Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 15th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady and her Committee for finding time to debate the two e-petitions that had crossed the 100,000 threshold. We note her public service announcement that e-petitions will be debated only if they are picked up by a Member and then formally presented to her for debate.

The hon. Lady asked about time for her Committee. As I have said on earlier occasions, we will honour the commitment to a minimum of 35 days in a Session, and because the current Session is longer, more than 35 days will be provided. Now that the bulk—although not all—of the legislative programme has been completed in the House of Commons, I hope that in the months and weeks ahead it may be possible to find more headroom for Backbench Business Committee debates. As is clear from the business that I have just announced, there will be more time for the Committee than there has been in recent weeks.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

Very tragically, a toddler was killed last year in a house fire in my constituency. The inquest has now reported that the fire was caused by another child playing with matches, which then ignited a highly flammable mattress. Could time be found for a debate on fire safety, which would include advice on preventing access to flammable materials and on the use of flame-retardant furnishings to help reduce the risk of such tragic events happening again in the future?

[Sir George Young]

The whole House will have been sorry to hear of the loss of life of the toddler in my hon. Friend’s constituency. I believe that there are restrictions on the materials that can be used in many items of furniture. However, I will raise the instance that the hon. Gentleman has given with the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), who is responsible for consumer affairs, and see whether there are any further steps that we can take to avoid a repetition of the tragedy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 16th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are not, and I do not know where the hon. Gentleman gets his information from. We have published the most ambitious local media strategy for many years, providing a way forward for local radio stations. We are continuing to support many community radio stations. On local arts groups, we have put in place a big package to try to encourage and help arts organisations to be resilient in difficult financial times.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

The Crewe Alexandra girls centre of excellence in my constituency has a proud and enviable record of producing first-class international players and it has built a strong reputation, over many years, across the whole of the footballing community and beyond. The Football Association has rewarded that success by deciding to close the centre, leaving many gifted players and their parents dumbfounded and devastated. Can my right hon. Friend look into the matter urgently and take it up personally with David Bernstein, the chairman of the Football Association?

[Hugh Robertson]

I think that question gives me the opportunity, which I am sure everybody across the House will want to take, to wish the England women’s football team good luck in the forthcoming world cup. In response to hon. Friend, I will of course take the case up if he sends me the details.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I will refer the hon. Gentleman’s remarks to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and get an answer to his question on when the admissions code will be published. I also say in passing that I think we provided adequate time for discussion of the Education Bill, and I note that, in Committee, the Opposition spokesman said:

“I…thank the Government and Opposition Whips for the orderly way they have organised our business.”––[Official Report, Education Public Bill Committee, 5 April 2011; c. 993.]

The Government do not in any way want to obstruct discussion of that Bill.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

May we have a debate on the recent recovery of salmon stock in Scottish rivers, so that we can debate the importance of the subsidy to Scotland and the effect that its withdrawal would have on those stocks?

[Sir George Young]

The reason that I pause is that I am not sure whether responsibility for salmon is a devolved matter—[Interruption.] It is devolved; I see a nod from the Opposition Benches. Sadly, therefore, I cannot organise a debate on salmon in Scotland, but my hon. Friend has drawn attention to a more generic point about resources flowing from Westminster to the north. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to debate that when the Scotland Bill returns.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I cannot promise a statement next week, but as I said a moment ago, the Foreign Secretary will be answering questions on Tuesday. If the right hon. Gentleman does not have a question down, he may catch your eye, Mr Speaker, during topical questions. I will forewarn the Foreign Secretary that a question on the subject may be forthcoming from the right hon. Gentleman.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

With 3.5 million people in the UK—one in 17—suffering from a rare condition at some point in their lives, may we have a debate on how we can support those people and have better care and medical expertise at their disposal in order to help build on the excellent work done by rare disease charities, such as CLIMB in my constituency, which does excellent work on behalf of those with metabolic diseases?

[Sir George Young]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for raising that subject, which strikes me as an appropriate matter for a debate in Westminster Hall. I am sure that Members on both sides of the House will want to join him in raising the profile of some of the rare diseases that are often ignored within the medical profession and by medical research. Alternatively, the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee is in her place and will have heard his request, so he may wish to present himself at her salon at 1 o’clock on a Tuesday to bid for such a debate.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 24th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The regime that affects the hon. Gentleman’s constituent is the regime that we inherited. We propose to make changes to the DLA, but they require primary legislation, which will have to be approved by the House. We want to move from the current regime, which has not been examined for 20 years and results in conflict and overlap, to a new regime based on personal independence payments. We want to enhance the mobility and independence of people who are entitled to payments at the moment. This is not about saving money, but about introducing a better regime for those with real needs.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

May we have a debate on the Government’s commitment to delivering 250,000 more apprenticeships by 2015? That would allow us to discuss the crucial role played by apprenticeships in developing skills in our engineering sector, especially in the rail and motor industries that are so important to our economy, both in Crewe and Nantwich and elsewhere in the country.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 27th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

For the last 13 years we had a Modernisation Committee and, to my knowledge, not once did it consider the procedure for resignation, so it clearly did not think that it was a priority. The procedure has worked perfectly well for 260 years, and given all the pressures on the House’s time, I wonder whether we should really give priority to this matter.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

In Crewe and Nantwich, many families lost significant fees and deposits that they had paid to their children’s nurseries, and had major disruption to their child care arrangements, when the company running them went bust recently. May we have a debate to discuss how parents can be better protected in such circumstances rather than being left exposed both financially and in their home environment by finding themselves in a long queue of creditors?

[Sir George Young]

I am very sorry to hear of the plight of those who have paid up front for child care or nursery places and then found that the provider has gone into liquidation. I shall raise the matter with ministerial colleagues at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, who have responsibility for the Insolvency Service, and I would point my hon. Friend’s constituents to the local authority’s family information service, which may be able to help find alternative places for those who have been affected.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 2nd December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I read with interest today the newspaper article that he wrote. The information that appeared in The Times yesterday was the result of a freedom of information request to IPSA from that newspaper, and it withheld the names of the hon. Members whose claims were rejected. There will be a debate on IPSA shortly and I will ensure that the hon. Gentleman, if he catches your eye, Mr Speaker, receives a response to the specific point that he has raised. I quite agree that there can be no question of any Member of this House being bullied.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

My local Communication Workers Union branch and I appreciate the importance and necessity of the modernisation of Royal Mail. However, according to the most recent quality of postal services report, my constituency has the second-worst postal service in England and Wales. May we have a debate on the quality of postal services so that people such as my constituents do not have to suffer what is sometimes billed as “progress”?

[Sir George Young]

I admire the way in which my hon. Friend has campaigned for a higher quality of postal service in his constituency. Modernisation must not be held up as an excuse for poor service. However, I will raise this issue with the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), who has responsibility for postal affairs. Our legislative proposals that are going through Parliament are designed to drive up the quality of postal services.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 28th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

With the greatest respect to the hon. Lady, the solution lies, as she knows, in her own hands, as she is the Chairman of the Backbench Business Committee, which can find time for such topical debates. I very much enjoyed attending her salon on Monday—an interesting new procedure, opening up the House’s agenda to all hon. Members. I also welcome her presence tomorrow, when she will conclude the debate and my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House will represent the Government. I am sure that the event will be an astounding success.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

Today, as on every other day, thousands of severely disabled people and their carers will suffer the unenviable choice of deciding whether to go out in the hope that there will be sufficient toilet facilities to ensure that they can keep their dignity or to stay at home—a choice that they should not face. May we have a debate to discuss how we can do more to ensure that those who want to go out can go out, however disabled they are?

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I am aware of the changing places programme, which has been successful in getting more toilet facilities for severely disabled people built in town centres, including, recently, in Crewe. I suggest that my hon. Friend seek an Adjournment debate so that this campaign can receive wider traction.

Summer Adjournment

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Tuesday 27th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to be called in this end-of-season debate, in which we all have an opportunity to talk about subjects that perhaps the parliamentary time we have been afforded so far has not allowed us to discuss. In the short time I have, I shall bring to the House’s attention three or four areas of interest in my constituency and generally, the first of which is the decline in competitive sport.

I welcome the Government’s plans to revive competitive games in schools and reverse the decline in competitive sport, when there are no winners and no losers. Those of us who have been through not only a general election campaign recently but through polls when we might not have been successful know what it is to like to win and what it is to like to lose, and we are all the better for it. However, fewer than one third of our schools take part in regular competitive sport, and fewer than one fifth compete against other schools. In Crewe and Nantwich, I have seen for myself the huge importance of, and appetite for, competitive sport, and its huge impact on many young people’s lives.

Crewe and Nantwich athletics club has been phenomenally successful and is top of the men’s, women’s and under-11s’ leagues. I congratulate the young athletes who have been promoted to the premier north-west league, especially Liam Clowes, who has been selected to run for Great Britain at the world junior championships. None of that would have been possible unless Steve Walker, the head coach, had believed in the importance of competitive sport as a way to energise young people, and in their ability.

Crewe and Nantwich gymnastics club and the Cheshire academy of integrated sports and arts have sent many young adults with disabilities to the Special Olympics, which will take place again next year in Athens, where they have won countless gold medals. That is all down to the hard work and dedication of the coaches, who believe that competitive sport plays a vital part in encouraging young people to learn to deal with success and failure and to reach their potential. Many young people have a real passion for sport and can see through the façade of receiving a medal just for taking part; they want to believe that what they have done has meaning and will help them to strive for greater things.

I therefore welcome this Government’s attitude in trying to reintroduce competitive sport throughout our schools and within our communities, because I enjoy watching my daughter and son taking part in the egg and spoon race. I enjoy seeing not only the tears of joy when they win, but the tears of disappointment when they do not. That is not because I am a competitive dad, but because I like to see them engage in competitive sport that will help enliven and enrich their understanding of what sport can bring to their school and community.

The previous Government introduced a directive under which schools were asked to replace competitive races on sports days with so-called problem solving exercises. There is some debate about whether egg and spoon races can be described as problem solving exercises, but I know what I would prefer my son and daughter to be doing.

I shall not try to link all my subjects together, but simply move on. My next topic is the plight of looked-after children in our society—a serious issue in which I have been involved for a long time. I am keen that the new, reconstituted all-party groups on adoption and fostering and on looked-after children and care leavers should try to encourage Members of Parliament to go into their constituencies and meet some of the young people in care, or those who have experience of the care system. Members can thereby discover for themselves exactly what is going on and how looked-after children are faring.

We need to take up so many issues in the House on behalf of the many children in the care system who do not have a voice. I am delighted that the Government have seen fit to ensure that looked-after children will benefit from the pupil premium, and I would have been surprised if they had not taken that step. Another issue is the provision of mental health services for children and the need for the child and adolescent mental health service—CAMS—to be far more rigorous and available to all children when it is required. Furthermore, children need support when they leave care; we had a lengthy debate on that during discussion of the Children and Young Persons Bill in the previous Parliament.

A disproportionate number of children in custody have been in the care system or are in it. I will continue to press for one anomaly to be addressed: the fact that children in voluntary care who find themselves in custody lose their status as looked-after children—all the support mechanisms fall away. Why should that happen? I shall return to the subject throughout this Parliament.

My third issue is one that many older constituents have raised with me—the switchover to digital radio. Approximately 100 million analogue radios are still being used in the UK and 20 million car radios can receive only AM and FM radio. The previous Government were going to press ahead with the fairly arbitrary date of 2015 for the switchover, yet only 24% of radio listening is done through digital channels. We have to question the reliability of DAB radio; I still believe that the coverage is patchy. Furthermore, what are we going to do with all the old analogue radios? Who has given thought to that?

So many older people in my constituency believe that the FM service is more than adequate for their needs. If the switchover is rushed, the impact on the commercial radio sector could well be highly damaging. I am pleased that the Government view the issue as more of an aspiration—that a 50% threshold of DAB users is to be required and that the FM service will continue even if the DAB service is brought in as the preference for radio stations.

Those three subjects were completely unrelated, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I am sure that you found them fascinating. They all concern my constituents, from the very young to the very old, and I hope that they will be taken seriously by hon. Members on both sides of the House as we progress through this Parliament.

Business of the House

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 22nd July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The Deputy Prime Minister’s views on the war in Iraq are well known and should have come as no surprise to the hon. Gentleman.

[Mr Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) (Con)]

One debate that would be welcomed by many of my constituents would be on Britain’s throwaway culture and the explosion in the cost of clearing up litter in this country to the tune of more than £850 million a year—a statistic made even worse by the mess left by the previous Government.

[Sir George Young]

I commend the work that Bill Bryson and the Campaign to Protect Rural England are doing to prevent the additional costs on local authorities of picking up litter. I commend the Stop the Drop campaign that they are promoting at the moment. I hope that all citizens will take their responsibilities seriously and avoid putting extra pressure on local authorities by increasing the sums that they have to spend on clearing up litter.