Oral Answers to Questions

Greg Mulholland Excerpts

Wednesday 30th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

5. What recent representations he has received on the effects of corruption on the economies of developing countries.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

6. What recent representations he has received on the effects of corruption on the economies of developing countries.

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

My ministerial colleagues and I have frequent meetings with non-governmental organisations and others who stress the importance of tackling corruption. Corruption threatens economic growth in developing countries, wastes resources and deters investment. The coalition Government will not tolerate corruption and will do their utmost in all their development programmes to eliminate it.

[Mr Duncan]

I am sure that the hon. Lady appreciates that that is primarily a matter for the Treasury rather than the Department for International Development. We believe that corruption is bad for development, bad for poor people and bad for business, and today’s written ministerial statement lays out concrete guidance for the implementation of the Bribery Act to which we look forward.

[Greg Mulholland]

I, too, welcome the publication of the guidelines on the Bribery Act and wish to pay tribute to the leadership and personal commitment of the Secretary of State on this issue. However, I want to raise the issue of country-by-country reporting. The Government have said they are committed to that but that they will seek to do it through the EU. Can the Minister say how the UK will provide the leadership to ensure that we have the same system as that in the United States?

[Mr Duncan]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has already been driving this issue very hard and DFID fully supports a process that is designed to reach agreement at EU level. We want such legislation to require, for example, extractive industries to disclose all their payments to the host Government. That is a very important step and the impact of such measures is greatest when applied to the widest range of countries.

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[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman speaks with support from all parts of the House for what he says—with both points that he makes. First, we have to be eternally vigilant against terrorists in Northern Ireland and elsewhere; we should do that, and he knows that the British Government will give every support that they can to the Northern Ireland Executive. Secondly, the best proof of success, and that there is a non-violent path, is to show the success of our democratic institutions, which he, his colleagues and all parties in Northern Ireland are doing.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Q5. Yesterday, councillors on the Yorkshire and the Humber joint health overview and scrutiny committee were told by senior doctors that, if Leeds loses its children’s heart surgery unit, ambulance transfers will be unsafe and could prove fatal. Given that the report into the review of children’s heart units—commissioned by the previous Government, of course—contains factual errors, and given that there is a question over the impartiality of the board that made the final recommendations, will the Prime Minister now agree to halt the process? If not, does he think that the only option is judicial review?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to speak up for his constituency, which could be affected by that review, as indeed could mine. We want to make sure that the review is as transparent as possible and involved and engaged with parents and with everyone in communities. There are many times, however, when rather bogus arguments are put forward for specialisation in the NHS, but, in a really complicated case such as child heart surgery, there are cases for specialisation, and, as passionately as we all want to defend our own hospitals, we have to think about clinical safety and what is best for children. He is absolutely right to speak up for his hospital, as I am for the one that serves my constituency, but we have to have some understanding about the complexity of what we are dealing with.