no no-go areas for claim that they do so because they are anti-establishment, this type of behaviour. We must not allow the excuse of and that they are not anti-Semitic, but it does not take “What happens on the terraces stays on the terraces”. very much imagination to appreciate what that defence In this instance, with anti-Semitic behaviour, holocaust actually means. It gives us food for thought, because it denial or teasing chants, the police must enforce the is deeply and gravely disturbing. laws of the land. If we allow a chink in this armour, we start to excuse something that is historically inexcusable. Sadly, anti-Semitism has not gone away, even following We have the witnesses of young minds on the football the horrors of the holocaust. A very recent European terraces; they must not be given the chance to think survey made disturbing findings in that regard. There is anything other than that the holocaust was one of the also anti-Semitic discourse: not explicit anti-Semitism, most horrific experiences in history. A visit to Auschwitz but reference in writing, speech and films to images and with the Holocaust Educational Trust is the ultimate words which invoke feelings of anti-Semitism. The antidote to any such tendencies. I commend the trust’s Community Security Trust has listed incidents of anti- work and the public support that it receives, and I Semitic discourse in its recent report and they are would encourage not just the continuation but the extremely disturbing. They are disturbing because they broadening of its programme. are wide-ranging and cut right across the political spectrum. They range from the bizarre, such as the reference in Press TV, speaking for Iran, which claimed that the 3.50 pm Olympics were a Zionist plot and blamed Jews in Hollywood Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op): and the so-called Jewish-controlled media as ultimately I am privileged to be able to follow such genuine and responsible for the United States school shootings and effective contributions. I congratulate in particular the massacres of children, to those I find more disturbing, 531 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 532 such as the Occupy Wall street cartoon from Tampa in I cried at Auschwitz. I do not often cry, but at Auschwitz the USA which was displayed on Facebook and which I cried when I saw what man’s inhumanity toward man showed a big-nosed bearded Jew using the UN logo as a can lead to. steering wheel in a car with President Obama as the I have worked closely with my good friend my hon. gearstick. Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green I am also concerned by statements such as that made (Mike Freer) on various projects that have involved by former diplomat Peter Jenkins in a debate at Warwick holocaust survivors. I went into schools to talk about university, where he stated that Christian morality was what happened and I try to make some semblance of somehow superior to Jewish morality. He said: sense of what happened and to explain it to people. But “The idea that a just war requires the use of force to be it is impossible to make any sense of it. I pay tribute to proportionate seems to be a Christian notion and not a Jewish everyone from all political parties who were involved in notion.” getting Holocaust memorial day into our calendar. On I find that kind of insinuation that morally Judaism is Holocaust memorial day on Monday, I will be in the inferior to, in his case, Christianity not just plain wrong London borough of Redbridge, my local council. I pay but deeply disturbing. That kind of insinuation, which I tribute to Councillors Alan Weinberg and Leon Schaller, hear too often, should be recognised. Reference has who paid for and dedicated a memorial to the holocaust, already been made during this debate to the planned which is in our main park, where we will hold a ceremony visit to London this weekend of Gábor Vona, leader of of remembrance. I have looked around the Chamber the anti-Semitic Hungarian Jobbik party, and his plan today and seen people with tears in their eyes, and at to be here on Holocaust memorial day. that ceremony there will be tears in all of our eyes Now that we have Holocaust memorial day firmly in because people, not only Jews but Gypsies, homosexuals, the national calendar, I think we understand the need to anybody that the vile Nazi regime wanted to get rid of, educate people about the enormity of the evils of the were exterminated. holocaust. That is so that people understand what Last night I happened to be flicking through the TV happened in those terrible years and that terrible time. programmes quite late and saw a drama about the It is also a lesson for today and about where evil, Nuremberg trials. One saw the evidence of what was bigotry and prejudice can lead. It is something that all done. I again could not comprehend, even though I in our society need to learn. know it, even though I have seen it, what we saw and what we heard. The work that the Holocaust Educational Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing): I call Trust does, the work that many people do to teach the Lee Scott. next generation—because let us face it, there will not be many survivors left as years go by—recognises that if 3.57 pm we dare forget what has happened in the past even for Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con): I start by one second, it is not impossible that history will repeat congratulating my right hon. Friend the Member for itself. North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) not only on Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con): Of course history securing this debate, but on the moving and compassionate repeats itself. I have seen genocide. I have buried 104 women way in which he spoke. You are truly a good man, sir. and children in a mass grave. I have picked up the head Quite rightly, Madam Deputy Speaker, you called me of a child thinking it was a ball and dropped it with by the name I have had since my birth: Lee Scott. horror. I was so upset with myself when I discovered it However, if it had not been indirectly for the holocaust was a child. I have seen this. Of course history repeats you would have called me by the name of Lee Shulberg, itself. The purpose of Holocaust memorial day is to because that is our family name. My late father changed remind us that it continues in another form, and that is our name, because being caught while fighting in the the purpose of this debate and of our remembering—to second world war with a Jewish surname was the difference try to stop it happening again. My goodness, we are between going to a prisoner of war camp and a human beings and it will happen, but we must make concentration camp. We kept the name after the second every endeavour to stop it. world war, but on a personal level I felt that I would like to get the name Shulberg into Hansard in the House of Mr Scott: I thank my hon. and gallant Friend for his Commons. intervention. Yes, as I have said, things are going on as we sit here today, but I still say we can remember and we Anti-Semitism has not gone away. At the last general can do our utmost to make sure such things do not election, as many friends on both sides of the House happen anywhere again. will know, I was approached by some people while out campaigning and called a “dirty Jew” and was told they I know that many hon. Members wish to speak, so I wished to kill me. On a fairly regular basis I still get will not detain the House too much longer. My final anti-Semitic e-mails. Has anyone learned anything from statement is that I am proud to be a Member of this history? I sometimes fear not when we look at genocides House. I am immensely proud and grateful to Great across the world that are still happening. Even today, as Britain for taking in my grandparents, because without we sit in this House, there are people in camps in any question I would not be alive today if it had not. various countries who are being killed. And I am proud to be Jewish. I want to pay tribute particularly to Karen Pollock and the Holocaust Educational Trust. I have been to 4.3 pm Auschwitz with them and I have also visited Theresienstadt Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab): I congratulate the and Babi Yar, a ravine where Jews were rounded up, right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair shoved in and shot. I have seen first hand the piles of Burt) on securing this debate. It is a privilege to follow the children’s shoes, and I am not ashamed to say that the speech that we have just heard. 533 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 534

[Ian Austin] synagogue today has seats for just 30 people. For me, that evidence of entire families and whole communities In 1939, a 10-year-old Jewish boy from an industrial having been wiped out is even more moving than the town in what was then Czechoslovakia was put on a evidence of industrial-scale slaughter on display at the train by his mum and two teenage sisters and eventually concentration camps. made his way to Britain as a refugee. It was to be the In Poland, we travelled to a small town called Nowy last time that he would see them. They were rounded Targ, where we found the family shop of my dad’s up, sent first to a ghetto, then to Theresienstadt, and uncle, Emmanuel Singer. A few streets away, we walked eventually to Treblinka, where they were murdered on through the Jewish cemetery, which contains the mass 5 October 1942. That boy is my dad and that explains grave of 500 Jews who were butchered in a single day. why for me this issue is so important. We saw the wall behind what is now a youth club where Like other Members who have spoken today, I have one of my dad’s cousins had been shot after being visited Auschwitz with the Holocaust Educational Trust, dragged from his fiancée’s family’s attic. We heard how which does such important work. I want to say a few Emmanuel Singer had fled to Krakow with forged words about the survivors with whom they work, including Aryan papers and hidden there before being betrayed, people such as Ziggy Shipper, who at the age of 84 visits arrested and tortured for his money. He was then dragged schools every week to teach children where hatred and to his death along a country road, chained behind a prejudice can lead, and Eva Clarke, who was born in horse and cart. Three thousand Jews lived in Nowy Mauthausen concentration camp, but survived and came Targ before the war. I asked the local historian who was to the UK after the war. I met an amazing woman showing us round, “How many survived and came through the Association of Jewish Refugees, Mindu back? How many live here now?” She looked at me as Hornick, who lives in Birmingham now.She was imprisoned though I was mad, and replied, “None, of course.” in a concentration camp and then sent to work as slave Seeing that for myself and hearing the detailed, human labour in an armaments factory. I said to her, “Mindu, stories really brought home to me the horrific scale of these shells that you made, how many of them worked?” the tragedy. It is impossible to compare anything to this, She looked at me, smiled and said, “None.” Is that not history’s greatest crime, but it is certainly possible to incredible? Here was a woman, in fear of her life in a learn lessons. There is a quote from the Spanish philosopher, concentration camp, thinking about how she could George Santayana, at the memorial at Auschwitz. It prevent other people from being killed. says: Ben Helfgott weighed less than 6 stone when he was “The one who does not remember history is bound to live rescued from Theresienstadt, but he went on to represent through it again.” Britain as an Olympic weightlifter. The only other member The fact that there are no tracks leading from Britain of his family to survive was Mala Tribich, who was to Auschwitz tells us something very special about our forced to work as a slave labourer. She was sent to country. When other countries were rounding up their Ravensbrück and ended up in Bergen-Belsen. Tomorrow, Jews and herding them on to the trains to the concentration she will be speaking to hundreds of people at Dudley’s camps, Britain provided a safe haven for tens of thousands annual holocaust commemoration, which I organise. of refugee children such as my dad. It is a fantastic Those are all incredible people. They spend their time thing about our country that the son of a Jewish refugee teaching students and young people about the evils of can become a Member of Parliament and serve as a racism, and it is humbling to see the sense of duty and Government Minister. commitment that drives them and other survivors to Let us think of Britain in the 1930s. The rest of use their experience of that terrible period to create a Europe was succumbing to fascism, but here in Britain, better world for the rest of us. Mosley was rejected. In 1941, France was invaded, I have seen young people visiting Auschwitz with the Europe was overrun and America was not yet in the Holocaust Educational Trust, and I have seen their lives war. Just one country was fighting not just for Britain’s being changed by witnessing the appalling evidence of freedom but for the world’s liberty. Britain did not just the industrial-scale slaughter that took place at Birkenau. win the war; we won the right for people around the I have seen them return to Dudley to campaign against world to live in freedom. For me, that period defines our racism and build a stronger and more united community. country. It is what makes Britain the greatest country in No one can fail to be affected by what they see in those the world, with a special claim to the values of democracy, places: the mountains of human hair and glasses; the freedom, fairness and tolerance. Because of who we are pots and pans and personal possessions that show that as a people and what we are as a country, the British people thought they were going to live elsewhere, not to people came together and stood up to the Nazis and be murdered. fought fascism. We are a country that does not walk Last summer, my dad and I travelled to the Czech away or turn a blind eye. On each occasion when people Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In Ostrava, we found have been gassed and chemical weapons have been used the flat where he grew up. He stood on the pavement, against people, we have known whose side we were on pointed at the first floor window and told me that that and we have always in the past stood up for the oppressed. had been his bedroom. He described how he had been woken up in the middle of the night on 18 March 1939. 4.10 pm He had looked out to see what the noise in the street Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) (LD): Like my colleagues, was. It was German soldiers marching into the town I thank the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire square. We found the site of the Jewish school and the (Alistair Burt) for securing the debate, and it was a synagogue he had attended. Ostrava had had several privilege for me and my hon. Friends to assist him in synagogues, Jewish schools, sports clubs, shops and that. I thank the Backbench Business Committee. Such businesses to serve the 10,000 Jews who lived there. debates have taken place since 2008. I have been involved Incredibly, the single room that serves as the city’s in them all since being elected in 2010. 535 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 536

I also thank colleagues for their powerful, resonant Member of Parliament within Westminster, for what its and quite modern speeches. I say “modern” because people did. A lot of the Bulgarian Government wanted they are here today to represent their constituencies in to go along with the Nazis and pack all 50,000 Jews off, the year 2014, yet two of my colleagues’ parents were but the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria and the people Jewish and survived the holocaust. If they had not there just would not have it. survived, my colleagues would not be here. That really does bring things home to me and is the reason I was Bob Stewart: What the hon. Gentleman has said rings always determined if I got elected to give my full a bell, and I want to place on the record the fact that in support to the Holocaust Educational Trust and the the middle of the war in Bosnia, in 1992-93, the one Holocaust memorial day on 27 January. section of society in Sarajevo that was not threatened All colleagues have alluded to the obvious reasons for was the Jewish section. The Muslims, Croats and Serbs the memorial day. It is about the memory of those were all up against it. The one people protected, or millions of people who died simply because of their seemingly protected, was the Jewish community, and race, colour or creed. Another reason relates to the guess what that community did? It tried to help other modern day. As other Members have mentioned, we people. I pay tribute to that. cannot forget what happened or let it go because, if we did, we would demean the memory of many people who Stephen Lloyd: I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s were slaughtered in this desperate way and make it intervention, as he makes such a powerful point. easier for society, for nations and for people to continue So where are we at? Human nature is never going to behave disgracefully. to act in a way that means these things will never My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob happen again—we all know that. The reason for this Stewart) made a strong point about when he was serving commemorative day and the reason it is so important in Bosnia and the reality of genocide there. That that the mother of Parliaments keeps having this debate demonstrates poignantly, powerfully and horribly what year after year, even though it is 40, 50, 60, 70 years life and death really mean in such situations, and it since these tragedies took place, is that it is a small way reminds us all of what is happening in the Congo and of holding the mirror up to man’s bestiality. That small Syria and of the rise of profound political and religious attempt, that bit about knowledge and that emphasis on extremism, which has got worse over the past few years. trying to ensure that the memory never disappears goes We all have views about why that has happened, but it is some way in helping us to challenge bigotry, of whatever undeniably continuing to get worse. A number of colleagues type. Wickedness is not specific to any particular character have mentioned the Jobbik party in Hungary, with 15% or race; it covers humanity generally. So I am proud and of the vote, and another is the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn privileged every year when I take part in these debates, in Greece, with 12 MPs. even though I am not Jewish and have no personal family connection with the holocaust; I was always These things do not go away, because humanity is determined that if had the privilege to be elected I basically interchangeable. Feelings, ignorance, fear and would be here to do what I can in a small way to anger are the same today as they were 5,000 years ago. support this. The only difference is that we now dress differently, we I pay tribute to the Holocaust Educational Trust, have computers and a few other things and we drive which does a fantastic job. I also pay tribute to the right very fast in cars, which we could not do 500 years ago, hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr but humanity does not change. However, a positive Brown), as I know through my involvement with the aspect of humanity is a continuous determination to trust that he was immensely important in getting the get better, to improve and to be kind and generous. resources to ensure that the trust went on. All in all, this Alongside all the horror that the Holocaust Educational is a powerful annual debate, and it is a privilege to be Trust helps us to understand as parliamentarians, and here and to listen to the real, powerful experiences set Holocaust memorial day helps us to remember and out by some of my colleagues. commemorate those who died, there is the other side of human nature. That is also part of this remembrance. 4.18 pm I shall give colleagues an example. There is a country at the moment that does not get a busting lot of good Mrs Anne McGuire (Stirling) (Lab): May I start with media coverage in the Daily Mail and the rest called an apology, Madam Deputy Speaker, because I have to Bulgaria. Perhaps all hon. Members know—I did not be in Scotland this evening so I may not be able to be know until a few months ago—that, although Bulgaria here for the wind-ups? I apologise to the Front Benchers is smack in the middle of the Balkans and central and to other colleagues for that. Europe and has had a history of virulent anti-Semitism I thank the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Stephen for hundreds of years, the Bulgarian people would not Lloyd) for his generous recognition of the role played accept what the Nazis wanted, so 50,000 Jews survived by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and in Bulgaria. Is that not fascinating? That is the flip side Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown). Sometimes, in the rough of this horror of the holocaust; so many good things and tumble of politics, things can be forgotten, and were done. As another colleague said, we should not those of us who were in the House at that time remember forget the individual families in Poland and other parts the tenacity with which he pushed for the memorial day. of Europe who saved Jewish families, at enormous cost He was also a driver of the Stockholm declaration of to themselves. I was determined to mention the 50,000 2001, and I thank him for that. I also want to thank the Jews saved in Bulgaria in the Chamber today, because right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair whenever I read certain papers at the minute I find that Burt), who laid out the justification and rationale for poor old Bulgaria does not get a lot of good coverage. today’s debate, and told us of his own journey—such So I pay tribute to that nation, in my small way as a journeys are the theme of this year’s memorial day. 537 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 538

[Mrs Anne McGuire] I am pleased that Scotland’s Holocaust memorial day is being held in Stirling. The speakers will include Arn Like other Members, I have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau Chorn-Pond, who escaped from Cambodia after being and, although I grew up knowing about the holocaust—I held by the Khmer Rouge, and Alfred Munzer, who, as was born in the last year of the 1940s and so am slightly a Jewish child during the holocaust, was separated from nearer the end of the second world war than some of his family and kept in hiding by Indonesian neighbours my other colleagues—nothing that I knew or had learned in Holland. about it prepared me for the experience. The word I will not be with my colleagues, Provost Mike Robbins “industrialisation” has been bandied about, but the and others in Stirling because I will be in Auschwitz on whole programme is almost beyond comprehension. Monday with other politicians from across Europe, There was a trial and error approach. Initially, it was, from Poland, and from Israel, and with some survivors “Let’s try and shoot the Jews.” Well, that was not fast for a special remembrance on the 60th anniversary. We enough. Then it was, “Let’s look at portable gas chambers”, will be in Poland at a site that is symbolic but, sadly, not but that was not efficient enough. Then they looked at unique in the history of the holocaust. When we stand how to dispose of the bodies. All that energy and on those railway tracks and remember those who were entrepreneurship—if I can put it in such a way—went murdered, we will also know that thanks to the endeavours into an extermination programme, the sole purpose of of many there will be communities, children and young which was to eradicate the Jewish community from people across the world commemorating that day. Europe. The one point of optimism in all this is that the Nazis Like others who have spoken, I cannot comprehend never achieved their ambition. They did not exterminate the evil philosophy that underpinned the holocaust, and every Jew from Europe. If an optimistic message comes I will not understand it for as long as I live. As my hon. out of Holocaust memorial day it is that: the survivors Friend the Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and won. Lesmahagow (Mr McCann) said, it is difficult for us to appreciate what happened in those reasonably civilized 4.25 pm cultural communities that produced philosophers and Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con): I should disclose musicians. When it came to it, 6 million Jewish people that I am trustee and director of the Holocaust Educational were murdered, 1.5 million of whom were children. Trust. I thank all the contributors to today’s debate for Like the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire, the compliments and thanks they have given to the I will never forget the first time I went through the trust. On behalf of the trust, I thank this Government children’s memorial at Yad Vashem. and their predecessors for the support that they have We must also recognise the other groups of people given to the trust, particularly for the programme that who were murdered by the Nazis. Gypsies, disabled takes children to Auschwitz. That has affected many people, trade unionists, homosexuals, Poles, Russians Members’ constituents and it is good that this is a and prisoners of war were all murdered as part of their matter with cross-party support. ethnic cleansing programme. It would not be right for me to pick out everybody When we visited Auschwitz and looked at those piles who has spoken today, on both sides of the House. of glasses and children’s shoes—I will never forget the Every contribution has been outstanding. The hon. children’s shoes—there was a realisation among most of Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) made a point us that that could just as easily have been us. That is that was particularly interesting and relevant to me what made it all the more evocative. There was one when he spoke about how this country stood out against young woman on the tour who said, “I don’t believe it”. Nazism. My late father, who was brought up in London She was not a holocaust denier in a political sense. She in the 1930s, remembered very well that on Sunday just could not comprehend that human beings could do mornings the blackshirts marched in their hundreds up that to each other. The Holocaust Educational Trust and down the streets of this country shouting, “The should be congratulated on, among all the other things Yids, the Yids, we’ve got to get rid of the Yids.” That is that have been mentioned, encouraging, allowing and hard for us to believe in our society, despite the mention supporting young people to face up to the fact that today of the CST and some unforgiveable anti-Semitic human beings can do awful things to each other. I am incidents. When I compare that with people watching sure that the young woman, once her colleagues had hundreds of people marching in jackboots in our own spoken to her, came to her understanding of the events. country shouting such things about Jewish people, I believe None the less it shocked us that there we were seeing that we have progressed tremendously. what had happened, and it was just too awesome—in My father, on being conscripted into the Army in this the correct sense of the word—for her to understand. country as a normal 18-year-old boy, was beaten up by We must continue to support the Holocaust Educational the non-Jewish members of his platoon, who said, “You Trust and other organisations and all the visits to Jews are to blame for this war.” That was a feeling then Auschwitz-Birkenau and other centres. I have visited and the little remnants of that feeling come out in what Theresienstadt, or Terezin as it is often called, which is a those people from Hungary say and what people—very town that was evacuated and filled up with people who few people, but some—say elsewhere, albeit quietly now were on their way to Auschwitz. because of the protection of the law. That feeling is still As the right hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr O’Brien) there. said, genocidal murder has not stopped. We can see that I feel that today, as the Member of Parliament for in our most recent history. In 1994, 1 million Rwandan Watford, I should particularly talk about holocaust people were killed in a matter of 100 days. How is that education in one school that is, I believe, a model for comprehensible? We must all understand that we, as schools around the country. It is Watford grammar part of the international community, stood back and school for girls, under the inspired leadership of Dame watched it happen. Helen Hyde, the daughter of holocaust survivors. It is a 539 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 540 very successful school. It is called a grammar school, these debates show the House at its best. Today’s has but it is actually a state comprehensive school with been no exception, and we should all be proud of that. some selection. In many ways, it is ordinary—it could Last year, I explained that my interest in understanding be any school. more about the holocaust had arisen from visits I had The girls begin their holocaust education in year 9, made to Rwanda. when they are taught about stereotyping, prejudice and In 2012, I went to Auschwitz with students from discrimination and where they can lead. They are asked Rugby high school. Last year, the editor of the local to look at their own prejudices again because, as hon. newspaper visited with another school party. In his Members have said, it is in the nature of human beings account, he wrote of the massive impact on the young to have some prejudices. They talk about Anne Frank people who go there. They start off chatty, as teenagers and her experiences in detail, even at a very young age. often are, but as they see the horrors of Auschwitz the In years 10 and 11, the girls do a detailed study of magnitude of what happened there dawns on them, and what took place under the Nazis, the outcome for they become much more thoughtful and reflective. In Jewish people and others. They consider the moral and addition to having seen what happened in Rwanda and ethical issues that affect people in general. Further on in Auschwitz, next month I will be joining a delegation the school, they can do GCSEs and A-levels in relevant visiting Cambodia, which it is impossible to visit without subjects. having regard to the killings that occurred there in Dame Helen runs the largest student holocaust the 1970s. conference every November, attended by 400 students We have heard many emotional and moving speeches. and members of the public. I have had the privilege of Earlier today, I re-read last year’s debate in Hansard to opening the conference and up to 16 survivors have remind myself of the comments Members made. I spoken. This school in this small part of Hertfordshire vividly remember the remarks of the hon. Member for is a model. The girls do very well academically, so it Leeds North East (Fabian Hamilton), who spoke about does not in any way prejudice their education. Holocaust his meetings with holocaust survivors—some of whom education is used as a way of teaching them about so were members of his family—what they had seen and much in life that is relevant to people. gone through, and the fact that it had never left them, not least because of the numbers tattooed on their Through my involvement with holocaust education arms. My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and with the HET, I have spoken to girls and boys in a (Bob Stewart) gave an account of what he had seen in school two or three miles away from here, in east Bosnia in 1992. He concluded by saying that we must London, where one of the survivors sent by the HET to prevent an event such as the holocaust from ever happening speak to them gave, as one can imagine, a very moving again, which is, of course, one of the reasons for holding story of their experiences in the holocaust. A young this debate and for the programme of events run by the lady—a Muslim—told me that the speaker, a 90-year-old HET. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North lady, was the only Jewish person she had ever met in her (Mr Scott) reminded us, when we read about the horrors life. In certain hon. Members’ constituencies two miles of Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda, we sometimes to the north and east of here, that probably would not wonder whether we have learned the lessons of the be the experience. It shows the prejudice that can build holocaust. When I visited memorials in Rwanda and up about Jewish people because people do not meet spoke to people who wanted to talk about the genocide, anyone of Jewish faith. one question I was regularly asked was, “Why did the If the theme of my short speech is one thing, it is that international community stand by and let it happen?” holocaust education is not just about the most important We might ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to thing—teaching about the holocaust—but about the bring conflict and bloodshed to an end across the world lessons that the holocaust can have for everybody’s life today. in getting rid of the prejudice that is seen in all our lives. On Monday, as part of raising awareness for Holocaust To some people—we heard football used as an example— memorial day, I will join students from across Rugby at these things might be harmless fun, but they fuel prejudice a study day at the art gallery and museum, which has an and ignorance. exhibition exploring the life of Anne Frank. She hid for I am pleased to be part of this debate that takes place several years in her father’s business premises in Amsterdam in this House every year. I hope it will focus some before being found and taken to her death at Belsen. people’s minds on the holocaust and remembering the The exhibition consists of paintings by artist Anne 6 million-plus people who died somewhat tragically. If Berger, who has visited the Anne Frank house and their deaths meant anything—if there is one thing they created a number of images of her life. Using those could have hoped for—it is that they helped to eradicate images, students from schools across the town will take this form of prejudice for generations to come. part in workshop groups and explore themes of discrimination, refugees and the journeys they made. I 4.31 pm am very much looking forward to joining those students Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con): It is a great pleasure to to talk about the issues and understand their perspective follow the hon. Member for Watford (Richard Harrington). of what happened during the holocaust and elsewhere We can all join in thanking him for his work as a trustee in the world. of the Holocaust Educational Trust. I add my I am also looking forward to sharing my thoughts on congratulations to my right hon. Friend the Member what I have learned not only from my visits, but from for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) on introducing the two debates in which I have taken part in the House. the debate. It is entirely appropriate that we consider I have learned as much from the speeches of other this matter on a regular basis. When he summed up last Members as I have from seeing things. I look forward to year’s debate, which was led by my hon. Friend the celebrating the work of the Holocaust Educational Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans), he said that Trust in ensuring that the world never forgets. 541 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 542

4.36 pm deported to their death. I am astonished that the Nazis Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab): It is an absolute privilege intended to expand the final solution beyond their to participate in this debate. I wholeheartedly congratulate borders: they drew up lists of Jews in the USA, Great the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire Britain, Israel and so on. There has never before been (Alistair Burt) not only on securing the debate, but on such an event in history. his deeply moving contribution. Our political forebears in this place did something, Members on both sides of the Chamber have made but we have to admit that it was not enough. Debates at some incredibly powerful contributions reflecting on that time referred to quotas or the numbers that should the events of decades ago and pondering their relevance come here or go elsewhere in our empire. I am sure the today—and I certainly believe that they are relevant Government of the day thought they were acting for the today. We said then that never again would the world best, but it simply was not enough. Edmund Burke is stand by while a state killed its own citizens in such a attributed with saying that the only thing necessary planned and systematic way. Today, and even then, it for the triumph of evil is for good men—and, indeed, was unimaginable—completely and utterly incomprehensible women—to do nothing. We said, “Never again,” and we —that a state could inflict such suffering and despair by set up the United Nations to promote world peace, but exterminating its own people and those of other countries we have still seen enormous inhumanities unfold in simply on the basis of a perceived difference. front of our eyes. Even today, we see credible evidence of the organised murder on a horrendous scale of the Yet, as we reflect on the holocaust, how can we not people of Syria by the state. also consider, as has been said, Cambodia, Bosnia, In preparing for this speech, I was reminded of one Rwanda and Darfur, where we have seen communities by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and systematically dehumanised and killed because of a Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) in 2008. In it, he reflected on perceived difference, whether it be one of race, religion, a visit to a museum in Rwanda that commemorates the ethnicity or belief? millions who lost their lives as the world looked the Bob Stewart: Will the hon. Lady give way? other way. There is a picture of a young boy called David, a 10-year-old who was tortured to death. His Lyn Brown: Can I not? last words were, “Don’t worry—the United Nations will come for us”. But, as my right hon. Friend said, we Bob Stewart: Of course. never did. That child believed the best of us, only to discover that the pieties repeated so often, over and Lyn Brown: With the help of the Commons Library, I over, in reality meant nothing at all. The words “Never have looked at some of this place’s wartime debates again” became a slogan, rather than what they should about the holocaust. They make it absolutely clear that be—the crucible in which all our values sit and are there was a high level of awareness of the situation. In a tested. debate on refugees on 19 May 1943, a Home Office Minister My mother, like many of her generation, watched the said that since the outbreak of the war, 8 million people liberation of the camps on newsreel footage. She was so in Poland had suffered barbarous punishment or death, profoundly moved by what she saw that she ensured and many others spoke knowingly of the Nazis’ intention that I was educated about it, and she gave me a copy of to exterminate the Jewish people. Anne Frank’s diary when I was about 10 years old. I There is also a palpable sense in these pages of devoured that book—trying to imagine myself in Anne powerlessness with regard to tackling the problems, Frank’s shoes—and I gained a tiny insight into the which were known about, and saving lives. Perhaps that injustice and inhumanity to which she and her family sense of powerlessness has been echoed in this Chamber were subjected. It was a lesson that I hope I have not throughout the decades since. Indeed, I remember the forgotten. Years later, my mother and I visited Prague. debate on Syria. We went to the ghetto, and saw the walls with the names In 1939 the merchant ship St Louis set sail from of the 80,000 Jewish victims and the piteous paintings Hamburg with 937 German-Jewish refugees on board, by the children. seeking asylum from Nazi persecution. Despite setting I hope that hon. Members will allow me to say that I off with visas to allow them into Cuba, they were am neither a moral nor a political coward, but I know denied access. They set sail for the US and Canada, myself: I know how that visit, and the ones to Anne where access was also denied to them. The St Louis Frank’s house and to Dachau, affected me. I have returned to Europe, and at that point the UK agreed to therefore baulked at making the trip referred to by take 288 of the passengers. Others went to Belgium, many hon. Members today, but in the light of this France and the Netherlands, but following the German debate, I will face up to the challenge and visit Auschwitz- invasion of those territories, they were again at risk, Birkenau before the end of this Parliament with, I hope, and historians estimate that 227 of the asylum seekers the support of the Holocaust Educational Trust. on that boat subsequently perished in the holocaust. This year, we mark the centenary of the outbreak of What makes the holocaust stand out is not only the the first world war—the great war, as it was labelled at sheer number of victims, but the concrete evidence of the time—and we should use the tone of this debate, how the killing was organised and implemented on such which I commend, to fend off the revisionism that such a scale. Of great significance is the fact that every Jew occasions sometimes engender. It is widely believed that was defined not by their religion or their own definition, the treaty of Versailles created the conditions in which but by the perpetrators’ definition. Jews were singled fascism emerged into the 1930s, and from which the out and registered on a central database—its purpose horrors of the holocaust unfolded. Let us bear that in was to expedite their murder—before being publicly mind when we assess the events of 100 years ago and let marked, stripped of their citizenship, forced to hand us apply the lessons to our foreign policy when we over their possessions, dehumanised and, ultimately, encounter inhumanity in today’s world. 543 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 544

We know so much about the holocaust. We should be and the disabled. I was most alarmed by the pink triangle immensely grateful to the Holocaust Educational Trust for homosexuals, because at that age I was just coming for providing the resource that we all need. I join others to terms with what I was. in commending its work and that of Karen Pollock in The first reason to remember the holocaust is to particular. I am sure that the trust will rise to the understand that minorities are our friends, our neighbours challenge of keeping alive and accessible the stories and and our work colleagues. In the twisted minds of those lessons of the holocaust as the number of survivors who hold a prejudice, the minority could be ourselves. sadly dwindles over time. I commend the Government’s That is why we should be thankful that we live in a continuing commitment to ensuring that the holocaust society in which human rights are upheld and in which is never forgotten, including through their funding for minorities are our fellow citizens, not outsiders who are the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust under the admirable confined to legal or physical ghettos. leadership of Olivia Marks-Woldman. Both trusts play In recent years, mass knowledge of the holocaust has their part in humanising the holocaust. In my view, that come through the films with which we are all familiar, is the only way in which we can begin to comprehend but literature and celluloid are no substitutes for real-life such a vast and enduring tragedy. experience and testimony. We have all mentioned speeches In the Chamber today, we have heard how Members and visits to museums and monuments. I first went to have comprehended the horror through seeing the piles Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1992, when frankly it was not of shoes or treading the steps into death chambers. For usual to do so, during a visit to Poland while inter-railing. me, it is those paintings by the children in the Prague I will never forget it. There were very few visitors at that ghetto. We know so much, and yet we seem to learn so time, and when we followed the line to Birkenau, I little. As we pause in the week before we mark Holocaust climbed the gatehouse tower and looked at the scale of memorial day on 27 January, with its theme of journeys, the camp. To those who have not yet been there I say we should take time to reflect on our global shortcomings that that is the memory that will live with them; the and on our tendency to recognise the absolute horror of scale and the industrialisation of mass murder. I was the holocaust, and yet to allow subsequent genocides to there entirely on my own—no one else—visiting on a happen with such depressing frequency. hot summer’s day in 1992, and it gave me my own time of quiet contemplation. It is not a visit I have ever 4.46 pm wanted to repeat, but like the shadow Minister, I think TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof StateforCommunities it is perhaps something I should now do. and Local Government (Stephen Williams): I thank my I have since been to Amsterdam and the Anne Frank right hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire House, and I have also seen the pink triangle memorial (Alistair Burt) for leading us in this debate. Many of his in that city—the only known monument to gay people remarks had a profound effect on me. To summarise, he who were murdered by the Nazis. In 2012, I went to Yad said that although the holocaust is in many ways a story Vashem with the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, of hopelessness and humiliation, it also provides many and I was familiar with many of the historical displays examples of courage, stoicism and, ultimately, the triumph there. My right hon. Friend the Member for North East of the human spirit. Bedfordshire said that he was profoundly affected by I echo my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham the children’s memorial, and no one could not be. What (Lyn Brown)—she is my hon. Friend—in saying that it most affected me was the hall of names, where one has been a privilege to listen to all the speeches that looks up at a cone of photographs—hundreds, perhaps have been made in this debate. That is not always our thousands, of photographs of people who were wiped experience in this Chamber, but everyone has listened out by the Nazis, reflected in a dark pit below. I really intently to every word that has been said today. I have could not hold it together on that occasion. been moved by many of the remarks that colleagues The holocaust is a unique event and must be remembered have made. We have shared our different experiences, and understood, particularly by young people for whom the ways in which we have encountered the holocaust it is an historical event that took place long before they and how we have responded individually. Perhaps more were born. It is right for the Government to support importantly, we have resolved to act together. that, and many hon. Members have mentioned that The British mainland escaped the horrors of Nazi they work with the Holocaust Education Trust, led by occupation. Although some European Jews were able to Karen Pollock. It facilitates school visits to Auschwitz, flee here, most notably through the Kindertransport, as well as talks in schools, such as those that took place for most of us the holocaust is not a family experience. I in my constituency, to give young people a vivid account note that it is for some Members who have spoken. For and an unforgettable memory.Of course the most powerful most of us, our witness and understanding has come testimony comes from holocaust survivors, such as through history, literature and perhaps film. Auschwitz survivor Freddie Knoller, who is still speaking My first knowledge of the holocaust was as a 13-year-old in schools at the age of 92. watching the TV series “Holocaust” in the late 1970s. Last Monday I joined several other people now in the That spurred me to read the only book about the Chamber—the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside holocaust that I could find at the time, which was (Mrs Ellman) mentioned this—at the Holocaust “Scourge of the Swastika” by Lord Russell of Liverpool, Educational Trust annual Merlyn Rees memorial lecture, who was involved in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. to listen to Thomas Harding tell the fascinating story of I have never forgotten the table of categorisation in that his Uncle Hanns and the arrest of the Auschwitz book for the Nazis’ targets for imprisonment and murder. commandant, Rudolf Höss. Thomas Harding discussed We are all familiar with the yellow star and the armband, how people can turn from being loving fathers to murderous but less often mentioned are the colours and symbols monsters. We are all familiar with the phrase from that were used for Gypsies, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses that time and the excuse that was often used about 545 Holocaust Memorial Day23 JANUARY 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day 546

[Stephen Williams] First, I commend this debate to any of those who watch our proceedings, whether those in schools thinking following orders, but he said that that was perhaps better about Holocaust memorial day, or young people who described as people surrendering their capacity to think want to watch something not just on this issue but on to others. how Parliament works. The debate has been exceptional. In more recent massacres and genocides we have seen We have had personal experiences, family experiences, how easy it can still be for people in advanced societies difficult experiences of some horrors and a collective to slip from civilised values into thoughtless barbarity, knowledge of the subject that has been brought about whether in Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, or the current by those who work so hard for us outside, including the horrific scenes in Syria, where reporters are using the Holocaust Educational Trust. The debate has been a holocaust as a context in which to explain a tragedy model of its kind. I am proud to have led it, but even unfolding before our eyes. People can still all too easily prouder of the speeches we have heard this afternoon. be led into acts of cruelty and murder. Secondly, I would say, “Do fix on the hope.”“Schindler’s That is why it is right that this Government—as did List” does not conclude with the death of the little girl the previous Government—support the work of the in the red dress; it concludes with the generations, who Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, led by Olivia Marks- were saved by Oscar Schindler, and the generations still Woldman. Its annual act of remembrance on 27 January, to come. The personal experiences and journeys referred the date of the liberation of Auschwitz, will be marked to by colleagues are a reflection of hope. As the right around the country on Monday. This year’s theme is hon. Member for Stirling (Mrs McGuire) said, the journeys, and those of us who have seen at Auschwitz survivors won, not the Nazis. In all our reading on the the pile of leather suitcases will certainly appreciate the holocaust, we should fix upon the hope. resonance. Next year will be the 70th anniversary of the Thirdly, we must not believe that it cannot happen liberation of Auschwitz. The Prime Minister has set up again. Above all, we should keep in our minds that it the Holocaust Commission, chaired by Mick Davis, could happen again. It is the evil in human hearts, president of the Jewish Leadership Council. That is which is reflected the moment one begins, unjustifiably, because real-life memories are fading as people who to separate someone as the “other”, that provides the remember the holocaust or who were told stories by opportunity: so long as somebody can be “Untermensch”, their parents die. The work of the commission will be to so long as someone is not like you, so long as someone consider how we can keep that testimony live and real, is not human, they can be disposed of. As colleagues and ensure that those of the next generation comprehend have said, the world is full of examples, even today, of the history, and also learn how to shape their future. where that is true, so do not believe that it cannot Next year will also be the 20th anniversary of another happen again. horrific episode in the history of Europe: the massacre Fourthly, reflect on this: we know about the holocaust of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. I was particularly for a number of reasons, but two are primary. First, struck by the two interventions from my hon. Friend people survived. That is how we know about it: people the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), who served have their stories. Memorial day and everything we have with NATO in Bosnia. Last year, my Department supported spoken about today depends on the fact that people Ummah Help’s Remembering Srebrenica project. We survive and can tell their stories. The second, and more will continue that support in the next year. difficult thing that people have to remember, is that we History is not just a moment in time studied for know about it because it was stopped. The holocaust curiosity or even for leisure; it also gives us lessons we did not come to a natural end. People did not suddenly should learn. Not learning those lessons is a warning wake up and say, “This is wrong and we must stop about the future. I will end my remarks by quoting a doing it.”It was physically stopped. It would be wonderful survivor of Buchenwald and Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel, if we lived in a world where there was no physical need who went on to win the Nobel peace prize: to intervene and stop people doing wrong. I do not “To forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” believe that we do. That is why an international security system exists to protect people. This is something to debate: at what stage do people say, “Enough is enough” Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo): Before I and do something about it? call Alistair Burt for the closing remarks it would be remiss of me if I did not welcome the hon. Member for Fifthly, I say. “Do go.” So many of the speeches we West Ham (Lyn Brown). I believe it is the first time she have heard today have been influenced and coloured by has spoken at the Dispatch Box as a shadow Minister. I the fact that we have been to places: the Anne Frank am sure all Members look forward to future speeches, house, Yad Vashem, museums around the world and, given the power and commitment with which she delivered above all, Auschwitz. Go and get the sense of what this her speech today. was about from the physical presence in various places. It would be the greatest honour for me if I could Hon. Members: Hear, hear. make my first journey to Auschwitz with the hon. Member for West Ham. Perhaps we could support each other as we go. I would love to take that journey with 4.45 pm her. Alistair Burt: I am sure all of us echo your remarks, Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank the Madam Deputy Speaker, and I will comment on the House for giving us time for this important debate. speech by the hon. Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown) Question put and agreed to. in a moment. I am probably more proud to be winding up the debate, having heard it, than I was when I started. Resolved, I will make five brief points. That this House has considered Holocaust Memorial Day. 547 Holocaust Memorial Day 23 JANUARY 2014 548

PETITION Flooding (North Lincolnshire) Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House Rural Fair Share Campaign do now adjourn.—(Mr Evennett.) 5pm 5.2 pm Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con): I rise to Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con): I would like to present a Rural Fair Share petition on behalf of hundreds thank Mr Speaker for granting me this debate, which is of my constituents and supported also by a further of great significance to my constituents, many of whom 590 online signatures gathered through my website. The have seen their homes and businesses flooded for the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire contain second time in six years. This time, it was a result of a not only the finest people, but two very well-performing tidal surge; previously it was a result of heavy rain—but councils that are sadly underfunded. Before I read out if a person’s home is flooded, the source is of little the petition, I want to thank Hatty’s teashop in Epworth consequence. With your permission, Madam Deputy and Rob McArthur at Snaith chippy, who, while people Speaker, I shall conclude my remarks in time to give my were buying their pattie and chips, encouraged them to hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew sign the petition. Percy)a couple of minutes to highlight similar issues a The petition states: little further along the estuary. The Minister has already kindly agreed to that. The Petition of residents of Brigg and Goole constituency, The tidal surge that affected the Humber estuary on Declares that the Petitioners believe that the Local Government Finance Settlement is unfair to rural communities; notes that the the night of 5 and 6 December was greater than that of Rural Penalty sees urban areas receive 50% more support per the disastrous floods of February 1953, but thankfully head than rural areas despite higher costs in rural service delivery; the impact was much less, thanks to the extensive work and opposes the planned freezing of this inequity in the 2013–14 undertaken in the years since. Clearly, investment in settlement for six years until 2020. flood defences has been effective, but with severe weather The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons apparently becoming more common, yet more needs to urges the Government to reduce the Rural Penalty in staged steps be done—we must not be complacent. The recent surge by at least 10% by 2020. resulted in major damage to the port of Immingham. And the Petitioners remain, etc. Measured by tonnage, the Immingham-Grimsby port [P001316] complex is the largest in the UK, with about a quarter of all freight moved by rail starting or ending in Immingham. Much of this freight—coal for power stations, oil and other essential products—is of vital strategic importance. The port was left without electricity, and extensive areas were flooded. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairsfor his visit to Immingham on the afternoon of Saturday 7 December. He heard at first hand from Associated British Ports and Environment Agency staff, and the visit enabled me to brief him about other incidents of flooding in the Barrow Haven and New Holland areas. We heard from the dock master for Immingham and Grimsby, and it is clear that he made the right decision by opening the Grimsby lock gates at exactly the right time, so preventing a large area of Grimsby and the north end of Cleethorpes, where thousands of terraced houses are situated, from being overcome. I lived in one of those terraced houses at the time of the 1953 floods, but I am not old enough to have more than a hazy memory of that terrible time. However, there are many who do recall the devastation and deaths at that time. The 60th anniversary of the 1953 floods occurred this time last year, and was marked by a special conference held at the Reeds hotel in Barton-upon-Humber and attended by the then Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon). The conference was attended by representatives of all the agencies involved, and we went away thankful for what had been achieved and hopeful that we would never witness anything like that again. On the night of 5 December, the hotel was flooded and has since gone into liquidation, leaving a trail of lost jobs, lost deposits and wedding plans thrown into jeopardy. One cannot but reflect on the irony of that situation. The forced closure of the hotel is a loss for 549 Flooding (North Lincolnshire)23 JANUARY 2014 Flooding (North Lincolnshire) 550

[Martin Vickers] to achieve this goal, the tight time scales for carrying out the work should be extended and the bar on capital another reason; it was a social enterprise, owned by expenditure should be relaxed? Does he also accept that Odyssey (Tendercare), a local charity that helps and there may well be a case for increasing the percentage of supports cancer victims. A couple of miles from the costs that local councils, such as North Lincolnshire hotel is the village of Barrow Haven, which is a small council, can recover? community whose focal point is the pub, the Haven Inn, which also finds itself closed for business as a result of Martin Vickers: I thank my hon. Friend for that flooding. intervention. I am certainly aware that North Lincolnshire council will be assessing the impact of the Bellwin Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab): I scheme and suggesting possible changes to the Minister. congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this very The Minister may wish to comment on that. important debate. Does he share with me concerns North Lincolnshire council responded well in the about the availability of flood insurance to businesses, days immediately after the event, and it was difficult to particularly small businesses, which are vital to economic find a critical word about it. It is appropriate at this growth in our local area? Under the new Government point to place on record my thanks to the local community scheme, the Flood Re scheme, small businesses are and my appreciation of all who worked very long hours excluded. in atrocious conditions—the council, the Environment Agency, the fire and rescue service, the voluntary sector, Martin Vickers: I thank the hon. Lady for her those working for the utility companies and many more. intervention. I recognise those problems. I have spoken They all did everything possible to restore services and to a number of businesses that have experienced difficulties make people feel as comfortable as possible. with insurance. I agree that we need to look further at On 23 December I met John Orr, the area manager of this problem. the Environment Agency. It was a very helpful meeting, It is not just businesses that have been affected. and Mr Orr and his team are currently preparing both a Having visited the village on a number of occasions since short-term and a long-term strategy to avoid a repeat of the floods, I can vouch for many sad stories among the last month’s floods. We have agreed that if I arrange a local Barrow Haven residents. It is a miserable experience public meeting when the full details are available, in the to visit people in their water-ravaged homes, but how near future, representatives of the agency will attend the much more miserable for those whose homes have been meeting and explain their plans to local people. That is affected. very welcome. Local residents such as Mark and Sarah Kilbee described We cannot leave people with the fear that the same their particular experience as follows: thing could happen again for a moment longer than is necessary. I hope that the Minister will be able to assure “We had no knowledge of the flood, no prior warning. That alone put my husband and me, and our animals, at risk. We lost a me that he will liaise with the agency and ensure that the large amount of personal possessions we had worked for over the meeting happens as quickly as possible, because it is at last 15 years. With a warning we could have been better prepared. that point that we shall know the full extent and the After the water had arrived we managed to save our cats and dogs costs of the work that is required. I realise that he will by getting them upstairs. We sat on stools in the water all night not want to do the equivalent of signing a blank cheque with no heating or electricity. No one came to help us that night by saying that he will ensure that everything that is and we watched our possessions float away.” beyond the agency’s existing budget will be funded, but The council pumped 33,000 gallons of water away from my constituents, quite reasonably, want the Government that one property alone, and it is now costing the Kilbees to recognise that this is a priority. £100 a week to run dryers and humidifiers, which is In the immediate aftermath of the floods, there was a causing considerable hardship. widespread feeling among my constituents that they I hope that the Minister can assure me that he will had been forgotten. That was partly due to the inevitable instruct the Environment Agency to install sirens in media focus on the death of Nelson Mandela. BBC Barrow Haven and other villages along the Humber local radio, in the shape of Radio Humberside, was bank. Text and e-mail alerts are important, but can first-rate, but my constituents felt that, nationally, the often be missed until it is too late. If someone’s home or BBC seemed to forget that anything else was happening business has been flooded, what they want is an immediate in the world. Their feeling of neglect was reinforced response by the various agencies. when the floods that hit many parts of the country during the Christmas period became headline news for Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con): I congratulate my days on end. hon. Friend on securing this debate. The timing is It is also regrettable that no statement was made to particularly opportune, as seven weeks after the east the House in the immediate aftermath of the 5 December coast storm surge, we now have a full picture of the floods. I understand that the Environment Secretary extent of the damage and how well the clear-up and wanted to make a statement, but that, for whatever repair costs are going. In Lowestoft in my constituency, reason, that was not possible. I know that the Government a small geographical area was hit very hard. Although were taking action and making help available where it the community rallied superbly, it will take many people was necessary, but the lack of an official statement was and many businesses a long time to recover. A concern regrettable. Of course actions speak louder than words, that I raised for debate before Christmas was that the but the feeling of being ignored could so easily have Bellwin scheme could constrain councils such as North been avoided. I know that the Minister will want to do Lincolnshire and Waveney district council in my own all that he can to correct that impression, and to give an area in their work to get communities back on their feet absolute reassurance that all that is necessary will be as quickly as possible. Does my hon. Friend agree that done. 551 Flooding (North Lincolnshire)23 JANUARY 2014 Flooding (North Lincolnshire) 552

The Environment Agency has told me that it has Friend said, and congratulate him on securing the debate. already committed £650,000 to repairs along the south The Minister is a very competent Minister. We did not bank of the Humber, including repairs to the stretch of necessarily agree with everything in the Water Bill defences between New Holland and Goxhill Haven and Committee, but I know he is incredibly competent on between Barrow upon Humber and New Holland. Repairs this matter and I reiterate to him our invitation to our are now being carried out between Barton-upon-Humber constituencies to see the clear-up work going on. and Barrow upon Humber. Those repairs are due to be My constituency was particularly badly affected when completed by March, with further repair work continuing the tidal river Ouse overtopped the banks at Reedness through the year. Repairs are being prioritised, and a and devastated many homes there. The Dutch river as risk-based approach is being used in line with the Humber we call it, but the River Don to others, overtopped at flood risk management strategy. Old Goole. The Trent overtopped and flooded many When I met representatives of the Environment Agency, properties in Burringham, Gunness, Amcotts and Keadby, I found it extremely helpful to do so along with one of and the tidal Humber estuary overtopped and devastated the farmers who owned land in the vicinity, because his about a third of South Ferriby as well as houses in the experience was invaluable. It is often said that the communities of Winteringham and Burton-upon-Stather. Environment Agency does not make the best possible We suffered particularly badly, therefore. use of local knowledge, and last Friday, when I met Since then the council has responded very well. I local representatives of the National Farmers Union, should pay tribute to Councillor Liz Redfern, the leader, that opinion was repeated. A Humber flood forum who very quickly, having been approached by me, my exists, but there is a feeling that it meets irregularly, and hon. Friend and ward councillors, agreed to issue £300 that its collective expertise is not used to best advantage. to everybody regardless of whether they were insured, As the Minister knows, many farmers and local councillors to help with the clear-up costs. Those cheques were out serve on drainage boards. May I urge him to ensure that and delivered by the end of the following week. The their collective knowledge is put to the best possible council has also established a £1,000 interest-free loan use? Not only businesses and homes but farmers suffered for anybody who was flooded which they can pay back as a result of the floods, losing livestock and grazing over a period of five years with no interest at all. The land. Perhaps a greater involvement of the farming council has done everything it can, therefore, and the community would be helpful in future. parish councils, too, have been incredible in my constituency. Those whose homes or businesses have been flooded It was a privilege to see them in action both on that do not want to hear politicians debate which Government evening and the day after and the weekend after as I spent, are spending or will spend more than the other; went around visiting flooded properties. nor do they want to hear endless arguments about I concur with my hon. Friend about sirens. A lot of whether the cause is climate change. Whether it is or people did get warnings, but a lot of constituents either not, the fact remains that we are experiencing more missed them or did not feel they came at the right time. severe weather events, and my constituents want positive In the community of Reedness, for example, people action. Let me take this opportunity to thank the Secretary received flood warnings when the water was already up of State for meeting me and other local Members of to their ankles or deeper. The Environment Agency is Parliament, and to thank the Under-Secretary of State pursuing those issues. for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend There are two particular issues I want to raise with the Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), for the Minister, but before doing so I should say that his help and support. another issue I will be writing to him about is to do with What my constituents want to hear from the Minister the CEMEX plant at South Ferriby. I have not given in his reply is a reassurance that everything possible will him prior notice of that, but it was truly devastated be done. They want to hear that if additional resources when the Humber came over. Some £30 million-worth are required, they will be made available; that better use of damage was caused to that big local employer. Although will be made of local knowledge— there is no price tag it has said absolutely that it is committed to bringing on that one—and that better warnings will be provided that plant back into action, it will struggle, and it may by way of sirens; that if further help is needed to see require and seek some assistance. It has approached the those affected through the period when they are having council but the council simply does not have the resources, to live in temporary accommodation, it will be forthcoming; so I will be pursuing that separately. and that if help is needed to smooth the passage of The first of the major issues is where we go now with insurance claims, it will be available. the Humber flood risk management strategy, a document Actions speak louder than words. I urge the Minister I have been involved with since its inception some years to ensure that those actions happen, and that they do ago when I was a local councillor. It identifies particular not take too long. locations in my constituency, especially the bank at Reedness, which is significantly lower in part than in 5.14 pm other communities, and there is a feeling that that dip in Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con): I thank you, the bank of about 9 or 10 inches was the reason why it Madam Deputy Speaker, the Minister and my hon. was flooded and other communities were not. There is Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) the same situation at South Ferriby and the South for giving me an opportunity to speak for a couple of Ferriby to Winteringham stretch. The Humber strategy minutes about the experiences in Brigg and Goole. is a good strategy because it talks about maintaining Whatever the reasons for the flooding, I think we can all and improving defences over the next 15 to 20 years. agree it was nothing to do with the passage of the The policies adopted for those two sections are welcome, same-sex marriage Bill in this place. Whatever the reasons, but they were adopted in 2008 and we have not yet seen however, as my hon. Friend said, residents simply want a clear timetable of when the funding is going to come action now. I agree with a great deal of what my hon. forward. 553 Flooding (North Lincolnshire)23 JANUARY 2014 Flooding (North Lincolnshire) 554

Sir Tony Cunningham (Workington) (Lab): I accept There was a multi-agency response to this event, with the importance of flood defences and in some respects all relevant authorities pulling together to protect people flood resilience measures, which the hon. Gentleman is and their property. I am grateful for the excellent response talking about, but does he agree that just as important from our front-line emergency services, including the is ongoing maintenance? We have to have that ongoing police and fire services, the Environment Agency, and maintenance from the EA week in, week out. local authorities. I would like to praise the work of the flood forecasting centre, which is run jointly by the Met Andrew Percy: In my constituency and that of my Office and the Environment Agency. Over 160,000 homes hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes—and particularly and businesses received a flood warning and advice in in mine, which is very susceptible to flooding—that advance to enable them to put their flood plans into maintenance has gone on. With the exception of a action. The combination of accurate forecasting and concrete culvert at Keadby, we saw no breaches of our extensive planning and preparation allowed us to defences. They did the job they were designed to do, co-ordinate the response to ensure the focus was on and they are designed to a very high standard. They protecting communities at risk and on the key infrastructure have been damaged since, which is important, but from that supports them. a maintenance point of view the banks did the job they The flooding on 5 December 2013 caused overtopping were designed to do. With rising sea levels, the issue is of defences around the Humber estuary and the tidal that they might not be sufficient and we want to see this Trent, flooding land and properties behind. However, investment brought forward. the defences performed well and no breaches occurred, My final point is on internal drainage board assets. I limiting the extent of the flooding. Initial reports from met representatives of the drainage board at Reedness the local recovery co-ordinating group indicate that two weeks ago. The board suffered significant damage 347 properties and 47 businesses were flooded in North to its assets when the embankment was breached there, Lincolnshire. However, the full impacts are still being and it is not clear yet how it will fund the recovery assessed. Particularly affected communities included works. I would like a bit more clarity on that and have South Ferriby, Burringham, Keadby, Gunness, Reedness tabled a parliamentary question on the matter. I look and Barrow Haven. Hon. Members will correct my forward to hearing from the Minister. pronunciation if I have got it wrong. As a Cornishman, I find some of these things a little difficult, but I am sure they will forgive me if I have mispronounced. 5.20 pm A number of roads, including the A1077, and the TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof StateforEnvironment, railway line to Barton-upon-Humber were also affected Food and Rural Affairs (Dan Rogerson): I congratulate and closed for a period of time. Flooding events have the hon. Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) on economic and other impacts that cause annoyance for securing this important debate and on the way in which, those who may not have been immediately flooded, and as the local Member of Parliament, he has been there we have to consider those impacts as well. My thoughts for his constituents and raised issues here and with local go out to all those who were affected, especially given agencies and helped in any way he could. I thank hon. the timing of the event just before Christmas. Members across the House for all that they have done My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State met the to support their local communities and for passing to hon. Member for Cleethorpes at Immingham docks on me and my colleagues and officials any information that 7 December to see first hand how local communities needed to be passed back. and businesses along the south Humber bank were The coastal surge that struck the eastern coast of affected by the flooding. At Immingham port, the England on the night of 5 to 6 December was a significant Environment Agency, the local authority and Associated flood event in terms of scale and was highly significant British Ports are working to assess the damage and to those who bore the brunt of it and the economic, work out a reinstatement programme. societal and emotional cost of flooding. My thoughts The Environment Agency issued flood warnings along and those of hon. Members across the House are with the entire stretch of the south Humber bank and the those people who experienced that, and with people tidal Trent on the morning of 5 December. Three severe across the country who experienced other events in the flood warnings were issued to nearly 4,000 properties in weeks that followed, which we also heard about from parts of Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Humberston. A my hon. Friend. further seven severe flood warnings were issued to The coastal surge is estimated to have caused flooding over 4,000 properties along the tidal Trent. Although of around 2,600 properties, although this figure is subject parts of the south Humber bank experienced significant to change as the recovery effort progresses. Our thoughts flooding from the overtopping of defences, no severe are with all those who have been affected by high winds flood warnings were issued in those areas. That was and whose homes and businesses were damaged during because the Environment Agency issues a severe flood the powerful storms. However, through investment by warning only if there is a danger to life. The forecast Government and improvements to the way we manage received on 5 December did not warrant a severe flood this type of flooding, we were able to protect up to warning as only overtopping of the defences was predicted. 800,000 properties countrywide that would otherwise Had a breach been forecast, which would have posed a have been flooded. It was reassuring to hear that, in danger to life, severe flood warnings would have been many cases the defences functioned as they should have issued. done and the agencies were there for people, although The Minister with responsibility for flood recovery, of course where things could have been better I reassure the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and hon. Members that they will be better in the future. I Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for thank them for raising issues with me. Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), chaired a meeting of 555 Flooding (North Lincolnshire)23 JANUARY 2014 Flooding (North Lincolnshire) 556 key Ministers on Tuesday 7 January this year to ensure Minister for Government Policy, to look at issues related that a co-ordinated approach was being taken to assist to this incident of coastal flooding and the other incidents communities recovering from recent flood events. The that we have had in the past couple of months. Bellwin scheme has been opened to enable local authorities I understand that the hon. Member for Cleethorpes to submit claims for costs incurred in the emergency has had a number of meetings and progress updates response phase to protect lives and properties. So far, 41 with the local Environment Agency area manager, as he local authorities—including North Lincolnshire—have has mentioned, to discuss the flooding and a way forward registered their intention to submit a claim under the in more detail. If the hon. Gentleman or his constituents Bellwin scheme. A number of local Members have identify any further needs, I will ensure that the Environment asked questions in this place and elsewhere about the Agency takes them into account, as part of its Humber operation of that scheme, about what triggers it and flood risk management strategy update. He particularly about what it does and does not cover. My hon. Friend referred to warning sirens, and I will take the opportunity the Minister is taking those questions into account, and to raise that issue with the agency, so that it can be the Local Government Association is also raising some taken into account as those discussions proceed. of those issues with the Government. We will of course want to work with people on that. The Environment Agency continues to assess the damage to flood defences across the country, and we Last Friday, 17 January, an additional funding package look at the resources that will be necessary to fund that of £6.7 million was made available for local authorities work, but it is crucial that, as we have invested money in affected by recent flooding and severe weather. This these assets over decades, we ensure that they are new money builds on financial assistance already made functioning. I was pleased to hear from hon. Members available to councils under the Bellwin scheme, and will that those defences were in a good state of repair and top up support to cover the costs of clearing up after performed the task for which they were designed. severe weather and flooding. Further details of how local authorities can apply to the £6.7 million severe The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North weather recovery fund will be issued by the Department (Diana Johnson) referred to insurance for businesses. I for Communities and Local Government shortly. understand the concern, but the Flood Re scheme is Additionally, my hon. Friend the Minister is inviting focused on residential property. Indeed, it is funded by a leaders of local authorities affected by the severe weather levy on the residential insurance market, so we must be to meetings over the coming weeks to discuss the challenges careful about saying that we would use that mechanism and the support that I have outlined. to support small businesses, as the money comes from residential customers. Many specialist brokers out there As well as providing updates to communities and are working to help to find solutions for the commercial local farmers, Environment Agency staff have been market. Obviously, I would be happy to do anything to attending parish council meetings and holding drop-in help in discussions with the insurance industry, but the events to keep communities updated on local defence Flood Re scheme is focused on residential properties. repairs. An immediate programme of repair work has been developed for the south Humber bank. Before With the little bit of time available, I will focus on Christmas, repairs were carried out by the Environment some of the specific issues raised by the hon. Member Agency where they were most needed. The rate of for Cleethorpes. On making better use of local knowledge, repair has accelerated as resources, materials and, as I have said, the Environment Agency is out there, importantly, access have become available in the subsequent meeting parish councils and local groups. It also has weeks. The repairs are being prioritised using a risk-based regular contact with internal drainage boards. If any approach, in line with the Humber flood risk management issue is raised there that people do not feel is taken into strategy. Repairs to the stretch of defences between account, we will, of course, make use of that in future. New Holland and Goxhill Haven, and between Barrow My impression, having visited some of the areas that upon Humber and New Holland, are progressing well. I have been flooded around the country in various events am pleased to hear from the Environment Agency that in recent weeks, is that people feel that the information it is continuing to receive support from local landowners, provided by the Environment Agency was very good which is allowing it to carry out those works more and the warnings were timely and that the understanding quickly. of those catchments and coastal areas is very good, but The agency is updating its Humber flood risk of course we take that point away. management strategy, which deals with the long-term On funding, I have said that we want to ensure that justification, funding and solutions for the management we have the money to make sure that the defences are of flood risk to communities along the Humber. The brought up to— agency will ensure that all data and learning from the recent flooding is collected, evaluated and used in the development of the updated strategy. It is important to 5.31 pm say that, in government, a lessons-learned exercise is House adjourned without Question put (Standing Order being carried out, led by my right hon. Friend the No. 9(7)).

143WH 23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 144WH

We risk the accusation of double standards if we allow Westminster Hall UK commercial interests to proceed without restraint in developing and exporting equipment that has the Thursday 23 January 2014 capacity to inhibit free speech on the internet. Two years ago, Amnesty International highlighted credible allegations that businesses were supplying technology to countries [MR CHRISTOPHER CHOPE in the Chair] that were stifling free speech, including Egypt, Libya, China and Iran. We welcome the Government’s response, which Human Rights confirms that they are working towards an internationally [Relevant documents: Fourth Report of the Foreign Affairs agreed and implemented list of controlled equipment Committee, The FCO’s Human Rights Work in 2012, and guidance for officials in carrying out due diligence HC 267, and the Government Response, Cm 8762.] when developing Government-led commercial and security Motion made, and Question proposed, That the sitting relationships overseas. Working with the Department be now adjourned.—(Mark Simmonds.) for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Foreign Office should be ready to intervene by controlling exports if 1.30 pm there is obvious potential for abuse by end users. Sir Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con): It is a In that spirit of greater accountability, we welcome pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Chope. Last the Foreign Office’s decision to define more clearly the October, the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs published criteria for countries of concern. Its authoritative analysis its annual critique of the human rights work of the of conditions in those countries is to be congratulated, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Foreign Office but the Committee questions why the extent of our responded in December, and I am pleased that we have engagement in a particular country, or the impact of the opportunity to debate the report. the human rights situation there on our interests, should be regarded as factors in evaluating human rights standards. In today’s unpredictable world, striking the right balance between protecting our national interests and Our report considers more closely three countries on holding true to our values, on domestic shores as well as the list: Sri Lanka, Burma and Russia. Sri Lanka courted abroad, is a tough call, but what is certain is that we live particular controversy as the venue for the 2013 in an age of unparalleled transparency and instant Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, which global dissemination of news and analysis. To win an the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary attended, argument credibly in this fast-paced environment, as well as His Royal Highness Prince Charles. The consistency is key. The Foreign Secretary’s speech to the Committee felt that the previous Government displayed Royal United Services Institute on human rights and a striking lack of consistency in 2009 by objecting to counter-terrorism last year sums up that dichotomy. He the proposal that Sri Lanka might host the 2011 meetings talked of sharing intelligence with countries that do not on human rights grounds but not to the proposal that it always share our values, to keep our citizens safe, but might host the 2013 meetings. That appears timid. added that Britain must build a series of The Foreign Office should have taken a more principled “justice and human rights partnerships” stance in 2009 and, to be fair to my Opposition colleagues, with such countries. That is a better alternative than a more robust stand after 2011. However, in the boycotting regimes that are on a very different page circumstances, I believe that the Prime Minister was where human rights and law enforcement are concerned. right to attend, but only on the condition that he press the authorities relentlessly on human rights and seek We must not underestimate Ministers’ accountability assurances that people who spoke out on human rights to Parliament and the wider public. That is particularly were not harassed by security forces. Will the Minister true in the case of deportation with assurances, when confirm that assurances were indeed given and observed? we collaborate with countries that have little regard for human rights. Human rights organisations have raised concerns that assurances from countries where torture Rory Stewart (Penrith and The Border) (Con): Having is widespread are inherently unreliable. David Mepham spoken about Sri Lanka, will my right hon. Friend take of Human Rights Watch, which published an excellent this opportunity to reflect a little on the situation in report this week providing summaries of principal human Burma? rights concerns in more than 90 countries worldwide, described the system as “lacking in credibility”. Sir Richard Ottaway: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I will come to Burma shortly. We think that the provisions for monitoring the welfare of those returned under deportation with assurances, or More disappointing was the Government’s answer to DWA, arrangements could be strengthened. Some of the question whether they still hold the view that there the bodies supposed to be carrying out that monitoring is no substantiated evidence of Sri Lankans returned do not instil universal confidence, such as the Ethiopian home from the UK being tortured or maltreated. Simply Human Rights Commission. The UK Court of Appeal stating that the Foreign Office is not aware of any new found that it could not be trusted to report deliberate evidence since the original answer was submitted ducks breaches by the Ethiopian Government, yet the Foreign the issue. Will the Minister clarify what is meant by “the Office says in its response that it is satisfied that the original answer”? Can he give us an assurance about commission is fit for purpose. With regard to other cases that occurred before that time? countries, our agreement with Algeria makes no provision I turn to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for formal post-return monitoring; British embassy staff for Penrith and The Border (Rory Stewart). Burma, like do it. We want to be sure that embassy staff have the Sri Lanka, attracted widespread media coverage following training that they need, and I am pleased that the the historic visit of Aung San Suu Kyi in summer 2012. Government have given that reassurance in their response. We believe that the EU’s decision to lift economic 145WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 146WH

[Sir Richard Ottaway] help victims. We are pleased that the Government say they will encourage other countries to contribute personnel sanctions the following year was the right one, given the and funding as demand increases. remarkable progress made in that country. However, However, legislation in Afghanistan outlawing violence that comes with a caveat. against women is not a big step forward if it is not The UK should not hesitate to advocate the reimposition implemented. As a Committee, we are not as optimistic of sanctions if undertakings on human rights are not as the Foreign Office that progress will be made once followed through. Serious reservations remain about international security assistance force troops have the continued incarceration of political prisoners and withdrawn. We believe that a reversal is possible. The the failure to bring those responsible for intercommunal emphasis should now be on ensuring that the gains violence to justice. Will the Minister update us on the made are not reversed. release of political prisoners and accountability for the Safeguarding democracy and human rights is a thread shocking crimes in Rakhine state? that runs through every aspect of this country’s external On Russia, with less than a month to go before the relations, whether political, humanitarian, commercial, 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, the Committee, which or security-based. The Foreign Office is doing an excellent did not support a boycott, hopes that the UK will use job in trying circumstances, whether it is communicating the occasion as a platform for voicing concerns about its values through the media, standing up for women’s human rights abuses. The recent release of high-profile rights internationally or ensuring that UK companies prisoners in Russia, including Pussy Riot, the Greenpeace incorporate human rights into their deals. activists and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, suggests that Russia However, with every step that the Foreign Office is receptive—cynically, perhaps—to cases that damage makes in the right direction, increasingly sophisticated its reputation internationally. Khodorkovsky said himself threats are pushing the other way. Just like viruses that that his release could not symbolise that there were no become resistant to antibiotics, terrorists are constantly political prisoners left in Russia, as much of the finding ways to undermine safeguards that we put in Government’s crackdown on human rights continues place to keep our people from harm. As the challenges unabated. I welcome the decision this morning to release grow tougher, the Foreign Office would do well to Platon Lebedev, but the financial claim of 17.5 million remember the sentiment expressed by our Foreign Secretary roubles against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev effectively in his RUSI address: through the good times and the blocks their return to Russia. bad times, we must never lose sight of our values. It is clear to us, from Russia’s example in particular, that public opinion matters, and public opinion is informed 1.43 pm largely by the media through broadcasts and the internet. As we on the Committee have pointed out several times, Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab): I congratulate the the BBC World Service makes a huge contribution to right hon. Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard the projection of the UK’s values and strengths around Ottaway) on his speech and on his work as Chair of our the globe, which is why the evidence presented to us Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. I agree with him about levels of disruption of media freedom not seen on some things and, as he will not be surprised to hear, since the cold war is extremely worrying. disagree on others. Of the 47 countries examined by Freedom House in I chair the all-party parliamentary human rights group, its survey on internet freedom, 20 had experienced a which closely monitors and works with the Foreign and negative trajectory since January 2011. Bahrain, Pakistan Commonwealth Office on a number of related issues. I and Ethiopia showed the greatest declines, but the welcome the many programmes and policies that the countries making the most comprehensive efforts to FCO continues to undertake around the world to protect frustrate the BBC World Service’s overseas broadcasts and promote human rights, including fundamental political were Iran and China. We believe that it would be and civil rights, good governance, the rule of law and astonishing if the services were to be diminished because accountability for violations, as well as the protection of of a lack of resources to protect broadcasts from women’s rights, which the right hon. Gentleman mentioned, interference. The BBC says that it will review the plans and minority rights. once the licence fee funding begins. The first thing I would like to say is that despite the Providers of satellite services also have an interest: if FCO’s having previously agreed with the Foreign Affairs they cannot provide a service to the broadcaster they Committee that evaluation is important, the 2012 FCO risk losing out financially. In our opinion, satellite human rights report does not appear to reflect a more providers, and not only those directly affected by jamming, analytical approach. Overall, I feel that human rights should invest in the necessary technology. Given that reports are too focused on detailing activities being national interests are at stake, the Government should undertaken or funded by the FCO in the field of human be encouraging them to do so. rights and reciting current priorities, without going that I would like to end on a high note. The championing step further. I would particularly like to see more evaluation of women’s rights across the globe is a major success of what has worked in terms of policies and programmes, story for the British Government. We join others in and of how and why they have worked. commending the Foreign Secretary for driving the For instance, the FCO details its capacity-building prevention of sexual violence in conflict initiative and programme in countries and with Government institutions for committing millions to fund human rights projects whose human rights records are wanting—for example, last year. We strongly welcome the team of UK experts in relation to police training in Afghanistan; police ready to be deployed in conflict areas. We support their training in Baghdad to develop a more effective police work in helping to build national capacity in investigating response to incidents involving violence against women; allegations of sexual violence and gathering evidence to the multi-year UK-led programme to strengthen capacity 147WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 148WH to tackle terrorism through the criminal justice system I turn to the criteria for designating countries of in Pakistan; and the police and prison reform project in concern, which perhaps in part will answer the question Uzbekistan. It would be useful to know what precise asked by the hon. Member for Penrith and The Border impact those projects have had in those countries. (Rory Stewart). I am pleased that the FCO has provided I would also like the FCO to do more to explain what the criteria it uses to make its designations in the 2012 policies and measures it is adopting to prevent potential human rights report. I remain baffled, however, that future crises, particularly in countries where there are Bahrain, given the continuing serious violations that long-standing human rights violations that are not being were committed during the period that the report covers, addressed. Many are particularly concerned about the was not added as a country of concern. I reiterate the situation in Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, central recommendation of the Foreign Affairs Committee: Asia and Eritrea becoming much worse. I think the “If there is no significant progress by the start of 2014, the FCO should, in the first instance, look at whether Government should designate Bahrain as a ‘country of concern’”. lessons can be learned from the fall-out from the Arab Let us hope that the meeting held last week between spring and explore whether transition and consolidation Bahrain’s Crown Prince and the main opposition leaders activities and strategies are sufficiently incorporated in signals the willingness of the Bahraini Government and country business plans. Are there any lessons to be the opposition to engage in meaningful negotiations, learned from the Arab spring about how the UK deals leading to meaningful political reform, greater political with authoritarian regimes more generally? openness, fairer representation and the end of I would also like there to be further analysis of how discrimination. If it does not, I suggest that it is time to competing foreign policy interests are prioritised and get much tougher with Bahrain. when they can and cannot be reconciled. The FCO The Foreign Affairs Committee Chair mentioned seems to believe that human rights, geopolitical and deportation with assurances, which is a very important strategic considerations, energy security and trade point, because the FCO seems satisfied with existing promotion can all be pursued simultaneously, maintaining arrangements and has rejected suggestions made by our that Committee to strengthen the monitoring process for “We cannot achieve long-term security and prosperity unless people returned under those arrangements, including to we uphold our values”, Ethiopia and Algeria. I urge the FCO to look at the when that quite clearly is not always the case. matter again, and remind it that a DWA agreement was That is even reflected in the FCO human rights also concluded with Libya during the time of Colonel report. Although the chapter on Saudi Arabia was Gaddafi and was seen at the time as perfectly fine. I beefed up in comparison with the previous year’s report, doubt, for instance, that, as the Chair said, a domestic it still contains numerous qualifications to tone criticism human rights institution in Ethiopia that is widely down, such as references to “cultural sensitivities”, which known to be ineffective can be trusted to monitor the are mentioned nowhere else in the report. It is also well-being of those returned to Ethiopia under the incomprehensible to me why no mention is made of the agreement. complete lack of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Saudi; such a lack is mentioned in the chapter Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab): Does my on Iran. If the FCO wants to take a more conciliatory right hon. Friend agree that we should be much more approach in the report in relation to some countries, it careful about deporting people to countries that are not should explain why. signatories to the convention on torture, as a way of protecting them against that and protecting our own Rory Stewart: I am interested in the observation that legal position? it is very difficult to square the circle and simultaneously do security, human rights and economic development. Ann Clwyd: Yes, I absolutely agree with that observation. Nevertheless, there is clearly an issue there. Does the Indeed, I think that these arrangements are of political right hon. Lady have her own way of expressing that? significance and warrant some form of parliamentary Perhaps she has a better formulation that she would control. The non-statutory nature of the memorandums prefer the Foreign Office to have to square that circle. Is of understanding involved does not prevent parliamentary there some other way of describing foreign policy, other scrutiny. I would also welcome the FCO’s reporting than in those terms? back to Parliament annually on how effective the monitoring arrangements have been and whether any allegations of Ann Clwyd: Mr Chope, will you explain whether, abuse have been reported to it. when somebody makes an intervention, that is taken off Like many of my colleagues, I look forward to receiving the speaking time? I see that the clock kept running. the findings of the independent investigation being undertaken by David Anderson QC into this policy, Mr Christopher Chope (in the Chair): There is no time although I wonder why it has taken so long to get that limit, other than the self-restraint that I know hon. investigation off the ground. Members will exercise, recognising that a lot of people The Foreign Affairs Committee Chair also mentioned want to participate in the debate. Although there is no women’s rights. I join him in commending the Foreign requirement that the debate must finish after one and a Secretary for taking a lead with the preventing sexual half hours, I hope that it will, so that we have an equal violence in conflict initiative, but I would like to know amount of time for the second debate. I hope that that whether and how the FCO will involve more UK helps the right hon. Lady. parliamentarians, particularly in the light of the conference to be held in London in June this year. Women’s Ann Clwyd: Thank you, Mr Chope. organisations are also questioning how the preventing 149WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 150WH

[Ann Clwyd] to the little red book, although I do not always manage to carry it around with me, is the Vienna declaration on sexual violence initiative and the conference can galvanise human rights, which was made on 25 June 1993 and support for grass-roots women’s organisations in countries subsequently endorsed by the UN General Assembly in of concern. UN resolution 48/121. Further to the women’s rights agenda, I think that we For me, the most critical article in the declaration is all need to focus on how to help to support women, article 5, which states the key principle of the universality including women MPs and civil society more generally, of human rights overriding religious, cultural and ethnic in Afghanistan during and after the NATO withdrawal. traditions. The article reads: Sadly, I do not believe that it is “mission accomplished”. “All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent The real gains made for women in the past decade are and interrelated. The international community must treat human fragile, and women are likely to become increasingly rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, exposed in coming years. I have seen what has happened and with the same emphasis. While the significance of national in Iraq. I criticise the lack of ongoing support for and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and women in Iraq who are exercising their mandates as religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, Members of Parliament with considerable difficulties. I to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” would like to know what precisely we are continuing to do in Iraq before we start making promises about what In the decades since the end of world war two, we we will continue to do in Afghanistan. have made significant advances around the world in establishing the principle of the universality of human I would like to conclude with two points. The first is rights, but it seems to me that we are now in danger of my concern about growing restrictions in many countries standing still or perhaps even going backwards. When around the world on non-violent civil society activity, one looks around the world and sees the degree of including, as Amnesty highlighted recently, the proliferation conflict still taking place between religions and within of “national security” and “public order” legislation religions, and on an ethnic and tribal basis, when one aimed at restricting the space in which civil society sees parts of the world—for example, parts of Pakistan operates. I would like to know whether the FCO has or and Afghanistan—where women’s and girl’s rights are is planning to put in place a strategy to counter those now going backwards, and when there are so many negative developments and to provide even more support countries in the world in which women’s and girl’s rights to beleaguered civil societies in a number of countries. barely exist, if they exist at all, one wonders whether the Without a thriving and diverse civil society, democracy principle of universality is being reversed. The first is very unlikely to take root. question I would like to ask the Minister is whether the Similarly, I would like to reiterate concerns expressed British Government, and in particular the Foreign Secretary, by Human Rights Watch about Governments who adopt who has lead responsibility, will create a new initiative a feigned democracy, championing elections but rejecting with as many countries as possible to stand up for the basic principles: that laws apply to those in power and key principle that the universality of human rights that Governments should respect free speech and uphold should override all other considerations. the rights of unpopular minorities in their countries. I turn to what I consider to be one of the most Secondly, I must take issue with what the FCO report important aspects of human rights policy: the British says about promoting “our” values, because what we Government’s policy on giving export licence approval are doing is promoting universal values. In this connection, to military goods, and dual-use civil and military goods, I must stress how unhelpful the negative domestic discourse that can be used for internal repression and the suppression about human rights and universal values is. The UK of human rights. Until the week before last, the does not exist in a bubble; what we do and say on Government’s policy appeared to be soundly based. human rights is seen not only by those in the UK, but The Foreign Secretary told the Committees on Arms by the rest of the world. Export Controls on 7 February 2012: How can we take Russia to task, for example, for not “We will not issue licences where we judge there is a clear risk respecting international human rights when we seem that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or only too willing to disparage “universal values” and the internal conflicts, or which might be used to facilitate internal rules-based international system when they do not suit repression.” us? The “Do as we say, not as we do” approach is There were therefore two controls. The first—a very unlikely to be very persuasive with others and is very limited control—was to establish a clear risk, which is likely to harm us all in the longer term. Without greater endlessly debatable. The second—a much wider, more respect for human rights worldwide, we are likely to substantive and more embracing control—was to determine have to deal with more instability, more humanitarian whether a given export might be used to facilitate crises, more radicalism and a less secure environment repression. That approach faithfully followed the key for UK business. policy of the previous Government, which was set out in a written answer on 26 October 2000 by the then Minister of State at the Foreign Office, the right hon. 1.56 pm Member for Neath (Mr Hain). Sir John Stanley (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con): I Much to the surprise of the Committees on Arms am pleased to follow the right hon. Member for Cynon Export Controls, however, the Foreign Secretary’s oral Valley (Ann Clwyd) who, as we know, has made such a evidence of 8 January substantially reinterpreted the signal contribution to the advancement of human rights. policy statement that he gave in February 2012. He told As we know, Mao Tse-tung, who was one of history’s the Committees that the limited clear-risk policy applied worst human rights abusers, enjoined his followers to to all aspects of the policy. In effect, therefore, he was carry around his little red book. My personal alternative saying that the much more substantial and all-embracing 151WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 152WH control of whether an export might be used to facilitate Bahrain on reaching a peaceful outcome and finding a internal repression would be governed by clear risk—and settlement that is fair and reasonable to all parties. I would, I believe, be rendered more or less null and void. urge the British Government to play a full role in The question for the House, from a human rights achieving that. standpoint, is how satisfactory or otherwise it is for the I turn briefly to children’s rights. I have no pecuniary Government to rely solely on a clear-risk control for interest to declare, but I am an unpaid adviser to the exports that could be used for internal repression. International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. I want to put that to the test in an area that has been The Foreign Affairs Committee’s report recommended the subject of much concern, namely the export of “that the Foreign Secretary appoint a child rights expert to his dual-use chemicals to Syria. Such exports have taken Advisory Group on Human Rights”. place since 2004 under the previous Government and In their response, the Government effectively rejected the present Government, but I want to focus on the that recommendation on the grounds that most contentious of all: the export of sodium fluoride “many—if not all—of the group’s members are familiar”, and potassium fluoride to Syria in January 2012, which was well after the outbreak of the civil war. When we supposedly, raised our concerns about that with the Business Secretary “with child rights issues.” in December, he replied, much to our surprise: I consider that to be a disappointingly superficial and “in this case I think we are talking about bog-standard chemicals, facile reply to the Committee’s recommendation. The which the officials had absolutely no reason whatever to believe disturbing but inescapable reality is that, in this electronic had any connection with chemical weapons or were likely to be age, criminals facilitating child abuse are adopting ever used in that capacity.” more sophisticated means of making money through That comment was made against the following background: corrupting and abusing children, and they are doing so first, those chemicals are well known from open sources ahead of the steps that the prosecution services and law to be precursor chemicals for the manufacture of sarin; enforcement agencies can take against them. secondly, Syria was and is known to be a major holder The Prime Minister has rightly seen fit to appoint a of chemical weapons; thirdly, Syria was a known non- special adviser on child protection issues—my hon. signatory of the chemical weapons convention; and, Friend the Member for Devizes (Claire Perry). She has fourthly, at the time at which those export licences were done outstanding work on the issue and continues to do approved, a major and most brutal civil war was taking so. I hope that the Minister will convey to the Foreign place in Syria. I would add a fifth point: the Prime Secretary that he would be well advised to follow in the Minister subsequently revealed in his statement last Prime Minister’s footsteps. August, following the appalling sarin attack on 21 August, I am delighted that the present Government are that there had been 14 previous uses of sarin in Syria, continuing the practice started by the previous Government dating back to 2012. The Business Secretary says even —most commendably by the late Robin Cook, when he now that those were simply bog-standard chemicals was Foreign Secretary—of producing an annual report that it was perfectly reasonable to export to Syria. I on human rights. It is essential work. I appreciate the have to say that if that is how the clear-risk policy fact that it involves a lot of work for officials, for which operates, it is hardly worth the paper it is written on. I I thank them, but such a report is key to maintaining am sure that the Committees on Arms Export Controls the credibility of the British Government on human will return to that issue, which has profound human rights issues, both in this country and worldwide. Human rights dimensions. rights are the universal entitlement of every man, woman I want to refer to Bahrain, which the right hon. and child on this planet. Member for Cynon Valley mentioned. The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, my right hon. Friend the Several hon. Members rose— Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard Ottaway), and I had a meeting with the Bahraini Opposition earlier Mr Christopher Chope (in the Chair): Order. Before I this week. I believe that Bahrain is at a tipping point. It call Mike Gapes, may I say that we shall start the could go downhill into the serious internal civil strife Front-Bench speeches at around 2.40 pm? that we have seen in too many other parts of the middle east, focusing on Sunni and Shi’a. Equally—I still believe 2.11 pm that this is a real possibility—it could become a standard Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op): I agree with bearer in the middle east for the peaceful resolution of the comments made by the right hon. Member for such issues and the establishment of an inclusive, fully Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley) and my right engaged political process in which all major sectarian hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd). groups can participate. The universal values of the 1948 universal declaration The climate for bringing about the second outcome, of human rights are under attack and are being eroded. which we all wish to see achieved, will take place in a That is partly due to some issues and conflicts that have headwind, because over the past year or more in the already been touched upon, but, unfortunately, it is also middle east, we have seen an ever-increasing degeneration due to the shift of economic and political power and into strife between Sunni and Shi’a. Sunnis have become influence in the world, which is moving away from the more and more fearful and paranoid about sharing transatlantic agenda of those who wrote the declaration power with Shi’as, and Shi’as have become ever more towards other regions of the world with different political fearful and paranoid about sharing power with Sunnis. histories and traditions. We will have a big fight in this I suggest that the only counter to that will be for the century to maintain those universalist human rights friends of Bahrain, which certainly include Britain, to values. It is important, however, that we recognise that give fresh impetus and new support to all parties in there are countries in south and east Asia that are 153WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 154WH

[Mike Gapes] uses the phrase “abusive majoritarianism.” That is a very interesting concept. The report says, quite rightly, democratic and pluralistic and hold to those values. that the Muslim Brotherhood Morsi Government behaved Such countries include the Republic of Korea and in a sectarian, undemocratic manner towards women Taiwan, which I recently visited, where people believe in and civil society groups in Egypt. However, the military democracy, pluralism and human rights. It is important then used the pretext of the mass protests against that that we recognise the fact that we have friends in that regime in order to stage a coup. The British Government part of the world and work with them. do not use the term “coup”—at least, I am not sure that I want to make three points. Mention has already they do; the American Administration certainly does been made of Sri Lanka. Members will know that for a not—but we must be absolutely clear that that is what long time I have taken an interest in what happened at happened. The regime that is now in charge has killed the end of the civil war there. The Chair of the Select many more people than were killed in the worst periods Committee, the right hon. Member for Croydon South under the Mubarak regime. There is terrible violence, (Sir Richard Ottaway), has already referred to some of but there is also terrorism against police officers and the issues, so I will not repeat his comments, but it is others in Egypt, coming from the Islamist extremists. clear that the Commonwealth did not confront the Egypt, a large country with lots of neighbours, is potentially situation in Sri Lanka in a good way. The question now in a very dangerous position. is whether or not, by March, the Government of Sri Lanka In 2012, I went to Egypt with the Foreign Affairs will come forward with credible proposals, as called for Committee. I was fortunate to be able to go from Egypt by the Prime Minister. If not, the British Government to Tunisia. Tunisia has had its difficulties, but it has have said that they will refer the matter to the United shown how the transition and internal issues can be dealt Nations Human Rights Council. The council has not with in a peaceful, pluralistic way. There are lessons always had a good record, although the Human Rights there and there are alternatives. Watch report that I saw yesterday refers to an improvement, which I think reflects recent changes to its membership. Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP) rose— However, several authoritarian friends of the Rajapaksa family sit on the council, so I am not necessarily convinced that that route will get the solution we want. Mike Gapes: I am afraid that I will not give way because of the time. I want to conclude my remarks in Will the Minister could address the issue of Sri Lanka order to be fair to others who wish to speak. in his reply and let us know what is going to happen if its Government do not come forward with a credible, Finally, I want to say that the Government and all independent inquiry into the events of 2009? Many parties in the House can be proud that we human rights countries around the world have been calling for such issues internationally. However, I find it disconcerting an inquiry, not just the Tamil diaspora. Another mass when there are regimes in Russia and elsewhere, and grave was discovered in a place called Mannar in December. certain countries in Africa, which are able to quote back I understand that so far 31 skulls have been discovered, at us part of our domestic debate as a way to justify placed on top of each other. Another mass grave was their own bad behaviour. My right hon. Friend the discovered in the centre of Sri Lanka a year ago. It is Member for Cynon Valley touched on that issue, and it quite clear that there are questions to be answered is right that she did so. Some of our politicians need to about the firing in the so-called no fire zone and the be a little more internationalist in the way they approach deaths of 40,000 people there in early 2009, just five some of our debates about refugees, economic migrants years ago. and people from different communities living together in harmony, because sometimes words may be taken My friend, the right hon. Member for Tonbridge and out of context and used by authoritarian people around Malling, touched on the other issue that will confront the world to justify their own behaviour. us perhaps for decades: the turmoil in the Muslim world. I do not mean just the Arab world, but the wider Muslim world. Iran is, of course, an important contributor 2.20 pm to the debate in terms not just of its influence in Bahrain, but its role in supporting Hezbollah, which Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab): fights on behalf of Assad in Syria. So far in Syria, It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member 125,000 people have died. Millions are internally displaced, for Ilford South (Mike Gapes), the former Chair of the and millions more are refugees. We know what the Foreign Affairs Committee. However, he knows everything situation is and we all bear responsibility.The international there is to know about foreign affairs, so I hesitate to community has failed the democratic, peaceful activists, follow him. women and men, who were calling for change just three I begin by strongly supporting the Committee’s years ago. We have failed them. Non-intervention also recommendation that the extent of the UK’s engagement has consequences; it does not mean that Syria is nothing in a particular country, or the impact of the human to do with us. All we can do is say, “We did not help you rights situation in that country on wider UK interests, at your time of need when you were calling for help in should no longer be included in the criteria used to 2011.” As a result of that non-intervention, the situation identify countries to be placed on the list of countries of is now much, much worse. concern. I can see no case for a country’s inclusion being We used to talk about the Arab spring; we are not dependent on whether the UK can—as Baroness Warsi, talking about it anymore. We have probably entered a the Senior Minister of State, said in her evidence to the period of turmoil and unrest that will have inconceivable Committee—“make a difference”. Apart from anything consequences. Let us look at Egypt. Human Rights else, many of the countries already on the list have seen Watch has produced an interesting report in which it little or no improvement despite being categorised as a 155WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 156WH country of concern and therefore presumably having authorities to Sri Lanka had been maltreated. It is very been pressed further by the UK to improve human important that we hear from the Minister whether the rights. Government still stand by that opinion. It is not repeated No one pretends that it is easy to effect change in in the FCO’s 2012 report and we did not get a straight brutal regimes that are strangers to the concept of basic answer from Baroness Warsi, who appeared before the human rights, but bringing UK interests into the equation, Committee, when she was asked about it. Can we have a in the way that that is being done, devalues our own straight answer from the Minister who is here today commitment as a country to the need to uphold universal when he responds to the debate? human rights. For example, Bahrain has already been I turn now to the prevention of sexual violence mentioned by several colleagues and I have had strong against women in conflict. The Committee rightly welcomed representations from constituents who believe that it the initiative by the Foreign Secretary on this issue. should be rated as a country of concern because of Having worked on the issue of violence against women human rights abuses. However, they also believe that for more than 30 years—in fact, I still chair my local that is not being done because of the UK’s interests in Women’s Aid group—I can honestly say that that initiative selling military equipment to Bahrain. I would be interested is one of the most positive steps that we have seen to hear from the Minister how that can be classified as internationally for years. an objective evaluation, as the Foreign and Commonwealth Although we all know that violence against women Office says is the case in the criteria for countries of persists in this country and that much more still needs concern. There seems to be inconsistency; some countries to be done to prevent it, the prevalence of violence that are left off the list are just as bad as some of the towards women in conflict situations throughout the countries that are on it. globe—the nature and extent of the problem—has come Of course, one tactic for making a difference and increasingly to the fore, after being swept under the influencing countries of concern is to refuse to allow them carpet for years. Rape as a weapon of war is one of the international status by holding major events. I personally most heinous abuses of human rights of our time, and it regret that the Prime Minister chose to attend the is right that concentration is given to tackling the impunity Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in to it that all too often exists. However, in doing so, it Colombo. In the Foreign Affairs Committee’s report on must be remembered that protection of victims and the Commonwealth, which was published in November prevention of violence must also be taken into account. 2012, the Committee took the view that the Prime The declaration of commitment to end sexual violence Minister: in conflict, which has been signed by 137 countries to “should publicly state his unwillingness to attend CHOGM unless date, is a fantastic achievement. I agree with the response he receives convincing and independently verified evidence of to our report by the FCO, which emphasises that in substantial and sustainable improvements in human and political addition to encouraging other countries to contribute rights in Sri Lanka”. personnel to the teams of experts providing support, we No such evidence was forthcoming. In fact, Human should also build national capacities. As well as being Rights Watch and Amnesty International took the view practical, we know that the only way that there will be that the opposite was the case. Nevertheless, the Prime an end to violence against women is by changing attitudes Minister decided to go to CHOGM and stated that he to women and promoting equality. would “shine a light” on the situation in Sri Lanka. To be fair, he did so. As my hon. Friend the Member for As one of the co-chairs of the all-party group on Ilford South has said, the Prime Minister also called for Afghanistan, I am particularly concerned that we do an international inquiry into allegations of war crimes not abandon the women of Afghanistan when international if no credible domestic investigations are carried out by security assistance force troops are withdrawn from the March 2014. country. The campaign in Afghanistan has been a long one, but I think that most people would agree that one The human rights situation in Sri Lanka will come before of the successes of the last decade in the country has the UN Human Rights Council next at its 25th session, been the advancement of women’s rights. The women which is to be held from 3 to 28 March 2014. The UN and girls of Afghanistan are now protected by law from Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights rape within marriage; they can seek justice and support will present a comprehensive report on the implementation if they are sexually abused; and millions of girls now of Human Rights Council resolution 22/1 on Sri Lanka have access to education. However, these transformative of March 2013. changes are variable, fragile and at risk, as other colleagues Will the Government follow up on the Prime Minister’s have said. Also, as we say in our report, the act of commitment by working with others to obtain agreement passing legislation outlawing violence against women is for the establishment of an international investigation not a “big step forward” if that legislation is not into allegations of crimes under international law by all implemented. sides in Sri Lanka? Also, what action will the Government The recent suggestion that public stoning for adultery take to keep up the pressure on the Sri Lankan Government should be reintroduced in Afghanistan may well be a about ongoing human rights abuses? sign of things to come. Although I recognise that President As the right hon. Member for Croydon South Karzai has publicly stated that public stoning will not (Sir Richard Ottaway), the Chairman of the Committee, be reintroduced, it beggars belief that we have come full has said, of particular concern to the Committee are circle and are still discussing the very practices that instances where allegations have been made of the existed under the Taliban’s brutality. President Karzai torture of Sri Lankan Tamils who had been returned will come under ever more pressure to abandon the from the UK as failed asylum seekers. The Government women of Afghanistan. As western forces leave, he will previously maintained that they had no substantiated need the support of conservative hard-liners to strengthen evidence that people returned by the UK immigration his increasingly vulnerable Government, and he may be 157WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 158WH

[Sandra Osborne] well. I should be grateful if the Minister confirmed that, in any discussions about the future structure of the tempted to offer abandonment of women’s rights as a Human Rights Council, which Britain is now a member concession to the Taliban as part of a deal to end the of, the Government will continue to press for one of the war. basic principles of the United Nations organisation and I welcome the advocacy work that the UK Government agencies, which is the opportunity for civil society to be have done with the Afghan authorities to ensure that able to speak at the Human Rights Council, and at women’s rights were included in the Tokyo mutual other agencies. However, I am more concerned about accountability framework—the accountability agreement the Human Rights Council, because it provides an between the Government of Afghanistan and the expatriate non-governmental organisation, for example, international community—and the financial support or an NGO in a country with a fairly repressive regime, for civil society organisations that has been delivered the one opportunity to embarrass their Government through the Department for International Development. and raise issues of torture and human rights abuse. It is especially welcome that there has been success in That is a precious right. I hope that the Government are incorporating benchmarks on tackling violence against prepared to support that. women in Afghanistan. However, the agreed benchmarks I should also like the Minister to respond, if he could, have yet to be reached. The Government of Afghanistan on the question about Britain’s attitude to the European agreed to release a province-by-province report of convention on human rights. I support the convention investigated cases of violence against women and girls and guess that every hon. Member in this Chamber by 3 July 2013, but that report has not yet materialised. does. I support the European Court of Human Rights, I hope that our Government will continue to press the in the sense that it exists and is an important process authorities in Afghanistan, in the strongest possible and helps set a benchmark. Many hon. Members have terms, to meet their commitments, particularly on women’s expressed concern, particularly my hon. Friend the rights. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), my party’s With that, I will conclude, so that other Members can Front-Bench spokesperson, about the treatment of Pussy speak. Riot in Russia and the abuse of human rights there. The European Court of Human Rights process has been 2.29 pm quite an important tool for human rights defenders in Russia and in other countries, including Ukraine, Hungary, Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab): I will take Turkey and many other places, allowing them to raise five minutes, Mr Chope, to allow my colleagues to such issues. If they think that the British Government’s speak; I think that fits the arithmetic. sole policy is to continually denigrate and attack the I will put on record the fact that I have raised with the European Court of Human Rights, and withdraw from Leader of the House the issue about the conduct of this the convention and that human rights process, that has debate, its timing and the opportunity for it, and I will two effects. First, it reduces our moral authority to say continue to do so. It is wholly inadequate that we have anything about anything and, secondly, it is a signal to 90 minutes to discuss the human rights of the whole many other countries that they, too, could follow the world, on the back of a serious report by the Foreign same path if life became embarrassing for them. The Office, the Select Committee’s response to that report point of a convention, and of a transnational court, is and the Government’s response to the Committee’s that it has authority and has an effect on national report. It is incumbent on all of us to put pressure on policies. the relevant channels to ensure that we get a much There are many countries that I want to mention, but longer debate on the Floor of the House or a three-hour there is not time to do so. I just want to draw attention debate here—something much better than this. to the report’s contents concerning Iran, the points I want to deal with a couple of thematic issues. I about Bahrain made by my right hon. Friend the Member attend the United Nations Human Rights Council as for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd), and the interesting often as I can. I find it interesting. It is a great improvement section on Saudi Arabia, to which attention has been on the Commission on Human Rights, in that there is a drawn by hon. Members. I ask the Foreign Office and more transparent election process for membership of the Committee to persist with Saudi Arabia, particularly the council, and the universal periodic review process on migrant workers, and with regard to the lack of means that every country is put under a microscope at rights for migrant workers all over the Gulf region. The some point. That has to be a good thing. We are now abuse of their human rights and their civil and political coming to the end of the period for the first reviews in rights is a time bomb ticking away. the UPR process. This is beginning to be the problem area. Where a UPR has come up with significant human 2.34 pm rights concerns about a particular country—there are many of them—and a report comes back that is inadequate Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab): I congratulate the Foreign or has responded insufficiently to the Human Rights Affairs Committee on its report and I appreciate much Council, the question is, how assertive is the Council of the Government’s response. There are rarely quick prepared to be in future? There are no simple answers to fixes with regard to human rights. Much of the work is this and it is a matter of involving people in debate and painstaking and involves like-minded countries trying negotiation. to help bring international pressure to bear, to tackle I should be interested to hear the Minister’s views on human rights abuses. I wish to raise a few points in the the direction of travel in this regard, because the Human short time that I have. Rights Council provides an opportunity to embarrass I fear that President Putin may be attempting to the human rights abusers and an opportunity for non- trivialise the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender governmental organisations to make their views known, as rights in Russia. I ask that all means are used—all 159WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 160WH channels of Government communication—to bring as Given my limited time, I will focus on the countries much international pressure as possible to bear on Russia, singled out by the Committee. First, the UK was right to stop the repression and recognise full LGBT rights. to object in 2009 to Sri Lanka’s hosting CHOGM in Once the Sochi Olympic games are over, there is a 2011. As Baroness Warsi noted in her evidence, we also danger that the issue will slip from view. raised concerns then about the prospect of 2013. That The UK is not in the Schengen area, so it is technically was regarded as something that ought to be kept under correct that it does not have influence on countries review, if there was no improvement in the human within that area. However, these are partner EU countries rights situation. with which we have frequent interaction, so I find the It is disappointing that a more robust position was Government’s answer in the report a little weak. We not taken in 2011. It is well known that the Opposition have clear expectations of other countries that want to disagreed with the Government’s decision to send the form closer relationships with the EU and there could highest possible delegation to CHOGM and we still do be much broader collaboration with EU colleagues, not understand why the Government felt it necessary to specifically on putting pressure on Russia in this matter. confirm who would attend six months before the event. Perhaps the Minister will mention that. That removed a powerful lever that they could have On Burma, I support the comments of the right hon. used on Sri Lanka in the intervening period, to get it to Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard Ottaway), the try to improve its human rights situation. Committee Chair. Although we were all delighted at the The FCO states that the Government release of Aung San Suu Kyi and with her visit to “used the run-up to the Summit to urge Sri Lanka to make Parliament, that is certainly not the whole story. Renewed progress on human rights concerns”, efforts are needed to tackle the Government in Burma about implementing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation on the continued repression, recent arrests of political Commission and to allow unrestricted media and NGO activists, and issues relating to Rakhine state. access. Of course, the latter did not materialise, as the On sexual violence, I concur with the comments likes Channel 4 news attest to. made by my hon. Friend the Member for Ayr, Carrick It is interesting that the list of subjects raised before and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne). I support the UK’s the summit does not include an independent and credible initiatives in challenging the use of sexual violence in investigation into alleged violations of international conflict and in the difficult task of trying to change law. The Prime Minister’s call at CHOGM for an attitudes, to try to stop the collusion in and cover-up of investigation was too little, too late. Reports from Sri Lanka such crimes and to bring the perpetrators to justice. indicate that the President is no more inclined to meet The Government response makes exhortations about the request for an inquiry than he was before CHOGM. approaching other countries to provide expert teams for I urge the Foreign Office to start talks with its the painstaking and challenging work involved in tackling international counterparts now. Doing nothing until the use of sexual violence in conflict, and it mentions the the March deadline will leave it too late to agree terms statement made by the Foreign Secretary on 28 November, of reference for or the composition of an international saying likewise. What progress is being made on involving inquiry at the Human Rights Council in March, thereby other countries and providing teams for this work? leaving the Sri Lankan people waiting still longer for Although the initiative has been taken, in some ways, by justice and reconciliation. As the Foreign Office’s update this country, the area is so huge that we need as much this month disappointingly confirms, there has been no help as we can possibly get. improvement in human rights since CHOGM and little 2.37 pm commitment to addressing sexual violence. Sri Lanka has still not signed up to the preventing sexual violence Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab): I, too, congratulate initiative, although the Foreign Secretary has said that the Committee and the Foreign Office on their reports. I he is still hopeful that it will. echo the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member Given the concern about ongoing violations, I would for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn): this is my third appreciate an update on the safety of the human rights time responding to this debate and every year we make defenders whom the Prime Minister and the Foreign the same point, which is that we really cannot do justice Secretary met during their visits. I echo the point about to the depth and scope of the report in 90 minutes. I the deportation of Sri Lankan nationals. In light of the hope that whatever mechanisms are available are put in severity of the torture allegations, it is disturbing that place to ensure that there is a full debate on the Floor of that issue was taken out of the FCO’s latest human the House, perhaps when the next report is published rights report and that Baroness Warsi later this year. “declined to give a direct answer” I will not, because of the short time available, dwell on points made powerfully by hon. Friends and other to the Committee. I hope the Minister agrees that the hon. Members: the valid point about why Bahrain is Foreign Office cannot be silent on such allegations and listed as a country of concern; the praise for the preventing that he will commit to working with the Home Office sexual violence initiative; concerns about women in and organisations such as Freedom from Torture and to Afghanistan; concerns about the arms export regime; upholding article 3 of the UN convention against torture. and points made about restrictions on freedom of I welcome the Committee’s reminder that, although expression, which is a growing trend, with increased use Burma has come a long way, there is still a long way to of the internet and surveillance in that regard. Another go. It is important that the lifting of EU sanctions valid point was the support for the principle of the should be used as leverage to press for more concerted universality of human rights, which we see echoed time action on human rights. The opportunity that provides and again in our debates on this issue and which is for economic development and greater inward investment important for us to defend. in Burma could in turn promote further democratic 161WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 162WH

[Kerry McCarthy] the FCO will give particular consideration to Human Rights Watch’s recommendation for a more collaborative reforms. We welcome the EU’s continued involvement and united approach from the EU. Russia’s membership and the confirmation of an EU-Burma human rights of the Council of Europe provides another forum for dialogue. the UK to raise our objections, especially given that We also welcome the decision of the President of Conservative and United Russia MPs are members of Burma to release political prisoners but, as the Committee’s the same group, as does Russia’s return to membership report highlights, there are worrying restrictions on the of the Human Rights Council. definition of “political prisoner”and troubling conditions The broader issue of LGBT rights was not explicitly were imposed on the release of prisoners in the past. We addressed in the FAC report. I have mentioned Russia, urge the Government to renew their efforts to secure the but we have to look further afield and particularly unconditional release of all those unjustly detained and to the Commonwealth, three quarters of which still to press for the necessary legal and judicial reforms to criminalises homosexuality. Concerns remain about the end arbitrary or politically motivated detention. situations in Uganda and Cameroon, for example, and The ongoing tensions in Rakhine state, the discrimination about the recent repressive legislation passed by Nigeria. suffered by the Rohingya and the conflict in Kachin We must be unequivocal that such criminalisation breaches state must remain on the international agenda, as is the core values set out in the Commonwealth charter. recognised in the latest country of concern update. The I join the Committee in welcoming the long-awaited Rakhine investigation commission was not sufficient, publication of the Government’s business and human the irregularities in the Burma’s 1982 citizenship law are rights strategy. It remains a concern, however, that unresolved and the prejudice against the Rohingya Ministers, when considering opportunities to promote community remains. British companies and investment abroad, are willing to Finally, it is important that the UK should continue overlook human rights. The Chancellor and the Mayor to press Burma on the role and powers of the military, of London certainly gave the impression that they were particularly in light of the British Army’s involvement reluctant to raise China’s human rights record when with the Burmese army. Constitutional reforms are also they visited last year. The Treasury declined to answer paramount to removing the obstacles to free, fair and my question on whether the Chancellor had discussed inclusive elections next year, including the barrier to human rights in China and the action plan on business Aung San Suu Kyi’s standing for President. and human rights with the Foreign Office before or Next, the Committee was right to focus on Russia. after he went. Indeed, the answer to that question was The “foreign agents” law was among the most disturbing delegated to a junior Treasury Minister who did not indications of Russia’s attempts to stifle civil society even go on the trip. I tabled named day questions to the and dissent and to shield the Government from scrutiny, Prime Minister in advance of his visit to China, but the along with other restrictions on the freedoms of assembly answer I received several weeks later was, frankly, worthless. and expression, including a new blasphemy law and It did not tell me anything. increased internet regulation, as my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) said. It is disappointing We value a strong bilateral relationship with China, that Baroness Warsi did not fully engage with the but that cannot be confined just to trade and financial Committee’s discussions on using the Schengen negotiations matters. We need political engagement across the spectrum, as leverage and that her letter to the Chair told the and it is disappointing that some Ministers seem to view Committee “remarkably little”. I hope Ministers are discussions on human rights as a box-ticking exercise so considering all tools at their disposal. that they can give parliamentary answers to shadow Ministers saying “nothing was off limits”without revealing On LGBT rights, there is little surprise that Russia any more information. was ranked the worst of 48 countries in ILGA-Europe’s index of legal and human rights for gay people. Conversely, I press the Minister to ensure that implementing the the UK was ranked first, of which we should be proud— business and human rights action plan is a priority for that also gives us a special status in pressing for gay his colleagues, who need to be fully briefed, for instance, rights on the international front. on the reason for the FCO’s designation of a particular state as a country of concern. I am not talking about The spotlight provided by the winter Olympics no just Foreign Office Ministers and Treasury Ministers doubt contributed to President Putin’s amnesty and the but Ministers across the piste. release of the Arctic 30, Nadya and Masha from Pussy Riot and Mikhail Khodorkovsky among others. It is important Companies doing business abroad should be fully that that pressure and trend should be maintained after briefed, too. I understand that 130 representatives went the spotlight of Sochi has dimmed. As Mr Khodorkovsky to China with the Prime Minister; it would have been a highlighted on his release, many more political prisoners good idea to sit down with them before the trip to remain in detention. We must also consider Human discuss the business and human rights action plan so Rights Watch’s warning that Sochi means that Russian that they had some understanding of the context. authorities have intensified the harassment and intimidation The Committee warns: of campaigners; other Governments and the International Olympic Committee should take note. Given that Russia “The FCO should not simply allow UK commercial interests is due to host the 2018 football World cup, FIFA should to proceed without restraint”. also be taking a close interest. Indeed, following concerns raised in last year’s debate, Human rights dialogue with Russia provides a welcome the Committees on Arms Export Controls reported on opportunity to focus on the UK’s serious concerns but, the overlap between arms export licences and countries as the Committee and Baroness Warsi noted, such of concern, as was flagged up by the right hon. Member dialogue does not necessarily achieve a great deal. I hope for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley). I hope 163WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 164WH the Minister will update us on how the FCO is working and the Government support work to encourage satellite on that with the Department for Business, Innovation providers to adopt technology that counters uplink and Skills and UK Trade & Investment. jamming. Finally, I welcome the UK’s return to the Human The right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) Rights Council, which provides another avenue for the was absolutely right to refer to the importance of more Government to pursue the concerns we have discussed analysis and evaluation. The content of the report that this afternoon. I hope that next year’s debate will allow is made public is inevitably only the tip of the iceberg of us to focus on more successful examples of how the UK the thorough and detailed analysis and assessment. It is has exercised influence in the international sphere. underpinned by an FCO-wide analysis, which the Government have further strengthened through the network of expert human rights advisory groups on thematic 2.48 pm issues, which are chaired by the Foreign Secretary and The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Baroness Warsi. and Commonwealth Affairs (Mark Simmonds): Iam The right hon. Lady was also right to highlight the delighted to be serving under your chairmanship, Mr Chope. importance of the evaluation of programmes and focusing The debate has been stimulating, well informed and on outcomes. We carry out extensive, in-country evaluations productive. We have heard significant contributions, on all projects that we fund through the human rights none more so than that of my right hon. Friend the and democracy programme to ensure that lessons are Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard Ottaway), the learned and applied in future programmes. We are Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who in a about to launch the 2014 bidding round and have made detailed and articulate speech highlighted several of the several improvements to the process in the light of the key aspects of the FCO and FAC reports on the important evaluation of previous years. I emphasise the importance subject of human rights. He was also right to put those that all Ministers in the FCO attach to civil society, in the context of some of the Foreign Secretary’s remarks. which was an important point of hers. I assure her that The Foreign Office has listened carefully to the Committee’s as my ministerial colleagues and I travel around the constructive suggestions. globe we insist on meeting civil society organisations I will try to reply to the many issues about which hon. and representatives of civil society not only to provide Members spoke, if they will bear with me. I apologise if them with moral and sometimes financial support, but I do not deal with everything that was raised, but I shall so that we can lobby host Governments in an informed ensure that hon. Members’ important points are followed manner. up in writing so that all who participated in the debate The right hon. Lady and others were quite right receive specific responses. to state the importance of the preventing sexual violence My right hon. Friend and others raised the important initiative. We are keen to engage with all hon. Members, matter of deportation with assurances arrangements. I not just those on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and put on record that DWA is entirely consistent with our we desire expert and enthusiastic engagement. I urge human rights obligations under international law and the right hon. Lady to request official information our policy of working to prevent torture overseas. The about the summit in June, which will hopefully be a Government will not deport someone if there are watershed moment that lifts the stigma from victims substantive grounds for believing that they face a real and pins it on the perpetrators, ending the atmosphere risk of torture or other cruel, degrading treatment in of impunity that has lasted for far too long. I assure her their host country. DWA enables the UK to reduce the that the summit will be open to all who are interested, threat from terrorism while meeting domestic and passionate and enthusiastic about this agenda. international human rights obligations. My right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and My right hon. Friend and others were right to mention Malling (Sir John Stanley) was right in his outline of Burma and the plight of the Rohingya. The Government the universality of human rights. I assure him that that are highly vocal in expressing concern about that plight. will be our guiding light as we take up our seat on the When President Thein Sein visited the United Kingdom United Nations Human Rights Council this year and in July last year, the situation in Rakhine state was at the common factor—the golden thread—in all the initiatives the heart of discussions between him and the Government. that we take there. He has a particular knowledge of and In December 2013, our ambassador in Burma visited interest in export licensing architecture and arrangements. Rakhine state and discussed human rights with authorities. In response to his point, the United Kingdom has one We have been clear with the Burmese Government that of the most stringent arms export control systems in the people must be held accountable when serious crimes world. The export licence applications for everything, have been committed. We continue to lobby the Burmese including in the Syria chemicals case that he raised, Government that the United Nations High Commissioner were properly assessed against the consolidated criteria, for Human Rights be allowed to open an office in the taking into account all relevant information. There was country. My right hon. Friend the Member for East no evidence of a link to a chemical weapons programme Devon (Mr Swire), who is the Minister of State at the and we have seen no subsequent information to suggest FCO with responsibility for Burma, is engaged with that the goods were diverted to such a programme. human rights issues in that country. My right hon. Friend also referred to the important My right hon. Friend the Member for Croydon South issue of Bahrain. We continue to have concerns about also highlighted the interruption of broadcasting. The human rights, but improvements made since 2011 should UK Government strongly support an open internet be noted, especially progress in judicial and security that is accountable to all, providing not only access sector reform. I acknowledge and accept, however, that to information, but mechanisms for individuals to more needs to be done. We regularly raise our concerns communicate. We strongly condemn deliberate interference, both publicly and in private with the Bahraini Government. 165WH Human Rights23 JANUARY 2014 Human Rights 166WH

[Mark Simmonds] Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and call for an international investigation. We will play an My right hon. Friend also mentioned children’s rights. active role in building international support for that It is correct that the advisory group’s membership should approach ahead of the March meeting. The hon. Member remain limited for practical reasons that he will understand. for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) is right, however, that we That should not, however, be interpreted as underlying face an uphill struggle to secure the passage of an evidence that the protection and promotion of children’s appropriately robust resolution at the UN Human Rights rights do not form an integral part of the FCO’s wider Council, but I assure him that the FCO network is human rights agenda, because they do. The FCO provides already hard at work with the resolution’s main sponsor, financial support to programmes in this area and works the United States, to mobilise opinion and the necessary to ensure that international commitments on child rights are majority, and that our campaign at the Human Rights fully implemented. Our embassies and high commissioners Council will be led at ministerial level. have a responsibility to monitor and raise human rights There are many other aspects that I could cover in issues including, importantly, children’s rights. Only response to the speeches of right hon. and hon. Members, this week, I held a meeting with representatives of the but I want to pick up a point made by the hon. Member NGO community with a particular interest and expertise for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne). I in children’s rights, including on preventing sexual violence want to assure those hon. Members who still harbour against children and children serving in armed forces— worries that the criteria for selecting countries of concern whether state or non-state—to find out what more the have become subjective. They have not; they remain Government, NGOs and wider civil society can do to objective. We continue to prioritise our efforts on the try to make even faster progress in conjunction with basis of our influence, not our interest, and that will multilateral institutions such as the UN. remain the case. I want quickly to address the points made by my right The hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) hon. Friend the Member for Croydon South and others made some good points but, if I may, I will respond to about Sri Lanka. When launching the human rights him in writing, given the time pressure that we are report in Westminster earlier this week, the Asia director under. Some of what he said about the universal periodic of Human Rights Watch said that the Prime Minister review of rights is absolutely on the right lines. I will was right to go to the Commonwealth Heads of also respond to the hon. Members who made points Government meeting in Sri Lanka and commended the about Russia and elsewhere. Government’s determination to secure a tough resolution at the March UN Human Rights Council meeting in 2.59 pm Geneva, which included a mechanism for an international Sir Richard Ottaway: I am obliged to you, Mr Chope, inquiry. I want to ensure that the House understands for presiding over such an orderly debate. I am grateful that if a credible domestic process has not properly to my colleagues, and we look forward to getting the begun by March 2014, we will use our position on the Minister’s written responses to the points he has not UN Human Rights Council to work with the United covered. 167WH 23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 168WH

Violence Against Women and Girls on access to justice for women and girls suffering violence in Afghanistan. We welcome these initiatives by the Government. [ANNETTE BROOKE in the Chair] May I address some of the issues arising from our [Relevant documents: Second Report of the International recommendations? First, we acknowledge the “Theory Development Committee, Violence Against Women and of Change” initiative underlying the Government and Girls, HC 107, and the Government Response, HC 624.] Department approach. May we have more specifics on how theory becomes practice? What in particular is being done in those countries where violence is especially 3pm prevalent, such as the Democratic Republic of the Sir Malcolm Bruce (Gordon) (LD): I am pleased to Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia— have the opportunity to debate my Committee’s report which is not to say that there are not other countries on violence against women and girls. I am delighted, where it is a serious problem? Will violence against with the change of Chair, to be under your chairmanship, women and girls be prioritised specifically in the Mrs Brooke. programmes in those countries? I welcome my colleague, the Minister, to her place. I We had a specific concern with water and sanitation, appreciate her role as a champion for women and her which I accept that the Government acknowledged campaigning enthusiasm for that. I know she shares immediately, because there was no particular focus on with me and the Committee the recognition that the violence against women and girls. Everyone knows that status and role of women is absolutely central to this is a prime example of where women and girls are development policy. especially vulnerable, either when they are going to Violence is of widespread concern. When we published collect water or are using sanitary facilities—they become our report in June, I said: vulnerable to attack. We welcome the Government agreeing “Violence against women expresses a deep-seated contempt that they should update the guidance. Will the Minister that, regrettably, persists in some countries towards women and report on the progress made? They gave us 12 months’ girls. It has been the ‘forgotten Millennium Development Goal’. notice, so we are halfway through that period. The way in which any nation treats its women holds the key to its Last week at the Liaison Committee, I also raised the social and economic advancement. When you treat women as subject of female genital mutilation with the Prime chattels - when you mutilate them, abuse them, force them to marry early, lock them out of school or stop them entering the Minister. The International Development Committee workforce – you fail to function as a society.” was concerned that it was also an issue within the It is that fundamental. I will not rehearse the statistics, United Kingdom. It is not as prevalent here as it is in but in many quarters they are shocking. some countries, thank God, but many women living in this country have nevertheless suffered from it, and an When we published the report, we made a number of estimated 20,000 girls are at risk. recommendations, and I ask for an update on the Government’s progress on them. We know where the We are aware, first, that female genital mutilation Government have agreed with us. happens in this country, and yet there have been no prosecutions. Sometimes, too, girls are shipped out to have it done abroad and then brought back. Thirdly, the 3.2 pm Select Committee was told, women who are British Sitting suspended for a Division in the House. citizens and brought up here may go back to the country of their family’s origin where they are at risk, and yet 3.13 pm the extent of our ability to protect them as British citizens is limited. On resuming— We are interested in finding out from the Minister Sir Malcolm Bruce: The interruption came at a natural how the DFID fund will deal with such issues and, in break in my speech, because I was about to summarise particular, whether there is any update on the possibility some of the things the Committee welcomes that have of prosecutions. There have been investigations, but no happened since our report. I will then ask a few questions case has been brought to trial. As the Prime Minister to clarify the progress being made, with a final couple of said, getting people to testify and give evidence is the remarks about the situation in Afghanistan. problem, but our view is that prosecutions would underline and demonstrate the strength of feeling. Commendably, the Foreign Secretary has maintained the cross-departmental prevention of sexual violence in DFID is a big player in the development sector and conflict initiative, which has been widely welcomed and in engaging with multilateral agencies. The Committee supported. The declaration of commitment to end sexual hopes that when the Government engage with such violence in conflict has been signed by 113 countries. agencies they will ensure that the issue of violence The UK hosted a high-level event on violence against against women and girls is prioritised in their programmes. women and girls in humanitarian crises in November We are interested to know what steps the Government and plans a summit on ending sexual violence in conflict have taken to ensure that that is so. We are aware that in June this year. the Secretary of State champions the issue in the World The Department for International Development Bank, but the Government engage with other multilateral specifically has made progress with its £35 million fund agencies where how the issue is being taken forward is to end female genital mutilation within a generation, to not so apparent. which the Minister is extremely committed, and she will The high-level panel co-chaired by the Prime Minister want to speak about when she replies to the debate. made a welcome specific reference to target goals on DFID has also launched a new £3 million programme gender equality, with one section on targeting violence 169WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 170WH

[Sir Malcolm Bruce] women’s status after the military departure—we will stay there for development purposes—will be the test of against women and girls and another on child marriage, whether our intervention made a transformation. The about which the Select Committee was particularly statistics are extremely worrying. A UN report shows concerned. The recommendation is now going through that although there has been a 28% increase in violence a working party. Will the Minister tell us what the against women in Afghanistan there has been only a Government are doing to ensure that the recommendation 2% increase in prosecutions. Laws have been changed to comes out at the other end and is not lost or diluted in disadvantage women. For example, family members are any way? not allowed to give evidence, which makes prosecution Some people have said, for example, that we cannot extremely difficult. President Karzai proposed to support have a target of zero violence, but once we start to the reintroduction of the stoning of women for adultery. quantify things the feeling is that we are in effect diluting That is a shocking indictment of a country that we tried the commitment to achieve measurable transformational to support, and for which our men and women died. change in the sector. I guess that the challenge to our The values we are concerned about are not cultural; Government is whether they will continue to insist on a they are absolute. We are entitled to speak out without target of eliminating violence against women internationally compromise and say, “I don’t care what your religion or as a key priority, to ensure that the post-2015 development social norms are; if violence by one sex against another agenda specifically and explicitly highlights that as essential goes unchallenged, that will demean and diminish your to delivering progress. society. It is just wrong and should not be tolerated.” When we visited Ethiopia to support the programme We are glad that the Minister champions the issue, we visited a project on child marriage supported by the and that the Secretary of State is leading a global Department, which the Minister has also visited. I do campaign. There is a huge amount to be done, but I not often do commercials, but I think there is still hope that the Minister can give us some up-to-date something about it on our website. An interesting thing sense of how the Government are taking things forward. was that although the funding came from DFID and the leader of the project was UK-based everyone else Several hon. Members rose— on the programme was Ethiopian. They worked with the community, but they did not arrive with a pre- Annette Brooke (in the Chair): Order. I shall call the determined objective. They sat down with members of winding-up speeches at 4.20 pm. Six hon. Members the community to discuss how child marriage affects want to speak, so I shall leave them to do the arithmetic, communities, and led them to realise how damaging it for now. is. The participants went from thinking that it was in the girls’ best interest to understanding that it is not. We 3.24 pm heard some powerful testimony from a young girl who Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab): had been divorced at 13; another who said she had been It is a pleasure to follow the Chairman of the Select married—and she meant married—at seven; a mother Committee on International Development, the right who had married off her elder daughter and then hon. Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce). There realised she was wrong, and became determined not to were many interesting facts from his experience and do that to her younger daughter; and a young priest visits that I had not heard before, and I thank him. I who championed the case against child marriage. He congratulate the Select Committee on the report, and pointed out that it increased the poverty of the village. the Government on their efforts to tackle the problem. That was powerful evidence of what can be done. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has described A slight concern arose with respect to the campaign violence against women and girls as one of the most on female genital mutilation. I know that the Minister pervasive human rights violations in the world. It is has visited the project in Senegal, and has praised it. It both endemic and epidemic. It limits self-esteem, life was believed to be effective, but we were concerned that chances, economic opportunity and development. Gender- it might become the blueprint for what would happen in based violence reinforces women’s inequality. As to the every country. I hope the Minister will agree—I am rate and frequency of violence against women, there is fairly certain that she will—that the work must be done no one particular country or cultural tradition that it is according to each country’s social norms, so that people confined to. This country suffers from it too. In Colombia can come to their own conclusion that female genital for example, a woman is killed by a current or former mutilation is not the thing to do. It is after all not in just partner every six days. In Somalia, 98% of women have low-income countries that it happens. The biggest country undergone female genital mutilation. In Amhara, Ethiopia, where it is practised is Egypt, where about 90% of the 50% of girls are married by the time they are 15 years women have been subjected to it. Indeed, they accept it. old. There is a huge amount of work to do. Another sad Today I want to highlight two tragedies connected statistic was from Ethiopia, where 70% of women thought to the plight of women. The first is forced and child that it was perfectly all right to be beaten by their marriage, which is practiced in too many parts of the world, husbands—that they had a right to do it. There are including the UK. Those affected may become vulnerable huge cultural challenges involved in turning things around. to sexual abuse and exploitation, early pregnancy, with I had a strong engagement with President Karzai on the a high risk of maternal mortality and morbidity, and issue during a previous visit, and he came out second the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and best. HIV.Teen pregnancy is the No. 1 cause of mortality for As to Afghanistan, we recommended in a separate girls between the ages of 15 and 19 and nearly 10% of report that DFID should sharpen up its commitment to all adolescent girls in low and middle-income countries its programmes specifically on women. We said that are mothers before they are 16. 171WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 172WH

Taking action against early and forced marriage will child in dangerous circumstances. After being raped she ensure that more young women and girls can continue was kicked out of her home and left alone to struggle their education, act with agency and make independent with her pregnancy in the midst of war. This month she decisions about their futures. I commend the work that gave birth in a local hospital, which was facing a shortage DFID is doing and the references to the subject in the of drugs to treat any complications she might develop. Select Committee report, but the all-party group on As the Sky News correspondent who witnessed the population, development and reproductive health, of delivery reported: which I am a member, has also produced a report. “A “It was a brutal birth to a baby boy she never wanted, into a Childhood Lost”, about child marriages in the UK and dangerously chaotic and unstable country.” abroad, was published a year ago. The report says that Her story is one of the countless and uncounted stories it is estimated that every year 5,000 to 8,000 people, of girls and women forced by rape, as well as humanitarian including many young girls, are at risk of forced marriage aid policies, to endure dangerous and unwanted pregnancies in England. The chair of the all-party group has tabled in war zones. amendments to the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently being debated in the As was referred to in the International Development other House, to safeguard 16 and 17-year-olds in the Committee report, girls and women raped in situations UK, who are currently able to marry with parental of armed conflict are considered “the wounded and consent. I want to repeat the comments made in the sick” under the Geneva conventions, with inalienable Select Committee report, about FGM in the UK, with rights to comprehensive, non-discriminatory medical reference to this topic: while it is beyond my remit to care. To further protect those rights, the Geneva conventions comment on domestic policy in this debate, I believe require that doctors treating war victims make medical decisions based solely on the best interests of the patient, “that—as it stands—the UK’s credibility in calling to end the practice overseas is undermined by the failure to tackle the and mandate that they are immune from prosecution problem at home.” under domestic laws, including laws prohibiting abortion. Accordingly, women and girls who are impregnated by I shall follow the debate in the other House with interest rape in armed conflict have an absolute right to any and and I hope the Government will agree to safeguard all medical treatments, including abortion, that could young girls. That will send a strong message to practising restore them to the highest level of physical and mental communities at home and abroad. health. The second issue to do with violence against women Let me give some examples. Approximately 500,000 that I want to talk about is often ignored. It is one on women suffered violence during the genocide in Rwanda. which the UK has the potential to assert global leadership. Many more were victimised during the aftermath of the That is the denial of abortion to girls and women who 2010 flooding in Pakistan. Lack of access to reproductive are raped in situations of armed conflict, in violation of health care in disaster and conflict zones is harming their rights under international humanitarian law. The women and girls around the world. As is often the case, Select Committee report has a chapter entitled “Abortions the world’s poorest are suffering the most. Every year for women raped in conflict”. Currently, the major 47,000 women die from unsafe abortions, and millions providers of medical humanitarian services, including more suffer serious life-threatening injuries. those funded by DFID, routinely exclude the option of abortion to girls and women raped in armed conflict. Let us be clear on unsafe abortions. Denying a woman That forces the majority of rape victims—including access to abortion in situations of rape, of incest and of young girls whose bodies are unprepared for motherhood endangerment of the mother’s life is an act that coerces —to endure unwanted, dangerous, and life-threatening a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will, pregnancies and childbirths. Denying rape victims access infringing her dignity and autonomy by severely restricting to safe abortion in humanitarian medical settings leads decision making in respect of her sexual and reproductive to further inhumane treatment of people already brutalised health. That pattern of coercive control over women’s by war, because it compounds the physical injuries and rights to health and autonomy can result in physical psychological devastation of the rape itself. and psychological harm, and can amount to a state- sanctioned pattern of gender-based violence. Studies have shown that for girls and women who become pregnant from rape in armed conflict, maternal As such, I wish to highlight the concern that overall mortality is heightened owing to both the physical investment and commitments to eradicate unsafe abortion injuries from rape and the difficult conditions imposed are being diluted and diverted in light of misinterpretation by war. Girls impregnated by war rape are especially of guidelines from the United States Agency for vulnerable, as International Development, with disastrous and often fatal consequences for women and children. DFID has “when their bodies are not yet mature,” recently said: pregnancy and childbearing “On access to abortion services, UK policy is clear: the UK “can result in the rupture of the uterus and death of both the development budget can be used, without exception, to provide mother and the child.” safe abortion care where necessary, and to the extent allowed by If both survive, there are also the emotional and practical national laws.” difficulties of raising a child that frequently is unwanted, That clarity is to be commended. Will the Government in a war zone—especially when the society is one that now give guarantees that they will tackle the matter ostracizes victims of rape, and children conceived in head on and ask the US to lift the practice of banning rape. funding for abortion services? Sky News has just reported the story of a 16-year-old I wish to draw attention to the commendable work of girl who was impregnated by rape in the ongoing conflict many non-governmental organisations—including the in the Central African Republic, and forced to bear a International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie 173WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 174WH

[Sandra Osborne] One of the most shocking forms of violence committed against women worldwide, already mentioned by my right Stopes International—that are working with displaced hon. Friend the Chair of the Committee, is undoubtedly populations in conflict areas to provide training and support female genital mutilation. Globally, up to 140 million on the provision of abortion services. That includes girls have been subjected to the practice. The issue is all work to improve access information and to sexual the more concerning when we consider that FGM is a and reproductive health services for communities in culturally institutionalised practice and in some countries humanitarian settings, initially throughout the Asia-Pacific is endemic; the percentage of girls having undergone region, where 3,900 professionals have been trained in the procedure in Somalia and Kurdistan stands at 98% 18 countries and 76 in-house trainings have been rolled and 70% respectively. It is practised in about 28 countries out. In addition to training professionals working in worldwide. crisis and post-crisis situations, that work also co-ordinates I am pleased that DFID has recognised the need to key health and relief agencies, providing regional and step into the breach, as international donor support has national level advocacy to politicians and policy makers, been low, and that it has dedicated £35 million, along and provides technical assistance and dissemination of with programming, to information to professionals in humanitarian settings. In light of its success, regional training is also being “end female genital mutilation in one generation.” rolled out in Africa and the middle east and north I am also encouraged by how DFID aims to do that. African region, in partnership with the United Nations The Chair of the Select Committee mentioned the High Commission for Refugees and the UK Family project we saw in Ethiopia—a powerful project about Planning Association. village empowerment to educate people against such The United Nations Security Council and Secretary- practices. We saw that in action. Only by teaching General agree that victims of rape in armed conflict communities about female genital mutilation and the must be provided with the option of abortion. On October complications it causes can they be made aware of the 18 2013, the Security Council unanimously passed true brutality of the practice. I believe that in patriarchal resolution 2122, a groundbreaking resolution supporting societies such as those we have mentioned, such education abortion services for girls and women impregnated by should be focused on men and boys, especially village war rape. Although the Security Council does not use elders and religious leaders, as well as women and girls. the term abortion in resolution 2122, its language makes Alarmingly, however, FGM is not confined to far-away clear that member states and the UN must ensure that countries. Figures in a recent report showed that, as all options are given to women impregnated by war those who have been working for up to 30 years to stop rape, stating that it notes the practice in Britain know, the incidence of FGM “the need for access to the full range of sexual and reproductive here has increased considerably over recent years. The health services, including regarding pregnancies resulting from National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children rape, without discrimination”. reports that last year 70 women sought treatment for That provision directly responds to the Secretary-General’s injuries sustained during the procedure and illnesses recommendation to the Security Council in September associated with the practice. Some cases even led to 2013 that girls and women raped in armed conflict must death. be ensured access to Of course, those figures are not entirely representative “services for safe termination of pregnancies resulting from rape, of the true extent of the problem, as many women fear without discrimination and in accordance with international human the consequences of telling the authorities. That makes rights and humanitarian law.” it difficult for the police and prosecutors to identify That language reaffirms that medical care for girls and cases of FGM, and to date there has never been a women raped in war is governed by the Geneva conventions prosecution under the Female Genital Mutilation Act rather than national or local abortion laws. 2003 here in Britain. That situation presents law enforcement I will finish there, so that other Members have the authorities with something of a problem, and I would chance to join in the debate. welcome mandatory reporting by doctors, nurses and other health professionals, and teachers who feel that 3.35 pm their pupils are in danger of either having the cutting done here or of being taken back to their home community Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con): I am delighted to have it done. to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke. I am also pleased to follow the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick It is important that public bodies are taught that and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne). FGM is not a culturally sensitive issue but a crime that This important debate about violence against women needs to be reported to protect the girls whom it affects. and girls follows the publication of the International It is child abuse, and until there has been a prosecution Development Committee’s report, the contents of which the practice will continue unabated. It is against British the Chair of the Committee, my right hon. Friend the law and punishable in the courts. Why are the safeguarding Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce), has outlined. boards not shouting from the roof tops about the issue? Violence against women and girls is a wide-reaching All those entrusted with protecting children, young issue. Globally, one in three women will experience one people and women need to start taking a much more type of gender-based violence or another in their lifetime. robust approach. Although such violence is first and foremost an abuse of I am sorry to say that France’s record is much better basic human rights, and, in some cases, even child than ours. It has had around 100 prosecutions to date abuse, it has other more wide-ranging societal implications, and is setting a good example. We should look at what it which the Department for International Development has done and how, and then do the same. It is shocking should address when apportioning aid. that some French girls are sent here to be mutilated in 175WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 176WH this country. Why do we not change the law to prosecute co-ordination between in-country DFID representatives the parents of girls who have been cut? The children are and Foreign and Commonwealth Office consular staff supposed to be under their protection, but the parents is paramount in promoting the regional presence of the allow that to happen. They have been complicit, even forced marriage unit, allowing girls who are forcibly when they have not done the cutting themselves. When taken abroad to marry to be brought back safely to the a few parents have been prosecuted, more will think UK. Perhaps there should be similar units in countries twice about the practice. that practise FGM so that they can act when they I pay tribute to the work of the previous chairman of suspect that a child has been taken to a country for the the all-party group on genital mutilation, my hon. specific reason of cutting. Friend the Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison), who is It is important to raise the issue of future funding for now a Health Minister and is following up every avenue Karma Nirvana. It has taken 30,000 calls since 2008, she can. I have taken her place, and will be working with but it is unsure whether its funding stream from the communities here in the UK to make progress on this Ministry of Justice will be in place after September. It is issue. the only charity providing hotline support for those experiencing honour-based abuse and forced marriage. Forced marriage, which was not mentioned in this It is obvious that forced marriage is not a small problem, report, is another area where fear of offending cultural and when the law against it comes into force it follows sensibilities is seriously affecting the rights of young logically that the demand for support services will increase. women. For some time now, I have been involved with a I urge the Minister to make representations to the charity, Karma Nirvana in Derby, which runs a helpline Minister with the relevant responsibility to ensure continued service for men and women affected by the practice. It is funding. run by Jasvinder Sanghera, who was herself a victim of forced marriage. Every year, Karma Nirvana writes to The Committee’s report makes important schools throughout the country to circulate information recommendations for ending barbaric practices such as and literature promoting awareness of the issue, but to FGM. I am pleased that it suggests doing that through date only nine schools have responded to the initiative. education. I understand that DFID is undertaking initiatives to eradicate forced marriage, but it is important for the When Karma Nirvana launched its new poster campaign Committee to have further discussions on the issue to earlier this year, only two schools signed up. Some head evaluate how we can further encourage efforts at home teachers have torn them down from notice boards for and abroad. fear of upsetting cultural sensibilities. Again, this is child abuse, and despite the disappointing figures, it is Several hon. Members rose— essential that schools take some responsibility in combating forced marriages because they know their pupils and Annette Brooke (in the Chair): Order. We are down to should highlight possible victims. Some 35% of victims about nine minutes per speech. are school-age children. I am aware that the offence of forcing someone into 3.45 pm marriage against their will is set to enter the statute Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab): It is a book later this year, but schools, other public agencies pleasure, Mrs Brooke, to serve under your chairmanship and the media are turning a blind eye to the problem. and to follow such an informative speech from the hon. When a teacher and a white female pupil ran away to Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham). I France last year, the media reported it every day for congratulate the Select Committee on International more than a week until they were found. There may be Development on its report on violence against women hundreds of Asian girls going missing every year, but and girls and the Government on their continued efforts that is not reported in the news. Those girls are British to tackle the problem internationally, as well as nationally. but not white. Is that the difference? If so, could we not blame the media for racial discrimination? I served on the International Development Committee a few years ago when we went to Nigeria, Bangladesh Shafilea Ahmed was murdered by her parents in 2003 and other places. We witnessed violence against women, after refusing to enter into an arranged marriage. She child abuse, forced marriage, under-age marriage and told five separate organisations that she was at risk, but poor education, especially for girls, with lack of water all failed to act on her warnings. The police even attempted and sanitation in girls’ schools, which was provided in to provide mediation between her and her parents, who other schools. We witnessed that discrimination. I miss later took her life. It is clear that cultural sensitivity the work of the Committee, and I will certainly try to overrode the need to protect that young girl. Could that return to it so that I can contribute to its work. be called honour-based violence? Where is the honour After today’s news that a 20-year-old woman was tied in murdering your own child? to a tree and gang-raped in India, allegedly on the Jasvinder Sanghera’s sister poured petrol over herself orders of village elders, the issue of violence against and set herself alight, burning herself to death after women and girls is particularly poignant; the utmost being forced to marry a man she did not want to be importance of addressing this critical issue has been with. There are countless similar stories, but time prevents highlighted again. As a member of the all-party group me from going through them. on population, development and reproductive health, I It is essential that the Committee should lend its want to draw attention to the importance of family support nationally and internationally to stamping out planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights this social evil. A recent report by Demos praised the when tackling violence against women and girls. Department for International Development for its work Violence against women has been called the most in providing assistance and aid for victims of forced pervasive yet least recognised human rights abuse in the marriage, but there is so much more to be done. Greater world. As many as one in three women in the world 177WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 178WH

[Mr Virendra Sharma] 3.52 pm have suffered some form of abuse, most often by someone Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con): It is a pleasure to she knows, including her husband or another male serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke. I pay family member. Any such abuse can leave deep tribute to those who spoke before me, and I will comment psychological scars and damage the health of women particularly on the powerful message from my hon. and girls, especially their reproductive and sexual health, Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) and sometime results in death or leaves them permanently about the need to stand up against things happening in disabled, ruining their lives. this country that must be exposed and not hidden away—female genital mutilation, and early and forced The effects of violence on a woman’s reproductive marriage. health can be profound, from unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions to complications from frequent, I very much—perhaps “enjoyed” is the wrong word— high-risk pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. appreciated being part of the inquiry by the International Gender-based violence is sustained by a culture of Development Committee. I confess that I had not given silence and a denial of the seriousness of the health enough thought to this issue over the years, and the consequences of abuse. In addition to individual harm, process opened my eyes to the extent of violence against those consequences exact a social toll and place a heavy women and girls, not only in the developing world but, burden on health services. Gender-based violence is as we have heard, in the developed world. I am pleased sustained by silence, so women’s voices must be heard that the Government have made the issue a focus of and every effort must be made to enable women to their work, led by the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary speak out against it, and to get help when they are of State for International Development, and by Ministers victims of it. in the Department for International Development, including the former Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member The Government should be congratulated on hosting for Eddisbury (Mr O’Brien), and the current Minister, the family planning summit in July 2012. Global leaders my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood united and pledged $2.6 billion to provide 120 million Green (Lynne Featherstone), who has rightly championed women in the world’s poorest countries with access to the issue and made it a focus of her work. contraception by 2020, and the UK announced £500 million The issue was particularly brought home to me by in aid. three students who approached me from King Edward Currently, more than 200 million women and girls in VI school in Stafford, in my constituency. Those three developing countries do not have access to modern girls—Maya Lucey, Amy Mace and Chloe Taylor—wrote methods of contraception. The inability to choose and to me saying that they would like to speak with me access family planning will cost many of those women about it. I had not spoken to them about it before, but their lives. I urge the Government to ensure that part of what they had heard in the press and elsewhere had their pledge is dedicated to making emergency contraception made them concerned about female genital mutilation available to victims of sexual violence to alleviate some in the UK. I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking of the suffering and SRHR problems it causes. to them last Friday, or rather of listening to what they had to say. I was profoundly impressed not only by the Access to modern contraceptives can help prevent an extent of their knowledge, but by their commitment to estimated 600,000 neonatal deaths. In 2012, an estimated stopping FGM in this country. I pledged that I would 291,000 women and girls in low and middle-income do what I could to raise the matter in this debate and to countries died from pregnancy-related causes; 104,000 supporting all the work that my hon. Friend the Member of those pregnancies were unintended. Investing in for Mid Derbyshire and others continue to do in Parliament. SRHR is cost-effective. Money spent on modern I pay tribute to the girls’ teacher, Mrs Jo Bentham, who contraception helps save more in maternal and newborn ensured that they were supported in talking about an health care and is a strong tool for moving towards issue that is particularly difficult for some people of gender equality and female empowerment. It helps tackle their age to raise. violence against women and girls and its devastating effects. Members have already discussed the statistics on FGM prevalence rates. They are as high as 98% in As well as ensuring access to family planning and Somalia and 94% in Sierra Leone; I will mention Sierra SRHR, I urge the Government to strengthen advocacy Leone a bit later. An estimated 3.3 million girls a year on gender-based violence in all our country programmes globally are still at risk from the practice. A study in conjunction with other United Nations partners and conducted in 2007 by the London School of Hygiene non-governmental organisations. We must integrate and Tropical Medicine and the City university midwifery messages on the prevention of gender-based violence department, using modelled estimates, concluded that into information, education and communication projects 66,000 women resident in England and Wales had and conduct more research on gender-based violence. undergone FGM, and that 23,000 girls under the age of 15 were at risk of it. This matter is of great importance Lastly and most importantly, I appeal to the Government not just in countries in the remit of the Department for to call for the new millennium development goals framework International Development, but right here on our doorstep. to include a target on universal access to sexual and I welcome the work being done by DFID. We understand reproductive health and rights and a stand-alone goal that, in March 2013, it dedicated £35 million to ending on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The FGM in one generation. Part of that money will fund matters that we are discussing are of great urgency. We social change, communications and research. The goal have a moral duty to defend the vulnerable and to is ambitious and worthy, and I congratulate DFID on ensure that human rights for all are protected. its commitment. 179WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 180WH

In the time remaining to me, I will concentrate on the As we have heard, a terrifying number of girls are vital matter of changing social norms. I well remember affected—140 million. According to UNICEF, 98% of living in Tanzania and having a good friend from an women and girls in Somalia are affected. In Guinea, area where FGM was the norm—everybody allowed their 96% are affected; in Egypt, 91%; in Eritrea, 89%; in young daughters to be subjected to it. He was determined Sierra Leone, 88%; in Ethiopia, 74%; in Sudan, 88%; in that that should not be the case for his daughters, and Gambia, 76%; and in Burkina Faso, 76%. The practice instead of taking a negative or critical approach, he also occurs in many countries outside Africa, so it is a stood up and said, “We’re not going to allow our truly global problem. In recent decades, the practice has daughters to go through this. We are setting an example.” grown significantly among the migrant communities of That comes back to a point made by previous speakers: north America, Scandinavia, Europe and the UK. it is vital that we engage communities, not just lecture Our Committee was shocked to receive statistics for them. We must work with women’s groups, as my hon. this country from the Department of Health. A 2007 Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire said, and with report indicated that about 66,000 women and girls in men and boys, to say that FGM is completely unacceptable. the UK had undergone FGM and that more than I want briefly to address the question of early marriage, 20,000 girls aged under 15 were at risk. However, those and one problem that it brings and to which FGM figures may well have been a gross underestimate. I had contributes: fistulas. When I was in Sierra Leone at the the privilege of sponsoring the launch in the House this end of last year, I visited the Aberdeen Women’s Centre week of a report from the New Culture Forum. That in Freetown, which has been equipped through generous report extrapolated figures from the 2011 census data, donations from Scotland, in particular, and from Ann whereas the figures that I cited were from the 2001 Gloag. We saw women there, some of them very young, census. The number of women and girls living with whose lives were being transformed by the repair of FGM from migrant communities is highly likely to have their fistulas, which had developed largely as a result of increased over those years. It is now estimated that the their being married and giving birth at an early age. It figures could be about three times those that the Committee made an enormous difference to them. Without it, they received, meaning that about 170,000 could have undergone would have been almost outcast and ashamed to be in FGM, and about 65,000 girls aged 13 and under could society. be at risk of mutilation. We have heard about the critical matter of water and sanitation. While I was living in Tanzania and my wife The New Culture Forum report also includes thought- was running a public health programme there, one key provoking comments, one of which is the frequently thing that she wanted was for shallow wells to be drilled made statement that it is now almost 30 years since in every village to enable women and girls to get water legislation was enacted to outlaw the practice—the locally, rather than having to travel 5 km, 6 km or 7 km Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985—yet for it. Such travelling not only meant that they could “not a single successful prosecution has been brought against not receive education, but put them and their mothers FGM practitioners.” at risk of violence. The project made a big difference, It is interesting to note that we are behind Kenya in that especially as the community was involved in not only respect, as it has brought at least three successful raising the money for the wells and pumps in the first prosecutions. As has been mentioned, France has brought place, but maintaining them. One could see that when a many more. However, it is not only 30 years since community was committed to the well-being of the girls legislation prohibiting the practice was enacted, because and women in their midst, it was quick to raise the legislation relevant to it actually goes back as far as 1861, necessary money. as what is happening is grievous bodily harm. It is child I conclude by again commending the Government’s sexual abuse of the worst possible nature, so we really work in this area. We must ensure that it continues and must do all that we can to break down what the National is not a theme for only a year. It has to be a theme for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has this Government and many Governments—and for many called a “wall of silence” that is inhibiting prosecutions generations. That is so obvious, yet it sometimes seems in this country. to escape our notice. We need to ensure that professionals in the field, 4pm including criminal prosecutors and health care practitioners, receive adequate training, and that there is engagement Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con): Like most hon. and education within FGM-practising communities. As Members, I want to focus on one aspect of violence many Members have said, FGM is a cultural practice against women and girls: female genital mutilation. I that has to be changed. believe that our concern reflects that of the public, and that was brought home to me when I was asked to do There is a difficultly with compiling evidence. Only several media interviews following the publication of this week, we heard that hospitals are failing to report our Committee’s report, because every one of them FGM as they should, because focused on concern about FGM in this country. I “161 hospitals that responded to a Freedom of Information believe that once people become aware of the issue, they request, 83 said that they did not formally record FGM cases.” want resources allocated to address it. I welcome the That has to change. This week we heard that the chief prioritisation that DFID is giving FGM by providing inspector of constabulary, Tom Winsor, was reported as £35 million towards the ambitious aspiration of ending saying: it in a generation. I want to touch on the practice here and abroad, and to update Members on one or two “Police are never called by certain minority communities because statistics that have been published since the Committee they administer their own justice even in cases as serious as…sexual published its report. I will finish by asking the Minister assaults on children.” some questions. That also has to change. 181WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 182WH

[Fiona Bruce] out this practice in the UK? During our inquiry, we discovered that there was no consistent data collection The most important factor in inhibiting action is on FGM in the NHS. Will the Minister assure us that excessive cultural sensitivity, which is simply a reluctance the Government will start collecting information routinely to combat the practice of FGM for fear of appearing about at-risk babies and girls, and that that information reactionary or prejudiced. The profound irony is that will be used to take action? that perspective generates a discrimination of its own as We welcome the action already taken by DFID and the victims remain unprotected precisely because of its financial commitment. However, we highlight in their race. It is interesting that the Council of Europe particular that although robust action must be taken, it has clearly dismissed arguments of political correctness, needs to be culturally applicable and there has to be stating: joint working, both within and outside the UK. “It is a matter of urgency to make a distinction between the need to tolerate and protect minority cultures and turning a blind eye to customs that amount to torture and inhuman or barbaric 4.10 pm treatment” Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) of this type. (Con): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, As a French lawyer said at the event that I was Mrs Brooke. I shall keep a close eye on the clock. privileged to sponsor this week, “You cannot use the I speak as a delegate of the Council of Europe, which excuse, ‘It’s their culture.’ Torture is not culture.” has 47 member countries across geographical Europe—it In most cases, parents and/or grandparents—the very is much larger than the European Union. Its purpose is people a child would expect to provide them with to uphold three things: democracy, the rule of law and protection—are present at the act, and it is often conducted human rights. All those categories come within the at their instigation. It is heart-rending to hear some of subject of this debate, but none more so than human the recordings of a child crying out, “Mummy, Mummy” rights. We are going on our first quarterly visit next during the act. This is not only about all the physical week, but on our last visit we happened to go to the damage that we have heard of today, as the psychological European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where and mental damage that the children—they are often we were reminded that it was set up to prevent gross aged between six and 12—suffer cannot be calculated. abuses of human rights, rather than to address some of I turn to several questions to which I would like the the trivial things that it is asked to decide on these days. Minister to respond. First, although our Committee We were interested to find that 97% of the applications welcomes DFID’s announcement of £35 million for a to it from the United Kingdom are rejected on the programme to end FGM in a generation, if that aspiration grounds that they are inadmissible or inappropriate. is to be met, the funding needs to be invested sensitively The sort of gross abuses that took place during the and carefully. I remind the Minister of the Committee’s second world war, for example, gave rise to the body’s recommendation of adopting a “phased and flexible” creation. approach to ensure that evidence-based programming is I wish to speak briefly about the horror of the use of conducted. Will she update us on progress with regard rape as a weapon of war. The results of that are not just to the use of that £35 million to tackle FGM worldwide? the psychological, emotional and physical damage that Secondly, will the Minister confirm reports of how sufferers live with for the rest of their lives, but the the Metropolitan police are approaching the issue? I cultural rejection that comes with it. Victims often have understand that they have reopened some FGM cases. no means of earning a living and are condemned to a How confident is the Minister that that will lead to a life of extreme poverty and isolation. prosecution in this country? It is clear that we need to However, I want to focus mainly on the subject that put aside political correctness and adopt a far more almost every other speaker has spoken about: female robust, cross-agency approach in which the police genital mutilation. That most grotesque, barbaric practice proactively track girls at risk. Our Committee has amounts to torture. It is illegal in this country and is a recommended the publication of an up-to-date, binding gross breach of human rights. It was probably during document requiring all health service providers, the my first Parliament that I served on the Committee that Department of Health, the Department for Education, considered the Bill that made it illegal to remove girls the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office, from this country and take them abroad to undergo this the Government Equalities Office, the police, the Ministry practice. Another member of that Committee was the of Justice and the Crown Prosecution Service to play then Liberal Democrat Member, Dr Jenny Tonge. We their part. Will she look again at that? Is it not the case all agreed before our proceedings started—hon. Members that unless we have joined-up working, we will not be on both sides of the Committee were of the same able to tackle FGM in this country? Even more so, mind—that there was no need to enter into any graphic unless we have international joined-up working, and descriptions, but Jenny Tonge, as a doctor, did embark learn from good practice and success in other countries, on the most graphic descriptions of what happens to we will not achieve our global aspiration. This massive victims. I will not name the male colleague who was challenge requires joint working by as many agencies as with me, but he was so affected by that that he went very possible. pale and almost passed out in his chair. The Committee noted that the Government disagreed The Bill’s purpose was to stop the practice happening, with our report’s recommendation that a cross-Whitehall but of course it has not, given the extreme difficulty of strategy for tackling FGM should be published, as they enforcement and of finding anyone who is willing to said that they already had an action plan in place. Why, provide evidence. There is often collusion among older as the Prime Minister himself admitted earlier this women in the cultural groups that still uphold this month, do we therefore still lack results on stamping practice, which is often carried out in unsterile conditions. 183WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 184WH

The victims suffer infection, chronic health problems their contribution to development and peace. In doing for the rest of their lives, and real trauma during marriage so, violence against women impoverishes not only women, and childbirth. but their families, their communities and, ultimately, We must try to deal with this practice in many ways, entire nation states. including through diplomacy between countries and However, at our worst, we have allowed fears of Governments, and do whatever we can to bring it to an cultural insensitivity to overpower and suppress our end. It involves the most appalling subjugation of women. moral obligation to stand up for women worldwide. We An estimated 140 million women in Africa and the have allowed abusers to go unpunished for their crimes. middle east, and 66,000 women living in this country, We have allowed the ending of violence against women have suffered FGM. A further 20,000 girls in this country not to get the reckoning and retribution that it deserves are estimated to be at risk. However, it is extremely and let it be removed, at times, from the international difficult to obtain evidence about what happens, and agenda. Perhaps most shockingly, we allowed it to be then it is only after the event, although even that has a negotiated out of the millennium development goals. purpose. If we could just secure some convictions, it At this crucial time, we cannot and must not allow that would help to deter further instances of this practice, to happen again. break the cultural habit and make people realise that The Government’s determination to tackle the collusive FGM is illegal in this country. silence that surrounds debate on this issue is laudable, One hundred years ago, women in this country rose although I am concerned that on some levels that up to demand their human rights. Women in other approach is flawed. The International Development countries need to do that, and we need to do whatever Committee’s second report of this Session highlighted we can to find strong women in the countries in which important ways in which we can strengthen our approach the practice prevails and to help them to speak out and to tackling violence against women and girls. rise up there, because that will be the most effective way Specifically, the report spoke of the danger of DFID’s of getting this dreadful practice stopped. narrow focus on reactive support services above proactive, transformative projects that deal with the underlying causes 4.15 pm of violence. The report found that of 117 interventions Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op): I am grateful listed by DFID, just 16 were aimed at changing social to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke. There norms. Instead, the majority focus on building institutional have been many well informed speeches today. I welcome capacity to respond to acts of violence—supporting the broad approach of the Government in making this survivors to access justice or the protective care and a strategic issue in the work of the Department for support services that they need. International Development, but it is also right to raise The report recommended a fundamental shift in some of the concerns flagged up in the Select Committee emphasis. Gender activists have supported that call, report. saying that they have often found it difficult, particularly Violence against women is a violation that cannot be at country level, to see how DFID is challenging social justified by any political, religious or cultural claim. norms and that evidence of DFID’s much lauded and Around the world, violence against women and girls commendable “Theory of Change” being mainstreamed takes many grotesque forms, a lot of which have been into key DFID programmes can sometimes be scant. In raised in this debate. One in three women will face their response to the report, the Government agreed. In violence in their lifetimes: that is 1 billion women and answer to the concerns raised, they highlighted girls—1 billion stories of violence against women. However, “ongoing efforts to deliver our commitment to help ten million that is not a stagnant statistic; there are a number of women and girls access security and justice services by 2015.” situations happening now, globally, that should spur At the end of last year, DFID published another strategy our focus on this issue. entitled “Addressing Violence against Women and Girls There is the vulnerable situation faced by women and through security and justice programming”. I acknowledge girls in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. freely that it is not an either/or, but I am concerned that Early reports indicated that the collapse in law and that invades the principal recommendation that stems order, the widespread displacement of people and the from the report. Will the Minister respond to that? distress, disruption and sheer desperation following a Although investment in security and justice systems disaster of that magnitude had put more than 65,000 is a crucial building block for violence prevention, women and girls at risk of sexual abuse and trafficking. establishing accountability and redress, evidence shows There were the 4,000 incidents of violence against women that better-functioning institutions will have limited documented in just six months by the Afghan Independent impact on the reduction of violence against women and Human Rights Commission. Those incidents included girls unless efforts are also made to tackle the root causes maiming and amputation of body parts, acid attacks, of violence: women’s lack of power and discriminatory kickings, beating with a wire, pulling out of hair and social norms. burning, rape, prostitution and forced abortion. That The strategy states that one of its key objectives is to highlights the precarious situation of women on the eve protect women and girls from all forms of violence and of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. There is the worsening the threat of violence, but only seven of the 44 case situation undoubtedly faced by women and girls in the studies listed across the two guidance notes make any Central African Republic, in Syria and in South Sudan attempt to prevent violence against women and girls; as violence in those fragile states escalates. the other 37 case studies refer solely to the provision of Women and girls who experience violence suffer from services after violence has been committed. Moreover, it a range of physical and psychological health problems. appears that we often fail to follow our own advice. The It diminishes their ability and confidence to participate guidance asserts in bold: in normal human activities and public life and cripples “Any training or awareness raising work”— 185WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 186WH

[Gavin Shuker] Minister will reflect on some of the areas of the report in which the Committee wanted DFID to do more or of security and justice actors, including soldiers, occupying do things differently. forces, peacekeeping forces or demobilised troops— “must focus on improving knowledge and changing attitudes and 4.25 pm changing behaviours.” That is at odds with the tone used by the Prime Minister TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof StateforInternational when he gave evidence to the Liaison Committee last Development (Lynne Featherstone): It is a pleasure to week: serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm “We cannot ask our soldiers, sailors and airmen to do too Bruce) on securing this important debate, and I thank many different things. They need clear instructions and a clear the International Development Committee for providing goal, but, yes, that can be part of it.” a wide-ranging and thought-provoking report on the The “that” is the role of UK armed forces in training critical issues that we have discussed, to which my Department overseas forces about violence against women. The has formally replied. I thank all those who provided guidance stresses the importance of informal provision evidence to that Committee, and I thank the hon. Members and the role of women’s rights organisations and states for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy), for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline that Latham), for Congleton (Fiona Bruce), for Hornchurch “supporting women’s organisations and other CSOs to lobby for and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson), for Ayr, policy reforms and support implementation is a key priority”. Carrick and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne), for Ealing, However, Womenkind Worldwide highlighted the Southall (Mr Sharma) and for Luton South (Gavin concern that despite their enormous added value, many Shuker)—my opposite number—for their contributions. women’s rights organisations have not received the resources We are discussing an issue about which everyone is that they need to scale up their delivery and influence. concerned, and on which everyone is committed to They suffer from a shortage of funding that commits moving forward. beyond an annual cycle. WomenkindWorldwide undertook Tackling violence is a human rights and development analysis that showed that UK aid funding amounted to necessity, and it is a priority for the UK Government. $16.41 million in 2011, compared with, for example, Many points have been raised in the debate, and I $118.6 million in the Netherlands and more in other will address as many as possible in the time that I countries. Very few southern-based women’s rights have. Since the International Development Committee organisations are direct recipients of DFID centralised presented its report on the Government’s work in this funds, and only one women’s rights organisation, Gender area, there have been several developments. Following Links, was found to be funded under the programme the recommendation in the report, in November I updated partnership arrangement fund. No direct grants were found the House in my role as ministerial champion for tackling to be offering support under the civil society challenge violence against women and girls overseas on progress fund. on tackling violence against women and girls. I appreciate that we are dealing with a difficult area in I will address the issues on female genital mutilation which there are many competing needs, but surely there more fully in a moment, but during the past two weeks, must be a shift towards tackling views among men and for example, I have organised and attended meetings boys as well as protecting women and girls from violence. with other cross-Whitehall Ministries. I met religious That is an issue not only further afield but in this leaders—an important part of our armoury in tackling country, so we should look at our views and those of FGM—and representatives of the teachers’ unions. They, others. Analysis by Amnesty International highlighted and indeed everyone, must be partners in this mission. the fact that only three of 27 DFID country programmes On 13 November, the Secretary of State for International have identified violence against women and girls as a Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for strategic priority. Putney (Justine Greening), convened with Sweden the In the Government’s response to the International “Keep her safe” event, which brought together UN and Development Committee’s report, much is made of the NGO leaders and senior Government officials from newly announced research and innovation fund, which across the international humanitarian system. They is mentioned 12 times in the 24 pages. Although more agreed a fundamental new approach to protecting girls research is welcome, I remain concerned that the research and women in emergency situations, which the hon. component is unlikely to be activated until later this Member for Luton South raised, to ensure that their year, and that only £25 million has been allocated, with needs are addressed as part of the initial response. At no commitment on length, amount or protection of the event, £21.6 million in new UK funding was announced future funding. I am concerned that that fund may to help implement those commitments and protect girls delay our response to this crucial issue. It is important and women in all emergencies. that research goes hand in hand with active country In line with the Committee’s recommendations, DFID programmes that challenge the perceptions of men and continues to scale up the implementation of programming boys about violence against women and girls. The fund about violence against women and girls. In Afghanistan, must not be treated as an omnipotent panacea. I welcome we recently announced a new £18.5 million funding the Government’s response on those issues. package to help support women, which will strengthen The International Development Committee’s report access to justice for women who are victims of violence raises crucial questions and highlights some important and raise public awareness of women’s rights. ways in which we can strengthen our response. Although The hon. Member for Luton South raised access to I stand four-square behind the Government’s approach justice and the balance that had to be struck. That ties of making the matter a strategic priority, I hope that the in with the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, which 187WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 188WH deals with the matter at the sharp end, where rape is having spent two and a half years at the Home Office. used as a weapon of war. If there is impunity, we cannot Our diaspora is intrinsically linked with the developing move forward. Just as with preventing sexual violence world but there has been a lack of prosecutions. We were in conflict, access to justice must go hand in hand with a challenged on the latter continually, but I must also say change in social norms. that there were no prosecutions under the 13 years of In Somalia, to bring gender issues to the forefront of the previous Government. our work, DFID recently created an internal gender FGM is a major issue. I am sure that we all recognise policy group, which is led and chaired by senior how challenging it is for a child to give evidence against management and has representatives from each sector. their parent. As many Members said, FGM is child The scale-up is being supported by robust evidence abuse and it is illegal, so the inevitable consequences are from sources such as the violence against women and that the child will be removed from the parents virtually girls help desk, which has provided support to DFID as soon as it is known that something has happened. country offices, and further DFID guidance on addressing That has been the great inhibitor. It is important that violence against women and girls through security and we have prosecutions, as much as anything because of justice programming. That note is part of a series of the message that they send out. The answer is clearly not DFID guidance notes on violence against women and to send 20,000 sets of parents to jail, but the message girls, and it will further support our scale-up efforts by that FGM is illegal and unacceptable is very important. providing practical advice to staff and other UK Departments. The Minister for Crime Prevention, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), is champing at The £25 million research and innovation fund to address the bit on this issue. He is working closely with the violence against women and girls will support programme Director of Public Prosecutions, who believes that we implementation and scale-up by generating evidence on are very near to the first few prosecutions. Part of the what works for the prevention of such violence. Although issue has been getting preparatory evidence on computers. I share the frustration at the time that some such That way, the process might not necessarily involve a measures will take, some of them will go into play very child victim giving evidence in court—there will be soon. When we scale up, we must be sure that we are evidence of plans to take a child to a mother country to making an impact on behalf of British taxpayers and doing have them cut. We are optimistic about prosecutions. I something that works, not something that we rush into could not agree more with those Members who said only to discover that it was not what we needed to do. that we must not tiptoe on cultural eggshells. For a long I have many points to address. My right hon. Friend time, that has been the problem and a challenge. I am the Member for Gordon asked about the Democratic clear that that can have no standing. FGM is against Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Sudan, our laws. and whether VAWG would be prioritised. We are currently in the process of a round of resource allocation across The hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire asked about all DFID offices, and we are looking in detail at how we what happens in France. They examine every girl every can most effectively scale up our VAWG programmes. I year until the age of six, as part of other examinations. have mentioned Somalia, but in Nigeria we have a When I met with my opposite number in France, she major programme, “Voices for Change,” to tackle the said, “You know, we just have a little look.” Given that underlying causes of VAWG and gender inequality. there is no question about 99% of our population—they DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are do not practise FGM—that would not necessarily be working closely on VAWG programmes in DRC, ensuring the best use of resources for us. There must be continual preventative action and effective responses to survivors. pressure from the Metropolitan police and the other forces around the country that were mentioned. They I was asked what we are doing about water, sanitation are now proactively looking for those who are perpetrating and hygiene, or WASH. DFID has produced a new FGM and seeking to prosecute them. briefing note on violence against women and girls in emergencies, and over the next year will also produce Many Members also raised the point that our work guidance on how water and sanitation sector programmes should be much more to do with awareness and getting can address such violence. Importantly, through the into and working with communities. The women of our sanitation and hygiene applied research for equity Somali communities are very hidden. When I visited a programme—SHARE—DFID has funded development school in Bristol, the first primary school in the country of a violence, gender and WASH practitioner toolkit, that has an FGM safeguarding policy and brings in the which will be available this year. Somali mothers, that was the first time that they had all I was asked how we are ensuring that VAWG is met to be able to discuss such things. The issues are not prioritised in multilateral agencies. We are keen to ensure discussed in the way that we might in this country—the that VAWG is a high priority in multilaterals. UN Women women are very isolated. That is why I have been trying is a key partner in such matters, and DFID helps to to involve religious and community leaders, alongside fund it. The call to action in November last year that I those agencies that are working in this field and are best described secured commitments from a wide range of able to get into the communities and to deal with UN agencies to put women and girls at the heart of awareness. their humanitarian response. That includes protecting I have also involved the TUC and the teaching unions, them from violence. It was a pledge not so much on because they have an opportunity to look at teacher finance, but on what UN agencies would do under the training and other such issues. Indeed, I am working circumstances. with other Ministers on safeguarding, because the issues A lot of right hon. and hon. Members raised the issue are hugely important. The Home Office produced of female genital mutilation, an issue about which I am guidelines—I am going to run out of time—for front-line passionate. I think that that comes from frustration, workers, but we were shocked to find that eight out of 189WH Violence Against Women and Girls23 JANUARY 2014 Violence Against Women and Girls 190WH

[Lynne Featherstone] I want quickly to address stoning in Afghanistan. Women and girls there continue to face huge issues. The 10 teachers do not even know about the guidelines, so proposal to reinstate stoning is symptomatic of the we are working with the Department for Education on situation in which women and girls find themselves. In raising awareness about such issues. fact, I met the Afghan Minister for Education only I could not agree more with the view that we must be yesterday. I raised the issue of violence against women flexible with funding. However, the £35 million that was and girls in schools in Afghanistan. He gave me many raised is, in a sense, to get things started. We need to assurances, but one challenge in Afghanistan is that find out what is right—part of the money goes on things are decentralising. Individual communities are gathering evidence; part of it goes on social change. The going to be far from central control. funding helps to support the African movement, as well I must finish there. I am very sorry, but I will try to as the UN resolution banning FGM. write to Members to answer the points that I could not Early and forced marriage is very much in the same address in such a short time. vein as FGM, inasmuch as both are social norms. That is a terrible indictment, because such norms are the 4.38 pm most deep-seated and hardest things to change. That is Sir Malcolm Bruce: I thank the Minister and all why I am particularly interested in behavioural change. Members who took part. We can see how strongly We continue to work with Girls Not Brides to develop a people feel about the issues we have been discussing, global theory of change on early and forced marriage, and how determined they are that we should maintain to underpin the new programmes. pressure to improve the situation and make progress. Last week, I asked the Prime Minister whether the Pauline Latham Will the Minister give way? conflict, stability and security fund would have specific targets for violence against women and girls. He did not Lynne Featherstone: I have only half a second, so I then know the answer and has not yet replied. I urge the hope that the hon. Lady will forgive me if I do not. Minister to get not only an answer but the right answer. We are pushing for an ambitious and stand-alone We have had a very good debate. I thank everyone goal on gender for 2015, including strong target language who has taken part—both the members of my Committee on preventing and eliminating VAWG, as set out in the and others. It was very much appreciated. high-level panel report. It is feasible to have an ultimate Question put and agreed to. target of eliminating VAWG and to measure progress towards that as we do for other ambitious goals, such as 4.39 pm that for ending hunger. Sitting adjourned. 9WS Written Statements23 JANUARY 2014 Written Statements 10WS

As Land Registry moves into this new phase, it is Written Statements critical that the business has the right commercial model to best deliver these benefits to its customers and the Thursday 23 January 2014 wider economy. No decision on ownership and control of this new service delivery company has been made, and several BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS options are being considered. The Government will ensure that Land Registry customers and the integrity Consumer Rights Bill of the register will continue to be protected following the outcome of the consultation. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, The consultation will close on 20 March 2014. I am Innovation and Skills (Jenny Willott): Today the Government placing a copy of the consultation in the Library of the are introducing the Consumer Rights Bill. This Bill is a House. fundamental reform of consumer legislation so that consumers’ and businesses’ key rights and responsibilities are clear, easily understood and updated to take account CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT of purchases involving digital content. It contains important new protections for consumers alongside measures to lower regulatory burdens for business, all with the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 aim of making markets work better, which is good for consumers, good for business and therefore good for growth. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Alongside the Bill, the Government are publishing a Media and Sport (Mrs Helen Grant): The Government Command Paper, which includes the Government’s response have today published a consultation paper on the future to each of the recommendations made by the Business, of civil partnership in England and Wales. This is the Innovation and Skills Select Committee. We are very full public consultation required under section 15 of the grateful to the Committee for their detailed pre-legislative Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. The Government scrutiny. A copy of that Command Paper can be accessed will consider responses to the consultation alongside at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ evidence about marriage of same sex couples, civil consumer-rights-bill. partnership and possible options for the future. The consultation document is available on the Land Registry Culture, Media and Sport website at: https://www.gov.uk/ government/consultations/consultation-on-the-future- of-civil-partnership-in-england-and-wales The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon): The Department has today launched a consultation around proposals to help Land Registry deliver more efficient and modern services. FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE Land Registry is responsible for keeping and maintaining details of the ownership of land and property in England Gift of Equipment (Syria) and Wales. Government believe that changing Land Registry’s commercial model by separating policy and delivery of The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth services between two entities could have a number of Affairs (Mr William Hague): It is now over two years benefits and enable it to move more successfully into the since the Syrian conflict began and the situation remains digital age. catastrophic. Our estimates are that over 100,000 people The proposal is to create a new company, still subject have been killed, with more than half of the Syrian to Government oversight, which would be responsible population now in need of humanitarian assistance. for delivering land registration services. A separate Office The UK is committed to doing all it can to promote a of the Chief Land Registrar would be retained in political settlement to the conflict and to alleviate the Government to carry out regulatory and fee-setting humanitarian suffering. functions. My statements to the House on 11 November 2013 This model could allow a greater focus on service and 13 January 2014 outlined the intensive political and delivery, greater operational flexibility around pay, practical support we are providing to the national coalition recruitment and possibly provide other services and a to alleviate suffering inside Syria. As a part of this more clearly defined relationship with Government. work, the UK is supporting emerging moderate local Land Registry is currently moving into a new phase governance structures in opposition-held areas to improve as it embarks on a new business strategy designed to the delivery of services to local communities. We plan deliver significant benefits for customers, including: to expand a UK-funded pilot project to train and equip Making more land registration services available online, this local council civil defence teams in northern Syria, should reduce processing times, risk of error and the costs of enabling them to provide search and rescue, fire-fighting registration; and first-aid services in areas under attack. This project Delivering more efficient services, including creating a centralised is carried out in co-operation with the National Coalition’s access point for local land charge searches; Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) and builds on Maximising the reuse of property data for the benefit of the earlier deliveries of civil resilience equipment to local economy. councils through the ACU. 11WS Written Statements23 JANUARY 2014 Written Statements 12WS

The departmental minute laid today sets out in detail been brought to my notice and therefore, in order to our plans to gift further civil defence equipment to local comply with the legislation, I will now be laying the council teams in Syria as part of the expanded project. reports I receive from the chief inspector before Parliament. This gift will consist of sets of equipment for nine This change in process will ensure that the requirements 25-man teams, including commercially available personal of the legislation are fulfilled but there is no change to radios, cutting and rescue tools, uniforms and protective the independence of the chief inspector and the work gear such as fire helmets and goggles, fire extinguishers, done by his office. The only amendment I may make to stretchers and individual medical kits. The total cost of the reports that I receive are through the provision for the proposed gift is approximately £700,000, which will redacting material on the grounds of national security be met by the Government’s conflict pool fund. The or an individual’s safety in section 50 (3) of the 2007 overall value of the uplift to the project is £2.1 million, Act. which includes training for nine teams of approximately 25 people, a communications campaign, support for All reports will continue to be available on the chief mechanics to repair and restore fire-fighting vehicles, inspector’s website once they have been laid before and crisis management training for governorate level Parliament. council, police and civil defence leaders. Today two reports are being laid before Parliament; The equipment will help local communities deal with the first one is a report on the short notice inspection of the aftermath of attacks, improve the service delivery a sham marriage enforcement operation and the second capability and legitimacy of local councils and assist is report on an inspection of Border Force operations at them in saving the lives of those injured and in alleviating Stansted airport. Neither of these reports contains humanitarian suffering. It will also underline the UK’s redactions. continued support to the moderate opposition. Copies of both of these reports are available in the The use of conflict pool funds to cover the costs of Vote Office. the gift has been approved by members of the conflict pool strategic programme board from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Scotland Analysis (Borders and Citizenship) Development and Ministry of Defence. The gift has been scrutinised to ensure that the provision of this equipment is consistent with export controls and complies The Secretary of State for the Home Department with our international obligations. Recipients have been (Mrs Theresa May): I am today laying before the House carefully selected to prevent equipment being given to the 10th paper in the Government’s Scotland analysis those involved in extremist activities or human rights programme, “Scotland analysis: Borders and citizenship”. violations. All our assistance is carefully calibrated and This series of publications is designed to inform the legal, is aimed at alleviating human suffering and supporting debate on Scotland’s future within the United Kingdom moderate groups and is regularly monitored and evaluated. ahead of this year’s referendum. The Treasury has approved the proposal in principle. This paper analyses the UK’s framework for managing If, during the period of 14 parliamentary sitting days its common external border, considers the benefits of beginning on the date on which the departmental minute an absence of internal borders within the UK, as well as was laid before the House of Commons, a Member the implications for both if people in Scotland vote for signifies an objection by giving notice of a parliamentary independence. It also considers the impact that Scottish question or a motion relating to the minute, or by independence may have on issues of citizenship. otherwise raising the matter in the House, final approval of the gift will be withheld pending an examination of The paper sets out the importance of borders and the the objection. considerations that states around the world must take into account when determining how to manage their borders. It then analyses the UK’s internal and external borders, and examines the current framework for managing HOME DEPARTMENT the UK’s external border. The paper then considers the UK’s policies and systems Independent Chief Inspector of Borders for managing the movement of people into the UK, and Immigration both for short-term visits and economic migration. It sets out some of the issues that the Government of an independent Scottish state may have to consider when The Secretary of State for the Home Department determining how to manage the movement of people (Mrs Theresa May): I would like to inform the House into and out of an independent Scotland. that changes have been made to the arrangements for It also assesses how the movement of goods, both publishing reports of the independent chief inspector legal and illegal, between Scotland and the UK could for borders and immigration. The reports prepared by be impacted if Scotland became an independent state, the chief inspector will from today be laid before Parliament and the challenges this could pose for the Governments in order to bring the process into line with the current of both the continuing UK and an independent Scottish legislation. state. There is a requirement under section 50 of the UK Finally, the paper also considers the question of Borders Act 2007 for the Home Secretary to lay copies citizenship and how an independent Scottish state may of the reports of the independent chief inspector define its own citizenship policy. It then analyses the before Parliament. This requirement has only recently impact on the citizenship of the continuing UK if Scotland became an independent state. 13WS Written Statements23 JANUARY 2014 Written Statements 14WS

Future papers from the Scotland analysis programme PRIME MINISTER will be published over the course of 2014 to ensure that people in Scotland have access to the facts and information Machinery of Government Change: CANparent Trial ahead of the referendum. Copies of the paper are available in the Vote Office. The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron): This written ministerial statement confirms responsibility for the CANparent trial and associated market development JUSTICE contract will transfer from the Department for Education to the Department of Health on 1 April 2014 for one year. Responsibility for parenting policy will remain with the Department for Education. EU Treaties

TRANSPORT The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling): The Ministry of Justice and the Home Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Charging Scheme Office have prepared the fourth annual report to Parliament on the application of protocols 19 and 21 to the treaty on European Union (TEU) and the treaty on the The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (“the treaties”) (Mr Robert Goodwill): The Dartford-Thurrock crossing in relation to EU Justice and Home Affairs matters. charging scheme account for 2012-13 is published today The report is submitted on behalf of both my own under section 3(1)(d) of the Trunk Road Charging Department and the Home Office. Schemes (Bridges and Tunnels) (Keeping of Accounts) On 9 June 2008 the then Leader of the House of (England) Regulations 2003. A copy of the accounts Lords committed to table a report in Parliament each will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. year setting out the decisions taken by the Government in accordance with protocol 21 (“the Justice and Home Affairs opt-in protocol”) and to make that report available WORK AND PENSIONS for debate. These commitments were designed to ensure that the views of the Scrutiny Committees should inform Pensions the Government’s decision-making process. The Minister for Europe confirmed this commitment on behalf of the coalition Government in 2011, and this The Minister of State, Department for Work and is the fourth such report. It covers the period 1 December Pensions (Steve Webb): This Government are committed 2012 to 30 November 2013. For completeness, the report to tackling high charges in workplace pension schemes, also covers the application of protocol 19 to the treaties in particular, for those workers who do not exercise any on the Schengen acquis integrated into the framework choice, where they are automatically enrolled into a of the EU (“the Schengen opt-out protocol”). scheme then remain in the default fund. Over the period covered in the report, the Government Our consultation on pension scheme charging closed took 21 decisions on UK participation in EU Justice at the end of November. We continue to examine the and Home Affairs legislative proposals. Of these, the responses, and will bring forward further proposals, in UK opted in to 13 proposals. The Government have not due course. However, one strong theme to emerge is taken any decisions under the Schengen opt-out protocol about the timing for the implementation of any changes. during the period covered by this report. At the point of We remain strongly minded to cap pension scheme publication, 11 EU legislative proposals are subject to charges in the default funds used for automatic enrolment. ministerial and parliamentary consideration with regard However, we have consistently encouraged firms to to an opt-in decision. The report also provides an start getting ready for automatic enrolment 12 months indicative list of legislative proposals which are expected ahead of the time the new employer duties apply to to be brought forward over the next 12 months that are them. Therefore, to give those employers at least 12 months’ likely to require a decision on UK participation under notice of the rules that will apply to them, I can confirm the Justice and Home Affairs opt-in or Schengen opt-out that any cap on charges will not be introduced before protocols. April 2015.

263W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 264W

Steve Webb: When Section 137 of the Welfare Reform Written Answers to Act 2012 comes into force, the Child Maintenance Service will only be permitted to require clients to use Questions the collect and pay service where either (a) the non-resident parent agrees or (b) the non-resident parent is considered unlikely to pay. If a parent with care wishes to use the Thursday 23 January 2014 collect and pay service in circumstances where the legal framework allows for this, they will be permitted to do so and the service will not be withdrawn. Where a parent with care considers that the Secretary WORK AND PENSIONS of State has acted unreasonably in determining whether a non-resident parent is unlikely to pay and therefore that Children: Maintenance the case should progress onto Direct Pay against the parent with care’s wishes, they may ask for this decision to be reviewed. If unsatisfied with the outcome of the Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work review they may make a complaint to the Independent and Pensions what criteria will be used by his Department Case Examiner. In the case of maladministration, a in its operational readiness review in March 2014 to complaint may be made to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. determine whether the new statutory child maintenance And, where all other available remedies have been exhausted, service is working sufficiently well to permit the introduction an application may be made to the courts for judicial of fees to use the service and to begin to close down all review of the decision. Child Support Agency cases. [184134] Employment and Support Allowance Steve Webb: The project will use the Department for Work and Pensions Project Change Lifecycle Framework John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for criteria to assess readiness to introduce fees and begin Work and Pensions what guidance and support his the closedown of Child Support Agency cases. Department provides to people assessed as fit for work by ATOS and declined employment support allowance Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work whilst awaiting reconsideration. [183950] and Pensions what representations he has received in relation to the application of Article 6 of the European Mike Penning: When a decision maker has decided Convention on Human Rights with regard to the lack that a claimant does not have limited capability for work of right of appeal against the imposition of ongoing following a Work Capability Assessment, the Department child maintenance collection charge by the Child makes a decision assurance call. During this call, the Maintenance Service. [184135] claimant can be advised of what alternative benefits may be available and what action to take if they dispute Steve Webb: We have been unable to find any the decision. representations made directly to us about Article 6 of The decision letter issued to the claimant in these the European Convention on Human Rights with regard circumstances also provides detailed advice on claiming to the Child Maintenance Service’s charging of fees. jobseeker’s allowance and other benefits. Jobcentres The legislation and draft regulations enabling the collection also provide further advice to claimants to help them charge for the Child Maintenance Service are, however, return to work. fully compatible with the Human Rights Act. The decision to charge a fee for collecting child Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work maintenance via the Child Maintenance Service is not and Pensions what steps he takes to ensure that there discretionary and all clients using this service will be are not discrepancies between the number of people required to pay these charges as a contribution to (a) paid employment and support allowance and (b) meeting the cost of the service. The collection fee imposed the number that work capability providers are paid to by the Child Maintenance Service is a percentage of the assess. [183955] maintenance due and is calculated in direct proportion to the amount of the child maintenance that a client Mike Penning: There is no direct connection between must pay. Should a client believe that the amount of having an assessment and being paid employment and child maintenance assessed is incorrect, or that there is support allowance. no obligation to pay maintenance at all, there are existing DWP validates all claims for payment by the assessment provisions for an appeal to be made to the First-Tier provider by selecting a representative sample of cases Tribunal. and checking against its own records to confirm the validity of that payment. Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in what circumstances the Child Maintenance EU Law Service will consider withdrawal of its collect and pay service from a parent with care who is using it and Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work wishes to continue to use it; and what mechanism will and Pensions how many EU directives his Department be made available to parents with care to appeal a has transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many decision by the Secretary of State to withdraw access to directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in the collect and pay service should they wish to continue his Department’s area of responsibility in the same using it. [184136] period. [183873] 265W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 266W

Mike Penning: Since 2010, 65 EU directives have been Benefit Category transposed. Of which three concern occupational safety and health (Directive 2006/25/EC on artificial optical Disablement benefit radiation, Directive 2009/161/EU establishing a Third Bereavement benefits List of Indicative Occupational Exposure Limit Values, State retirement pension and Directive 2010/32/EU implementing the Framework Agreement on prevention of sharp injuries in the hospital Winter fuel payment and healthcare sector); two concern the identification Child tax credit and traceability of explosives (Directives 2008/43/EC and Child benefit 2012/4/EU); 60 principally concern technical authorisations for biocidal products (these are mainly amendments to Disability living allowance (mobility) SNCBs Not exportable the annexes of Directive 98/8/EC to authorise the placing Personal independence payment on the EU market of individual biocidal products, (mobility) including to the benefit of businesses developing Pension Credit such products). Jobseeker’s allowance (income Since 2010, 30 direct-acting EU regulations have based) come into effect in the Department’s area of responsibility. Employment and support allowance Of which 13 concern EU regulation of chemical substances; (income related) 17 concern EU regulation of biocidal products, including the new EU Biocides Regulation which has replaced Housing benefit Social Not exportable Directive 98/8/EC and further technical approvals for assistance substances to be used in individual biocidal products. Income support EU Social Policy Jobcentre Plus: Telephone Services

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 6 January Work and Pensions (1) what total number of telephones 2014, Official Report, column 50W,on EU social policy, was available in the Jobcentre Plus network to enable which UK public funds are classified by the Government jobseekers to contact officials in his Department free of as (a) social assistance and (b) social security for the charge with benefit queries on 1 January (a) 2010, (b) purposes of interpreting requirements of the EU Treaty. 2013 and (c) 2014; [184108] [184045] (2) what the average number of telephones was in each jobcentre to enable jobseekers to contact officials Esther McVey: The Government’s position is as follows. in his Department free of charge with benefit queries The Department for Work and Pensions administers on 1 January (a) 2010, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014; and if three classes of benefits: he will make a statement. [184109] Social security benefits are designed to cover a number of specified risks which are set out in Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 Esther McVey: With the increase in online and digital on the coordination of social security systems, such as sickness platforms for benefit claims and job search, we have benefits, old-age benefits and unemployment benefits. These benefits been moving towards an assisted service for vulnerable are covered by the EU social security coordination rules and can claimants where queries are dealt with face to face for be exportable, i.e. these benefits are paid to UK nationals and EU citizens who no longer live in the UK, but are now resident those claimants who require our support. As a consequence elsewhere in the EU. the number of phones deployed has been falling. We are Social assistance benefits are means tested benefits with particular unable to provide data from 2010 but in 2012 the qualifying conditions based on residence. They are not covered by number of phones deployed was 3,700. This has decreased EU social security coordination rules and are not exportable. by approximately 1,300 to 2,400. As we continue to Special non-contributory benefits (SNCBs) have characteristics develop our digital and assisted service these phones of both social security and social assistance benefits. They are will be gradually removed and the total will fall to zero. covered by EU social security coordination rules but are not exportable. Pensions Examples of these three benefits are detailed in the following table: Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to safeguard the Benefit Category rights of UK pension holders whose pensions have been placed in the hands of companies that are based abroad. Attendance allowance Social security Paid in EEA/ [184153] Switzerland Disability living allowance (Care) Steve Webb: Pension schemes that are registered in Personal independence payment (daily living) the UK remain subject to UK pensions regulations and Carer’s allowance come within the Regulator’s remit. The Regulator has significant anti-avoidance powers to ensure that Maternity allowance abandonment of schemes does not take place, or to take Jobseeker’s allowance (contribution action where it does. Where there is a deliberate act to based) avoid the employer’s debt to the scheme or an act which Employment support allowance (contribution based) will detrimentally affect the likelihood of accrued scheme Industrial injuries benefits being received, the Pensions Regulator has a power to issue a contribution notice. Where the legal 267W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 268W tests required by the legislation are met, the Regulator Social Security Benefits: EU Nationals can require a cash contribution to be made to the scheme. Mr Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and The Regulator also has the power to issue a Financial Pensions for what reason three months was chosen as Support Direction (FSD) which requires arrangements the length of time before an EU migrant can claim to be put in place to ensure that the employer will fund benefits. [184151] members’ benefits in full. In the case of a takeover, the acquiring company may come within the ambit of the Esther McVey: The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Habitual FSD provisions, if the conditions are satisfied. Residence) Amendment Regulations 2013 has been laid Pensions legislation includes rules governing the service with a three months residence requirement to apply to of documents and this is intended to operate outside an EU migrant claiming income-based JSA. It is legitimate the UK jurisdiction. The power to enforce any regulatory for the UK to pay income-based JSA only if there is a action against a non-UK company is likely to require genuine link between the jobseeker and the labour the approval or cooperation of the relevant overseas market, and that the person has, for a reasonable period, authorities. genuinely sought work. A three-month period is an appropriate and proportionate period of time to establish that link. Pensions Regulator Social Security Benefits: Foreign Nationals Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the adequacy of resources provided to the Pensions Work and Pensions what consideration has been given Regulator. [184154] to the use of a national identity card system for determining eligibility for receipt of welfare payments. Steve Webb: The adequacy of the resources allocated [184120] to the Pensions Regulator is reviewed regularly. A review is under way to determine the resources the body requires Esther McVey: No consideration has been given to in order to pursue its objectives in 2014-15. This review the use of a national identity card system for determining will inform the development of the Pensions Regulator’s eligibility for receipt of welfare payments, as there are Business Plan, effective from April 2014, which it will no plans to introduce national identity cards. publish in due course. Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations Social Security Benefits: Brigg Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress his Department has Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work made on addressing issues regarding ATOS testing for and Pensions how many people in Brigg and Goole disability benefit claimants. [183917] constituency have had their benefit withdrawn for refusing to work in each year since 2010. [184183] Mike Penning: ‘Atos testing’ has been interpreted to be the work capability assessments in the medical services Esther McVey: The information is shown in the following agreement. table. DWP continually monitors the effectiveness of Atos Number of individuals with an adverse jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) sanction Healthcare’s performance. decision for refusal of employment, in Brigg and Goole parliamentary constituency, 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2013 In July 2013, we announced an unacceptable drop in Number the quality of reports provided by Atos Healthcare. Since then, the Department has been working closely 2010 40 with Atos Healthcare to progress their quality improvement 2011 110 plans, which has seen Atos overhaul their audit 2012 (1 January to 31 May) 20 arrangements and put their work force through a process 2012 (22 October to 31 December) 10 of retraining and re-accreditation. 2013 (1 January to 30 June) — Notes: DWP has announced that they will bring in new 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. “—” denotes nil or negligible. assessment provision to provide additional delivery capacity 2. Data is to 30 June 2013 which is the latest available information. for work capability assessments with the aim of reducing 3. Due to a data issue, information on JSA sanctions for the period 1 June 2012 to 21 October 2012 is not readily available at parliamentary constituency level. waiting times. Commercial activity to procure this additional The JSA sanction figures for this year have therefore been provided separately delivery capacity is already under way. for the two time periods which are available. 4. Figures may include individuals who have had more than one adverse Telephone Services sanction decision e.g. if an individual has a sanction applied in two different time periods, they will appear in each period above. 5. The number of sanctions applied up to 21 October 2012 is the number of varied, fixed length and entitlement decision referrals where there has been an Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for adverse decision. Work and Pensions what decision he has made on the 6. New sanctions rules came into force for JSA from 22 October 2012. The case for using 03 telephone numbers for calls from number of sanctions applied is the number of low, intermediate and high level referrals where the decision was found against the claimant. Further information members of the public with benefit queries. [184110] can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jobseekers-allowance-overview- Esther McVey: DWP will start to introduce 03 numbers of-sanctions-rules Source: alongside its existing 0845 range during March 2014. DWP: sanctions and disallowance decisions statistics database. This dual number approach will allow the caller to 269W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 270W make a choice on which number is best for them given On 6 December 2013, the Department published the the terms of their personal telephone contract. This Universal Credit Local Support Services Framework approach is in accordance with Cabinet Office Guidance Update and Trialling Plan. This refocuses the local for Customer Service Helplines. support services work following announcements setting out revisions to the roll-out of universal credit. Unemployment: Ethnic Groups Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to reduce Work and Pensions whether his assessment of the unemployment among black and ethnic minority young effectiveness of the Work Programme will include (a) people. [184040] data on claimants returning to Jobcentre services and (b) a survey of the experiences of those completing the Esther McVey: The Government’s strategy for increasing Work Programme. [183947] ethnic minority employment and participation in the labour market is based around mainstreaming opportunity Esther McVey: Work Programme performance statistics through locally delivered flexible provision. data and experiences of Work Programme returners The help and services we deliver in DWP, through have and will be used in assessment of the effectiveness Jobcentre Plus and through Work programme providers, of the programme. are designed to allow flexibility to support each individual jobseeker, rather than treat people according to ethnic groups. Local autonomy and flexibility has replaced the HEALTH one size fits all approach that has dogged previous employment schemes. Action on Smoking and Health Where there are significant numbers of local claimants with a shared ethnic background and common barriers Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health to employment, a provider or jobcentre may choose to (1) when his Department has met representatives to the put in place provision designed to help that group. That Action on Smoking and Health charity since July 2013; would be an entirely appropriate local response. how many such meetings have been held to discuss proposals for standardised tobacco packaging; and who Unemployment: Greater London was present at each such meeting; [183770] (2) how much funding the Action on Smoking and Health charity received from his Department in the last Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for year; and what assessment he has made of how these Work and Pensions how many times he has met the funds have been spent; [183771] Mayor of London to discuss unemployment in London since May 2010. [184041] (3) on how many occasions he or his Department met an organisation, group or person to discuss Esther McVey: The Secretary of State for Work and tobacco control regulation in the last year; who Pensions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford attended each such meeting; which aspect of tobacco and Woodford Green (Mr Duncan Smith), has met with control was discussed at each such meeting; and what the Mayor of London on a number of occasions since the date was of each such meeting; [183781] May 2010 and has discussed a variety of issues. (4) on how many occasions his Department met representatives of the charity Action on Smoking and Universal Credit Health to discuss the Tobacco Products Directive in the last year; and who was present at each such meeting. [183785] Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what role he envisages for local Jane Ellison: Ministers and officials meet a range of authorities in the administration of universal credit. organisations on a regular basis to discuss many aspects [184126] of tobacco control. Since July 2013 the Department has had six meetings Esther McVey: We recognise that some people will specifically with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), need help with the new demands of universal credit. and one of these meetings was specifically about This could include understanding the new system, help Standardised Packaging. Departmental attendees at these with getting online, and help with managing on a monthly meetings have included tobacco policy team officials budget and paying rent. and departmental lawyers. In conjunction with local authorities in England, In the last year, the Department has not had any Scotland and Wales, the Department has published the specific meetings with ASH to discuss the proposed Universal Credit Local Support Services Framework revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive. (February 2013). This provides a structure for the delivery There have also been other meetings and events that of local support services to individuals needing additional both Department and ASH have attended; some of help with the new demands of universal credit. these meetings have been with the Smokefree Action Central to the local support services framework is the Coalition, whose membership includes health charities, ″Delivery Partnerships Approach″ under which DWP academics, clinicians and local authorities for which and local authority managers will work together to ASH provides the secretariat. I was present for two of agree upon delivery of services at the local level. these meetings. 271W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 272W

ASH received a grant for £150,000 for the financial times from service request to first treatment appointment, year 2012-13. The Department held regular governance as average waiting times are not available. meetings and received update reports from ASH in Data are available for 2012-13 and for Quarter 1 of accordance with the terms of all grants awarded under 2013-14 in the following tables. Section 64 of the Health and Social Care Act 1968. These arrangements were subject to a routine internal Number of days1 from service request2 to first treatment appointment3 audit review in 2012 which was fully satisfactory. 2012-13 England Between Between 28 days 29 and 57 and More than Cholesterol or less 56 days 90 days 90 days

England 274,975 89,967 35,844 33,461 Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for total Health what steps his Department is taking to reduce 1 These figures are currently presented as experimental statistics. To the number of adults with high blood cholesterol in view “Psychological Therapies, Annual Report on the Use of Improving England. [183736] Access to Psychological Therapies Services—England, 2012-13”, and the Background Data Quality statement, which provides information Jane Ellison: The Government has an ambitious about the data quality issues affecting these figures, please go to: www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB13339 programme to improve public health through strengthening 2 As this is the first year of reporting from the IAPT dataset, only local action, behavioural changes and promoting healthy those service requests received in the year are included. Referrals that choices, and changing the environment to support healthier predate this point as not included in the figures. lives. 3 Those service requests that ended before treatment, or those that were still waiting for treatment at the end of the reporting period, are We know that many premature deaths and illnesses not included in the figures. could be avoided by improving lifestyles. Blood cholesterol Source: levels can be lowered by eating a healthy, balanced diet Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset that is low in saturated fat, taking regular exercise, stop www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB11842 smoking and reducing alcohol intake. www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB11842 Our programme includes national ambitions to reduce Number of days1 from service request to first treatment appointment2 smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and harmful use where the first treatment appointment occurred within the reporting of alcohol, all with appropriate metrics included in the period quarter 1 2013-14, England public health outcomes framework. Between Between 28 days 29 and 57 and More than In addition to this, through the NHS Health Check, or less 56 days 90 days 90 days people between the ages of 40 and 74 are offered a range of checks on their health, including on cholesterol England 92,638 32,482 14,194 19,310 levels. The check gives doctors an opportunity for the total 1 These figures are currently presented as experimental statistics. To early identification of cardiovascular risks in the adult view “Quarterly Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Data population. Set Reports, England—Final Q1 summary statistics and related The Department’s mandate for NHS England sets information, Experimental statistics”, and the Background Data Quality out the improvements in health and health care outcomes statement, which provides information about the data quality issues affecting these figures, please go to: that the national health service is expected to deliver, www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB11842 and the priorities for improvement are reflected in the 2 Those service requests that were yet to have a first treatment at the NHS outcomes framework. This includes supporting end of the reporting period are not included in the figures. earlier diagnosis of illness by tackling issues such as Source: high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset both risk factors for coronary heart disease. Data collected on IAPT prior to 2012-13 cannot be broken down to show waiting times. Counselling

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health Depressive Illnesses what the average waiting time was for access to NHS counselling services in each of the last 10 years. [183727] Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which drugs are the five most frequently prescribed Norman Lamb: The information is not available in in the NHS for treatment of anxiety and depression; the format requested or for the full period. [183732] Data on average waiting times for access to NHS (2) what the cost to the NHS of prescriptions was for counselling services from 2004-2008 have not been collected, anti-depressant drugs in each of the last 10 years; as a national psychological therapy service did not exist [183737] during this period, and information was not collected (3) how many prescriptions for anti-depressants were for locally commissioned services. issued in (a) England, (b) each region of England and There are a range of talking therapies and counselling (c) each health authority area in each of the last 10 available for the treatment of depression and anxiety. years. [183743] We do not keep data on all of these. The Health and Social Care Information Centre has Norman Lamb: Information on the five medicines for collected data on waiting times for Improving Access to the treatment of anxiety and depression, with the most Psychological Therapies (IAPT) from 2012-13. This is prescriptions dispensed, in the last financial year, 2012-13, presented as a distribution of banded times waiting is provided. 273W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 274W

Table 1: The five most frequently dispensed medicines used for the treatment of anxiety, as defined by section 4.1.2 Anxiolytics of the British National Formulary (BNF) and for depression, as defined by section 4.3 Antidepressant drugs of the BNF, in terms of prescription items written in the United Kingdom and dispensed in the community, in England, in 2012-131 BNF 4.1.2 Anxiolytics BNF 4.3 Antidepressant drugs Items dispensed Items dispensed Ranking Name (thousand) Name (thousand)

1 Diazepam 5,245.3 Citalopram Hydrobromide 13,576.3 2 Lorazepam 1,012.3 Amitriptyline Hydrochloride 10,513,1 3 Chlordiazepoxide Hydrochloride 166.2 Fluoxetine Hydrochloride 5,874.8 4 Buspirone Hydrochloride 150.5 Sertraline Hydrochloride 5,220.5 5 Oxazepam 150.4 Mirtazapine 4,730.5 1 Medicines may be used to treat conditions other than the therapeutic classifications defined in the BNF. Source. Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system. The Health and Social Care Information Centre, Prescribing and Primary Care Services.

The cost of antidepressant prescription items dispensed Table 2: The net ingredient cost (NIC) of prescription items written in the UK and dispensed in the community, in England, for medicines classified as anti- in. each of the last 10 financial years, together with the depressants in BNF section 4.3 Antidepressant drugs, for each of the last number of items, is provided. available 10 financial years, together with the number of prescription items dispensed1 Table 2: The net ingredient cost (NIC) of prescription items written in the UK and dispensed in the community, in England, for medicines classified as anti- £000 depressants in BNF section 4.3 Antidepressant drugs, for each of the last NIC Prescription items available 10 financial years, together with the number of prescription items dispensed1 2011-12 253,538.8 47,743.6 £000 2012-13 216,870.6 50,663.9 NIC Prescription items 1 Medicines may be used to treat conditions other than the therapeutic classifications defined in the BNF. 2003-04 398,132.2 28,098.9 Source: 2004-05 393,588.2 28,913.4 Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system. The Health and Social Care Information Centre, Prescribing and Primary Care Services. 2005-06 322,035.5 29,878.5 2006-07 285,623.6 31,704.6 Information is not held centrally on the number of 2007-08 268,163.4 34,325.9 prescriptions issued. Information is available for the 2008-09 242,880.2 36,531.2 number of prescription items dispensed for England 2009-10 225,843.2 40,096.8 and by special health authorities only and is not available 2010-11 237,802.4 43,735.5 for a full 10 year period.

Table 3: Number of prescription items dispensed in the community for antidepressant medicines, as defined by BNF section 4.3 Antidepressant drugs, written in England and by strategic health authority (SHA), in the UK, with the net ingredient cost1, 2, 3 Prescription items (thousand) 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13

England4 39,736,1 43,388.5 47,405.8 50,334.2

SHA East Midlands 3,561.8 3,899.0 4,281.4 4,573.3 East of England 4,559.4 4,999.9 5,470.1 5,833.8 London 3,588.8 3,916.2 4,289.4 4,532.8 North East 2,818.7 3,118.6 3,424.2 3,648.7 North West 6,617.0 7,184.4 7,815.9 8,271.7 South Central 3,023.0 3,285.4 3,533.4 3,687.8 South East Coast 3,046.8 3,328.8 3,636.1 3,874.2 South West 4,245.2 4,651.3 5,116.2 5,452.9 West Midlands 3,842.0 4,174.1 4,570.8 4,840.3 Yorkshire and the Humber 4,422.6 4,813.7 5,248.6 5,581.1 Unidentified5 10.9 17.2 19.8 37.7

NIC (£000) 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13

England4 223,108.2 235,350.8 251,178.9 214,892.7

SHA East Midlands 18,138.9 19,936.6 21,853.8 18,928.9 East of England 25,605.9 27,009.8 28,663.7 24,301.5 London 22,233.0 23,721.2 24,708.7 20,330.0 North East 14,441.1 15,362.4 15,865.8 13,262.8 North West 37,790.0 38,602.1 40,981.2 35,693.3 South Central 17,231.2 17,778.4 19,542.5 16,729.9 South East Coast 19,686.3 21,180.8 22,885.8 19,751.7 South West 22,842.8 24,006.8 26,326.2 23,001.2 275W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 276W

NIC (£000) 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13

West Midlands 22,766.6 24,228.2 25,509.5 21,353.3 Yorkshire and the Humber 22,313.5 23,426.7 24,742.9 21,396.4 Unidentified5 59.0 97.8 98.6 143.9 1 Medicines may be used to treat conditions other than the therapeutic classifications defined in the BNF. 2 ePACT data has been used as this is available at sub-national level but is only available for financial years 2009-10 onwards. 3 Information is not available by geographical region. 4 Due to a different data source being used for this PQ figures for England do not exactly match England totals in Table 2. 5 Represents prescription items that cannot be attributed to a named SHA. Source: Prescribing Analysis and CosT tool (ePACT) system. The Health and Social Care Information Centre, Prescribing and Primary Care Services.

Health Services: Foreign Nationals “Hepatitis C in London: annual review (2011 data)”, available at: Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for www.hpa.org.uk/Publications/InfectiousDiseases/BloodBorne Health what consideration has been given to the use of Infections/HepatitisCInTheUK/ a national identity card system for determining eligibility 1208HepCinLondon2011review/ for treatment by the national health service. [184112] PHE has worked with the Local Government Association to produce the document “Hepatitis: frequently asked Jane Ellison: A national identity card system for questions: briefing for councillors”, that can support determining eligibility for treatment by the national the work of overview and scrutiny committees and health service was taken into consideration as part of health and wellbeing boards, this is available at: the work on improving recovery of charges from visitors www.local.gov.uk/c/document_library/ and migrants accessing health care. Having taken into get_file?uuid=f0e5b7b9-c32e-4c8e-a005- consideration a number of factors, including cost, it b5c4e87b0126&groupId=10180 was decided not to pursue this approach. PHE has also co-developed the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Certificate in the Detection, Health: Children Diagnosis and Management of Hepatitis B and C in Primary Care to help raise awareness in primary care Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and among other professionals working with groups at pursuant to the answer of 13 January 2014, Official high risk of chronic viral hepatitis infection. By May Report, column 414W, on health: children, if he will 2013, 936 individuals had completed the RCGP e-learning commission a sample study or a review of sample module; 360 individuals had completed level 1 of the studies to discover the levels of unfitness in schoolchildren. certificate (comprising both the e-module and face-to-face [183886] training). Jane Ellison: The Department has not planned to Home Care Services: Pay commission a sample study or a review of sample studies to discover the level of unfitness in schoolchildren. John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for We know that too many children are overweight and Health what assessment he has made of levels of adherence we want more children to do regular exercise. So that all to minimum wage legislation in the home care sector. pupils develop healthy, active lifestyles, the Government [184180] is providing primary schools with over £450 million of ring-fenced funding to improve physical education and Norman Lamb: The Department for Business, Innovation sport provision over academic years 2013-14, 2014-15 and Skills (BIS) is responsible for national minimum and 2015-16. wage (NMW) policy, including the policy on compliance and enforcement. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Hepatitis enforce the NMW on BIS’s behalf. The Government is taking action to improve compliance Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for with national minimum wage legislation including HMRC’s Health what steps his Department is taking to raise targeted enforcement activity on non-compliance in the awareness of the prevention, early identification and care sector. HMRC is also collaborating with care sector treatment of hepatitis C. [183787] representative bodies to improve understanding of compliance risks and design controls within payroll Jane Ellison: Through Public Health England (PHE), systems that prevent workers being underpaid the minimum the Department continues to raise awareness of hepatitis wage. C among professionals and the public. Major reports published recently include “Hepatitis C in the UK: Mental Health Services 2013”, available at: www.hpa.org.uk/Publications/InfectiousDiseases/BloodBorne Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health Infections/HepatitisCInTheUK/1307HepatitisCintheUK2013 how many (a) men, (b) women and (c) children were report/ referred through the NHS for counselling to treat depression “An audit of hepatitis C services in a representative and anxiety in each of the last 10 years. [183744] sample of English prisons, 2013”, available at: www.hpa.org.uk/Publications/InfectiousDiseases/BloodBorne Norman Lamb: There is a range of talking therapies Infections/HepatitisCInTheUK/1305AuditofHepCservicesin and counselling available for the treatment of depression Englishprisons/ and anxiety. We do not keep data on ail of these. 277W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 278W

However, since 2008 we have collected data on the convention on civil and political rights and the chemical Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme. weapons convention. I will be repeating these calls in This data was collected, through an aggregate Key person to members of the Burmese Government during Performance Indicators collection, but this does not my visit to Burma later this month. provide the required breakdown of men, women and children. Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what conditions Trust the UK is seeking before the arms embargo on Burma is lifted; and if he will make a statement. [184165] Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients waited longer than four Mr Swire: The EU arms embargo and restrictions on hours at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire the supply of equipment which could be used for internal NHS Trust accident and emergency department in the repression will be reviewed in April. The Burmese military latest period for which figures are available; and how must demonstrate their genuine commitment to reform long the longest wait was during that period. [184035] before any change is considered. Jane Ellison: Information is not available in the format We will continue to use our discussions with the requested. Information on longest waits in accident and Burmese military to tackle human rights issues such as emergency (A&E) departments is not collected centrally. the use of child soldiers, and to bring an end to sexual For University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire violence in conflict areas. NHS Trust, in the week ending 12 January 2014, 182 patients spent longer than four hours in A&E departments Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for (all types) from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is This represents 5.7% of patients attending. Statistics on on the UK training of military police in Burma; and if A&E departments are published weekly on the NHS he will make a statement. [184167] England website at: www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae- Mr Swire: We believe that engagement with both the waiting-times-and-activity/ Burmese military and with the Burmese police is the best way to encourage their participation in the country’s democratic regions, and to encourage their own transition FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE into institutions fit for a democratic era. Bahrain From 6 to 17 January 2014, the UK Defence Academy successfully delivered an educational course to 30 students Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for drawn from government and the Burmese military with Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment academic partners from Cranfield University. The course he has made of whether the UN is likely to approve a did not build any military capacity or capability. Aung body to provide independent oversight to political San Suu Kyi supported its delivery and attended the reform in Bahrain following opposition to the National closing ceremony. Commission appointed after the BICI report. [183923] In 2013, the EU launched a ¤10 million project to take place over 18 months to provide Burmese police Hugh Robertson: Any request for independent oversight officers with training in community policing and public of the national dialogue process is a decision for the order best practice. The UK is contributing directly to Government of Bahrain. We continue to encourage all this project, and four serving British police officers have parties to engage constructively in the dialogue and to so far been involved. Former Northern Irish Police build the trust and confidence necessary for longer-term officers will lead on a community policing element. reconciliation. Burma EU Countries: Competition Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports the Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Government has received of violations of international Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress he law taking place in Burma. [183719] has made on the review of the balance of competitiveness of the EU. [183891] Mr Swire: The Government receives a wide range of reports concerning the situation in Burma, some of Mr Lidington: The first set of Balance of Competence which contain allegations of violations of international reports were published on 22 July 2013. Departments norms. For example, the UN special rapporteur on the are working on the second semester reports and will situation of human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, publish these as soon as they are ready. Calls for evidence regularly highlights in his reports to the UN General for the third set of reports closed last week and Departments Assembly areas where international human rights standards are now drafting these reports. have been contravened. We continue to urge the Burmese Government to EU Law adhere to international standards across the full range of issues, from human rights to non-proliferation. We are specially pressing for the opening of an Office of the Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign High Commissioner for Human Rights and the ratification and Commonwealth Affairs how many EU directives of key conventions and protocols, such as the international his Department has transposed into UK law since 2010; 279W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 280W and how many directly acting EU regulations have Syria come into effect in his Department’s area of responsibility in the same period. [183866] Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make an Mr Lidington: Since 1 January 2010 the Foreign and assessment of the effect of the vote in the House of Commonwealth Office has not transposed any EU directives Commons of 30 August 2013 on military intervention into UK law. In the same period, the EU has adopted in Syria on the UK’s (a) diplomatic and (b) trade 285 regulations dealing with sanctions which are the objectives in respect of (i) Saudi Arabia and (ii) the responsibility of several Government Departments. United Arab Emirates. [184021]

Iran Hugh Robertson: We enjoy strong bilateral relationships with both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for We share concerns about the situation in Syria and are Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the working closely with our Gulf allies as part of wider answer of 16 January 2014, Official Report, column international efforts to address the crisis. 607W, on Iran, if he will take steps to develop and seek Thailand agreement on a mechanism for the inclusion of Saudi Arabia formally in the process. [184019] Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations Hugh Robertson: We fully recognise the interest that he has made to his counterpart in Thailand to encourage regional countries, including Saudi Arabia, have in that country to provide safe shelter to Rohingya children developments regarding Iran’s nuclear programme. We and their families who arrive there by boat. [183726] engage regularly with them on this issue and will continue to do so. However, it would not be appropriate to Mr Swire: UK Ministers and senior officials regularly develop a formal mechanism for including them in E3 raise concerns about the treatment of the Rohingya in plus 3 negotiations with Iran. Thailand. I raised the issue with Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jullapong Nonsrichai at the inaugural Malaysia UK-Thailand Strategic Dialogue I co-chaired in Bangkok in May 2013. John Glen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Through our embassy in Bangkok, the UK continues and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make to press Thailand to ensure that international protocols representations to the Malaysian Government about governing the treatment of refugees are strictly adhered the confiscation of Bibles by Islamic authorities in that to by offering protection and assistance to those who country. [183855] land on her shores, by moving those Rohingya detained in immigration detention centres to more appropriate Mr Swire: We are following closely developments in facilities, and offering family reunification of split families. Malaysia on the use by Christians of the word of ‘Allah’, including the seizure of Malay language bibles Western Sahara by the religious authorities in the state of Selangor on 2 January. We have raised our concerns with Malaysian Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Ministers. and Commonwealth Affairs if he will (a) discuss with the Moroccan ambassador to the UK and (b) instruct John Glen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign HM ambassador in Rabat to report on the incidents in and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he El Aaiún, Western Sahara, on 15 January 2014. has made of the extent of religious freedom in [184000] Malaysia. [183856] Hugh Robertson: We are aware of reports of an Mr Swire: We regularly underline our support for incident and have asked our embassy in Rabat for respecting human rights, including freedom of religion, further information. We raise human rights issues relating in our contacts with the Malaysian Government. Our to Western Sahara regularly with the Moroccan authorities, high commissioner in Kuala Lumpur has raised the including at senior level in Rabat and during the embassy’s issue with Malaysian Ministers. regular visits to Western Sahara.

Nuclear Weapons HOME DEPARTMENT Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Animal Experiments and Commonwealth Affairs whether the UK will send a representative to the conference on the Humanitarian Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Consequences of Nuclear Weapons in Nayarit, Mexico Home Department how many horses in each licensed on 13 to 14 February 2014. [184084] establishment were used in medical experiments in the UK in (a) 2012 and (b) 2013. [182725] Hugh Robertson: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 2 December 2013, Official Report, column 570W, to Norman Baker [holding answer 14 January 2014]: In the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn). 2012, 191 horses and other equids were used in animal I will inform the House when a decision on attendance scientific procedures in Great Britain. The Home Office has been made. expects to publish statistics for 2013 in June/July 2014. 281W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 282W

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Norman Baker [holding answer 17 January 2014]: Safety in Northern Ireland (DHSSPSNI) separately Ireland is the only member state that shares our Justice publishes figures for Northern Ireland. In 2012, seven and Home Affairs Opt-in and Schengen Opt-out (Protocols horses and other equids were used in animal scientific 21 and 19 to the EU Treaties) status. procedures in Northern Ireland. To date, we have not received any indication that The publication of 2013 statistics for Northern Ireland Ireland intends to opt out of either of the Commission’s is a matter for DHSSPSNI. recent proposals on new psychoactive substances. There are a number of other member states who Domestic Violence share our concerns on the legal base and we are working closely with them to negotiate effectively at the Horizontal Drugs Group in Brussels. Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking Human Trafficking to reduce levels of domestic violence in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what assistance her Department offers to victims of domestic Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the violence. [183517] Home Department if she will publish the selection criteria for first responders to the National Referral Mechanism; and if she will make a statement. [181072] Norman Baker [holding answer 20 January 2014]: The coalition Government’s approach to tackling domestic James Brokenshire: The National Referral Mechanism violence and abuse is set out in our Call to End Violence (NRM) is a framework for identifying victims of trafficking Against Women and Girls Strategy and supporting and enabling them to access care and support. There action plan 2013. We have ring-fenced nearly £40 million are no written criteria for first responders to the National of stable funding for specialist local domestic and sexual Referral Mechanism (NRM). violence support services until 2015. This helps fund 144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and 54 Those applying for first responder status are asked to Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference Co-ordinators provide evidence of their understanding and support of across England and Wales. the NRM process; show a sound knowledge of human trafficking and how their work routinely brings them The Home Office has provided funding to domestic into direct contact with individuals who could be victims violence and abuse services in the West Midlands, and of trafficking; and demonstrate how a direct referral this includes support for 15 Independent Domestic relationship would add value to existing processes. Violence Advisers and four Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference co-ordinators across the West Midlands as On 3 December, the Secretary of State for the Home a whole, including one such adviser in Coventry. Department announced a review of the NRM. The detail and terms of reference for the review are being considered at the moment. Driving Under Influence: Drugs Vetting Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many roadside drug analysis Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for the machines are in active use in (a) total and (b) each Home Department what target she has set for the police force. [184033] uptake of the Disclosure and Barring Service’s Update Service by employers and organisations; and what Norman Baker: There are currently no roadside drug assessment she has made of the rate of progress screening devices available to police forces. towards that target. [183922] Type approval work is ongoing to make suitable devices available for procurement by the police. The James Brokenshire: The Home Office did not set a Home Office has issued a specification for a roadside target for the Disclosure and Barring Service’s Update screening device. Manufacturers have been invited to Service. As a result, there is no target against which submit a device that meets this specification and a progress could be assessed. number of devices are currently undergoing testing. This work is due to be completed as close as possible to the introduction of the new offence of driving with more than a specified amount of a specified drug in the CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT body, which is due to be introduced this summer. EU Law Drugs: Misuse Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many EU directives her Department John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for the has transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many Home Department pursuant to the written statement directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in from the Minister for Crime Prevention of 13 January her Department’s area of responsibility in the same 2014, Official Report, column 22WS, on drug policy, period. [183861] whether she has received indications from other EU member states that they intend to opt out of the Mrs Grant: Since January 2010, DCMS has transposed Commission’s proposed directive on new psychoactive four EU directives into UK law; and four EU regulations substances. [183387] have come into effect within its areas of responsibility. 283W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 284W

Marriage Mrs Grant: Since 2010, 707 local authority pools in England have implemented the ASA Aquatics Pathway. John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, As sport is a devolved matter, ASA Aquatics Pathway Media and Sport when she plans to bring into force schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 the responsibility of the relevant Sports Council. which allows the conversion of civil partnerships in marriage. [184078] Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has Mrs Grant: As the Government announced on 10 received from amateur swimming clubs that closed because December 2013, we are working hard to ensure that they have not been permitted to teach swimming to couples wanting to convert their civil partnerships into beginners through the ASA Aquatics Pathway scheme. marriages are able to do so as soon as possible. We aim [183827] to do this before the end of 2014. Mrs Grant: DCMS has not received any such Museums and Galleries representations from amateur swimming clubs. Where circumstances change around the delivery of learn to Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for swim programmes, the ASA provides advice and support Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 13 to clubs on a case-by-case basis. January 2014, Official Report, column 371W, on museums and galleries, which legislation governs the Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for (a) Geffrye museum and (b) Horniman museum and Culture, Media and Sport how many amateur swimming gardens. [184042] clubs operated in local authority swimming pools in (a) Mr Vaizey: The Geffrye museum and the Horniman 2013, (b) 2012 and (c) 2011. [183828] museum and gardens are not governed by specific legislation. They are companies limited by guarantee, Mrs Grant: Neither Sport England nor the Amateur governed by Memoranda and Articles of Association, Swimming Association collect data on the number of and are registered as charities with the Charity Commission. swimming clubs operating in local authority swimming pools. Public Expenditure

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in what areas of her Department’s ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE spending reductions of 1.17 per cent in 2014-15 and 1.13 per cent in 2015-16 will be found. [184043] Energy: Finance

Mrs Grant: With the exception of budgets for minority Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for language broadcasting and contractually committed Energy and Climate Change how much private sector PFI schemes, these budget reductions were applied equally investment the Government has attracted since 2010 to across all of the Department’s budgets and those of its help provide long-term sustainable energy solutions. arm’s length bodies. Specific spending plans for 2014-15 [183914] and 2015-16 will now be made by each organisation against these reduced budgets. Michael Fallon: DECC estimates suggest that there Sports: National Lottery has been almost £40 billion investment in the electricity sector overall (generation and networks) since 2010; Bob Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for since November 2012 around £20 billion worth of Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to generation projects have achieved development consent, improve the transparency of national governing bodies with the capacity to generate electricity for over 6 of lottery-funded sports. [183809] million homes. Mrs Grant: Sport England has a comprehensive Energy: Prices assurance system to oversee the use of public money invested in national governing bodies of sports. The Mr Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for system uses a range of tools including (i) quarterly Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made finance and governance reviews; (ii) biannual reviews of of the financial effect of Ofgem’s decision to remove performance against award agreements; (iii) biannual the prompt payment discount. [183767] publication of the Active People Survey participation targets; (iv) an annual payment by results process; (v) Michael Fallon: Ofgem’s rules to standardise discounts annual self-assurance submission and action planning across suppliers and ban discounts that are dependent to ensure good governance; (vi) on-site inspection of on consumers’ behaviour, such as prompt payment every NGB at least once over a four year period. discounts are part of a package of reforms to the retail Swimming energy market so consumers face simpler tariff choices and receive clearer information. Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for The Department has not estimated the specific financial Culture, Media and Sport how many local authority effect of removing the prompt payment discount, but swimming pool operators in the UK have implemented Ofgem has estimated that the overall package of retail the ASA Aquatics Pathway scheme since its introduction. market reforms will result overall consumer benefit of [183825] £334 million a year. 285W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 286W

EU Law Carbon Capture and Storage); the need to maintain energy security; and market-led decisions based on Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy price. and Climate Change how many EU directives his Fracking: Yorkshire and the Humber Department has transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in his Department’s area of responsibility Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for in the same period. [183864] Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the number of jobs created Gregory Barker: Since 2010, the Department has by the fracking industry in Yorkshire and the Humber transposed eight EU directives into UK law. Two directives in the next 10 years. [184185] have been transposed without the need for new legislation. Details of all EU legislation, including EU regulations Michael Fallon: The Department has not made such which have come into force since 2010, can be found on an estimate. the Commission’s website: In a May 2013 report, the Institute of Directors http://eur-lex.europa.eu/RECH_legislation.do estimated that UK shale production could support 74,000 jobs. Fracking Plutonium Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether the Environment Agency Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy will be able to apply cost recovery to companies wishing and Climate Change whether any plutonium created in to operate wells for hydraulic fracturing of shale gas. UK civilian (a) commercial reactors and (b) research [183100] reactors has been put to use in (i) nuclear weapons in the UK or elsewhere and (ii) other military uses since Dan Rogerson: I have been asked to reply on behalf each reactor type first started operating in the UK. of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural [183738] Affairs. The Environment Agency’s work to regulate individual Mr Dunne: I have been asked to reply on behalf of shale gas sites is financed through the charges raised for the Ministry of Defence. environmental permits and licences. Operators of shale This was addressed in a Ministry of Defence April gas sites will submit an initial application fee, followed 2000 report on historical accounting and plutonium, a by a yearly ’subsistence’ fee, which is used to ensure summary of which is available in the National Archives compliance with permit conditions. at the following link: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20060130214247/ Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy http://www.mod.uk/publications/nuclear_weapons/ and Climate Change what liability regime will cover accounting.htm operators of hydraulic fracturing wells to extract shale Plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced in the gas. [183103] UK defence reactors at the Windscale Piles, Calder hall and Chapelcross. The UK Government announced a Michael Fallon: The operator is liable for any damage moratorium on the production of nuclear materials for or pollution which his operations may cause. An operator’s explosive purposes in 1995. liability to prevent and remediate environmental damage Since the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, all reprocessing is set out in the Environmental Damage (Prevention in the UK has been conducted under the Euratom/ and Remediation) Regulations 2009. These regulations International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards agreement. implement the Environmental Liability Directive (Directive There have been some withdrawals of plutonium from 2004/35/EC). safeguards, for analysis, temporary handling or processing When operations finish, the operator is responsible when such services were not available in the civilian for safe abandonment of the well(s) and for restoring sector. It is not possible to determine where this plutonium the well-site to its previous state or a suitable condition was created. These withdrawals are of a type and quantity for re-use. The relevant planning authority will require not suitable for weapons use; information can be found suitable restoration of the site as a condition of the on the Office of Nuclear Regulation website at the planning permission. following link: DECC is discussing with industry arrangements to http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/safeguards/withdrawals.htm ensure that site restoration and aftercare will be secure even in the event that the operator goes out of business.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of fracking to the Catering energy mix in the UK. [183892] Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Michael Fallon: The future role of gas in our energy Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of mix will be influenced by the complex interplay of a Commons Commission, what guidelines are issued to number of factors including commitments on carbon catering outlets in the House on the provision of reduction; the potential of new technology (such as healthy food and drink. [184119] 287W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 288W

John Thurso: The House of Commons joined the John Thurso: The 2013 staff survey reported that Public Health Responsibility Deal on 2 August 2013 58% of respondents said that they were satisfied with and as such has committed to the Healthier Staff Restaurant their job, and 88% were proud to work for the House Pledge. This includes the following: Service, in 2012-13 the average days lost to sickness Ensuring the availability of healthier foods and beverages in all absence per employee was six and the turnover rate was available channels to employees. 15.1 %. Reformulating recipes to provide meals which are lower in fat, salt and energy and do not contain artificial trans fats. Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Provision of responsibly sized portions of foods. Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Provision and promotion of the consumption of fruit and Commons Commission, what assessment he has made vegetables through availability and price promotion. of the potential for the provision of mindfulness for the Ensuring that water is visible and freely available. staff of the House in improving wellbeing. [183714] The Director of Catering Services would be happy to discuss these matters with the right hon. Member. John Thurso: The Safety, Health and Wellbeing service (SHWS) offers a range of interventions and programmes Chocolate to improve the wellbeing of House staff. Individuals will be signposted towards mindfulness programmes Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, where this would be of benefit. The cognitive behavioural Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of therapy element of mindfulness is also offered where Commons Commission, what the value of chocolate appropriate. The Welfare team have found the principles confectionery products purchased in the House was in of mindfulness a useful tool for improving the wellbeing each year since 2005. [184117] for those staff who present with anxiety or depression. SHWS have an active mental health awareness agenda, John Thurso: Since 2009 House of Commons Catering and the Learning and Development and Diversity teams Services has purchased the following chocolate work with SHWS to assess and promote wellbeing confectionery products for resale. Figures are no longer among staff. available for earlier periods. Sugar Wholesale value of chocolate Calendar year confectionery purchases (£) Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, 2009 44,692 Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of 2010 39,487 Commons Commission, what the value of sugar purchased 2011 41,710 for consumption in the House of Commons was in each 2012 41,951 year since 2005. [184115] 2013 39,920 Total Purchases 207,760 John Thurso: The volume and value of sugar purchased for consumption in the House of Commons since 2009 Pay is set out as follows. Figures for earlier years are no longer available. Mr Frank Field: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Calendar Commons Commission, what recent discussions he has year Volume (kg) Value (£) had with contractors providing services to the House on 2009 5,445 11,145.00 their duty to monitor the undertakings of subcontractors, 2010 5,357 10,455.07 including payment of the London Living Wage to all 2011 6,022 11,842.81 staff. [183751] 2012 5,628 10,270.70 2013 5,844 10,271.65 John Thurso: Contract and project managers have contacted contractors to explain the Commission’s Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, undertaking to this House and to Citizens UK to ensure, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of to the extent permitted by law, that anyone providing Commons Commission, what proportion of beverages services to the House, including their subcontractors, sold in the House of Commons were sugar-free in each pays their staff a living wage. Where instances of such year since 2005. [184116] staff being paid less than a living wage have been identified, our managers have made the Commission’s policy clear to the contractor and inquired about any John Thurso: The sugar-free share of sales by House obstacles to payment. This is the stage we are at with of Commons Catering Services of non-alcoholic drinks the two subcontractors we have identified as not paying in cans and bottles has been as follows: a living wage—both of whom have bases outside London. Percentage of Total Gross Sales Staff April 2010 to March 2011 12 April 2011 to March 2012 12 Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, April 2012 to March 2013 10 Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of April 2013 to December 2013 10 Commons Commission, what assessment he has made of (a) job satisfaction, (b) absenteeism rates and (c) Sales records prior to April 2010 are not held; these staff turnover rates of staff of the House. [183557] figures include sales of bottled water. 289W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 290W

Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, We also announced that we will consult on further Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of simplifications in planning rules, allowing changes from Commons Commission, what proportion of the products retail to restaurant use and to various leisure uses, on sale in vending machines in the House are sugar-free making it easier to find new uses for vacant premises. or low in sugar. [184118] This is on top of our earlier reforms: we have allowed premises to convert temporarily to a range of other uses John Thurso: Of the 40 items that were stocked in the for of up two years, and recently consulted on further vending machines on 22 January, 13 items were either: permitted development including allowing change of Low sugar—Nut and seed mix use to housing from shops that are no longer viable. No sugar—Diet Coke/water These will allow businesses to respond quickly to market conditions. No added sugar—Dried fruit/plain crisps/ fruit juices This equates to 33% of the items on sale being either sugar free, low in sugar or no added sugar. Enterprise Zones Catering Services will continue to monitor the demand for healthier snacks over the coming months. Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the National Audit Office report, Funding and structures for local economic growth, published on 6 December COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 2013, for what reasons the Government has revised its estimate of the number of jobs to be created in enterprise Derelict Land: Greater London zones by 2015. [184127] Kris Hopkins: The enterprise zone job figures set out Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for in the National Audit Office report were based upon Communities and Local Government how much brownfield early estimates made by the zones themselves in 2011. land is available for development in the London area; As the programme has progressed, we have developed and if he will make a statement. [184038] estimates which reflect zone’s revised delivery ambitions and actual market conditions. Nick Boles: According to the National Land Use Database, there were an estimated 3,660 hectares of brownfield land in London that might have been available Fracking for redevelopment in 2010. Development of this land would have been dependent Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for on the viability of the sites. Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received on planning applications Empty Property: Shops in respect of fracking; and if he will make a statement. [183893] Mrs Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent estimate Nick Boles: The Secretary of State for Communities he has made of high street vacancy rates. [902130] and Local Government has received less than 10 representations relating to specific planning applications Brandon Lewis: My Department does not collect or for the exploration of shale gas over the last four publish data relating to high street vacancy rates. There months. are several commercial sources of shop vacancy rates Shale gas has the potential to provide the UK with data available, including from the Local Data Company greater energy security, growth and jobs. The locally-led and Springboard, who publish overall trends in the planning system will ensure that new development, public domain. including the key exploratory phase of the extraction of I note that recent figures from the Local Data Company shale gas, is appropriate for its location. The planning show that the number of empty shops on the UK high system is accompanied by separate environmental and street fell to 13.9% in December 2013, after remaining health and safety provisions (overseen by the Department stable in the second half of 2013. of Energy and Climate Change, by the Environment Agency and by the Health and Safety Executive) ensuring In December we announced a range of powerful new that a robust, comprehensive and safe regulatory regime measures to provide the tools for the public and private is in place. sectors to transform their town centres for their local communities in England. Housing: Construction These include the biggest business rates support package for over 20 years, (including a new 50% discount for 18 months for new occupiers of retail premises that have Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for been vacant for a year or more, and a new £1,000 Communities and Local Government (1) what proportion discount for shops, restaurants and pubs with a rateable of housing development has taken place on (a) greenbelt value of £50,000 or less), banning CCTV for penalty and (b) brownfield land in each of the last 20 years in parking fines and allowing residents and firms to review England; and how many (i) housing units and (ii) parking policies, a freeze on parking penalty charges, a hectares of land this figure represents; [182525] review of Business Improvement Districts a call for (2) how many hectares of land in England have been evidence on red tape, and support for the digital high (a) declassified and (b) classified as greenbelt in each streets. of the last 20 years. [182526] 291W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 292W

Nick Boles [holding answer 14 January 2014]: Figures Moreover, I would observe that in 2011, 71% of all are not centrally held for the change in the classification new dwellings within the green belt were built on previously of green belt over each of the last 20 years. developed land, reflecting the fact that there is brownfield However, historic statistics on new dwellings built land within green belt boundaries that can be reasonably and associated area of land developed within the green redeveloped, provided it does not harm the openness of belt, and on brownfield (previously-developed) land, the green belt. are published on my Department’s website at Live The green belt has a valuable role protecting against Tables P211, P213, P226 and P246. urban sprawl and providing a green lung round our www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on- towns and cities. The National Planning Policy Framework, land-use-change-statistics which safeguards national green belt protection, explains In particular, I would note that the level of green belt how the green belt serves to: development (measured by the total land area changing check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas; to residential use within the green belt) is at its lowest prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another; since, the figures began in 1989, as the following table assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment; illustrates: preserve the setting and special character of historic towns; and Hectares assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. 1989 210 1990 370 This Government has abolished the Labour 1991 160 Government’s top-down regional strategies which sought 1992 210 to delete or undermine green belt protection in 30 towns 1993 170 and cities across England. 1994 190 In addition, as outlined in the written statements of 1995 210 1 July 2013, Official Report, columns 24-25WS, and 1996 180 17 January 2014, Official Report, columns 33-34WS, 1997 220 our planning policy on traveller sites states that both 1998 230 temporary and permanent Traveller sites are inappropriate 1999 1- development in green belt. 2000 320 Those statements also made clear that unmet need, 2001 260 whether for traveller sites or for conventional housing, 2002 260 is unlikely to outweigh harm to the green belt and other 2003 280 harm to constitute the “very special circumstances” 2004 180 justifying inappropriate development in the green belt. 2005 220 Temporary Accommodation: Cumbria 2006 220 2007 230 John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for 2008 200 Communities and Local Government how many families 2009 160 were based in temporary accommodation in (a) Barrow- 2010 160 in-Furness and (b) South Lakeland in each quarter of 2011 90 the last five years. [184178] 1 Incomplete data To place this in context, in 2011, the green belt in Kris Hopkins: Snapshot figures of households in England had an estimated area of 1,639,540 hectares temporary accommodation, which were recorded on (hence 90 hectares represents 0.005% of England’s green the last day of each quarter, are provided in the following belt). tables.

Barrow-in-Furness Of which: As at: Households in temporary accommodation Include dependent children/pregnant mothers

31 December 2008 11 7 31 March 2009 85 30 June 2009 11 6 30 September 2009 14 6 31 December 2009 4 2 31 March 2010 11 5 30 June 2010 12 5 30 September 2010 13 5 31 December 2010 14 6 31 March 2011 10 5 30 June 2011 10 10 30 September 2011 11 8 31 December 2011 12 6 31 March 2012 12 6 293W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 294W

Barrow-in-Furness Of which: As at: Households in temporary accommodation Include dependent children/pregnant mothers

30 June 2012 13 6 30 September 2012 18 6 31 December 2012 13 0 31 March 2013 82 30 June 2013 51 30 September 2013 5 1

South Lakeland Of which: As at: Households in temporary accommodation Include dependent children/pregnant mothers

31 December 2008 27 13 31 March 2009 28 16 30 June 2009 22 13 30 September 2009 31 11 31 December 2009 30 14 31 March 2010 19 15 30 June 2010 12 8 30 September 2010 24 12 31 December 2010 18 7 31 March 2011 26 12 30 June 2011 13 6 30 September 2011 19 9 31 December 2011 14 6 31 March 2012 11 4 30 June 2012 13 5 30 September 2012 6 2 31 December 2012 8 1 31 March 2013 n/a n/a 30 June 2013 92 30 September 2013 9 2 n/a = Data not available.

This Government has retained a strong homelessness DFID funds the secondment of an expert into the safety net protected in law, supported by £470 million in UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian the current spending review period to prevent and tackle Affairs in Rakhine state who focuses on building relations homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions. We are between local communities and international organisations seeing this investment making an impact with homeless in order to facilitate safe access for humanitarian agencies. families now spending seven months less in temporary UK officials regularly raise the issue of access in Rakhine accommodation than since the start of 2010. state with Government officials and UN partners. We have also made some changes to the rules under Developing Countries: Genetically Modified Organisms the Localism Act to enable local authorities to help households move more quickly into a settled home. This means households will no longer need to be placed Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for International in temporary accommodation while they wait for social Development pursuant to the answer of 13 January housing to become available. 2013, Official Report, column 366W, on developing countries: genetically modified organisms, when she expects to be able to assess the results of those independent INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT studies. [183887] Burma Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Lynne Featherstone: Golden Rice is still under International Development what representations she development and is subject to rigorous evaluation processes. has made to her Burmese counterpart on minimising DFID will not be in a position to assess the results of threats to humanitarian staff and aid operations in the independent evaluation studies expected towards the end of 2016. Rakhine state. [183725] Mr Duncan: I raised the issue of safe humanitarian EU Law access in Rakhine state during my visit in June 2013. In December 2013, a delegation including DFID staff and Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for led by the UK ambassador, raised concerns over threats International Development how many EU directives to humanitarian staff with the Rakhine state Chief her Department and non-departmental public body has Minister directly, and with the township administrator transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many in Myebon—which has been the scene of tensions between directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in local communities and an international non-governmental her Department’s area of responsibility in the same organisation. period. [183869] 295W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 296W

Lynne Featherstone: There have been no EU directives Pupils: Disadvantaged falling under DFID’s remit since 2010 which require transposition into UK law, and similarly no directly acting EU regulations. Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the effect Military Aid of the pupil premium on the educational attainment of eligible children in Coventry. [184036] Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much official development assistance funding, adjusted participation was allocated Mr Laws: It is still early in the implementation of the to the Ministry of Defence in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, pupil premium to consider the full impact of those (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13. [183757] pupils currently eligible for free school meals (FSM) who have attracted pupil premium funding since April Mr Duncan: Official development assistance (ODA) 2011 and the wider group of disadvantaged pupils is reported on a calendar year basis. DFID holds records funded from April 2012, defined by whether they have for ODA expenditure by the MOD for 2011 and 2012. been eligible of free school meals at any point in the last In 2011, the MOD spent £4.9 million, and in 2012, £5 six years or if they are looked after for six months or million on ODA. more. Rwanda Key Stage 4: Nationally, attainment of both FSM pupils and their Sir Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for non-FSM peers has improved between 2008 and 2013, International Development what recent assessment she with the gap narrowing between 2008 and 2012. In has made of the effectiveness of her Department’s work Coventry, attainment for FSM eligible pupils improved in Rwanda. [184018] significantly between 2008 and 2013; in 2013 attainment for other pupils fell slightly, leading to a decrease in the Lynne Featherstone: The Department undertook gap to 24.6 percentage points (versus 27.0 in 2011). assessments of the impact of the DFID programme in Rwanda at the time of the decisions on general budget Key Stage 2: support disbursements in 2012 and 2013, when we paid Between 2012 and 2013 attainment of both FSM close attention to the effectiveness of our interventions pupils and their non-FSM peers has improved both and the impact of our decisions. the Secretary of State nationally and in Coventry, with the gap narrowing. An for International Development, the right hon. Member assessment cannot be made over a longer time period for Putney (Justine Greening), also visited Rwanda in due to changes in the assessment measures. June 2013 and assessed the impact of our programme at Key stage 4 time series for achievement of 5+ A*-C grades including English and first hand. mathematics, for FSM eligible and all other pupils, 2008-12 Percentage Coventry EDUCATION Coventry Key Academies: Bassetlaw Stage 4 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

FSM 18.8 23.6 29.4 32.6 35.3 35.8 John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education eligible which academy schools in Bassetlaw constituency have All other 46.4 52.8 56.2 59.6 64.2 60.4 been referred to his Department for investigation in the pupils last 12 months; and what the (a) reasons for and (b) FSM gap 27.6 29.2 26.8 27.0 28.9 24.6 outcomes of such investigations were. [183843] National Mr Timpson: There have been two parental complaints National about academies in Bassetlaw in the last 12 months. The Key Minister for Schools, the right hon. Member for Yeovil Stage 4 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 (Mr Laws), wrote to you about one of these on 16 August FSM 23.8 26.6 31.2 34.6 36.3 37.9 2013. We are currently reviewing the second. All other 51.7 54.3 58.8 62.0 62.6 64.6 Education: Finance pupils FSM gap 27.9 27.7 27.6 27.4 26.3 26.7 Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the (a) national and (b) local revenue expenditure on (i) primary, (ii) secondary and (iii) special school pupils is in (A) Coventry local authority area Key Stage 2 and (B) England. [184034] At Key Stage 2, due to discontinuities in the time Mr Timpson: Latest figures on both the income and series for the headline measure (percentage achieving expenditure of local authority maintained schools in the expected level in reading, writing and maths), I have England and the income and expenditure of local provided figures for achievement of the expected level authorities on their education, children’s and young in mathematics, which has been consistent over a longer people’s services for the financial year April 2012 to time period. March 2013 were published on 12 December at: Both nationally and in Coventry, attainment for both https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/la-and-school- FSM eligible and all other pupils increased in 2013, and expenditure-financial-year-2012-to-2013 the gap decreased slightly. 297W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 298W

Key Stage 2 time series for achievement of level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths, for FSM eligible and all other pupils, 2012-13 November Percentage 2010 2011 2012 Coventry National Hampshire local 12 14 15 Key Stage 2 2013 2012 2013 2012 authority FSM 55 54 60.1 58.8 Portsmouth local 112 authority All other 75 75 78.8 77.9 pupils Southampton local 112 authority FSM gap 20 21 18.7 19.1 Source: School Workforce Census. As the reading, writing and maths time series only The Department is unable to confirm which nursing goes back to 2012 due to the change in the headline qualifications these schools/LA employees hold. measure (from English and mathematics) a longer time series for mathematics alone is shown as follows. DEFENCE KS2 time series for achievement of level 4 or above in maths for FSM eligible and all other pupils, 2010-13 Armed Forces: Food Percentage Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence Coventry what the average daily cost of feeding a member of the Coventry Key Stage 2 2013 2012 2011 20101 armed forces on deployment is. [184156]

FSM 68 68 65 66 Mr Dunne: The current daily budget allowance for All other 84 84 82 83 feeding armed forces personnel on operations, known pupils as the Operational Daily Messing Rate, is £3.36 per FSM gap 16 16 17 17 person. This does not include the cost of transporting, preparing, cooking or serving meals. This is an approximate National figure based upon 90 raw ingredients assessed as necessary National to provide the calories and nutrition on a daily basis. Key Stage 2 2013 2012 2011 20101 Clearly wholesale procurement and lower costs of food FSM 74.0 72.7 67.2 66.0 in some locations ensures the daily allowance can be All other 87.1 86.6 83.3 82.8 kept low. pupils Army FSM gap 13.1 13.9 16.1 16.8 1 Due to boycotts of Key Stage 2 tests in 2010, data does not represent results Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for for all pupils in the 2010 Key Stage 2 cohort. Defence what the (a) established and (b) actual strength was of the (i) regular and (ii) reserve personnel in the Schools: Nurses (A) Royal Armoured Corps, (B) Household Cavalry Regiment, (C) 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, (D) Mr Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, (E) Royal Dragoon Guards, Education how many qualified school nurses there (F) merged unit of the Queen’s Own Hussars and the were in (a) Portsmouth South constituency and (b) Royal Irish Hussars, (G) merged unit of the 9/12th Royal Hampshire in each of the last three years. [183754] Lancers and the Queen’s Royal Lancers, (H) The King’s Royal Hussars, (I) Light Dragoons, (J) Queen’s Royal Lancers, (K) 1st Royal Tank Regiment and (L) 2nd Mr Laws: The following table shows the number of Royal Tank Regiment on 1 January 2014. [182904] nurses employed in schools in Portsmouth South constituency and in schools in the former Hampshire Anna Soubry: Under Army 2020 the size of the local authority area including Hampshire, Portsmouth Regular Army is reducing from 102,000 to 82,500 by and Southampton local authority areas in each year 2018. Changes to both establishments and unit strengths since November 2010. are being implemented in stages. As a result, there will be a disparity between some unit establishments and November strengths over the next few years until the new Army 2010 2011 2012 2020 structure is fully in place. The establishment and strength for the relevant units, Portsmouth South 001 constituency as at 1 December 2013, the latest date at which strength Former Hampshire 14 16 19 information is available, is provided in the following local authority area table:

Current Regular Reserve establishment A2020 establishment strength strength

Royal Armoured Corps 4,642 3,950 5,020 0 Household Cavalry Regiment 419 416 380 0 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards 321 315 280 0 Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 449 315 330 10 Royal Dragoon Guards 396 416 340 0 Merged unit of the Queen’s Own Hussars and the Royal Irish Hussars — — — — 299W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 300W

Current Regular Reserve establishment A2020 establishment strength strength

Queen’s Royal Hussars 449 456 360 0 Merged unit of the 9/12th Royal Lancers and the Queen’s Royal Lancers — 416 — — 9/12th Royal Lancers 321 — 270 0 The King’s Royal Hussars 435 456 400 0 Light Dragoons 414 315 350 0 Queen’s Royal Lancers 415 — 350 0 1st Royal Tank Regiment 337 456 310 0 2nd Royal Tank Regiment 435 456 360 0

The establishment and strength figures comprise only was of the (i) regular and (ii) reserve personnel in the those officers and soldiers from that unit’s specific arm (A) 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, (B) 1st Battalion, or corps, i.e. Household Cavalry/Royal Armoured Corps, Coldstream Guards, (C) 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, and thus exclude any supporting personnel from other (D) 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, (E) 1st Battalion, Welsh corps. Guards, (F) 1st Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, Of the units listed, only the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (G) 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, (H) 2nd have any reserve personnel serving with them. These Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, (I) 3rd Battalion, personnel are held against the regular unit establishment. Royal Regiment of Scotland, (J) 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, (K) 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment No figures have been included for the merged unit of of Scotland, (L) 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s the Queen’s Own Hussars and the Royal Irish Hussars, Royal Regiment and (M) 2nd Battalion, Princess of as this merger occurred on 1 September 1993. The Wales’s Royal Regiment on 1 January 2014. [182912] figures for the resulting unit, Queen’s Royal Hussars, have been included. Anna Soubry: Under Army 2020 the size of the No figure has been included for the merged unit of Regular Army is reducing from 102,000 to 82,500 by the 9/12th Royal Lancers and the Queen’s Royal Lancers, 2018. Changes to both establishments and unit strengths as this merger does not occur until May 2015. The are being implemented in stages. As a result, there will figures for the two individual units have been included. be a disparity between some unit establishments and It should be noted that, while the overall trend is for strengths over the next few years until the new Army A2020 establishment figures to decrease, some units will 2020 structure is fully in place. increase in size under A2020 due to their change in role. The establishment and strength for the relevant units, as at 1 December 2013, the latest date at which strength Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for information is available, is provided in the following Defence what the (a) established and (b) actual strength table:

Current establishment A2020 establishment Strength

1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards 571 594 580 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards 584 594 610 1st Battalion, Scots Guards 706 698 640 1st Battalion, Irish Guards 447 501 450 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards 503 505 506 1st Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment 505 505 600 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland 501 501 540 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland 501 501 560 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland 505 505 550 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland 606 605 630 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland 99 99 170 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment 612 612 530 2nd Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment 501 612 500

The establishment and strength figures comprise only was of the (i) regular and (ii) reserve personnel in the those officers and soldiers from that unit’s specific arm (A) 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, (B) or corps, i.e. infantry, and thus exclude any supporting 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, (C) 2nd personnel from other corps. Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, (D) 1st Battalion, None of the units listed currently have any reserve Royal Anglian Regiment, (E) 2nd Battalion, Royal Anglian personnel serving with them. Regiment, (F) 1st Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, (G) 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, (H) 3rd Battalion, It should be noted that, while the overall trend is for Yorkshire Regiment, (I) 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh, (J) A2020 establishment figures to decrease, some units will 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh, (K) 1st Battalion, Mercian increase in size under A2020 due to their change in role. Regiment, (L) 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment, (M) Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for 3rd Battalion, Mercian Regiment, (N) 1st Battalion, Defence what the (a) established and (b) actual strength Royal Irish Regiment, (O) 2nd Battalion, Parachute 301W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 302W

Regiment, (P) 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, (Q) 2018. Changes to both establishments and unit strengths 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, (R) 2nd Battalion, are being implemented in stages. As a result, there will Royal Gurkha Rifles, (S) 1st Battalion, The Rifles, (T) be a disparity between some unit establishments and 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, (U) 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, strengths over the next few years until the new Army (V) 4th Battalion, The Rifles and (W) 5th Battalion, 2020 structure is fully in place. The Rifles on 1 January 2014. [182916] The establishment and strength for the relevant units, as at 1 December 2013, the latest date at which strength Anna Soubry: Under Army 2020 the size of the information is available, is provided in the following Regular Army is reducing from 102,000 to 82,500 by table:

Current establishment A2020 establishment Regular strength Reserve strength

2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment 501 501 560 0 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers 612 612 580 0 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers 469 - 470 0 1st Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment 612 612 670 0 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment 505 501 600 0 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment - - - - 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh 231 612 320 0 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh 612 - 650 0 1st Battalion, Mercian Regiment 612 612 440 0 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment 501 501 480 0 3rd Battalion, Mercian Regiment 472 - 560 20 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment 505 505 560 0 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment 501 501 550 10 2nd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment 505 505 550 0 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment 593 593 520 0 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment 593 593 530 0 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles 518 563 540 0 2nd Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles 584 499 550 0 1st Battalion, The Rifles 501 501 510 0 2nd Battalion, The Rifles 501 501 550 0 3rd Battalion, The Rifles 505 505 540 0 4th Battalion, The Rifles 606 605 590 0 5th Battalion, The Rifles 612 612 650 0

The establishment and strength figures, comprise only Army: South East those officers and soldiers from that unit’s specific Arm or Corps, ie Infantry, and thus exclude any supporting Mr Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for personnel from other Corps. Defence how many regular force army redundancies he Of the units listed, only 3rd Battalion, Mercian Regiment plans to make in the South East. [183591] and 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment have any Reserve personnel serving with them. These personnel Anna Soubry: There has been no announcement made are held against the Regular unit establishment. in regard to any future plans for regular army redundancies beyond those, already announced under Tranches 1, 2 It should be noted that, while the overall trend is for and 3 of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme. A2020 establishment figures to decrease, some units will increase in size under A2020 due to their change in role. However, it should be noted that the selection of personnel for redundancy is not made on the basis of geographical location. Service personnel move between Army: Recruitment posts and locations regularly, and the location at which they will be serving on their final day of service may be different from that at which they were notified. Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which Minister in his Department gave Burma authority for the decision for the Recruiting Partnering Project for army recruitment in 2011. [183325] Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the training of the Burmese army provided by his Department was (a) requested by the Anna Soubry: The Initial Gate Business Case was government of Burma or (b) initiated by the UK approved in July 2008 under the previous Government. Government. [183720] The Main Gate Business Case for the Recruiting Partnering Project was approved in November 2011 by Dr Murrison: Military Engagement with the Burmese the then Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and armed forces (the Tatmadaw) is an important part of Veterans, my right hon. Friend the Member for South HMG’s wider policy on supporting democratic change Leicestershire (Mr Robathan). in Burma. The educational course that was recently 303W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 304W delivered in Burma was recommended by HMG after a chloroamines, with very similar chemical properties, consultative process. We held regular discussions about and are referred to as ″B″ precursors. These chemicals military engagement from mid-2012 onwards with members are no more toxic than many other chemicals that are of Government, Parliament, ethnic leaders from political routinely manufactured, processed and destroyed in the parties and armed groups, and religious and civil society UK under standard regulatory and security measures. organisations, both inside Burma and in Thailand. The One of the two chemicals is used as an intermediate for discussions during 2013 made specific mention of this the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and identical chemicals course. were imported into the UK in 2012 for this purpose. The course has been delivered around the world over The “B” chemicals would become highly toxic only if a 14-year period to 101 nationalities. It is exported mixed with an “A” precursor to make V-type nerve annually to 12 prioritised nations or regions across the agents. (A separate tender process, managed by the world from Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and to South Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, America. The delivery of this course in Burma has been will determine how other chemicals from Syria, including broadly welcomed by groups on all sides. the ″A″ chemicals, will be destroyed.) The ″B″ chemicals will be sealed in containers under Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for the supervision of international inspectors from the Defence what monitoring his Department plans to Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, undertake to ensure that Burmese army soldiers trained and transported in ISO containers which comply with by the UK are not subsequently involved in human the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code. rights abuses. [183721] Some of the ″B″ chemicals are in solid and some in liquid form. The volume of liquid ″B″ chemicals is Dr Murrison: I refer the hon. Member to the answer equivalent to some five standard road tankers; the given on 26 November 2013, Official Report, column volume of solid ″B″ chemicals is about half of this. 210W, by the Minister for the Armed Forces, my right Veolia Environmental Services Ltd was selected by hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford MOD in 2011, following competition, as its contractor (Mr Francois). for the management of both hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. This contract with the MOD’s Disposal Services Chemical Weapons: Cheshire Authority is being used by the Government to facilitate the speedy destruction of the B Precursors. Veolia will Andrew Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for destroy all these chemicals and associated packaging in Defence (1) what the nature is of the contract between its high temperature incinerator at Ellesmere Port. The the Government and Veolia Environmental Services in operation of the incinerator at Ellesmere Port will be in respect of the destruction of chemical weapons at accordance with the environmental permit granted by Ellesmere Port; [184023] the Environment Agency, which controls the types and (2) with reference to the Government’s contract with quantities of waste that may be handled, and includes Veolia Environmental Services in respect of the destruction strict limits on all emissions from the incinerator. The of chemical weapons at Ellesmere Port, what the nature chemicals themselves will be destroyed in the incineration is of the material to be destroyed; whether it is all in process, and the gases resulting from combustion will solid or liquid phase; and whether any ordnance will be treated prior to release into the atmosphere. Emissions come to Ellesmere Port; [184024] will be monitored to ensure that releases are within the (3) with reference to the Government’s contract with permit limits and pose no risk to safety. Veolia confirm Veolia Environmental Services in respect of the that the process does not involve any discharge to local destruction of chemical weapons at Ellesmere Port, water courses, and that the chemicals will be passed what steps he is taking to ensure the safe transit of the directly into the incinerator. The operation will be subject chemical weapons within the UK; and which other to the routine inspection regime of the Environment Agency and Health and Safety Executive. International sites are being utilised for this purpose; [184025] inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of (4) with reference to the Government’s contract with Chemical Weapons will verify that the chemicals have Veolia Environmental Services in respect of the destruction been completely destroyed. of chemical weapons at Ellesmere Port, whether the process involves any (a) discharge to local water courses All the relevant Government Departments and agencies and (b) risk of any of the material venting to the are working closely together and with Veolia to ensure that all appropriate safety and security measures are atmosphere in a toxic state; [184026] taken throughout the process, including arrival of the (5) with reference to the Government’s contract with chemicals in a UK port, transport within the UK, Veolia Environmental Services in respect of the temporary storage and final destruction, to the same destruction of chemical weapons at Ellesmere Port, standards as apply to the routine handling of such whether the Government will require any oversight of chemical waste and hazardous materials. The whole the process other than that previously applied to the operation is expected to last a few weeks. site. [184027] EU Law Mr Dunne: No chemical weapon agents will be brought to the UK for destruction, no ordnance or munitions, Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for and no explosives. As part of the international effort to Defence how many EU directives his Department has destroy Syria’s chemical weapons programme, in support transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many of UN Security Council Resolution 2118, the UK has directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in agreed to destroy 150 tonnes of two industrial grade his Department’s area of responsibility in the same chemicals from Syria. Both these chemicals are period. [183862] 305W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 306W

Dr Murrison: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has states at the 19 November EU Foreign Affairs Council transposed two EU directives into UK law since 2010: (Defence). He advocated an extension of the mandate The EU Defence and Security Procurement Directive from December 2014 until December 2016 and we (2009/81/EC), and the EU Directive on the Right to expect the Council to make a decision later this year. Interpretation and Translation in Criminal Proceedings (2010/64/EU). Reserve Forces: National Insurance Contributions Information on how many directly acting EU regulations have come into effect since 2010 that impact upon the Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence MOD’s area of responsibility could be provided only at if he will pay the national insurance contributions of disproportionate cost. reservists employed by small and medium-sized enterprises who are mobilised for operational commitments. European Fighter Aircraft [184155]

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Anna Soubry: While mobilised, reservists are employed Defence pursuant to the answer of 9 January 2014, and paid by the Ministry of Defence, who also make the Official Report, column 290W, on European Fighter relevant employer’s national insurance contributions. Aircraft, if he will take steps to ascertain the precise The Defence Reform Bill includes provision to make reasons for which the United Arab Emirates chose not additional payments to the employers of reservists beyond to pursue the acquisition of Typhoon. [184020] those currently permitted. As set out in the White Paper “Reserves in the Future Force 2020: Valuable and Valued” Dr Murrison: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer the (CM 8655) published in July 2013, the intention is to Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, make payments of £500 per month for each employee my hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Mr Dunne), of a small or medium-sized enterprise who is mobilised. gave on 9 January 2014, Official Report, column 290W, the UAE’s decision to halt negotiations with BAE Systems Type 23 Frigates regarding the potential purchase of Typhoon was made for purely commercial reasons. The precise circumstances Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for that led to this conclusion are therefore a matter for Defence in what order the Surface Common Combat BAE Systems and the Government of the UAE alone. System Version 1 will be installed on the Type 23 fleet. [183894] ICT Dr Murrison: The first fit for the Surface Common Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Combat System Version 1 to a Type 23 Frigate is Defence on how many occasions his Department’s IT planned for spring 2015, which will take place during a system used for emails has failed in the East of planned, routine docking period. Fits to the remainder Scotland in each of the last three years. [183895] of the Type 23 Class are scheduled to be completed in the order that the remaining ships undertake similar Mr Dunne: There are a number of e-mail systems maintenance periods. Details of the Type 23 maintenance used by the Ministry of Defence and there is no business programme is being withheld for the purpose of requirement to centrally hold details of individual failure safeguarding national security. reports for any of these independently managed systems. This information could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost. ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS Piracy Common Agricultural Policy Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2014, Official Report, Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for column 444W, on piracy, what discussions he has had Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions with his counterparts in partner nations on extending he has had with ministerial colleagues in other Government the mandates of the anti-piracy operations beyond 2014. Departments regarding the use of Common Agricultural [183888] Policy Pillar 2 funding. [183927]

Mr Francois: The Secretary of State for Defence has George Eustice: The Secretary of State has discussed regular discussions with his counterparts in both NATO the use of Common Agricultural Policy Pillar 2 funding and the EU on a wide range of issues, including counter- with a number of ministerial colleagues. The decisions piracy operations. Within NATO there are regular working that we announced on 19 December 2013 were taken by level discussions on the future of Operation Ocean Government collectively. Shield, whose mandate expires on 31 December 2014. There are a number of options under consideration for Disease Control the continuation of counter-piracy activity in NATO, and a conclusion should be reached later this year. Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State The Minister for International Security Strategy, my for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire his Department is currently conducting into potential (Dr Murrison), discussed the extension of the mandate diseases affecting wildlife which may arrive in the UK of Operation Atalanta with counterparts from EU member from overseas. [183967] 307W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 308W

George Eustice: DEFRA supports an extensive Dan Rogerson: There are strict controls governing the programme of research on animal health and welfare management and disposal of waste water. Flow-back (currently £25 million per year). Included in this programme fluid can either be treated and re-used on site or taken is research on some diseases that infect wildlife, such as to a permitted waste-water treatment works. Any treated rabies, bluetongue virus and avian influenza. Further water leaving the waste-water treatment works will have information on DEFRA-funded research can be found at: to comply with that works’ environmental permits, which http://randd.defra.gov.uk/ ensure protection of local people and the environment. The research programme furthers the development of An assessment of the local geology, including assessment improved disease control tools and increases our of the location of any relevant faults, is made prior to understanding of these pathogens to support the approval of any fracking application. Operators are development of departmental disease control policies. required to monitor seismic activity during fracking The Department also funds an extensive programme operations which must stop if tremors above normal of surveillance activity to highlight possible threats to range are detected to allow investigation. Similarly as human and farmed animal health in the UK. part of any application for all environmental permissions contractors need to be able to demonstrate to the Floods Environment Agency that they have the appropriate level of expertise for the particular site or sites in Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State question and an understanding of the geology. A for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps hydrological risk assessment will need to be carried out the Government is taking to protect Sites of Specific by the operator or its contractors and submitted to the Scientific Interest which have been affected by recent Environment Agency to ensure that risks to the local floods. [184146] geology have been identified and mitigated. Dan Rogerson: Natural England and the Environment Consideration of impact on the local landscape takes Agency issued a joint statement before Christmas, which place at the planning application stage, which includes outlined how they intended to respond to the coastal consultation with local communities. flooding. It emphasised the urgent need to ensure people Hill Farming and their property were safe; recognising that for many wildlife sites, because of their natural resilience to flooding, Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for there was time to reflect on the best long term and most Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the sustainable solutions. DEFRA officials recently met answer of 10 October 2013, Official Report, column Natural England and the Environment Agency to discuss 292, on maintaining the current appearance of uplands, next steps for coastal wildlife sites affected. As a result if he will amend his policy so as to support farmers to of those discussions Natural England will be carrying reforest upland areas across the UK; and if he will out an assessment of the implications for wildlife. make a statement. [183722] The Environment Agency and Natural England will work hard with local communities, landowners and George Eustice: We will be publishing shortly a second environmental NGOs to determine the appropriate phase response to the CAP implementation consultation, solutions on a case by case basis; while taking account which will set out further detail on the rural development of the overall picture regionally and nationally. In the programme, including the new environmental land meantime, remedial works have already been completed management scheme to replace environmental stewardship on a few sites (eg Cley Marshes in North Norfolk) in 2015. The new scheme will build on the recognised where these were urgent and affordable. successes of environmental stewardship, will be better targeted and deliver better environmental value for Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State money across the farmed landscape, including the uplands. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if the Government will conduct an impact assessment of the recent flooding on Britain’s wildlife. [184148] TREASURY Dan Rogerson: Natural England has been assessing the environmental impact of the storms and flooding Banks: Pay events since the first tidal surge on 5 and 6 December 2013. It has provided regular updates to DEFRA and Paul Flynn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer the Environment Agency; starting with an interim report (1) what criteria have been set by each bank in receipt on 7 December. Natural England’s most recent report of public money for qualification for senior staff was issued on 10 January and summarises the known bonuses; whether the Prudential Regulation Authority impacts on wildlife and conservation sites. Natural England plays a role in the ratification of such criteria; and intends to provide a further report in mid-February, whether his Department has provided any guidance to which should provide a more complete picture. I will the remuneration committees of such banks on bonus send the hon. Member a copy of the most recent report. payments; [183487] Fracking (2) what recent representations he has received opposing the payment of bonuses to employees of banks in Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for receipt of funds from the public purse; [183488] Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what environmental (3) what guidelines (a) UK Financial Investments assessment he has made of the potential effects of fracking and (b) the Prudential Regulation Authority have on (a) disposal of waste water at the end of the process, established to govern bonuses paid to senior bank (b) local geology and (c) local landscapes. [182833] executives. [183489] 309W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 310W

Sajid Javid: The Government has not received a closely with its debt advice providers to determine the specific proposal from the Royal Bank of Scotland level of funding needed to meet the demand for debt (RBS) or Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) for this year’s advice. remuneration round so it is not yet possible to evaluate MAS also works closely with relevant stakeholders to fully the merits and implications for shareholders. It is increase consumer awareness of how to access free debt important for taxpayers that such proposals are considered advice: for example, MAS has worked with the Financial fully and properly. Conduct Authority to develop a new requirement on all The Government works closely with UK Financial payday lenders to signpost borrowers to free debt advice Investments (UKFI) to ensure that the Royal Bank of services via MAS. Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group follow best practice in setting pay levels. UKFI engages as a shareholder to Mr Crausby: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer ensure incentives are based on long-term, sustainable what recent meetings his Department has held with performance which rebuilds the businesses of the banks civil society organisations on personal debt advice; and and protects value for the taxpayer as shareholder. if he will make a statement. [183760] UKFI will seek to ensure that neither bank pays any more than the minimum necessary. Sajid Javid: Treasury Ministers have discussions with The rules governing remuneration, including bonuses a wide variety of organisations in the public and private paid to senior bank executives are set out in the Prudential sectors. As was the case with previous Administrations, Regulation Authority’s and Financial Conduct Authority’s it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of Remuneration Code: all such discussions. http://fshandbook.info/FS/html/handbook/SYSC/19A Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank Excise Duties: Beer

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Chancellor of the Mr Nigel Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what information he has received from Exchequer what assessment his Department has made the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to the of the potential effects of introducing a reduced level misselling of embedded swaps in fixed rate business of duty on hand pumped ales. [183485] loans by (a) Clydesdale bank and (b) Yorkshire bank; [183782] Nicky Morgan: EU law does not make it possible for (2) what assessment he has made of job losses arising a reduced level of duty on hand pumped ales. through the alleged misselling of embedded swaps to EU law only allows beer duty rates to vary according businesses by the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks; to alcohol strength by volume and the annual production [183783] of breweries. As such, it is not possible to vary duties (3) how many fixed rate business loans which have based on how the product is sold. embedded swaps sold along with the loan have been However, at Budget 2013, by taking tough choices made by Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks in the last elsewhere, the Government was able to cut beer duty five years. [183784] and abolished the previous Government’s beer duty escalator. Sajid Javid: Treasury Ministers and officials meet with, and receive representations from, a wide range of Pay organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the usual policy making process. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Chancellor of the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such Exchequer (1) what the median gross pay of (a) men representations. and (b) women is in each pay band in his Department; [178200] The Treasury has not made any assessment of the job losses arising through the alleged mis-selling of embedded (2) what the median gross pay is of staff in his swaps to businesses by the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Department and its executive agencies in each pay banks. band who are identified as (a) white British and (b) of black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups. [178182] The Treasury does not know the number of embedded fixed rate business loans sold by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Nicky Morgan: The following table shows median banks in the last five years. pay for gender and ethnicity for HM Treasury which is Debts: Advisory Services based on the median data supplied in the 2012-13 Annual Report of Accounts: Mr Crausby: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) £ Grade BME White Female Male publicise and (b) support debt advice services. [183759] Specialist 1— 135,000 128,810 137,247 Sajid Javid: The Treasury has given the Money Advice Grade B 20,956 19,765 20,445 20,226 Service (MAS) responsibility for co-ordinating and Grade C 24,284 24,649 24,512 24,646 providing debt advice services. This came into effect in Grade D 29,199 30,078 30,545 29,445 April 2012. In 2012-13, MAS supported the delivery of Grade E 46,985 48,787 48,253 49,319 158,000 debt advice sessions; it is on track to deliver a Grade E2 1— 61,484 63,190 61,271 similar number of sessions in 2013-14. MAS works SCS 89,340 70,196 70,912 70,632 311W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 312W

Mr Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs’ compliance £ activity covers all aspects of compliance behaviour from Grade BME White Female Male error through to avoidance, evasion and organised criminal Student 18,366 18,366 18,366 18,366 attack. 1 Data is not supplied for these grades as they have less than five employees This HMRC takes a risk based approach to compliance could result in an individual’s data being identified. Note: activity and so a breakdown of the number of officers Data taken from 12/13 Annual Report of Accounts less agencies, SPADS and specifically working on partnerships tax avoidance is Ministers available only at a disproportionate cost. Data has not been supplied for the Debt Management The information on partnerships is not separated out Office, HMT’s executive agency, because they do not in HM Revenue and Customs’ data on tax compliance use pay bands or similar salary groups within their pay yield and resources. system. The vast majority of people in this country pay the right tax at the right time. The Government has made clear that all tax avoidance is unacceptable, and has Procurement been relentless in taking action against it to protect the Exchequer, and to ensure fairness for the vast majority Chris Leslie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer who don’t try to avoid. what weighting his Department’s procurement procedures give to (a) the location of a company and Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Chancellor of the its workforce, (b) the extent to which a company has a Exchequer with reference to the news release by HM strong environmental record, (c) whether the company Revenue and Customs on 23 December 2013, on the is a social enterprise and (d) other company history ruling of the Upper Tax Tribunal on Eclipse 35, if he prior performance. [182645] will list the remaining 30 avoidance partnerships; and what amount of tax was lost to the Exchequer as a Nicky Morgan: In July 2013 HM Treasury’s procurement result of the operations of each such partnership. functions transferred to the Crown Commercial Service [184080] (CCS—formally the Government Procurement Service, GPS). HM Treasury decides selection criteria and Mr Gauke: As explained in my answer of 9 January weightings for procurements based on advice from CCS. 2014, Official Report, column 295W,under their statutory duty to maintain taxpayer confidentiality, HM Revenue The selection criteria and weightings in the procurement and Customs (HMRC) is unable to provide details of procedures used by CCS are not fixed, UK public individual cases which have not already been published procurement policy is to award contracts on the basis of by the courts. value for money, which means the optimum combination of cost and quality over the lifetime of the project. Public sector procurers are required to assess value for Taxation: Self-assessment money from the perspective of the contracting authority using criteria linked to the subject matter of the contract, Chi Onwurah: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer including compliance with the published specification. what assessment he has made of the security of online Such criteria cannot include supplier type or location. submission of tax returns; and what estimate he has Wider social-economic criteria can be taken into made of the costs to those who have submitted returns account at tender evaluation stage if they relate directly to copycat sites in the last five years. [181436] to the subject matter of a contract from the point of view of the contracting authority. Mr Gauke: HMRC takes the security of online tax returns very seriously. The Department is aware of Treasury’s procurements are evaluated against response phishing attacks that invite customers to submit their guidance provided to bidders as part of Invitations to personal returns via websites purporting to be HMRC Tender (ITT) or Requests for Quotes (RFQ). Since websites and, once reported, HMRC works with the January 2011, central Government Departments have hosting providers of such websites to remove the sites. been required to publish on Contracts Finder information The security of the HMRC online tax return systems on the tenders issued and contracts they award with a are accredited by HMRC security specialists. Accreditation value over £10,000 (excluding VAT): is achieved through a detailed assessment of the security https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder risks (including any risks to customer personal details) Selection criteria and weightings applied in procurements and an acceptable mitigation of those risks. form part of the information published. HMRC does not collect information about the private use of third party websites nor on the costs charged by the owners of these websites. Tax Avoidance HMRC responds to such websites on a case-by-case basis. Where an offence has been committed, we work Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Chancellor of the with law enforcement partners using the full extent of Exchequer (1) how much HM Revenue and Customs our powers. raised by tackling tax avoidance partnerships in (a) A cross-Government initiative is being led by the 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; [181578] Cabinet Office to ensure that the public is adequately (2) how many people are employed by HM Revenue protected from the risks posed by imitation websites. and Customs to investigate tax avoidance partnerships. HMRC is actively engaging with a number of HM [181579] Government Departments through the project. 313W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 314W

Trade Missions: China Information on possessions is published in UKAR’s accounts. The latest report is available under the following link: Mr McKenzie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many representatives of Scottish business accompanied http://www.ukar.co.uk/~/media/Files/U/Ukar-V2/ Attachments/press-releases/UKAR-interim-report- the Chancellor of the Exchequer on his recent trip to 141113.pdf China. [181052] A breakdown by country is not readily available. Nicky Morgan: The Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne) visited China for five days in October, including for the ATTORNEY-GENERAL 5th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue. This visit, and the Prime Minister’s visit which followed, Lord Rennard demonstrate the UK’s commitment to building a long-term relationship with China. Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General whether The visits, and preceding discussions, delivered the Metropolitan police approached the Crown Prosecution commercial benefits for the UK. Service for early consultation or a pre-charge decision in relation to allegations of sexual touching made against The Chancellor of the Exchequer was accompanied Lord Rennard. [184079] for part of the trip by a delegation of high-tech companies to showcase their cutting edge work to major Chinese The Solicitor-General: There was early investigative companies. They visited Tencent, the world’s third largest consultation between Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) internet company, and Huawei, the world’s second largest and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in relation to telecoms company. Huawei already employs around 900 the allegations made against Lord Rennard. In accordance staff in its UK subsidiary, and during the visit Huawei with the Director of Public Prosecutions’ guidance on confirmed details of more than 200 new R&D jobs and charging, the MPS did not refer the case to the CPS for the establishment of a research centre in the UK. a charging decision. In addition, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Prosecutions Javid) led an asset management focused delegation. John Mann: To ask the Attorney-General how many UK Asset Resolution prosecutions have been initiated by each Crown Prosecution Service area in the last 12 months. [183826]

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service Exchequer how many buy to let mortgages held by (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of UKAR (a) are currently in arrears and (b) have had defendants prosecuted and the outcome of proceedings, proceedings taken to protect assured shorthold tenancy where the CPS made a decision to charge or initiate arrangements. [182198] criminal proceedings against a suspect. The following table represents the number of defendants Sajid Javid: NRAM and Bradford and Bingley are prosecuted by each CPS area, and the number and managed by UK Asset Resolution Limited (UKAR) proportion where the CPS was responsible for the charging which was established in 2010 to manage the disposal decision in 2012-13, which is the latest available data. and rundown of outstanding assets at Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management in an Total charged by CPS integrated way, with a view to creating value for the Total prosecuted taxpayer. UKAR is managed at arm’s length from by CPS Number Percentage Government, on commercial principles. Cymru Wales 52,755 14,264 27.0 Information on arrears is published in UKAR’s accounts. Eastern 48,756 12,936 26.5 The latest report is available under the following link: East Midlands 58,485 16,536 28.3 http://www.ukar.co.uk/~/media/Files/U/Ukar-V2/ London 137,267 40,455 29.5 Attachments/press-releases/UKAR-interim-report- Merseyside and 35,850 10,229 28.5 141113.pdf Cheshire It is not clear what is being asked for by the request North East 48,487 12,185 25.1 for the short hold tenancy arrangements. North West 86,162 27,104 31.5 South East 46,897 12,925 27.6 South West 42,490 12,272 28.9 Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer Thames and 48,668 12,250 25.2 how many properties where mortgages are held by Chiltern UKAR have been (a) sold voluntarily by customers Wessex 37,445 11,290 30.2 who were in difficulty meeting payments and (b) West Midlands 72,389 20,802 28.7 re-possessed as a result of customers having difficulty in Yorkshire and 80,634 23,743 29.4 meeting payments in (i) the UK and (ii) Scotland. Humberside [182199] Total 796,285 226,991 28.5 The remaining 569,294 defendants were charged by Sajid Javid: UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) does not the police or in a small number of cases, other investigatory track customers who have voluntarily sold their property. authorities. 315W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 316W

John Mann: To ask the Attorney-General how many Where Government has become aware of websites bankers have been prosecuted by the (a) Serious Fraud that make misleading claims in their advertising it has Office and (b) Crown Prosecution Service for financial brought these complaints to the attention of the Advertising crimes in each of the last six years. [183831] Standards Authority. Government has and continues to take direct action to prevent the misuse of Government The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service logos or any suggestion of affiliation with Government and the Serious Fraud Office do not maintain central by these websites. records on the occupation of defendants. Such information From 2014, the Competition and Markets Authority could be obtained only through a manual search of (CMA) will be taking over many of the functions and records which would incur a disproportionate cost. responsibilities of the Competition Commission and Sentencing: Appeals the Office of Fair Trading. The CMA is an independent body. Karen Lumley: To ask the Attorney-General on how many occasions in 2013 he referred a criminal sentence Museums and Galleries to the Court of Appeal for review because it was felt to be unduly lenient. [183916] Helen Goodman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet The Solicitor-General: Of the sentences which were Office what the financial contribution required from brought to the attention of the Law Officers in 2013, each institution in the museums and galleries sector is 701 have been referred to the Court of Appeal. 60 of as a result of the transfer of pension liabilities from the these have already been heard and 10 are scheduled to Cabinet Office. [184054] be heard in the Court over the next few months. Mr Maude: There are no current plans to transfer any Of these 60 sentences already heard at the Court of pension liabilities from the Cabinet Office. Appeal, 52 sentences were increased, seven stayed the same and one had a reserved judgment. Solar Events Complete data on unduly lenient sentences reviewed by the Law Officers in 2013 will be published online later in the year once all of the cases have been finalised. Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the 1 This figure differs from the one of 67 given by the Attorney-General Cabinet Office what contingency plans the Government on 7 January 2014, Official Report, column 164, as three additional has in the event of large solar flares. [184150] sentences from 2013 have been referred since that date. Mr Maude: The Government’s broad approach to resilience is to ensure that effective cross cutting capabilities CABINET OFFICE and business continuity arrangements are in place to underpin the response to a disruptive challenge, irrespective Electronic Government of its cause. In the case of severe space weather, which includes Stephen Doughty: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet solar flares, the Government is working with industry Office (1) what estimate he has made of the number of and the science and engineering communities to better websites charging for access to Government online understand the potential impacts of this complex risk services in each of the last three years; and if he will and ensure that wherever possible infrastructure is robust make a statement; [184122] enough to minimise the risk to critical systems. (2) if he will take steps to enable the Competition In addition, the UK is collaborating with international and Markets Authority to be able to take enforcement partners to improve our ability to predict and assess action on websites found to be charging for access to space weather events, and the Department for Business, online Government services irrespective of whether a Innovation and Skills recently announced a £4.6 million disclaimer statement is deployed; [184123] investment for the Met Office space weather forecasting (3) what cross-departmental Ministerial meetings he and prediction centre. has held since October 2013 relating to websites charging for access to Government online services; if he will report on the progress of the review being led by the Government Digital Service; and how many complaints CHURCH COMMISSIONERS were received by his Department in each month since October 2013. [184124] Bishop of Bath and Wells Mr Hurd: I have regular meetings with my ministerial colleagues but it has been the practice of successive Tessa Munt: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, Administrations that details of internal discussions are representing the Church Commissioners, what heirlooms not normally disclosed. of the see there are in relation to the Bishop’s Palace at Officials in the Government Digital Service (GDS) Wells. [183920] are leading a cross-government exercise to gather information about the operation of third-party websites Sir Tony Baldry: The Palace at Wells contains many offering services associated with official Government heirlooms of the Bishop of Bath and Wells including the services. This research will guide our work to address Coronation cope worn traditionally during the Coronation the issue and the Government’s engagement with the ceremony by the Bishop. These and other heirlooms of internet search, engine providers that carry advertisements the Bishops of Bath and Wells will remain in the palace for the services of these unofficial providers. for the foreseeable future. 317W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 318W

Tessa Munt: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, Sir Tony Baldry: The Church Commissioners are a representing the Church Commissioners, what repairs registered charity and therefore are not required to pay or maintenance to the living accommodation of the stamp duty; they have also used their own in house legal Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Bishop’s Palace in advisors. The other associated costs therefore are estimated Wells were identified in the Church Commissioners’ currently at £3,000. most recent Quinquennial Review; what the date was of that review; and what the anticipated costs were of any such repairs or maintenance. [183921] TRANSPORT Sir Tony Baldry: The living accommodation for the Aviation: Accidents Bishop of Bath and Wells and his family form an integral part of the palace at Wells. The latest quinquennial Sir Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for review took place in 2013. Due to the location of the Transport for what reasons the Government asked for accommodation for the Bishop within the palace the the removal of article 6(e) from the EU Commission’s review did not separate out the various specific costs of proposal for a revision of Regulation 2027/97/EC; and work required within the Bishop’s flat from that of the what his Department’s policy is on article 6(e) of that rest of the palace complex. proposal. [183765] Mr Goodwill: The Department is of the opinion that Tessa Munt: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, hand luggage allowances are a commercial decision for representing the Church Commissioners, with reference airlines to manage and justify. to the future of the Bishop’s Palace in Wells, what consultation has taken place between the Church EU Law Commissioners and (a) English Heritage and (b) any other individual or body qualified to advise the Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Commissioners under section 4 of the Episcopal Transport how many EU directives his Department has Endowment and Stipend Measure 1943. [183934] transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in Sir Tony Baldry: Section 4 of the Episcopal Endowments his Department’s area of responsibility in the same and Stipends Measure 1943 does not apply in this case, period. [183871] as the Commissioners have not exercised a power conferred by that Measure to transfer, sell, convert or demolish Stephen Hammond: The Department for Transport the palace. The Bishops of Bath and Wells and Taunton has transposed 50 EU directives into UK law since will continue to use the office accommodation and the 2010. This number only includes fully transposed directives. chapel in the palace for their work and ministry, and the The Department for Transport has been tracking all public will continue to have access to the palace and its EU regulations since 8 July 2010. Since that date, 145 gardens through the work of the Palace Trust. EU regulations in the Department for Transport’s area of responsibility have come into effect. Details of all EU legislation, including full details of all EU regulations Tessa Munt: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, that have come into force before 8 July 2010, can be representing the Church Commissioners what consultation found on the Commission’s website at: has taken place between the Church Commissioners and the Diocesan Advisory Committee in accordance http://eur-lex.europa.eu/RECH_legislation.do with the terms of the Episcopal Endowment and Stipend Fuel Cells: Hydrogen Measure 1943 section 3(1) over the proposed new residence of the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the proposed Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for change of use of the Bishop’s Palace at Wells. [183937] Transport (1) what steps he is taking to enable the hydrogen fuel industry to compete effectively and secure Sir Tony Baldry: No consultation has taken place a position for itself as a viable part of the transport mix; with the diocesan advisory committee under section 3 [183786] of the Episcopal Endowments and Stipends Measure, (2) what steps he is taking to support the hydrogen because the Commissioners are not taking a decision to fuelling market; and what the Government’s proposed which section 3(1) applies. The Bishops of Bath and timeline for implementing these measures is. [183808] Wells and Taunton will continue to use the office accommodation and the chapel in the Palace for their Mr Goodwill: Three Government Departments (BIS, work and ministry, and the public will continue to have DECC and DFT through the Office for Low Emission access to the Palace and its gardens through the work of Vehicles) have been participating in UKH2Mobility, a the Palace Trust. joint industry-Government project. The aims of the project are to evaluate the potential for hydrogen as a Tessa Munt: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, fuel for transport in the UK and to identify what it will representing the Church Commissioners pursuant to take to position the UK as an early market for the the answer of 14 January 2014, Official Report, commercial deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric column 1502W, on Bishop of Bath and Wells, what vehicles from 2015. estimated (a) stamp duty and (b) other associated Following the completion of the evaluation phase costs will be paid by the Church Commissioners for and publication of the report in February 2013, their purchase or proposed purchase of property to UKH2Mobility has been working in Phase 2 to develop accommodate the new Bishop of Bath and Wells. a potential business plan for the roll-out of hydrogen [183938] fuel cell electric vehicles and the associated refuelling 319W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 320W infrastructure in the UK. Key areas of work have Number of vehicles included improving the understanding of the early customer proposition, developing options for securing the initial 2011 58,379 investment in hydrogen refuelling stations, and identifying 2012 57,910 mechanisms to ensure a pathway to production of green hydrogen. Since 2013 the way that certain vehicle transactions

The UKH2Mobility project has developed an outline are processed has changed and the data gathered about business plan, as targeted by end 2013. This includes foreign registered vehicles is no longer readily available. some potential options and choices for both Government In 2013, the DVLA processed 99,168 applications to and industry stakeholders and these will be considered register imported vehicles. Based on the average of by participants over the next few months. previous years, around 60,000 of these applications In addition, the Government is now analysing responses were likely to have been previously foreign registered received following the call for evidence to inform the vehicles. design of the £500 million package of Government Railway Stations: Disability support for ultra low emission vehicles between 2015-20. Any interventions from Government for the roll-out of Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and the associated Transport which railway stations do not have step free refuelling infrastructure will be determined in the context access; and what the annual footfall at each such of that wider package of support. station is. [184114] High Speed 2 Railway Line Stephen Hammond: Information on the accessibility of individual railway stations is collected by the Rail Mrs Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Delivery Group and published as part of the Stations Transport how the power required for High Speed 2 Made Easy facility on the National Rail Enquiries will be generated; and whether any new power stations website. The Office of Rail Regulation is responsible for will be needed to ensure there is sufficient capacity in recording and collating station footfall figures for stations the energy network for High Speed 2. [184158] and publishes these on its website. Mr Goodwill: HS2 Ltd is currently discussing power Railways: Tickets requirements with National Grid who are responsible for managing the supply of energy within the National Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Grid system. Electric railways consume around one per Transport how many times since May 2010 he has used cent of the electricity used in this country, and HS2 his statutory powers to require train operators to would add marginally to that. comply with the terms of their franchise agreements to use reasonable endeavours to ensure that passengers do Motor Vehicles: Registration not have to queue at a ticket office for more than five minutes during periods of peak demand or for more Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for than three minutes at any other time. [183761] Transport what plans he has to record details of foreign registered vehicles as they (a) enter and (b) exit the Stephen Hammond: The Secretary of State for Transport, UK. [184181] my right hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire Dales (Mr McLoughlin), expects operators to comply with Stephen Hammond: Details of foreign registered vehicles these requirements and will take appropriate action, entering and leaving the UK are gathered by the UK including enforcement action, where it is necessary to Border Force. The Department for Transport has no do so. Enforcement powers have not been used since plans to change this. May 2010 because it has not been necessary to do so. However, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport currently working with the UK Border Force and the what steps he intends to take against train operators police to understand how the data gathered at UK ports who do not decrease the time taken to buy a ticket. can be used to identify vehicle keepers who do not [183762] comply with the registration and licensing rules. Stephen Hammond: The Fares and Ticketing Review Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Next Steps published in October 2013 set out the Transport how many previously foreign registered Government’s vision for a modern, customer-focused vehicles were re-registered with the Driver and Vehicle fares and ticketing system that supports our objectives Licensing Agency in each of the last five years. [184184] of allowing even more people to travel by rail and ensure they have a better experience. The actions we are Stephen Hammond: Between 2009 and 2012 the Driver taking forward from this review will improve ticketing and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has re-registered through a number of measures, from the roll-out of 243,722 previously foreign registered vehicles. The following smart ticketing, better information to passengers and a table provides the breakdown. market review by the Office of Rail Regulation to consider whether the current market for selling train Number of vehicles tickets is operating as efficiently as possible. We will 2009 65,060 work with train operators to deliver these actions to the 2010 62,373 benefit of passengers and as such do not envisage any steps being necessary against operators. 321W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 322W

Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport Transport what recent discussions he has had with the rail industry on the maintenance of electronic ticket machines at Dr Thérèse Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for stations. [183763] Transport what assessment he has made of the benefits of open access for (a) the consumer and (b) the public Stephen Hammond: The Secretary of State for Transport, purse. [184046] my right hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire Dales (Mr McLoughlin), has had no recent discussions with Stephen Hammond: Open access operators have helped the rail industry on this area. to provide innovative services for passengers and have helped to grow new rail markets—often with excellent Rescue Services: Finance passenger satisfaction scores. The additional competitive pressure in the market provided by open access can also Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for improve the experience of passengers of franchised Transport what financial support the UK provides to services. mountain rescue teams. [184152] These beneficial impacts must be balanced against the potential to abstract passenger revenue from franchised Stephen Hammond: Grants to the three UK Mountain operators. This abstraction primarily manifests itself as Rescue Organisations totalling £200,000 per annum a cost to Government in the form of diminished value have been provided for the four financial years from of the franchises when they are tendered. 2011-12 to 2014-15. In an attempt to mitigate this problem, the Office of Rail Regulation (“ORR”) applies the “not primarily Taxis abstractive test”, which aims to ensure that applicants for open access routes will generate at least 30p of new Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for revenue for every £1 of existing revenue which is abstracted Transport if he will make an estimate of the cost to the from franchised operators. The ORR has concluded public use of the Law Commission review of taxis and that if the open access operator generates any less new private hire vehicles over the life of the review. [184044] revenue, the benefits of their operation would not outweigh the costs. Our policy is to support the not primarily Stephen Hammond: The quantifiable cost of the project abstractive test in its current form. to the Law Commission between July 2011 and 15 January All freight rail operations currently run on an open 2014 is £345,800. This includes staff costs, travel costs access basis. Our assessment is that for this very different and other expense and the cost of publications. The part of the rail market the open access system works staff costs are those of the lawyers and research assistants well for both customers and the public purse. working on the project. The figure does not include salary costs of other staff, nor of the Commissioner responsible, which are not separately recorded. Travel: Sustainable Development In addition, four officials within the Department for Transport have been involved in the review to varying Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for degrees, resulting in a cost to the public purse of around Transport what steps his Department is taking to £15,000. support local economic partnerships in the application process for the local sustainable transport and walking Train Operating Companies schemes 2015-16. [184037] Mr Goodwill: On 23 December we launched guidance Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for for transport authorities to bid for £78.5 million revenue Transport how many train operating companies (TOCs) set aside for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund have (a) applied for and (b) been awarded funding 2015-16. We have encouraged transport authorities to from the Access for All programme; to which TOCs work with their Local Enterprise Partnerships to ensure such funding has been awarded; and for what purposes ongoing support for sustainable transport schemes. such funding has been allocated. [184113] £100 million capital is available within the Local Stephen Hammond: The £370 million Access for All Growth Fund for local sustainable transport projects. programme, launched in 2006, will deliver an accessible We are supporting Local Enterprise Partnerships with route to each platform at around 150 selected stations the development of their Strategic Economic Plans by by March 2015. In addition, more than 1,100 stations providing feedback on the sustainable travel elements of have received funding for a large variety of smaller scale their plans. access improvements such as accessible ticket counters, toilets, customer information systems on platforms and tactile warning paving. Stations managed by every franchised train operator have benefitted from this funding. BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS To build on this success we have made £100 million available to extend the programme until 2019 and the Reshoring industry has nominated 277 stations for this funding. These business cases are currently being assessed and 18. Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State we hope to be able to announce successful projects in for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he April this year. All franchised train operators have has made of the potential for re-shoring and import nominated at least one station. substitution in the UK economy. [902151] 323W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 324W

Vince Cable: An initial Manufacturing Advisory Service Furniture: Imports assessment found that 11% of SMEs surveyed had reshored some production to the UK in the last 12 months. Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for The automotive council has also identified £3 billion of Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations additional sourcing opportunities; offshore wind could he has received on the importing of furniture that does support 30,000 supply chain jobs by 2020; and the new not meet the requirements in the Furniture and Furnishings nuclear build programme could add £11 billion GVA if (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988; and if he will make a 44% of contracts go to UK suppliers. Together these statement. [183749] suggest considerable potential for rebuilding UK supply chains. Jenny Willott: In the past six months, Ministers in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills have Business: Higher Education received three pieces of correspondence on this matter.

Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Higher Education: Private Sector Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to help build partnerships between businesses and Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for universities. [902138] Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2013, Official Report, column 821W, on Mr Willetts: The Government encourages businesses higher education: private sector, who the providers and universities to collaborate through a variety of were of the courses for students who had their loans funding mechanisms, tax incentives and other means. halted in the academic year 2013-14. [183175] Most recently the Prime Minister announced £15 million of funding for a pilot of University Enterprise Zones. Mr Willetts [holding answer 21 January 2014]: One Other ways in which Government supports collaboration or more students at the alternative providers listed as between businesses and universities include through the follows have had their student support payments suspended Technology Strategy Board and the Higher Education in academic year 2013/14, while the Student Loans Funding Council for England. Company carries out additional checks to assess personal eligibility of these students: EU External Trade AA Hamilton College ABI College Academy of Live and Recorded Arts Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent progress has been Access to Music made on establishing EU free trade agreements. [R] American Intercontinental University London [183425] Architectural Association School of Architecture Ballet West Michael Fallon: The EU has agreements in place with BIMM some 50 partner countries and has finished negotiating BPP University College of Professional Studies 10 trade agreements that have yet to enter into force. It Brit College also has 12 Free Trade Agreement negotiations under British Institute of Technology & E-Commerce way. British School of Osteopathy Ongoing negotiations include those with major trading Buckingham University partners such as the USA and Japan. Negotiations with Centre for Homeopathic Education the Commonwealth countries of Canada and Singapore reached political conclusion last year. Centre for Nutrition Education Chicken Shed Theatre A full list of the EU Free Trade Agreements in place and currently under negotiation is available on the DG Christ the Redeemer College Trade website: City & Guilds of London Art School http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2012/november/ City of London College tradoc_150129.pdf College of Integrated Chinese Medicine David Game College EU Law Delamar Academy of Makeup Eastend Computing and Business College Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Edge Hotel School Innovation and Skills how many EU directives his Essex International College Department has transposed into UK law since 2010; European Business School and how many directly acting EU regulations have Fairfield School of Business come into effect in his Department’s area of responsibility Futureworks Training Ltd in the same period. [183857] Grafton College of Management Sciences Greenwich School of Management Jenny Willott: I refer the right hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Member for East Ice Academy Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson), to the hon. Member for Icon College of Technology and Management Harrow West (Mr Thomas), on 21 November 2013, IFS School of Finance Official Report, column 965W. International College of Oriental Medicine 325W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 326W

Islamic College for Advanced Studies Mr Willetts: In 2013, the proportion of the 18-year-old Jewish Teacher Training Partnership population entering higher education in England was Kaplan Holborn College the highest ever. The rate for young people from the Kaplan Open Learning(University of Essex Online) most disadvantaged areas was also the highest ever. And as a consequence of our reforms more students Kensington College of Business than ever before were accepted onto their first choice London Bridge Business Academy course. London Centre of Contemporary Music London Churchill College Local Enterprise Partnerships London college of Accountancy (LCA Bus. Sch) London School of Academics Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for London School of Business & Finance Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking London School of Business & Management to encourage local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to London School of Management Education encourage inward investment to their area; and what guidance he gives LEPs on steps they should take to London School of Science & Technology differentiate their area from other parts of the UK. London School of Theology [183764] McTimoney College of Chiropractic Met Film School Michael Fallon: UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Middlesex College of Law has overall responsibility within Government for the Mont Rose College of Management & Sciences attraction and retention of foreign direct investment in Moorlands College the UK. It provides a range of support and services to new investors considering a presence in the UK for the Nazarene Theological College first time, and works with established investors to help Nelson College London maintain and grow their business in and from the UK. Newbold College Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are an integral Northern College of Acupuncture part of the national offer. OLC Europe Ltd Incorporating EETTEC Ltd LEPs are developing Strategic Economic Plans, which Oxford Business College will set out how they will encourage growth in their Pearson College Ltd areas. UKTI is supporting them to help them better Queens College Birmingham articulate their inward investment offer, focusing on Regents Theological College differentiating their area from overseas rather than internal competition. UKTI is providing extra resource to ensure Regents College-London School of Film Media LEPs are better equipped to attract high quality foreign Resource Development International (RDI) direct investment. Richmond, The American Intl University in London An early part of this work is the Local Investment Royal Academy of Dance Showcase: RTC Education Ltd T/A Regent College www.localinvestuk.com SAE Institute where LEPs and their delivery partners have been Springdale College encouraged to represent their globally competitive sector St Patrick’s International College strengths in the form of an attractive, searchable online Steve Allison Associates Ltd profile. Stratford College London Tech Music Schools Private Sector: Birmingham The Academy of Contemporary Music The City College Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance Innovation and Skills how the Greater Birmingham City Deal will address the imbalance of private sector The Interactive Design Institute growth; and what effect it will have on neighbouring The London College, UCK towns. [183918] The London Oriental Academy The MGA Academy of Performing Arts Michael Fallon: The proposals in the Greater Birmingham The University of Law and Solihull (GBS) City Deal aims to accelerate economic Tottenham Hotspur Foundation activity in the long-term and is a commitment to seizing UCFB College of Football Business Ltd Greater Birmingham and Solihull’s growth potential. UK College of Business & Computing Ltd The Deal aims to unlock growth and address imbalances in private sector growth by directing investments to key West London Coll of Business & Management Sciences projects, infrastructure and sectors. It helps to implement Williams College the Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) ’Strategy for Growth’ which focuses on Birmingham and its neighbours, Higher Education: Student Numbers including Redditch. The GBS LEP will work with neighbouring LEPs to fund projects across LEP areas Mr Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for that would have mutual economic benefits. Specifically, Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment the Deal will drive growth in the GBS LEP target he has made of statistics on student participation in sectors (and wider economy) through a Skills for Growth higher education. [902145] Hub that will rapidly increase Apprenticeship uptake 327W Written Answers23 JANUARY 2014 Written Answers 328W and sustainable employment. Surrounding LEPs will Mr Willetts: Repayments for 2012-13 have not yet benefit from the skills delivered through the Hub. been finalised as the Student Loans Company are still Birmingham university will also establish a new Institute to receive final information from HMRC on deductions for Translational Medicine. This facility will support and payments made through Self-Assessment for which further growth in the health/medical services sector. the deadline is 31 January 2014. Final numbers for 2012-13 will be published in June 2014 in the Statistical Solar Events First Release (SFR) ’Income Contingent Repayments by repayment cohort’. Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State The SLC publication with data for 2011-12 can be for Business, Innovation and Skills what research the found here: Government is undertaking or funding into solar http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/official-statistics-(slc)/ flares. [184149] officialstatistics1.aspx Mr Willetts: The Science and Technology Facilities BIS forecasts for repayments are as follows: Council (STFC) has responsibility for funding research relating to solar physics, which includes research into £ billion solar flares. STFC funds research on solar physics/flares 2012-13 1.7 at a number of universities around the UK including 2013-14 1.8 Leicester, University College London, Imperial College 2014-15 2.1 London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dundee, St Andrews, Warwick and Sheffield, as well as at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Our work on forecasting loan repayments is continuous Laboratory. In total, STFC commits approximately and ongoing and we would expect these forecasts to be £0.5 million to research in this area each year. amended as modelling changes are implemented, and as UK Space Agency (UKSA) enables this research by revised macroeconomic data are received. supporting a number of world-leading UK instruments such as the Heliospheric Imager on NASA’s STEREO Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for satellites, and the solar wind plasma and magnetic field Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has sensors on the future NASA Sunjammer mission. It is made of the average length of time taken by graduates estimated that the UKSA contribution for the development to repay student loan debt under (a) the current fees and running costs of these types of instruments is and loan system and (b) its predecessor systems. around £3.0 million per annum. [183932]

Students: Loans Mr Willetts: The average length of time to pay off loans in full was most recently estimated at the time of Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for the reforms to the higher education system in 2011. This Business, Innovation and Skills how much was collected estimated that, under the pre-2012 system, those borrowers in student loan repayments in 2012-13; and what estimate who fully repaid would do so in an average of around he has made of the value of student loan repayments 13 years. The equivalent period of time for borrowers made in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15. [183703] under the post-2012 system was around 17 years.

ORAL ANSWERS

Thursday 23 January 2014

Col. No. Col. No. BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS ...... 419 BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS—continued Apprenticeships ...... 422 National Minimum Wage...... 431 Apprenticeships (Minimum Wage)...... 432 Reshoring...... 433 Bank Lending ...... 428 Royal Mail Shares...... 425 Exports ...... 423 Small Businesses ...... 429 Female Entrepreneurs ...... 432 Topical Questions ...... 433 Life Sciences Sector...... 429 Women in Business ...... 426 Manufacturing...... 430 WRITTEN STATEMENTS

Thursday 23 January 2014

Col. No. Col. No. BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS ...... 9WS HOME DEPARTMENT—continued Consumer Rights Bill...... 9WS Scotland Analysis (Borders and Citizenship) ...... 12WS Land Registry ...... 9WS JUSTICE...... 13WS EU Treaties ...... 13WS CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT ...... 10WS Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 ...... 10WS PRIME MINISTER ...... 14WS Machinery of Government Change: CANparent FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE..... 10WS Trial ...... 14WS Gift of Equipment (Syria)...... 10WS TRANSPORT ...... 14WS Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Charging Scheme ..... 14WS HOME DEPARTMENT...... 11WS Independent Chief Inspector of Borders WORK AND PENSIONS ...... 14WS and Immigration...... 11WS Pensions...... 14WS WRITTEN ANSWERS

Thursday 23 January 2014

Col. No. Col. No. ATTORNEY-GENERAL ...... 314W COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT— Lord Rennard ...... 314W continued Prosecutions...... 314W Fracking...... 290W Sentencing: Appeals...... 315W Housing: Construction...... 290W Temporary Accommodation: Cumbria ...... 292W BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS...... 322W Business: Higher Education ...... 323W EU External Trade...... 323W CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT ...... 282W EU Law...... 323W EU Law...... 282W Furniture: Imports...... 324W Marriage ...... 283W Higher Education: Private Sector...... 324W Museums and Galleries...... 283W Higher Education: Student Numbers...... 325W Public Expenditure...... 283W Local Enterprise Partnerships...... 326W Sports: National Lottery...... 283W Private Sector: Birmingham ...... 326W Swimming ...... 283W Reshoring...... 322W Solar Events...... 327W Students: Loans ...... 327W DEFENCE...... 298W Armed Forces: Food ...... 298W CABINET OFFICE...... 315W Army...... 298W Electronic Government ...... 315W Army: Recruitment ...... 301W Museums and Galleries...... 316W Army: South East ...... 302W Solar Events...... 316W Burma...... 302W Chemical Weapons: Cheshire ...... 303W CHURCH COMMISSIONERS ...... 316W EU Law...... 304W Bishop of Bath and Wells...... 316W European Fighter Aircraft ...... 305W ICT ...... 305W COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT.. 289W Piracy...... 305W Derelict Land: Greater London ...... 289W Reserve Forces: National Insurance Empty Property: Shops...... 289W Contributions ...... 306W Enterprise Zones...... 290W Type 23 Frigates...... 306W Col. No. Col. No. EDUCATION...... 295W HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION—continued Academies: Bassetlaw ...... 295W Chocolate...... 287W Education: Finance...... 295W Pay...... 287W Pupils: Disadvantaged...... 296W Staff ...... 287W Schools: Nurses...... 297W Sugar ...... 288W

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE ...... 284W INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT...... 293W Energy: Finance ...... 284W Burma...... 293W Energy: Prices ...... 284W Developing Countries: Genetically Modified EU Law...... 285W Organisms...... 294W Fracking...... 285W EU Law...... 294W Fracking: Yorkshire and the Humber...... 286W Military Aid...... 295W Plutonium ...... 286W Rwanda...... 295W

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL TRANSPORT ...... 318W AFFAIRS...... 306W Aviation: Accidents...... 318W Common Agricultural Policy ...... 306W EU Law...... 318W Disease Control ...... 306W Fuel Cells: Hydrogen ...... 318W Floods...... 307W High Speed 2 Railway Line ...... 319W Fracking...... 307W Motor Vehicles: Registration...... 319W Hill Farming ...... 308W Railway Stations: Disability ...... 320W Railways: Tickets ...... 320W FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE..... 277W Rescue Services: Finance...... 321W Bahrain ...... 277W Taxis ...... 321W Burma...... 277W Train Operating Companies...... 321W EU Countries: Competition...... 278W Transport ...... 322W EU Law...... 278W Travel: Sustainable Development ...... 322W Iran...... 279W Malaysia ...... 279W TREASURY ...... 308W Nuclear Weapons...... 279W Banks: Pay ...... 308W Syria...... 280W Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank ...... 309W Thailand ...... 280W Debts: Advisory Services...... 309W Western Sahara ...... 280W Excise Duties: Beer ...... 310W Pay...... 310W HEALTH...... 270W Procurement...... 311W Action on Smoking and Health ...... 270W Tax Avoidance ...... 311W Cholesterol...... 271W Taxation: Self-assessment...... 312W Counselling...... 271W Trade Missions: China ...... 313W Depressive Illnesses...... 272W UK Asset Resolution ...... 313W Health: Children ...... 275W Health Services: Foreign Nationals ...... 275W WORK AND PENSIONS ...... 263W Hepatitis ...... 275W Children: Maintenance ...... 263W Home Care Services: Pay ...... 276W Employment and Support Allowance ...... 264W Mental Health Services ...... 276W EU Law...... 264W University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire EU Social Policy ...... 265W NHS Trust ...... 277W Jobcentre Plus: Telephone Services ...... 266W Pensions...... 266W HOME DEPARTMENT...... 280W Pensions Regulator ...... 267W Animal Experiments ...... 280W Social Security Benefits: Brigg ...... 267W Domestic Violence ...... 281W Social Security Benefits: EU Nationals ...... 268W Driving Under Influence: Drugs ...... 281W Social Security Benefits: Foreign Nationals...... 268W Drugs: Misuse...... 281W Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations..... 268W Human Trafficking ...... 282W Telephone Services...... 268W Vetting ...... 282W Unemployment: Ethnic Groups ...... 269W Unemployment: Greater London...... 269W HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION...... 286W Universal Credit...... 269W Catering ...... 286W Work Programme...... 270W Members who wish to have the Daily Report of the Debates forwarded to them should give notice at the Vote Office. The Bound Volumes will also be sent to Members who similarly express their desire to have them. No proofs of the Daily Reports can be supplied. Corrections which Members suggest for the Bound Volume should be clearly marked in the Daily Report, but not telephoned, and the copy containing the Corrections must be received at the Editor’s Room, House of Commons,

not later than Thursday 30 January 2014

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CONTENTS

Thursday 23 January 2014

Oral Answers to Questions [Col. 419] [see index inside back page] Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

Business of the House [Col. 441] Statement—(Mr Lansley)

Armed Forces Restructuring [Col. 461] Statement—(Mr Philip Hammond)

Backbench Business Shrewsbury 24 (Release of Papers) [Col. 479] Motion—(Mr Anderson)—on a Division, agreed to Holocaust Memorial Day [Col. 520] Motion—(Alistair Burt)—agreed to

Petition [Col. 547]

Flooding (North Lincolnshire) [Col. 548] Debate on motion for Adjournment

Westminster Hall Human Rights [Col. 143WH] Violence Against Women and Girls [Col. 167WH] Debates on motion for Adjournment

Written Statements [Col. 9WS]

Written Answers to Questions [Col. 263W] [see index inside back page]