Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Valerie Vaz and Owen Paterson

Thursday 21st November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paterson]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend and predecessor for her question and congratulate her on all the work she did in preparing for this. She is absolutely right. Shortly after I took over, I saw a scheme in Nottingham where there was an eight-to-one payback on a £45 million scheme protecting about 16,000 houses, but on the other side of the river there were 500 acres, blighted and left alone by the last Government, that are now up for redevelopment.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

9. What plans he has to reduce the number of deaths from air pollution.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Valerie Vaz and Owen Paterson

Wednesday 7th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

4. What representations he has received from the Finucane family since his announcement of the Pat Finucane review.

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr Owen Paterson)]

I have not received any representations from the Finucane family since the establishment of the Pat Finucane review last October.

[Valerie Vaz]

The Secretary of State will know that the Finucane family, Madden and Finucane Solicitors, Judge Cory, the Irish Government, the United Nations special rapporteur and the Weston Park agreement have all called for a public inquiry. May I urge him to meet the Finucane family and Madden and Finucane Solicitors, so that the truth of the murder of Pat Finucane can be established and the reconciliation can be completed?

[Mr Paterson]

We have gone into the issue in some detail in written statements and in an oral statement made a couple of months ago. I wrote to Mrs Finucane soon after we came to power, and when I met her in November 2010—I was the first Secretary of State to do so for some years—I established with her that we wanted to get to the truth. I think that the method we have chosen, a review of a huge archive that is more extensive than that available to Saville, is a quicker way of getting to the truth, and will deliver satisfaction to the family. I am more than happy to meet them, and I hope that they will work closely with the de Silva review.