(12 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberMy hon. Friend has highlighted exactly why this particular proposal has been ill thought-out.
No, I do not want to take up as much time as the Minister. I shall move on to the Child Support Agency—
I have made it perfectly clear that I am not giving way: I am moving on to the subject of the CSA.
The Government should never have brought forward this proposal, although I welcome the Minister’s statement today that they have reduced the fee. Why they put everybody through the anxiety of putting a fee—
I have not really said anything about the CSA yet, so if the hon. Lady could just be patient—
Order. Let me just make it clear. It is obvious that the shadow Minister is not giving way at the moment. On the Government side, during my time in the Chair since 5.30, there was a preference—on the whole—not to give way to Opposition Members and that is now being replicated by the right hon. Lady. Members may make what they like of that, but there is nothing disorderly about it. It is no good people yelling from a sedentary position to express their frustrations. They must try to contain those frustrations, which I notice the hon. Member for Devizes (Claire Perry) is now successfully doing.
Thank you for your wise words, Mr Speaker.
We welcome the reduction that the Minister announced today, and for the record, we welcomed in the other place the additional funding of £20 million that was going to be put in to encourage—
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Could you help me? If a Member asks a question of the whole House, how does one respond to that question other than by asking that Member to give way?