Business of the House

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Thursday 25th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

Before she made those remarks, the Home Secretary said that she would “say this only once”, and I think that that was the right thing to do.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman find Government time for either a statement from the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly), or the Lord Chancellor, or a debate about the cutting of civil legal aid for social welfare cases? In my constituency, the citizens advice bureau represented or advised 14,000 of the most vulnerable and economically and socially deprived people in the area. The Under-Secretary’s response was that people should go and see their Member of Parliament. I am a superwoman, but I do not think that that is the way forward.

[Sir George Young]

I understand the hon. Lady’s concern, but it must be said that the legal aid regime in this country is relatively generous in comparison with those of most other countries. We were not able to exclude it from the difficult decisions that we had to make to control the deficit, but what we have announced requires legislation. There will be a legal aid Bill, which will give the hon. Lady an opportunity to press her concerns.