Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 22nd February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Mark Field—sorry, Mark Prisk. I beg your pardon.

[Mr Mark Prisk (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

As the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Brazil, I have been immensely impressed by the UK companies already operating there, but frankly there are not enough of them. May I urge the Secretary of State to challenge business membership organisations, including the CBI, to ensure that they put exporting at the heart of their work?

[Mr Speaker]

There is more than one Field in the House, but there is only one Prisk.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 15th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

A very alluring prospect, to be accomplished by the right hon. Gentleman probably not without sweat or emotion.

[Mr Mark Prisk (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

Many countries are using non-tariff barriers to block global trade. However, as the Secretary of State is well aware, in countries such as Brazil we are now seeing real progress in the removal of local content regulations. What more can be done to encourage other countries to follow this example?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I must say that there are sounds of some very heavy breathing. I call Mr Mark Prisk.

[Mr Mark Prisk (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

While the hon. Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) is right to draw attention to the difference in the enforcement of existing regulations, neighbouring councils with the same resources often enforce the regulations in radically different ways. May I encourage the Minister not only to promote the best practice in enforcement, but, most important, to challenge councils that are failing to use the powers that they have?

Onshore Wind (Planning Policy)

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 6th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This policy announcement should of course first have been made in this Chamber through an oral statement offered by the Government. Right hon. and hon. Members will appreciate that it was precisely because that offer was not made, which it should have been, that I granted the urgent question from the hon. Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris). We look forward of course to the Minister’s reply.

[Mr Prisk]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The two written ministerial statements are important, but the Government will always note what you have to say on these matters. That is important in this regard.

I welcome my hon. Friend’s wholehearted support for these important changes. I know that he has been an ardent campaigner on these matters, and I very much respect that. It is important that constituency Members of Parliament should feel able to do that. He asked which proposals would be affected by the changes. I must be careful not to mention any specific named applications, but when something has been determined at local level, we clearly cannot reopen it. The changes will not be retrospective. When something is in the planning application system but no decision has been made, local planners and the planning inspectors will now have to give clear consideration—as they would in any other circumstances—to this guidance. That will give comfort not only to Members of the House but to many of the constituents they represent.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Monday 18th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

As always, the hon. Gentleman provides entertaining rhetoric, but the facts are wrong. The net addition to the housing stock, taking into account new homes and our work on empty homes, which we rarely hear about from the Labour party, is 11%. He needs to rehearse his rhetoric more often.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. If the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) had been standing, I would have called her, but she was not, so perhaps I will not. If she wants to, I will.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 24th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

The element of the Beecroft report to which my hon. Friend refers is one of 23 separate measures. We want to ensure that we consider these matters on the basis of good evidence. That is why there is a call for evidence, and once we have had a look at it and weighed the pros against the cons, we will make a decision.

[Mr Speaker]

Before we continue these exchanges, let me say that ordinarily when the Secretary of State is absent, the fact of the absence is explained at the start of Question Time. I can hear Members inquiring about it. I know that the Secretary of State is absent because I have received a letter from him, but let me say for the record that it would be desirable to be told at the outset, and, in general terms, that it is of course highly undesirable for the Secretary of State to be absent on these occasions. It must not become a regular practice.

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

Does the Minister believe that a person who has made a donation of more than £500,000 to the Conservative party and made more than £100 million from equity deals is a fit and proper person to determine Government policy and workers’ rights?

Employment Law (Beecroft Report)

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Monday 21st May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

I think that you, Mr Speaker, would rightly rule me out of order if I went as far as that; and if you did not, the Prime Minister might.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the Minister, and to colleagues for their pithy questioning.

Shipbuilding

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Monday 19th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

I will make progress, if I may.

The Technology Strategy Board is helping to co-ordinate a future technology road map, and UK Trade and Investment has now, as I understand it, made marine a priority sector in our trade and inward investment programmes, which I find extraordinary. It is putting marine right where it needs to be, shipbuilding included.

Next month, my Department will be hosting an exhibition at Victoria street for the UK marine industries, where we can at last showcase some of the brightest and best products and services in the industry. I extend an invitation to the hon. Member for Glasgow North West and all other Members of the House.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I apologise for interrupting the Minister, but may I gently say to the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil)—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Order. To seek to intervene one minute, and then very ostentatiously and blatantly to be fiddling with such a device is a discourtesy, and I simply ask the hon. Gentleman not to do it. There is nothing more to say on the subject.

[Mr Prisk]

I cannot promise the hon. Member for Glasgow North West that we will return to large-scale shipbuilding on the Clyde. I do not think he expected me to say otherwise. He and I both know that we now live in a different era, but a resurgent industrial sector, including shipbuilding, lies at the heart of our plans to try to rebalance the economy and ensure that we have a more resilient model for long-term growth, and to show respect for the quality of the work done both now and in the past by the men and women who work in the shipyards. Despite what some people think, this country remains one of the world’s leading manufacturing nations and, as far as I am concerned, marine engineering remains a vital element of that.

We are a maritime nation, and I believe that, with a clear strategy, with investment in technology and with our commitment to skills, we can ensure that the future for this industry can once again be positive.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 15th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)]

An inquest is taking place this morning into the tragic death of 22-month-old Joshua Wakeham, who died after becoming entangled in a looped curtain cord. Sadly, such events are not rare; there were three in one month recently, and 360 in America in a 15-year period. Joshua’s mother has fairly asked why no one warned her of the danger. A campaign has been mounted by my hon. Friend the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (Gordon Banks) and other Members to expose the danger of those cords. Will the Minister agree to meet Joshua’s family, so that we can discuss the dangers and the need for an advertising campaign so that everyone knows about the 250 million such cords in this country?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. It sounds as though that matter is strictly sub judice. The hon. Gentleman has been felicitous in the way he has worded his question, but I know that, in response, the Minister will want to focus on the broad issue, and possibly on a meeting, rather than on the details of a sub judice case.

[Mr Prisk]

With your guidance, Mr Speaker, I would say to the hon. Gentleman that the broader issue is clearly one that we should all be concerned about. In the light of your advice, I would certainly be happy to look at that broad issue on behalf of the Department.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 14th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

We are concerned for those workers in Derby and that is why we have already taken prompt action. I welcome the support of local Members, but I say to the right hon. Gentleman that the contract’s tendering rules were set in 2008 and you were responsible as a party for the first two years of the contract. I also remind the right hon. Gentleman that 1.7 million jobs were lost in manufacturing under the previous Labour Government.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I remind the Minister that I was not responsible for any such contract at all. I am entirely innocent in the matter.

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

In South Staffordshire in the past year we have had considerable success in attracting engineering manufacturing jobs, but I am constantly being told that we do not have enough engineering graduates coming out of colleges and universities after 13 years of Labour government. What are we doing to rectify that?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

Well, I am glad we cleared that up, Mr Speaker. I can make it very simple for the hon. Lady: we are not going to impose a command and control model. We are working with local enterprise partnerships and we have offered zones where LEPs would like to locate them within their areas. We will discuss this with partnerships in the north-east and elsewhere.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Mr Zahawi, on the subject of the north-east from the vantage point of Stratford-on-Avon.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

I strongly agree with my hon. Friend, who is also very expert in this area. We can do this not only through the regional growth fund but by ensuring that we work through, for example, the enterprise finance guarantee, so that small institutions such as community development finance institutions are able to participate, and the micro-loans to which she refers can be extended. I have changed the rules; they can now get involved.

[Mr Speaker]

I call George Eustice to ask Question 10. He is not here.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ian Mearns]

I would like to press the Minister a little further on tourism. The tourism and hospitality industry employs 20,000 people in Gateshead and Newcastle alone, and we collaborate on an awful lot of work. The industry is therefore important for the entire regional economy. However, with the demise of the regional development agency and cessation of our successful “Passionate people, passionate places” advertising campaign, we have a vacuum. You have already agreed this morning to meet the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Sir Alan Beith). Will you meet me and other interested Members from the Tyneside area to discuss the future of tourism in our region?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman that I have not agreed to meet anybody, but perhaps the Minister has. We will soon hear.

[Mr Prisk]

Perhaps, Mr Speaker, we could travel together to the delights of the north-east. I would be only too pleased to ensure that we make a joint effort, working with my colleague, the tourism Minister, on the matter. The north-east has some marvellous places to visit, although, given that I am a born Cornishman, it was a slight distance for me to travel when I was child. Nevertheless, we need to consider that area carefully and I am happy to accede to the hon. Gentleman’s request.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Prisk and John Bercow

Thursday 18th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

I and my Treasury colleagues are already looking at how to improve business angel finance, not least at how the enterprise investment scheme works. We are also looking to extend a further £200 million in equity funds to the capital enterprise fund.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Dave Watts. Not here.