Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is now a spontaneous and heavy appetite for topical questions, which I am keen to accommodate.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

T8. The green investment bank has been a great success, leveraging in over £5 billion of investment in renewables and other green jobs. Does the Secretary of State not agree that the bank would be an even greater success if it had the power to borrow on the open market, as the Opposition have proposed, and the ability to focus more on energy-efficiency projects? When will he speak to the Business Secretary and the Chancellor to make sure that it gets those powers?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Tuesday 14th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) is a legendarily cheeky chappie. Hexham, in Northumberland, is a very considerable distance from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, on which this question is exclusively focused. I say that by way of explanation.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

6. What his priorities are for constitutional and political reform for the remainder of the Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Wednesday 11th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

On this question, Mr William Bain.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

9. Will the Minister update the House on what action UK Trade & Investment has taken with the participants in last year’s economic investment conference to increase much needed inward investment into Northern Ireland?

Child-care Ratios

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Thursday 9th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Does the shambles in this Government’s child-care policy not also extend to what they are doing with the tax and benefits system? Is the Minister aware that her colleague, the Economic Secretary, gave me information in a written answer last month that shows that more than half of all families will not benefit at all from the tax break or universal credit plans?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The disadvantage of that question is that it does not relate to the terms of the urgent question, so we will leave it there.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Wednesday 20th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I remind the House that the clue is in the heading—“Questions to the Secretary of State for Scotland”.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Listening to the Secretary of State reminds us how totally isolated he is in Scotland in believing that the answer to this crisis of weak economic demand is harsher austerity over the next four years. Does he not accept that nearly twice as many people as on black Wednesday are being forced to work part time because there are not enough full-time jobs in our economy? Some 320,000 people in Scotland are struggling below the poverty line despite being in work, and real wages have fallen every month that this Government have been in office. Is that not the real explanation of why we face a double-dip recession, made in Downing street?

Points of Order

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Monday 31st October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Yes, and a good one as well, as the right hon. Member for Tooting (Sadiq Khan) helpfully points out, albeit from a sedentary position.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Last Thursday morning, I discovered that my substantive oral question to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on the impact of levels of bank lending on small and medium-sized businesses, which had been accepted by the Table Office and drawn first in the shuffle, had been removed from the Order Paper at the instigation of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which claimed that it was a Treasury responsibility. I was informed by the Table Office that I had been written to by the Department on Monday evening. I regret to inform you that neither my constituency office, nor my Westminster office received any such letter. Neither was I e-mailed or contacted by telephone by the Department, with the result that the first I was made aware of the question being transferred was through its absence from the Order Paper on Thursday morning and my subsequent inquiry at the Table Office.

I was most grateful to be able to catch your eye during topical questions, Mr Speaker, but the behaviour of the Department raises real concerns about the high-handed way in which the Government are treating legitimate questions raised by right hon. and hon. Members. Can you offer any advice on how Departments should behave in such circumstances in future to ensure that the fundamental democratic right of this House to hold the Executive properly to account is protected and that Members are treated with the courtesy they should expect when raising matters on behalf of their constituents? Have you received any indication from the Business Secretary regarding his intention to come to the House to make a statement on why he is no longer prepared to answer for the Government’s record on bank lending, although he was prepared to respond to such questions as late as June?

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. The short answer to his question is that of course transfers are a matter for the Department concerned, but the Department that makes a transfer of a right hon. or hon. Member’s question should do so at the earliest possible stage and should accept responsibility for directly notifying the Member well in advance of the fact of that change. Failure to meet that test is a discourtesy, both to the hon. Member and to the House. I think it is helpful, and probably not entirely coincidental, that as the hon. Gentleman has raised this important point of order, he has done so in the presence of the Leader of the House, who I know will have such communications with his colleagues as are necessary to secure an improvement in conduct.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Wednesday 14th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The House is in a very excitable state, and it is not even lunchtime yet. Members must calm down and compose themselves.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

12. What assessment he has made of the effects on job creation in Scotland of the employer’s national insurance holiday scheme.

European Council

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Monday 27th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I have explained the point on innumerable occasions to Members that questions are to be about the policy of the Government, not that of the Opposition, so we will now move on.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

The Bank for International Settlements, in its annual report published yesterday, identifies two solutions to the Greek sovereign debt crisis: either mutualising Greece’s debts through further eurozone bail-outs, or restructuring them. Does the Prime Minister agree with that analysis, and if so, which option does he favour?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is far too much noise in the Chamber and too many private conversations taking place. I want to hear the questions and the Minister’s answers.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

T5. By 2014, civil society will be losing £2.9 billion a year in revenue—the same as the amount forgone in corporation tax by big companies in the United Kingdom. Why are the Government being so soft on big business and so tough on charities and the voluntary sector?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his answer.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

3. What reforms he is pursuing of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that, as Denmark has shown, further action can be taken by this Government, in conjunction with the devolved Administrations, to cut discard levels this year? Will he seek approval for an increase in the scope of this year’s catch quota trials, which half the Scottish white fish fleet expressed an interest in joining? Will he pledge to incentivise investment in more selective nets and in on-ship CCTV to monitor what stocks are being taken from the sea? Would those measures, together with radical reform of the CFP, not add up to an effective national action plan to end for good this appalling waste of good quality fish?

[Mr Speaker]

There were a lot of questions there, but I know that we will hear a pithy response from the Minister.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and John Bercow

Tuesday 30th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This question must be about the electoral register: accuracy thereof.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Is the Minister aware of the great efforts made this year by Glasgow city council to increase voter registration? For example, it has worked with minority groups and carried out targeted canvassing. All that work is going to show a big increase in the level of electoral registration tomorrow. Why are his Government not joining good local authorities such as that in Glasgow to get the 3.5 million people not on the electoral register on to the voters roll as soon as possible? Why are they instead rushing to have a boundary review that benefits the coalition?