Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Wednesday 4th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

This week we have seen that fear is spreading across this land among senior business people. Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that he will stay the course of his—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman’s question must be heard. If he wants to continue the last bit of it, he can: spit it out.

[Steve Baker]

Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that he will stay the course to prosperity with his long-term economic plan?

Criminal Law

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Monday 10th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

I support the previous Question. To listen to some of the right hon. and hon. Members who have spoken, one would think that it destroyed our democracy, that it threatened our democracy or that it was bad for this debate. Not a bit of it. Of course the substantive question is a matter of the first importance to justice, security, our international relations, our constitution and the democratic control of power.

In a moment we will have a chance to answer the question, “Are the Government asking the House the right questions?” I urge everybody to vote Aye and send the Government back to reformulate the question, come back to the House and ask us the right questions about matters of the most grave importance. The motion—the previous Question—is not a motion to destroy our democracy; it is a motion to save it, and I commend it to the House.

[Mr Speaker]

As the previous Question is an unusual procedure, I think I ought to repeat to the House the effect of this motion, because several Members have come up to me, quite understandably in this unusual situation, somewhat uncertain about what is at stake and what the implications of a particular course of action are. Let me try to help.

If the previous Question—that is, the motion put by the shadow Home Secretary at, if memory serves me correctly, 7.1 pm is agreed to—the draft regulations introduced by the Home Secretary will not be further considered at this sitting. That is to say, they will not be further considered tonight. If the previous Question is negatived—that is, the right hon. Lady’s motion is defeated—the Chair would be required to put the Question on the draft regulations straight away, without any further debate.

Lastly, before I put the Question, I can say to the House, with reference to an inquiry at a very senior level that has just been put to me, that yes, of course, if the House wishes to debate a motion or a set of motions of a similar or a different character, or a combination of similar and different characters, tomorrow, it is perfectly at liberty to do so. I am not saying it should do so; I am not saying any such thing. That is not for the Chair, but the House would be at liberty to do so with an emergency business statement to explain the change of business.

I hope it is clear what the implication of agreeing to the previous Question is—no further consideration of the draft regulations tonight. If the motion is rejected, the draft regulations would have to be put to the vote without any further debate. And yes, the matters can be treated of by the House tomorrow if colleagues wish to do so. My role is simply to facilitate the will of the House. Is that clear?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Thursday 31st October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Let us try to get through the full list. I call Mr Steve Baker.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

T6. I am extremely grateful to the Minister for the detailed correspondence that he has had with me on the technical issue of radio spectrum use for DAB, but on my constituents’ advice I remain concerned that successive Governments may have wasted some radio spectrum. Would he please arrange a meeting between me and my constituents and the relevant technical staff to try to lay this issue to rest?

Spending Review

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

It is good of the Chancellor to refer to the former Prime Minister by the title of his constituency, but it is an even better idea to get it right as Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

The Bank of England’s Andy Haldane recently told the Treasury Committee:

“Let’s be clear, we have intentionally blown the biggest government bond bubble in history.”

What contingency plans have the Government made to cope with that bond market bubble bursting?

Welfare Reform Bill

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker]

I am most grateful to the Secretary of State. Will he join me in reminding the House that, by dint of great effort, in 2011-12—[Interruption]—I assure the hon. Member for Glasgow East (Margaret Curran) that this comes from the HMRC website, not the Whips—the pay-as-you-earn tax threshold will be just £7,475 a year? Will he also remind the House that the people paying tax—that is, paying tax to pay the benefits that others are in receipt of—are actually poorly paid and that a year’s pay on the national minimum wage is just £12,300? Will he join me in recognising that it is an issue of social justice that we should introduce the benefits cap?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. May I just remind Members that interventions should be brief? I know that the Secretary of State and others will be conscious that other people want to speak in the debate.

Reform of Health Services (Wycombe)

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Monday 31st January 2011 Commons Chamber

Mr Speaker

- Hansard - - Excerpts

Before the hon. Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker) presents his petition, I appeal to right hon. and hon. Members to leave the Chamber quickly and quietly, extending the same courtesy to the petitioner that they would want to be extended to them.

Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)

- Hansard -

The petitioners of the residents of Wycombe declare that they are

concerned and unhappy about the continuing loss of control in the hospital services that are in the constituency.

The 1,547 petitioners

therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Health to take steps to ensure that the constituents of Wycombe are given the freedom to use the latest health reforms to work towards fair funding, make the hospital subject to greater local control, and that clinical staff have freedom from centralised planning and targets.

Following is the full text of the petition:

[The Petition of residents of Wycombe,

Declares that the petitioners are concerned and unhappy about the continuing loss of control in the hospital services that are in the constituency; and notes that, in recent years, the petitioners have witnessed the closure of Accident and Emergency, the temporary closure of the maternity unit, and the potential loss of urology services at Wycombe Hospital.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Health to take steps to ensure that the constituents of Wycombe are given the freedom to use the latest health reforms to work towards fair funding, make the hospital subject to greater local control, and that clinical staff have freedom from centralised planning and targets.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.]

[P000881]

Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill

Debate between Steve Baker and John Bercow

Friday 19th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker]

Of course, we all value society. The right hon. Lady may know of the Cobden society. We gleefully reproduce Cobden’s words:

“Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with one another and the government less.”

That is precisely the point: when the people have more to do with one another and the Government less. I fear that we are here today to discuss how the Government can have more to do with creating a strategy for that most delicate system of relationships—human social co-operation. Of course, we all value relationships and society, but we differ—it is a fine point, but probably the one about which we have argued most sincerely for more than 100 years—about the extent to which state power should be used to intervene in the dynamic process that is social co-operation. It seems to me that we have moved on—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. May I gently say to the hon. Gentleman that interventions, even when they constitute a kind of philosophical musing, must be brief?

[Hazel Blears]

I am grateful, Mr Speaker. I fundamentally disagree with the hon. Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker). If his idea of building a strong and vibrant society is leaving people on their own to get on with it and sink or swim, I entirely reject that. I genuinely believe that the best society is a partnership between active and enabling government—nationally and locally—and the ideas, innovation and passion that local people bring. When a commitment to support people from government and the passion and entrepreneurial spirit of local people are brought together, something really special is created. If they are divided, and we say, “Government must do this in a monolithic way” while local people are left on their own, unsupported and unsustained, we do not get the synergy that makes a difference to our communities. I therefore fundamentally reject the hon. Gentleman’s comments.