Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Jarvis and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I do so strongly. I join my hon. Friend in recognising the joy of many same-sex couples who will finally be able to marry under British law this weekend. It is a great, great moment. It is a day that they will always remember, and I hope it is a day that the nation will never forget. It is a great step forward for us all.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

T8. The Deputy Prime Minister promised to make mental health a priority for this Government, but on their watch mental health spending has been cut in real terms, hundreds of mental health beds have been lost, and services are now under such pressure that the police are having to legally section people with mental health problems just so that they can get a bed. Can the Deputy Prime Minister tell us what happened to the promise?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As I said earlier, we have moved to provide a legal recognition of the status of mental health, which has for far too long been overlooked in the NHS as greater emphasis has been placed on physical health issues. In the mandate given to the NHS, they are now on an equal footing, but of course I accept that that parity of emphasis needs to be reflected in many individual commissioning decisions. I am not content when I hear that some clinical commissioning groups are not yet reflecting the equality of esteem for mental and physical health in their commissioning decisions. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have put hundreds of millions of pounds into improving talking therapies, and hundreds of millions of pounds into improving mental health for children, but I accept that there is still a long way to go.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Jarvis and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 16th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The main change, other than some important rule changes to the administration of the postal voting system, which the hon. Gentleman will know about, is the introduction of individual voter registration. That is the biggest single weapon that we have against the worrying instances of widespread electoral fraud in parts of the country. That is why I hope that, instead of constantly complaining about our attempts to stamp out electoral fraud, the Labour party will support them.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

T10. The early intervention grant is used by local authorities to fund programmes that have the potential to transform the long-term life chances of deprived children. We discovered recently that hundreds of millions of pounds of that money will be diverted to fund the provision of nursery places for two-year-olds. We cannot tackle child poverty and improve social mobility by taking money from one set of essential services to pay for another. What steps does the Deputy Prime Minister propose to take to protect this specific pot of funding?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s legitimate concern about an important area of Government policy, but he is just plain wrong when he says that money is being taken away from the EIG. We made it clear that some of the money under the EIG umbrella was dedicated to the two-year-olds offer. As he knows, that is a new offer of 15 hours’ pre-school support for two-year-olds from the most deprived families in this country. It is a radical and progressive step towards greater social mobility and early intervention. We have retained the total amount of money for early intervention, but allowed the EIG to be used in a more flexible way. I ask him not to be preoccupied with which pot the money is in, but to focus on the fact that we will do big progressive things with exactly the same amount of money.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Jarvis and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 22nd May 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Absolutely. We listened to many representations on this point when we considered what should be included in the Bill on individual voter registration and we have indeed, as I hope he has noticed, included a civil penalty to ensure that the civic duty to register to vote is properly maintained.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

T13. Following on from the G8 summit at the weekend, may I ask the Deputy Prime Minister how the plan to support the Afghan Government after 2014 will have the slightest prospect of success without real progress on problems of politics and governance, which, according to almost all reports, have got worse, not better, in recent years?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very serious point. Anybody who has visited Afghanistan or examined the conflict there will know that there was never any prospect of a military solution alone. In a sense, all that military intervention can do is create the space in which social and political stability can take root. I share his concerns that we are still some way from that. It is immensely important at this stage, as we are moving towards real transition in Afghanistan, that we include other countries in the region, notably Pakistan, so that they play their full part and bring their influence to bear in order that political stability can indeed take root in Afghanistan.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Jarvis and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 11th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As my hon. Friend will know from the legislation, the boundary commissions will be listening to all representations. They have a fair amount of latitude under the legislation to listen to representations, including those that relate to community links in each and every area.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

Does the Deputy Prime Minister support the release of all unredacted and uncensored Government documents relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Yes, I very much do. It is very important that we get to see all the relevant papers. I pay tribute to the former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who did a great deal in the first place to create the panel that will receive these papers. The only point that I would make, however, is that it seems to me that we should allow the families, who are still grieving their losses from that terrible tragedy, to look at those papers first before they are fully published by the panel.