Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Monday 4th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

18. What steps he is taking to implement the Norfolk devolution deal.

[The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)]

My Department is supporting the implementation of the Norfolk devolution deal, which is progressing well. Norfolk County Council, under its brilliant leader, intends to vote to change its governance in July, leading to the election of a directly elected leader in May 2025.

[Duncan Baker]

The Budget, in a couple of days’ time, could do two things for Norfolk. First, it could announce the county deal to give Norfolk control of its future. Even more importantly, it could provide the vehicle for my Sheringham roundabout, which the Secretary of State knows all about. The roundabout will be wonderful for my North Norfolk constituency, so has he convinced the Chancellor to announce it yet?

[Michael Gove]

I cannot reveal the nature of any discussions I have had with the Chancellor, but Sheringham roundabout is one of the single most important infrastructure investments in Norfolk. My hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Duncan Baker) has convincingly made the case to me, and I hope we will be able to get motoring on it before too long.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Monday 20th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is quite right to raise this issue. Vehicle crime—whether those driving cars or using e-scooters in an antisocial fashion, or otherwise making life difficult for their neighbours—often needs attention. That is why an additional 231 uplift officers have been added to Staffordshire police, but I will be working with Staffordshire’s police and crime commissioner to ensure that this issue is tackled appropriately.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

14. What steps his Department is taking to address numbers of second homes in coastal areas.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Monday 21st November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

The hon. Lady makes an important point about local housing allowance, but I gently remind her that one thing we can do is to improve the supply of housing in west London, and I think I am right in saying that she has not always been an energetic supporter of every development that has come forward in her constituency.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

In June, the Prime Minister announced plans to extend the right to buy to housing association tenants to enable them to purchase their own homes. Will my right hon. Friend update me on the progress of this initiative and confirm whether a tenant who has purchased an initial equity stake in a housing association home on shared-ownership terms will be able to use a right-to-buy discount to purchase the remaining equity stake through staircasing?

[Michael Gove]

That is the direction in which we wish to move, yes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Monday 25th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

Not a bad idea.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

T7.   Operational carbon emissions continue to fall, but as the Secretary of State will know, 38% of our global emissions still come from our buildings. Will he consider regulating embodied carbon in our built environment, as a way to promote more sustainable building and the use of more natural materials?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Thursday 8th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

Yes, my right hon. Friend is absolutely right. I have the highest regard for the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, and I enjoy working with him. I do not doubt his commitment to public service, but we do disagree on this question. I think my right hon. Friend is absolutely right that the Welsh Government’s focus, as the UK Government’s focus is, should be wholly on the covid crisis and on economic recovery at this time.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential implications of the road map out of lockdown for people who are immunosuppressed.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Thursday 27th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The Singh report—of which I have not read every word—is clear about the steps that we need to take to root out anti-Muslim prejudice, and it is absolutely critical that we do so.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

It is inevitable that, as we continue to unlock, we will see the odd pocket of covid hotspots and variants spread throughout the country, so will my right hon. Friend say now that, wherever possible, we will try to use local, well-communicated, regional measures to suppress those hotspots so that, thanks to the fantastic vaccination roll-out, we can avoid at all costs delaying the road map and ensure that we keep away from national restrictions?

[Michael Gove]

That is a very thoughtful point with which I completely agree.

Ministerial Code

Debate between Michael Gove and Duncan Baker

Monday 26th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

The right hon. Gentleman is always a skilled and gifted rhetorician, but as I pointed out in response to his colleague, the hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss), if we look at PPE, we see that the processes by which it has been procured by this Government have been independently validated and assured by officials, with an eight-step process to ensure that contracts were awarded only to those who could provide the right equipment. There is no variance in the approach that this Government took and the approach that the Scottish Government or Welsh Government took in the procurement of PPE.

The right hon. Gentleman talks about a Tory fondness for oligarchs, and refers to text messages and so on. I can only point out that our mutual friend the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism dined with Mr Lex Greensill and Mr Gupta in one of Glasgow’s finest restaurants. If there is a particular fondness for dining with oligarchs, it is not the preserve of any one individual or party in this House.

As for suggesting that the ministerial code is something to be got round or overlooked and suggesting that propriety might need to be looked at, I would simply refer the right hon. Gentleman to the report of the independent Committee of the Scottish Parliament on the investigation into the former First Minister. If people want to see a story of obstruction, obfuscation, prevarication and a waste of taxpayers’ money, they can find it there.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

Constituents are sick and tired of this endless tittle-tattle. They just want their lives to go back normal, which is what this Government are helping them to achieve. They could not care less about the Prime Minister’s cushions or his curtains. When will we have an Opposition who care about the actual priorities and not who the Downing Street decorators are?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. It does seem sometimes as though the Opposition and some critics are more concerned about the world of interiors than about the real world in which the rest of us live. The really important thing is that we welcome scrutiny when it is there to ensure that we are serving the public. It is quite right that there should be scrutiny of how we respond to the pandemic; and it is quite right that we should resolve to learn lessons from everything that this Government have done; but it is also right that those in this House who have the opportunity to scrutinise the way in which taxpayers’ money is spent look effectively at the delivery of public policy, rather than necessarily seeking to make partisan points.