Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 10th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I want to speak up for the minority whose names begin with letters between S and Z. Having a name beginning with Y has been a serious disadvantage in every election I have fought, and a small compensation for that is going through the voting Lobby slightly faster than my hon. Friend. It is an advantage that I am reluctant to forgo.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

I, too, feel that with a passion.

Recently, the Public Accounts Committee highlighted that over the past nine years approximately £1 billion of waste was incurred by the Highways Agency on upgrading the M25. At a time of public sector constraint in budgets, and when we need greater infrastructure investment, may we have a debate on the auditing of that important agency?

[Sir George Young]

There will be opportunities to debate PAC reports. We welcome the report to which my hon. Friend refers, which was published on 8 February, on the mishandled M25 project. We are determined to get value for money for taxpayers and want to learn the lessons of the report and act on its recommendations.

Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. We had an extensive debate on this when the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill was going through this House. It is now in another place where there is also extensive debate. If and when we get the Bill back in this House, there might be an opportunity for him to raise the matter, but of course, that would not apply until after the next election and into a new Parliament, whereas the proposals for MPs would apply before the election.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

Gatwick airport is located in my constituency, as are many travel companies. Given the recent crises in tourist destinations such as Tunisia and Egypt, in an uncertain world, will the Foreign and Commonwealth Office consider making a statement on the sort of co-ordinated advice it can give to travel firms about repatriating tourists?

[Sir George Young]

I think the FCO has a website that is regularly updated, which gives advice to those who are thinking of travelling overseas. It includes FCO advice on the desirability of going to those destinations and the precautions that travellers should take. However, I shall raise with the Foreign Secretary the issue that my hon. Friend has touched on.

Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 27th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

Last Thursday evening it was my pleasure to take part in the Gatwick Diamond young start-up talent event, which is a “Dragons’ Den”-style event for young people with entrepreneurial ideas. Can we find time for a debate, perhaps through the Backbench Business Committee, to discuss ways in which we can better help young people with entrepreneurial ideas to get ahead?

[Sir George Young]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concern, and I was delighted to hear about what happened. We are putting more resources into apprenticeships and the enterprise allowance scheme. We have made a change this week to the amount of time young people can spend on work experience without losing access to benefits and we are introducing the new Work programme. I hope that we can reduce the large number of young unemployed that we inherited from Labour and encourage them to become entrepreneurs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 20th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

5. What recent progress he has made on the Government’s plans to link petitions to debates in the House.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

6. What recent progress he has made on the Government’s plans to link petitions to debates in the House.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons (Mr David Heath)]

As the Leader of the House has said, the Government will move the online petition system to the Directgov portal soon—certainly before the summer. Officials are now working on an effective verification system to ensure that petitions become a useful tool for engaging with the Government, in contrast to the gimmicky approach of the previous Government’s No. 10 petition site. My briefing notes say that, at this point, I should use the pseudo-word “clicktivism”, a neologism as ugly as it is unintelligible. I have no intention of associating myself with it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Heath]

Well, the petitions will be to the House of Commons, but the Government’s site will be used simply because it is there. The “Directgov” site is the common site for connexions via the internet to Government. I believe that the address is www.direct.gov.uk, so the hon. Gentleman might like to look at it and see whether it is a sensible portal to use—if he accepts the word “portal” at all.

[Henry Smith]

What will be the role of the Backbench Business Committee in government e-petitions?

[Mr Heath]

The Committee itself made it clear in its first special report that in determining what business should be taken, it would consider

“public petitions recently submitted to the House and petitions published on the Downing Street website—until such time as a system for electronic petitions to the House is implemented”.

We very much welcome the Committee’s continued interest in e-petitions as a source of debate, and we will work with it and with the Procedure Committee in making sure that we have a proper procedure for linking petitions to Parliament.

Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I reject the accusation that anything has been done in a cavalier manner. As I said in response to the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), the convention that has been followed in this case exactly replicates the convention that was followed the last time a seat was declared void, which was in the constituency of Winchester.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

Following the recession, many over-50s in my constituency are, regrettably, finding it very difficult to get back into work, and I know that that issue extends across the country. I would be grateful if time could be found for a debate on encouraging employers to look kindly on re-employing those who find themselves out of work over the age of 50.

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. He will know that we are introducing a new Work programme from early next year, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is anxious to ensure that job seekers of all ages get the tailored and personalised support that they need to get back to work. I will draw my hon. Friend’s remarks to the attention of the Secretary of State.

Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

In the relatively near future, we will be debating the Armed Forces Bill, which might provide an opportunity to raise such issues. I am very sorry to hear what happened to the hon. Gentleman’s constituent, and I will draw the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence to the incidents that he has just described.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

Many parents in my constituency—not least my constituency caseworker—have experienced immense frustration in dealing with the apparently dysfunctional Child Support Agency. May we have a debate in the not too distant future on the future of the agency?

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend is not unique in having a regular dialogue with the CSA on behalf of his constituents, and I share and understand his concern. He will know that, following the public bodies reform announcement on 14 October, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission will be abolished as a non-departmental public body, and instead become an Executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions. It is our intention that all functions of the commission will be moved to the Executive agency. I hope that that will result in an improvement in the performance of that body.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Henry Smith Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sadiq Khan]

One of the reasons why we have a Public Gallery and open democracy is that people can see democracy at work, even though they may not like what we say or how we vote. One of the reasons why we have open trials is to have open justice, so that people can see what happens in a trial. Not only does due process lead to better results; it also leads to people feeling that they get a fair hearing. In just five months, these guys on the Government Benches have been willing to bulldoze through some of the biggest changes in our lifetimes for the sake of stitching up the next general election.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

We have heard terms such as “denial of democracy” and “inconsistency” in recent interventions, but in a democracy should not everyone ultimately have an equal vote, which should not be decided by special interest groups or the intervention of political parties?

[Sadiq Khan]

The way it works in a democracy is that candidates stand on a manifesto and people vote for that manifesto, so that those representatives have a mandate. What is not democratic is for two parties to come up with a deal behind closed doors over five days, with no mandate from the British public, and after the election to change their views from what they had wanted to do before the election. Neither of the two parties in government talked about getting rid of public inquiries or about 300 seats, so the hon. Gentleman should ask himself whether he is proud to vote as he will in an hour and a half, to abolish public inquiries.

For the avoidance of doubt, and to answer the important point raised by the hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Gavin Williamson), I do not disparage the active part that political parties play in the inquiry process. It is entirely natural that they are involved and that inquiries are more effective as a result. Indeed, that is what we encourage in emerging democracies.