Business of the House

Angela Watkinson Excerpts

Thursday 4th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Mr Speaker, your request about the length of the shadow Leader of the House’s contribution lasted just one week.

The shadow Leader of the House made several requests for statements. I simply remind him, as I do each week, that I provide him with extensive opportunities to debate matters in the House, but we have established in recent weeks that each week he stands and asks for debates, and almost never do they get tabled when the Opposition are given time for them. He and his party table debates on fewer than one in six of the subjects he asks for debates on. Either he is not seriously interested in them, or his own party is not listening to him.

The shadow Leader of the House asked about tax paid. I simply remind him that our steps to recover tax from companies such as Google are necessary because, during its 13 years in power, Labour did nothing about it. I sit and listen to the hypocrisy of the Opposition—they ask why we are doing this now and they talk about mates rates—but they did nothing about it in government. He also talked about pensions, which they did nothing about in government either. We are introducing a new single-tier pension that will deliver fairness for people in our society and ensure that everybody has a decent retirement. In the 13 years Labour was in power, when did it ever do anything about that?

The shadow Leader of the House talked about the changes in the Enterprise Bill. I simply remind him that we are the elected House, and we will debate a matter related to devolution, which is something that Labour is supposed to support but which it clearly does not any more.

Once again, we heard nothing of this week’s events in the Labour party and its latest madcap idea. As if using nuclear submarines as troop carriers was not enough, the shadow Chancellor now wants to get rid of borders. Yes, no borders at all! We would have terrorists crossing borders, organised crime spreading its nets and more and more migration against the wishes of the people of this country. The Labour party has been seized by a madcap ideology, and the shadow Leader of the House is still sitting there and supporting it. I do not understand why.

[Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) (Con)]

Will the Treasury take a closer look at the proposed changes to the disbursement of landfill tax revenues through the landfill communities fund before they become effective in April? Currently, 10% of the funds for every project are raised by a third party—usually the applicant—but the proposal is to transfer that 10% to the landfill operator. The concern is that many small operators might withdraw from the scheme, meaning that fewer projects can be considered. I am sure that this is an unintended consequence.

[Chris Grayling]

I am aware of my hon. Friend’s concerns, and I can assure her that the Department for Communities and Local Government is in discussions with industry representatives and is trying to do what it needs to do in the right way. It has to take some decisions, but it is fully aware of her concerns as it looks to reach a decision.

Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

Angela Watkinson Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I understand my hon. Friend’s point. We have set out to strike a balance, and, in Lords amendment 20, we have changed the limits applying to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. On the basis of all those arguments, I ask the House to resist amendment (a) if it is pursued by the hon. Member for Nottingham North.

Turning to amendment (a) to Lords amendment 55, the Government have worked closely with the Electoral Commission to ensure reporting requirements are not overly burdensome. The Government removed the need for nil reporting and have also reduced the regulated period. The regulated period for third parties will commence in September this year, not May, and this will allow additional time for the Electoral Commission to provide guidance and for campaigners to be fully aware of the regulatory regime. Owing to the reduced regulated period, this will impact on the quarterly reporting cycles for the 2015 general election, with the final “quarterly cycle” being compacted from September—three months is a short period running up to the general election.

The hon. Member for Nottingham North has tabled an amendment intending to deal with this situation. However, the Government believe that as this is late in the cycle and only reports of donations over £7,500 are required, third parties will have systems in place to cope with this reduced period. As there is no requirement for nil reports, a period—short or otherwise—will require nothing at all unless a large donation is accepted during that period. It should be noted that third parties will have to provide weekly reports after the Dissolution of Parliament, so the compacted final quarterly cycle will not result in an overly burdensome reporting requirement, particularly in the light of the Lords amendments, which we will come on to, relating to reporting requirements.

On the hon. Gentlemen’s amendment (a) to Lords amendment 59, third parties will have to submit a donations return to the Electoral Commission only where they have received a reportable donation of £7,500 or more. Where they have not received a donation of this value, no report needs to be submitted. This underpins the aim of part 2, which is to increase transparency without placing overly burdensome reporting requirements upon a third party. As is the current practice, under section 96 of PPERA a third party will have to provide a full report of reportable donations three months after polling day. This return is submitted to the Electoral Commission. The Government believe that the section 96 return provides an important safeguard where a full record of reportable donations is provided and visible. This will allow both the Electoral Commission and the general public to ascertain the amount and source of all reportable donations received by a third party during the regulated period. The Government do not believe that this requirement is overly burdensome, as the information will have already been prepared by the third party. It also allows the opportunity for the third party to declare any reportable donations which it has failed to declare previously. This underpins the regulatory regime. We therefore do not agree with the hon. Gentleman’s amendment, which requires the same donation to be reported only once as that would risk a lack of transparency through this section 96 return coming after the election.

[Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) (Con)]

Most of the correspondence I have received from concerned members of the public is in support of charities, some very small, whose normal activities are not related to the electoral success of a political party or individual. Will the Leader of the House take this opportunity to set their minds at rest that this Bill will not be detrimental to them in any way?

[Mr Lansley]

Yes, I can, for two reasons. First, only expenditure which would reasonably be regarded as intended to promote or procure the success of a party or candidate might fall to be regulated as election expenditure, and it is demonstrable at previous elections under this regulatory regime that large amounts of policy-related campaigning has been undertaken by charities and that has not required to be regulated. The second reassurance, as we will come on to see with other amendments, is that we are proposing to lift the registration threshold up from the current level of £10,000 to £20,000. That will allow small-scale campaigning by organisations not to be part of the regulatory regime.

Turning to the hon. Gentleman’s amendment (a) to Lords amendment 75, a statement of accounts has to be provided only if the third party has incurred controlled expenditure over the registration threshold. In addition, an individual is excluded from the provisions. Those third parties who prepare accounts under another enactment need not prepare additional accounts if the commission is satisfied they include equivalent information. When a third party registers with the Electoral Commission it must state, using a simple tick box, whether it is an individual or one of the bodies that can register as a third party. From this information, the Electoral Commission can ascertain whether the body provides accounts under another enactment. As a result it would add unnecessary additional bureaucracy to ask the third party to submit a subsequent declaration that it is exempt from the provisions, as the amendment requires. I therefore hope the hon. Gentleman will not persist with that.

Turning to amendment (a) to Lords amendment 99 in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) and the hon. Members for Foyle (Mark Durkan) and for Newport West (Paul Flynn), the order-making power, to which the hon. Member for Foyle just referred, would allow for the Government only to make consequential amendments. It would not allow the Government to amend the fundamental principles and provisions included in part 2 of the Bill. Any changes to primary legislation would be subject to affirmative resolution in any case. The power is also time limited, so that it could be used only until the date of the next general election. I should emphasise that I hope this power will not be needed, but I consider it prudent to insert it into the Bill, to ensure it is possible to make changes should unforeseen or unintended effects be identified after the Bill receives Royal Assent which could be put right by consequential provision.

The Government have introduced—the Lords is introducing—a number of amendments of significant benefit to campaigners, and we would not want to risk them being ineffective for any technical reason. We agree that it is important to consult the commission and I can assure the House that we will consult it before making an order under this power. The commission in its briefing agrees with this approach. Should the commission make a recommendation to us to use this power, we will consider such a recommendation extremely carefully. Because of the limited scope of the power and this assurance, the Government do not believe it is necessary to accept this amendment.

Baroness Thomas, the Chair of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in the House of Lords, described the power yesterday as

“well precedented and here it is very narrowly drawn. The House need not worry that the Government are in some way exceeding their powers or doing something they should not on this occasion.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 21 January 2014; Vol. 751, c. 615.]

Consequently, we cannot support the amendment of my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch.

Let me turn to the Lords amendments with which we agree. Lords amendments 106 to 107 set out in schedule 8A a consolidated and extensive list of the types of expenses which are excluded from counting as controlled expenditure. Further to the current exclusions provided for in PPERA, the Lords in these amendments extend them to include: expenses related to translating materials from English to Welsh or from Welsh to English; costs associated with providing protection of persons or property in relation to a public rally or event; and reasonable expenses incurred that are reasonably attributable to an individual’s disability. The exclusion of translation costs reflects the position of the Welsh language, which is governed by the Welsh Language Act 1993. Under that Act, the English and Welsh languages have equal status in Wales. This differs from other languages spoken in the UK, where the UK Parliament has not legislated to give them the same status as Welsh.

Lords amendment 19 increases the registration thresholds in the Bill, as I was discussing in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson). Those were set in the Bill at £5,000 for England and £2,000 for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The amendment however raises these amounts substantially, from £5,000 to £20,000 for England and from £2,000 to £10,000 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This change is in response to the many representations this Government have received from campaigners who spend only small amounts of money and were concerned that the Bill’s transparency provisions, though essential, would in fact impose unduly onerous compliance requirements. It is important to recognise, as many organisations did, that election expenditure should in principle be disclosed and regulated, but there were concerns that smaller organisations would be caught by the provisions. By raising the thresholds to levels that also take into account the extended range of activities proposed by the Bill, small campaigners can be assured that they will not suddenly be subject to administrative controls that they are not resourced or equipped to comply with.

Business of the House

Angela Watkinson Excerpts

Thursday 28th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The Prime Minister was absolutely right to say yesterday that those disabled people who need an additional room for overnight carers will not have the spare room subsidy removed in respect of that room. That has always been the case and the Prime Minister has made that clear on a number of occasions.

[Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) (Con)]

Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on the Standards Committee report on my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (Mr Yeo), so that we can seek an apology from The Sunday Times?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. Indeed, I think the House will be grateful to the Standards Committee and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for an exceptionally thorough report. Having read it, I looked last weekend for any recognition in The Sunday Times of its findings, but found none. I rather regret that. If the press is rightly quick to criticise, it should equally be ready to admit when it has got it wrong.

Summer Adjournment

Angela Watkinson Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) (Con)]

I hope to share with the House two positive stories from Hornchurch and Upminster, but given the time constraint, it might be only one.

First, I should like to praise the excellent public library service in the London borough of Havering and to highlight the positive impact of books in developing early years literacy. Havering council takes its libraries very seriously. I commend in particular its cabinet member for culture, heritage and sport, Councillor Andrew Curtin, who takes them even more seriously. He has fought hard, not just to protect library funding but to support our excellent library staff, to improve the quality of service even further and to increase membership.

In January, Havering ran a universal membership pilot as part of the project run by the Department for Education to examine ways for children to join the library automatically at a certain point in their lives. The council worked with 10 schools across the borough. Tickets were created for all reception children and the reader development team went into the schools with a selection of books for children to borrow. The children started with mini membership, which meant that they could borrow just one book and would face no fines. The children also received an information pack, which included an invitation to parents to come and meet professional staff who could teach them how to help their children to read and offer advice on which books to borrow. Volunteers were available during the February half-term to talk to children about the books that they had read.

Havering library service is also working with the registrar of births to join all new babies born in the borough. They have signed up 856 babies in the pilot period. Activities for babies and parents assist in early language development and fine motor skills, and combat social isolation. Read and rhyme sessions for three to five-year-olds improve concentration and listening skills, and help to make the transition to school successful. There are also workshops for parents and carers entitled “How to read to your children and instil a lifelong love of reading in your child”.

The positive approach of Havering council has resulted in a huge surge in library membership in both the junior and adult sections, with 67% of the borough now signed up. For adults, especially those who live alone, the library is a social contact point. It has computers that are available for job searches, informal learning and online courses, and, of course, an endless choice of books to borrow.

I want to stress the importance of books in developing early years literacy and all the benefits that that brings. I remember vividly my first ever visit to the public library. It was stressed to me as I walked along beside my mother that, “When we are in the library, we have to whisper.” The library was a traditional municipal building with wood panelling, not unlike the Chamber, which was a bit intimidating for a five-year-old, but it was a treasure trove because it was full of books. We did not own any books at home, and to see wall-to-wall books was wonderful. Even better than that, I was allowed to borrow them. I could choose them, take them home and read them. A very important lady stamped the back of the book to tell me when I had to bring it back—the whole thing was absolutely thrilling. I could not wait to get home and start reading. It was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with books.

Children who enjoy reading are more likely to have a good vocabulary, and the importance of good communication skills cannot be overstated. Reading develops imagination, creativity and ideas. Children learn to spell and absorb information without realising it, if they enjoy reading as part of their daily lives. They can be transported into other worlds and experience a gamut of emotions: excitement, fear, joy, sympathy and optimism. Characters in books display the good and bad in people, and set examples of courage and kindness, happiness and despair. Children who are introduced to books and acquire a love of reading in their early years are likely to continue to keep it all their lives. They are better informed and broader minded for it, and will be better equipped to face the many challenges that school and life bring.

There is no excuse for any child in this country to be deprived of books. No matter how modest the family income, the public library offers a limitless range of books for everyone. I commend the London borough of Havering for its progressive library service.

My second story—I see that I just have time to tell it—concerns my visit to Stubbers adventure centre in my constituency this week to see the National Citizen Service in action. The NCS is a Government-funded scheme for year 11 and 12 students and 16 and 17-year-olds who are not in education, that lasts about four weeks. The first week is spent away on an outward bound course doing challenging activities like rock climbing and canoeing with other young people from different backgrounds they have never met before. It builds confidence and interpersonal skills. Importantly, it is great fun.

The second week, which was when I visited, is residential. Other new skills are acquired: putting up a tent, personal financial management, learning how the community is made up and planning a local social action project. The students were full of ideas. They planned how to put them into action and raised the money they needed. They also found out who to contact for permission or information. It was wonderful to see such enthusiasm.

The third and fourth weeks are a lesson in practicality, organisation, overcoming setbacks and difficulties, and maintaining effort—all real life skills that will stand them in good stead. At the end of the course they all receive a graduation certificate signed by the Prime Minister, and parents often make comments like, “I don't know what you did with him, but he is completely transformed.”

Schools can help to raise awareness of NCS, which takes place during school holidays so there is no cost, either in time or money, to schools. They can pass on information or invite the NCS to speak to pupils, so that the opportunity to take part is available to 16 and 17-year-olds from all backgrounds. It really is a worthwhile experience.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dame Angela Watkinson]

The right hon. Gentleman is a wonderful advocate for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. He and I have shared our views about the importance of medication management in schools. Most of the schools in my constituency—I am sure that the same is true in his—are very aware of healthy eating and the quality of school meals is very good, but we need to raise awareness among parents, because young children have very little control over what food they are offered at home, and it is those meals that can often cause the problem.

[Keith Vaz]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right, and she has raised the issue in the House on a number of occasions. It is also the responsibility of parents, because they do the purchasing. We had a debate this week about a minimum unit price for alcohol. When parents walk down the aisles of one of the major supermarkets, as we all do from time to time, they will see huge plastic bottles of Coca-Cola and other fizzy drinks. Those of us with children always want to try to keep them happy, and they will demand to have those drinks, and we will try to placate them by buying them, but that is a slippery slope.