Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 12th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney-General]

I shall start by dealing with the first part of the question and then deal briefly with Sir Alex Allan’s report. I am not in a position to comment on what is or is not being investigated. That is a private matter for the Serious Fraud Office. When it takes on an investigation, wherever it can, it publishes that on its website, but there are sometimes circumstances where it cannot do so without prejudice to the investigation. If I may say to the hon. Lady, such conflicts of interest can arise quite frequently, but there are a whole series of protocols in place in prosecutorial organisations to ensure that that does not impede their efficiency or ability to carry out such investigations.

As for Sir Alex Allan’s report, the hon. Lady knows from what I have said previously in the House that I would very much like to see as much of its contents as possible published, but there are issues in respect of data protection. When I have worked through those, I hope to be able to satisfy her wishes in that respect.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

5. How many successful prosecutions were carried out by the Crown Prosecution Service for burglary in Northamptonshire in the latest year for which figures are available where the defendant had (a) previously been convicted for at least one other criminal offence and (b) no previous convictions.

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

Two-hundred and twenty-seven defendants were successfully prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service for burglary offences in Northamptonshire in 2011-12, at a conviction rate of 89%. No central records of a defendant’s previous convictions or non-convictions are maintained by the Crown Prosecution Service.

[Mr Hollobone]

I congratulate the Crown Prosecution Service in Northamptonshire on prosecuting 227 burglars. Burglary is an horrific crime, and I strongly suspect that most of those 227 had previous convictions of one sort of another. May I encourage the CPS to collect those data, so that we can head off more potential burglars in future?

[The Solicitor-General]

The Crown Prosecution Service is not the organisation that maintains the database of convictions, and that is unlikely to change. However, in the period 2009 to 2012, the number of defendants prosecuted for burglary offences increased by 6.4%, compared with the national fall in prosecutions of 8.9%, so he can be assured that burglary is being given proper attention.

European Council

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Mr Balls, you are barking in the most bellicose fashion at the Government Benches. I know that whenever you do anything you do not it quietly, but a degree of restraint would be appreciated.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

I am sure my constituents in Kettering would want me to congratulate the Prime Minister warmly on negotiating a real-terms cut in the EU budget. Will he take this opportunity to name and shame those of our European partners who most vociferously resisted attempts to cut the administrative budget?

[The Prime Minister]

I am afraid to say that the people who most oppose a cut to the administrative part of the EU budget were in the European Commission itself. They made a series of arguments about the extra roles and duties they had to take on, but I do not believe that they have looked properly at what member states have done in terms of pay freezes and pension and allowance reforms. They simply have not looked at what countries are having to do and what they should be doing in Brussels.

Algeria

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 21st January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I did indeed listen intently to the three questions from the hon. Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth), but if we are to get to the end in reasonable time, it would be helpful if Members now confine themselves to one question each.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

It must be right that, in addition to the appropriate security response, there should be a refocusing of international development assistance on failed or failing states in north Africa. There are a lot of very rich Islamic nations in the world. Might we see rather more money coming from them to provide that international development assistance, rather than its coming only from the west?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We do have one of the largest budgets in the world and I think we use it well, but we are focusing much more on conflict and broken states; a lot more of the money is going in that direction. The G8 traditionally discusses development assistance, but the G20 is starting to do that as well, and of course the G20 includes some of the most populous and richest Islamic states on Earth. We should certainly encourage their work.

Algeria

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Friday 18th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

I commend the Prime Minister for his level-headed, energetic and resolute response to these developments. The west will not solve the problem of Islamic insurgency in the Sahara on its own. Given the colonial heritage of the African continent and the fact that this insurgency is taking place across borders, is there a role for both the British Commonwealth and the French Commonwealth within the African Union to ensure that ultimately there is an African solution to this problem?

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s remarks. He makes an important point about how France and Britain in particular should work together. Obviously, it is better to find African solutions, whether in Somalia, where neighbouring African nations have played an important role, or in Mali, where we hope that west African countries will play a role, but clearly countries such as Britain and France, with good relations, good contacts, good knowledge of African countries and good partnerships with them, should be working together. There are opportunities to put aside some of the traditional divisions between Anglophone and Francophone Africa and recognise that it is in our interest to boost the capacity of all African states to help deal with these problems. We should work very closely with the French as we do that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Wednesday 19th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I say to the hon. Gentleman that it is probably a case of merry Christmas and happy speaking opportunities in the new year.

We have not restricted disability benefits; what we have done is put more money into disability benefits. That is what this Government are doing. We have taken difficult decisions to increase tax credits by 1%, to increase public sector pay by 1% and to increase out-of-work benefits by 1%. Those were tough decisions that needed to be taken.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Q6. Last week, the published census figures revealed that the previous Government presided over the largest wave of immigration our country has ever seen, yet next Christmas our borders will be flung open even wider to potentially limitless immigration from among the 29 million people who live in Romania and Bulgaria. Will my right hon. Friend look seriously at triggering the national interest clauses buried deep in the EU free movement directive in order to stem this new flow, especially for those with criminal records and those who seek access to our welfare benefits system?

[The Prime Minister]

First, let me echo the first half of my hon. Friend’s question. The last Government allowed a completely uncontrolled system of migration, under which we saw net immigration of 200,000 people a year and 2 million people across a decade—that is two cities the size of Birmingham staying in our country every year. There has been not one word of apology for the mess that the last Government left.

My hon. Friend makes an important point about the transitional controls coming off the accession countries. I will look carefully at what he says. We have rules to try to restrict access to benefit. We will go on working to make those as robust as possible. I mentioned the national interest clauses in the statement on Europe on Monday. I think that those can be triggered only if there are emergency conditions, but I will look carefully at what he says.

European Council

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Anders Borg is an excellent Finance Minister. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and I work very closely with him. I believe that if a financial transactions tax is not introduced simultaneously around the world, the transactions will just go to the lowest-cost destinations. That is why it is totally self-defeating. The European Commission’s own piece of work on such a tax showed that it would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and millions of pounds of revenue, not just in the UK, which has a large financial services industry, but in the rest of Europe.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Prior to the entry of a large number of eastern European countries to the EU a few years ago, the previous Government made the hideously inaccurate forecast that just 13,000 eastern Europeans a year would come to our shores. The total is now 1.5 million and rising. Next Christmas, the transitional controls for Bulgaria and Romania will cease, but the Home Office has refused to make an estimate—on the principle of once bitten, twice shy—of how many people will come to our shores. Have the Bulgarian or Romanian Governments apprised the Prime Minister of their estimates of how many of their citizens may be coming our way?

[The Prime Minister]

To answer my hon. Friend directly, I have not asked those Governments for an estimate. He is right to say that the transitional controls are coming off and that the previous forecasts were wrong. I will discuss this important issue with the Home Secretary in the months ahead.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Wednesday 28th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Crabb]

We are not punishing people who are looking for work at all; we are incentivising them to go out and find work. I remind the hon. Gentleman that unemployment is falling right across Wales. There are pockets where more needs to be done, particularly in rural and isolated areas, but he should not doubt our ambition to see all of Wales enjoy some of the good things we are currently seeing in the Welsh labour market.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

9. What departmental savings he plans to make in 2013-14.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr David Jones)]

The Wales Office will be making savings of around £550,000 in 2013-14, which amounts to a 10% saving in its administration budget.

[Mr Hollobone]

With Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland now having Assemblies or Parliaments of their own, many of us would like to see the three territorial Departments rolled into one to save taxpayer funds. Given that that is not part of the coalition’s programme, will my right hon. Friend at least look at more joint working and shared services between the three Departments so as to save money for the taxpayer?

[Mr Jones]

I am pleased to say that that joint working already takes place. In fact, the Wales Office is working actively with the other territorial offices to identify shared working arrangements and we also have a shared parliamentary team. I must take issue with my hon. Friend: I think that Wales benefits immensely from having a Wales Office here at Westminster and I would not want to see it submerged in a quasi-colonial office.

European Council

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think I have already made the position clear.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

My constituents are appalled that the European Commission should propose a budget with no administrative savings whatsoever, at a time when every Government in Europe are trying to cut back on unnecessary expenditure. Given that these people are clearly living in a parallel universe, what chance is there that they will advance administrative savings before the next budget round?

[The Prime Minister]

I am afraid it is worse than my hon. Friend says. According to so-called heading 5 —administrative costs—between 2007 and 2013 the EU was spending €56.5 billion under that heading, but the proposals from the Commission and the presidency of the Council were to increase that figure to €62.6 billion. Far from just freezing the figures, they were looking to increase them. That is one reason why I think it is perfectly possible to make a cut in their proposal. That is not unrealistic or tokenistic, or just some populist urge; it is a proper way of saving several billion euros and getting an affordable budget.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 20th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Miss Smith]

Again, Mr. Speaker, you would no doubt remind me not to discuss the workings of the other place here. I have every confidence that the hon. Gentleman can read for himself the speeches of my noble Friend Lord Strathclyde, who made clear what that place must do with potentially inadmissible amendments. I also think it is clear that the programme designed by the last Government—a voluntary version of individual electoral registration—would have led to confusion and significant extra cost, and I therefore do not think it right for Opposition Members to lecture us about such matters.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

5. What progress he has made on changing the law on succession to the throne.

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

Discussions with the other Commonwealth realms are ongoing, but legislation can be presented only when all the necessary arrangements are in place in all 16 Commonwealth nations.

[Mr Hollobone]

There will be much rejoicing on the streets of the Kettering constituency if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are blessed with a baby girl and she succeeds to the throne even if she has a baby brother. When does the Deputy Prime Minister expect legislation to be presented to us, and what is the legislative timetable likely to be in those other Commonwealth realms?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I am sure all of us would share the joy of the constituents of Kettering if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a baby girl—or, indeed, a baby boy. If it were a baby girl, the key thing to remember would be that the change to the rule of male primogeniture came into effect from the point of the Perth conference last year, so even if we had not secured all the necessary legislative changes in all the realms, we would none the less be able to proceed on the basis that the outdated rule of male primogeniture no longer prevails. A de facto change has already been introduced pending the legal changes that now need to be made.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 10th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman might be unaware of the record on overall levels of registration during the years in which his party was in office. In 2000, 91% to 92% of all people were registered; in other words, 3.9 million people were missing from the register. By December 2010, the completeness of the register had gone down to 85% to 87%. Labour therefore presided over 2 million people being lost from the register —not a record that I suggest he should be proud of.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Many people go missing from the register when they move home. What is being done with estate agents and letting agencies to make sure that people are registered when they change their address?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We have been working with those involved to make sure that the system is as complete as possible. That is in addition to many other measures that we have developed, most notably the data-matching work that we have done such that many people do not need to register if they already exist on a database. All the evidence is that that will provide automatic registration for a very large number of people.