Rural Phone and Broadband Connectivity

Debate between David Heath and Jesse Norman

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman]

It is to the Government’s credit that they have recognised the importance of the last 10%, 8% and 5%. Some will require bespoke solutions because those people live in such remote areas. We should allow technology to play its role in whatever form is required to deliver the signal that they need.

[Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD)]

This concept of the last 10% and the last 5% is what worries me. There is a saying in rugby clubs nowadays that the London Irish are known as the “not nots” because they are not London and they are not Irish. We have the same things with “not nots” in the rural population: people who do not get broadband, do not get mobile phone coverage and do not get the other infrastructure. They are simply left out. It is no good saying 90% or 95% are getting it, if the last 5% are always the same people—those who are living in rural areas.

[Jesse Norman]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about that. I guess I was making a different point—that no one should be left out, but that it may be the case that specific demands have to be met by specific technologies.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Heath and Jesse Norman

Thursday 16th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)]

12. What steps his Department is taking to promote community orchards.

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr David Heath)]

Community orchards provide a place for local people to reconnect with nature, and they encourage biodiversity. That is why we have worked across government and with the European Union to make it easier for local people to establish community orchards.

[Jesse Norman]

In Herefordshire, the Bulmer Foundation does outstanding work in opening up community orchards for disadvantaged people of all backgrounds, and only last week Orchard Art was celebrated at a special service in Hereford cathedral. Does the Minister of State share my view that community orchards can have enormous social as well as environmental value, and will he join me in congratulating the Bulmer Foundation on its Orchard Art initiative?

[Mr Heath]

Herefordshire has the distinction of being the second best county in the country for production of orchards. In 2012, research commissioned by Natural England found that community orchards produced a range of valuable benefits over and above the fruit they supply. They provide a haven for wildlife, lock up carbon and enhance the quality of life of the people living around them. I do indeed congratulate the Bulmer Foundation on the work it is doing and the difference it is making for local communities.

House of Lords Reform Bill

Debate between David Heath and Jesse Norman

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Heath]

The right hon. Gentleman may not have studied the Bill assiduously enough. It is true that those Ministers will not be there for life: the right hon. Gentleman is right about that. Under the present system they are there for life even when they have clearly outlived their ministerial usefulness.

We heard arguments in favour of secondary election, and I think that that is a perfectly valid debate for us to have in Committee. We also heard arguments about primacy. The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) made what I considered to be a very sensible suggestion about the possibility of a concordat. I thank him for that: it is something that we need to debate.

The hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman) asked which legal expert the Government had consulted on clause 2. It was Lord Pannick, who I believe the hon. Gentleman thinks is a very good lawyer indeed.

[Jesse Norman]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Heath]

Very briefly.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jesse Norman]

In that case, can the hon. Gentleman explain why the same Lord Pannick has been so devastating in his criticisms that were published this afternoon?

[Mr Heath]

I do not believe that he has, but that is an argument to which we can return in Committee.

The hon. Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) compared the Deputy Prime Minister with Andy Murray. I think that, if anything, he is more like Jonny Marray, in that he is a champion doubles partner, and on that basis the coalition has been succeeding.

Let me now deal with what I think is one of the most important issues on which we shall have to reach a conclusion tomorrow. There are those, predominantly in the official Opposition, who will vote for the end but not for the means, namely the programme motion. I have long argued, as has my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House, that programme motions should, wherever possible, be arranged by agreement. They should be for the convenience of the House: they should enable debate, not restrict it. That is the way in which we have managed things in this Parliament so far.

I repeatedly asked the right hon. Member for Tooting (Sadiq Khan) how much more time he wanted. He has 10 days for the Committee stage in addition to the two days for Second Reading and the two days for Report, 14 days in all. I asked him repeatedly how many more days he wanted, but answer came there none. The Opposition cannot say how many days they want, because they decided to vote against the programme motion before it had been published or even suggested. I believe that 14 days out of a total of 88—only 88 days are available to the Government for legislative business during a whole year—are sufficient. If the right hon. Gentleman has a proposal, let him come up with it; but if, as I suspect, he has no proposal whatsoever other than a determination to oppose, he is doing his own argument a great disservice.