Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Miller and Laura Sandys

Thursday 31st October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

I will resist saying, “With friends like the hon. Gentleman, who needs enemies.” I thank him for his kind words and, I am sure, the sentiment in which they were meant. Obviously, he is right to say that we have made very good progress, and I hope he will join me in now resisting all calls for any form of statutory regulation of the press, which some others have been trying to impose. He asks me about the timing, and I can tell him that the panel will be set up in the next six to 12 months.

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

T4. A small business in my constituency has had its telephone “slammed”: taken out of its hands and given to a local resident. We have been trying to get redress from Tesco, which has been reallocating these telephones lines. It is affecting the advertising and business costs of this small business; it is losing business and the resident is regularly receiving inquiries about tattoos.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Miller and Laura Sandys

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Lady will know that we are in the process of finalising the assessment criteria for the new personal independence payment. I am sure that she will be reassured to know that I have met a number of organisations that represent blind people. I remind her that with the personal independence payment, we are trying to recognise the barriers that people face to living an independent life, and not simply to categorise them based on their impairment.

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

T9. I thank the Minister for agreeing to come to a jobs fair in Thanet in June. I am sure that he shares everybody else’s pleasure at seeing that there has been a small drop in youth unemployment. What more can I tell the young people of Thanet that we are doing to help them get the jobs that will be advertised at the jobs fair?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Miller and Laura Sandys

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

I thank my hon. Friend for that example. She has just underlined the need for change, because the current system is not working as it should for all constituents. Indeed, there are now 100,000 cases that cannot even be dealt with on the current IT system—costing the taxpayer a great deal of money and, as she points out, the patience of a great many of our constituents.

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.