Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 30th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I wholly acknowledge the role that the right hon. Gentleman played in that groundbreaking social impact bond at Peterborough. Its early results are extremely encouraging, and reoffending among short-sentence prisoners who receive support through the bond has fallen by 11%, while nationally that figure has risen by 10%. It was the first ice-breaking social impact bond, and I think its impact on the wider movement and the work happening across the country, with at least 15 social impact bonds live, cannot be overestimated.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that we all need to do more to make voluntary organisations and charities aware of the benefits of the growing social investment market of Big Society Capital, and of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012?

[Mr Hurd]

I wholly agree and I am clear about what we are trying to do. Over time—it will take some time—we are trying to build a third pillar of funding for our social sector to sit alongside philanthropy and the public sector, and we lead the world in doing that. The Public Services (Social Value) Act was groundbreaking legislation that requires commissioners to think very seriously about how they can maximise the social and environmental benefit of every pound of public money they spend.

European Council

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Monday 10th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We strongly supported the work that the Foreign Secretaries of Poland, Germany and France did. They had the strong support of the UK Foreign Secretary, who was in Brazil at the time of that meeting. That meeting was important, but if anyone wants to say that Britain has somehow not played a leading role in bringing together international action on the crisis, they would have quite a hard argument to make. The Foreign Secretary was the first leading politician to get to Kiev and listen to the politicians themselves after the events. We helped to co-ordinate that important EU statement, and we are helping to bring the United States and the EU together on a concerted set of actions. I commend all the work my Foreign Secretary has done.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

I refer to the answer to our right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood). Does the Prime Minister agree that recent events demonstrate the need for the UK to be as energy self-sufficient as possible, to maximise the returns from North sea oil and gas, and to utilise fully the potential of UK fracking to help ensure that the UK can be as energy self-sufficient as possible?

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend makes a strong argument. Britain has a diverse source of energy supplies—we have North sea oil and gas, we have long-term supply contracts with countries such as Qatar, we have our nuclear industry which we are now reinvigorating, and a large investment in renewables. One of the arguments that colleagues were making at the European Council was that we should encourage the US to start exporting some of its gas. That would be hugely beneficial and something that we should support, but in my view it raised the question why the European Union is not doing more to support and promote recovering unconventional gas. We should be doing that ourselves in order to enhance our energy security, and that goes for all the countries of the European Union.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I am certainly very happy to raise that with colleagues in the Department for Education. Over the years, I have developed a deep admiration for the work of youth workers, who can have an extraordinary impact on young people. I will therefore raise that point with other Departments.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

These questions tend to ignore the enormous amount of voluntary work already done by youth organisations in our constituencies—people helping young homelessness projects, street pastors, sea cadets, air cadets, Army cadets, scouts and guides. Huge numbers of youth organisations are run or assisted by adult volunteers, and they do not need the intervention of the state to thrive and prosper.

[Mr Hurd]

I fully agree with my right hon. Friend’s points. A huge number of organisations seek to help and develop young people. Part of the challenge for us is to try to connect them with local authorities, which have a statutory duty, to see whether services at local level can be joined up more effectively for the benefit of young people in the area.

St John Ambulance

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

When I was a child, my father, who was a consultant physician, regularly went off pro bono to train St John Ambulance volunteers in first aid, and in particular, as he was a consultant chest and heart physician, in first aid relating to cardiac arrest. I have therefore had a long-standing interest in the work of the Order of St John and St John Ambulance. As Chairman of the Select Committee on International Development, I was very interested in the work that they do and continue to do with the St John Eye Hospital in Palestine. For most Palestinians, Muslim or Christian, I understand that it is the only eye hospital to which they have access.

I hope that all of us will have seen the work of St John Ambulance in our constituencies. St John Ambulance clearly has a vision and an intention that everyone who needs first aid should receive it when they need it and that no one should suffer from the lack of trained first aiders. It is a real tragedy and, indeed, unacceptable that many people have died needlessly because no one was available to give them first aid when they needed it. St John Ambulance teaches people first aid—about 800,000 people last year alone—so that they can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved. St John Ambulance teaches young people in schools and through its activities for young people, including a special first aid programme for those not in education, employment or training.

St John Ambulance teaches people in the workplace and provides first aid products. One of the leading supporters of St John Ambulance in my constituency is Sir Frank Davies, who for many years was chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive. I know he was very supportive in that role of the work that St John Ambulance does in teaching people first aid in the workplace. St John teaches people who become volunteers for St John Ambulance, who offer their skills and time to be the difference right in the heart of their own communities, to be potential first responders at public events, and to provide back-up to local ambulance services. Across the country, St John Ambulance has just under 40,000 volunteers providing first aid services in communities. About half of St John adult volunteers are under 25. St John Ambulance covered just over 50,000 events in 2012 and treated and supported about 90,000 people at those events. That, I suggest, is big society in action, big time.

St John Ambulance is not the only large national charity that, in recent years, has found the need to restructure. The recent restructuring of St John Ambulance is almost identical to the restructuring undertaken a number of years ago by the British Red Cross, which also found that a structure of a number of semi-autonomous county and local headquarters was too bureaucratic and complex, and did not allow it to tackle situations as quickly and as efficiently as it wanted to. The changes introduced by St John were intended to save lives, rather than to preserve a former governance structure for its own sake. It is also important to recognise that as a modern health care charity, St John is registered with the Care Quality Commission, is registered in due course with Monitor and has a whole number of child protection responsibilities. I think the whole House would therefore understand that it is imperative that St John Ambulance has clear governance policies and lines of accountability.

I understand that St John went through an independent governance review, which concluded that St John previously had too many committees and too many roles. As a consequence, it decided to change its governance arrangements in discussion with St John volunteers, as, not surprisingly, everyone wanted St John to be much more joined-up and to have a structure that could move as quickly as possible to bring first aid to people who need it. I understand that, as a consequence, St John Ambulance has made it a priority to improve the training of front-line volunteers still further, and many of the St John volunteers have benefited from a wider range of training opportunities provided under the new governance structures.

In addition to governance and organisational concerns, one of the reasons why the British Red Cross restructured a number of years ago was that it too was concerned about the financial implications of the previous structure. It is clear from annual reports that the deficits of recent years at St John Ambulance arose partly because trustees decided to invest in new charitable programmes and partly because the difficult economic environment affected many charities’ fundraising. There was an overall net deficit of £8.9 million in 2011. However, I understand that St John Ambulance is budgeting for a small surplus this year, and the charity has cash and investments of about £20 million. It is therefore in a strong financial position, but—like all charities nowadays—it looks continually for ways to be more cost-effective in delivering its charitable objectives.

Some of its activities, such as first aid training in the workplace, or providing first aid at events where the organisers make a profit, are run to make a surplus, but that surplus is used to expand St John’s charitable work such as the teaching of first aid to young people, or providing first aid at not-for-profit community events. As the House may know, I am the Commons chair of the all-party group on carers. Often carers need training, but training for carers is at present somewhat haphazard. Given the national footprint of St John Ambulance, I hope that it may be possible to persuade it to consider undertaking training for carers.

It seems entirely reasonable to me that St John Ambulance wants to be a cost-effective, efficient and effective organisation, delivering and expanding the voluntary services that it provides to all our communities. I am fortunate to represent a constituency in Oxfordshire, which I suspect many would consider to be a more affluent part of the country. It is important that the work of St John Ambulance and the Order of St John should be available not only in affluent areas such as Oxfordshire or Kent, but in every part of the country—a point made very ably by the hon. Member for Batley and Spen (Mike Wood). I therefore hope that the work of the Order of St John and St John Ambulance will have the support of Members of the House, wherever they come from.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale), who is also my brother knight, has perfectly properly raised issues relating to his constituency that have been causing him concern. Clearly the charity commissioners have to be accountable for how they deal with any specific complaint made to them, and Ministers have to be satisfied that the Charity Commission is carrying out its duties as Parliament intended.

I believe that my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier), for whom I have enormous respect, will also discuss this issue, but I understand that St John Ambulance has made it clear that it will support the Kent care home that has been causing colleagues concern. Indeed, the chair of the board of trustees of St John Ambulance, Rodney Green, who also chairs the Order of St John, wrote to colleagues on 17 October last year, stating in terms:

“It is the Trustees’ key priority to secure the best interests of the residents. The Trustees of St. John Ambulance take extremely seriously their legal responsibility and accountability for the home and have made it absolutely clear that the residents and staff must be given all the support that they need. All necessary funding required by the home to meet the Charity’s reasonable obligations will therefore be made available.”

I understand that St John Ambulance has made it clear that it will ring-fence £750,000 specifically for the Kent care home—not an insignificant commitment for a charity with nationwide investments of only £20 million.

The Order of St John and St John Ambulance have a long history as a Christian- based charity, named after St John of Jerusalem. As one would any large charity with a national footprint involving some 40,000 volunteers, one would expect it to evolve continuously to deliver on its charitable aims and objectives and focus on its most important task of saving lives.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 11th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As the Chancellor announced at the time, what is out of the benefit cap is the basic state pension. I think that is important. On all other welfare spending, we need to ensure that we are distributing properly the different sorts of welfare.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

Q11. Three hundred and thirty new jobs were created in my constituency in the past three months alone and I expect many more to be created over the next few months, particularly as housing and construction projects accelerate. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is important that young people are not left behind and that abolishing the jobs tax on young people aged under 21 shows that the Government are serious about tackling youth unemployment?

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for what he says. As the economy recovers, it is vital that it is a recovery for all—that it is a recovery for north and south, for young and old. There is always a danger in an economy that young people who are not in the work force will be locked out of it, and that is why the change that the Chancellor announced about abolishing the jobs tax on those young people to make it cheaper for employers to take them on can have a real impact on ensuring that young people participate in our growing economy.

Tributes to Nelson Mandela

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Monday 9th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

I am conscious that a large number of colleagues want to contribute to this debate, so I want to make just one single point that I do not think has yet been made.

Mandela exemplified the dignity of hope. We all have to learn from his humility and from his preparedness to forgive those who persecuted him. The inheritance of Mandela’s hope should be for the people of Africa. It was particularly striking that he served only one term as President of South Africa, on a continent where far too often political leaders cling on to power for as long as possible.

As a country we are now the most generous donor of development aid of all the G8 nations. We can give development assistance to South Africa and provide it and South Africans with education. The right hon. Members for Neath (Mr Hain) and for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn) and I are all graduates of the university of Sussex, which has produced more Members of the South African Parliament than of this Parliament as a result of the support the university gave to those from the ANC during the ’60s and ’70s.

Africa must form its own destiny and decide whether it follows the path exemplified by Mandela of transparency, democracy, accountability and justice, or whether it pursues a course of corruption, cronyism and conflict. That is a choice for Africa to make; we cannot impose it on Africa.

Let us today hope that the people of Africa can see the example that Mandela has left them, and let us give them all the support we possibly can. Let us hope that in 10 or 20 years’ time, when the fantastic continent of Africa, so rich in human and natural resources, looks back, it will be able to say that it is free, democratic and just, because of the example that Mandela set it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

First, let me agree with what the right hon. Gentleman has said, which is that the words of the Northern Ireland Attorney-General are very much his own words and not made at the behest of anybody else. I can reassure the right hon. Gentleman that the Government have no plans to legislate for an amnesty for crimes that were committed during the troubles. As he knows, Richard Haass is currently consulting all the Northern Ireland parties on issues from the past as well as parades and flags, and I think that is the right forum in which to discuss these issues.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

Q3. General Synod is meeting today and hopefully will find a way to enable women as soon as possible to be consecrated as bishops in the Church of England. If this is successful, will my right hon. Friend and the Government support amendments to the Bishops Act to ensure that women bishops can be admitted to the House of Lords as soon as possible rather than new women bishops having to queue up behind every existing diocesan bishop before we can see women bishops in Parliament?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend follows these matters closely and asks an extremely important question. I strongly support women bishops and hope the Church of England takes this key step to ensure its place as a modern Church in touch with our society. On the problem he raises—there is, of course, a seniority rule for bishops entering the House of Lords—the Government are ready to work with the Church to see how we can get women bishops into the House of Lords as soon as possible.

Commonwealth Meeting and the Philippines

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think this is going to be very hard pounding for a very long period of time, but what the Sri Lankan Government need to understand, and I think understand more today than perhaps they did a week ago, is that the issue is not going to go away, and if they do not hold an independent inquiry, the pressure for an international inquiry will grow and grow. Using the UN human rights machinery is the right way to do that.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

The UN Special Court for Sierra Leone has been sitting in The Hague for some time now. It demonstrates that there is plenty of precedent showing that if the United Nations Security Council has the will, it is perfectly possible to devise mechanisms for independent judicial inquiries into crimes against humanity by UN member states.

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend brings considerable expertise and experience to this area. I would argue that the Commonwealth, like the United Nations, is of course an imperfect organisation, but even with the Commonwealth, it is possible to point to examples where it has stood up for human rights and for democracy —perhaps particularly recently in the case of Fiji. We have to use these organisations to get the results that are right, in terms of human rights and these sorts of issues.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Carmichael]

For me, the ministerial vehicle remains, while I am in London, the No. 159 or No. 3 bus, so I do not think I would derive any benefit from the right hon. Gentleman’s proposal. The vans were not used in Scotland, of course. There was, however, substantial concern about the use of the posters in the UKBA office there, which I have to say was particularly inappropriate given the good efforts of Glasgow city council and the wider community in Glasgow to ensure that the tone of the treatment of people coming to the city is appropriate.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

If the Scottish nationalists want to give everyone such a warm welcome in Scotland, can those of us whose grandfathers fought in the first world war with the Highland Light Infantry and whose great-grandfathers fought with the Gordon Highlanders and who consider ourselves in large part to be Scots, and consider Scotland in part to be home, have a vote in the referendum as well?

[Mr Speaker]

That is an ingenious question, but it suffers from the disadvantage of being entirely unrelated to Question 2.

G20

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Monday 9th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

There was a very robust discussion at the G20 dinner of the Syrian situation, and many people raised atrocities carried out by the opposition. Let me put on the record that an atrocity is an atrocity. It is as serious if carried out by one side or the other side. As I said in the debate, if the opposition was responsible for such large scale chemical weapon use, I would be condemning it from the Dispatch Box and urging others to take action. This was discussed, but we should be focused on the millions of Syrians who want a free and democratic future, so we should support those parts of the opposition, and the Syrian National Council does support those people—those people who speak up for them.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend has rightly taken a lead in calling for unfettered humanitarian access to Syria. When does he anticipate it will be possible for the United Nations to agree a resolution to give effect to unfettered humanitarian access, and can he think of any justifiable reason why any country, either at the General Assembly or on the Security Council, could possibly oppose a motion to give effect to unfettered humanitarian access to Syria?

[The Prime Minister]

I would very much hope that countries would not oppose such a motion. Baroness Amos gave an extremely clear message when she visited the region recently. She set out the specific things that needed to change for proper access to take place. Let us see how the authorities in Syria or on the borders respond to her very clear message, and if there is no success we will have to look at the next action, which, as I said, could conceivably be a Security Council resolution.