Oral Answers to Questions

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Wednesday 30th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend quite rightly speaks up for Burton. I remember visiting that great brewery with him during the last election. I am sure that the Chancellor will have listened very carefully to what he said. I think it is very important that we also try to support the pub trade in our country, and the Government have plans for that as well.

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

Q2. Thousands of my Blackpool constituents in poorly insulated homes fear sky-high cold weather bills. The Government’s green deal has 7% interest charges and only five households have signed up for it. How has the Prime Minister achieved that fiasco?

[The Prime Minister]

First of all, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will welcome the green deal, because it gives households the opportunity to cut their bills with absolutely no up-front costs. He should be encouraging his constituents to do that. It has only just begun. The energy company obligation—the ECO—also provides the opportunity to help to insulate some 230,000 homes a year, compared with 80,000 under Warm Front. Instead of talking down these schemes, he should be encouraging his constituents to take them up.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have looked carefully at that case and I know that the hon. Lady has now had a response from a Minister. As she knows, there are two types of ESA: one that provides permanent support that is not means-tested and another that is means-tested after a year. We are ensuring that more people with cancer are getting more help and more treatment, which is very important. It is right that there should be two forms of ESA so that those people who genuinely cannot work or prepare for work get supported throughout their lives.

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

Points of order come after statements and there is a statement now, but I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Wednesday 14th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I suspect that my right hon. Friend will do so in the same way as he will no doubt explain to his constituents that there are other priorities, such as changing the boundaries of constituencies, which I know is close to his heart and that of his party. I think that Governments and Parliaments can do more than one thing at once. I also believe that it is a simple democratic principle that the people who make the laws of the land should be elected by the people who have to obey the laws of the land.

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

Q3. Mr Deputy Speaker—[Interruption.] My apologies, Mr Speaker. It is elsewhere that the deputies are present today. Study after study shows that it is crucial for older people that NHS services work closely with social care. My primary care trust in Blackpool has been doing that by working alongside the council’s social services in the same set of offices. Why is the Deputy Prime Minister still cheerleading for a Bill that scraps trusts and such co-operation, and that puts the health of older people, including those in my constituency, at risk?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I am backing a Bill that includes, for the first time, statutory obligations to integrate social and health care. The hon. Gentleman is right that one of the abiding failings of our health service is that social and health care are not properly integrated. There has not been much integration over the past 10 years. We are trying to change that. Secondly, the creation of health and wellbeing boards will bring together representatives of the NHS and social care.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who knows a great deal about those issues. We have looked very carefully at the mechanism for delivering that aid, which is vital to the development effort in Afghanistan, and independent analysis suggests that the World Bank trust fund, which, as he will appreciate, pays out on the basis of receipts for work carried out by the Government and Government employees, is a highly effective way of getting money through to the front line.

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

12. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s work to promote stability and the development of civil society in the Caucasus.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Alan Duncan)]

DFID no longer has bilateral aid programmes in the Caucasus region. The UK Government’s conflict prevention pool, including civil society support, remains active in the region. The UK also continues to support development in the Caucasus region through its membership of multilateral institutions, including the EU.

[Mr Marsden]

I thank the Minister for his reply. Does he agree that given the continued progress towards a resolution of conflicts in the region, particularly in respect of Nagorno-Karabakh, it is very important that, at a multilateral and primary level, the Government give support to those sorts of activities?

[Alan Duncan]

We will look very closely at the hon. Gentleman’s representations in the context of all the reviews that we are currently making.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

I really am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that question. When foreign nationals threaten our country but we do not have the evidence necessary to prosecute them, it is essential for us to be able to deport them back to their country of origin. I have asked the Home Secretary to work with the Foreign Secretary to draw up agreements with as many countries as possible, so that we can deport those people and keep our country safe. All diplomatic efforts, including efforts by me, will be made to ensure that we keep our country safe.

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

Q12. I heard what the Prime Minister said about the military covenant in answer to a previous question, and as chair of the all-party veterans group, I was relieved to see a commitment in the coalition’s document to providing extra support for veterans’ mental health needs. I was alarmed, however, to read that the £2 million set aside by the previous Government to support Combat Stress had been placed under review by the present Government. Is the Prime Minister able to renew that commitment to Combat Stress, or will it fall at the first hurdle?