Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 17th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous]

Very willingly. I am always mindful of Mr Speaker’s injunction to keep answers short. We have a six-week residential training course to provide a custodial national vocational qualification. In time, we want to raise that to a 10-week course, but we have not been able to do so because Newbold Revel, which I visited last week, is full to bursting with prison officers. Prison officers are taught to a very high standard. On my visit last week, I spoke to prison officers in training, and I am very pleased with the excellent work that is being done there.

[Mr Speaker]

The right hon. Lady’s moment has arrived. I call Fiona Mactaggart.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 9th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Andrew Selous)]

I share my hon. Friend’s concern about the issue. Reducing the foreign national offender population is a top priority for the Government. Last year, we removed 5,097 foreign national offenders compared with 4,072 in 2012-13 and 4,539 in 2011-12. Whereas this Government have begun to reduce the foreign national population in prison, the number of foreign nationals in our prisons under the last Government more than doubled.

[Mr Speaker]

Michael Connarty. Not here.

Israeli Teenagers (Abduction and Murder)

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 1st July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Ah! I call Mr Andrew Selous.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I utterly condemn these foul murders, and commend the Minister for his measured responses. What is his assessment of the viability of the two-state solution in terms of the availability of land?

[Mr Speaker]

My sigh was explicable, as the Whip on duty has helpfully pointed out, by the embarrassment of riches from which I had to choose.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Is not the real truth about child poverty the fact that median hourly pay rose by only 0.3% a year between 2003 and 2008? The only real answer for the United Kingdom economy is for it to be a high-skill, high-value-added economy. Our school reforms, and in particular our poverty-busting university technical colleges, are the answer to the problem.

[Mr Speaker]

The question is about fiscal policy, so a very brief reply will suffice. We are grateful to the Minister.

Spending Review

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Following the example of the Hilling handbook, I call Mr Andrew Selous.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Will the Chancellor confirm that there will be a cap on benefits and not on the state pension in future?

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Monday 20th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. May I just explain that the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) on the Opposition Front Bench must start his speech no later than 6.40 pm?

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I rise in support of new clause 5, which says that

“no person should suffer any detriment in respect of the holding or the reasonable expression”

of a belief in marriage as that between a man and woman.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Margot James) has reminded the House of the hatred, abuse, aggression and, indeed, the discrimination that she and others have suffered. That was wrong, so it is with humility that I ask her to bear in mind that others who take a contrary view to hers on the Bill may also find themselves subject to discrimination.

The question is this: should there be space in public life for people who hold to the current definition of marriage? That is not a theoretical question. The case of Adrian Smith has already been discussed. I will not go through it again, because time is short, but I remind hon. Members that he was a dedicated local authority housing officer who then worked for a housing association and was very well thought of. He served everyone, regardless of their situation, but he lost his job because of private remarks on his private Facebook page, and he is now doing charitable work in Africa because his job was taken away from him. The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) said in her excellent contribution that she hoped that people will be dealt with in an inclusive and tolerant way. I say to her, with great respect, that I hope she would want such inclusiveness and tolerance to be given to people such as Adrian Smith, who did not receive it.

I say to colleagues on the Government Benches that unless we get the legislation right, this issue will run and run until 2015 and will keep coming back. I gently remind colleagues on the Opposition Benches that no less a campaigner for homosexual rights than Peter Tatchell supported Adrian Smith. He did not agree with his views, but believed passionately in his ability to state them and thought it wrong that his job was taken away, as was that of Rev. Willie Ross, the chaplain to Strathclyde police. It is such things that we must guard against.

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 5th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

This afternoon hundreds of Members of Parliament have come into the Chamber to discuss marriage. I wish that happened much more often, because the really big issue —the one we debate very rarely in this House, although it is an unfolding tragedy across our nation—is the collapse of family life.

I have to take issue with the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), who said that family life had not fallen apart. In this country the marriage rate has almost halved since 1972, and the number of single parents has more or less doubled between 1980 and today. Four million children live apart from one or other parent, and every year 300,000 couples split up. We do not discuss that enough in this House, or what we can do to help reverse that situation and give couples the skills and support they need to make a success of their marriage and relationship. I hope this is not the last time that hundreds of Members of Parliament come together to discuss the important issues of family life. It is a huge issue that Parliament must not miss.

In his landmark speech in December 2011 at Christ Church, Oxford, the Prime Minister said that the United Kingdom was a “Christian country”. Those were his words and I was pleased to hear him say them. What we are doing this afternoon should give us pause for thought, because we will be realigning the laws of this country in a way that is different from what Christian doctrine teaches. We should take note of what the newly installed Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said yesterday, and of what the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Alliance, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, and many others, are saying.

Let me quote two verses from the New Testament from when Jesus was talking about marriage. He said that

“at the beginning the Creator made them male and female…For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

That was Jesus’s definition of marriage in Matthew chapter 19.

I absolutely recognise that homosexual people want to celebrate their relationships, and that is what civil partnerships are for. All the rights and privileges of marriage are vested in civil partnerships. If civil partnerships are not sufficient, we should create a new term—call it a civil union, a lifelong union. Churches are now able to bless civil partnerships if they are willing to do so, and we have the opportunity to provide the celebration that homosexual people are looking for without changing a foundational institution of our country.

We have heard reassurances about protections, but looking at what has happened in other countries, I understand that in Denmark the protections that were promised to Churches are not being honoured and that they are being forced to perform same-sex marriages. I am worried about the legal position in the European Union, and others have mentioned the European Court of Human Rights and articles 12 and 14 of the European convention on human rights. It is possible that the situation could change. What of further redefinitions? Will this be the last redefinition of marriage? I understand that in the Netherlands and Brazil, three-way relationships are being legally recognised.

We have heard arguments from all sides, and legal opinions have been quoted this way and that. Remember, however, the case of Adrian Smith who lost his job and was dragged through the courts and had huge costs—

[Mr Speaker]

Order.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Wednesday 9th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Does the Prime Minister accept that under this Government—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am sure the House wishes to hear the words of Mr Andrew Selous.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Wednesday 28th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The House is now immensely disorderly. In the interests of the hon. Gentleman, let us have a bit of order.

[Andrew Selous]

In two years, this Government have created 1.2 million net new private sector jobs—nearly double the amount that the previous Government created in 10 years. How have we done in Wales?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Thursday 5th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir Tony Baldry]

The ethos and purpose of the original foundation of Church of England schools was to serve the local community. The National Society was founded by the Church of England in 1811 to provide community schools for poor children, and currently provides resources for 4,700 Church of England schools and 172 Church in Wales schools. All those schools have a strong Christian foundation and a commitment to the local Christian community.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) is now fully informed.

[Andrew Selous]

I find that in my constituency most Church schools are hugely popular with parents, but concern is sometimes expressed about admission policies. How can we best expand popular Church schools in an inclusive way?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am very keen to hear Back Benchers.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T8. Does the Secretary of State agree that the tempo of our military withdrawal from Afghanistan should be dictated by real measures of military success on the ground, so that the British lives lost in Afghanistan will not have been in vain?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Wednesday 25th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am very grateful to the Secretary of State.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

2. What recent discussions he has had with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive on job creation in the private sector.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 17th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

In view of the huge interest, brevity is vital.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T9. What progress is being made on the forthcoming constitutional referendum in Zimbabwe, which will be a prerequisite for free and fair elections in a country that has had more than its fair share of violence and intimidation in elections in the past.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 20th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Mark Lancaster. Not here.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to increase participation in elections by service and overseas voters.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Wednesday 27th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am bound to say that it is very difficult even for me to hear what the Minister is saying. As a consequence, I feel sorely under-nourished. The situation is unsatisfactory.

[Andrew Selous]

Given the evidence that productivity and efficiency increase dramatically when staff are given a role in shaping services, is not the scaremongering about the proposals on mutuals unhelpful to users, taxpayers and the staff concerned?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I remind the House that if we are to get down the Order Paper we need short questions and, from Front Benchers, short answers.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and John Bercow

Tuesday 30th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

No one is more grateful for the end of that answer than the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous).

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

10. What steps the Church of England is taking to strengthen and support the marriages of people married in its churches.