Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that it is a serious problem and, as I have said before, it is also a problem in our prisons. Possession of Spice in a custodial setting is an offence and is subject to imprisonment. If the hon. Gentleman could forward me his letter from the Home Office, I will look into this in more detail and get back to him.

[Sir Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

May I say how much I welcome the 2016 Act, having lost two young men to what used to be called legal highs? The extra powers that it provides and the rigorous application of the law to rapidly changing chemicals are extremely welcome.

[Mr Gyimah]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I should also like to emphasise that the possession of Spice has been subject to further controls, and that that includes making it illegal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 6th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Oliver Heald]

The UK Government and this country do not need lectures about our human rights record. Our country has a proud tradition that goes back 800 years of pioneering human rights and spreading our values around the world. We do not need any lessons.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that not only is it a good idea to make the change, but that we were members of the European convention on human rights for a whole generation before we put human rights legislation into British law, and that the clear understanding needs to be that British courts, informed by legislation from this Parliament, make the decisions?

[Sir Oliver Heald]

Of course it was Winston Churchill in his famous speech in Place Kléber in Strasbourg who pointed out the importance of fundamental human rights after the second world war, and British lawyers played a very important part in framing the European convention on human rights. Having said that, it is right to consider what that should be in the modern context, and whether we need a British jurisprudence over those rights. That is what we are doing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 1st November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Oliver Heald]

The issue of human rights is important in all parts of the United Kingdom, and we accept that. We will fully engage with the devolved Administrations on this question. Many people feel that there is a need for a British jurisprudence to emerge on the European convention on human rights and a need to assert certain ancient rights that we have in Britain, such as that relating to jury trial.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I welcome that statement from my right hon. and learned Friend, but I urge him to look particularly hard at the military aspects. The efforts of those who currently risk their lives for us on operations are being overshadowed by what is going on with IHAT—the Iraq Historic Allegations Team—and the pursuit of human rights cases under British law by people who were our enemies.

[Sir Oliver Heald]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. He will be aware of the announcement about derogation. Previously, there have been occasions when industrial-scale allegations could be made, many of which were later proved to be false, but that will change once the derogation process is in place.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The Prime Minister has been very clear that leaving the European convention on human rights is not something that we are going to pursue.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

May I, too, welcome my right hon. Friend to her post and her determination to proceed with a British Bill of Rights? Could I urge her to remember that the cornerstone of the rule of law in this country has always been the sovereignty of Parliament? May I urge her not to listen to those who argue that getting rid of an Act that came 40 years after we signed up to the European convention on human rights somehow or other undermines our position within the treaty.

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: human rights were not invented in 1998 with the Human Rights Act. We have a strong record, as a country, of human rights, dating back to Magna Carta, and the British Bill of Rights is going to be the next step in enshrining those rights in our laws.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

What divides us is the fact that the Government must take hard decisions. The Labour party has argued for reductions in legal aid; it had plans for reductions in legal aid in its manifesto but now, in opposition, it is trying to prevent reductions in legal aid. That is, I am afraid, another example of the Labour party saying one thing and doing another.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

May I draw my right hon. Friend’s attention to the Select Committee report on the impact on our armed forces of this deluge of cases? May I urge him to look again at the £10 million that went to those law firms who deliberately suppressed evidence that their clients were part of a terrorist organisation?

[Chris Grayling]

Let us be absolutely clear: in relation to the inquiry to which my hon. Friend refers, what has happened in those cases appears to have been untoward to say the least. If the taxpayer has ended up paying a large amount of money for a case brought on a false premise, I will want to take the strongest possible action, including looking at taking financial measures against the firms involved.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vara]

It is rather rich of the hon. Gentleman to speak about legal aid. The Opposition’s manifesto made it abundantly clear that they would cut legal aid. He and his colleagues lack any credibility unless they put on the record what cuts they would make and, more importantly, whether they would reverse the cuts that we are making.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend look at the workings of the Legal Aid Board, so that we never again see a case such as the one in which the board in Essex awarded legal aid to a violent husband to employ a private detective to pursue a battered wife to my constituency?

[Mr Vara]

My hon. Friend will appreciate that I cannot comment on individual cases, but I will be more than happy to ensure that everything is done properly in his case or, indeed, others.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Where I differ is that I do not believe it is necessary to have an international court deciding things that should be a matter for this Parliament and our courts. That is what needs to change.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I strongly support my right hon. Friend’s stand on this matter. Does he agree that just one example of how far the European Court of Human Rights has moved from its original foundations is that the British Government and the lawyers who were instrumental in setting it up were also responsible for the largest programme of judicial executions—of Nazis at Nuremburg—in modern British history?

[Chris Grayling]

It is certainly the case that the jurisprudence of the Court has moved a long way from where it started, and some things have clearly changed for the better, but I would argue now that the decisions coming out of the Court are matters that should be addressed in this and other Parliaments. Of course, this is an area where there are divisions between all the parties in the House, and I have no doubt that it will be an area of lively debate as we approach the general election, when the people will decide.

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

What I say to my hon. Friend is that we should never enter a renegotiation in the expectation that we will lose.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s robust stance on this matter, but, as someone who is not one of the usual suspects on Europe—to the best of my knowledge I have never made a speech in this House on the subject—may I say that we really are at a Rubicon? If this does go into law, it would suggest that we have moved a very long way in a bad direction.

[Chris Grayling]

I take a clear view that there is an issue in all these matters around who governs Britain. My view is that Britain should be governed by this House. I can assure my hon. Friend that were we to discover that the charter had a broader legal reach than we understand to be the case at the moment, we would take rapid steps to address it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Grant]

The hon. Lady has got it absolutely wrong. We know that the Government, the insurance industry and claimant lawyers must all work to tackle fraud, because it is completely unacceptable. We fully expect the industry to pass on the considerable savings that it will make to the public in the form of reduced insurance premiums.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Having suffered a severe whiplash injury after someone shunted my vehicle many years ago, I have great sympathy for genuine victims, but there is widespread evidence that gangs have moved into what they see as a profitable business, generating deliberately fraudulent claims, and that that is driving up premiums for ordinary motorists.

[Mrs Grant]

I agree. Unfortunately, a compensation culture was allowed to develop under the last Government, and we are having to deal with it now. Our reforms will ensure that meritorious claims will always be possible, while also ensuring that unnecessary claims are avoided.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 21st May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

In welcoming my hon. Friend’s remarks, may I urge her to look at other, wider areas where judicial review might be considered to some extent to be supplanting Parliament by interfering with the answerability of Government? I am thinking of some immigration tribunals and areas of the benefits system, where judicial review has been misused.

[Mrs Grant]

This is an area that we will keep under review. I am very happy to take sensible suggestions from my hon. Friend.