Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Mary Glindon and David Lidington(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Mr Lidington
I completely understand and share the sense of exasperation that my hon. Friend expresses. It has been made very clear from this Dispatch Box on several occasions that the consequence of the House voting to reject the withdrawal agreement and in favour of an extension is that the Government would need to make preparations, as required by law, for those European elections. The way in which we solve this problem is for Parliament to assemble a majority behind a deal, to vote for it, to get the legislation through and to give effect to our departure from the EU.
Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
Mr Lidington
There has been, because of the scale of the deficit that was inherited in 2010, a need for severe restraints on public expenditure, including public sector pay. Where we are today is that there is flexibility within the overall pay ceiling, Department by Department, for Departments to negotiate arrangements with their workforces that permit higher wage increases than the ones to which the hon. Lady refers.
Business of the House
Debate between Mary Glindon and David Lidington(7 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Lidington
As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has made it clear that he is working to try to address the way in which soldiers have been unfairly singled out. The Public Prosecution Service is rightly independent of political direction, so I cannot comment on the particular case, but anyone who knows anything about Northern Ireland will know that the scars of the Kingsmill massacre remain to this day.
Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
Residents in my constituency have been badly let down by their house builder, Bellway, which has not completed houses to standard. This week, they have been further let down because the White Paper makes no provision for a new homes ombudsman. Will the Leader of the House please raise that omission with the Housing Minister?
Mr Lidington
I will certainly ensure that the Minister is alerted, but I inform the hon. Lady that she will be able to raise that point again at Communities and Local Government questions on Monday 27 February.
Business of the House
Debate between Mary Glindon and David Lidington(7 years, 11 months ago)
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Mr Lidington
I will draw the hon. and learned Lady’s request to the Home Secretary’s attention. The Home Office continues to work very closely with the French authorities to ensure that we identify the most vulnerable children and give them priority in our resettlement plans. That is what was envisaged under Lord Dubs’ amendment to the recent legislation, and the Government remain committed to that policy.
Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
According to Department for Work and Pensions figures released yesterday, more than 120,000 disabled people have had their benefits severely downgraded despite living with chronic progressive conditions. So following the earlier question, may we have a debate on how reassessments from disability living allowance to the personal independence payment have been conducted?
Mr Lidington
I will draw the hon. Lady’s concern to the attention of the Work and Pensions Secretary, but the principle is surely right, as my ministerial colleagues have announced, that people who are suffering from long-term, often degenerative, medical conditions or disabilities should be exempt from reassessments, and people with disabilities and medical conditions who are capable of returning to work of some kind, helping to restore to them the dignity that goes with working, should be supported in doing that.
Business of the House
Debate between Mary Glindon and David Lidington(8 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr Lidington
If Parliament approves the restoration and renewal programme, there will be a need for skills and expertise in construction and renovation of all kinds. Indeed, the Joint Committee report says in terms that we need to make sure that there would be opportunities for specialist firms and for small businesses in this country to get a share of that work.
Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
In the past week, two reports have been published on the tragic problem of drug-related deaths, as well as a report on the medical use of cannabis, which my hon. Friend the shadow Leader of the House has referred to so eloquently. Given the absence of the Government’s long-awaited drugs strategy, may we have a full debate on developing a relevant and realistic drugs policy?
Mr Lidington
Obviously, we have a new team of Ministers and it is reasonable for them to consider what drugs strategy they want to publish. The opportunities here lie with the Backbench Business Committee or perhaps with a 90-minute Westminster Hall debate to give that subject a proper airing.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Mary Glindon and David Lidington(9 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Lidington
No, and if the hon. Lady looks at our record, particularly when this Government held the chairmanship of the Council of Europe, she will see that, on the contrary, we upheld the standards and values embodied in the convention and successfully negotiated sensible, pragmatic reforms to the way in which the convention is implemented that are in the interests of all states.
Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
22. What does the Minister think this session’s high-level panel on the death penalty can achieve, particularly when so many Human Rights Council members use the death penalty?
Mr Lidington
It is true, of course, that many of the members of the Human Rights Council, who have been elected by the membership of the United Nations generally, still have the death penalty. The United Kingdom, both at the UN Human Rights Council and in our bilateral and multilateral relationships of all kinds, continues to stress that we regard the death penalty as completely unacceptable.