Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

3. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to ensure that adequate provision is made to support vulnerable witnesses in sexual abuse or domestic violence cases.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

7. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to ensure that adequate provision is made to support vulnerable witnesses in sexual abuse or domestic violence cases.

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[The Solicitor-General]

My hon. Friend’s contribution is timely, as we have recently had mental health day. He is right that it is important to support such victims and witnesses, which is what the witness care units do. In addition, there is a range of guidance for prosecutors on issues such as the provision of therapy to vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. With regard to victims who have suffered mental trauma, there is guidance on how to help victims and witnesses with mental health issues, and the CPS also contributed to the Mind toolkit.

[Neil Parish]

Will my hon. and learned Friend outline what the special measures will be, how they will be granted for vulnerable witnesses and how they will help the court process to ensure that the trial is fair for all, particularly those witnesses in these very difficult cases?

[The Solicitor-General]

The special measures available for vulnerable or intimidated witnesses include: giving evidence from behind a screen, by live television link or in private by clearing the court room of the public; removal of wigs and gowns by judges and lawyers; use of video-recorded evidence-in-chief; examination of the witness through an intermediary; and provision of communication aids. Many of us are strong supporters of one special measure, pre-recorded cross-examination, for which I think there is a measure of support across the House. It has not yet been implemented, but it is coming soon.

Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We have done something that the food bank movement had been asking for for years, but that the Labour Government did not grant because they were worried about the public relations—namely, the ability to say to people in Jobcentre Plus who needed help that they could go to a food bank. The Labour Government might not have wanted to do that because it was bad publicity; we did it because it was the right thing.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

Q7. Does the Prime Minister agree that the combination of the good weather, our deficit reduction and our control of public spending has given confidence to business and individuals to create 1.3 million jobs? However, given those encouraging figures, is he somewhat surprised that the Leader of the Opposition still believes that the Government’s policy will cost 1 million jobs?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend could add to the good weather the fact that Andy Murray won Wimbledon and England retained the Ashes—much good news was to be had over the summer. It is important that we recognise what brought about the good news to which he refers. Parties had to make a key judgment on whether, in this Parliament, to get to grips with the deficit and take the tough decisions we needed to turn our country around. The Government parties made those tough decisions; the Labour party ducked every single one of them.

Syria and the Use of Chemical Weapons

Neil Parish Excerpts

Thursday 29th August 2013 Commons Chamber

[Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)]

Having listened to all the arguments today, read everything about this issue over the past couple of days and listened to our constituents, it is easy for Members to form an opinion against taking action in Syria. There are many compelling arguments for doing nothing. Military action is expensive. We have all heard the argument that we should be building hospitals, not spending money overseas. People say that it is wrong on principle for the US to interfere in foreign countries. We are unsure of the consequences of action in Syria and, as many right hon. and hon. Members have said, of how it might extend to other countries. There is no exit strategy. The history of Afghanistan and Iraq looms large in people’s minds.

Those arguments all have strong merits and are compelling. It is certainly true that the British public have little appetite for further military engagement in the middle east. Because of the merits of the above arguments, I could not stand here and argue for full-scale intervention to force regime change or to bring about a western-style democracy. My instincts are that it would be great to do those things in theory, but that we should not do them.

Like all colleagues, I have received my fair share—or possibly more than my fair share—of correspondence on this matter over recent days. It has largely been against military intervention. However, a piece of correspondence from one of my constituents, Ian Peck of Hempstead road in Watford, summed up the crucial question: should there be very precise, selective action to prevent the further use of chemical weapons? Like Mr Peck, I believe that there should be such action following confirmation in the weapons inspectors’ report.

We have to accept that any action that is taken may have unintended consequences. As Danny Finkelstein—soon to be Lord Finkelstein—argued in The Times yesterday, at the start of most military actions that history has shown to be the right decision, there was no guarantee of any definite result. He cites Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis and Tony Blair in Serbia. On the grand scale, we could cite Winston Churchill in 1940, when he decided to fight on against the Germans without any clear idea of what would happen. We have to accept that there will be uncertainty. More importantly, although we cannot guarantee or fully predict the outcome of any action in Syria, we can assume with greater certainty that taking no action would allow Assad to continue carrying out chemical attacks on his own people.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making a thoughtful speech. Does he agree that in this case we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t? If we do nothing, we accept that the Assad regime can use chemical weapons and destroy its own people, with terrible consequences. However, if we do something, we must ensure that we do not do so much that we get into another war from which we cannot extricate ourselves.

[Richard Harrington]

I agree very much with my hon. Friend’s sentiments. Many decisions in politics, war, business and many other spheres of life have similar damned if you do, damned if you don’t consequences. However, decisions have to be made.

As I have said, I could not stand here and argue for full military intervention. We should do everything that we can on a humanitarian level to support the people of Syria. I am sure that we would all agree that they are the overriding concern in any decision that is made today.

Debate on the Address

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 8th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

It is absolutely preposterous, and I hope that we manage to defeat the Government on this. My hon. Friend is slightly wrong in that there was one other candidate: the UK Independence party candidate. Bizarrely, he was the only one of the five candidates who did not manage to get a seat—absolutely shocking.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

rose—

[Chris Bryant]

Before I give way to the hon. Gentleman, I hope he will commit to not voting for such preposterous legislation.

[Neil Parish]

I stood as a candidate in European elections that used the list system, and I dislike the whole process. The hon. Gentleman is complaining about the Welsh system, but was that surely not brought in under the previous Labour Government, or is my memory not right?

[Chris Bryant]

The hon. Gentleman is completely and utterly wrong, and I look forward to the letter of apology that he will doubtless send to me later this afternoon. We introduced good legislation, and then even improved it. It is the current Government who are trying to dismantle it.

To be honest, this Queen’s Speech is not fit for a monarch. It is not fit for a princeling or a hireling; it is fit only for a changeling Government—a Government who are pretending to do politics and are not really interested in what voters in my constituency are interested in. We have an empty speech, a vacuum surrounding a lacuna enveloping a void consisting of nothing but dark matter—that is all this Queen’s Speech is. Why? Because we have a coalition. I am not intrinsically opposed to coalitions. If the voters do not deliver a clear outcome, we sometimes have to have a coalition Government. The truth of the matter, however, is that this coalition has run its course, and Ministers know that it has run its course. They know that the Government are running into the buffers. It is not that one party or the other has run out of ideas; I am sure that they are both crammed full of ideas. The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, looks as if he is absolutely packed full of ideas—ideas about Northern Ireland, maybe, but none the less he is clearly packed full of them.

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[Mr Davis]

There is an element of that, and that is what I was alluding to just now. There is no doubt that the system makes some mistakes, but I have the advantage of having been an MP for a long time, and I can remember when we changed the disability rules the other way, and we had a 400% increase in people claiming disability benefits of one sort or another. It was the right direction to go in, but it went vastly too far. The problem is that we now have a situation in which people are basically taken completely off the job market. To be frank, it suited past Governments of both political persuasions to have those people out of the job market, because the figures looked better, but that does not mean we do not now have to put this right.

My argument here—it is the argument I will make throughout what I have to say in the next five or so minutes—is that the difficult decisions we face now have to be faced up to, but we must always, time and again, come back and apply a fairness test. The hon. Gentleman would probably agree with me about that, although maybe not about where that test would fall.

I particularly approve of the proposed changes to pensions. Last week I was worried that the Government effectively were proposing to ignore the benefit that arises from stay-at-home mothers, but, in fact, the reverse is true. The Queen’s Speech states that the Government will

“create a simpler state pension system that encourages saving and provides more help to those who have spent years caring for children.”

If there is one thing in the Government’s economic strategy that I disapprove of it is the presumption that the only useful mother is one that goes out to work. Raising children—particularly raising three or four children—is a difficult task in its own right and a very important social task, and I am surprised that a Conservative Government, of all Governments, do not recognise that more and do more about it. This at least appears to be a move in the right direction, and if it lives up to the advertising in the Queen’s Speech, I will support it enthusiastically.

Indeed, I would go further and say that the Conservative party had a manifesto commitment to have transferable tax allowances for married couples as well, and I see no reason why we should not hold to our manifesto commitment. I understand that is budgeted for in the Treasury anyway, so why do we not do it?

The one element of the Leader of the Opposition’s speech that I sort of half-agreed with was that we have not been fast or robust enough in our approach to banking reform. There has been a lot of talk recently about populist measures—about “Thatcherite giveaways” of the nationally held shares in the banks. That is neither here nor there to me. What matters is the structure of the banks. We should be breaking up our banks. At the level at which economies of scale run out in commercial banking, we could have 30 high street banks in the UK. Some 30 or 40 years ago, that is exactly what we did have, and I have to say levels of service in banking have gone down since then, not up.

We have ignored competition law. We have ignored the virtues of competition and the impact on stability of having banks that are too big. We need measures on that. They are not in today’s Queen’s Speech because the Banking Commission is yet to report. As soon as it does report, we must have urgent action. This is not something we can put off for five years. We should do it now.

[Neil Parish]

I agree with what my right hon. Friend is saying about our banking system. I am finding that many businesses in my constituency are still being denied credit, and especially credit at affordable rates. Is he finding the same thing happening in his constituency? If we had greater competition between more banks, we could get the rates for lending to businesses down.

[Mr Davis]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. A large part of the reason for that is the state of the UK banks’ balance sheets. They are getting money effectively for free, but they have got such bad, or untrustworthy, loans on their balance sheets that they dare not lend money, and the Government are putting constraints on them to limit their lending, too. The outcome is that our small businesses in particular are having a terrible time. Patches are being put over this problem, such as the Chancellor’s mortgage support scheme in the Budget, but we need to sort out the problem at source.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

I congratulate the proposer and seconder of the Humble Address. One does not often have the opportunity to address the full House, so it is a big occasion. Both of our colleagues acquitted themselves extremely well.

I enjoyed the speech by the Leader of the Opposition. I did not agree with any of its content, but now that there are no Liberals in the Chamber, I can say that he certainly made the best joke of the day when he made his remarks about the Liberal party.

Moving on to the speech by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, I support all the measures in the Gracious Speech. This Government have cut the deficit by a third, created more than 1 million private sector jobs and kept inflation under control, all while taking the 2 million lowest-paid people out of tax altogether and cutting corporation tax to 23%.

The one measure in the Gracious Speech that troubles me, which has been mentioned by the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry), my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs Gillan) and the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), is the high-speed rail link. Many of us were here when we considered the Bill on the channel tunnel rail link. Many Conservative colleagues were genuinely upset about the effect on their constituencies. Sir Keith Speed in particular had a tricky job to balance the needs of the nation with those of his constituents. However, that was an entirely different project from the current high-speed rail link. For the life of me, I cannot understand why we will spend so much money and upset so many people in order to get to the end of the line 20 minutes sooner than would otherwise be the case. That is absolutely ridiculous and I hope that the Government will think again.

Like my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), I had no local elections in my area last week because it is a unitary authority. However, we certainly did have elections in Essex, and Essex gave its view on a number of issues that had nothing at all to do with the local elections.

I had no idea when I asked my question at the last Prime Minister’s questions that my own mother would have such an influence on the outcome of those elections. Prompted by her, I asked the Prime Minister whether he would bring the referendum forward to accommodate my mother. There does not appear to be anything on the matter in the Gracious Speech, but it does say:

“Other measures will be laid before you.”

I have a hunch that the referendum will be brought forward.

I said to my constituents that we could not have a referendum sooner than the Prime Minister had proposed because we did not have the votes to legislate on it. However, I am now keen to put it to the test. If I am drawn in the top four or half dozen in the ballot for private Members’ Bills next week, there will be no point in anyone lobbying me, because I will be proud to promote a Bill on a referendum. I hope that like-minded colleagues would do the same. The right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Mr Kennedy) seemed to dismiss anyone who voted a certain way last week, which I thought was rather arrogant. We cannot dismiss thousands of people who voted a particular way.

[Neil Parish]

Given that it is nearly 40 years since the British people were asked their view about what was the common market and is now the European Union—very much a political union that is driving towards integration all the time—is it not high time that we had a referendum? I would support any Bill that my hon. Friend might like to bring in.

[Mr Amess]

I flinched last week when someone described me as a veteran Member of the House. My hon. Friend now reminds me that the referendum was 40 years ago. I voted in that referendum and I voted no. I absolutely agree with what he says. I would welcome the opportunity to put the matter to the test before all the parties. Let us stand up and be counted, and let the people speak. It is quite wrong to marginalise last week’s local elections. We all know that people no longer have the Liberal party to vote for as a protest vote, because for various reasons it joined the coalition. Personally, I always felt that it was much closer to the Labour party than to the Conservative party, but there we are. We should reflect seriously on how people voted last week.

There has been criticism of the content of the Gracious Speech, but what is the point of our legislating and legislating when the legislation that we already have is not enforced? I have been the proud promoter of two Acts. One was the Protection against Cruel Tethering Act 1988. I often ask questions to find out how many people have been convicted under it, and I do not get a satisfactory answer. I also spent 18 months of my life, when I came fourth in the ballot, promoting the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, which promised to eliminate fuel poverty. However, 13 years of the Labour Government did not do so, and that important legislation does not appear to have been enforced.

It is no good Members saying that the Queen’s Speech was thin and that we should have a lot of legislation. Frankly, I would like less legislation, but when we do legislate I would like it to be enforced. For instance, the House spent a lot of time talking about making it unlawful for people to talk on their mobile phones when they are driving, but from what I can see everyone seems to do it, not just in traffic jams but when they are going around roundabouts. The law is not consistently enforced. The idea that we should have more and more legislation is absolutely ridiculous.

I am delighted that a national insurance contributions Bill will be brought forward, easing the pressure on businesses and charities with a £2,000 employment allowance. I hope that the move will boost employment and growth across our nation. Similarly, I welcome the deregulation Bill. I remember that when Neil Hamilton was a Minister, he made a marvellous speech at the Conservative party conference, with miles and miles of bits of paper, saying that there would be less regulation. Yet again, we are told that there will be less, and all the businesses in our constituencies would certainly welcome that.

We are going to have a draft consumer rights Bill, which is an excellent idea for which I believe there will probably be all-party support. There will be easier access to compensation, which is much overdue. We should all welcome the Bill, although I have not heard too much of that today.

It is widely accepted that if someone has worked hard all their life, they should be rewarded in retirement. That is why I am delighted to see that care costs are going to be capped, ensuring that no one will have to sell their home in old age to pay for residential care. I know that many of my constituents will celebrate the Bill on the matter, which reaffirms the fact that the only party that will protect the rights of the elderly is the Conservative party, not least as many of our members are of somewhat mature age.

The pensions Bill and the care Bill are particularly welcome in my constituency, as we have the most centenarians in the country. They will ensure that more women can get a full state pension in their own right, which will stop the problem faced by mothers who take time out of their career to look after their children. The state pension system certainly should not punish that, and I am glad that our Government will examine the flaw in the system and put it right.

While I am on that subject, a constituent of mine whose wife is dying of cancer is not currently eligible for bereavement payments as he is 38. Loss is just as hard at 38 as at 68, and perhaps the pensions and care Bills will provide a good opportunity for that to be changed.

I was delighted that the hon. Member for Vauxhall said what she did about immigration. Members who talk about immigration should not be branded racists. If any Member of Parliament is not lobbied by constituents on the subject, I cannot imagine what their constituents are talking about. It has nothing to do with colour or race. It is all to do with numbers on our little island.

It is beyond comprehension that foreign nationals who commit serious crimes somehow manage to avoid deportation. It is absolutely ridiculous. They often abuse the Human Rights Act, although I will not delay the House by talking about that. It is quite wrong that such people are being housed, fed and watered by the British taxpayer. I am sure many hon. Members will have heard that remark from their constituents as they have knocked on doors, so I am glad that steps have been outlined to address that ludicrous situation. The border agencies’ resolve and power will be strengthened—we have heard that the UK Border Agency will be abolished—and the Government will ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent in a more suitable manner.

Measures to deal with antisocial behaviour are hardly original—we have them every year—but it is deeply depressing that there were 2.4 million incidents of antisocial behaviour across England and Wales in the past year. That is a staggering figure. Those incidents range from drug dealing to noisy neighbours and from littering to property damage—the sort of crimes that can push individuals into more serious crimes and drag communities into a downward spiral. I hope that the legislation will fix that problem, which our constituents feel strongly about.

I was expecting a measure on dangerous dogs. That was not mentioned in the Gracious Speech, but I understand that it will be covered in the antisocial behaviour Bill. Those of us who were here when Lord Baker of Dorking introduced the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 know that it was in response to a terrible incident in which someone was killed. The media take an interest when a dog savages someone, but the measure on dangerous dogs is important. My hon. Friend the Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard) did a lot of good work on the proposed legislation on wild animals in circuses, and I hope that we will also find an opportunity to include measures on that.

I was delighted that the Gracious Speech said that we would protect the Falkland Islanders’ and Gibraltarians’ right to determine their political future. I think most Members will welcome that. When a small delegation of Members visits Pope Francis, we may have a private word with him on that matter.

I certainly welcome the Gracious Speech, which builds on the good work that has been done thus far. My only real disappointment is that there was not one measure to enable Southend already to be declared the city of culture for 2017. I hope that that is another measure that will be laid before the House shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 6th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I sometimes try to avoid opinion polls, so I have not seen that one. It sounds as if it is one that will lift the spirits of almost everyone in this House, because we believe in a United Kingdom and in Northern Ireland being part of that United Kingdom.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

Q6. Can the Prime Minister reassure this House that he still believes in increasing spending on the NHS and in ensuring that those funds go to the doctors and nurses at the front line of our service?

European Council

Neil Parish Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am afraid that the answer to that is not nearly enough. There is some good news, which is that, at the last European Council before this one, we secured a commitment from the European Commission to examine existing regulations and to try to remove the most burdensome of them. It was disappointing, however, that at this Council, the European Commission would not brook any idea of reducing its bureaucracy or its budget. As I have said, the proposals being put forward were to increase the budget of the central administration, not to reduce it.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

I congratulate the Prime Minister on standing up for Britain and on having strong allies in Europe. The Council of Europe is beginning to see the light in regard to expenditure, but the culture of the European Commission is always to spend more and more. If it is good enough for this Government to cut back on Whitehall, why is it not good enough to cut back on the European Commission?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. That point was made not just by me but by a number of other leaders of Governments. We were talking about the tough pension changes, budget changes, administration changes and cuts that we have had to make, and it is just not acceptable for Brussels to continue as though nothing has changed.

Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The longer we stick at this task, the more possibilities of saving yet more money we will find. It is important to protect spending on the front-line services on which the public depend, and we will continue to do that. I am delighted to welcome my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Miss Smith) to her post: she will give huge support to me in my role of seeking out wasteful spending and driving efficiency through central Government.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

3. What his policy is on the provision of trade union facility time across the civil service.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

Unions can play a positive role in the modern workplace. [Interruption.] On the subject of paying, it is nice to know who is paying that lot on the Labour Benches.

However, the Government believe that taxpayer-funded facility time arrangements in the civil service should reflect good practice across the private and public sectors. That is why I launched a consultation to review facility time, and will ensure that future arrangements are subject to rigorous controls and monitoring.

[Neil Parish]

Can my right hon. Friend tell me what arrangements for the monitoring of union facilities and activities were in place when he entered Government in 2010, and how much they were costing?

Debate on the Address

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 9th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dodds]

As Minister for Finance and Personnel in the Northern Ireland Executive, my hon. Friend deals with such issues on a daily basis, and he and his colleagues, including Arlene Foster, the enterprise Minister, and others are working hard to deal with them. He points, rightly, to the particular issues in Northern Ireland. Two of our banks are based in the Irish Republic. The property collapse in the Irish Republic and its eurozone problems are impacting strongly on the Northern Ireland economy. He is right, therefore, that particular attention needs to be given to how credit easing plays through to Northern Ireland, where we have peculiar circumstances that do not affect other parts of the UK.

One reason we have been pushing strongly—we have received a reasonably warm response—on the need to reduce corporation tax in Northern Ireland is that we share a land frontier with the Irish Republic, which has a much lower rate of corporation tax. I look forward to an announcement on that and other issues in this Session and perhaps to legislation in the next Session.

We welcome the emphasis on cutting business regulation. The Business Secretary’s remarks yesterday about the need to roll back the EU regulatory burden were also most welcome. We also support moves on executive pay. The recent revolts by shareholders in companies such as Aviva and Barclays brought cheer to hard-working families, but more needs to be done to empower shareholders through binding votes on pay at the top level. Such measures matter to people out there in the country, and they want action taken on them. That is where the focus needs to be.

We welcome the fact that driving under the influence of drugs will become a specific offence with appropriate punishment. I have received communication on that issue, as other right hon. and hon. Members will have, and although this measure will be of little comfort to those who have already lost family members in tragic circumstances—we have heard some very brave people speaking in the media about this—it will, I hope, prevent more deaths and injuries on our roads in the future.

Likewise, I welcome the much-needed groceries code adjudicator Bill. It will be warmly welcomed by farmers and other suppliers in my part of the world—not necessarily in my constituency, because at last count only three farmers were living within its boundaries, but in Northern Ireland, which is largely a rural area, it will be warmly welcomed.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

I, too, much support the groceries code adjudicator Bill. If there is no problem with how our big buyers and supermarkets use their muscle, they will have nothing to fear from the adjudicator. It will be a check and balance.

Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

Families in the country are facing very high fuel bills, and there is a vested interest among the big six fuel companies not to allow competition into the market. What exactly is the Prime Minister doing to encourage more competition and to bring prices down?

[The Prime Minister]

One of the things we are doing is insisting that the big six have to make more of their energy available in a pooling arrangement so that new businesses can come into the industry. The reason we have to do this is that the last Government abolished the pooling arrangements, creating the situation with the big six—and we do not need to ask who the Energy Secretary was during that Government as we are looking at him.

Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

3. What recent discussions she has had with her ministerial colleagues and others on job creation in the private sector in Wales.

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

4. What recent discussions she has had with her ministerial colleagues and others on job creation in the private sector in Wales.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Mrs Cheryl Gillan)]

I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues and other interested parties on ways in which we can stimulate job creation in the private sector in Wales. We must create an environment in which the private sector can grow and prosper in order for businesses to create much-needed jobs in Wales, and we will continue to work with the Welsh Government to achieve that aim.

[Neil Parish]

I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. Will she look at the Bristol channel and the Severn, where there is the second highest rise and fall in tide in the world? A great deal of power could be produced there and a great number of jobs could be created to harness that power through tidal pools. May I ask her what we are doing about that?

[Mrs Gillan]

I think my hon. Friend knows that we have looked at this, and we do not intend to review the Severn tidal power situation before 2015—but it would be irresponsible to rule out such an important source of renewable energy for ever, as circumstances are likely to change down the line. As I have said before, to the shadow Secretary of State for Wales, if private funding for this project comes forward, we will consider it particularly seriously.