Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 25th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There are so many noisy private conversations taking place it is quite difficult to hear the Minister’s answer. Let us have a bit of order for the Chair of the Public Administration Select Committee of the House of Commons.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

At what may well be my right hon. Friend’s last appearance in the House of Commons at the Dispatch Box, may I remark that his five-year term as Minister for the Cabinet Office in charge of civil service policy for the Government will have truly left its mark not just on the civil service but on this House? His tenacity, commitment and sincerity are of great credit to him.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. A great many very noisy private conversations are taking place in the Chamber. We should have a bit of order, not least so that we can hear the Chair of the Public Administration Committee, Mr Bernard Jenkin.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

7. What plans he has to improve the effectiveness of his Department in co-ordinating planning and implementation across Government Departments.

Business of the House

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

May I say how happy I am to be able to join all those who have commended the House of Commons Governance Committee report, and urge my right hon. Friend to bring forward the debate as quickly as possible so that the findings can be implemented? I say that not least because I was the guy who came up with the idea of this Committee; I drafted the motion that was accepted by the House; and I was even the first to invite the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw) to take on the role of Chairman—and he has done so most ably. Moreover, the report concurs with the evidence submitted by the Public Administration Select Committee.

[Mr Speaker]

Anybody would think that the matter was about the hon. Gentleman! If he wishes us to think that, it is Christmas time, and we are pleased for him.

Ukraine (Flight MH17) and Gaza

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Monday 21st July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman’s book must be due for a further reprint.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend recognise that the utility of military force, and of having enough of it, is not what one might wish to deploy in combat now, but what one has available to shape the global strategic environment, which many would rightly say is what we lack today?

Equal Marriage Consultation

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. A great number of hon. and right hon. Members are still seeking to catch my eye and I want to accommodate them on this very important matter. I hope they will help me to help them by being brief. Perhaps we can be given a textbook example of the genre by Mr Bernard Jenkin.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

I commend my right hon. Friend for the sensitive way in which she is approaching the issue and welcome her statement and the legislation she is proposing. Does she agree that it is legislation not to change the society in which we live but to recognise how society has already changed, and that we should afford the freedom to marry to every citizen in this country?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Tuesday 16th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Tim Loughton. Not here.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

May I ask the Deputy Prime Minister what he thinks politics in this country should be about? I remind him that he argued with some passion for more equal constituencies and fairer boundaries on their own merits. Is politics about arguing for what one believes in on a point of principle, or is it about getting what one can out of a particular situation for one’s own political advantage, in which case why should we ever believe anything he says?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 27th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman deserves to be heard. There has been far too much noise today when Members have been asking their questions. It is discourteous. Let us hear Mr Bernard Jenkin.

[Mr Jenkin]

Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to remind the House that there is a crucial EU summit at the end of this week? Which is more important for UK growth and jobs: the implications of the massive changes being proposed in the EU or House of Lords reform?

Points of Order

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 25th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The short answer is that I have received no such indication or communication from a DECC Minister, but I just have a sense—I do not know why; perhaps it is my nearly 15 years in the House and the fact that the right hon. Lady and I came into the House together—that she will pursue the matter at DECC questions tomorrow, probably like a terrier.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

On a separate point of order, Mr Speaker, but one that is related to the role of my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House. I am sure that my right hon. Friend would want to fulfil his function as Leader of the whole House, and not just to be a spokesman for the Government about Government business. Would you, Mr Speaker, have a word with my right hon. Friend to explore how a hiatus such as this might be avoided in future, so that the Leader of the House might carry out his function as Leader of the whole House?

[Mr Speaker]

Well, it is not for the Chair to intervene in this matter, and certainly not to pronounce on it now. The hon. Gentleman has put the ball into play, and I rather imagine that it will be returned, probably before long. Whether it is returned with interest, topspin or slice, I do not know, but I imagine that the ball will be returned.

I have regular and very constructive and convivial discussions both with the Leader of the House and—[Interruption]—no, not with alcohol—with the shadow Leader of the House, and I intend that those discussions will continue. I bear in mind the point that the hon. Gentleman has made.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Thursday 3rd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

From that hon. Member we can now hear; I call Mr Bernard Jenkin.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

May I thank my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House for that answer?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

The roles of Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service are very different and were indeed separate roles until 1981. Following the announcement of the retirement of Sir Gus O’Donnell, the role of head of the civil service will, once again, be separated from the Cabinet Secretary role. The two individual roles will be more focused, and people can be appointed to each on the basis of the skills match to each role. An internal competition is under way to recruit the post holder from among existing permanent secretaries.

[Mr Speaker]

We need to leave time for the question.

[Mr Jenkin]

Change is the watchword of the Prime Minister and change in government is a vital ingredient of the Government’s reform programme. How will the head of the civil service be able to lead and implement change if he does not have equal authority and equal access to the centre of government as he does now?

Draft Financial Services Bill (Joint Committee)

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Monday 18th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. May I put it to you that the question of the allocation of powers to the other place is completely outside the scope of the motion?

[Mr Speaker]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. I was listening intently and I was about to say, which I shall now do, that we are concerning ourselves in this debate with the establishment, composition and remit of the draft Financial Services Bill Joint Committee, upon which subject the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) is tabling and, I think, speaking to an amendment relating to a narrow part of the matter—namely, a particular member of the Committee. A wider dilation about possible future transfers of power, which might haunt the hon. Gentleman, are not subject matter for this evening’s debate, to which I know he will now return.

Africa and the Middle East

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 29th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Statements by the Foreign Secretary are not a secret; they are discussed in every pub in the land every day.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

I commend my right hon. Friend’s determination to see through the NATO campaign to a positive conclusion, but when did the Government first realise that the campaign might take 100 days, six months or even longer? May I advise him that, having produced a report on strategic thinking in government, which the director of the Royal United Services Institute this morning described as a landmark report, the Public Administration Committee will return to the subject of how such decisions and assessments are made on a cross-departmental basis, which, as he rightly claims, he has much improved under this Government?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 27th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

May I commend the intellectual ideas behind the whole concept of the big society? May I also commend to my right hon. Friend an article by Tim Montgomerie that appeared on ConservativeHome earlier this week entitled, “Conservatives can win the poverty debate but not if the Big Society is our message”? Is the big society more accurately described as a label for a collection of policies rather than a policy itself?

[Mr Speaker]

I hope that the Minister will answer with particular reference to private sector applications and the big society bank.

Counter-terrorism

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Thursday 20th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am extremely grateful.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

I welcome the fact that my hon. Friend has been able to give information to the House today, perfectly properly provoked by an urgent question from the Opposition Front-Bench spokesman. May we all reflect on the fact that the timing of these matters has reflected the extraordinary complexity and difficulty of dealing with these matters, and one might take the criticisms from the Opposition Front Bench a bit more seriously if they had less of a party political flavour about them?

Loans to Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time)

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Wednesday 15th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

I wanted to intervene on my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to ask for a further assurance. I am minded to support my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) by voting against this motion in the Lobby if there is a Division. However, I might refrain from doing so if my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary were to rise to his feet and assure me that the measures in the Bill could not be used to lend to Ireland through another international institution, such as the European Union. I would be grateful for that assurance.

[Mr Speaker]

No further Members are standing to show that they wish to speak.

Question put.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and John Bercow

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. From now on we must have timely progress, with short questions and short answers.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give an undertaking that there will be no move to hold a referendum on voting reform on the same day as any other elections, after the ruling given by the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, which said:

“we recommend there should be a presumption against holding referendums on the same day as elections”?