Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Some 95% of the jobs that have been created over the last year have been created for employees in businesses, but we have also seen a big increase in entrepreneurism and business start-ups in our country, lighting the fires of enterprise. That is vital, because those individuals will go on to build great companies, build our industrial base, and provide the jobs of the future. Yes, my hon. Friend is right: so often in the House we talk about our growing economy, and never hear one word of regret from the people who crashed the car in the first place.

[Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab)]

This week it was revealed that a second criminal inquiry into a former Member of this House, Sir Cyril Smith, had been closed down by senior police officers, and I believe that there are other examples of cover-ups which are yet to be revealed. Notwithstanding the reassurances from the Home Secretary, will the Prime Minister please give a cast-iron guarantee that former public officials with knowledge of the cover-ups are given full whistleblower protections?

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for asking that question, which I think comes down to three separate questions. There is concern about whether people will be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. In terms of people giving evidence to the Goddard review, Justice Goddard is perfectly able to ask the Attorney-General—as has happened in the case of all previous commissions of inquiry of this type—to make sure that no one can incriminate themselves when they give evidence, and I am sure that that will happen. In terms of giving evidence to the IPCC inquiry, the Home Secretary has given very clear guidance. And in terms of disclosure to the press, the Attorney-General said very recently that it was highly unlikely that it would ever be in the public interest for someone who revealed wrongdoing to be subject to prosecution. I am absolutely clear about the fact that I do not want anyone to be prosecuted for uncovering wrongdoing in such a way, and I hope that the hon. Gentleman will take that in the spirit in which it was meant.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very glad to hear that Osborne Construction is working in my hon. Friend’s constituency, just as it is around the rest of the country. That is very worth while. I shall take this opportunity to pay tribute to him, as a constituency MP, for standing up for people and businesses in Reigate and for knowing that what Reigate needs is what the country needs, which is to stand up for hard-working people and to get more businesses, more jobs and more investment turning our country around.

[Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab)]

Q8. Fixed-odds betting machines allow the user to stake £100 every 20 seconds for up to 13 hours a day. They have transformed the local bookies from places where people went for a flutter on the horses into high street digital casinos. Will the Prime Minister consider banning these addictive machines, as has recently happened in Ireland?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Excerpts

Wednesday 13th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have every sympathy with my hon. Friend. There was a case in my constituency where the lead from the Witney church roof was stolen. I have been trying to ensure that these crimes are taken seriously by the police, because they put massive costs on to voluntary bodies, churches, charities and businesses. We must ensure that they are not seen as second-order crimes, because the level of this crime is growing and it is very worrying.

[Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab)]

Q6. The debate this afternoon will be vital, because it will show the House united in its revulsion at what was done to Milly Dowler’s family. May I ask the Prime Minister to make urgent inquiries into whether families of the victims of 9/11 were similarly targeted by the criminals at News International? If they were, will he raise it with his counterpart in the United States?

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly look at that. In the statement I am about to make, I will give some figures for just how many people’s phones the Metropolitan police currently think were hacked and how many of them they have contacted so far. They have pledged to contact every single one. I met the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson last night to seek further reassurances about the scale of the police operation that is under way. In what was—if we can put it this way—a mixed appearance by police officers at the Home Affairs Committee yesterday, I thought that Sue Akers, who is leading this investigation, acquitted herself extremely well. We should have confidence that the Metropolitan police will get to the bottom of this.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I certainly endorse what my hon. Friend says, and I will do everything I can to support our rugby team. I very much hope the trophy will be coming home—[Interruption.] Calm down. I very much hope the trophy will be coming home to one of the nations of the United Kingdom. When I met the Prime Minister of New Zealand, he kindly gave me an All Blacks shirt, but his advice was, “Whatever you do, don’t be seen wearing this”, and I think I will take that advice.

[Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab)]

As the Prime Minister has previously said, the hacking inquiry should go where the evidence takes it. The Metropolitan police are in possession of paperwork detailing the dealings of criminal private investigator Jonathan Rees. It strongly suggests that, on behalf of News International, he was illegally targeting members of the royal family, senior politicians and high-level terrorist informers, yet the head of Operation Weeting has recently written to me to explain that this evidence may be outside the inquiry’s terms of reference. Prime Minister, I believe powerful forces are involved in a cover-up; please tell me what you intend to do to make sure that that does not happen.

[The Prime Minister]

I know the hon. Gentleman takes a close interest in this subject, and the point I would make to him is that there is a police inquiry, and a police inquiry does not need terms of reference. The police are free to investigate the evidence and take that wherever it leads them, and then mount a prosecution with the Crown Prosecution Service if the evidence supports that. In the case of phone hacking, which is illegal and wrong, there have been prosecutions and imprisonments, and if that is where the evidence takes them, that is what will happen in the future. There are no terms of reference as far as I am concerned; the police are able to look at any evidence and all evidence they can find.