(1 week ago)
Commons ChamberOrder. It may be helpful to Members to know that I will run this session until 11.45 am. It would therefore be very helpful if we had short questions and answers, so that I can get in as many Members as possible.
Leicestershire was one of the areas hit by significant flooding. Fortunately, my constituency is relatively okay, bar pockets such as Shenton, Barwell, Sheepy Magna and Witherley. The problem is that they do not hit the Government’s threshold for funding because they are too small and often experience flooding only to roads and connectors, rather than houses. Will the Leader of the House write to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask him to reconsider the formula, and to provide for isolated communities that are cut off but do not get breaches into houses? That problem is fundamentally difficult to solve.
(1 month ago)
Commons ChamberOn a point of order, Ms Nokes. We are debating the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill, in which I am not sure that Brexit is mentioned. I look to your leadership to decide whether the hon. Gentleman is in order.
I thank the hon. Member for his point of order. He will be aware that it is important that Members stay in order. The hon. Member for Milton Keynes North (Chris Curtis) has given some context in his speech, but he might be reminded of the need to stick to national insurance contributions.
I thank the hon. Member for his point of order, and for giving advance notice of it. He will be aware that there is no general rule against Members referring to matters that are devolved to Scotland. There are some restrictions on the tabling of questions on devolved matters, but those restrictions are far from absolute. Questions that relate to various matters, including those in which UK Ministers have taken an official interest, are permitted. More generally, as ever, what right hon. and hon. Members may say in the House is subject to the discretion of the Chair.
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On Thursday 14 November, I tabled a UQ that was successful. In a supplementary question, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) said that he was disappointed, “to put it mildly”, that I was unable to mention any of the funding that the Government had put into the NHS. In the two minutes that I spoke, I mentioned that funding three times. I have since written to the hon. Member to make him aware of that. He has apologised; however, I look for your guidance on how he may correct the record.
I am grateful to the hon. Member for having given notice of his point of order. As he well knows, the Chair is not responsible for the accuracy of hon. Members’ speeches, but he has put his point on the record and confirmed that he has written to the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East. I am sure that settles the matter.
(4 months, 1 week ago)
Commons ChamberOn a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I seek your guidance. I was under the impression that in the Chamber we should refer to Members, Friends or even the constituency. Is that correct?
The hon. Member is absolutely correct. May I just helpfully point out to all hon. and right hon. Members that, in seeking to make repeated interventions, they are actually cutting into each other’s time? I have made the point previously about the correct way to address each other, through me as Deputy Speaker. Interventions need to be a great deal shorter because they are just cutting into the time for the debate and there are an awful lot of Members who wish to contribute.