Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Huppert Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

In theory, yes, of course I would. However, the important thing is that these funding decisions are made, very properly, by the sport’s national governing bodies. That was the central point of the whole sport plan: they are given a sum of money that is measured against a set of direct objectives, and it is up to those bodies to decide how to spend it. So in theory, yes, I am prepared to meet the hon. Gentleman, but I would need extraordinarily good evidence to try to contradict a professional judgment made by a sport about where best to spend its money to drive up participation.

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

T2. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

This House has already expressed its good wishes to the royal couple for tomorrow’s events. I know that we would also wish to express our good wishes to the 500,000 people planning to go to street parties who are anxiously looking at the clouds. After my earlier slap on the wrist I hesitate to crave your indulgence, Mr Speaker, but as Culture Secretary, I would like to read a couple of lines from the nation’s greatest playwright to honour the happy couple. These come from sonnet 136 by Shakespeare:

“Make but my name thy love, and love that still,

And then thou lovest me for my name is ‘Will’.”

[Dr Huppert]

I am not sure that I can follow that quite so elegantly. I understand the argument for controls on ambush marketing in the forthcoming Olympic games, but what assurances can the Secretary of State give the House and the general public that they will be treated sensitively and that people will not be dealt with heavy handedly if they happen to wear clothing with the wrong label, eat food of the wrong brand, or try to pay for things with the wrong credit card?

[Mr Hunt]

I hope that I can reassure my hon. Friend that we will apply the rules sensitively. Everyone wants the Olympics to be a success, as they want the royal wedding tomorrow to be a success. Peer pressure from crowds is one of the best ways of ensuring that people behave sensibly on such occasions, although I fully take on board his points.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Huppert Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

11. What plans he has for the long-term future of the public library service.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

The Government are a champion of public libraries as vital hubs of local communities. We drive library improvement, and shortly after coming to office, we set up the future libraries programme, which more than 30 local authorities—[Interruption.] The Film Council was Labour Government policy. The programme supports innovative and efficient models of service delivery. In addition, my Department and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council continue to monitor and work with local authorities on their proposals for their library services.

[Dr Huppert]

I thank the Minister for those words, but in Cambridge the Conservative county council is reviewing library provision, resulting in service reductions and the possible closure of such great facilities as Milton road, Arbury Court and Rock road libraries. The Liberal Democrat opposition on the county council proposed a small amount of money to save all those services. What comment does the Minister have in view of his earlier remarks about what the county council ought to be doing?

[Mr Vaizey]

The county council is, I understand, not only part of the SPINE project, but works with Lincolnshire council under the future libraries programme. I will not comment on the specific proposals that the hon. Gentleman mentions, but I understand that Cambridgeshire county council is considering turning many of its libraries into community hubs and consulting extensively on its proposals.

Business of the House

Julian Huppert Excerpts

Thursday 25th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

Again, I am astonished that the hon. Gentleman should criticise the Government for implementing a measure that empowers Back Benchers. We have given up the monopoly on deciding what the House debates. Paragraph 145 of the Wright report deals with set-piece debates, and one of the subjects mentioned is

“two days for pre-European Council debates”.

It makes it absolutely clear that the responsibility for fixing those debates transfers to the Backbench Business Committee. We have honoured our obligations and set up the Backbench Business Committee; it is now for the Committee to decide which debates are held and when. We cannot have a position in which the Government transfer the days to the Committee but remain responsible for fixing all the debates that would be held on those days. Even the hon. Gentleman must be able to see that that would be a very one-sided deal.

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

Will there be an opportunity for the Home Secretary to make a statement to the House about the use of kettling, particularly with regard to schoolchildren?

[Sir George Young]

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary will be answering questions in the normal way. As I have said, I think that the police handled yesterday’s demonstration well. It was an enormous improvement on what happened last time. I am not going to criticise from the Dispatch Box the tactics that they used in order to protect public property and prevent more extensive damage from being done, but there will be an opportunity at the next Home Office questions for my hon. Friend to raise that issue.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Julian Huppert Excerpts

Wednesday 20th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[John Mann]

We have had this slippery slope with the European Parliament and with how we choose its Members. Of course, the Deputy Prime Minister, apparently, was once a representative in my area—no one seems to have realised that fact, because such Members are rather distant and remote, whether they do a good job or not, because of the size of the constituency.

The interrelationship between individual and electorate that has been the basis of democracy in this country—one that other countries have, too often, moved away from in their determination to have either proportionality or equality and to have mathematical solutions to how they build a legislature—is the foundation of participative democracy. We are not just a representative democracy in this Chamber: if we are effective, we are a participatory democracy as well. That principle would be somewhat undermined by an arbitrary mathematical solution to how many Members there should be.

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

If the hon. Gentleman is going to give us a long history lesson, will he at least assure us that he realises that Members of the House were elected using a transferable voting system until 1945 in some cases?

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Huppert Excerpts

Monday 26th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Let me confirm a few things that the right hon. Gentleman ought to be aware of, given that he was a Minister responsible for the matter. The first is that the money that his Government had allocated to ensure that everyone in this country could access broadband at a minimum speed of 2 megabits per second was less than half the total cost of doing that. That was why, when we examined the situation, we decided that we would honour the pledge but would not be able to do so by 2012 and extended it to 2015. As in so many areas, his Government simply did not leave enough money in the pot.

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

5. What recent representations he has received on sections 9 to 18 of the Digital Economy Act 2010.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

Ministers and officials have had recent meetings with copyright owners, consumer organisations and internet service providers, at which the matter has been raised.

[Dr Huppert]

Is the Minister aware of the deep concerns held about those sections of the Act among internet service providers such as BT and TalkTalk, among members of the public such as those who went to the Open Rights Group conference on Saturday, and among creative content providers? Given that the Act was rushed through in the dying days of the last Government, will he ensure that there is proper scrutiny of not just the details but the principle of those sections, which many of us oppose?

[Mr Vaizey]

I am aware of the concerns that the hon. Gentleman mentions. It is important to emphasise that the technical measures in those sections would not come in until at least 2012, and that this House and the other place will have a chance to debate the matter in full under the super-affirmative procedure.