Business of the House

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Thursday 29th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Although I cannot immediately offer a debate, I am very familiar with the house, as my hon. Friend says, having grown up just over the wall from it. It is a splendid, grade I listed country house. In the 18th century it was known as the Whitehall of the north, being the seat of the Marquess of Rockingham, who was Prime Minister, as the House will recall, in 1782. The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust has a number of proposals to find sustainable uses for it. To date Save Britain’s Heritage and the preservation trust have generated pledges of about half their target sum. My hon. Friend the Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy spoke at an event last week to help raise funds for the acquisition of the house, so I am sure that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will continue to support efforts to protect this wonderful building as quickly as possible.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

Earlier today at the Dispatch Box, an Environment Minister said that he had no responsibility for the issue of offshore wind farms, which quite surprised me, as a former Environment Minister. It made me wonder who is now dealing with environmental regulations and permissions in offshore. May we have a debate on ministerial responsibilities, so that this House and the public know who does what in Government, and, more importantly, Ministers know what they should be doing as well?

[Mr Hague]

I do not think a debate will be required to be clear about that. There will be opportunities to question other Ministers who have an interest in these things. Next Thursday we have Department of Energy and Climate Change questions, and of course those Ministers have a major interest in these matters. I am sure that if the hon. Gentleman continues to ask about these matters in the House, he will find a Minister who will give him the necessary answers.

Business of the House

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Thursday 22nd January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The fact that the answers go through so many wise people before they get to my hon. Friend probably explains why they are so good. The important thing is that they should go quickly, in a timely way, through whomever they need to go through. By the end of my time as Foreign Secretary, the Foreign Office had a 100% record of answering questions on time. That simply requires all the officials who need to examine these things to do so speedily, and I encourage other Departments to do the same.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

We are now in the second major dairy crisis in three years, and the viability of small and medium-sized dairy farms is threatened. The call is going out loud and clear here and outside this place for the solution to include a review and reform of the powers and remit of the groceries code adjudicator. On 25 April 2013, Royal Assent was given to the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill, under the terms of which a statutory instrument was to be laid to give the adjudicator the teeth to impose financial penalties. We are still waiting for that SI. Where is it? Will it be laid before Parliament dissolves?

[Mr Hague]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important issue about which, as we have noted, there are strong feelings across the House and among all parties. I have mentioned—as did the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s questions—that we agree that the legislation to introduce financial penalties should be brought forward, so I will keep the House up to date on that. Urgent work is going on in that regard. I also mentioned earlier that the Government were considering the remit of the groceries code adjudicator, so I hope that there will be further developments before the Dissolution of Parliament.

Business of the House

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Thursday 15th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Steps to promote independent retail were debated in Westminster Hall last year, but my hon. Friend raises the wider issue of supermarkets, and the grocery market is obviously undergoing a great deal of structural change. A further debate would allow the Government to give further details of our support for high streets and market towns—for instance, the £2.3 million that we are providing for the 27 Portas pilots and 330 town teams across England, the £10 million high street innovation fund, and our work on business improvement districts—so it could indeed be very beneficial.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

Today, in Nottingham, Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire will celebrate 90 years of partnership work in rural communities, and celebrations will continue throughout the country this year. Much of that work depends on rural community councils, and much of their own work depends on advice, support and funding from the rural community network organisation Action with Communities in Rural England, or ACRE. However, ACRE has been informed out of the blue, with no notice, that its funding will be discontinued from this March, and the decision may be made by Ministers behind closed doors as early as next week.

Will the Leader of the House urge the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—who is in China at the moment—or other Ministers in the Department to provide the House with a full impact assessment before any such decision is made, and to make a statement to the House? A decision that could cause as many as a third of rural community councils to shut up shop and a further third to restrict their activities should not be made behind closed doors.

[Mr Hague]

The Secretary of State is indeed in China, but I will of course inform DEFRA Ministers of the issue that the hon. Gentleman has just succeeded in raising on the Floor of the House. No doubt they will wish to respond to him directly.

Business of the House

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Thursday 6th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I can understand my hon. Friend raising this in the House when people have been cut off from their telephone service for so long, which is obviously not good enough. This year, Ofcom introduced a series of performance targets for providers—in particular for Openreach—which they are required to meet or they will face penalties, including fines. This year, Openreach announced the creation of 2,400 new engineering roles. I hope that providers will listen carefully to what my hon. Friend has said, so that the problem will be rectified and we will not need to have a debate on it in the House.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of sub-postmasters in this country with an air of criminality hanging over them based on the outcomes of the Second Sight report into the Horizon computer programme. On behalf of cross-party MPs, may I urge the Leader of the House to seek agreement from his Cabinet colleagues to publish in full Second Sight’s final report into the Horizon computer scandal so that these people can move on and clear their names?

[Mr Hague]

I will certainly inform colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that the hon. Gentleman has raised this matter. They will be answering questions in the House on 20 November, so he will have a further opportunity then to raise it with them directly. I will tell them of his concern in advance.

Business of the House

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Thursday 16th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Such issues create strong feelings in local communities, and my hon. Friend always speaks up strongly for her local community. As has been the case with other matters raised by hon. Members, it is open to her to seek an Adjournment debate or a Back-Bench business debate, and I encourage her to do so.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

The Leader of the House said that there would be a cheer for the first Opposition Member who mentioned the deficit, so I thought that I would take him up on the offer—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you. There is indeed a serious deficit growing in the earning capacity of many in my constituency who work in the construction trade. They previously would have been on the books of construction companies, but now find that they are subbed out to subcontractors, which sub out to agencies. The agencies take these people on to their books, but they are told that as they are self-employed, they must contribute towards annual holiday pay through deductions and employer’s national insurance contributions. Will the right hon. Gentleman find time for a debate on bogus self-employment so that we can deal with the deficit in these people’s earnings.

[Mr Hague]

I am not sure that that counts as mentioning the deficit—we are running out of time to get such a mention—but of course the hon. Gentleman raises an issue of importance to his constituents. It is open to him to try to secure a debate on such self-employment and the things that might be happening to people that were not intended, so I encourage him to pursue all the normal channels to achieve that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The United Kingdom is one of the most active countries in the world diplomatically in promoting global, binding agreement to address climate change. The IPCC report underlines the extreme urgency of this issue. I discuss regularly with Secretary Kerry what we can do with the US Administration to push forward international agreement. We will remain very active on this issue.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

Fifteen thousand UK jobs rely on employment in the Ford plants at both Dagenham and Bridgend, which is close to my constituency. What does the Minister make of the comments by Steve Odell, the chief executive of Ford’s European operations, who said:

“I don’t want to threaten the British government”—

but, and it is a big but—

“I would strongly advise against leaving the EU for business purposes, and for employment purposes in the UK”?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Irranca-Davies and Lord Hague of Richmond

Tuesday 30th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)]

Tomorrow we will welcome the President of Indonesia on a state visit. We are intensifying our diplomatic and economic links across south-east Asia. As well as having one of the world’s most thriving economies, Indonesia is in the vanguard of the political change shaping Asia, and this visit will be an opportunity for us to build on the strong partnership established over the past decade.

[Huw Irranca-Davies]

For nearly a decade I have been a supporter and patron of the Bereaved Families Forum Parents Circle, a grass-roots organisation which brings reconciliation and tolerance in Israel and the Palestinian territories. May I ask the Secretary of State or his Minister to pay tribute to this organisation and, at his earliest convenience on their next visit to the UK, to meet me and members of the group to discuss their work and how they can be further supported?