Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between John Leech and John Bercow(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
The Minister may not have long to wait for the question that he anticipates.
Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)
11. Does the Minister agree that any change to licence fee enforcement would go against the coalition agreement of 2010, which committed to a full financial settlement for the BBC up to the end of 2016-17, given that it has been estimated that the amendment, if passed, could cost the BBC £200 million a year in revenue?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between John Leech and John Bercow(11 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)
14. What assessment she has made of the potential effect on the Science Museum Group of further budget reductions.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between John Leech and John Bercow(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. The House must calm down. We have a lot of questions to get through and I intend to get through them. Let us have a bit of order for Mr John Leech.
Mr Leech
Local councils have faced as tough a budget settlement as most other Departments. Does the Prime Minister share my dismay that Manchester city council is choosing to close libraries, leisure centres and the Mersey Valley Countryside Warden Service, while at the same time it was happy to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on an Alicia Keys concert and leave £100 million in reserves sitting in the bank?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between John Leech and John Bercow
Mr Speaker
Order. This may be a suitable subject for a full-day debate, but the answers must not take that form. We are grateful to the Secretary of State for his recognition of that important point.
Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)
I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement that there will be some further environmental studies, because is it not the case that at present we simply do not know the environmental impact of shale gas exploration in relation to methane seepage and methane getting out into the atmosphere? Until we can be certain of the impact, we must proceed with a great deal of caution.
Points of Order
Debate between John Leech and John Bercow(13 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. I would say two things. First, it would be unwise for me to speculate on the technology of the matter and what has or has not happened, for the simple reason that I am in no position at this stage to know. Secondly, notwithstanding the hon. Gentleman’s understandable frustration, which he has put on the record and which he might wish to share with his constituents, I think it fair to record that the Deputy Leader of the House looked into the matter extremely expeditiously yesterday and offered a gracious apology to right hon. and hon. Members. I will leave it there for today.
Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. During questions last week to the Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Manchester Central (Tony Lloyd) attacked the Government’s health policy and the role of private provision by claiming
“that at the Christie hospital in Manchester 150 jobs have been transferred from the NHS to the private contractor on that site.—[Official Report, 8 March 2011; Vol. 524, c. 757.]
That is simply not true. I have had written confirmation from the Christie that it is untrue. There has been no transfer of staff from the NHS to the new private partnership. I made the hon. Gentleman aware that I intended to raise the matter as a point of order. May I seek your guidance on whether it would be appropriate for him to apologise to the House for misleading Parliament, and to the Christie for making a false statement about its commitment and outstanding contribution to the NHS?
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his attempted point of order. If an hon. Member makes a mistake, it is for the hon. Member concerned to decide whether it is necessary to correct what he or she has said and, if so, to decide how and when to do so. Meanwhile, the hon. Gentleman, who is quite an experienced hand, has offered his verdict clearly. It is on the record and I suspect that he may choose to share it with others. It is open to him to do so, but I cannot get involved beyond that.