Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lilian Greenwood and John Bercow

Tuesday 20th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

It is always useful to have a bit of additional information. We are greatly indebted to the Minister.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

In the east midlands, the average ambulance arrival time for life-threatening cases has almost doubled in the last three years, and Nottingham’s A&E waiting times are the worst in a decade. Will Ministers apologise to my constituents, including hard-working NHS staff, for their failure to fund health and social care adequately?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lilian Greenwood and John Bercow

Thursday 13th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), who is an extremely senior and cerebral Member of the House, keeps chuntering from a sedentary position about buried money—just in case colleagues had not heard what he was chuntering about. It would be good if he ceased chuntering.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

11. Improvements to air quality and action to tackle road transport pollution in this country have been driven by EU legislation and the enforcement mechanisms that underpin them. In September the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey), alongside the Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the hon. Member for Worcester (Mr Walker), was asked seven times by the Environmental Audit Committee whether the Government would retain EU air quality limits following exit from the EU, but she failed to give that commitment. Weeks later, why has she still not confirmed that EU air quality limits will be retained or improved, or explained how they will be enforced, which is essential to cutting premature deaths?

Point of Order

Debate between Lilian Greenwood and John Bercow

Thursday 10th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This morning at Transport Questions, in response to my question about airport expansion, the Secretary of State stated that “when an announcement is to be made, I will make it in the House.” However, it has also been reported that there will be a press conference setting out the Government’s new position later this evening. Is it in order for the Transport Secretary to commit to making a statement in this House first, only to proceed to announce the policy in the press when the House is not sitting? At the very least, would it not be a great discourtesy to the House to do that?

[Mr Speaker]

The short answer to the hon. Lady is that if the Government have an announcement to make—whether of a final decision, as they see it, on this matter or appertaining to that final decision and describing the process to be undertaken and the specified period in which it will be undertaken—it should be disclosed to the House first so that hon. and right hon. Members can have an opportunity to question the Secretary of State. He is an extremely experienced Minister and a very experienced Member of Parliament, and he is well able, as he regularly demonstrates, to fend for himself at the Dispatch Box. These matters should be treated of in this Chamber and not somewhere else. It is blindingly obvious that that is the wish of the House today, and I feel sure that the Leader of the House will communicate that as necessary.