Hillsborough

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Understandably, there is intense interest in this debate. In recognition of that, I have had to impose a time limit of 10 minutes on each Back-Bench contribution. I emphasise to the House that, depending on progress, that time limit might, during the course of the debate, need to be reviewed.

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Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 9(3)).

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I have not put the Question, because the motion has lapsed. I have listened with great respect to what the Secretary of State has said. I think that those attending to our debate can take it that the House has considered the matter of the Hillsborough independent panel report. I thank the Secretary of State and all colleagues for taking part in the debate.

Extradition

John Bercow Excerpts

Tuesday 16th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I stand corrected. It was said that it was 2008, but I recognise that the right hon. Gentleman says 2009. As I said, I have given very careful consideration to the material, medical and otherwise, that has been available to me and I have come to the decision that extradition would not be appropriate in relation to Mr McKinnon’s human rights under article 3. That is the decision that I have taken on the material available to me.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Mr David Davis.

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

rose—

[David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We will hear from Top Cat in a moment, not just yet. I should have explained. Mr David Davis—he with the slightly greyer hair and the longer service in the House.

[Mr Davis]

I, for one, congratulate the Home Secretary wholeheartedly on her decision on Gary McKinnon today, but I also share some of the concerns of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell). There are a number of cases where there are concerns over justice being done, with respect to both Europe and the USA—in particular, in respect of the USA, there are fears that the intimidatory use of the plea bargaining arrangements force possibly innocent people to make guilty pleas, and similar problems in the justice systems of other European countries. Will the Home Secretary give the House an undertaking that what she proposes to bring about today will give protection to UK citizens equal to that which American citizens get from their constitution?

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[Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend must of course look at such cases individually, but does she agree that the Anglo-American extradition treaty is sound, fair and balanced between our two countries, which are on a generally equal footing, as Sir Scott Baker found in his extensive report; that there is no imbalance in the evidence tests that currently apply; and that there is no need for a prima facie test, which after all we do not apply to other countries that have far less mature justice systems? Will she also take the opportunity to indicate that she has full confidence in the American justice system, which is infinitely preferable to those of many other countries with which we have extradition arrangements?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am listening with great interest to the hon. Gentleman, but I must say to him that if he had been paid by the word when practising in the UK courts he would now be an immensely wealthy man.

[Mrs May]

I do indeed agree with my hon. Friend that the UK-US extradition treaty is broadly sound. It is important that we have good, well-working extradition arrangements between the UK and the US, and we have seen the benefit of that in relation to a number of cases in which people have been extradited to the US or back to the UK. He is right: Sir Scott Baker did say that there was no need for a prima facie test, which is why I do not propose to introduce such a test in the new arrangements we are proposing. I repeat that it is important that we have well-working extradition arrangements with the US that people can have confidence in. I believe that the limited changes I have announced today will give people that confidence.

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[Mrs May]

I recognise the eagerness with which my hon. Friend, and indeed others, wish the Government to bring forward these changes. I can assure him that we, too, are eager to bring them forward as soon as possible, but that will of course be as parliamentary time allows.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the Home Secretary and to colleagues.

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Browne]

We have introduced a code of practice on CCTV. It can play an important role in reducing crime and antisocial behaviour, but—[Interruption.] Let me make one point clear to all the authoritarian hecklers on the other side of the House—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Minister of State must be heard.

[Mr Browne]

I simply reject Labour’s idea that we can never have too much surveillance. Where it is appropriate, CCTV can play an important role, but the solution to crime is not always to have more cameras in every corner of our lives, whether public or private.

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[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am sorry to disappoint colleagues. The level of interest is intense, but we must now move on.

European Justice and Home Affairs Powers

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I understand that there was something of a breakdown in the usual arrangement whereby statements are made available to Opposition Front Benchers some time in advance of their delivery. I should emphasise that that is a convention and not something that engages the responsibilities of the Chair, but we do attach some importance to these conventions and the principle of courtesy that underlies them.

[Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Exceptionally, I will take a brief point of order from the right hon. Lady.

[Yvette Cooper]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Given the seriousness of this issue of European co-operation, and given that the Home Secretary’s statement has literally only just been handed to me, would it be possible for the statement to be deferred for an hour, or even three quarters of an hour, so that the official Opposition can do our duty of scrutinising it?

[Mr Speaker]

I am afraid that I just do not think that there is a facility for that to happen. There is a third statement to come, which will follow in due course. The timing of the statement has been announced and the Home Secretary is here to deliver it. I think that what I have said indicates my own feeling—[Interruption.] Order. It indicates my own feeling that this is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. I sincerely hope that there is no recurrence of it. I think that, in the circumstances, we should proceed. I invite the Home Secretary, who I trust will have heard what has been said, now to make the statement.

London Metropolitan University

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I appeal to colleagues for short questions and indeed to the Minister for mercifully shorter answers.

[Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

London Met, part of which is in my constituency, has been a troubled institution. I accept, with some regret, that the UKBA needed to make a stand. I am glad that the Minister has gone into some detail about the arrangements that are being made, but does he recognise that there is a strong duty of care owed by the UKBA and the whole higher education organisation to those students who are about to start the final year of their studies? They may well have been at London Met for two or three years, and they must be looked after. If necessary, I hope that he will make a special case for some of those students in the weeks ahead.

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[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I called two Members from the Government side, so it is still the Opposition’s turn. I call Gisela Stuart.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

May I press the Minister further on his response to the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee? Are there any other higher education institutions, specifically in the west midlands or Birmingham, whose highly trusted sponsor status the UK Border Agency is considering withdrawing?

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[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I apologise to colleagues who did not get in, but time is against us and we must now move on.

Olympics (Security)

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I thank the Home Secretary and colleagues, whose succinctness enabled 29 Back Benchers to question the Home Secretary in the 22 minutes of exclusively Back-Bench time available. It shows what we can do when we put our minds to it.

Olympics (Security)

John Bercow Excerpts

Thursday 12th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I hope the House will take note of what the Home Secretary has said. That was a perfectly proper question and answer, but if the specific case is sub judice, which I believe to be so, we should not seek to press the Home Secretary on the details of it.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

Will the Home Secretary remind us when the contract with G4S was entered into? Under its terms, will the company cover the cost of the welcome commitment to ensure that none of the additional armed forces involved in the Olympics will be in any way out of pocket?

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[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This is an extremely important matter in which there is a lot of interest. I would like to accommodate that interest among colleagues, but we have an important statement from the Foreign Secretary, business questions and other business to follow, and therefore I must appeal for short questions and short answers.

Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

On legacy cases, the right hon. Gentleman is entirely right. In the middle of the last decade, half a million cases were famously discovered, and we are sorting that out. The asylum archive is now down by 24,000 from the high of 98,000 that it reached in 2011, so this Government, unlike the previous one, are getting to grips with the terrible problems that we inherited. We are increasingly successful in providing not just sustainable levels of immigration but a system in which people can—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I think we get the gist of the Minister’s point.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

7. What progress she has made on Olympic security preparations; and if she will make a statement.

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[Nick Herbert]

I mentioned the amount of officer time —the equivalent of more than 2,000 officers—that we have effectively released for front-line duties. For instance, we are returning charging decisions to the police, scrapping the national requirement for the stop-and-account form, reducing the burden of the stop-and-search procedures, employing new technology to ensure that police officers can give evidence from their police stations rather than having to go to court, and championing a simplified crime-recording process. I could go on, but the list is an impressive one and reflects our determination to free up officer time so that they can do the job we want them to do, which is to fight crime.

[Mr Speaker]

There is plenty of scope there for an Adjournment debate, I think.

[Chris Skidmore]

I have been working with Asda and Avon and Somerset police on setting up a police booth in Asda in Longwell Green to ensure an increased police presence in the area and to empower police officers to help reduce crime at little cost. Will the Minister welcome such innovative measures and encourage all forces to consider how to engage with local businesses that might be keen to fight crime?

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[Mrs May]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I must remind the House that the question concerns deportations and article 8.

European Convention on Human Rights

John Bercow Excerpts

Tuesday 19th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

The Government are committed to reviewing and reforming—I must interrupt myself to apologise, Mr Speaker, as I should first move the motion.

I beg to move,

That this House supports the Government in recognising that the right to respect for family or private life in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is a qualified right and agrees that the conditions for migrants to enter or remain in the UK on the basis of their family or private life should be those contained in the Immigration Rules.

It might have been unfortunate if I had forgotten to do that formal bit, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

The Home Secretary can rest assured that I would have reminded her.

[Mrs May]

I know you are assiduous in your duties, Mr Speaker, and I recognise that you would, indeed, have reminded me—and with courtesy, I am sure.

The Government are committed to reviewing and reforming all the main routes of immigration to the UK. As a result, we anticipate net migration will fall from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands. Last week I laid new immigration rules for family immigration. These new rules will ensure that those who come here can do so only on the basis of a genuine relationship, that once here they can pay their way, and that they can integrate properly into British society. So we will increase the minimum probationary period for new spouses and partners to five years; we will stop dependent relatives becoming an unnecessary burden on the national health service; and we will introduce new tests to ensure family migrants can speak English, understand our history and respect our values.

But central to making those new rules work effectively is for this House to set out its view on how the right to family and private life in article 8 of the European convention on human rights should interact with our immigration policy. The ECHR makes it absolutely clear that article 8 is not an absolute right. Article 8(1) of the convention provides for the right to respect for private and family life, but that is qualified by article 8(2), which allows the state to interfere in the exercise of that right.

In an immigration context, the convention allows interference in the right to respect for family or private life on grounds of public safety, such as the prevention of crime, or to protect the UK’s economic well-being, including by controlling the numbers of immigrants allowed to enter or remain in the country. That means the Government can interfere with the exercise of article 8 rights, in full compliance with the ECHR, and in full compliance with the law, where it is necessary and proportionate to protect the public from foreign criminals or to safeguard our economic well-being.

The problem is that Parliament has never before been given the opportunity to set out how it believes it should be possible to interfere with article 8 rights in practice. That meant the courts were left to decide the proportionality of interference with article 8 rights themselves, in each and every individual case, and without the benefit of the views of Parliament.

We are putting that situation right. We are letting Parliament do its job by making public policy, and we are letting the courts do their job by interpreting the law, with regard to the clear view of Parliament of where the public interest lies.

Proceeds of Crime

John Bercow Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Keith Vaz]

I am happy to agree with the hon. Gentleman, who is also a fellow member of the Home Affairs Committee; he is absolutely right. The EU looks at these issues only within the confines of the EU. Because Turkey is not a member, it is not included in any aspects of co-operation. An example of that is the way the RABITs were deployed in Greece to deal with illegal immigration. Because the UK was not part of Schengen, we were not allowed to be a formal part of the activity of the RABITs. As a result, we were left marginalised.

Mr Speaker, I can see that you are about to tell me that I am out of order. [Interruption.] Oh, you are not. You were frowning, Mr Speaker, and I have known you long enough to know that a frown may have indicated that you were about to stop my flow. Let me go back to the original reason behind this debate. I was tempted along the other path by the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Mark Reckless).

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am sorry if the right hon. Gentleman was concerned that I was frowning. Perhaps I can satisfy simultaneously his curiosity and that of the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg). I have made inquiries, as the hon. Member for North East Somerset would expect, and I am now in a position to tell him and the House that the word in question, maximal, is the penultimate word in the second column of page 1,720 of the new “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary”. I know that the hon. Gentleman already knew that, but I am just reminding him.

[Keith Vaz]

I am enormously grateful that my speech will go down in history as the one in which you made such an important ruling, Mr Speaker, and thank you very much for choosing my speech in which to do it.

Let me conclude by saying that I hope the Minister will use the time available to the Government to make sure that the structures I have described are used to their maximum to ensure that we get the greatest amount of co-operation.

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[James Brokenshire]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I think the Minister is seeking briefly to reply to the debate.