Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrea Leadsom and David Nuttall(7 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
Andrea Leadsom
I completely sympathise with all those who were flooded. It is an appalling thing to happen. Following the Boxing day floods, the Environment Agency carried out £500,000-worth of maintenance work in Bury to remove gravel, debris and blockages. A £1.5-million flood defence scheme was completed in November 2014, providing better protection for 164 homes and businesses in the Stubbins area of Bury. I will, of course, look into the point my hon. Friend raises about people who are still suffering from the damage done by last winter’s floods.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrea Leadsom and David Nuttall
Andrea Leadsom
The right hon. Gentleman and the Chair of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change met my officials only recently to discuss these issues. I assure the right hon. Gentleman that my officials have also met several representatives of the renewables industry specifically to discuss remote island wind. I will certainly be happy to meet the remote islands forum again to discuss our decisions once we have taken them.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
Does the Minister not agree that the very fact that we have to go begging to the European Union before we can help our fellow citizens in this country amply demonstrates why we would be better off, and why those citizens would certainly be better off, if we left the European Union, took charge and were able to decide for ourselves how we spent taxpayers’ money in this country?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrea Leadsom and David Nuttall
Andrea Leadsom
My hon. Friend enjoys that kind of meeting very much. I can absolutely assure her that we keep the whole question of sustainability under review. She will be interested to know that analysis of the 2013-14 sustainability data that companies report to Ofgem under the renewables obligation shows that all the reported biomass achieved the greenhouse gas saving target and met the land criteria, two years before they are mandatory. But we do keep this under review.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
12. What steps she is taking to prevent protected areas from being adversely affected by the development of shale gas.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Andrea Leadsom)
Shale gas could become a valuable new industry and it is in the strong interests of the UK to explore its potential. However, we are determined to protect our most valuable spaces, and therefore it is our intention to ban surface-level drilling in the most precious areas, including national parks and sites of special scientific interest. We have also regulated to make sure hydraulic fracturing cannot take place at less than 1,200 metres under protected areas.
Mr Nuttall
I thank the Minister for that reply. Although I am sure it will allay the concerns of some, does she believe that more can be done to extol the positive virtues of shale gas, including, for example, the new jobs and security of energy supply it will bring?
Andrea Leadsom
My hon. Friend is right to point out that there are lots of benefits of shale gas. The first is energy security, as we could be importing about 75% of our gas by 2030. The second is jobs, as the industry could mean jobs and opportunities for the UK, with a report by Ernst & Young estimating that a thriving shale industry would create up to 64,000 jobs. The third is benefits to communities, as those hosting shale developments will see a direct share of the benefits through an industry-funded package, and the shale wealth fund will mean that up to 10% of the tax revenues from shale gas deliver investment directly to local communities.
EU-UK Relationship (Reform)
Debate between Andrea Leadsom and David Nuttall(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Andrea Leadsom
I completely agree with my hon. Friend.
The concept of a multi-speed Europe is already a reality: some countries opt in to Schengen, the euro, defence co-operation, and co-operation on justice and home affairs, and some opt out. A multi-speed Europe is already a reality, not something we are inventing for the first time.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
Is not the danger in saying that we have a multi-speed Europe that it implies that everybody is going in the same direction albeit at different speeds, whereas there are millions of us in this country who do not want to be going in that direction at any speed?
Andrea Leadsom
I entirely respect my hon. Friend’s views and perhaps I should say “multi-tier”, because his criticism is very fair—“multi-speed” is the wrong term. The point that I was trying to make is that there can be different relationships with the EU, not that different countries are all trying to get to the same end-point. His criticism is fair; I apologise for my careless writing there.
The key advantage of the EU for Britain’s national interest is that of a trade area. I think that most people, whether or not they are in favour of Britain’s membership of the EU, would accept that Britain will continue to trade with the EU. In fact, 48.6% of UK goods exports now go to the EU as a whole—
EU Working Time Directive (NHS)
Debate between Andrea Leadsom and David Nuttall(12 years ago)
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Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)
I am delighted to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston). What a fascinating speech, and what a fantastic insight. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) because, so often, discussions about EU legislation revolve around the EU itself, but she brought to life the practical implications of EU legislation that is having a real impact on our society and patient care in the UK.
Article 168 of the EU treaty states:
“Union action shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care. The responsibilities of the Member States shall include the management of health services and medical care and the allocation of the resources assigned to them.”
It is fundamental in the treaty that health is simply not an EU area of competence. All that we are hearing about today is the unintended consequences of something that was introduced for an entirely different purpose. I want to go into the background of that.
Hon. Members will know that I have been involved with an all-party group on EU reform, and with the Conservative end of that—the Fresh Start project. It is trying to look at precisely how Britain could renegotiate a better relationship with the EU that would work in Britain’s better interest. The very first area we looked at was the working time directive. We looked at the headline figure that the cost to the UK economy is about £2.6 billion per annum, which is a real issue for us at this time. In its research, Open Europe suggested that halving regulation could deliver a £4.5 billion boost to GDP in the UK. What was slightly less expected from the research was the fundamental effect on the NHS, precisely because health is not an EU competence.
Why should that be the case? The all-party group recently visited the EU to talk to our MEP group and to commissioners about the working time directive and the impact on the health service. Our MEPs told us that the directive is the least popular piece of legislation ever introduced by the EU, and that 16 of the 27 member states have negotiated opt-out arrangements. Interestingly, under the Lisbon treaty, if a majority of member states get together and propose a reform, the European Commission and the European Council have to look closely at it and consider repeal of the legislation. I find it astonishing that we have not taken the lead so far in doing just that. It would certainly be worth considering.
Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)
Order. If the hon. Gentleman wishes to make an intervention, he should stand up and do so in the approved manner and not mumble from a sedentary position.
European Council
Debate between Andrea Leadsom and David Nuttall(12 years, 4 months ago)
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Andrea Leadsom
Yes, I agree. The key issue is that if these countries are to have sovereign risk, they must completely guarantee and underwrite each other’s debt and obligations. That is very unlikely ever to be achieved in the EU, which just makes the problem of not having a lender of last resort even more existential for the eurozone. I therefore have genuine concerns about whether the proposals actually offer a solution.
Here we are on the eve of a very important summit, which is designed, on the face of it at least, to put the market’s fears to bed once and for all. The Prime Minister has a strong hand, because the German Chancellor and the French President need a treaty at the 27 member state level, for two practical reasons. First, if they started again, with just the 17 eurozone members trying to create a treaty between themselves, they simply could not do that in the time frame that the markets would permit them. That is a very practical issue, which they need to consider. Under the Lisbon treaty, however, treaty changes can be fast-tracked. Secondly, as was pointed out earlier, the 17, as a group, could not simply annex the EU institutions and use them for themselves; they would require the permission of the 27 EU members. For both those reasons, a treaty is needed at the 27 member state level, and that makes the Prime Minister’s hand very strong.
Like other Members, I am pleased that the Prime Minister is absolutely determined to protect Britain’s interests. What does that mean? First and foremost for every EU member, regardless of whether it is in or out of the euro, that must be about stopping the crisis—there is no doubt about that. If the euro descends into a disorderly collapse, that will easily cost 6% or 7% of British GDP, and it would probably push us into a worse recession than the one after the financial crisis of 2008. There is therefore no doubt that our top priority should be to solve the eurozone crisis.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
As my hon. Friend will be aware, this is not the first time European leaders have met to try to resolve the crisis in the eurozone. Why does she think that eurozone leaders and, indeed, the leaders of the whole EU will be any more successful this time than they were on any of the previous occasions when they met to try to come up with a grand solution to save the euro?
Andrea Leadsom
I thank my hon. Friend for those remarks. There is a desire to come up with a solution; but as I said, I do not think that it will work, for reasons of economics and the markets’ actions. I hear what my hon. Friend says.
Britain is clearly struggling to recover. The eurozone crisis is testing us and is close to pushing us back into a no-growth, or even a recessionary, period. We therefore need to look after Britain’s interests by not only protecting the eurozone, but ensuring that we create safeguards for our most important industry, and I want to put in a plea for financial services.
There has been a lot of talk about holding a referendum, changing the common agricultural policy or simply repatriating powers, but what do all those things mean? If we hold a referendum, what would the question be? How quickly and easily could people understand enough about the implications of a question such as whether we should allow the 17 fiscally to unite? That is an extraordinarily complicated question, and referendum questions really need to be along simple lines, such as whether Britain should be in or out of the EU. At a time when these things are in flux, that is almost impossible to answer.
Andrea Leadsom
That is an important point, because the Prime Minister will not be just having a chat and getting general agreement; he will want to get a firm assurance and put a marker in the sand saying, “We feel your pain and share your goal and will want to protect Britain’s specific national interest by including our own requirement in the treaty.” There cannot be simply a gentleman’s handshake, so that what is agreed can be watered down later. There must be a firm commitment on all sides that Britain’s national interest will be protected.
Mr Nuttall
Does my hon. Friend agree that the problem with marks in the sand is that, when the tide comes in, they get washed away?
Andrea Leadsom
That is a good observation and I have noticed that, but it was not what I meant, and my hon. Friend knows it. What I have outlined is down to the Prime Minister to achieve. He has committed to do it. We must have confidence in his determination to follow it through.