Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(5 days, 18 hours ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
I thank my hon. Friend for her assiduous campaigning on behalf of her constituents, and join her in recognising the important part that playgrounds play in our social infrastructure. I will draw her request to the attention of Ministers and ensure that she gets a reply on the matter of how to access funding.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
On Sunday, George Starling told me of his work as a volunteer for the Prison Fellowship with the Sycamore Tree project, which is a restorative justice scheme that has been going on for over 50 years. The scheme has been shut down, and its appeal has not been granted. It is a victim awareness and restorative justice programme involving six weeks of work in prisons up and down the country. Could we have a statement from a Minister or a debate on the role of Christian charities in delivering restorative justice? It seems very unreasonable that all the volunteers, who have done such amazing work over 25 years, are going to be prevented from continuing to do so.
Sir Alan Campbell
I certainly pay tribute to the work of George Starling and the Sycamore Tree project, not least because it has been going on for 50 years. I do not know the details of why the funding might not be in place, but I will take up the matter with the Prisons Minister, who I know shares the right hon. Gentleman’s views on the matter of restorative justice and how we need to improve our prison system.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
My hon. Friend raises some really important matters, which I know are frustrating to her constituents. Local authorities have a really important role to play. The Government are very keen that both powers and resources are devolved not just to regions, but to individual communities, where they will have the most effect. I am sure that if she seeks a Westminster Hall debate or an Adjournment debate, she can raise these matters still further.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
May we have a debate on capital expenditure in the NHS? All our constituents will see the tax announcements and then think that that means extra investment. In south Wiltshire, we are still waiting for the elective day surgery announcement to take place. We have been told that it is on hold and that work is trying to be done for less money, while the wards have buckets collecting water. It is pretty important that people understand the process of allocation to actually see the effect on the ground, and that would be valuable for all of us.
Sir Alan Campbell
I will certainly draw the right hon. Gentleman’s case to the attention of Ministers. It is important to get good value for taxpayers’ money, wherever it is spent. I do not know the date of the original announcement, but if he is comparing this issue with announcements that might have been made and what the previous Government were going to do, I gently say that announcements were made and the money was never there. It is this Government who are trying to put that right.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(3 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
I hope that the SNP has heard my hon. Friend’s remarks, because keeping people safe is the first responsibility of any Government. It is important that we support the police in both the powers and the resources we give them. Our Crime and Policing Bill will equip the police in England with new, stronger powers to tackle the crimes that matter most to communities. I urge the SNP Government to listen carefully as, after all, they received the largest funding settlement since devolution at the recent spending review.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
The Office for Budget Responsibility suggests that £6 billion of costs associated with special educational needs and disabilities provision has not been catered for in the Budget. Given that, it suggests that there will be an effective 4.9% cut in mainstream school spending per pupil. That is a massive concern for colleagues across the House. As SEND is such a tough issue to resolve, will the Leader of the House consider time for a debate on this matter so that we can resolve what has happened in the Budget?
Sir Alan Campbell
The claim, as reported, that schools will be required to cover SEND costs is not correct. We are clear that any deficit will be absorbed within the overall Government budget. Funding for future years will be confirmed in the next spending review. I have just announced—including today—three days of Budget debate, and I encourage the right hon. Gentleman to use that time to make those points.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
I am pleased to hear about the successful campaigning by my hon. Friend’s constituent and to thank her for drawing the attention of successive Governments to these issues. I want to repeat what she has said: well done, Deb Harvey.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
May I thank the Leader of the House for what he said about reforms to the driving test booking system? I add to what my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith) said about DEFRA questions. I wanted to raise the case of Susan Robinson and Maria La Femina, who asked me about sludge use in agriculture and what had happened with the regulations, but for the second or third DEFRA questions, I was not able to get in. It really would be worth considering whether we can extend DEFRA questions to the full hour, so that all colleagues would have the opportunity to keep trying to catch Mr Speaker’s eye.
Mr Speaker
I think it is important, and it might also help if Front-Bench Members asked quicker questions and gave quicker answers—not on this one, though.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
I thank my hon. Friend for her work as chair of the APPG on menopause and thank all those who worked on this important report. Women experiencing the symptoms of menopause have been failed for far too long. The Government are renewing the women’s health strategy to tackle inequalities and improve access to healthcare for women across England. I will ensure that Ministers hear what she has to say, that they see the report, and that, if she wants one, she has a meeting with them to discuss it.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
May we have a debate on the regressive taxation of single parents? If we look at the costs for 2025-26 of employing a single parent on the national living wage for 30 hours a week, we find that the combination of the national insurance threshold going down 45%, a 6.7% increase in the cost of the national living wage and additional costs related to national insurance means that it is 11% more expensive to employ somebody who is working 30 hours a week on the national living wage. Surely that is not what a Labour Government should be standing up for?
Sir Alan Campbell
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Chancellor will bring forward her Budget at the end of next month. Some of those issues may or may not be addressed in that, but there certainly will be days of debate after the Budget in which such issues can be discussed. In the meantime, however, I will draw the Chancellor’s attention to his points and, if we can, get a better answer than the one I can give him.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(3 months, 1 week ago)
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Sir Alan Campbell
I congratulate my hon. Friend on her recent marriage. She raises a very important matter, and she is a doughty campaigner for her local community. High streets are a cornerstone of our local communities, and we are delivering 13,000 more officers in neighbourhood policing roles to tackle these matters. I will draw her comments to the attention of the relevant Department, but I encourage her to attend the next Home Office questions next week in order to raise this issue with Ministers directly.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
I welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his new role.
May I echo the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) in drawing his attention to the reply that his predecessor gave to me on 27 February concerning the Government’s response to the report on valproate? It really is necessary that we get a response. Janet Williams and Emma Murphy from the Independent Foetal Anti-Convulsant Trust came to see me this week. They are grateful for the opportunity to meet a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, but they really need a formal response to the commissioner’s report of 19 months ago.
Sir Alan Campbell
The right hon. Gentleman will appreciate that I am new to this role, but I give him a commitment that I will follow that up after this session. Hopefully, I will be able to arrange a meeting with the Minister and get a response, which sounds overdue.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lucy Powell
Libraries are vital to our communities and high streets, and they provide people with access to knowledge and information, as they have done in decades gone by and will do in decades in the future. I support all my hon. Friend’s efforts to support Lindley library in his constituency.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
A month ago, I met Oliver Robinson from the British Trout Association. The association has produced an excellent report on the trout farming industry in the UK, but Oliver is struggling to get engagement from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ministers. I tried to ask the Secretary of State about this in DEFRA questions earlier, but it would be much appreciated if the Leader of the House could make representations and try to set up that vital conversation.
Lucy Powell
I am happy to help facilitate a conversation with the relevant Minister about trout farming.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(5 months, 1 week ago)
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Lucy Powell
We strongly condemn some of the recent Israeli military operations in Gaza, and we are strongly opposed to further settler expansion into the west bank. We have been calling for Israel to end its blockade of aid into Gaza. There is an urgent need for more goods and aid to get in, because there are extensive humanitarian needs in the area, as my hon. Friend well knows. We have already paused trade discussions with Israel, and we have sanctioned individuals and organisations supporting or inciting violence against Palestinian communities. As I am sure he will appreciate, we do not comment on possible future sanctions.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
The Institute for Fiscal Studies is undoubtedly the country’s leading economic research institute. I pay tribute to Paul Johnson, who finishes after 14 years in his role, and welcome Helen Miller. Clearly, there are challenges for all parties in making tough choices about our public finances, but could we have a debate about the options facing the Government? The deputy leader of Reform yesterday came up with a figure that was half what the IFS said a certain measure would cost. If we are to make the right decisions, and be led by rational economic analysis rather than by rhetoric, it is important that this House, and the experience that lies within it, informs the decisions made in the autumn.
Lucy Powell
I join the right hon. Gentleman in thanking Paul Johnson, who I think we all acknowledge has done a commendable job as the director of the IFS over many years, and I look forward to hearing more from Helen Miller, the incoming director. The right hon. Gentleman is right to recognise the challenging economic times that we are in. He will not like me saying this, but we inherited a big black hole in the public finances. Reserves had been spent in the first half of the year, with public sector pay recommendations sitting on Ministers’ desks but without a penny allocated to them. That has meant a very challenging time for us. It is why we have put a premium on financial stability— not because we want to align with Office for Budget Responsibility spreadsheets, but because we know that those on the lowest incomes pay the heaviest price when the economy runs into problems, which we want to address. The House debates those issues regularly, and I am sure that we will continue to do so. Of course, Budgets are delivered to the House first.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lucy Powell
The plight of leaseholders is raised with me regularly in these sessions, and I represent many tens of thousands of leaseholders in Manchester Central. The Government are committed to bringing forward a draft leasehold reform Bill. We recently published our commonhold White Paper, and the Minister for Housing and Planning, my hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Matthew Pennycook), laid before the House an extensive written ministerial statement that outlined how he was enacting the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. We need to go further to protect leaseholders; my hon. Friend is right to raise that with me today.
Mr Speaker, given that you have just announced Royal Assent for a number of Acts, I want to put on record my thanks to Figen Murray, who is in the Public Gallery, for her tireless campaigning for Martyn’s law, which is now an Act. It will protect many venues across the country, and I am delighted that we have had a voluntary scheme across Manchester, which has already prevented some incidents from happening. I am sure the whole House will want to pay its respects to Figen Murray and Martyn’s law, which is now an Act.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
The Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed this week that the tariffs announced have not been factored into the forecast, nor has the effect of the Employment Rights Bill. I talked to local businesses in Salisbury last Friday at a Budget breakfast, as I have done for the last eight years, and they are very concerned about the cumulative impact of the Employment Rights Bill on top of the national insurance changes. Could we have a statement from a Treasury Minister on the need to revise the OBR forecasts and the implications for tax increases, which are now all but certain in the autumn?
Lucy Powell
We have only just had the spring statement last week, and the OBR has forecast that the economy will grow faster than expected over the forecasting period. The right hon. Gentleman might not like our Employment Rights Bill, but I am afraid Government Members stand proud behind it, because we have a firm belief that making work pay and giving people dignity and security at work is how we will boost our economy and boost growth. I will not get into speculation about what may or may not happen in the future. I respected the right hon. Gentleman greatly as a Minister, but he was part of a Government who presided over a huge crash in our economy and all the problems that came from it.
Business of the House
John Glen Excerpts(9 months, 1 week ago)
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Lucy Powell
And to yours, too, Mr Speaker—we are very well connected in our region in that regard.
My hon. Friend is absolutely right: canals not only provide the blue space that many of our towns and city centres need, but offer tourist attractions and many other assets. We should support the work of the Canal & River Trust.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
Many valued public servants work at Porton Down in my constituency. It was home to the Health Protection Agency when I first became an MP, then to Public Health England and then the UK Health Security Agency. In 2015, the decision was made to establish a new facility in Essex. I have been applying and will continue to apply for an Adjournment debate, but we could really do with a statement from a Health Minister on the future of the UK Health Security Agency, which is a vital facility for this country. My constituents need to know what is happening with it.
Lucy Powell
I am sorry that the right hon. Gentleman has not yet been successful in applying for an Adjournment debate, but the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), who chairs the Backbench Business Committee, and Mr Speaker are both in their places and have, I am sure, heard his plea. The future of the UK Health Security Agency, which does great work, is of national importance. I will ensure that he gets an update at the earliest opportunity.