Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 14th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Let me give the hon. Gentleman a few facts. There are more doctors and nurses than at any point under the last Government. There are 12,500 more clinical staff, 6,100 more doctors, 3,300 more nurses and 1,700 more midwives. There are more nurses than at any point during the last Government, and over 20,000 fewer administrative staff. I just do not think that some of his assertions are sustained by the facts.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

T12. During the Deputy Prime Minister’s recent appearance on his weekly radio slot on the excellent LBC, he said that he wanted a speedy and timely resolution to the question of English votes for English laws. Will he therefore confirm that he will support the proposal for changes to Standing Orders that could bring about that resolution in a speedy and timely manner, as he indicated?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As I said in answer to an earlier question, my party has put forward a sensible proposal to deal with this issue. I do not agree with those who say that this is a clever wheeze that would in effect give an unfair advantage to one party in the House of Commons to the exclusion of all others. Nor do I agree with those Labour Members who want to stick their head in the sand and not address the issue at all. We have proposed a solution, and I look forward to the other parties coming forward with equally well considered proposals.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

A whole lot less than the influence the trade unions have on anything asked by Labour MPs in this Chamber.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

Further to the answer the Deputy Prime Minister gave my hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Mr Buckland), does he recognise the inconsistency of his position on minimum sentencing for knife crime, given that he voted for it in 2011 on amendments I introduced with the Government for mandatory sentencing for knife crime offences?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

That was for a different offence, as the hon. Gentleman knows. His proposal would make simply possessing a knife an offence, assuming that the individual already has a knife-related offence against their name. In those circumstances, in which judges would have no discretion whatsoever, the proposal could, in my view, lead unwittingly to precisely the revolving door of higher rates of reoffending that we saw time and again under the Labour Government, when endless populist gimmicks led to higher rates of reoffending. One of the things that I am proud of is that this coalition Government, by avoiding that approach, have seen crime fall to the lowest levels ever recorded.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

They need to be healthy meals that are provided to all toddlers and young children in the first three years at primary school. The hon. Lady is right that that has been piloted across the country, not only in her constituency but in Durham, Newham and elsewhere, and it has been shown to provide dramatic educational benefits. Of course the majority of the meals will be hot, but we are not going to prescribe, in the centralising way that I know her party is so fond of, that they are going to be hot in every single location across 24,000 schools in our country, but they do need to be healthy, hot and freely available. That will benefit families to the tune of hundreds of pounds and boost social mobility across the country.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

The Deputy Prime Minister takes a lot of personal credit for extending free child care places for two-year-olds from families on low incomes from September. However, what advice would he give the headmaster of Carterhatch children’s centre, who is now telling fee-paying parents to remove their children from his school to make way for that expansion?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

This is not a zero-sum game between better-off families and less better-off families. The evidence is overwhelming that if we want all children from all backgrounds to do well, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, we should use what available resources we have to give pre-school support to very small children—two-year-olds—from the poorest families. That is why it is a groundbreaking entitlement. I accept that it is of course a challenge for some nursery settings, but I very much hope and I think it is already the case that it is being implemented successfully across the country and will benefit children for many years to come.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman asked about asylum seekers from Syria, and I am giving him a fact that he does not seem to want to recognise. We have accepted hundreds of asylum seekers who have sought and been provided with refuge in this country under our international obligations. At the same time, I think Members from across the House should be proud of the fact that we, and the generosity of the British people, have led to more British assistance—£500 million of assistance—going to Jordan and other front-line states, and to those communities in the region that are dealing with this terrible humanitarian crisis.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

T7. The Deputy Prime Minister and I agree that the integrity of voter registration is crucial, and he will know that I am interested in the issue. Will he change his mind and press for voter identification cards such as those used successfully in Northern Ireland?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I recognise that my hon. Friend has raised this issue on several occasions and he clearly feels strongly about it. We are confident that the measures being introduced through the individual voter registration system, originally planned by the Labour party and being delivered ahead of time by us, will stamp out the problems of fraud about which he is rightly so concerned.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

2. What recent representations he has received on House of Lords reform.

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

The Government have received more than 200 representations since the publication of their White Paper and the draft House of Lords Reform Bill was published in May last year.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

One of the many things that would be included in a package of reform of the other place would be precisely an ironing out of some of those anomalies, so that those who had broken the law, who would not normally be entitled to continue to serve in this House, would not be able to do so in the other, reformed House either.

[Nick de Bois]

The Deputy Prime Minister rightly said in his new year message that Britain faced great challenges in 2012 if it was to avoid some of the economic problems of our European neighbours. How, then, can the Government justify consuming so much parliamentary time to push forward House of Lords reform at the expense of more pressing legislation?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I would caution my hon. Friend a little on this point. After all, we are going to invest a considerable amount of time on individual electoral registration, as we have in this Session on the plans for boundary changes—things about which he and his colleagues on the Government Benches feel equally strongly. I think it is perfectly possible to do more than one thing at once in government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 11th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

5. What recent assessment he has made of the completeness and accuracy of the electoral register.

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

There has been a lot of misleading coverage recently about the effects of individual electoral registration, so may I take a minute to explain this? This Government will do everything they can to maintain the completeness of the electoral register. That includes phasing in the move to individual registration over two years, so that people on the register who do not apply under the new system do not lose their vote at the next general election. Every eligible elector will be asked in 2014 to register under the new system. That will include: personal invites to people on the register; inquiries to households where no one is registered or people have moved; reminder letters; and face-to-face doorstep canvassing. We are also testing data matching, to identify people missing from the register, and looking at how we can increase the choices that people have about how to register. I am looking forward to the conclusions of the pre-legislative scrutiny and of the consultation, which closes this Friday, but I do, however, have sympathy with the concerns expressed by the Electoral Commission and others about the opt-out proposal, and I am minded to change these provisions when we bring forward the final legislation.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

That is precisely the purpose of individual electoral registration: it seeks to bear down on fraud in the system. Of course, the previous Government were committed to doing this in any event in a few years’ time but, as on so many matters now, they seem to shun any responsibility for their failure to act while they were in government. We are finally here to do the job that they failed to do.

[Nick de Bois]

Will the Deputy Prime Minister consider bringing forward from 2014 to 2013 the mandatory requirement for new applications to join the register to include the national insurance number?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We are bringing it forward in any event. Under the previous Government’s plans it would have been introduced only after the next general election, but we are bringing it forward in this Parliament. Of course, we are trying to get the balance right. We need to proceed with this thoroughly, which is why we are doing it carefully but in a way that means it is fully delivered by the end of this Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Tuesday 1st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Actually, I think that one of the problems in policing, as is widely recognised, has been that there are not enough police officers out on the front line, on the beat, in our communities. By some estimates, only 11% of police officers are out and about in our communities at any one time. Yes, we are having to deal with financial pressures because of the reasons that I explained earlier, but at the same time we must reform policing to minimise the amount of time that police officers allocate to work in the back office, and to ensure that they are free to be out on the streets, which is where we want them, for as much time as possible.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

T7. In a sample of more than 80 immigration cases coming through my constituency, more than 15% of those involved were found to be on the electoral roll when they had no entitlement to be there. Does the Deputy Prime Minister not agree that urgent, immediate steps are needed to introduce positive voter identification?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I strongly agree that we must introduce measures to tackle electoral fraud. As my hon. Friend may know, we have announced that we will legislate to speed up the introduction of individual electoral registration to before the next general election, in 2014. Under that new scheme each person will have to register individually, whereas the current system is registration by household, and they will be asked to provide personal identifiers, including their national insurance number, to enable registration officers to verify the identity of a person before they are added to the register. That should tackle fraudulent or inaccurate register entries, which my hon. Friend rightly highlights.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Clegg and Nick de Bois

Wednesday 8th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I certainly agree, of course, that the most important objective of all is to increase incentives to work. That is why in that same Budget we increased the personal allowance by £1,000, taking close to 900,000 people out of paying any income tax. We did take measures to protect the vulnerable and the elderly: we dramatically increased child tax credit, and we provided a triple guarantee to pensioners, so that their pensions will increase by 2.5%, by inflation or by earnings. Of course it is easy in opposition to deny any responsibility for the mess in which we find ourselves in the first place, but I simply ask the hon. Lady and her colleagues whether they have any qualms about the fact that her party and her Government announced £44 billion-worth of cuts but never had the decency or honesty to tell the British people where those cuts would fall.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

Q7. Given the number of disturbing cases such as that of my constituent, Andrew Symeou, a 21-year-old young man who was extradited to Greece well over a year ago under the European arrest warrant and who has spent more than 10 months in jail yet still does not face the prospect of a trial date, will the Deputy Prime Minister commit the Government to reviewing this very worrying legislation? Will he also agree to a meeting with the parents as a matter of urgency, involving either himself or the Prime Minister?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Of course I would more than welcome that meeting with either myself or the Prime Minister. We are all aware of the concerns about the way in which the European arrest warrant works. I understand that the Minister for Europe has met Mr Symeou’s parents and that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would be willing to do so again. Of course this is in the context of even wider concerns about our extradition arrangements, not only those in the European Union, but those with the United States. That is why my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has announced today that we will be reviewing the UK’s extradition arrangements in the round. The review will focus on the operation of the European arrest warrant, on whether or not the United States and United Kingdom extradition treaty is unbalanced, and on whether requesting states should be required to provide prima facie evidence to us.