Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Monday 6th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to provide students with access to tablets and laptops to support covid-19 education recovery.

[The Minister for School Standards (Mr Robin Walker)]

We have announced that we will provide an additional 500,000 devices for disadvantaged children and young people this year, on top of the 1.35 million delivered already. This brings our total investment to support remote education and online social care to more than £520 million.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

But that is no substitute for face-to-face learning. What can the Ministers say to those parents who are exasperated by their children even now being sent home to begin remote learning?

[Mr Walker]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to suggest that the evidence is that children benefit from face-to-face learning, and that is why our priority is for schools to deliver face-to-face education to all pupils. Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing and longer-term development. Where a pupil cannot attend school because they are following public health advice relating to covid, schools must provide immediate access to remote education. I am pleased to confirm that the figures as of 25 November showed that 99% of schools were open to provide face-to-face education.

Northern Ireland Protocol: Implementation Proposals

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Wednesday 18th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

I simply do not recognise the picture that the hon. Gentleman paints. The protocol will ensure that many of the key issues about which his party has warned over the years are addressed with respect to the end of the transition period, and that there be no disruption at the border, as some have suggested in the past that there could be. We will absolutely deliver on that, and I am looking forward to giving evidence to the Select Committee on the issue of cross-border co-operation. I am convinced that strong co-operation to tackle crime, including organised crime, can continue between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

It will be essential to restore the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill to the status quo ante will it not?

[Mr Walker]

Yes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Thursday 4th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Huddleston (Mid Worcestershire) (Con)]

4. What plans the Government have to negotiate visa-free travel between the UK and the EU for short visits after the UK leaves the EU.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

9. What recent progress the Government have made on visa arrangements between the UK and the EU after the UK leaves the EU.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Mr Robin Walker)]

The UK and the EU have committed to discussing the reciprocal provision of visa-free travel for short-term visits under the future relationship. Both sides have also said that they do not intend to require visas for short-term visits in a no-deal scenario.

[Mr Walker]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Last year, EU residents made 25.6 million trips to the UK, spending more than £10 billion. Like him, I would like to see more of them come to beautiful Worcestershire and admire our part of the world.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

They will want us to go there and spend our money, won’t they?

[Mr Walker]

Absolutely. My right hon. Friend is right. That is the indication we have heard from all member states and from the European Union. They will want to continue to welcome UK tourists.

EU Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Changes

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Monday 11th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

The hon. Lady sets a deadline to which I cannot commit, but the Government will bring forward the motion as soon as we can based on the outcome of the negotiations, which are ongoing.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The Government are formally seeking a legally binding text on the Malthouse compromise as an alternative to the backstop, aren’t they?

[Mr Walker]

My right hon. Friend is as pithy as always. I can confirm that the Government are seeking legally binding changes to address the House’s concerns about the backstop.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: Statutory Obligations on Ministers

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Tuesday 11th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

To have a suggestion from the Liberal Democrats of assurances not being worth the paper they are written on is quite strong. The House has already voted, many times, on a second referendum, and every time the idea has been defeated, because clearly the majority of Members of this House want to respect the people’s vote that we had in 2016.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

After we get the vote and vote for the agreement, at what stage can we subsequently walk away from trade negotiations should the terms prove sufficiently unattractive?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Thursday 14th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

The UK Government could not have been clearer about our commitment to ensuring no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Although the funding settlement for the PSNI is a devolved matter for the Northern Ireland Administration, which we all want to be restored as soon as possible, the UK Government do not intend to allocate any resources for policing a hard border after our exit from the EU, or for the furtherance of any steps that would contradict or undermine the clear commitments we have made.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Were we to leave without an agreement, we would not put a border there, so if anyone wants one, they would have to put it there, wouldn’t they?

[Mr Walker]

My right hon. Friend raises an interesting point, but it is our intention to leave with an agreement. We have been clear that our first priority is to secure the absence of a hard border through the future relationship between the UK and the EU.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Thursday 3rd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robin Walker]

The hon. Lady makes a very important point. It is important that we continue to look at all the investment in technology that we can make to ensure that our trade with the wider world is as frictionless as possible, and we need to look at these solutions with regard to the deal between the UK and the EU as well.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The amendments passed in the other place on Monday night were those of a wrecking Chamber and not a revising Chamber, were they not?

Government’s EU Exit Analysis

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Wednesday 31st January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

I personally have not yet seen such requests. We do intend to make this information available to the devolved Administrations, as we did with the previous reports that we made available to this House. It is then a matter for the devolved Administrations to ensure that such documents are handled with appropriate confidentiality; we have no objection in principle to their being shared with Members of the devolved legislatures on the same basis of confidentiality.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

As the Minister is a former economist, can he persuade me that it will be worth my while to visit this reading room, given that every economic forecast that I have ever seen has been wildly inaccurate?

[Mr Walker]

My right hon. Friend raises an interesting point. I would like to turn to the analysis itself, so he pre-empts some of the caveats that are important to mention.

Leaving the EU: Implementation

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Monday 29th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

What negotiations, if any, will continue into the implementation period?

[Mr Walker]

We have always been very clear that the benefit of the implementation period will be there when both sides have agreed the shape of the future partnership and we can therefore implement that. We will be seeking to establish agreement on the future partnership before March 2019.

Leaving the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Tuesday 28th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

The hon. Gentleman’s question strays quite a long way beyond the matter that we are discussing at the moment. We will absolutely continue to engage with Parliament and its Select Committees to support their scrutiny. We will provide them with as much information as we can, consistent with the national interest.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Just to rub it in: who was it who first suggested the use of redaction?

[Mr Walker]

I can confirm that that was the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer).

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Thursday 2nd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to maintain the rights of EU citizens living in the UK after the UK has left the EU.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Mr Robin Walker)]

We have made a lot of progress through five rounds of constructive negotiations, and we are now within touching distance of an agreement on citizens’ rights. Providing swift reassurance and certainty to citizens as quickly as possible is a shared objective. With flexibility and creativity on both sides, I am confident that we can conclude discussions on citizens’ rights in the coming weeks.

[Mr Walker]

I agree heartily with my hon. Friend. Of course, our science and research paper sets out the importance of continuing to meet the talent needs of our country. In the negotiations, we have set out a positive approach to the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and we would like to see broader definitions for the professions and individuals in scope.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Is our offer more generous than that of the other side?

[Mr Walker]

My right hon. Friend is right to characterise it as such, particularly as regards the mutual recognition of professional qualifications but also in other areas, such as the voting rights that we would afford EU citizens in the UK. We would like those rights to be reciprocated for UK citizens across the EU.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Thursday 26th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

The Government are engaging closely with businesses and industries throughout the whole country to ensure that we have taken on board their concerns, and to ensure that we know what opportunities they expect to gain from this process. Many of the business representatives whom I have been meeting are excited about the opportunities for the UK to go out and make trade deals, and trade around the world.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

If my hon. Friend has not seen Professor Patrick Minford’s analysis of the liberating effect of escaping from the common external tariffs, I, as a former economics beak, am happy to give him 45 minutes on the subject.

[Mr Walker]

I look forward to the lesson.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robin Walker and Desmond Swayne

Wednesday 4th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swayne]

We are vastly in advance of the situation left by previous Administrations, and we are advancing by agreement. That information will be available if countries sign up to the initiative for the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership registers, and next month the United Kingdom will be the first country to publish that information.

[Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con)]

Another way that the UK can increase transparency and help to lead the world towards more open communication and higher revenues for developing countries is to support strongly the extractive industries transparency initiative. The previous Government signed us up to that, after too many years in which we had stood aside from it. Will the Minister confirm that we will be leading other parts of the British overseas territories, and signing up to the EITI?

[Mr Swayne]

Those territories certainly have extractives, and we are pushing that agenda. I regularly meet representatives of the extractives industry to drive forward this initiative.