All 21 Debates between Charles Walker and John Bercow

European Council

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 11th April 2019

(5 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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We conclude with a question from the distinguished Chair of the Procedure Committee.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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It goes without saying that I look forward to joining the Prime Minister in delivering Brexit in Broxbourne, so can I just say to my right hon. Friend, in concluding, that I have nothing left to say on Brexit—until at least another week has passed? Will she join the rest of the House in having a few days off next week? Before she leaves this place tonight, can she suggest to the Chief Whip that he has a few solid 12-hour sleeps as well?

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Wednesday 3rd April 2019

(5 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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The hon. Lady shakes her head, and that satisfies me. I think that we will leave it there.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The order of the day is brevity. I say that very gently to my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), who has now been speaking for 35 minutes.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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That is true, although, in fairness to the right hon. Gentleman, he has been solicitous at every turn in taking interventions from colleagues, the effect of which, as they know, has been to lengthen his oration. I call the right hon. Gentleman to respond to the intervention from the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Ms Dorries).

European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 5) Bill

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The House of Commons is about to pass a major piece of legislation without a Report stage or a substantive Third Reading. If the Government did this, the House would rightly be deeply irritated with them, so the House should find no virtue in its actions this evening.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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The hon. Gentleman has made his own point in his own way and with his usual sincerity. The matter of virtue is not to be adjudicated by the Chair, but his point is on the record.

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Wednesday 27th March 2019

(5 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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There is no need to move the closure because this is a time-limited debate, and the time limit will be well known to the hon. Gentleman. If he can just contain his impatience, there will be salvation at hand in due course.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. You know that I do not want to try your patience, and I apologise, but given that colleagues will be entirely unfamiliar with the voting process that is going to happen this evening, it would have been useful if the Procedure Committee at least could have had a dummy copy of what was going to be used. We could have been reassured that this was going to be something with which the House could get to grips.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. He is not merely a distinguished ornament of the Procedure Committee but its illustrious Chair. That is a fact well known to all Members of the House, but it ought to have wider public recognition. The point of order is not a matter for me. However, insofar as there is any concern, the process will be explained at the material time by me from the Chair and, I hope, in a way that will inform and assist all Members.

Will the shadow Leader of the House confirm that she is giving way?

Proxy Voting

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Tuesday 22nd January 2019

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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Mr Speaker, I am certainly celebrating the House’s achievement, just as I am celebrating seeing you break into a smile at the same time as the Leader of the House—it was like a parting of the clouds. You should try to do it more often; you work quite well together.

I thank the Leader of the House and the shadow Leader of the House for closely involving the Procedure Committee in their work. This is good news. As Chairman of the Procedure Committee, I would particularly like to thank the Committee’s members for bringing forward a really good report that seems to have the House’s support.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I want to say—I do not think this is a divisible proposition—that the hon. Gentleman is an all-round wonderful human being.

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 13th September 2018

(6 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Thank you. It is of course for the House to decide how to proceed, but in response to what the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) and the Leader of the House have said, let me also underline that as far as I am concerned, that behaviour was despicable and intolerable. If the people who perpetrated it do not know that, I am afraid that tells us all we need to know about them. This simply cannot persist.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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May we have an urgent debate on the gig economy, so that we can ensure that those in long-term casual work have a route into permanent employment? During that debate, could we also recognise that that very same economy creates hundreds of thousands of job opportunities each year for students and young people, allowing them to earn money and wrap work around their studies and holidays, and providing them with the experience that carries them into permanent work? That experience is far from evil.

Proxy Voting

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 13th September 2018

(6 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Walker
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That was a stunning intervention for three reasons: first, it was very good; secondly, it was delivered very well; and thirdly, I have remembered exactly what I wanted to say. The answer is yes, yes, yes, and this is what I wanted to say.

It is the case, and research is available suggesting that women coming to this place have fewer children before they get here and, if they are of child-bearing years, they have fewer children once they are here. As I have said, I am a dyed-in-the-wool small “c” conservative and I hate change. There are going to be people suggesting electronic voting. I will of course look into electronic voting, and I know it is important to some colleagues on the Committee, but I do not like it, and I will be honest about that. In case you had not gathered, Mr Speaker, I am not particularly a great fan of proxy voting, but I have to say that I am a greater fan of allowing as many women as possible to choose to come to this place, get elected to this place and, once here, prosper in this place.

That is all I want to say. This has been—we are in the early stages of it, but I imagine it will be—a good-natured debate. Once again, I thank all those colleagues who have contributed to this report with their evidence, time and good humour.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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May I just say to the hon. Gentleman that the word “good-natured” could have been invented to describe him?

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 5th July 2018

(6 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Personally, I very much agree with that. It is not a matter that has been raised with me before. I remember that when I used to sit on the Panel of Chairs before my fortunate election to the office of Speaker, I was one of those who always took the view that in hot conditions Members should be able to take off their jackets. It was not a view universally held by Chairs. There were Chairs emanating from both sides of the House who took what I thought was an excessively trad view of the matter. However, the point that the hon. Gentleman makes is an important one. That which we make available to ourselves should be made more widely available. I would not want dedicated, hard-working, conscientious staff to be working in conditions of extreme discomfort, so I hope that that point can be registered. I think it is probably a matter of discretion for the Chair. If it is not, it should be, and if it is, they should know how to exercise that discretion in a way that would commend itself to the hon. Gentleman and, I suspect, to Members across the House.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I understand that due to pressures of time, the Government have pulled the next debate on the principle of proxy voting in the House of Commons. That is of course a great shame, although I understand that there are pressing matters of state in play at the moment. On 1 February, we passed a motion in this House to look at proxy voting. The Procedure Committee, which I chair, published its report on 15 May. We are some two months from that point and five months- plus from 1 February. I am a man of great patience, Mr Speaker, but babies are not as patient as I am. A number of colleagues who are expecting to give birth in the next few weeks were rather hoping that we would get on to this business, if not today, then perhaps next week.

Personal Independence Payment: Regulations

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Wednesday 29th March 2017

(7 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman. He has made the position clear and he has done so very quickly, and the House will have noted that.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. May I apologise to you and the House for inadvertently misleading it during my Adjournment debate last Thursday on the Ratty’s Lane incinerator? I said that in 2012 Hertfordshire County Council objected to 46 of Veolia’s HGV movements a day, and that the company was now proposing 212 HGV movements a day. That figure was provided to me by Veolia on 4 March 2016, but I have since discovered that the actual number is 268 HGV movements a day. [Interruption.] Nothing Veolia tells me turns out to be the reality of the situation, but I owe it to this House to do my homework more thoroughly, so may I apologise to you again, Mr Speaker, for misleading this House and to my esteemed colleagues in this place, who indicate that they share my sense of outrage?

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. He is certainly a witty wag. I would add that, as far as Veolia is concerned, the hon. Gentleman is a formidable foe. I rather imagine the company is discovering that now, if it did not know it before.

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 16th March 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I call Mr Charles Walker.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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Oh sorry, Mr Speaker, you took me by surprise!

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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As the hon. Gentleman was standing and seeking to catch my eye, his expression of incredulity is perhaps a tad misplaced.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Walker
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And as I am only the Chair of the Procedure Committee, these things are lost on me!

May we have an urgent debate on the conduct of the Hertfordshire local enterprise partnership in relation to its possible misuse of £6.5 million of public money to promote and ease a planning application on behalf of Veolia? The relationship between Veolia, the LEP, Hertfordshire County Council, the relevant planning authority and the owner of the Veolia contract is too close to carry the confidence of my constituents.

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 9th March 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. How best can I advise colleagues to sup with a long spoon when dealing with a company called Veolia? Perhaps I could write to all colleagues setting out Veolia’s modus operandi, or do you have an even better suggestion?

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I think the hon. Gentleman has found his own salvation. He has leapt to his feet and contrived to raise an entirely bogus point of order in order to register his concern about the company in question, of which, I confess, I know nothing, and in which dispute it would not be proper for me in any way to involve myself. I simply note, en passant, that the hon. Gentleman is indefatigable and remorseless in pursuit of his chosen campaigns and objectives.

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 8th September 2016

(8 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Crispin Blunt Portrait Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. I would prefer to save the hon. Member for Reigate (Crispin Blunt) as a specialist delicacy of the House. We will come to him in due course.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Can you advise me how best I can bring my concerns to the attention of the House in relation to the boundary review and Lords reform? It seems perverse to reduce the number of elected representatives in this place while the Lords continues to gorge itself on new arrivals. I believe in an appointed upper House, but not at the current price and not at the expense of this elected, and therefore accountable, Chamber. We in this place must guard against bringing this country’s democratic settlement into disrepute.

Bank of England and Financial Services Bill [Lords]

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
James Cleverly Portrait James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)
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Does my hon. Friend share my concern that the rush to implement these actions ahead of the directive indicates a desire by the banks to take what seems to be decisive action against a group of people who are quite easy to target, and that the banks will be less keen to take that action against people who are harder to track down? [Interruption.]

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. I know the fondness of the right hon. Member for East Yorkshire (Sir Greg Knight) for live music, and it is a fondness that I share, but there are limits.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Walker
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I thought that rather complemented the intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Braintree (James Cleverly)—it was almost like an opera singer opening his lungs.

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Banks need to invest their resources, time and energy in going after high-risk people. Banks know which people are high risk. To be perfectly honest, whatever people in this country think about their Members of Parliament, trade unionists, council officers and leaders, Assembly Members and Members of the Scottish Parliament, they are, in the main, not bad people indulging in money laundering. I am not saying that there will not be a bad apple, but those people do not present the real and current risk. Banks’ energies should be focused not on chasing after the good, but on chasing after the very bad.

The Financial Action Task Force catch-all that says that even middle-ranking people can be involved in money laundering basically puts everyone above grade 7 in the civil service in the frame. Think of people in a Government-backed organisation or trade union regional organisers. If banks follow the FATF guidance, those people could be deemed to be politically exposed persons, so not only their banking facilities, but those of their families and associates, could be withdrawn or curtailed.

I will make some progress, as I was not planning to speak for so long. Once a PEP, always a PEP. Although article 22 of the directive states that after 12 months have passed from the point at which the politically exposed person has left office, a bank can decide that that person is no longer a PEP—that sounds like good news—it goes on to say that banks will

“be required to take into account the continuing risk posed by that person and to apply appropriate and risk-sensitive measures until such time as that person is deemed to pose no further risk specific to politically exposed persons.”

That is the lobster pot from which few will escape. Banks are risk averse, so they will feel that it is much better to keep someone as a PEP indefinitely than to take the risk of downgrading them to the status of a normal customer unless they are obliged to do so.

Forget people serving in public life; let us think about those who have left it. Without the protections and guidance in new clause 9, ex-Army officers, ex-judges, ex-trade union representatives, ex-community leaders, volunteers and ex-members of political parties, and former Members of Parliament could be denied the opportunity to serve on charitable and company boards because their presence would confer the status of politically exposed person on the rest of the board. That status is best avoided by individuals who are not yet stigmatised. If conferred, such a status could lead to a withdrawal of the relevant charity or company’s banking services. This is not supposition and I am not making this up. Along with the restriction of banking services, the closure of personal accounts and the blackballing of family members, it is happening now. In accepting new clause 9, the Government will enshrine in an Act of Parliament that banks have a legal duty to act proportionately and in accordance with FCA guidance, and that is the correct thing to do.

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Monday 6th July 2015

(9 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. [Interruption.]

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. I appreciate that the House is in a state of some animation, but if there are Members who, quite unaccountably, are leaving the Chamber before the points of order from the hon. Members for Broxbourne (Mr Walker) and for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), I hope they will do so quickly and quietly, so that the rest of the House can listen with rapt attention to the said points of order. I know that the hon. Gentleman will defer to a newer Member.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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There are two responses to the hon. Lady’s point of order, for which I am most grateful. In respect of the first matter, she has now put what she regards as the correct interpretation of past statements on the record, and it is there for all to see.

In relation to the second matter—how the hon. Lady can get the respect she seeks and, specifically, a response to the point of order that she articulated last week—she will already have learned of the very quick journey that can be made from here to the Table Office. The Table Office staff are unfailingly professional, courteous and helpful. She may have to use the device of the Order Paper and follow-up questions to extract what she wants from a Minister. Knowing as I do already the assiduity of the hon. Lady, I feel sure that she will have recourse to the Table Office sooner rather than later.

--- Later in debate ---
John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. The hon. Gentleman can resume his seat. I am saving him up; it would be a pity to squander him at too early a stage of our proceedings.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Walker
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On Friday, I met 55 black cab drivers—fantastic men and women—at Cheshunt boxing club. They are very concerned about Transport for London’s unwillingness to enforce its regulations in respect of the business practices of Uber. It is difficult for me to bring those concerns to the Floor of the House because licensing is a devolved matter and is the responsibility of the Mayor of London. As a procedural expert, Mr Speaker, will you advise me on how I can bring the concerns of 55 black cab drivers to the Floor of the House of Commons so that their voice can be heard by this place?

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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On a very important procedural matter, the Chair of the Procedure Committee has, unsurprisingly, found his own salvation and, what is more, he is well aware of the fact. We will leave it there for today.

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Monday 8th September 2014

(10 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Over the weekend, my surgeries were picketed by an individual in dispute with the Courts Service. I recognise the right to protest, but the use of a loud-hailer made it almost impossible to hold a conversation with those visiting my surgeries. The protest also extended to my home and, more worryingly, those of my patient and generous neighbours, which resulted in multiple calls being made to the police throughout Saturday and Sunday. The protester made it clear to my neighbours that unless I succeeded, as their MP, in changing the law to his liking, he would mount a sustained campaign against them. These threats caused great distress. Protest is one thing, but it is intolerable to try to coerce an MP to act in a particular way under the threat of his neighbours and constituents being harassed, disrupted and distressed. To paraphrase a US President—I think it was Truman or Roosevelt—“Your right to throw a punch ends where the nose of another constituent begins.”

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman both for his point of order and his courtesy in tipping me off yesterday about his desire to raise it. I think the whole House will have been shocked to hear the hon. Gentleman’s account of the distress and disruption to which he, his family and his neighbours have been subjected. Let me, perhaps—I hope on behalf of the House—make the situation clear beyond doubt: however strongly any individual feels about a particular cause or campaign, each and every Member of this House has a right to go about his or her legitimate business without intimidation or harassment, or fear thereof. Moreover, it is quite unacceptable for any individual to threaten continuing such harassment if the Member fails to seek to bring about the particular change in the law that that member of the public seeks. That simply will not do. I think I can say that the whole House will be behind the hon. Gentleman on this matter, and I hope he will be good enough to keep me informed of the developing circumstances. We wish him, his family and his neighbours well.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I cannot comment on that because I do not know whether it is true or not. I think I had better reserve judgment on that point—

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. I will come back to the hon. Gentleman in a moment. The hon. Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) and I will have known each other for 30 years next month, and I say in all courtesy to him that when first he proposed, in the interest of all colleagues, to bring about a change in the law on the subject of home addresses, I do not mind admitting that I did not think his chances of securing such a change were very good. I should have known better than to predict failure, however, because his mission was successful. I have a feeling that the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker) wants to get in again.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Walker
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Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. May I just make it perfectly clear that the Hertfordshire constabulary has been simply wonderful in its dealings with me? I wholly accept the first part of the intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis), but Hertfordshire constabulary has been absolutely brilliant. It has supported me and my neighbours, and I have nothing but admiration for it.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that further point of order.

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Wednesday 14th May 2014

(10 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On the vexed issue of appropriate workplace grievance procedures, what colleagues across the House need is a funding mechanism contained within their office budget that allows them and their staff to access independent dispute mediation services that are entirely separate from the House of Commons and its political parties. Will you kindly promote this need further in your routine discussions with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and the Members’ personal advice service?

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am always grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his thoughts on all matters and he has encapsulated them very pithily in that point of order. The issue of the grievance procedure is ongoing and is the subject of much wider discussions, so I think the fairest thing for me to say today is that I have noted what he has said. The Leader of the House will have done so, too, and I feel sure that there will be further opportunities for those concerns and alternative ideas to be aired. I hope that that is helpful.

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 1st May 2014

(10 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. As usual, a great many hon. and right hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, but there is important business to follow and therefore a premium upon brevity from Back Benchers and Front Benchers alike. We can be led, in an exemplary fashion, on that front by Mr Charles Walker.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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I thank the Leader of the House for his movement on Standing Order No. 33 and for providing significant time next week for business to be transacted relating to my Committee’s reports. I urge him, a reform-minded Leader of the House, to join the Procedure Committee in driving forward an e-petition system that is absolutely geared to the needs of the House of Commons, its Members and, of course, our constituents.

Amendment of Standing Orders

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Monday 2nd December 2013

(11 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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I beg to move,

That:

(1) Standing Order No. 152J (Backbench Business Committee) be amended in line 23, at the end, to add ‘and to hear representations from Members of the House in public’;

(2) Standing Order No. 14 (Arrangement of public business) be amended in line 50, at the end, by adding the words ‘Provided that the figure of thirty-five days shall be increased by one day for each week the House shall sit in a session in excess of a year’;

(3) the following new Standing Order be made:

‘Allocation of time to backbench business

(1) Where proceedings to be taken as backbench business have been determined by the Backbench Business Committee in accordance with paragraph (8) of Standing Order No. 14 (Arrangement of public business), a motion may be made on behalf of that Committee at the commencement of those proceedings by the chair or another member of the committee allocating time to the proceedings; and the question on any such motion shall be put forthwith.

(2) A motion under paragraph (1)–

(a) shall be in the terms of a resolution of the Backbench Business Committee reported to the House in accordance with paragraph (9) of Standing Order No. 152J (Backbench Business Committee);

(b) may not provide for any proceedings to be taken after the expiration of the time for opposed business other than the decisions on any questions necessary to dispose of the backbench business, such questions to include the questions on any amendment selected by the Speaker which may then be moved.

(c) may provide that Standing Order No. 41A (Deferred divisions) shall not apply to the backbench business.’

(4) Standing Order No. 152J (Backbench Business Committee) be amended in line 42, at the end, by adding the words:

‘(9) The Committee shall report to the House any resolution which it makes about the allocation of time to proceedings to be taken as backbench business on a day allotted under paragraph (4) of Standing Order No. 14 (Arrangement of public business), provided that such a resolution is agreed without a division.’

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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With this, it will be convenient to discuss the following:

That the following new Standing Order be made:

‘Select Committee Statements

(1) (a) On any day allotted for proceedings in the House on backbench business (and not being taken in the form of a half-day), or on any Thursday sitting in Westminster Hall other than one to which sub-paragraph (b) applies, the Backbench Business Committee may determine that a statement will be made on the publication of a select committee report or announcement of an inquiry.

(b) The Liaison Committee may determine that such a statement may be made in Westminster Hall on any day appointed under paragraph (15) of Standing Order No. 10 (Sittings in Westminster Hall).

(2) A statement on the publication of a select committee report or announcement of an inquiry–

(a) shall be made by the chair or another member of the select committee acting on its behalf;

(b) shall take place–

(i) in the House, after questions and any ministerial statements, or

(ii) in Westminster Hall, at the commencement of proceedings.

(3) A statement made under paragraph (1) above may not take place later than 5 sitting days after the day on which the report is published or inquiry announced.

(4) The Member making a statement may answer questions on it asked by Members called by the Chair, but no question shall be taken after the end of any period specified by the Backbench Business Committee or the Liaison Committee in its determination.’.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Walker
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The first of the Procedure Committee’s recommendations has been accepted by the Government—let us start on a positive note—as it is uncontentious and simply formalises the current practice of the Backbench Business Committee taking representations in public. I think all colleagues will agree that that fantastic occasion on Tuesday is well attended and extremely exciting. It portrays and presents Parliament at its absolute best. I know you share that view, Mr Speaker, if I may be so presumptuous as to involve you in this debate.

Our second suggestion does not meet with quite so much favour from the Government Front-Bench team—nor, I am sad to say, from the Chairman of the Backbench Business Committee—but I thought that for the sake of debate I would expand on the Procedure Committee’s view on this matter. I should say at this early stage that I do not want to keep colleagues here until the small hours of the morning, so it is unlikely that I will put this to the vote tonight. Perhaps I have shown my hand too early, but I know colleagues have important things to be getting on with in their offices.

This second suggestion, which is opposed by the Government, is to amend Standing Order No. 40, so that it allows for 35 days of backbench business per Session or, when the Session is longer, a pro rata increase of one day per each additional week. It is possible to imagine a scenario after the general election when the incoming Government—whether it be the current coalition, a Conservative Government or, dare I say it, possibly a Labour Government—might decide that their business agenda is so expansive that it requires two years to put it into place. The Procedure Committee thus thought it would be helpful—nay, necessary—for the number of days given by the Government to be commensurate with the additional number of weeks for which that first Parliament ran.

The Front-Benchers have assured me—these assurances are taken at face value by the Chairman of the Backbench Committee—that I need not worry about these things, and that if there were additional weeks and Parliament lasted for more than the standard 35 weeks in the year, the Government would find it within their favour to provide some additional days.

Points of Order

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Wednesday 27th November 2013

(11 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that attempted point of order. The juxtaposition of the two lines of argument has been made perfectly clear from his first quotation and from his second, of which no more is needed for me to rule. My ruling is that it is not a matter for the Chair. I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concern, but it is a point of debate. Of course, all Members, including Ministers, are responsible for the accuracy of what they say in the House, and everyone will be conscious of that. The hon. Gentleman has made his point, it is on the record, and I trust that he is satisfied.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I draw your attention to remaining orders and notices in the Order Paper—future business item 40 on changes to Standing Order No. 33, as tabled by the Leader of the House and the Deputy Leader of the House. The Procedure Committee, which I chair, has been in discussion with the office of the Leader of the House, and we thought we had been in a fruitful discussion. The Leader of the House is promoting the proposal that there may be three amendments to the motion on the Queen’s Speech, and the Procedure Committee has advised that it should be four amendments, so there seems to be a point of disagreement on the matter. I seek your advice: is it not the established principle that it is the Procedure Committee in this House, not the Executive, that leads changes to Standing Orders?

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. He is substantively correct, as far as I am aware, on the latter front. Indeed, that point has been made to me in the past in other contexts by Ministers when they have thought it convenient to deploy that line of argument. I would always hope that Ministers would treat Committees of the House with courtesy. However, nothing disorderly within the rules of the House appears to have occurred and I do not think there is a point of order for the Chair. Those on the Treasury Bench will have heard what the Chair of the Procedure Committee—a very important Committee with a very illustrious Chair—has said, and we will leave it there for today.

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 1st November 2012

(12 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. As usual, a large number of hon. and right hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye. If I am to accommodate anywhere near all of them, in the light of the important and heavily subscribed Back-Bench business to follow, brevity from Back and Front Benchers alike will be vital. We can be led in this important parliamentary endeavour by the Chairman of the Procedure Committee, Mr Charles Walker.

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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May we find time for an urgent debate on the shocking performance of the East of England ambulance service? I am in no doubt that the performance of the chairman, Maria Ball, and the chief executive, Hayden Newton, is falling well short of acceptable.

Business of the House

Debate between Charles Walker and John Bercow
Thursday 15th December 2011

(13 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Following those stellar performances from the shadow Leader of the House and the Leader of the House, may I gently remind colleagues that we are focusing on the business of the House for next week and the beginning of 2012?

Charles Walker Portrait Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con)
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May we have an urgent debate on the activities of parking enforcement companies—particularly Citywatch and Securak—which could be likened to demanding money with menaces, racketeering and extortion? May I make a final plea on behalf of a constituent? Toyin Lawal’s car was pinched by Citywatch from a car park that it was not even licensed to patrol, and it wants eight grand to give it back to her. I want the police to go round and get her car back off these criminals.