Emergency Covid Contracts

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Julia Lopez]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. There was no money used on political campaigning.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

I thank my hon. Friend for the answers she has given thus far. At the start of the pandemic, we were competing across the world for the supply of PPE and other lifesaving equipment and for developing vaccines. It is quite clear that the Government had to make instant decisions on that procurement, competing against other nations. The key now is learning the lessons that come from that process, so will she undertake to ensure that there is a full review of the emergency procedures that may be needed, in case there is another pandemic or a requirement for us to set aside normal procurement rules?

Covid-19 Update

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I agree totally about the need to establish those facts: the impact on black and minority ethnic groups, what was driving it, and what could have been done to mitigate it. I am sure that the inquiry will be suitably set up to address that, among many other issues.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

My right hon. Friend will be well aware of the tremendous success of the vaccine programme in Harrow; indeed, he visited The Hive vaccination centre very early on during the vaccination programme. What message does he have now for younger people who will be approaching the position where they will be called for their vaccination, so that we can ensure that all adults are vaccinated by the end of July?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend because he is totally right. That is one of the key messages that all of us in this House should be transmitting to adults, who are getting younger and younger now in the groups that we are reaching: “Come forward when you are asked. Get your vaccine. You won’t feel a thing. It is absolutely vital. It is not just good for you; it is good for the whole country, so get it done.”

Ministerial Code

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 26th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

As I pointed out earlier, the Prime Minister paid for the renovation of the flat. All donations to the Prime Minister, to any other Member of Parliament, or indeed to political parties, will be declared appropriately and properly. Of course, the Cabinet Secretary also made clear in his hearing with the Select Committee on Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs the background to this issue.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

Does my right hon. Friend not find it ironic that the self-same people who are attacking the Government today for the process of procurement were attacking the Government just about a year ago for their slowness in achieving supplies of PPE and other equipment? Is it not right that the Government have moved heaven and earth and that Ministers and civil servants have worked literally through the night often to make sure that we get through this covid pandemic as safely as possible?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a very fair point. It was the case, entirely legitimately and appropriately, that Opposition Members were criticising us for the slow procurement of PPE, and that the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) wrote to me to encourage us to go faster and made a number of suggestions about companies that we should follow up, which we did. Now the allegation is that, when political figures pressed us to procure PPE more quickly for those at the frontline, that was a mistake. Either Labour’s position last spring was wrong, or its position now is wrong; they both cannot be right.

May I conclude by wishing my hon. Friend a happy birthday? It is, I understand, a very significant date, but the Official Secrets Act forbids me from revealing how significant.

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell). Our thoughts at this time must be with the Queen and the royal family, who have lost a loved one, but of course we are celebrating a long and distinguished life, whether his military achievements, his efforts to encourage people to become environmentalists, his protection of wildlife, or particularly for me his love of science and technology, which was much to the fore in his earlier years.

I express my appreciation for the visits that the Queen and Prince Philip made to the London Borough of Harrow, the most recent during the Queen’s 2012 jubilee, when they visited Krishna Avanti Primary School. Krishna Avanti is the first state-sponsored Hindu primary school in the country and Prince Philip met children from different backgrounds, with different performances. That demonstrated Harrow’s multicultural nature. He was also present for 150th anniversary of the Harrow Zoroastrian community. That demonstrates his willingness to reach out to religions across the world and bring people together, which brings us back to celebrating his life.

Way back in 1959, Prince Philip visited Harrow Boys’ Club to celebrate its centenary. Of course, we celebrate the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and his efforts to encourage young people to participate in youth clubs and beneficial activities. The scheme started in a small way and burgeoned into an activity that is encouraged in schools and beyond.

I remember my visits to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and Prince Philip, and the garden parties. My most vivid memory is of visiting Windsor castle as a Queen’s scout to be awarded the badge of honour when I was a very young man.

We will remember Prince Philip for his wonderful life and devoted service. I hope that, in due course, we will have a suitable memorial in the Palace of Westminster to his great, long life. There could be no greater memorial than having another royal yacht, called “Prince Philip”. I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to pay tribute to a wonderful man, who will be sadly missed.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 25th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the 2021 local elections can take place safely during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Minister for the Constitution and Devolution (Chloe Smith) [V]]

On 5 February this year, the Government published a delivery plan outlining how the polls will be delivered in a covid-secure way. That is backed by a £32 million funding uplift for returning officers and local authorities to address costs related to covid and by changes to the law made by Parliament to help voters and candidates participate safely in elections.

[Bob Blackman [V]]

I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. It is clearly important that democracy is allowed to flourish and that electors get the chance to vote for their local representatives. Could she provide an update on what actions she is taking to ensure that the count is secure and that postal votes are treated appropriately, particularly during the pandemic?

[Chloe Smith]

I can, and indeed, an update will be provided to the House today by written ministerial statement, which will give Members full details. The Electoral Commission has produced guidance for the count, and we have worked with it to ensure that that is properly up to date and assists in understanding some of the tensions in the arrangements that will be needed by returning officers to run successful counts. Of course, the need for free and fair elections often comes to the fore of people’s minds at the count, where scrutiny is just as essential as public safety in this case.

I can reassure my hon. Friend that we continue to put out guidance on other elements of the overall election process, including postal votes. I take this opportunity to emphasise that postal votes and other items of paperwork do not need to be quarantined, contrary to some recent media reporting. That has also been made clear by the Electoral Commission and others.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

What steps she is taking to ensure that her policies take a broad approach to equality beyond a focus on protected characteristics.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

What steps she is taking to ensure that her policies take a broad approach to equality beyond a focus on protected characteristics.

[The Minister for Women and Equalities (Elizabeth Truss)]

I want to make sure that the equality agenda moves beyond just protected characteristics. Instead, we will make sure that we are focused on every individual in Britain having a fair chance in life and fair access to public services.

[Elizabeth Truss]

Britain is one of the best places in the world to live, no matter what a person’s skin colour, sexuality, religion or anything else is. We need to be positively empowering people in Britain to succeed so that everyone has access to opportunity, and not using positive discrimination. That is the approach we are taking right across Government.

[Bob Blackman [V]]

A very happy Lohri for the Dogra community, who are celebrating today. I agree completely with my right hon. Friend on the need to ensure that we move beyond the Equality Act 2010, but first we need to reform it. Will she bring forward proposals to remove caste as a protected characteristic from the Equality Act 2010, so that we can ensure that Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Muslim communities are not disadvantaged in our society?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Caste is not a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010, and case law has already shown that a claim of caste discrimination could qualify for protection under the race provisions in the Act.

Elections: May 2021

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith]

I will not anger you, Madam Deputy Speaker, by going too deeply into another Department’s brief, but I will undertake to raise that point with my colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

My hon. Friend will be well aware that it is about not just 6 May when elections are held, but the deadline date of 29 March when the elections are advertised. Will she undertake to keep the House updated on the position so that, if these elections have to be delayed at all, that is done in a timely fashion and everyone can plan for them appropriately?

[Chloe Smith]

Yes, I certainly am giving that undertaking to the House today, and I am keen to do that because it is extremely important. My hon. Friend makes the right point about the lead-in that there is to any election. To the example of the date he gave I can add that there is a huge tail of logistical organisation that has to go on, to ensure that there are the right venues; that the right materials have been produced, printed or distributed; and that staff have been recruited. All that is the stuff of running elections. It is a huge amount of work, for which, as I say, I thank officials across the country. His point reminds us that we therefore have to give people guidance in good time, which is what I am undertaking to do. That is in addition to the preparation that has already been ongoing for the past year to ensure that we are looking at covid-secure elections this May.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am delighted to accept the thanks of the hon. Gentleman. I have to say that it is really thanks to him and the Scottish National party that we have been able to keep our wonderful United Kingdom together, because it was the sheer incoherence of their position, their refusal to address the tough questions of what breaking up the UK really means—the impact on our budgets and our economy and the impacts on Scotland and on our whole country—and their manifest inability to explain what they actually mean that meant that the people of Scotland voted in 2014 to remain part of the UK. They were right then, and they will be right in the future to stay.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

It is now three and a half years since the Grenfell fire tragedy that cost the lives of 72 people, yet there are still 3.6 million leaseholders living in potentially dangerous, unsaleable and unmortgageable properties. The Government rightly set aside a billion pounds towards the remediation of non-aluminium composite material cladding, but that expires on 31 December this year. It is clear that it will be insufficient to cover the costs, so will my right hon. Friend set out for the House what the plan is for next year to remediate the cladding? Will he give a cast-iron guarantee that leaseholders will not have to pay a penny piece towards the cost of replacing this unsafe cladding?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to draw attention to this injustice and what is happening with leaseholders at the moment. That is why we have put £1.6 billion into removing unsafe cladding. I do not want to see leaseholders being forced to pay for the remediation, and I can assure my hon. Friend that we are looking now urgently—before the expiry of the current arrangements—at what we can do to take them forward and support leaseholders, who are in a very unfair position.

Covid-19: Winter Plan

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The local authorities have been given about £4.6 billion so far to support them through the pandemic and to help them to support hard-hit businesses in their areas, and that is on top of the investment that we have made in the VAT cuts—the business rate cuts—right the way through to next year. Altogether, it is about a £200 billion package of support. The whole point of coming out into the tiers now, or next week, is to allow small businesses to get going again. It was awful to have the restrictions that we have had. We hope that we will be able to take them off and keep them off, but clearly that depends on everybody doing their bit.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

I understand that my right hon. Friend is going to require London to be in one regional tier. However, as at the end of last week, the rate of infection in the worst affected borough was at 372 per 100,000, but in the least affected area it was at 125 per 100,000. What will drive which tier London goes into—the position in the worst affected area, the middle, or the least affected area?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend will have to wait until the announcements by the Health Secretary on Thursday about exactly who goes into which tier. As my hon. Friend knows, the point about London is that although it is very diverse and massive—650 square miles or so—it is held together by a very dense mass transit system, and although there are fewer people on it right now, the transmission within London means that it is quite difficult to separate one bit of London from another.

Covid-19 Update

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The runway is clear for Bob Blackman.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I thank my right hon. Friend, in particular for laying out the scientific data on which this decision is based. Most people will say they are prepared obviously to do the right thing in order to eliminate and defeat this virus, but could he set out the criteria that he will use to ensure that we can come out of this partial lockdown on 2 December? The risk is that things could get worse over these next two or three weeks before we see an improvement, and people want to know what they have to do to make sure that we get the infection rate down and make sure it stays down.

[The Prime Minister]

Just to repeat the point that I think I made to the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), the R is above 1, but it is not much above 1—it is not much above 1—and if we work hard between now and 2 December, I believe that we can get it below 1. But whatever happens, these restrictions end on 2 December, and any further measures will be a matter for this House of Commons.