Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I said a moment ago that the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) had a right to be heard with courtesy. The hon. Lady has a similar right to be heard with courtesy, and be in no doubt: she will be heard with courtesy.

[Mrs Hodgson]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I just wanted to know whether the Prime Minister has had any conversations with Lord Green about tax avoidance at HSBC; if not, why not?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Michael Connarty—he is not here.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

16. What assessment he has made of the adherence by NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups to the healthy child programme (a) in general and (b) in respect of the provision of perinatal mental health services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Thursday 30th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I beg your pardon. I did not give the hon. Lady her opportunity to speak. She would have been deprived.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am very grateful to you, Mr Speaker. Since the last election, the cost of nursery places has risen five times faster than pay, and there are 35,000 fewer child care places. Given that so many women are forced out of work because of unaffordable child care, will the Minister back our plans to provide 25 hours of child care for all three and four-year-olds of working parents?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Monday 8th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I should just say to the Secretary of State that I thought the hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) was the man in the mustard suit, but the Clerk, who is the fount of all wisdom, advises me that its colour is tangerine.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

T9. Despite the Government’s rhetoric on early intervention, Sunderland council’s early intervention grant is 47% lower than it was in 2010, while the Secretary of State’s council in Essex has had a cut of just 36%. Can the Secretary of State tell us by how much more the Government will cut Sure Start and other early intervention programmes over the next two years, and whether these disparities in cuts will be reversed or entrenched?

Points of Order

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Wednesday 13th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I am familiar with his book and have myself read it. He has put it on the record. [Interruption.] The Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey), is requesting a copy. I do not think that the purpose of the exercise was to increase sales of the book, but that might be the inadvertent consequence.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Have you had any notice from Ministers in either the Home Office or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport that they wish to correct the record of written answers to me regarding a report prepared by Operation Podium on ticket crime? I ask because Ministers in both Departments responded to my request that they place a copy of the report in the Library by saying that the information it contained is operationally sensitive. I have a copy in my possession and know that it does not contain sensitive information. In fact, it states clearly on the front that it is not protectively marked and that it is suitable for the publication scheme. I am also aware that it has been distributed to many commercial organisations. I am sure that Ministers did not intend to mislead the House or withhold information from it, so if you have not received word that Ministers would like to correct the record, will you advise me on the best course of action to pursue to remind the Government of their duties to Members of the House?

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order and for her courtesy in providing me with notice of it. She has expressed her dissatisfaction with the answers to her questions she has received and explained the basis of that dissatisfaction. Ministers will also have noted her concerns, or will shortly hear of them. If she remains dissatisfied, she may pursue the matter through the mechanism of debate, or it is open to her to raise the nature of the answers she has received with the House’s Procedure Committee. One approach would be to write to, or otherwise have contact with, the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker), who chairs the Committee. Those on the Treasury Bench will have heard her point of order. I hope that addresses the matter for today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I hear the Secretary of State’s message but we have a lot of questions to get through.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

6. What steps her Department is taking to improve cycling safety.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Stephen O'Brien)]

We are very pleased that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has been asked by the United Nations Secretary-General to co-chair the high-level panel on a framework to replace the millennium development goals. That process will of course need to be open and consultative, and I am confident that the voice of girls and women, who are often among the world’s poorest people, will be heard. [Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

There are a lot of noisy private conversations taking place. Let us have a bit of order for Mrs Sharon Hodgson.

[Mrs Hodgson]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his response and welcome the UK’s customary leadership on this issue. He mentioned the voice of the poorest, among whom the hardest to hear are often women and girls. I am sure he agrees that their voice is the most important one that needs to be heard in order to develop the framework following the millennium development goals. What plans has he in place to ensure that their voice is heard, and what is his timeline for such a framework?

Points of Order

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Monday 16th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In yesterday’s The Independent on Sunday, the Deputy Prime Minister was quoted as saying that he wants to recruit 65,000 new early years workers by September 2013, including 2,000 in Birmingham alone. However, the Daily Mail has reported a Department for Education source as saying that the figure will be closer to 12,000 across the country. Given that this is a significant policy matter, have you been informed that the Government intend to come to the House to set the record straight so that Members know whether the Deputy Prime Minister was right or wrong in what he told The Independent on Sunday, and have you received an apology from Ministers for once again announcing Government policy in the press before doing so in the House?

[Mr Speaker]

First, there are many ways in which the hon. Lady can continue to pursue this matter, but a point of order is not one of them. Secondly, she will understand that I do not want to act as umpire between competing reports in—I will not say the popular newspapers—what are apparently described as newspapers. I will leave those institutions to make their own observations. No Minister has apologised to me, but if I receive an apology in respect of this matter, I assure the hon. Lady that she will learn of it without delay.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am very pleased to hear that the Minister got a positive response—I would expect nothing less of the friendly north-east. The Chancellor said in his Budget statement last Wednesday that there would be an enterprise zone on Tyneside, but the Red Book refers to an enterprise zone in the North Eastern local enterprise partnership, and I am sure the Minister is aware that they are not one and the same. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change told the Sunderland Echo that Sunderland had a really good chance of getting an enterprise zone. Will the Minister confirm that the Chancellor misled the House last week and that a decision has not yet been made on where—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am sure the hon. Lady means “inadvertently” misled.

[Mrs Hodgson]

Of course, inadvertently.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Monday 6th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

8. What recent discussions she has had with police forces on the likely number of (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers at the end of the 2014-15 financial year.

[Mr Speaker]

I assume that the Minister had finished his reply, so I call Paul Blomfield.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sharon Hodgson and John Bercow

Wednesday 27th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Hon. Members]

What?

[Mr Speaker]

Order.

[Mrs Hodgson]

For instance, we would have chosen to tax the bankers more heavily in order to avoid the shameful attack yesterday on women and children in the form of the abolition of the child trust fund and the health in pregnancy grant. Does the Prime Minister agree with his Chancellor’s choices continually to penalise women and children in that way?

Please, Mr Speaker—

[Hon. Members]

Speech!

[Mr Speaker]

Order.

[Mrs Hodgson]

Please, Mr Speaker, will you ask the Prime Minister not continually to blame the Opposition? He is in government now—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am grateful. I call the Prime Minister to reply.