Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 3rd June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bailey]

What the Minister said in his letter to the Regulatory Reform Committee rather conflicts with the answer he has just given. The fact is that, as part of his drive to make further savings, he wants to remove—as he said in his letter—the legal obstacles to the privatisation of the emergency fire services. Given that West Midlands fire service is already two years into a programme to cut its budget by nearly a quarter, and has lost nearly 10% of its firefighters, my constituents will regard with alarm—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I apologise for interrupting the hon. Gentleman, but we need a question with a question mark: one sentence.

[Mr Bailey]

Will the Minister assure my constituents that these moves will not result in a privatised, non-publicly accountable emergency fire service?

--- Later in debate ---

[Brandon Lewis]

I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman was not here for the debate on Cleveland fire authority, when we said explicitly that we were not going to privatise the fire service. We cannot allow something to be introduced that would allow that. We have been categorical about that. To be clear, he should take care to read Sir Ken Knight’s review, which is superb and has given us a lot to discuss but does not make a single recommendation.

[Mr Speaker]

Clive Efford. Not here.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of progress made by the Portas pilots and their effect on high streets.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)]

With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to take Questions 10 and 22 together. We have published—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. That grouping was not requested and has not been granted—but leave it to the Chair and we will see how we get on. The hon. Gentleman can start by answering Question 10.

[Brandon Lewis]

Of course, and apologies, Mr Speaker.

We have published “50 ways to save”, a practical guide to councils on how they can make the most of their budgets through saving money—making sure the pennies get taken care of, so the pounds do as well. We have also developed the transformational challenge award to encourage councils that are looking innovatively at how they can work together, such as St Edmundsbury borough council, which I visited this morning and is saving almost £1 million a year through shared management with its neighbours.