Voting Age

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Thursday 24th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Julie Hilling]

I am sure about it. The Votes at 16 coalition says that

“16 and 17 year olds are knowledgeable and passionate about the world in which they live, and are as capable of engaging in the democratic system as any other citizen.”

These are people who are already seen as capable of voting for the leader of their respective political parties.

The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has urged the Committee of Ministers

“to reconsider the age-related restrictions placed on voting rights in order to encourage young people’s participation in political life.”

I share those views about the passion, knowledge and ability of young people.

Of course, our three Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—have already given votes to 16-year-olds. Scotland will allow 16-year-olds to vote in the referendum, and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies have both voted in favour of votes at 16.

Some have argued that young people will not be able to make an independent decision and will vote the same way as their parents. Let us be realistic: it does not matter whether someone is 16 or 61, many people still vote the same way as their parents. I must confess that the first time I voted, I voted the same way as my mother, but I also have to say that I have never, ever voted the same way again. Our challenge is to educate and inform, so that people of whatever age can decide for themselves who to vote for and why.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech and a passionate defence of young people’s right to participate in the process. Does she agree that it is important for parliamentarians to engage with young people aged 16 to 17? I am sure she would have been proud if she had heard young people from Trinity school talking on Radio Nottingham this morning about their views on votes at 16, and about how important it has been for me to speak to them, listen to what they have had to say, and to encourage them.

[Julie Hilling]

I absolutely agree. I do as much as I can to visit schools and I think it is incumbent on us as politicians to be part of that education process. The reality is that young people are passionate, informed and able to mount their arguments and participate.

Finally, given the number of rights and responsibilities that come in at 16, it is a significant age and I believe that voting should be added to that list.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Wednesday 19th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

T6. Nottingham community and voluntary service’s state of the sector report found that although demand for services is increasing, 69% of voluntary groups are facing reduced income, 52% have been forced to cut staff this year, 76% say they may have to close a service and 36% may close altogether. Is this not a terrible indictment of this Government’s support for the voluntary sector?

[Mr Hurd]

The Labour party has been predicting the collapse of the voluntary sector for three years. In fact it has grown, but it is under huge pressure, which is why we are doing so much to cut red tape, invest in giving, invest in social investment, support volunteering and make it easier for charities to help us to deliver better public services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 20th November 2012 Commons Chamber

The Attorney-General was asked—

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking to ensure that the Crown Prosecution Service’s networks of specialist rape and child abuse prosecutors are adequately funded.

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

6. What steps he is taking to ensure that the CPS’s networks of specialist rape and child abuse prosecutors are adequately funded.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lilian Greenwood]

I thank the Solicitor-General for that rather brief response. Will child abuse cases always be prosecuted by specialist advocates or, as is now the case in rape trials, only when the specialist happens to be available?

[The Solicitor-General]

That is not correct. All Crown Prosecution Service advocates have been trained in how to deal with domestic violence cases. Some 800 have been fully trained as rape specialists, and they are always involved in any rape case, so it is not right to say that that is not so. A network has been set up, under Mr Nazir Afzal, the chief Crown prosecutor for the north-west, to look at child sexual exploitation and improve prosecution, and it is proving successful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I know that the Prime Minister, who of course is in the region right now, discusses this on an ongoing basis with the President of the United States, and will continue to do so. We are the second largest bilateral donor in Syria. Of course, the circumstances on the ground are incredibly difficult for the delivery of aid and assistance, but we need to make every effort to accelerate it, and to get it to the right people in a timely manner and to the right places. Any suggestions that the hon. Gentleman wishes to make to the Department for International Development, and to other Departments, about how we should do that would of course be warmly received.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

Q5. Official documents show that the Healthier Together review’s “best option” is downgrading Kettering general hospital’s A and E, maternity, children and acute services, and cutting 515 of its 658 beds. How can anyone believe the Prime Minister when he claims that those NHS services are safe in his hands?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I find it extraordinary that the hon. Lady persists in this wilful scaremongering. She plucks out the worst-case scenario when, as she knows, no decision has been taken. Instead of frightening people about what is happening in our NHS, why does she not celebrate the great work of our nurses, our doctors and other clinicians in the NHS who are delivering an absolutely world-class service for the people of Kettering, Corby and elsewhere?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Wednesday 21st March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

As the new Cabinet Secretary said the other day, the civil service has in the past had a monopoly on policy advice, and he and others feel that it is something worth questioning. I am sorry that it is only the Opposition who seem to have closed minds on the issue.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

3. What recent discussions he has had on the types of Government funding models available to the voluntary and community sector.

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

13. What recent discussions he has had on the types of Government funding models available to the voluntary and community sector.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Nick Hurd)]

We want to help the voluntary and community sector to become more resilient by developing three pillars of funding: traditional giving, income from the state including more opportunities to deliver public service and a new pillar, the emerging market of social investment.

[Lilian Greenwood]

Many local voluntary organisations were set up to complement statutory services, as Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service reminded me when I met its representatives last week. If the predominant funding source for the voluntary sector is now to be public sector contracts, will not thousands of valuable voluntary groups throughout the country be left high and dry, showing once again this Government’s utter contempt for the big society that they purport to champion?

[Mr Hurd]

I think the hon. Lady missed my point. We are developing three pillars of funding, with the encouragement of high levels of giving, including a very generous tax incentive introduced by the Chancellor in the previous Budget; a new source of funding, social investment; and the launch of the world’s first social investment bank within a few weeks. But, yes, we want to do more with the sector to help us deliver public services, so, yes, we will be opening up new opportunities for charities and social enterprises to help us do just that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Wednesday 8th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

Frankly, coming from the hon. Gentleman—the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the previous Prime Minister, who operated in a No. 10 that was widely reviled as a snake pit of back-biting and anonymous briefings—that is pretty rich.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

5. What the Government’s objectives are for the big society initiative.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

6. What the Government’s objectives are for the big society initiative.

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr Oliver Letwin)]

Our objectives are to build social capital by transferring powers to communities, opening up public services and encouraging more social action.

[Lilian Greenwood]

Last year, the Prime Minister included community empowerment among his three big society aims, but this year the Communities Secretary has already been forced to write to the Conservative leader of Nottingham county council following reports of disproportionate cuts to the voluntary sector. Can the Minister tell me exactly how this Tory council’s decision to cut voluntary sector funding by a huge 34% will empower communities in our county?

[Mr Letwin]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has written in extremely uncompromising and tough terms to the county council in question, reminding it that there is statutory guidance, and that the proportion by which the voluntary and community sector is cut should be the same as the proportion by which the council’s own budgets are cut. I am delighted to pay tribute, unusually, to the hon. Lady’s own council, which, despite coming from a different political party from mine, has actually followed that rule, cutting both by roughly similar proportions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney-General]

As the hon. Lady appreciates, the Home Office leads on the question of extradition. I indicated when I last took questions that the Government take the view that, first, they need to study the Scott Baker report, which they are doing, and then they will come to the House with proposals. I hope that that will be as soon as possible. In the meantime, I suggest to her that speculation in The Sunday Times is not always the best indication of Government policy.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of the potential effects on prosecution rates of planned changes to legal aid for victims of domestic violence.

[The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve)]

I have not made any assessment of the potential effects on prosecution rates of any planned changes to legal aid.

[Lilian Greenwood]

Does the Attorney-General agree with the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly) that a woman who has reliable eye witnesses, police and medical evidence, photos of injuries, has fled to a refuge and has a partner on a perpetrator programme should not receive civil legal aid to help bring her abuser to justice? If not, what will the Attorney-General do about it?

[The Attorney-General]

My responsibility is the superintendence of the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecuting those who are guilty of domestic violence, and the question of civil legal aid does not come into it one way or another.

Industrial Action

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

My hon. Friend is completely right on that. His own union will be in discussions with the education employers tomorrow. There is disruption caused by today’s action, but despite that there were discussions yesterday with civil service unions and there will be discussions tomorrow and on Friday with health unions. This process is still going ahead, which is why it is so hard to defend the action being taken today. I am just sorry that the Labour party cannot bring itself—does not have the guts—to say it is wrong.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

Does not the Minister understand that there are thousands of part-time workers, the vast majority of whom are women, who are being asked to pay an extra 3%? I would not call it pension contribution, because it is not even going to boost their pension fund. How many of them will opt out as a result of the Government’s changes?

[Mr Maude]

For most public sector workers there is no fund. Contributions made today go to pay pensions today. The local government scheme is funded. Most of them are not funded. They are pay-as-you-go schemes. Lower paid people will not be asked to pay more. As I say, 750,000 low paid public sector workers will have to pay nothing extra at all as a result of these changes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I would be more than happy to meet a delegation such as my hon. Friend suggests. As he knows, this Government are pursuing a radical agenda of devolution, not just to the devolved Administrations within the UK, but to the regions and communities within England.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

T9. As a result of his Government’s economic policies, youth unemployment in Nottingham is back up to the level it reached the last time the Tories were in power. The Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire chamber of commerce is calling on Ministers to reprioritise their spending plans to promote growth, investment and exports. The Deputy Prime Minister would not listen to our concerns on police cuts. Is he going to listen to our concerns on growth and jobs?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As I have said, I accept that we need to do more. I do not believe that the generation born in the boom should suffer most in the bust, but I remind the hon. Lady that this is quite a complex issue. Youth unemployment has been increasing steadily since 2004; it increased by 40% during the Labour Government’s time in office. I am leading some work on this in Government and I hope to make an announcement soon, particularly in relation to youngsters who are trying to make the transition from education into work. If she has any ideas on this I am very keen to listen to her.

Public Disorder

Lilian Greenwood Excerpts

Thursday 11th August 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady makes an important point. In my statement I said that we would extend the power that the police have—at present they can do it only in limited circumstances with limited people—so that they have a more blanket power of insisting that people remove face masks.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

People in Nottingham are understandably shocked and very frightened by some appalling incidents in some parts of our city on Monday and Tuesday nights. I want to pay tribute to Nottinghamshire police for bringing the situation under control and arresting those responsible. What plans does the Prime Minister have to meet residents and community leaders in Nottingham to listen to their concerns and hear what they believe needs to be done to learn the lessons of recent days?

[The Prime Minister]

It is important that Ministers make a number of visits, as I have been doing over recent days and will do over coming days. I think the Deputy Prime Minister plans to visit Nottingham very shortly. I do not plan to do so at present, but I will be trying to get to as many parts of the country as I can.