Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Lidington and David Morris

Tuesday 5th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The right hon. Gentleman had not asked in advance for my agreement to the grouping, but I am nevertheless happy to provide it. Presumably, the request was not made to my office on account of the expectation that we would not get this far, but Ministers ought to know better by now; we do tend to make quite quick progress. We will take supplementary questions from those who are here—I think at least one is not.

[David Morris]

Part of the problem with the courts system is that the lay person does not understand the jargon. Will my right hon. Friend examine how we can improve communication within the system so that the ordinary man on the street can understand what is going on in court proceedings?

[Mr Lidington]

I apologise to you, Mr Speaker, if there was a mess-up in communications with your office.

In response to my hon. Friend, as we test and pilot the online court proposals it is important to ensure that the process is stripped of legal jargon so that our constituents—men and women who may have no particular knowledge or experience of the technicalities of law—are able easily to understand, follow and use the process.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Lidington and David Morris

Tuesday 5th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lidington]

It is obviously for the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work and the Department for Work and Pensions to decide overall on the Government response to that report. However, I think that the Government were right to express disappointment that the report failed to acknowledge the significant advances this Government have made in improving the lot of disabled people in this country, not least in seeing a record number of people with disabilities now in employment.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

T5. What upgrades have been achieved in prisons since we came into office, and how are we going to rehabilitate prisoners even further?

European Union Bill

Debate between David Lidington and David Morris

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lidington]

My hon. Friend is ingenious and teasing in his question, but I am here to represent the policies of the Government, not to account for what our party said a few years ago in opposition.

My fear is that the impact of the amendment could be the opposite of what my hon. Friends who support it hope for. My hon. Friend the Member for Stone and Professor Tomkins have warned of a new trend of judicial activism, and my hon. Friend argued that powerful elements in the judiciary were seeking as a matter of policy to challenge the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. I find unpersuasive the argument that to introduce the word “sovereignty” into the Bill would quell that ambition. The word lacks a clear definition—we have found about 30 statutes that include it, and they all refer to territorial sovereignty, not to constitutional authority. There is no existing accepted definition, and I fear that the lack of a clear definition would encourage the very judges against whom my hon. Friends warn me to interpret the substance, scope and limits of sovereignty through judicial activism.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I wish to pose a question. Let us say, for argument’s sake, that the nationalists in Scotland imposed the euro. What powers would we have to defend our sovereignty and economy without the amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash)?

[Mr Lidington]

Parliament has the right, which the courts would be obliged to uphold, to repeal or amend the European Communities Act 1972 or any part of it. It also has the constitutional power to disapply a particular piece of EU law, although that would provoke the sort of political crisis in our relations with the EU that I alluded to earlier.