Business of the House

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Thursday 26th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I will relay to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor the bid that my hon. Friend has just made. I commend what he did with the e-petition on the issue last year, which resulted in the postponement of an increase that was due earlier this month.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I thank the Leader of the House for scheduling a debate on the Somalia conference—a debate that I called for last week. May I ask him for an urgent statement on the businesses affected by the riots and disturbances last August? Leicester businesses have learnt that they are not eligible for any money from the policy authority, and we learnt from the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice yesterday that they are not eligible for any of the other compensation schemes either. Leicester businesses are hugely disappointed about that, if not furious, as am I.

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, not least for the plug for business questions on his blog earlier this week. I am also grateful for what he said about the Somalia conference. Compensation is available for those who suffered loss in the riots, either from the police authority or from local government. I will chase up the issues that he has referred to and see whether we can make progress to help his retailers.