Libya and the Middle East
Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts(13 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt), is listening to this, and I am sure that he will be able to take up this individual case. I have visited the crisis centre at the Foreign Office and seen the very hard work going on there. Obviously, the Foreign Office was coping not only with the crisis in Libya but with the earthquake in New Zealand, and it was taking calls on both of those. I have to say I have been impressed by its work. I am sure that if the hon. Gentleman has a constituency case, the Foreign Office will take it up for him and see what lessons can be learned.
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
Earlier, the Prime Minister mentioned the African Union, of which Colonel Gaddafi is a former chairman. Does the Prime Minister share my hope that the African Union will in future exclude such dictators from its membership?
The Prime Minister
What I can say to my hon. Friend is that we are on the case with this issue. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development will be talking to a number of African leaders about what we believe the African Union could do to step up to the plate and make a point about the unacceptable behaviour of Colonel Gaddafi.
European Council
Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts(13 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman is entirely right. We did discuss at the European Council the problems in Côte d’Ivoire, and we took a very clear view, which is that everyone there should accept the result of the election and support the United Nations, as we support the United Nations and its continued presence in that country.
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
What progress did my right hon. Friend make in persuading other countries in the European Union of the merits of a single market in services, not just for their companies here but for our companies there?
The Prime Minister
This is an argument that we can win and have got to win in Europe. We now have like-minded Governments who want to see completion of the internal market, progress on services and progress on Doha, with countries like the Netherlands, Finland and Germany all wanting to see a more open-market Europe. We have to push this very hard, because it is the growth agenda. Clearly, fiscal stimulus is not available to Europe because everyone has such large budget deficits. The best stimulus that we could give to the European economy and our economy is to make these structural changes.
Oral Answers to Questions
Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts(13 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
7. What steps the Church Commissioners are taking to support the work of the Churches Conservation Trust.
The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Tony Baldry)
The Churches Conservation Trust was set up by statute to preserve
“in the interests of the nation”
churches that have closed for regular public worship but are of historic or architectural value. For the funding period to March 2012, the Church Commissioners will provide a further £4 million.
Tony Baldry
The CCT is supporting some 340 church buildings, all of which are of considerable historic or architectural interest. We are grateful for the co-sponsoring by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, on a 30:70 basis. This is an issue that is bigger than just the Church. Some 45% of all grade 1 listed buildings are churches, and those buildings represent an important part of the social history of our nation.
Oral Answers to Questions
Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts(13 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)
7. What recent progress he has made on his proposals for reform of the civil service compensation scheme.
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
10. What recent progress he has made on his proposals for reform of the civil service compensation scheme.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
The Superannuation Bill, which will impose caps on compensation payments and permit the reform of the civil service compensation scheme, is proceeding through the other place. I remain confident of being able to introduce a new scheme before the House rises.
Mr Maude
Sadly, despite repeated invitations, the PCS has not come forward with concrete proposals. The other five unions engaged constructively and their proposals formed the basis for the new scheme that we have developed. I am sorry that the PCS, which represents so many civil servants, particularly lower-paid civil servants, has not chosen to take part in a constructive spirit.
Jeremy Lefroy
In my right hon. Friend’s proposals for reforming the scheme, what account is he taking of the protection of the lowest paid staff in the civil service?
Mr Maude
That has been our principal concern in fashioning a new scheme. Civil servants’ average pay is lower than that in the private sector and the wider public sector, and it is right that they should be at the forefront of our concerns. The scheme that we have developed, in negotiation and consultation with five of the six unions, gives particular protection for them by deeming that the salary on which their compensation calculation is based is £23,000, so anyone paid less than that will have their compensation calculated on that basis.
Oral Answers to Questions
Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts(13 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Deputy Prime Minister
What we will seek to do in the coming months and years is increase the incentives to work. That is the centrepiece of our Government policies. That is why we have raised the income tax personal allowance, exempting nearly 900,000 people on low pay from income tax; that is why, over time, we will introduce a universal credit; and that is why we will implement the reform of our welfare system which, although much talked about in previous years, has never been put into practice.
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
T3. As chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on malaria and neglected tropical diseases, I welcome my right hon. Friend’s announcement during his recent visit to the United Nations that United Kingdom funds for malaria would increase to £500 million a year by 2014. Given that the Government rightly concentrate on outcomes rather than inputs, what outcomes does my right hon. Friend expect to result from the more than tripling of malaria funds by that date?
The Deputy Prime Minister
Like the hon. Gentleman, I think that it is witness to this country’s commitment to the poor in other parts of the world that, even in difficult times when we are having to make difficult savings elsewhere in public spending, we are honouring our commitment to the developing world to allocate 0.7% of national wealth to development aid from 2013.
The specific answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question is that the increase in spending to £500 million per year by 2014 will reduce the number of malaria deaths by at least 50% by 2015 in at least 10 high-burden countries.
Superannuation Bill
Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts(13 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
I shall be brief, as I have been instructed and as I wish to be. The Bill aims to do something that is necessary—to reform the civil service compensation scheme. I support the aim. It should have been done many years ago. The scheme is not affordable in its current format. But I have a problem with what I have heard in the debate about the Bill being some kind of negotiating tactic. We have been elected to the House as legislators, not as negotiators. It is for Government to negotiate and for Parliament to legislate. I would value the comments of colleagues on that.
The previous Government put a great deal of work into reforming the compensation scheme, which I acknowledge, but it would have been better had they started the process a lot earlier. The work that they put together with the unions was eventually frustrated. The history is known to us all, and I will not repeat it.
I support the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 6 July—a date that I cannot forget as it was the date of my silver wedding anniversary—that a settlement was required which
“will need to be fair, and in particular to provide a higher level of protection for lower-paid workers.”—[Official Report, 6 July 2010; Vol. 513, c. 4WS.]
In saying that, the Minister was echoing the comments of the right hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell), when she said last year that the changes proposed at the time were aimed at
“protecting the lowest paid civil servants”.
It is clear that there is agreement across parties that lower paid civil servants should receive protection. That is only right. I ask the Minister to consider how he can best reflect that through the Bill which we, as legislators, have before us. As it stands, civil servants on all salaries are treated in the same way, with no particular consideration being given to those on the lowest pay. I know that he will have given careful thought to how the sentiments of his words on 6 July can best be reflected. They are the same sentiments that informed the Chancellor’s action in the June Budget, when he protected the lowest paid workers from the general pay freeze, as was mentioned earlier.
I, like many colleagues from all parts of the House, want to underline the importance that I place on the work of those concerned. When we speak about people being made redundant in the public sector, we certainly do not want to send out the message that, somehow, it is their fault. If someone is in a job that is no longer necessary or even affordable, we should look at who created that job and why. Governments of all colours have been guilty of being far too quick to take on staff for a new scheme without thinking about the long-term future. People are not playthings to be shuffled around on a whim. That is not to say that I oppose flexibility; I welcome it. But flexibility cuts both ways.
My second point concerns civil servants who have been in the public service for many years. A constituent of mine, working for the Ministry of Defence, pointed out that under the Bill he will, with a reasonable length of service, be entitled to the same payout as colleagues who have worked two or three times as long. He had no self-interest in raising that point; he simply wanted to speak up for his colleagues. I am a great respecter of length of service. Dedication and loyalty, whether in the public service, a private company or, indeed, a relationship is almost always something that we should celebrate. I therefore ask the Minister to look at how that can best be reflected in the Bill.
I shall support the Bill, because I know from what the Minister said today that he understands the points that I have made, but I urge all who are involved in negotiating the new settlement to arrive as soon as possible at a sustainable, practical and affordable long-term scheme.