Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Tuesday 10th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I think single-sentence questions are now required.

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

In the light of the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham), when is the Secretary of State going to reply to my letter asking when longer sentences for causing death by dangerous driving will be introduced into legislation, as was promised in October last year?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Wednesday 28th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Liz McInnes. [Interruption.]

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

T3. I do not usually get that reception. The South Sudanese Government are preventing effective non-governmental organisations such as Christian Aid from providing aid to those who desperately need it in South Sudan. What more can be done to put pressure on that Government to allow such charities the access that they need?

Office for Students: Appointment

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Monday 8th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am looking to end these exchanges at quarter past 5, so Members need to be very brief.

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

The Ministers says that he condemns Toby’s Young’s past comments, but the only appropriate condemnation would be to remove him from the board of the Office for Students. Does the Minister agree that a suitable replacement would be a representative from the University and College Union, so that university staff have a voice on the board?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Members can ask questions consisting of no more than one sentence each.

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

What funds are being made available to our mental health services to meet the additional demands placed on them by changes in the Mental Health Act 1983, which came into force on 11 December this year?

Business of the House

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Thursday 16th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Thank you.

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

Will the Leader of the House inform the House when the results of the consultation on the penalties for causing death by dangerous driving will come before Parliament and be enshrined in law?

Adult Social Care Funding

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Thursday 6th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This is a hugely important subject and there is extensive interest. I would like to accommodate it all, but we do have another urgent question to follow, then business questions, and then a heavily subscribed debate. May I please now ask colleagues to be good enough to pose single sentence, pithy questions, and of course appeal to the Minister to provide comparably pithy replies?

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

We have an appalling case of abuse in a small private care home in my constituency that resulted in prison sentences for the two people involved. What is the Minister going to do to raise standards in small private care homes?

Public Sector Pay Cap

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Mr Stephens, you are a very excitable denizen of the House. I had been intending to call you, but I think I will leave you to simmer down for a few minutes in the hope that you can recover such poise and composure as are available to you.

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

The Labour Government brought in Agenda for Change for NHS staff, which finally put us—I was one of those NHS staff—on a fair rate of pay with an independent pay review body, but since 2010 the coalition Government and the Tory Government have systematically undermined Agenda for Change pay rates by capping and freezing wages. The Government are all too ready to describe NHS workers as fantastic, but giving them a fair pay award is just that—fantasy. Is it not time that the Government put their money where their mouth is?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Tuesday 10th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

As I have just been advised by our most esteemed procedural expert in the House, we do not need a lecture in each of these cases. We need a pithy question and a pithy reply.

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

On Sunday, the Foreign Secretary met Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, a man whose website is synonymous with anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, the hero worship of Vladimir Putin and the promotion of extremist far-right movements across the world. May I ask the Foreign Secretary how he and Mr Bannon got on?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Monday 24th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I think the Minister meant outside the Chamber.

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

7. What steps he is taking to ensure that the planning system encourages the building of more affordable homes to rent or buy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Monday 11th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Thank you for reminding us of Ruskin.

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

T6. The Home Secretary recently said at the launch of the Conservatives’ PCC election campaign that “the Conservative Government has protected overall police spending for the next four years”.However, Sir Andrew Dilnot, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, has confirmed House of Commons Library research that shows that forces will see a £160 million cut next year alone. In the light of that, and given the importance of the upcoming elections, will the Home Secretary admit that funding for our police forces has not been protected and is being cut again for each of the next four years?

Junior Doctors: Industrial Action

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Thursday 24th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

That will come after business questions, and I feel sure that the hon. Lady will be in her place, perched and ready to pounce with her point of order at the appropriate moment. We will await that prospect, I am sure, with eager anticipation.

Under-occupancy Penalty

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Thursday 28th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. If it were, I would have ruled thus, and it was not, so I did not—we will leave it at that. I am always grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his advice, even if it is proffered from a sedentary position but, in this instance, it suffers from the material disadvantage of being wrong.

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

I just want to put a simple question asked by Mr Paul Rutherford himself: why are the Government spending taxpayers’ money on an appeal?

Flooding

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Monday 7th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Indeed, the hon. Gentleman is always willing to help. We are grateful to him.

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

Like everybody in the House, I pay tribute to all our emergency services for the magnificent work they have done and continue to do. At present, however, there is no formal expectation that fire and rescue services will actually attend floods in England and Wales. Does the Secretary of State agree that, to ensure an effective, safe and robust response to flooding, we should follow the example of Scotland and Northern Ireland and make it a statutory duty for firefighters in England and Wales to respond to flooding?

Barts Health NHS Trust

Debate between Liz McInnes and John Bercow

Thursday 19th March 2015 Commons Chamber

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

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris), I am not from London, but I do feel qualified to speak on this subject. The issues that have been raised about staff morale and the “down banding” of nurses are all too familiar to me. Until October last year I worked for the NHS—I worked for the NHS for more than 30 years—and what is going on at Barts is very similar to what was going on in the trust in the north-west where I worked. Again, it was a large trust, having been formed by the merger of four hospitals. It is an unworkable plan. As my hon. Friend said, we warned about what was going to happen with the Health and Social Care Bill, and it is depressing to see all this come to fruition. The cost of agency staff, which has been referred to—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. May I exhort the hon. Lady to come to a question? I know she has provided her diagnosis, and we are grateful to her for that, but what we need is a question.

[Liz McInnes]

My question is regarding the trade unions and the welfare of staff. Staff morale is at an all-time low in the NHS, and trade unions need to be involved in any special measures that are taken in this trust.