Points of Order

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Wednesday 24th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. In answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) at Prime Minister’s questions about the dealings at Teesworks, the Prime Minister said that

“the Levelling Up Secretary has already announced an investigation into this matter.”

But the Secretary of State has not responded to the requests last week for a National Audit Office investigation from the shadow Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy), and from the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee, so we are in the dark. Will you advise me on how we can seek clarity from the Prime Minister on when this investigation was ordered and on what terms?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order and for giving me notice of his intention to raise this matter. He knows that Minister’s responses are not a matter for the Chair, but I understand that he is making a serious and apparently well-founded criticism that information has been given from the Dispatch Box that does not appear to accord with the facts as he understands them. Ministers on the Treasury Bench will have heard what he has said, and I hope that his concerns will be passed on to the appropriate Minister. There is no doubt that what is actually done should accord precisely with what is said to have been done. Of course, he has other recourse, through the Table Office, to finding other ways of raising this matter on the Floor of the House.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Leverhulme Estates wishes to build hundreds of homes on the green belt in Wirral West, and a series of planning appeals relating to this are currently being heard by the Planning Inspectorate at a public inquiry. On 12 April, Wirral Council wrote to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities requesting that consideration be given to the recovery of these appeals for determination by the Secretary of State himself. The Secretary of State did not respond to that letter or to a reminder sent by Wirral Council on 5 May. My constituents care passionately about protecting the green belt and I fully support them in that. Will you advise me on what I can do on behalf of local residents and Wirral Council to impress upon the Secretary of State the importance of his giving this matter his urgent attention?

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I thank the hon. Lady for her point of order. Although this is not a matter for the Chair, I fully appreciate her desire and duty to defend and protect the green belt. But from the Chair I have no authority to take any action in respect of delays in Government replies to local authorities. She has very reasonably raised this matter, and as I said to the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) a few moments ago, I trust that those on the Treasury Bench will have heard what she has said and noted her very reasonable concerns, and that they will hopefully take action on them. If not, the hon. Lady knows where to seek advice from the Table Office as to how she might take the matter further.

Bills Presented

British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Secretary Suella Braverman, supported by the Prime Minister and Robert Jenrick, presented a Bill to make provision for immigration restrictions to be disregarded for the purposes of the British Nationality Act 1981 in historical cases in which such restrictions were in practice disregarded.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time tomorrow, and to be printed (Bill 313) with explanatory notes (Bill 313—EN).

Ministerial Conduct (Training) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Wendy Chamberlain presented a Bill to require Ministers of the Crown to undertake annual training in matters relating to propriety, ethics and standards; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 24 November, and to be printed (Bill 315).