Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 26th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

This is an important matter which, of course, I will raise with my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary. As I understand it, the hon. Gentleman wants to make sure that those who are charged with genocide are intercepted when they arrive in this country by the UK Border Agency and then, if necessary, arrested. I will certainly pass that on to the Home Secretary, and I applaud the work that the hon. Gentleman does on the all-party group.

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

May we please have a debate on the outcome of last week’s Brighton conference on the reform of the European Court of Human Rights so that Members can have the opportunity to examine the extent to which the new arrangements may reduce the number of Court rulings which directly oppose the wishes of this House?

[Sir George Young]

There was a written ministerial statement on—I think—16 April which summarised the outcome of the Brighton conference. My right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor and other Ministers are to be complimented on what they did in a relatively short window—six months—in getting agreement for reform of the European Court, strengthening subsidiarity, improving the efficiency of the Court and raising the quality of the nomination process for judges. There are a number of outstanding issues which I know my hon. Friend is concerned with and which I know the House will want to return to in the next Session.