Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady makes a powerful point, and there has been an ongoing discussion with the Mayor of London about what more powers can be—[Hon. Members: “Where is he?”] He is running London, that’s where he is, and he is doing a very, very good job. He is doing an excellent job—very good. But I think the hon. Lady is right: we have devolved powers to London and we are very happy to go on having discussions, about transport and about other economic powers. London has created half a million more jobs over the last five years. It is a staggering performance and we want that to continue.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

Q10. Does the Prime Minister agree that any onshore wind farm proposal not already granted planning permission should not expect to receive any public subsidy?

[The Prime Minister]

I am very glad to see my hon. Friend back in his place. He campaigned very hard on this in the last Parliament, and in our manifesto we made it very clear that there should be no more subsidies for onshore wind farms. It is time to give local people the decisive say. That is what will happen in England; in Wales, obviously, the subsidy regime will be changed because it is a reserved issue, so I think that his desire has been met.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swayne]

By next year we will have spent £1.8 billion on promoting employment. We are shifting to economic generation and job creation. I fundamentally disagree with the hon. Lady’s approach.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

5. What steps her Department is taking to help children affected by the crisis in Syria.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

The UK has pledged £800 million in response to the Syria crisis, providing food, medical care and relief items to some of those most affected, including children. That includes the £50 million that I announced at the UN General Assembly for the No Lost Generation initiative, which provides education, psychosocial support and protection for Syrian children affected by the crisis in Syria and the region.

[Glyn Davies]

Children are affected by crises around the world. What measures has my right hon. Friend’s Department taken in Vanuatu, particularly to help children, following the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam?

[Justine Greening]

Work is already under way to help ensure that around 50,000 children can get back to school quickly. As my hon. Friend will be aware, many people are now in evacuation centres, so I can give him some reassurance that work is already under way.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I can assure the hon. Lady that work on the maternal health millennium development goal means that it is at the centre of what we do, and we put a huge amount of resources into it. In fact, as I set out yesterday in my speech at the south bank centre about early and forced marriage, having a holistic approach to tackling women’s rights, health and education is key.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

T2. Nothing has undermined popular support for international aid more than the perception that aid has been given to countries too wealthy to need it. What assurance can my right hon. Friend give us that that will not happen in the future?

[Justine Greening]

When we came into government, we had a bilateral programme with 43 countries. We have now targeted that on 28. My hon. Friend will also be aware that I have announced the ending of our financial aid programmes to both South Africa and India.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)]

Obviously, the situation remains fragile. We welcome the fact that there is now a leader who wants to take things forward. The UK pledged a total of £15 million—we are one of the largest donors to the Central African Republic—and we stand ready, should more requests be made, to listen to them and provide all possible help that we can give.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

T4. South Sudan won independence with great hopes of democracy and freedom, but it has collapsed into near civil war. Will the Minister tell us what steps she has taken to help deal with the humanitarian crisis in that country? [Interruption].

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Ministers can scarcely hear the questions. I appeal to the House to lower the decibel level. The Leader of the House is nodding in assent to my proposition, which is encouraging.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Let me explain to the hon. Lady: the role of Lynton Crosby is to advise me on how to defeat a divided and useless Labour party, but I have to say that on the basis of today’s evidence I am not sure he is really necessary.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

rose—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We must hear the question from Mr Davies.

[Glyn Davies]

Q6. In my Welsh constituency, patients have to wait 36 weeks for elective treatment, while the figure in the English constituency of Shropshire next door is 18 weeks. What lessons does the Prime Minister believe the Government can learn about how the NHS has been managed in Wales over recent years?

[The Prime Minister]

There is a very clear lesson, which is do not vote Labour, because people can see what is happening in Wales, where Labour is in control of the NHS. It cut the budget by 8% and as a result Wales has not met a single waiting time target since 2009. Meanwhile, in England we are increasing spending on the NHS. The shadow Chancellor keeps pointing at the shadow Health Secretary, but the fact is that the shadow Health Secretary is the man who said it would be irresponsible to increase spending on the NHS. I have a summer tip for the leader of the Labour party: if you want to do better, you need to move the two people next to you and you need to do it fast.

Overseas Aid (Private Sector Contracts)

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

It certainly is, and statistically we have seen that that equation absolutely holds. As anybody who has ever been to Harrogate will be aware, it is definitely worth while dropping into Bettys, where people can sample some fantastic Taylors of Harrogate tea.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister on their continuing commitment to standing by our international obligations to United Nations targets. Does the Secretary of State accept that it is crucial to focus on effectiveness, flexibility and value for money in each situation? Does she agree that that will be done sometimes through supporting security and sometimes through humanitarian aid, but always by using the dynamism of the private sector to maximise the long-term impact?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is right. Even when we are building up core basic services, the innovation of the private sector has a real role to play, and my Department has sought to tap into that. There is a strategic question about what we need to do for ourselves and what expertise we buy in from outside, but there is no doubt a key role for the private sector to play.

UK’s Development Work (Girls and Women)

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I was in Pakistan a few weeks ago, and I had the very same discussions that my hon. Friend mentions. Interestingly, much of the work we do for girls in Pakistan is focused on education. We have a huge programme, focused particularly on states such as Punjab, that provides young girls with the chance to go to primary school and then on to secondary school for the very first time. We know statistically that when girls spend more time in school, they are less likely to start a family quite so early. Alongside direct family planning and access to safe family planning, that is one of the best ways of tackling these issues in the long term.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

All who believe in fairness through gender equality will welcome the Secretary of State’s statement. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we are to maximise the British voice on the international plain, we must focus absolutely on gender mutilation and other abuses here in Britain, as well as on other equality issues such as the continuing wage gender gap?

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. The summit is about ensuring that women have the ability to choose whether and when they have children, and the spacing in between their children. We need to keep the focus of the summit on that issue. She will have heard the Government’s strong condemnation of the Taliban’s execution in Afghanistan. We set up the Tawanmandi fund last year specifically to empower women in the areas that the hon. Lady describes, and its work is ongoing. Three quarters of the grants from the fund have gone to organisations involved in protecting women.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

T2. Conditions in Afghanistan after the external forces leave are becoming a matter of increasing importance to us. Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the outcomes of the Tokyo summit on Afghanistan that he attended at the weekend?

[Mr Mitchell]

The Tokyo summit was essentially a grand bargain between members of the international community to ensure that funding and support will continue through 2015 to 2017, and indeed throughout the decade of transformation to 2025. In return for that, the Government of Afghanistan need to continue to place a strong emphasis on governance reforms and economic reforms.

Water and Sanitation

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 21st March 2012 Westminster Hall

[Naomi Long]

I agree entirely. It is important to engage young people in that work, because they will no doubt carry it forward.

Annually, more children under five die as a result of diseases arising from inadequate sanitation and hygiene than from HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined, so the impact is huge. Open drainage channels and sewers provide the environment conducive to the breeding of mosquitoes, which spread such diseases.

I am a former civil engineer with a long-standing interest in international development, and this issue is particularly close to my heart. During my term as lord mayor of Belfast, WaterAid was one of my nominated charities, and since my election to Parliament I have continued to work closely with it and other charities, such as Tearfund, to pursue this issue with the UK Government. I thank both charities for their support to me in preparing for today’s debate and, more important, for their work with others to maximise access to clean water and sanitation globally.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

I agree that there is a huge amount of cross-party support for the hon. Lady’s case, but will she join me in congratulating the Government on their commitment to overseas spending, which creates an environment in which we can take up the challenge? The money is available to do the job throughout the world, and the Government should be congratulated on that.

[Naomi Long]

I have congratulated the Government on that on numerous occasions, and I will congratulate them on other matters, but I will also press them on areas where further progress could be made.

This subject is important to my constituents, many of whom signed up to the recent Tearfund postcard campaign calling for more action on water and sanitation. Last October, the hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) and I joined Tearfund to present more than 10,000 postcards to the Under-Secretary of State for International Development, to highlight the importance of action.

I recognise that in the UK, the biggest step change in public health and mortality rates resulted not from medical advances, but from widened access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. During the late 19th century, as both water and sewerage infrastructure expanded dramatically, the life expectancy of an average member of the population in this country rose by 15 years—a remarkable increase, delivered over a short period.

Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 1st February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right and I am sure that the vast majority of Members in this House agree with him. The permanent plight of someone who is an everlasting refugee is not something that any of us would relish, and it is the peace process that we hope can eventually give a permanent settlement and solution for those who are so affected.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

3. What recent assessment he has made of the humanitarian situation in Somalia.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the humanitarian situation in Somalia.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

I returned yesterday morning from a visit to Somalia. Thanks to British aid and support, the lives of millions of Somalis have been saved. We have reduced the number of people in danger of imminent death by two thirds, but 250,000 people—many of them children—remain in danger of starving to death.

[Glyn Davies]

On his visit to Somalia, the Secretary of State will have been in a good position to make an assessment of the current state of the famine there. We know that the United Kingdom has made a significant effort in leading the relief work. Is he satisfied that the international community is making the same effort to help the beleaguered people of Somalia?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is right to underline the importance of the whole international community being engaged in tackling the famine. The situation is that some two thirds of those who were in imminent danger of starving to death are no longer in that position, and Britain has been involved in quite literally saving something like half a million lives in the last year. Huge lobbying is still required. Britain has made it clear that we will produce assistance over the next year, specifically to tackle acute malnourishment, providing seeds, fertiliser and clean water, but the whole international community must take up this task.