Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

The Government will certainly consider that issue. The hon. Gentleman will understand that I cannot make any announcements at this stage about the contents of the upcoming Queen’s Speech, which will put forward a programme of legislation that is designed to address the issues faced by this country, but I will ensure that Ministers are aware of his concern.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

The British Retail Consortium’s crime report for 2014-15 found that there were 41 incidents of violence and abuse per 1,000 retail employees, which is up from 32 incidents per 1,000 employees in the previous year. Three million people work in our retail industry, and I do not need to say how important their work is to our local and national economies. May we have an urgent debate about that unacceptable level of violence against our retail workers?

[Chris Grayling]

Any violence against a retail worker is unacceptable, as are the levels of violence that the hon. Lady describes. The police have many powers to deal with that and to charge and prosecute people, and I hope they will always view that as an important area in which to take action. The Home Secretary will come before the House on Monday week, so perhaps the hon. Lady will raise the issue with her then.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 4th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I have to congratulate my hon. Friend on his diligence on this matter; the hedgehog has a much better chance of survival with him around than might otherwise have been the case. If he secures 100,000 signatures on his petition, I am almost certain that the Petitions Committee will feel obliged to have a debate on it. Given how strongly he has pushed the issue in the House, I am sure that his request will also have universal support across the House.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

My constituent David Chamber has raised with me his not uncommon problem: he is a graduate unable to find graduate work. The Prime Minister has said that he does not want foreign graduates doing what he describes as “menial” labour. May we have an urgent debate on what help we can give our UK graduates to get graduate jobs, on which the student loan repayment system depends?

[Chris Grayling]

When I was employment Minister in 2010, and we had inherited unemployment levels almost twice as high as they are now, conversations with young people entering the job market were challenging. Today, the situation is very different—unemployment has come down by almost half and job opportunities for young people in this country are better than they have been for a very long time. Under Labour, things went badly wrong; this Government have sorted them out.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 28th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Let us be clear that disability discrimination, in whatever form, is not acceptable—I agree with the hon. Lady on that point. I will ensure that the Minister for the Cabinet Office reads her comments and the parliamentary questions. I would not condone in any way, shape or form discrimination against, or the bullying of, disabled people.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

I reiterate the request from the shadow Leader of the House for an urgent statement on the UK’s application to the EU solidarity fund following the catastrophic flooding in the north of England and in Scotland in December 2015. Given that we are rapidly approaching the deadline from the date of the first damage caused by the disaster, are we in danger of running out of time?

[Chris Grayling]

We took the view early on that the best thing to do was to provide financial support as quickly as possible to those areas affected, and we have done that. The hon. Lady will be able to question the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs next week, but the priority for us has been to get money and support into the areas affected and we have been doing that for weeks.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

The most straightforward option is to shop around. There have been price reductions, and they tend to be among the smaller, newer entrants to the market. We have taken significant steps to encourage a broader range of providers to enter the market, and the number has risen from six to the best part of 30 providers. There are now some much better deals around. The way to get a cheaper price is to shop around, and we should do everything we can to encourage people to switch easily and to chase the best option.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

May we have a debate on the recent report from the Museums Association, which reveals that nearly one in five regional museums has closed a part or a branch to the public over the past year, with the north of England being particularly affected because of reductions in local authority funding from central Government?

[Chris Grayling]

We cannot dictate what local authorities do with their money, but what I can say is that in the spending review we protected the money that goes to cultural institutions precisely because we recognise their importance. We as a Government will continue to do that, but it is for local councils to set their own local priorities.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 10th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Several Departments have made commitments to update the House on a variety of matters before the Christmas recess. I simply give an assurance that every Department is working hard to ensure that it fulfils such commitments.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

I reiterate the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff Central (Jo Stevens). Sports Direct has 450 stores nationwide and should be an exemplar as an employer. May we have an urgent debate on how the closure of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs offices will help us to enforce the national minimum wage?

[Chris Grayling]

The changes in the HMRC structure are simply because, as more and more of its work is done online and more and more of us deal with our tax affairs electronically, maintaining a network of 170 offices does not make sense. We have decided to rationalise the structure to one with more specialist centres, which will enhance, rather than detract from, what HMRC does.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 19th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Any large-scale job loss in this country—indeed, any job loss—is unwelcome, and the Government will work with all those in Teesside and other areas who have been affected by recent developments. We will do everything possible to ease the immediate impact of those job losses, and to secure appropriate investment to replace jobs that are lost. That will always be our priority. The Prime Minister said yesterday that CCS is being considered by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. We have just had questions to DECC, and if the hon. Gentleman did not have the opportunity to raise that issue with the Secretary of State, I will ensure that she is made aware of his concerns. She will no doubt bring forward further information about her plans in due course.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

May we have an urgent debate or statement on the junior doctors dispute, given that 98% of junior doctors who voted have voted overwhelmingly for a full strike? The turnout was 76%, which is satisfactory by anyone’s standards. Is the Health Secretary’s position tenable, given that he has clearly lost the confidence of our junior doctors?

[Chris Grayling]

I spoke to the Department of Health this morning and I reassure the hon. Lady that the Health Secretary will soon make a statement in the House. The House must be informed about what is happening, and more information will soon be provided.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 5th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for the work he does on an issue that transcends party lines. Good work is done by all political parties in raising awareness of the challenges faced by people with hearing loss. Rightly or wrongly, of course, we have taken a decision to devolve responsibility to local areas for commissioning and spending decisions on healthcare matters. I hope that the hon. Gentleman’s advocacy will encourage those parts of the country that might have taken a decision with which he disagrees to change their views. It is a consequence of devolution that there will sometimes be different decisions in different areas, whether we support them or not.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Yesterday, I attended a parliamentary event at which businesses that pay the real living wage showcased their products. From micro-breweries to organic food suppliers, they all talked about the benefits of being a living wage employer—from better staff morale to improved public perception. May we have a debate on how to encourage more employers to sign up to the real living wage, as set by the Living Wage Foundation, and thus achieve the high-pay economy this Government talk so much about?

[Chris Grayling]

Clearly, we want to see wage levels rise. That is why we have taken the steps that we have. This matter will be debated constantly in this place. We have seen the introduction of our own national living wage, and we have different economic debates at different times of the year, so the hon. Lady will have plenty of opportunities to raise this issue. I encourage all employers to look hard at the challenges faced by their employees and to look to try to pay the right wage for the environment in which those employees are working. The more we see employers paying a higher rate for jobs—not just a basic rate or just a living wage, as we want to see wages rise above that—the better it will be for this country. That can happen, of course, only if the economy is growing strongly, as it is now.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Last week, the Prime Minister said that he did not want anyone reliant on food banks, yet this week, the Work and Pensions Secretary told the Select Committee that he planned to station job advisers in food banks. Is it right for extreme food poverty to become an accepted element of DWP national planning? May we have a debate on this proposal and on the plight of the starving poor?

[Chris Grayling]

The hon. Lady has got this plain wrong. I remind her that the use of food banks in this country is much lower than in Germany, for example, and it is simply not true that food bank usage can be linked to Government policy. Surely if we have people who are in need of food banks, we should be helping them into work to lift themselves out of poverty. Making sure that jobcentre advisers are aware of what is going on in food banks seems to me sensible, as we try to help those people do better with their lives.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I know that the United Nations has looked at that matter closely. The Government are extremely concerned about what has happened in the Maldives and want to see the issue addressed. The Foreign Secretary will be here next Tuesday for Foreign Office questions, so I encourage my hon. Friend to take advantage of that opportunity. We should always stand up when political leaders are imprisoned inappropriately. We should be, as we always have been, a beacon of liberty for political protesters suffering in that way.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz), I would like to request an urgent debate on today’s report from the Care Quality Commission, which states that two thirds of our hospitals are offering substandard care, that one in eight are rated as inadequate for safety and that three quarters overall are rated as requiring improvement.

[Chris Grayling]

As I said earlier, the reason we have the new regime, and why we go through these performance assessments, is precisely so that we can drive up quality and performance. Where hospitals have been put in special measures as a result of the CQC’s work, we have seen measurable improvements in the quality of care, which is something we should all welcome.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

We are—I believe rightly—good citizens in the world when it comes to providing development support where it is needed, but none of us would ever condone illegal practices; in fact, we have some of the world’s toughest and most highly regarded anti-corruption laws. I will make sure that the Secretary of State for International Development is made aware of the concerns that the hon. Gentleman has raised.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Yesterday, I met a representative from Addaction, which provides drug and alcohol treatment services to prisons. She explained that because of staff shortages prisoners simply cannot be escorted for their treatments. May we have an urgent debate on the difficulties experienced in implementing drug and alcohol treatment regimes in our prisons?