Banking Commission Report
Debate between Stuart Bell and John Bercow(12 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Speaker
Order. If I am to accommodate the level of interest in the statement, I will from now on require brevity, the textbook for which can be written by Sir Stuart Bell.
Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) (Lab)
Building on my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor’s statement on bank lending to the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, has the Chancellor made any study at all of the impact of what he calls bigger cushions—raising capital requirements from 7% to 9%—on bank lending to that sector? Can he offer the House a guarantee that he will consider that as part of his consultation leading to his White Paper in the spring?
Defence Treaties (France)
Debate between Stuart Bell and John Bercow(13 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) (Lab)
The nuclear defence of our country is the most significant and important issue to hit the House of Commons, and it is a bit strange that this is an urgent question, not a statement.
Is my right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State right when he says that we are both—France and the United Kingdom—nuclear powers, that we both have seats on the Security Council, and that the agreement will strengthen NATO, strengthen the European Union, strengthen our country, strengthen France and be in the national interest?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stuart Bell and John Bercow(14 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sir Stuart Bell
That is an intriguing question so early in the parliamentary Session, and one that the Commission would be happy to look into. As the hon. Gentleman knows, incandescent lighting on the parliamentary estate has been gradually replaced with lower energy lighting over the past five years. The majority of these replacements have occurred during routine lamp changes. Due to the size and complexity of the estate, detailed records of light bulbs are not kept and the proportion of low-energy lamps is not known. However, on the point that the hon. Gentleman makes, we keep developments in lighting technology under review and we will adopt low-energy solutions as they become available.