Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nicholas Dakin and Thérèse Coffey(7 years ago)
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Dr Coffey
We do want to plant more trees. We are trying different ways to accelerate the planting of trees. My right hon. Friend will also be aware of our manifesto commitment to plant 1 million urban trees. I am very hopeful that many of them will be in her delightful constituency. I am sure either I or the Secretary of State will visit in due course.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
Business of the House
Debate between Nicholas Dakin and Thérèse Coffey(8 years, 6 months ago)
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Dr Coffey
I am not aware of any plans for that. The country has a really important decision to make on 23 June. This Government and Parliament will listen to the decision of the people and act in due course. My hon. Friend and I are on different sides of the argument, but I am sure that he will come back on 27 June and work alongside Government Members to progress the important measures in the Queen’s Speech, which will help this country in the future.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
May we have a statement on the responsibilities of local councils to protect green open spaces in their ownership—such as that on the ex-Brumby hospital site in Scunthorpe—when they develop their own landholdings?
Dr Coffey
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point, and it is important that guidelines in the national planning policy framework are enforced. Ministers from the Department for Communities and Local Government will be answering questions on the first day back after the recess, and he may wish to raise the issue with them.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nicholas Dakin and Thérèse Coffey(9 years, 4 months ago)
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Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
In the light of the Government’s sudden and welcome change of approach to EVEL next week, will the Deputy Leader of the House outline how they intend to ensure that full and proper consultation takes place on a genuinely cross-party basis on this very important and difficult constitutional issue?
Dr Coffey
My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House has already made approaches to other parties. We are holding the open drop-in sessions—[Interruption.] Well, they are consultation sessions. I am not aware that the hon. Member for Wrexham (Ian C. Lucas) has approached me or the Leader of the House to have those conversations. I have already responded to the right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson). I remind the official Opposition that last autumn they were invited to have discussions, but they declined to do so.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nicholas Dakin and Thérèse Coffey(9 years, 5 months ago)
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Dr Coffey
Hon. Members had the opportunity to vote in the previous Parliament, and I suspect that my hon. Friend and I were in the same Lobby at the time. The Procedure Committee revisited the situation, and could do so again if Members made representations to it, but I repeat that the Government have no plans to change the sitting hours of the House.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
I welcome the hon. Lady to her post; I am sure she will perform extremely well, as she has in other posts. The Procedure Committee considered this matter in the previous Parliament, but does she agree that it would be opportune for the Committee to pick it up again when it is reconstituted, so that current Members can comment on the sitting hours of the House?
Dr Coffey
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his welcome, and I congratulate him on, and welcome him to, his new position too. It is not for the Government to determine the business of the Procedure Committee; it is up to the Members selected to serve on the Committee to do that.