Youth Service Provision

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Julie Hilling]

I agree. Anybody who has worked with young people knows that if their heads are not in the right place, they cannot learn. I used to manage a project for looked-after young people, who were put in small groups with qualitative professional workers to work through their issues. Sticking them in a classroom and trying to stuff their heads full of facts was not working. The facts were being kept out by the mess in their lives—they did not know what was going on in their lives and they did not have good relationships with adults. Providing that space did more than allow those young people to be themselves; it enabled them to learn, participate, take part, get ready for work and take up their role in the world. It fulfilled an important part of those young people’s development.

I shall quote from Choose Youth, an organisation that shows that the Government have done something right. They have brought together all the practitioners in the voluntary and statutory sectors in youth work—that was unknown in the past—in an organisation that seeks to defend and promote youth work. Choose Youth says:

“What is youth work and why is it important?...Youth work as a professional educational practice uniquely inspires, educates, empowers, takes the side of young people and amplifies their voice. Unlike other interventions with young people it combines these elements in a relationship that young people freely choose to make with their youth workers. From this relationship a curriculum of learning and activities is developed that build on the positive and enhance social and personal education.”

Youth work is sometimes a place, such as a centre. Sometimes it takes place on the streets, sometimes in projects—in arts or sports projects in a variety of settings. What is unique, however, is that it is, first, an informal relationship that young people can choose to be part of—they do not have to be part of it. Secondly, the relationship is based on their terms; the youth worker tries to find out what young people actually want and need, rather than what the youth worker, as an adult, thinks they want and need. There is, therefore, a voluntary relationship and the ability for young people to develop and to choose their own curriculum.

As a youth worker—I apologise to all the young people I worked with over the years for this—I never had a conversation that was truly about what they thought about “Brookside” the night before or what they did the weekend before, because all those conversations were fundamental starting points for exploring other issues. We would use soaps to talk about date rape, and we would use things that were going on to talk about drugs, sex or relationships. Yes, we would teach young people about condoms and how to have positive sexual relationships, but there was a whole mix when it came to working with young people.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

I am listening with interest to what my hon. Friend is saying. In terms of the horrendous examples of child sexual exploitation we have seen across the country, with more surely to come over the next few years, does she agree that there is a reason why, in every serious case review we read, it is charities that have raised the alarm? They take the time and have the space to develop relationships with young people, exactly as she is outlining. That is why cutting these organisations, which are doing such important work, is so short-sighted.

[Julie Hilling]

I was going to talk about that issue, but I will pick it up now. If we look at the reports about Rotherham and Rochdale, we see it was youth workers who took the side of young people and started to raise issues. They said, “Things are not right here. These young people need to be listened to.” Indeed, they are perhaps the only professionals who come out well from those reports.

Youth work is also about challenging attitudes. It is not necessarily about taking the side of young people and deciding they are absolutely right, but about challenging their attitudes, their racism and their sexism. It is about challenging them to think about the world so that they do not just walk into the world and accept their place, but challenge the world as well. If they see injustice, they can challenge it by working together, not by rioting on the streets. Part of the legislation is that the voice of youth is central and that young people have a right to a voice.

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[Lisa Nandy]

Given the problems that the hon. Gentleman outlined about non-statutory services becoming poorer and less of a priority in times of trouble, does he support a statutory youth service?

[Andrew Percy]

I am open to debate on that. I do not have a particularly strong view one way or the other. Provision for young people is something that local authorities should just want to make, because it is part of their core function. If we have local democracy those decisions should be for local councillors, and if they do not choose to provide those services local people have the option of throwing them out. Young people can play an important role in that if more of them vote. I always say to young people that the reason they do not have a free bus pas when pensioners do can be seen from the turnout figures.

I have been painting a rosy picture up to now.

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[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) on securing the debate and on his opening speech. He is right to situate what has happened to youth services in the context of what has happened to support for and the focus on young people over the past few years. Support has collapsed in some areas where it is most needed. He mentioned the education maintenance allowance and the careers service among other things. The speeches and interventions made by my hon. Friends show how strongly Labour feels about youth services and demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that all young people have access to a high-quality, open-access and appropriately funded youth service.

We believe that it is important to set that benchmark because of what we have seen happening in recent years, with huge pressures being placed on local authority budgets, but we are not prescriptive about how it should be delivered locally, or what it should look like. However, where we are clear and where we perhaps differ from this Government—unless the Minister is going to say something very exciting in his closing speech—is in our belief the Government have a clear role in ensuring that that offer to young people is made clear to local government and is delivered in every community around the country. I agreed with much of what the hon. Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) said. The difficulty is that what we have seen over the years is that some local authorities absolutely get this issue and understand it, but not all. The key question for national Government is what to do when that commitment is not being delivered in some local areas where people simply do not get it.

My own local authority, Wigan, has had real challenges with this. We have had the third worst budget cuts in the entire country, but the fact that there are three MPs in Westminster Hall today who represent parts of that borough—my hon. Friends the Members for Makerfield (Yvonne Fovargue) and for Bolton West (Julie Hilling), and myself—shows that there is a strong commitment from us as elected politicians to try to protect those services.

One of the exciting things that has happened in Wigan in the past few years is the youth zone that we have managed to set up. It is an example of some of the things that Members have talked about today. It is a way of doing things differently, because it is a partnership between the OnSide charity, the local authority, local entrepreneurs and businesses, the community, and, most important of course, young people themselves, who have been involved from the outset in campaigning for this service, designing it and now running it, as well as using it. It is not the beginning and end of the whole story in terms of the youth services that we need in our borough, but it is a real achievement at a time when the local authority budget in particular and the community are under such strain.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the free bus service that runs from my area, which is an outlying area of the borough? The authorities recognised that young people from the outlying areas of the borough were not using that service, and they have done something immediately to try to solve that problem.

[Lisa Nandy]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight that, and it is one of the reasons why I congratulated my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North for situating this debate in the wider context of what is happening to young people. Transport costs are the key thing that young people always raise with me and, I am sure, many other Members, and it is important that we think about that when we consider services for young people.

There are some other startling examples of local authorities doing something really exciting. The hon. Member for Brigg and Goole is right to acknowledge the impact that the cuts have had but also to say that this is not just about funding. For example, I think that many Members will be aware of a project in Lambeth that I have heard about and seen for myself. Lambeth took the huge amounts that it was spending on young people through various budgets and put it into a trust, which anyone in the community over the age of 12 could join. It was weighted towards young people, so that they retained control, and it gave the community the power to take real decisions about how services were commissioned and delivered and what they looked like. My understanding is that that project has been a remarkable success. It points to a key feature of successful youth services; the most successful ones are those that involve young people in commissioning, designing and delivering them, where possible.

However, we know from our experience of looking at youth services that what works in Lambeth does not necessarily work in Liverpool. That is why I have said that there needs to be a clear minimum offer from this Government. Labour is clearly committed to that, but not to prescription about on how it should be delivered. Labour Members have previously said that we are open to strengthening the statutory duty to provide youth services, and I have listened carefully to the contributions by hon. Members on that point, but I think we must recognise that, on its own, a statutory duty is not enough. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West said, we already have a statutory duty, limited though it is, and it is not being fulfilled around the country. Labour is very attracted by the possibility of introducing a duty to ensure that young people are involved from the outset in designing and commissioning youth services, and we wonder whether the Minister might share that aspiration; if he does, perhaps he will say something about it today.

There is also a clear need to ensure that young people can hold the people who make these decisions to account. That is one of the reasons why Labour is committed to introducing votes at 16. I hope that the Minister will listen to that argument and consider carefully how young people can hold their elected politicians to account for their decisions if they do not have the vote.

I should also mention briefly concerns about the work force. I want to be fair to the Minister, so I will say that some of the problems in the youth service work force predate the coalition. In 2008, a survey by the National Youth Agency found that a third of councils were not investing at all in the professional development of youth workers. That was really worrying then, but I dread to think what the figure is now, several years after the huge cuts that we have had. Can the Minister tell us? There is a real risk that we will run down the quality of our services and then turn around and say to young people that those services are not worth saving in any case.

There is no question that the last four years have been absolutely horrendous for this sector, and I do not want to lose sight of that. We have lost good, skilled staff, and many more are under significant strain, dealing with low pay, job insecurity and the prospect of redundancies. This really matters, because as my hon. Friends the Members for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) and for Stockton North said, behind the loss of all those youth workers—2,000 of them during the last few years—is a story of broken relationships. I once worked with a young person who had grown up in and out of care. He was 18 when I first came across him and he told me that the only consistent adult in his life since he was 11 had been his youth worker. When we lose good, skilled staff, we break that link and that bond, and the damage is irreparable.

Regarding the National Citizen Service, I say to the Minister that although I support many of the things that my hon. Friends have said, and I myself have also had a parmo with some of the young people from Redcar who have taken part in NCS, it is no substitute for long-term, ongoing youth services provided all year round. It is a short-term intervention and it is very expensive. If we come to power in May next year, we are not planning to make the same mistake that this Government did with the v scheme, and simply tear something up because another party has established it, but we are very concerned about the cost of NCS. My hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North drew a parallel between the amount of money that the German Federal Government spend on year-round youth work and the money that this Government spend on short-term interventions.

The other thing to say is that young people spend 85% of their time out of school, yet each year local authorities spend 55 times more on formal education than they do on providing services for young people outside the school day. We need to get a bit of a grip on this, because when this Government agreed to protect ring-fencing for school funding they did not do the same for additional activities. They abolished ring-fenced grants for—

[Alex Cunningham]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Lisa Nandy]

If my hon. Friend does not mind, I will not give way, as I have only a couple of minutes left and I wanted to make some last points.

As I was saying, the Government abolished the ring-fenced grants for additional activities. They inherited spending of £350 million per year on those activities, which equated to about £77 per young person aged between 13 and 19. A previous Minister responsible for this area said that that equated to

“large slugs of public money”.

I hope that the current Minister will take the opportunity to reject that view and tell us that he thinks young people are worth at least £77 of our money per head.

Over the past four years, Ministers have passed on responsibility to the very same local authorities that they are hammering with budget cuts. Frankly there was only ever going to be one result, because at the same time the money that helped to sustain youth services was put into an early intervention grant, which was also used to fund Sure Starts and services dealing with teen pregnancy, substance misuse and mental health, before being cut again by up to 40%. I say to the Minister: what sort of message does that send to young people about our commitment to them? If my hon. Friend the former Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East were here, he would say that this approach is so short-sighted, particularly given all the issues about child protection and children in the criminal justice system that we have discussed.

I also wanted to say to the Minister that some local authorities have cut way beyond the average. Have he or any of his colleagues ever considered using the powers that they have under the Education Act 2006 to intervene where they see youth services being cut disproportionately and the statutory duty that exists in that Act not being met?

In 2011, the Minister’s predecessor as Minister for Civil Society said,

“we are working with our strategic partners to gather information about what is happening on the ground”.

Has that happened and has it been published? What discussions has he had with local authorities?

This is not simply a question of money; it is about priorities. My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West said, quite rightly, that the emergence of a significant youth service can be traced back to post-world war two and “In the Service of Youth”. It was a time when the country was facing the most significant financial challenge in its history. This is not just a question of what we say to our young people; it is about what sort of country we want to be. Do we want to be forward-looking, confident, ambitious and invest in our young people, their talent and energy, or do we want to watch the sad disintegration of the services that they rely on over the next few years? I know what our answer is.

Chilcot Inquiry (Costs)

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2014 Westminster Hall

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

I want to express our gratitude to the hon. Member for Broadland (Mr Simpson) for securing this important debate, which we welcome. His tone and approach were exactly right. One of the difficulties of trying to take a forensic approach to such complex and controversial events as the Iraq war is that often the facts are clouded or distorted by people’s emotions. The hon. Gentleman chose the right approach, trying to ensure that we record, and keep in the public mind, something so important to the British people. He was right, also, to say that we need to learn the lessons of the event, and consider the costs—both the financial costs, and costs in the fullest sense.

Many hon. Members, including me, represent families that have been deeply affected by the conflict. The report is important to them, and it will be difficult for them to bear it, when it is published. I agree that their lack of certainty is difficult, and that as far as possible we should try to ensure that they know what to expect, and when to expect it. I shall listen with interest to what the Minister says about those points.

The Iraq war was a crucial moment in our history. It was complex and controversial, dividing the nation, friends and families. Feelings about the events leading up to the war, the war itself, and the aftermath in this country and throughout the world, are still strong. The eyes of the world will be on us as we publish the report. The war was a key moment in our history and it matters that we should learn the lessons. The then Prime Minister said when he announced the inquiry in 2009 that it would

“strengthen the health of our democracy, our diplomacy and our military”—[Official Report, 15 June 2009; Vol. 494, c. 23.]

It was right to announce the inquiry: it was the right thing to do then, and it remains the right thing now.

Given the context, it was also right to establish the inquiry as fully independent of Government. The hon. Member for Broadland referred to that fact. We recognise and accept that there will be certain things that the Government can and cannot do in relation to the inquiry. That is right and proper. Given the circumstances of the conflict, there is no other basis on which the inquiry could have had the necessary legitimacy. It was also essential to give it a broad remit, including the time span of 2001 to 2009, which I understand was unprecedented. It covered the run-up to the conflict, the action itself and the aftermath. The Prime Minister said at the time that the report would

“disclose all but the most sensitive information”—[Official Report, 15 June 2009; Vol. 494, c. 23.]

That was extremely important, and we have learned from past inquiries how important it is to get that right at the very beginning. However it was always going to be complex in practice. It was to be expected that it would take time to work through that.

Of course a balance is needed between the time it takes to conduct an inquiry, the costs incurred, and the need to put as much information in the public domain as possible without compromising our security or stability, or people’s lives. I shall listen with interest to the Minister when he tells us what he can about the progress that has been made in that important respect.

The hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) was right to draw attention to the Saville inquiry. For me, the events around Hillsborough are also very close to home. I represent many of the Hillsborough families, and we have learned many things from that awful event and from the process which has been drawn out for nearly a quarter of a century, with families fighting for justice.

If we do not take the time to get this right, to put as much information as possible in the public domain and to support a thorough investigation that commands families’ confidence, we shall compound their misery and anxiety for a very long time. Families here and in Iraq will be watching closely. I know from working with Hillsborough families that when the report is published, the families involved will relive their experience all over again. It is important to take the time to get the inquiry right and to recognise that the balancing act is difficult because of the costs and the period between the Iraq war and when the report is published.

In initiating this debate, the hon. Member for Broadland (Mr Simpson) has helped to keep the matter in the public’s mind, and for that we are extremely grateful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 30th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

Will the Minister explain why the newly announced £40 million fund to help struggling charities will only come into force in 2015? Many charities are saying that they will not survive another six months because of this Government’s policies. Is this not a case of too little, too late?

[Mr Hurd]

No, I do not accept that. The hon. Lady ignores the fact that the Government have already provided almost £200 million in transition funding for front-line charities and infrastructure organisations to help them through difficult times. We have managed to secure some additional money in the 2015-16 Budget to support more transition work, particularly for middle-sized charities, which we think is needed. She is ignoring all the help we have given so far.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I wholly support my hon. Friend. He is a great champion of the big society and is entirely right that a large pillar of that is giving more power to the people. As we have learned today, there is only one party that will give people the power to make that important choice.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

The Archbishop of Westminster, Civil Exchange and the Centre for Social Justice have all delivered damning verdicts on the Government’s big society recently. They have shown that people are being thrown on to charity, because the state has failed; that there are three times as many charities in affluent neighbourhoods as in deprived ones; and that while volunteering is thriving, it is not in the places where it is needed most. Was it the intention of the big society that some would swim while others would sink?

[Mr Hurd]

In fact, the excellent Centre for Social Justice report actually highlighted how much progress this Government have made in doing what we said we would do, which is transferring power to people, opening up public services so that more and more organisations can come in to help us to deliver better services, and encouraging social action. As I said, giving in this country has remained constant since 2010 and volunteering has risen, which I hope the hon. Lady would welcome.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

The answer is simply because a deal with China is very different from a deal with the US. The US and the EU both have long traditions of due legal process. If the hon. Gentleman looks at the representations being made by business and investors, he will see that there is very little call for the arrangements. The strongest advocate to date has been the European Commission, which is why I think the pause it has put on further discussions is so significant, although it did so only because it was put under significant pressure by those who had concerns, perhaps including Mr Monbiot in The Guardian.

These trade negotiations are about a potential trade deal like no other. They are the biggest ever bilateral trade talks, because together the EU and the US account for 30% of global trade and almost 50% of the world’s output. They are also the best prepared talks ever, because the serious work was going on for almost two years before the talks were formally launched, and they are the most ambitious negotiations ever, because for the first time in history this would be an agreement between economic equals, without any significant imbalance in power and wealth.

This is, therefore, a deal like no other, but it is being conducted at a time like no other, because since the 2008 global financial crisis and world downturn, faith in politicians, established civil servants and big business is at an all-time low and mistrust at an all-time high. I think that heightens the sense that past trade talks have been unjustifiably conducted in secret, controlled by a few big countries and often dominated by the interests of multinational companies.

A symptom of that current suspicion led War on Want to assert in a well-written report last week:

“TTIP is…correctly understood not as a negotiation between two competing trading partners, but as an attempt by transnational corporations to prise open and deregulate markets on both sides of the Atlantic.”

I quote that not because I agree with it, but because it is a sign of the degree of opposition and hostility to—and to some extent the lack of understanding of what is really at the heart of—the negotiations, which is fashioning the debate at present.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend and colleagues from across the House for initiating this debate. Does he share my concern that many of the people we represent who are on zero-hours contracts and dealing with insecurity in the labour market will look at the United States, which is among those countries to have ratified the fewest International Labour Organisation conventions in the world, and be really concerned that this agreement, which could be very good for all of us, may actually make the situation worse for them? Would my right hon. Friend welcome a response from the Minister to that?

[John Healey]

I would indeed. My hon. Friend is right: the US has failed to sign six central ILO conventions on labour standards, including freedom of association and other workplace concerns. It may be that a deal such as this could have damaging consequences for already insecure workers in the European Union and the UK, but on the other hand it might not lower standards and it might bring an economic and jobs boost that would benefit many in Britain. That is what we have to secure and we have to make sure that my hon. Friend’s concerns are set to one side and not realised.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As was said earlier, we announced last week that five national organisations and every local authority in Great Britain will be sharing £4.2 million-worth of new resources to maximise registration. As my hon. Friend mentioned schools, it is worth remembering that next September a new citizenship programme will be taught that stipulates that pupils in schools should learn about parliamentary democracy and citizenship more widely. That is another opportunity to raise the profile of the importance of getting young people registered on the electoral roll.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

The Deputy Prime Minister promised this week that there will be no politicisation of Ofsted, so will he take this opportunity to restore some of the public confidence that has been lost in recent days and give the House an assurance that the major Conservative party donor, Theodore Agnew, will not be appointed as chair of Ofsted, which the Education Secretary is reportedly trying to achieve?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I can certainly reassure the hon. Lady and the House that any appointments to Ofsted, or indeed any other important public bodies, will conform to the code for the appointment to public bodies, and that the panel that is being established to put forward candidates for that new Ofsted position will be entirely independent and will be asked to propose candidates based only on merit. There will be no political interference in the creation of the short-list of candidates whatsoever.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I would be delighted to have such a conversation. We have had very constructive conversations so far with the cadets about links that could be made with the National Citizen Service. As we look to expand it very ambitiously, we are obviously open to conversations with any organisations that can help.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

The Minister has previously said that youth services are too easy a target for cuts, and he was right. In fact, his Government have squeezed councils so hard that they have presided over £300 million- worth of cuts to youth services, but at the same time they have squandered £241 million on free school places in areas where they are not needed. Ministers’ pet projects or young people—will he tell the House which he thinks are more important?

[Mr Hurd]

The hon. Lady totally ignores the reason why there are cuts in the system, which is to get control of the deficit that we inherited. We passionately believe in the value of youth services for young people. That is why we have developed the National Citizen Service, which has an evidence base to support the value that it gives to young people. As I have said, we are now prepared to work with local authorities to see how they can commission, in an innovative way, really effective youth services in their area.

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[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful for what my hon. Friend says about the business environment in Watford. We have helped businesses with taxes. We are helping with red tape. We are helping them with their exports. On red tape, this is going to be the first Government in modern history who at the end of the Parliament will have less regulation in place than at the beginning. I commend the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for its work, and my right hon. Friend the Minister for Government Policy for his heroic efforts to get that legislation and those regulations on to websites so that people can tell us what we can remove. We are on target for scrapping 3,000 regulations under this Government, something of which we can be proud.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

Q13. This month, Cabinet papers have revealed that the Thatcher Government sought to escalate the miners’ strike, close pits and undermine solidarity. The scars from that dispute run deep in communities such as Wigan, where some families have never recovered and where people have died while waiting for justice. Thirty years on, those communities deserve the truth and an apology. Why are they still waiting?

[The Prime Minister]

As the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General said, we now have a system for releasing paperwork from 10, 20 and 30 years ago, and we should stick to that. I have to say that if anyone needs to make an apology for their role in the miners’ strike, it should be Arthur Scargill for the appalling way in which he led that union. While we are at it, if we want to ask about other people’s roles, there was the role of the then leader of the Labour party, who at the time never condemned the fact that they would not hold a ballot. So I think there are lessons for Labour to learn, and judging by their performance today, they have not learned any of them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

Serco leads a consortium that includes many large and small charities. It is an important provider. We manage our providers very carefully, and when there are signs of underperformance, we take action to protect the taxpayer. The hon. Gentleman would not know anything about that because he represents a party that over time has not represented the taxpayer sufficiently. In the case of Serco and that consortium, we took action to protect the taxpayer, and I am proud of that.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

Last year, 6,000 places on the NCS summer scheme went unfilled, while youth services, which provided continuity, stability and a lifeline for many young people, disappeared. With one in three organisations that provide youth services facing closure, what has the Minister got to say to those young people?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 10th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

1. What recent assessment she has made of co-operation between the UK and Irish Governments.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

4. What recent assessment she has made of co-operation between the UK and Irish Governments.

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mrs Theresa Villiers)]

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach said in their joint statement, the relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland has never been stronger or more settled. We particularly value the co-operation that we have received from the Irish Government and the Garda on security matters.

[Mrs Villiers]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that both Governments have warmly welcomed the announcement of that group; it is very timely that the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister have proposed it. I am delighted to tell the House that an independent chair has been confirmed—the eminent Richard Haass from the United States will take on that role. As we will see in forthcoming days, this demonstrates once again the importance of looking at long-term devolved solutions on matters such as flags and parading.

[Lisa Nandy]

The inability of the National Crime Agency to operate in Northern Ireland is a serious impediment to the fight against organised crime, trafficking, paedophile rings and terrorism on both sides of the border. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with the Irish Justice Minister and the Northern Ireland parties to sort this out?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor-General]

Yes, research is important in this area. I sit on a ministerial group on violence against women and girls that is trying to examine these issues, with the help of the voluntary organisations. The right hon. Gentleman makes a good point and I will look into it.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

Given the recent appalling cases involving young victims and witnesses, does the Solicitor-General not agree that the damage done to those young people as they go through the court process is far too great? Is there not a sense of urgency to the issue? This simply cannot wait. Young people should not be put through such appalling damage during the court process when they have already suffered such distress and harm.

[The Solicitor-General]

Yes, I agree. It is right to bear in mind the fact that all those in the legal profession, including the judges, are concerned about the issue too, because what has been happening has been wrong. I agree that the matter is urgent. I welcome “The Advocate’s Gateway”, which is a useful initiative to which all parties have signed up. It should make a major difference. Proper case management is the key.