Aid Sector: Safeguarding

Debate between Penny Mordaunt and Anna Soubry

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

Yes, yes and yes.

[Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) (Con)]

I commend the Secretary of State for her statement and gently say to the hon. Member for Edmonton (Kate Osamor) that this is not an issue on which anybody should be seeking to make any form of political capital. This is not the subject of party politics; this is an appalling situation. About a year ago, I went to the Zaatari refugee camp as a guest of Oxfam. I saw the great work that so many of its workers do. Those workers represent the majority of people who work for our great British charities. Can the Secretary of State assure us all that the action she has to take—nobody disputes that—will not affect the beneficiaries of that work and that their interests will be absolutely paramount?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I can give my right hon. Friend that assurance. That is why, although Oxfam has said it will not bid for any new funding, I have paused what I am going to do with current programming until I have assurances about every other partner operating in the same theatres. I will then take a decision on whether I can have confidence in what Oxfam is currently doing in those locations, or whether I need to adjust how we are doing that aid delivery.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Penny Mordaunt and Anna Soubry

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I would be happy to look at the hon. Lady’s case. We changed the rules on Motability to ensure that people could go to appeal and not lose their car in the meantime. It sounds as if something has gone wrong in this particular case. I cannot make a decision, but I can look at the case and see what we can do to help.

[Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) (Con)]

I am grateful to the Government for the assistance given to my constituent, who had to leave Dominica because of the terrible damage caused by the hurricane. But on her return back to this country with her 22-month-old son, she has discovered that she is not entitled to any benefits whatever for three months. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can ensure that we have a right and proper system to make sure that people in such circumstances really are entitled to benefits?

Tobacco Packaging

Debate between Penny Mordaunt and Anna Soubry

Friday 12th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Anna Soubry]

We have a number of measures. For example, we have some of the toughest tax and duty measures in relation to tobacco. The “Stoptober” campaign was phenomenally successful last year. We have a TV campaign that is encouraging people not to smoke in cars, for example, as well as our other continuing work. With public health being devolved back to where it always should have been—to local authorities—a number of authorities, notably up in north-east England, have taken grave measures to tackle smoking by educating young people, in particular. This is all good work that will continue through Public Health England.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I can see the merits of standardised packaging. Companies have invested heavily in equipment to produce complex packet designs in order to make counterfeiting harder. Does the Minister agree that if standardised packaging is adopted, whatever the future designs are, the packaging should still be sufficiently complex and difficult to forge? These are just the sort of issues that she and her Department must now look at in depth.

[Anna Soubry]

Absolutely. One of the problems in this debate is that unfortunately it has been called plain packaging. It is far from plain. As, in effect, the Government would be in control of what goes on to the cigarette packet, there is provision to make it as complicated as possible, with a variety of colours, watermarks, holograms and so on. Far from being a counterfeiter’s dream, it would be a counterfeiter’s nightmare.