Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The Chancellor and the Treasury take that issue very seriously. As the hon. Gentleman says, the Chancellor referred to it specifically yesterday; he feels very strongly about it. As I have mentioned, as it is Treasury questions on Tuesday, that is the first and obvious opportunity to ask further questions of Treasury Ministers, but the hon. Gentleman can be sure that the Chancellor wants to deal with any abuses that are arising through these companies.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Following the tragedy at the end of the Sri Lankan conflict, when thousands of Tamil women and children were killed, may we have a debate on the progress being made, since the United Nations resolution earlier in the year, towards an inquiry into what took place?

[Mr Hague]

There would be a good case for such a debate. Terrible events took place at the end of that conflict. The United Kingdom has pressed consistently for the international inquiry; indeed, we won the vote in the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year to establish such an inquiry. We must now see what that inquiry produces, but there is a good case for a debate in the House and my hon. Friend might want to pursue that through the Backbench Business Committee as well as with Foreign Office Ministers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lee Scott Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Professionals in the health system have said that going back to that kind of target would be counter-productive. The hon. Gentleman knows very well that the number of people treated by GPs has increased by many millions over the past four years, and that trend is continuing. Of course we are always trying to seek further improvements, but reintroducing the old, failed targets of the last Government is not the way forward.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Q12. When I travel abroad and I am asked where I come from, I am proud to say that I am British. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we can be proud to be British but still have our own identity of being English, Scottish, Welsh or from Northern Ireland, and that we should all remain together and continue as Great Britons?

[Mr Hague]

I do not think anyone could have put it better. My hon. Friend definitely has his own identity, in so many different ways, and he has expressed it beautifully, including his identity with the United Kingdom. That is how so many of us think in Britain, and let us hope that it will be possible to continue to do so.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I hope—I do not know—that the hon. Gentleman has had a chance to address those issues in the course of the debate on the Queen’s Speech. He will, of course, have an opportunity to do so today in the debate on the economy and living standards that the Opposition have initiated with their amendment. He is quite right: it is disappointing that the north-east is the only region of the United Kingdom where unemployment went up in the latest figures; everywhere else, it went down. One thing we need to keep looking at is how we can continue to rebalance the economy, as is successfully happening in many other places. We want to try to improve manufacturing. We have seen manufacturing growing in the latest data at 4.4% a year, which is faster than for a long time. As a manufacturing economy, the north-east should be participating more fully in that.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Following on from the global summit on sexual violence in war, may we have a debate, on the conflict in Sri Lanka, which is still going on, against the Tamil community, where women are being raped daily?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. As I said, the Foreign Secretary will update the House on Monday, following what appears to have been an extremely successful global summit, not simply because we brought so many countries together for the purpose of ending sexual violence in conflict, but because of the vigour of the NGO community coming together in the same way. The message being sent out is that people need to understand the sheer scale and enormity of sexual violence in conflicts and that so very few people have been held responsible. That must not be true in future. It must be that the people responsible for such things will genuinely be held to account for the crimes they commit.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Without wishing to repeat myself, let me say that I completely understand and share the concern the hon. Lady raises, but I urge Members not to prejudge the circumstances then until we know more.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

With the rise and re-emergence of anti-Semitism across mainland Europe and its links to organisations in the United Kingdom, may we have a debate about how we can stamp out that vile practice?

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question and I think that the whole House will be grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for a debate to commemorate Holocaust memorial day next Thursday. Recently, of course, we received the findings of a survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights showing that, regrettably, two thirds of respondents considered anti-Semitism to be a problem, while three quarters said that the situation had got worse over the past five years. While that survey found that the UK Jewish community had more confidence in the authorities here and were less nervous about anti-Semitism than communities elsewhere in Europe, there are too many anti-Semitic incidents, so we need to work actively with civil society to challenge anti-Semitism through education and better reporting, and by tackling hate crime.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 4th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Suffice it to say that the Secretary of State is in charge of the Department of Health.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

I regret to have to again ask for a debate on the plight of the young Tamil children who, at the end of the conflict a number of years ago, disappeared. They have never been found and their parents and relatives have never been told what happened to them, even though we fear that we know what happened to them. May we please have an urgent debate on that matter?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend’s concern is entirely understandable. Ministers at the Foreign Office continue to take a close interest in Sri Lanka and to make representations to its Government on the human rights abuses of the past and, in so far as is needed, improvements in human rights now. I will ask them to respond to him with what they know about the possibility of resolving those unhappy issues.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a date. Transport questions are next Thursday—I will perhaps alert my hon. Friends in that Department, although they will know of his interest. Forgive me if I am wrong, but my recollection is that the private Members’ Bills published yesterday included one by an hon. Member—the name, I fear, escapes me—who was introducing a Bill to deal precisely with the point raised by the hon. Gentleman.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should have a debate on the amount of medical negligence payments being made by the NHS, particularly following the tragic cases in Barking, Havering and Redbridge Trust, which serves my Ilford North constituency?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend raises a point that many Members will recognise as important. We want to minimise cases of clinical negligence that give rise to compensation, and that is the first priority. I said earlier that patient safety being mainstreamed in NHS England is terrifically important, but unfortunately the volume of payments through the NHS Litigation Authority is now roughly £1 billion a year, and there is a massive contingent liability. We cannot expect that to disappear and it is important to have compensation where people have suffered harm as a consequence of accessing NHS treatment, but we must ensure that that is done cost-effectively. I know all Members—including Government Members—feel strongly that we have arrived at a position where negligence payments to expert witnesses and lawyers are sometimes as great as the compensation paid to families, and we want to bear down on that very hard.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 9th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that today’s debate on the Queen’s Speech will focus on home affairs, so rather than detain the House in response to his question, I invite him to participate in that debate. I am sure that he would get a very good answer from Home Office Ministers.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

May we have a debate on the wonderful work that hospices, such as St Peter’s in my constituency, do across our country?

[Mr Lansley]

I hope that my hon. Friend will be able to raise that issue during the health and social care debate on Monday. I know that he is a devoted supporter of the hospice serving his constituency and even skydived on its behalf, which was commendable and courageous—although I think the Whips would encourage him to be very careful. I think that hospices do a wonderful job. From my many visits to hospices, I am familiar with what they do. During the course of this Parliament, the coalition Government will be putting in place per-patient funding schemes to enable hospices to provide more holistic services to patients so that the NHS can support them to a more appropriate degree.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 25th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I cannot promise a statement today, but I am sure that the hon. Lady and the House know that Public Health England is producing publicity to encourage unvaccinated children and young people to come forward for vaccination. Having been shadow Secretary of State from 2003, I know that on both sides of the House we were very clear that the MMR vaccine was safe. We now have vaccine coverage rates back up to record levels, which is important, but we of course have an inheritance of unvaccinated young people. If we can deal with that rapidly, we will offset what would otherwise be a really unfortunate risk from a very nasty disease.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend find time for a debate on getting young people with special needs into work? A project in my constituency and across the London borough of Redbridge will hopefully, with the help of the parent group, Interface, the borough council and employers, have the first people taking up jobs shortly.

[Mr Lansley]

If I may, I will join my hon. Friend in expressing appreciation in this House for the activities of Interface, other groups and his borough council. I welcome what he does on behalf of his constituents and applaud it.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am sure the hon. Lady is as aware as many others in the House are of the representations that Her Majesty’s Government have been making about those in Guantanamo Bay. I will of course ask my colleagues in the Foreign Office to respond directly to her about the issue she has raised, and she may like to raise it further at Foreign Office questions.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend agree to a debate in Government time on the plight of the Tamil people at the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka and the innocent women and children who were murdered and lost their lives?

[Mr Lansley]

I am aware of my hon. Friend’s concern and his repeated efforts to support the Tamils who have suffered in the way he describes. I cannot promise an immediate debate, but I will draw what he said to the attention of my ministerial colleagues and get them to respond directly to him.

Business of the House

Lee Scott Excerpts

Thursday 29th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend agree to a debate on people who have emigrated outside the European Union yet still claim benefits such as winter fuel payments and child benefit?

[Mr Lansley]

I pay tribute to the great deal of work my hon. Friend has done on this issue. As we head towards winter, it is terrifically important that we look after communities. That is one reason why I was so pleased in the past week to see the announcement of some 149 successful projects that are being supported by the Department of Health’s warm homes healthy people fund this winter, following the successful work last winter. This is in partnership with local authorities, Age UK and other charities, and I know that my hon. Friend and others across the House have been active proponents of that kind of community-based support for people at risk.