Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 21st June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am sorry to hear of the misfortune that happened to my hon. Friend’s constituent. I am sure that as his Member of Parliament my hon. Friend will take the matter up with the train operating company to see whether it might consider its actions. There will be Transport questions a week today, when there will be an opportunity to raise the matter with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

As the co-chairman of the Conservative party has been travelling abroad on official Government business with her business partner, who has involvement with the extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, may we have a statement from the Prime Minister on whether he will honour his pledge to ban that organisation, which he made before becoming Prime Minister?

[Sir George Young]

I will raise with the Home Secretary the question of banning that particular group. However, the hon. Lady should be careful about making accusations about who travels along with whom, because I am sure that that is an issue that could be raised by Members on both sides of the House.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 14th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am delighted to hear about the job fair in my hon. Friend’s constituency. I know that many hon. Members have helped to set up job clubs in their constituencies—[Hon. Members: “Of all parties.”] Of all parties. They have given support in that way, and I pay tribute to the work that job clubs do in raising morale, enabling networking and finding suitable jobs for their members. I cannot promise an early debate on employment, but there might be an opportunity in some of the debates chosen by the Opposition or the Backbench Business Committee in the days to come to talk about the important subject of unemployment and the steps that the Government are taking to reduce it.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Later this month, it will be the fifth anniversary of the devastating floods in Hull in 2007. Given the uncertainty over the statement of principles, and over the Government’s plans to provide reasonable house insurance for my constituents and others around the country, please may we have a debate in Government time on what they are going to do to protect householders?

[Sir George Young]

The hon. Lady raises an important issue. I know that there has been a dialogue between Ministers and the Association of British Insurers to ensure that adequate household insurance is available to those who live on flood plains. I will ask the appropriate Minister—I think that it will be a Treasury Minister—to write to the hon. Lady to bring her up to date with the discussions that are taking place, which I think are related in some way to the investment that the Government are making in flood protection measures in the areas concerned.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 24th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am delighted to hear that unemployment has fallen in my hon. Friend’s constituency. As I said in response to an earlier question, there may be an opportunity to discuss the issue further when we debate the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which contains a number of measures to promote employment. He will know that we have a national loan guarantee scheme to get cheaper loans, that we have the most competitive business tax system in the developed world by cutting corporation tax and that we are cutting red tape. He will have heard in the exchange with BIS Ministers the other steps we are taking to promote employment in all parts of the country.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I understand that private assurances have been given to coalition Members by Treasury Ministers that the caravan tax issue will return to the Floor of the House. Can the Leader of the House confirm that that is correct? A number of coalition MPs who voted for the caravan tax presented petitions against it on Tuesday this week, and I would like them to be given the opportunity to vote against it on the Floor of the House.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The principle of oral questions is that the House should have the opportunity to hold Secretaries of State and Ministers to account. That is why there are separate Northern Ireland, Scotland and Welsh questions. English Ministers, of course, have to answer for English-related matters when at the Dispatch Box. If the House wants to hold the Government to account, the best way to do it is by a series of departmental questions, which is what we have now.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Following the publication of the BBC Trust’s latest savings plans, will the House have an opportunity to debate the plans, particularly the plans for local radio? I ask because there are many excellent local services, including Radio Humberside in my constituency, and this week, the radio show, “Beryl and Betty”, with Beryl Renwick, aged 86, and Betty Smith, aged 90, won the Sony gold award for excellence.

[Sir George Young]

The BBC is an independent organisation and is responsible for allocating its funds and finding savings. If the hon. Lady wants to apply to the Backbench Business Committee for a debate on how the BBC is organised, I am sure she will get a warm reception from its newly elected members.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 26th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

In a double-dip recession, drugs education is even more important, so may we please have a debate on why the Government have scrapped the £69,000 going to the drugs education forum, which includes more than 30 organisations, among them the Association of Chief Police Officers and the NSPCC, sharing and providing good practice to schools? Why, when I wrote to Lord Henley, did he refuse to deal with the issue?

[Sir George Young]

I am sure my noble Friend Lord Henley would want to respond to any representations from any Member of Parliament, particularly on this serious issue. On support for education, we have maintained constant in cash terms the support for children and we have complemented it with the pupil premium. We have had to take some difficult decisions on public expenditure which, in all honesty, the hon. Lady’s party would also have had to take, had it got into government and been faced with the deficit. I will see whether I can elicit from the appropriate Minister a response on support for the project she mentioned.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I commend my hon. Friend for the question that he asked, I think, yesterday, and I commend the work of the air ambulances. We are committed to an online filing system for charities to claim gift aid, which will come online in 2012-13. I hope that will make it easier for charities to reclaim the money that they are owed and drive up the resources available for the causes that they promote in his constituency and others.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Can we please have a debate on the Government’s plans to introduce VAT on holiday caravans? Their impact assessment states that that will probably result in a 30% reduction in demand for holiday caravans, which will have a particular impact in Hull, where we manufacture a lot of caravans. It will also have an impact on families who want to go on holiday and spend a week in a rented caravan, because hire prices will go up.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 15th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

That would be an excellent subject for a Westminster Hall debate; I commend my hon. Friend on his work in setting up an all-party parliamentary group on education, governance and leadership. He is right that as the school system develops and we have more academies, it is even more important that there is good local leadership and that we recruit good-quality governors to remove unnecessary burdens and distractions for schools. We need to get the right people in the right position with the appropriate skills, abilities and experience, and I think that a debate in Westminster Hall would do exactly what my hon. Friend has recommended.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

May we have a debate about the mixed messages from the Government, who are telling people from the north to move to the south for jobs and people from the south to move to the north for housing? How will that help rebalance the economy?

[Sir George Young]

That is a travesty of the Government’s policy. We want to grow more jobs in the north, where people are, and the news that Nissan is creating 2,000 new jobs in the north-east is something that I hope the hon. Lady would welcome.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 23rd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

There will be an opportunity for the hon. Gentleman to raise the issue at Ministry of Justice questions next Tuesday. If he has not tabled a question, he might like to take his chance at topical questions. I am sure, Mr Speaker, that you have noticed his interest.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Does today’s announcement that the Royal Navy is buying vessels from South Korea give us a chance to have a debate about the Government’s policy on defence procurement in the light of the written statement on defence that was produced without any opportunity to question Ministers on their decision not to give priority to British manufacturing?

[Sir George Young]

I may have inadvertently misled the House, Mr Speaker, by saying that MOJ questions are next Tuesday; I understand that they are not.

Set-piece debates on defence procurement happened in the previous Parliament. Days for such debates are now allocated by the Backbench Business Committee. Bids for debates on defence procurement are therefore a matter for that Committee, and I am sure that the Chairman has noted the hon. Lady’s bid.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I have to repeat what I told the right hon. Gentleman last week: it would be quite wrong for the Government to overrule the Information Commissioner. There is a process of appeal if the right hon. Gentleman is dissatisfied with the commissioner’s decision, and that is the line he should follow rather than asking me about it week after week.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

The Government’s written ministerial statement, published yesterday by the Ministry of Defence, sets out a worrying path on defence procurement that will be to the detriment of British manufacturing jobs. May we have an urgent debate on that in Government time? Secondly, if time was short yesterday, why could not the Minister come and make the statement today so that we could question him on his policy?

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend the Minister made the statement yesterday by means of a written ministerial statement. I have looked at it and I see no evidence to support what the hon. Lady has just said about it being bad news for UK industry. On the contrary, much of what he has proposed will benefit UK industry. For example, purchasing off-the-shelf rather than individually specified equipment is of great advantage to British manufacturers who already have a number of products in that range.

Business of the House

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 19th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

The Health Secretary claimed that the Health and Social Care Bill would put clinicians back at the centre of the NHS. In the light of the decision by clinicians to withdraw their support for the Bill this morning, will the Leader of the House arrange for the Health Secretary to make a statement to set out a permanent pause to this ill-fated measure?

[Sir George Young]

No. There was, as the hon. Lady knows, a pause last July when we had the NHS Future Forum, in which nurses and doctors were involved. I am sure that when the Bill goes through, doctors and nurses will welcome their increased responsibility for clinical commissioning, and it must be right for that to be transferred from primary care trusts to professionals and the NHS, who are more aware of the needs of those who need treatment.