Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Steve Barclay and John Bercow(9 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. Members must stand if they wish to ask a question. They must not simply gesticulate. I call Mr Barclay.
Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)
May I return the Secretary of State to the issue raised by the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Nick Smith)? As she will know, the Government of the 14 overseas territories were in London last week, and published action plans last year. The British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, for instance, have delayed any action in relation to their own action plans for more than 300 days. When will we see any implementation of the commitments that they have made?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Steve Barclay and John Bercow(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
May I remind the House that topical questions and answers to them should be brief? Perhaps we can do better in this part of the proceedings than we did in the first part.
Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Family Justice (Transparency, Accountability and Cost of Living) Bill
Debate between Steve Barclay and John Bercow(11 years, 8 months ago)
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Stephen Barclay
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point on using energy more efficiently rather than simply producing more of it, but the Liberal Democrats are pushing hard for some of the most costly forms of renewable energy production. Does he support a greater subsidy for better energy usage as opposed to such a large subsidy for production?
Mr Speaker
Order. May I just say to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming) that his dilation on these matters so far has been dazzling? We are all seeking to come to terms with the intellectual ferocity that he has deployed. In responding to that intervention, I hope he will not stray too far away from the core of his most interesting Bill.
Stephen Barclay
I am most obliged, Mr Speaker, for your very courteous intervention on my behalf, and I am more than willing to take an intervention from such a senior colleague as my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr Leigh).
There are two issues that arise from the worthy intention of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley. First, as I understand it, it is the current position of the courts that the welfare of the child comes first, so proposing a new structure to achieve that aim raises the question whether that is not the existing position. Secondly, the hon. Gentleman seems to be suggesting, paradoxically, that we take an expert witness’s advice to the court, but we cannot trust that advice to be in the best interests of the child’s welfare so we need to put it to some other expert witness. Is that really what he is proposing?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Steve Barclay and John Bercow(12 years, 4 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Order. We have much to do and very little time in which to do it. We must progress.
Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)
T12. How will the Deputy Prime Minister assess the value for money of the constitutional changes he is putting forward? Will he put a more detailed note in the Library setting out how that will be assessed?