Oral Answers to Questions

Graeme Morrice Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Perhaps the material can be placed in the Library of the House, where it can be devoured by colleagues at their leisure in the long winter evenings that lie ahead.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

12. What his strategy is for supporting victims of crime.

[Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)]

14. What steps he is taking to increase funding for services to support victims.

[The Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims (Mike Penning)]

We published “Our Commitment to Victims” in September, which sets out a broad package of reforms, including a victims law that we will bring forward. Money is not everything, but we have increased the budget to £100 million for victims and victim support.

[Graeme Morrice]

The whole House knows how much the Justice Secretary detests being held to account for his actions by judicial review, but because of this Government’s actions, 40% of women subjected to domestic violence are denied access to justice as a result of changes to legal aid. Does the Minister agree that a sign of a healthy democracy is groups such as Rights of Women challenging the lawfulness of the Government’s actions? Does he also agree that for so many women suffering domestic abuse to go without access to justice is a national disgrace?

[Mike Penning]

Looking after victims and witnesses is one of the most important things that any Government can do, and I would have thought that there was cross-party agreement on the sort of work we all need to do to ensure that they are looked after. The hon. Gentleman’s question was very detailed, so I will write to him, because that is how we should answer questions when they are that long.

Oral Answers to Questions

Graeme Morrice Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Of course this is not a new problem, and in many areas we are picking up on things that were not done by the previous Government. We will bring forward a further consultation on these issues shortly.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

15. What steps he is taking to support victims of domestic violence.

[The Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims (Damian Green)]

Domestic violence is a dreadful form of abuse and is not acceptable within our society. The Government are committed to providing greater protection to victims of all forms of violence, and their approach to domestic violence and abuse is set out in the violence against women and girls action plan, updated in 2013.

[Graeme Morrice]

Last week’s report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the Government’s legal aid cuts said:

“We are particularly worried about the impact of the residence test on vulnerable groups such as children or victims of domestic violence.”

Will the Minister tell the House exactly how much will be saved by taking away legal aid from sufferers of domestic violence affected by the residence test, and explain what victims are expected to do if these plans strip them of the option of legal aid?

[Damian Green]

The Government have left in place all the exemptions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to ensure that the most vulnerable continue to receive legal aid. Beyond that, we have ring-fenced nearly £40 million for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services. That, together with specialist domestic violence courts, provides a better specialist way of dealing with this terrible abuse.

Protecting Children Online

Graeme Morrice Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue, which she has campaigned on in this House. I pay tribute to her for the work she has done. We are introducing classification not just for music videos, but for DVDs used in schools for sex education. I will continue to have a dialogue with my hon. Friend on other appropriate measures. [Interruption.] The sneezing of the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) is appropriate, because she was a member of the panel for the independent parliamentary inquiry into online child protection—as was the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland—to which I now turn.

I praise my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes (Claire Perry). My involvement in these important issues started with an Adjournment debate that she had secured, during which I said that I wanted to hold discussions and work with her to make progress. She decided that it was appropriate to set up an inquiry, which had my full support and which, I am pleased to say, was a cross-party inquiry, with Members from all the main parties on its panel. Since my hon. Friend set up that parliamentary inquiry, not only has it come up with some sensible recommendations, which I will turn to in a moment, but I am also delighted that she has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s adviser. Although I pay tribute to many hon. Members, I am sure that most would agree that my hon. Friend has taken a fantastically prominent role in this debate, that she has moved it forward in leaps and bounds and that she is a fantastic advocate for more action in this area.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman is making some interesting points, but will he clarify whether the Government intend to support the Opposition motion?

Oral Answers to Questions

Graeme Morrice Excerpts

Thursday 18th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

My hon. Friend is right. It is about choices, particularly the choices that young girls and women make in school and in higher education. That is why the National Careers Service has such an important role to play. We also need teachers to encourage young girls to take those subjects that can help them go into engineering, as well as all the work we are doing to modernise the workplace in order to keep them there.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

The Government’s own equalities impact assessment on universal credit admits that the policy might encourage many second earners, who are usually women, to leave work and stay at home. Does the Minister agree that such a move would turn the clock back on women’s equality and undermine the role of women in the workplace?

[Maria Miller]

Absolutely not. Our work under universal credit to increase access to child care for women working fewer than 16 hours represents the first time that such support will be in place. We should be championing universal credit as a way of making sure that more women can stay connected to the labour market at a time when they also have caring responsibilities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Graeme Morrice Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central) (Lab)]

1. What assessment his Department has made of the potential effects on other Government Departments of his planned reductions to legal aid for social welfare law.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

4. What assessment his Department has made of the potential effects on other Government Departments of his planned reductions to legal aid for social welfare law.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Kenneth Clarke)]

The impact assessment published alongside the Government’s response to consultation lays out the best estimates of the costs and benefits of the legal aid reforms. Ultimately, costs to other Departments will be driven by behavioural responses to the changes, and these are very difficult to predict with any real accuracy.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Clarke]

We are not denying access to justice for anybody, but obviously a huge swathe of the population find it expensive to obtain justice and we have to ask ourselves for which people the taxpayer should pay for access to justice. We have concentrated on the most important issues, in which there is a general public interest in having people represented. It is wrong to represent changes in the way we pay lawyers and the amount that we pay as if we are somehow barring people from access to their legal rights.

[Graeme Morrice]

Does the Lord Chancellor not feel that the cut in the civil legal aid budget, which will clearly have a detrimental impact on the citizens advice bureau and law centre network, will hinder the notion of the big society?

[Mr Clarke]

Legal aid is not the principal source of public funding support for citizens advice bureaux, and legal aid changes will not take effect until 2013. Those and other voluntary bodies are taking a big hit from the reduction of local authority and other grants. For that reason, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has already announced £27 million of continued funding for citizens advice bureaux, and we have set up a transitional fund for the voluntary sector to manage the transition to a tighter funding environment. We have £20 million set aside this year to support voluntary bodies through their present difficulties, which are mainly because of local government cuts.