Business of the House

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 8th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very sensible point, and I would be happy to make sure the Home Secretary has heard his remarks.

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

May we have a full debate on the World Health Organisation? There are a number of issues about which many of us are concerned: the potential international treaty, the potential regulations and the discussion about international covid passports. The House ought to have an opportunity to express itself on some of these issues.

[Penny Mordaunt]

That is an excellent topic for debate. There are many aspects to this, and of course it plays into the Government’s programmes on patient records and other things. I will make sure the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has heard my hon. Friend’s suggestion, but he will know how to apply for a debate in the usual way—he has heard a fantastic advert from the Chairman of the Backbench Business Committee—and I am sure such a debate would be well attended.

Business of the House

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I answered that question when I announced the change to business, and said that we looked forward to doing that as soon as is practicable.

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

May we have a statement from the vaccines Minister about the booster roll-out in Dorset? On the face of it, the roll-out is successful nationally, but my constituents in Dorset go on the national website, put in their postcode, and are referred to all sorts of areas and have to get their atlas out to find where they have to go. I went on the website yesterday and was referred to Newport in Wales. Some have been referred to Exeter or Reading, and all those points are nowhere near Dorset, which has nearly 1 million people. There seems to be a vast deficiency in the ability to put vaccines in people’s arms where my constituents actually live. On occasion, it has even been suggested that people go to Yeovil, and although I suspect that a day out in Yeovil is something most of my constituents would love, an hour’s drive there and back is rather long to get the vaccine in their arm. Will my right hon. Friend please draw to the attention of the vaccines Minister that there is a problem in Dorset?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

Yeovil is on the Dorset border, so there are some people in Dorset for whom Yeovil would be extremely convenient. Yeovil is a town in Somerset, and therefore it is beautiful, glorious, and magnificent. I would have thought it would be a joy for anybody to go to Yeovil. But my hon. Friend makes a serious point, and after this statement I will of course take it up with the vaccines Minister. GPs are getting more involved and being paid £15 for every vaccine they are able to inject. That may be part of the process, but people need to be able to get to a vaccine centre that is reasonably close to them.

Business of the House

Robert Syms Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I pay tribute to the hon. Lady, and the shadow Leader of the House, for their tireless campaigning for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, which is a model of how Members of Parliament ought to behave when seeking redress of grievance for their constituents. The hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq) is absolutely right. The words in the passport are:

“Her Britannic Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty”.

We are, I believe, the only country that both requests and requires. When Government documents say such things, I expect them to be factual. The Foreign Office helps 30,000 British nationals each year. As I said earlier, it is a fundamental point that the British Government must protect Her Majesty’s subjects.

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole have an infection rate of about 220 people per 100,000. We are being moved up two tiers; we will be in tier 4 along with areas such as Thurrock, which has seven times that infection rate. People turning up to spend the new year in Bournemouth hotels are being turned round and sent back home with less than eight hours’ notice. This is a disaster for local businesses. If the health nutters are determined to ruin businesses in Dorset, can they at least set out clear criteria for doing it?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The problem is that the rates have been increasing very rapidly even in areas where they are very low, and this new strain seems to be infecting people more quickly. Obviously, there is hope from the vaccine. I assume that my hon. Friend did not get in on questions to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care; if I may, I will pass on his question directly to our right hon. Friend for, perhaps, a more comprehensive answer.

Business of the House

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I think this has to be put in the context of the overall support provided by the Government, with the amount of money now running into the hundreds of billions of pounds. Specifically for councils, £4.6 billion of unring-fenced support for councils has been paid, and there has been £1.1 billion to support local businesses and £10 billion in business rates relief. I absolutely accept that not everybody is able to get all the support that is available and that is a fair point for the hon. Gentleman to make, but the Chancellor is absolutely right to say that there is £4.6 billion of additional unring-fenced funding for councils.

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

May I ask for a debate on residential landlords in the private rented sector, as the sector is very unhappy? It provides valuable property for people, yet throughout this crisis landlords have been prevented from managing their properties and evicting people, even those with arrears from well before the crisis. I know of landlords who have not been able to evict people exhibiting antisocial behaviour and causing distress to other tenants because of restrictions the Government have imposed. Some people who could pay rent are not paying rent, but some of the residential landlords are still having to pay mortgages. This is a troubled sector and we should explore all the issues and have a full debate.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am not unsympathetic to what my hon. Friend is saying. The package of Government covid measures in the private rented sector seeks to strike the right balance between prioritising public health and supporting the most vulnerable renters, while ensuring that landlords can get access, and exercise their rights, to justice. The stay on possession proceedings was lifted on 21 September, and landlords can now take action on possession claims through the courts. Although we have laid regulations to require bailiffs not to enforce evictions until 11 January, there are exemptions—this is important—for the most serious cases, such as antisocial behaviour and illegal occupation.

We are grateful to landlords for their forbearance during this unprecedented time. Some may have been able to benefit from postponements of mortgage payments, which have been made available, but we strongly encourage tenants in all relevant Government guidance to pay their rent or to have an early conversation with their landlord if they have any difficulty doing so. The mortgage holiday has been extended, with the application process open to 31 January 2021.

Proceedings During the Pandemic (No. 4)

Robert Syms Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

I am disappointed that, having come back thinking that we might move on and be able to accommodate more Members within this Chamber, we seem to be where we were in the summer. We are here to lead. We are expecting schools to go back, universities to go back and people to go back to work. With 650 MPs and only 50 allowed in the Chamber, that inevitably restricts the ability of Members to represent their constituents. We live in a difficult time. We also live in a time when Government legislation undermines the civil liberties of many people. We have certain areas of our country in local lockdown, yet those Members of Parliament are restricted in their ability to come to this Chamber because of how we are operating at this moment.

I am disappointed that the motion, had it come at 7 pm, would have been without debate and for an extension until November. We already see the number of cases reducing and the number of deaths and hospital admissions falling, and yet we will continue with the existing arrangement for several more weeks.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

I apologise for contributing from the Opposition Benches, but there is no room anywhere else. Does my hon. Friend believe that the measures we are taking are proportionate, given that in the last two weeks of July five times more people died of seasonal flu, outside the season, than of covid-19? When we had Hong Kong flu, it carried off 80,000 people. Did we behave in this ridiculous way?

[Sir Robert Syms]

It is interesting that my right hon. Friend is over there, given the ten-minute rule Bill we had today. The key point is that we should be making progress. If the Government wish to continue, as they do, with the current arrangements, they should not go to November. The arrangements should come back to the House on a more regular basis to be debated and tested, because they affect the civil liberties of our constituents. If the House is willing to go along with them, fine, but just to shut debate down until the beginning of November is wrong. I hope that the Leader of the House, who has been a strong defender of the rights of Back Benchers in this House, comes back and tests the opinion of the House more regularly. I have to say that Back Benchers are restless; they do not have the say that they should have.

[Karen Bradley]

I agree with much of what my hon. Friend says and I think it is very good that we are actually having a debate on this matter. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House will know that I felt strongly that we needed a debate on this matter, but I hope that he can confirm that, if the Government guidance on social distancing and other matters changes before 3 November, he will give the House an opportunity to consider what changes we could make at that time to the way our sittings proceed, based on that revised Government guidance.

[Sir Robert Syms]

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point, but I also make the point that this is the Parliament of the nation, and we should be deciding the guidance for what our citizens have to do, rather than it go through by edict or statutory instrument without proper debate. We need to be debating these issues and we are not doing so. At the moment, I do not think this House is in a position to call itself a proper Parliament. If we are to proceed in this way, the House ought to consider the motion on a more regular basis with a debate, and the Government should on those occasions put forward the reasons why we should stay as we are. As many Members have said, there are many big issues out there that we should consider, and I think that Parliament is going down a cul-de-sac by supporting this motion.

Business of the House

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I commend the work of Gizmo’s Legacy and its national campaign. The Government have said that they will bring forward cat microchipping in England, and we will publish the summary of responses to our call for evidence on this subject in due course. This is a worthy subject for an Adjournment debate under the right concatenation of circumstances, and I hope he will avoid catastrophic issues occurring.

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

May we have an urgent debate on the aviation sector? First, we need to discuss air bridges, and the sooner we get them the better. Secondly, we need to discuss BA’s treatment of its staff, which is a disgrace. Thirdly, we need to look at the whole sector and the support available, particularly for those in engineering who are going to suffer. I notice that the French Government have supported their sector.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

In general terms, I would reiterate the points I have made about the support that the Government have provided for all industries. My hon. Friend is not alone in having constituents who have been poorly treated by British Airways; I have one myself. Treating people who have worked for a firm for very long time unfairly is not a way that reputable companies should behave, and bringing this to the attention of the House is therefore the proper thing to do. I would suggest that most of what he is asking for can be brought up in the economic debate next week.

Business of the House

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 18th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I thank the Leader of the House for confirming that the Prime Minister will make that statement here first.

[Sir Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

May we have an urgent debate on aviation, for two reasons? First, because many of us want to express our support for BA staff, who are currently having a very difficult time with their management; we need to stand up for them. Secondly, because the 14-day quarantine in aviation is such a good policy that it needs rapid improvement to air bridges or testing. We need to get the aviation industry going and those two issues need fully to be discussed in the House.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising an important question. Many of us represent constituents who have worked for British Airways and given long service over many years, and there are concerns about the way that they have been treated. This matter has quite rightly been brought before the House under an urgent question, and I think could be debated next week in the Petitions Committee debate relating to support for UK industries in response to covid-19. The matter clearly comes under that heading, so the debate will be available.

I note the point that my hon. Friend makes about the quarantine regulations, which of course are for a period and will be reviewed. The issue of safe countries is being looked at, as the Foreign Secretary said on the wireless this morning.