Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The Health and Social Care Bill is in Committee and will be coming back to the Floor of the House for Report, which may be an appropriate time for the hon. Gentleman to table amendments and secure a debate.

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

May we please have a debate on how we can both reduce the cost and speed up the process of removing squatters, to help hard-working home owners who discover that their properties are being illegally occupied?

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. A great many hon. and right hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, but there is a ministerial statement to follow and then two heavily subscribed debates under the auspices of the Backbench Business Committee, time for which it is my responsibility to protect. There is therefore a premium today on single, short supplementary questions and the Leader of the House’s characteristically pithy replies. Even allowing for that, I am afraid that many Members will be disappointed today.

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

May we please have a statement on the future of the maternity department at Fairfield hospital in Bury, following yesterday’s decision by NHS officials to confirm the closure decision that was made by the last Government?

[Sir George Young]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concern about the decision taken on 2 February by the NHS North West board on the reconfiguration of maternity services in the north-west, which followed a period of consultation. I will, of course, draw his concern to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health.

Parliamentary Reform

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Lucas]

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention, which was incredibly helpful.

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

With great respect to the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson), the Procedure Committee has in fact started its work and we had a very useful opening seminar in Portcullis House last week to take evidence from a variety of sources. The work is under way.

--- Later in debate ---

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

Thank you, Mr Benton. I will take careful note of what you have said and restrict my comments by not repeating many of the points that other Members have raised. However, it would be remiss of me not to start by congratulating the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) on securing the debate.

I repeat the fact that I am a member of the Procedure Committee, and I have listened carefully all afternoon to the points everyone has made, and will continue to do so for the rest of the debate. I do so with an open mind. It is important that matters of parliamentary reform be considered from the basis of how we can best do our job most effectively. What is the best way that we can conduct our affairs for the benefit of our constituents?

One major problem is not so much the quantity of legislation that Parliament produces, but its quality. I am obliged to the Hansard Society for drawing my attention to the increasing volume of legislation that has been passed by Parliament over the years:

“In 1950 Parliament passed 3,690 pages of legislation. By 1970 this had grown to 5,990 pages and by 1990 to 8,940. But just over 15 years later the number of pages had almost doubled to 16,031.”

Looking just at criminal offences, it states:

“All criminal offences passed between 1351 & 1988”—

a period of 637 years—

“are contained in one volume of Halsbury’s Statutes of Criminal Law encompassing 1,382 pages of law. The offences for the 19 years between 1989 and 2008 are contained in three volumes encompassing 3,746 pages!”

There is plenty of evidence that whatever else Parliament may be criticised for, it certainly cannot be criticised for lack of productivity. Whether we are producing legislation of high quality is another matter. One idea, if I could throw my six penn’orth into the reform idea pot, is for more pre-legislative scrutiny and the improvement of the legislative process. That would have a virtuous effect. The biggest problem, which I think sums up the whole debate, is how best to use our time. To solve the problem of defective legislation would in itself be an enormous boon, because we would then spend less time sorting out the problems created by poor, inadequate and inefficient legislation. I hope that is one area that we will be able to look at in the course of proceedings.

Finally, I caution Members that before we go down any road of reform we look at the procedures that are already available to us and ensure that we are already using them to full capacity. For example, the hon. Member for North East Derbyshire (Natascha Engel), who I congratulate on her tremendous work as the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee, made mention of the work of Committees. I entirely agree that Committees are a useful tool for the House, but I wonder whether we are using them as effectively as we could. As evidence, I would cite the one power that all Committees have, except a very few dealing with private Bills, which is the power, almost never used, to take evidence on oath under the Parliamentary Witnesses Oaths Act 1871. It is a rare power, but it already exists and may be something that we could use.

[Chris Bryant]

The hon. Gentleman is right. In fact, I would make it standard for all Committees to take evidence on oath. It is extraordinary that often Committees want somebody to give evidence but never go through the process of forcing them to attend, which is still technically possible. For example, Rupert Murdoch is one of the most significant players in British media and in British society, yet he has never appeared before a Select Committee of this House, nor has any member of the Murdoch family. That is extraordinary.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Nuttall]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. As my vicar reminds us every Sunday morning, Parliament is the “high court” of Parliament. Perhaps through our Select Committees we could take such matters more seriously and ensure that witnesses do attend when they are asked to appear to give evidence before Committees. At this point, I thank the first three speakers in this debate, all of whom appeared before the Procedure Committee last week to help in our deliberations on the reform of sitting hours.

I am conscious of the fact that many have spoken but that many still wish to speak, so I conclude with a final comment from the Hansard Society’s report, which is worth our bearing in mind. It said that new measures may destabilise existing procedures and create inconsistencies and unintended consequences that undermine the coherence and rationality of the process as a whole. I caution all Members that we must be wary of the unintended consequences of any reform that we propose and upon which we embark.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

Shortly.

I was asked two more questions, one of which was about VAT. May I remind the right hon. Gentleman of what his party said about VAT before the election? The shadow Home Secretary has said:

“ultimately we made no hard commitment on VAT. That was partly the traditional caution of governments, wanting to keep options open.”

When pressed on this, the then Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling), has said:

“The advantage of VAT is it brings in a lot of money. It would have allowed you to have done you know a lot to take down the deficit”.

So it ill behoves Labour Members to criticise us for what we have done on VAT.

Finally, on IPSA, I am a statutory consultee—as Leader of the House—under the relevant legislation, so I will indeed be submitting evidence to IPSA in due course.

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

May we have a statement on the Government’s plans, contained in the coalition agreement, to allow petitions with more than 100,000 names to be debated in this House?

[Sir George Young]

I thank my hon. Friend for reminding the House that the coalition agreement contains that commitment to introduce e-petitions, with those that reach a certain level—100,000 names—becoming eligible for a debate in the House. That is an important step in building a bigger and stronger bridge between this House and those we represent. I have already had some informal discussions with the Procedure Committee about this and I will have further discussions, both with that Committee and with the Backbench Business Committee. I think that this would be a very appropriate subject for the House to debate, if it wished to do so.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I think the hon. Lady knows what I am about to say to her: in setting up its Backbench Business Committee, the House gave that Committee responsibility for deciding whether there is to be a fisheries debate, for instance, a European Council debate or four days of debate on defence, or whether debates should be held on other subjects. The responsibility for deciding whether there is to be a pre-Christmas European Council debate now rests with the Backbench Business Committee, so the hon. Lady should address her question to the hon. Member for North East Derbyshire (Natascha Engel), not the Leader of the House.

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

Will the Leader of the House arrange for an early debate on the performance of the Student Loans Company, so that the House can examine whether it is operating as efficiently as students and their families are entitled to expect?

[Sir George Young]

It was because we believed the SLC was not being operated efficiently that we replaced the chairman and the chief executive within one month of our taking office earlier this year. In respect of recent applications managed by the SLC, the Public Accounts Committee report published last week showed that by the end of October over half a million students had received their funding at the start of term, of which 72% were fully processed, and that 69% of new applicants were also fully processed. There must be continued improvement in the SLC’s performance however, so that students receive the level of service to which they are entitled.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Leader of the House’s brevity now needs to be matched by that of Back Benchers.

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

Will the Leader of the House consider instituting an annual debate on the military covenant, which, may I suggest, could be held as near as possible to Remembrance day each year?

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He will have seen the coalition’s programme for government document, which has a long paragraph about the military covenant. We are considering how best to rebuild and rewrite the covenant, and my hon. Friend has made an interesting suggestion.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 4th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

This is another issue that we inherited from the outgoing Labour Government, as they failed to address it. It is addressed in the coalition agreement, as the hon. Gentleman will see, and the coalition Government will take action to deliver that commitment.

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

Talking of issues that were inherited from the previous Government, we found out this week—six months after the general election—that as a result of the European Court of Human Rights ruling about prisoners having the right to vote, the UK faces a bill in excess of £100 million. May we have a statement on what other hidden and contingent liabilities were left behind by the Labour Government for us to deal with?

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He will know, having listened to statements by Treasury Ministers, that we have had to deal with a large number of commitments by the outgoing Government for which the resources were not made available. On the specific issue, as he knows, Ministers are considering how to implement the judgment and, indeed, how to avoid the fines to which he refers. When the Government have made a decision, the House will be the first to know.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 21st October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

One has to put the hon. Lady’s request in the context of the earlier request for more time to debate the constitutional measure currently going through the House. The events of this week and last week are unusual, in that we are debating a constitutional Bill on the Floor of the House and we have allowed injury time for statements that we knew were going to take place. That will not be the normal pattern of sittings, and I hope that normal service will be resumed quite soon.

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

Following yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament to increase the costs of maternity leave, can we find time for a debate on the impact of the additional burdens being imposed on British businesses by the European Union?

[Sir George Young]

I am disappointed by the outcome of yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament, but that is not the end of the process. The UK will work hard in Council to oppose the imposition of a requirement for fully paid maternity leave, and we expect other member states to join us. [Interruption.] If Opposition Members look at the details of the directive, they will see that it is entirely regressive, as the greatest benefits would be obtained by those earning the most.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

My view is that Government Departments should settle their bills promptly.

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

Will my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the scope of our health and safety legislation, because it appears that now even the Scouts are being prevented from enjoying their usual games and activities?

[Sir George Young]

As a former Scout, I would regret any curtailment of the activities that I used to indulge in. I shall raise my hon. Friend’s concerns with the appropriate Minister and get a reply.

Business of the House

David Nuttall Excerpts

Thursday 9th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady, who is acting as a lightning conductor for the many bids that I get to find time for debates. I welcome this initiative. I hope that she can write to hon. Members as well as making that statement in the House. I congratulate her on the innovative way in which she is chairing her Committee and broadening to a wider public the discussion about what issues should be debated.

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

Although the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill seeks to determine the length of future Parliaments, will the Leader of the House please confirm that if the Bill is passed the ensuing Act will have no special status and could in fact be repealed by a future Parliament?

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. No Parliament can bind its successor, and it would be open to any new Parliament to repeal legislation that had been passed by this one.