Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Richard Fuller

Wednesday 9th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. One of the most important aspects is to help shape the economic growth that takes place so that, through work, it lifts the largest number of people possible out of poverty. That is precisely the agenda the Department is pursuing.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

In every economy across the globe, small businesses are the most secure way to create jobs. What is my right hon. Friend’s Department doing to enhance the provision of finance to small businesses in developing countries?

[Justine Greening]

We are working with a fund for small and medium-sized enterprises that can do precisely that. We have also, with the London stock exchange, focused on the issue of capital markets improving finance more broadly in developing countries—particularly, most recently, in Tanzania.

Typhoon Haiyan

Debate between Justine Greening and Richard Fuller

Thursday 28th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I hope that I can provide my hon. Friend with some assurance. Where International Development spend and effort takes place in other Departments, it is classified as official development assistance and is part of the UK’s 0.7% commitment, which this year for the first time this Government are reaching. Part of our just over £50 million response is the money that we have spent sending HMS Daring and HMS Illustrious. We will fund the marginal costs that the MOD has incurred to get those vessels into the area and do the work that they have done, which I think is quite right.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

My question builds on that asked by my hon. Friend the Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard), while the British public have been responding generously to the appeals for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, China has been seeking to extend its air right, raising concerns in the Philippines about its claim over the Spratly Islands. As the Prime Minister is shortly to visit China, will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State put a note in his bag outlining the United Kingdom’s outstanding and selfless response to the tragedy as an example of how China should respond in future?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend makes his point clearly. I am sure that is something the Prime Minister will take on board when he visits China shortly.

Overseas Aid (Private Sector Contracts)

Debate between Justine Greening and Richard Fuller

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The short answers to that question are yes and yes. As was pointed out in the Financial Times, aid and business constitute a crucial alliance, which we must try to bind more closely.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

It is no surprise, is it, that the Labour party’s hostility to the private sector led Opposition Members to miss my right hon. Friend’s observation that ignoring that sector’s role in development was like trying to win a football match by leaving half one’s team on the bench? Can she add to her excellent list of initiatives an initiative to tap the entrepreneurial potential of Britain’s various diaspora communities by supporting development in their countries of origin?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend will not be surprised to hear that this issue was raised after my speech in this morning’s question and answer session, and it is an incredibly powerful one. I believe that this country has more natural links to many of these developing economies than almost any other country in the world. We should be making the most of those and allowing our diasporas also to be part of helping the countries to which they have family links to develop.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Richard Fuller

Wednesday 31st October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I think we should be. In recent years I have spent time in Rwanda, which is a good example of where achieving things on the ground is often complex. Life is not black and white; we have to deal with real people and situations and navigate our way through them to the best of our ability. We know that there are still millions of people in Rwanda living in poverty. The aid programmes we have invested in there have been extremely successful, so there is absolutely a need to continue that work.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

2. What steps she is taking to encourage private capital investment in the Economic Community of West African States.

Air Passenger Duty

Debate between Justine Greening and Richard Fuller

Thursday 20th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Richard Fuller]

I greatly appreciate my hon. Friend giving way. I have admired the rigour of her analysis as she has gone about her duties as a Minister as well as her powerful advocacy. If I may, I want to encourage her to use the second part of her talents—her advocacy. There is a strong equity case for people in this country to consider carefully the APD ratings for Caribbean islands. A significant number of people who have made their home here like to go home to their place of birth and origin. We all want to see the environmental goals that she has discussed accomplished, but there is a strong and powerful equity case. I ask her, through her rigour, to give due regard to that case as well as to the other competing pressures.

[Justine Greening]

I am grateful for that intervention. My hon. Friend points out the impact on local communities but, in a friendly way, I would challenge the point about contradictions. In terms of our tourism industry and our need for links with other countries to drive economic growth, this is very healthy. Our relationship with the Caribbean and the role that aviation plays in helping us to maintain that more broadly is particularly important, so we are not necessarily faced with an either/or choice.

One of the most intractable problems we face, which underpins the whole approach in the Treasury, is the unavoidable challenge of tackling the fiscal deficit. We are faced with that while also making sure that the tax measures in place work effectively and do not have the sort of negative impacts that we do not want or need them to have.