Business of the House

Karl McCartney Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

I am sure we both agree that cyberbullying is completely unacceptable. It may be worth the hon. Lady pursuing this matter with the Minister responsible. If loopholes in the law are preventing positive action, we can try to close them if at all possible. I will refer her question to the relevant Minister.

[Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend consider, as we see yet another misplaced, misjudged and costly consultation from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and its thankfully departing chairman, that now is the right time to discuss, in a cross-party debate in a grown-up way, the lessons of the past six years at least, particularly as it is noted by many non-establishment colleagues that the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has no representatives from the 2010 and 2015 intakes? That is a shocking oversight, Mr Speaker. You and colleagues from across the House will be relieved to hear that I am very happy to volunteer to help to remedy that.

[Dr Coffey]

My hon. Friend has had a long interest in IPSA—as do we all. A consultation is under way and it is important that Members respond to it. We know the reasons why IPSA was set up, but that does not mean we cannot put across our views on how we need a regime that best helps us to help the people we represent and does not curtail our efforts in that aim.