Business of the House

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 24th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

As my hon. Friend said, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister gave a robust response yesterday to the question he was asked on prisoner voting. We welcome the fact that the Court has accepted our arguments that each state should have a wide discretion on implementation. We will be considering the judgment carefully and its implication for the issue of prisoner voting in the UK.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

As a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, I was concerned to learn this morning that the Government have plans to waste thousands of pounds on destroying buzzards’ nests in an attempt to protect game birds. Will the Leader of the House investigate the possibility of a debate on how the Government are protecting and preserving the UK’s native wildlife species?

[Sir George Young]

Like the hon. Lady, I saw those reports in the press today, and I understand her concern about the implications for the buzzard. I will raise the matter with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and ask her to write to the hon. Lady.

Business of the House

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 26th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am sorry to hear of the potential loss of Sure Start centres in my hon. Friend’s constituency. I would be happy to pursue the issue with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who is anxious to build on the Sure Start initiatives and extend the help that they offer to many people.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

Last Friday, a handful of hon. Members waffled on for the best part of five years—[Laughter] It felt like it! I mean five hours—to kill the Daylight Saving Bill. In how many other workplaces does the Leader of the House think it would be acceptable for individuals purposely to waste time, and what is he going to do to change the practice here?

[Sir George Young]

I understand the sense of frustration that the hon. Lady expresses, which is shared by many of my constituents. She will know that the Procedure Committee is conducting an inquiry into the calendar, included within which is a section on private Members’ Bills. As I said before, I have examined the matter, and in my view there is no practical way for that Bill to complete its passage through both Houses in the remainder of the Session, even if the Government were to provide time. The best way for it to be taken forward, as I suggested earlier, is for someone to build on the heroic work of my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point.

Business of the House

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

As my hon. Friend will have discovered, other Members in the House think that their own county deserves generous support on funding tourism. Yorkshire was the county that received more cash than any other area of the country, and it is having to go through the same process as everyone else in adjusting to the new regime. It has an advantage, in that Yorkshire received £10 million of regional development agency funding for the financial year 2011-12, because of a three-year agreement between Welcome to Yorkshire and Yorkshire Forward, which other regions did not get. I can say to him only that there may be other sources of funding—the regional growth fund, the European regional development fund and the rural development programme for England—to which he may turn for assistance.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I would like to return to the issue of the housing statement and the Homes and Communities Agency figures. They show that in London the number of social rented homes started between April and September this year was just 56, which is 7,469 down on the figure for the previous six months. If the Government knew that the figures were going to be released on Tuesday, why was the statement not made on the same day?

[Sir George Young]

The statement was made in its own right, independent of the statistics to which the hon. Lady refers, and I do not think that she should link them in the way that she has. I hope that she will welcome what was said on Monday, which was aimed at kick-starting the housing market and doing better than the outgoing Labour Government on housing starts and housing completions.

Business of the House

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 13th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

Following the riots in the summer, the Prime Minister announced a cross-departmental review of gangs and serious youth violence. A strategy is due to be published this month. Can the House have a debate on this vital issue in Government time?

[Sir George Young]

There will be a debate this afternoon in Westminster Hall on the riots, and the hon. Lady might like to go to that and to ask that question. She is right to say that there is an ongoing report into gang violence and related issues, and I hope that it will be made available in the relatively near future.

Business of the House

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 14th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

If my hon. Friend is referring to some personal vendetta that he has with the Whips Office, and a Bill that I think would disqualify the Whips from being Members of Parliament, I have to say that I have a very good relationship with the Chief Whip and would not be minded to support any measure that removed from me the pleasure of having his company next to me on the Front Bench at every Prime Minister’s questions.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

In a week when the House has rightly been focused on the phone hacking scandal, there is of course an emerging humanitarian crisis in east Africa, with thousands upon thousands of people without access to adequate food and water. Will the Leader of the House monitor the situation over the summer recess and, if necessary, find parliamentary time to debate the UK’s response to the tragedy?

[Sir George Young]

It is an important issue, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development made a statement about our aid policy not so very long ago. There were also questions to DFID Ministers yesterday. Of course we will keep the humanitarian crisis under review. I cannot promise that the House will be recalled if there is any deterioration, but we will do all we can to keep Members in the picture on the steps that the UK is taking to reduce the human suffering.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

2. What recent discussions he has had with the Chair of the Committee of Selection on the operation of that Committee.

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Sir George Young)]

I have occasional discussions with my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) on the work of his Committee. The House’s arrangements for the appointment of Select Committee members and Chairs have been significantly strengthened by changes introduced at the beginning of this Parliament.

[Heidi Alexander]

Having spent the last month doing my best to scrutinise the Localism Bill, I find it quite remarkable that hon. Members with specific expertise or knowledge can be prevented from serving on particular Bill Committees by the Committee of Selection. In May 2009, the Prime Minister said:

“There are far too many laws being pushed through, with far too little genuine scrutiny from MPs.”

Does the Leader of the House agree with those comments, and will he explore ways to make the Committee stage of Bills more open and effective?

[Sir George Young]

I welcome the important work that the hon. Lady is doing on the Localism Bill. It quite often happens that there are more people wishing to serve on a Public Bill Committee than there are places available, and the Committee of Selection then has to make difficult choices. In light of the exchange that took place at business questions a few weeks ago, it has revisited its procedure and believes that it was correctly followed in the case in question. I believe that the Committee and its Chairman will always be open to discussing how it works with Members of all parties.

Business of the House

Debate between Lord Young of Cookham and Heidi Alexander

Thursday 27th May 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for all the work that he and his Committee did in the previous Parliament on e-petitions. We are anxious to take the matter forward. He will have seen in the coalition agreement specific commitments on the issues he has raised, so the answer is yes, of course I want to take forward the Procedure Committee’s recommendations. I would also like that Committee to look at the commitments given by the coalition in the agreement to make even faster progress on this important issue.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

May I ask the Leader of the House when more information will be available about the £1.1 billion-worth of cuts to local government? In Lewisham, 18,000 homes are due for improvement under the decent homes programme. The previous Government indicated that £154 million would be made available for that work. Will the new Government honour that commitment, and when will the House have a proper opportunity to debate the future funding of social housing?

[Sir George Young]

I am sure the hon. Lady will welcome what the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said yesterday about the additional resources that were found for investment in affordable housing. I hope that some of that money will go to her constituency. Frankly, the previous Government’s record on building social housing was deplorable.