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houses of parliament at 11pl tonight. First, it's questions to | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
Philip Hammond and his team of Treasury ministers. | :00:00. | :00:13. | |
Order, order. Questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Number | :00:14. | :00:26. | |
one, Mr Speaker. Creating a economy which works were all is a kdy | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
priority of this Government. All regions are benefiting from the 12 | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
by the impact local growth funds, and our industrial strategy will | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
this growth across the UK. Devolution deals will get areas the | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
tools they need to make the right economic decisions. We're stpporting | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine, and investing over ?100 | :00:50. | :00:52. | |
billion in infrastructure over the course of this Parliament across the | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
UK. I'm encouraged by the chartdred s | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
reply, but there is always the feeling in Northern Lincolnshire | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
that we are peripheral from the northern para House and there is too | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
much focus on Leeds and Manchester. Did the Government is sure ts that | :01:08. | :01:15. | |
we are part of the scheme, `nd that regeneration projects in progress, | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
had the chance one of its tdam agreed to make a delegation from | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
north Lincolnshire separates you those? | :01:25. | :01:26. | |
I can reassure my honourabld friend that that is not the case. Northeast | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
Lincolnshire is a much a focus of the Government's attention. We have | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
agreed deals with the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, with ?1 0 | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
million. This includes support for a regeneration programme for the | :01:43. | :01:44. | |
centre of Cleethorpes, as mx honourable friend will know. One of | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
my ministerial team will be very happy to meet with him and his | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
council colleagues. The floods in Yorkshire including in | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
Leeds last Boxing Day cause devastation and many businesses | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
still have not reopened. Wh`t conversations as the charts are | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
having with insurance companies who have restricted cover, incrdased | :02:08. | :02:10. | |
premiums and put up excesses, risking creating a ghost towns in | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
many of our communities and risking jobs too? | :02:15. | :02:21. | |
This is a matter on which the Minister for the Cabinet Office in | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
Leeds, but I have some understanding of the issues as my own constituency | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
were subject to serious flooding in 2014. I will talk to my right | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
honourable friend, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and make him | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
aware of the concerns laid out. Can I thank your for allowing not | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
into takeover parliament today? I'm sure my right honourable frhend the | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
Chancellor knows the benefits of the East Midlands because he usdd to | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
work in Nottingham. I'm surd he also believes in the value of | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
infrastructure projects. And I ask whether he's minded at all, as it | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
prepares the Autumn Statement, to bring Ford HS2, making sure the | :03:03. | :03:10. | |
Midlands hub, and also the `lleged location of the East Midlands Main | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
line, all of which will bendfit Nottinghamshire? | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
I thank my honourable friend for her question, indeed, Nottinghalshire is | :03:19. | :03:20. | |
a part of the country I know well and have a great deal of affection | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
for. The Government is completely seized of the need for | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
infrastructure investment to support for the activity performancd of our | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
economy. My right honourabld friend, the Transport Secretary, will be | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
looking at the priority to be afforded to specific projects, and | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
will make statements in due course. Given that the East Midlands and the | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
West Midlands together could generate significant growth for our | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
economy if it got there eyed road, rail and skills infrastructtre, will | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
he acknowledge that, given ht is not a game in Parliament day-to,day | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
that the Autumn Statement rdally should be bringing forward those | :04:01. | :04:08. | |
ambitions in the Midlands Engine? The Government is committed to the | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
Midlands Engine, and the honourable gentleman is absolutely right that | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
the Midlands conurbation ovdrall has a weight of population and dconomic | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
activity that allows it to be a rival to the hub of London `nd the | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
South East. As I said to my honourable friend a minute `go, | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
announcements about specific projects will be made in dud course | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
by the relevant extra in a relevant departmental minister. | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
One of the most important w`ys the Chancellor could boost economic | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
growth outside of London and this at least pays is to energise slall | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
business. I wonder if on th`t basis he would consider reviewing the | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
small business enterprise scheme in the hope that he might supervise it | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
or we could see a wall of private cash invested in small businesses? | :04:56. | :05:03. | |
My friend is right, ensuring the right amount of funding in start-up | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
enterprises is key to the ftture of our economy. I can assure hhm that | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
all schemes, taxes and other such structures will be reviewed in the | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
run-up to the Autumn Statemdnt, and I will let him know on Novelber 23 | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
my conclusions. Is the Chancellor of Excheqter aware | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
that his predecessor introdtced a scheme that was raised upon robbing | :05:30. | :05:38. | |
the Derbyshire County Counchl of ?155 million in cuts, and then | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
promising to give them less than 20% of that money back? No wonddr the | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
people in Bolsover marketpl`ce, they don't call it the Northern | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
Powerhouse, it's the Northern Powerhouse. | :05:52. | :05:58. | |
I know my right honourable friend will be wanting to look at the | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
allocation of funding to local authorities, including Derbxshire | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
County Council. As he will know there are many powerful advocate for | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
Derbyshire on both sides of this House. | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
I wish the honourable gentldman a speedy recovery, he can ask his | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
question from his seat. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
Chancellor be aware that thd East Midlands has a trade surplus with | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
China thanks to manufacturing interests in the area. Past | :06:32. | :06:37. | |
chancellors have been keen to trumpet business interest in the | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
Northern Powerhouse, would this help to turn the Colts in the middle and | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
engine with future visits? Indeed, I well, it is an important | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
part in the role of chancellors to act as a champion for busindsses in | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
the North and the Midlands. Digest draw attention to inward investors | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
like the Chinese, like the Hndians - who are of course already hdavily | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
invested in the East Midlands - to opportunities exist in the TK beyond | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
London and the South East, which are sometimes not so obvious to foreign | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
investors as those that exist in London. | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
In order to boost growth outside of London and they said these place, | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
there should be a focus on manufacturing and its assochated | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
innovation research and devdlopment. The UK's record on RND development | :07:29. | :07:38. | |
is lamentable competitor competitors. But they Chancdllor | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
take the committee to reverse the Autumn Statement and confirl funding | :07:42. | :07:49. | |
for grants and loans? We've supported ?22 billion of | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
research and about meant spdnding through the tax credit spending | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
examine microsystem. The right honourable gentleman is correct | :07:58. | :08:04. | |
the... Aaron Best meant in research and is considerably less th`n many | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
of our principal competitors. I can promise him we are acutely `ware of | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
this challenge, and I will `ddress that challenge the Autumn Statement. | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
I take that as revealed good news story some point to come. In order | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
to boost growth we need to take export more seriously, incltding to | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
the EU, given our teeth bal`nce has gone into reverse over the past two | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
years. -- trade balance. In order to reflect that, what efforts hs the | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
Chancellor making to roll ott a hard Brexit, with visas, tariff barriers, | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
and enter the customs union - all of which the Treasury themselvds say | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
could lead still laws of 66 billion of revenue, a reduction... Could | :08:49. | :08:57. | |
possibly lead to the reducthon of half a million jobs. | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
I know the SNP doesn't like a good news story, and I'm sure thd | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
gentlemen will be able to think of a suitable response by Novembdr 2 in | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
case is one on that day. On the wider issue of managing Britain s | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
exit from the European Union, the Prime Minister has been verx clear, | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
we understand the instructions we have received from the Brithsh | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
people, and within our obligation to deliver those, we will seek to get | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
the very best deal we can whth the European Union that maximisds the | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
amount of trade and goods and services between our companhes and | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
the markets of the European Union and European companies and the UK | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
market. Financial services are one of the | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
sectors most exposed to Brexit, but it's not just jobs in the fhnancial | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
sector which area at risk in London, it is Edinburgh, Manchester and | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
beyond. The responses so far happy incoherence, firms need reassurances | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
they will get compatible access to the single market and the ability to | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
maintain EU National work for them. With the Chancellor finally bit the | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
end to his Government's chaos and promised to deliver both today? | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
He is right to identify fin`ncial services as one of the areas | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
particular date concerned about the way in which the exit from the | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
European Union is managed, because the industry is particularlx | :10:26. | :10:28. | |
dependent upon the passporthng resume which is in place. Hd is also | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
right to draw attention to the often overlooked fact that 75% financial | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
services jobs are outside London. This is an important, UK-wide | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
industry. But on the specifhc point that he makes, I certainly have been | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
seeking to reassure financi`l services businesses that we will put | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
at their unease at the heart of our negotiation with the Europe`n Union. | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
We understand their needs m`rket access. We also understand their | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
needs to be able to engage the right skilled people. I said on the record | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
and am happy to say again today that I do not believe that concerns the | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
British people have expressdd about migration from the European Union | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
relate to people with high skills and high pay. The problem that | :11:15. | :11:21. | |
people are concerned about hs people taking entry-level jobs, and I see | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
no likelihood that we will tse powers to control migration into the | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
UK to prevent companies bringing highly skilled, highly paid workers | :11:31. | :11:31. | |
hair. Mr Speaker, with your permission, if | :11:32. | :11:41. | |
I could answer the question with question number four, in negotiating | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
double taxation treaties thd UK objective is to reach an agreement | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
that allocates taxing rights on the basis acceptable to both cotntries. | :11:52. | :11:59. | |
Restrictive tract treaties hnhibit the ability of developing countries | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
to spend money on things like schools and education and rdsearch | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
shows along with Italy, the UK has the highest number of these, so is | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
the minister willing to work with the Department for Internathonal | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
Development to try and change that? I would disagree with the honourable | :12:14. | :12:20. | |
gentleman. I think, in fact, the double taxation treaties actually | :12:21. | :12:23. | |
help developing countries. They can remove uncertainty about thd way | :12:24. | :12:27. | |
businesses might choose to lake investment and they can open up the | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
route for fairer and more open trade. The majority of the TK double | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
taxation treaties are based on the OCD model of taxation prevention and | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
we work closely with countrhes to find a mutually acceptable treaty. | :12:43. | :12:50. | |
Can the Minister tell us wh`t plans she has to carry out assesslents of | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
the impact that the UK tax treaty has on developing countries? And if | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
her department will offer poorer countries the opportunity to | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
renegotiate treaties that do not do enough to support their devdlopment? | :13:05. | :13:12. | |
As I said before, there is ` rolling programme of renegotiation to make | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
sure that treaties reflect lodern standards, but more broadly, the UK | :13:18. | :13:20. | |
has a proud record in terms of capacity building in this area and | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
we lead international efforts to support developing countries in tax | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
capacity building. One example is the differential id funds, `nd the | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
OECD providing technical assistance to partner countries, so we can be | :13:36. | :13:42. | |
proud of the record. In negotiation double tax treaties we are | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
developing -- with developing an advanced nations will you look at | :13:47. | :13:49. | |
the transport provisions so we can broaden the tax base and stop the | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
likes of Apple, Amazon and Google gaining taxes from us. The TK is | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
committed to make sure that UK companies pay a fair share of tax in | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
the countries they are oper`ting in. In terms of the wider international | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
tax fairness I reiterate th`t the UK has taken a very strong stands | :14:09. | :14:11. | |
across the board on a number of issues but I'm always happy to speak | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
to my honourable friend abott the issue because I know he is very | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
expert and we would welcome his views on these issues. | :14:19. | :14:25. | |
The government has taken stdps to maintain a world-class business | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
environment that helps UK manufacturers thrive and it's why we | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
have cut corporation tax from 2 % down to 20% and it will fall further | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
to 17% and why we have supported ?22 billion of R and D through tax | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
credits, which helps the manufacturers to grow as innovative, | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
competitive countries. I welcome the response, but what message hs he | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
sending to international manufacturing companies with | :14:55. | :14:57. | |
operations in Britain about this country's future international | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
competitiveness as we leave the European Union? Our message is | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
straightforward. Britain is open for business, as the Prime Minister | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
said, and we will continue to be a confident, outward looking country. | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
Manufacturing for the long term depends on investment, long,term | :15:18. | :15:24. | |
investment. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of us | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
potentially leaving the European investment bank, and what progress | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
has there been, and any discussions about us maintaining our st`te? In | :15:36. | :15:41. | |
terms of the European investment bank, we are in discussions with | :15:42. | :15:48. | |
them. Will he agree with me that reducing anti-competitive m`rket | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
distortions is both a great physical way to promote manufacturing and to | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
ensure the country's best place for new trade deals? -- Best pl`ced I | :15:55. | :16:02. | |
agree that removing distorthons in the economy will result in ` more | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
efficient economy and the UK Government has a record of doing | :16:08. | :16:10. | |
that by release -- reducing corporation tax, for exampld. Apart | :16:11. | :16:16. | |
from lowering corporation t`x in Northern Ireland, what other steps | :16:17. | :16:19. | |
will the Chancellor and his ministerial team take to incentivise | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
manufacturing in northern -, Northern Ireland? I do think in | :16:25. | :16:31. | |
terms of freedom for Northern Ireland to set its corporathon tax | :16:32. | :16:34. | |
rate is an important measurd in itself and we look forward to | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
further progress on that. Of course, there will be in Autumn Statement | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
next month whether government will set out its economic policy but as a | :16:43. | :16:50. | |
government, we mentioned corporation tax and tax credits that were made | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
more generous, these are all measures that have helped | :16:55. | :16:56. | |
manufacturing businesses in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Whild I | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
welcome the ongoing commitmdnt to the northern powerhouse and | :17:02. | :17:04. | |
manufacturing in my constittency and the department allocated funds for | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
the Hub growth, but does thd Minister agree those investlent must | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
seek maximum economic benefht in the current proposal will take `n | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
existing pinch point down the road if we do not seek the chewing up of | :17:20. | :17:28. | |
the carriageway down the a 64? Extremely tangential, so meriting an | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
pithy response. I will look forward to examining the case for dtelling | :17:35. | :17:37. | |
that road and the benefit that that will provide. Last month thd | :17:38. | :17:45. | |
Chancellor proudly dismissed his predecessor's plans to cut | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
corporation tax to 15%, but this week however we hear of plans | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
hatched by senior government figures to cut corporation tax as low as 10% | :17:56. | :18:02. | |
as part of a so-called Brexht nuclear option. This is despite the | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
British Chambers of commercd and the Institute of directors stathng that | :18:08. | :18:10. | |
cutting corporation tax would not be at the top of their wish list. Can | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
the minister put an end to his government's reign of chaos and | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
confirmed today what his long-term position is on corporation tax so | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
that businesses have the st`bility they deserve? I'm not sure hf I was | :18:24. | :18:31. | |
a labour frontbencher I would use the phrase reign of chaos. But let | :18:32. | :18:40. | |
me just be very clear. The TK Government has rightly reduced | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
corporation tax from 28% to 20% and we are legislating down to 07%. If | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
there are any further announcements, that will be in a fiscal evdnt like | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
the Autumn Statement or budget. I'm afraid that the other mental chaos | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
we have seen on corporation tax is sadly replicated in terms of | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
investment. The Chancellor promised to terror the previous budgdt and | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
develop an industrial stratdgy before denying he was plannhng a | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
spending splurge. A recent poll showed that almost two thirds of | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
Britons agreed that the country is not doing enough to meet its | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
infrastructure needs and we on this side agree. Can the Minister and his | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
government 's chaotic record on investment and confirm how luch he | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
plans to invest in infrastrtcture, and on what, and where will he get | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
the money from? Can I just point out on the subject of corporation tax it | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
wasn't that many months ago that on one day the Shadow Chancellor | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
condemned the reduction down to 17% whilst the Labour Party comlittee | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
voted for it. Can I also just be clear that in terms of | :19:53. | :19:55. | |
infrastructure it's no good coming forward with incredible plans to | :19:56. | :20:02. | |
spend 500 billion plan -- ?400 billion without any idea as to how | :20:03. | :20:05. | |
it will be paid. The Chancellor will make a statement on the 23rd of | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
November in terms of the policy on this, but to have some credhbility | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
the Labour Party really need to change tack. | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
The ?4.4 billion priority school building programme was established | :20:20. | :20:26. | |
to rebuild or refurbish those school buildings in the worst condhtion | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
across the country and the programme second phase was announced hn May | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
2014 and feasibility studies are being carried out. In addithon we | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
are allocating ?4.2 billion across 2015 up to 20 18, two local | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
authorities, Academy trusts and partnerships maintaining thdir | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
schools. I'd like to thank ly right honourable friend for his rdply but | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
one high school in my consthtuency has been top priority for a rebuild. | :20:54. | :21:02. | |
Can I ask my honourable fridnd that he looks at this carefully so we can | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
finally give the pupils of the high school the school they deserve? I | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
thank the honourable friend for his question. I understand his | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
constituents disappointment that the school was not successful in its | :21:17. | :21:19. | |
application to the priority building programme. We do need to prhoritise | :21:20. | :21:27. | |
schools in the very worst conditions. I understand thd school | :21:28. | :21:30. | |
buildings are receiving invdstment through the local authority and I | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
understand they will have competing priorities for capital resotrces but | :21:36. | :21:37. | |
I'm sure my honourable friend will be continuing to make the c`se for | :21:38. | :21:45. | |
the school. With ?180 million spend it on phase one, will the government | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
be tempted to back fill with second-rate PFI buildings, `nd what | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
role will it have this programme? In terms of the record on school | :21:56. | :22:00. | |
building, let me address th`t point. We have spent ?18 billion shnce 2010 | :22:01. | :22:04. | |
on the school estates and wd are committed to a further ?23 billion | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
so pupils can be taught in facilities fit for the 21st century. | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
Of course, we want to make sure that this is funded at the most | :22:15. | :22:16. | |
appropriate value for money and sustainable way. With permission, I | :22:17. | :22:25. | |
will answer this question together with questions seven, 12 and 14 | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
World-class infrastructure hs central to raising our country's | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
productivity and around 3000 infrastructure projects havd been | :22:35. | :22:38. | |
delivered across the UK since 2 10 with another 600 projects worth over | :22:39. | :22:46. | |
?480 billion in the pipelind. We are investing over ?13 billion hn | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
transport across the North, 5 billion in the Midlands and | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
nationwide we are making thd largest investment in roads across the UK in | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
a generation and rail is experiencing a level of invdstment | :22:57. | :23:02. | |
not seen since Victorian tiles. I thank the Chancellor for thd answer. | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
Can he ensure that the lower Thames crossing option preferred bx the | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
highways agency quickly and speedily taken forward, which will enhance | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
the investment in Medway and the whole of the Thames Gateway area in | :23:16. | :23:18. | |
facilitating house-building and encouraging business growth and | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
supporting existing infrastructure in the Kent area? I commend my | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
honourable friend for the w`y he has campaigned on the issue and we | :23:29. | :23:31. | |
recognise the importance of this crossing for supporting the economy | :23:32. | :23:34. | |
on both sides of the Thames, particularly given the constrained | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
capacity at Dartford. It will produce significant benefits | :23:41. | :23:42. | |
locally, regionally and nathonally and the government will be laking a | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
decision on the location and root in due course. Conservative controlled | :23:47. | :23:52. | |
Southend Council were very disappointed they were unsuccessful | :23:53. | :23:55. | |
in their bid to the coastal communities fund. Would my right | :23:56. | :23:58. | |
honourable friend agreed to meet myself, the leader of the council, | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
and others, so we might share with him why we do need investment in | :24:05. | :24:07. | |
infrastructure, particularlx as Southend is the alternative city of | :24:08. | :24:13. | |
culture next year. Well Mr Speaker, my honourable friend makes ` good | :24:14. | :24:15. | |
point. The government recognises the ongoing growth potential of | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
Southend. The government's substantial investment that includes | :24:23. | :24:24. | |
over ?40 million through thd south-east growth deal and the 014 | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
city deal. The government announced last year that the coastal | :24:31. | :24:32. | |
communities fund would be extended over this Parliament, at le`st | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
another ?90 million of further funding is available to prolote | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
sustainable economic growth and jobs within the UK's coastal comlunities | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
and I would strongly encour`ge Southend Borough Council to apply to | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
this funding. We welcome yotr comments on the infrastructtre, | :24:51. | :24:59. | |
would he now commit to workhng with us all to secure the funding for the | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
duelling of the Eastern byp`ss around my constituency of Lhncoln | :25:04. | :25:06. | |
which will greatly support not only the development of the city, but | :25:07. | :25:10. | |
also the whole of greater Lincolnshire. I recognise mx | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
honourable friend's commitmdnt to his preferred version of thd | :25:15. | :25:17. | |
project. Funding has been m`de available for the provision of the | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
Lincoln Eastern bypass. In the county council's preferred version, | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
a single carriageway road, `nd as my honourable friend will know, the | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
county council is not in favour of restarting the process from scratch | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
and introducing further del`ys, so I cannot, I'm afraid, give hil any | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
confidence that additional funding will be made available to adopt a | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
dualling solution. I was pldased that in the last budget statement | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
the previous Chancellor announced the new Thames Street 2015 growth | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
commission to focus on delivering essential infrastructure, and | :25:57. | :25:59. | |
development for this crucial region. Could I ask my right honour`ble | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
friend for assurances that this commission, led by Lord Hesdltine, | :26:04. | :26:04. | |
will continue to be I'm Brad my honourable friend has | :26:05. | :26:14. | |
raised this point. The tens S3 growth commission has been `sked to | :26:15. | :26:21. | |
raise an ambitious plan and for the area. I'm grateful to Lord Heseltine | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
and his commissioners for bringing this report. I look forward to | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
receiving the interim report ahead of the budget next year when I will | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
give a response to it. When the Chancellor came to the | :26:35. | :26:37. | |
Treasury Select Committee l`st week, he was unsure as to whether or not | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
they were doing analysis by region of the effect of leaving thd | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
European Union. He's had a week to find out, could you give thd House | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
the answer, please? I think if the honourable l`dy | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
checks a video she will find I was not unsure, I was advising lyself | :26:56. | :26:59. | |
service colleague that I understood we were doing such regional | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
analysis. It is the case at we're doing regional analysis, and that | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
will help to inform the prilers to's negotiation strategy. | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
With the Chancellor agree whth me that energy efficiency should be a | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
priority for development nationally and regionally. Would he consider | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
that proceeds of the Shell gas sovereign wealth fund should be at | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
her efficiency measures so that we can encourage innovation? | :27:30. | :27:38. | |
I'm not necessarily an favotr of earmarking hypothetical funds for | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
that purpose, but I do think the honourable lady makes an important | :27:43. | :27:45. | |
point is, we have a serious challenge over energy capachty in | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
this country over the next 20 years, and we're going to have to hnvest | :27:51. | :27:56. | |
large sums of money, and allost ?100 billion, just ensure the lights stay | :27:57. | :28:03. | |
on. Of course it makes sensd to reduce energy demand through | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
conservation measures, alongside existing measures. | :28:10. | :28:17. | |
Last week, the infrastructure measure in the Northern Ireland | :28:18. | :28:19. | |
Executive announced a major infrastructure projects in Belfast | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
with beats stopped because ht's unlikely to be stopped before the | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
end of the period when we ldave the map, and their four funding would be | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
lost. That the minister let us know, has the infrastructure Minister had | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
any discussions with him about this project, and Kenny gave asstrance to | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
the Northern Ireland Executhve that any project started before we leave | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
the EU weather is a funding gap will be bridged by the Treasury? | :28:49. | :28:54. | |
I'm not aware of the project he refers to, as virus I'm where the | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
Northern Ireland Executive have not been in touch with the Treasury We | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
have made two announcements, an announcement that confirms `ll | :29:03. | :29:06. | |
projects signed before the @utumn Statement in the normal course of | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
business would be guaranteed whatever, whether they conthnue to | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
be funded by the EU or not `fter our exit. I made a further statdment | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
that says after the Autumn Statement, any new EU funded | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
projects, as long as they p`ss our priorities test, will get the same | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
guarantee. However long thex last, they will be funded by the TK | :29:30. | :29:36. | |
Treasury want EU funding stops. This Government continues to be in | :29:37. | :29:40. | |
chaos of its flagship, so cold, Northern Powerhouse. I live there, I | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
see it every day, they have no long-term industrial strategy. | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
Meanwhile, notwithstanding what the Chancellor said earlier, regional | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
economies are still bring from - suffering from lack of investment. | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
Particular date transport infrastructure. A problem now | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
compounded by Brexit. What plans does the Chancellor have set and | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
this uncertainty and finallx bring to this House a rebalancing or an | :30:10. | :30:12. | |
enhancement of regional transport ever structure spending? | :30:13. | :30:19. | |
I urge the honourable gentldman not to talk down the North and the | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
importance of the Northern Powerhouse. The Northern Powerhouse | :30:24. | :30:27. | |
is an important part of the Government's strategy, and the new | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
Prime Minister has made cle`r her commitment to it. When he's right is | :30:32. | :30:38. | |
in drawing attention to the shortfall of infrastructure | :30:39. | :30:41. | |
investment in the UK overall compared to our principal | :30:42. | :30:44. | |
competitors. That is an isste we have to address at national level, | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
looking for the best value for money, ie, the projects will give | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
the greatest contribution to closing that productivity gap. | :30:54. | :31:03. | |
Question number eight, Mr Speaker. The Office For Budget Responsibility | :31:04. | :31:05. | |
are responsible for forecasting contributions to the EU. Thdy will | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
update that Autumn Statement 20 6. The contribution of the perhod was | :31:12. | :31:18. | |
26 billion pounds. Thank you for that response. In | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
spite of all the spending pledges which are being made today `nd | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
recently, hospitals, schools police and roads in my constituencx | :31:28. | :31:29. | |
certainly do need a boost in spending is. Does the most `gree | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
with me that the sooner we leave the European Union, the sooner that | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
money will be available for them? What I say to my honourable friend | :31:39. | :31:42. | |
is that any money saved will depend on the overall fiscal situation and | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
the broader economic environment. Decisions on spending will be taken | :31:47. | :31:52. | |
in the round at Autumn Statdment and budgets. But was to remain lembers | :31:53. | :32:01. | |
of the European Union, we h`ve two continue to pay in. | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
On the day of the EU referendum I met an NHS worker who voted to leave | :32:07. | :32:10. | |
the European Union, precisely because she thought there would be | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
more money available to the NHS banks did the ?350 million per week | :32:15. | :32:18. | |
in place and on the Vote Le`ve abuzz. I want to know and she wants | :32:19. | :32:21. | |
to know, when we leave the Duropean Union, are we getting that loney? | :32:22. | :32:30. | |
It's certainly not for me to justify or explain the pledges made by the | :32:31. | :32:37. | |
Leave campaign. But what I would say is, when it comes to public spending | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
decisions, that needs to be taken in the context of the economic and | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
fiscal situation. One appreciate the getting back our | :32:47. | :32:55. | |
EU contribution was a factor in the referendum, what the Ministdr | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
confirm that this administr`tion is at least open to the idea of paying | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
some contribution in the future if we are to get some sort of `ccess to | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
the single market for financial services is, or indeed in | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
relationship to passporting and is equivalence, though could bd some | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
sort of contribution? The important thing is for the | :33:16. | :33:18. | |
United Kingdom to get the bdst possible deal in our negoti`tions | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
with the European Union. I don't think it makes sense to bind our | :33:23. | :33:28. | |
hands, close down options, `t this point. Nor is it right that we | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
provide a running commentarx on this matter. | :33:33. | :33:38. | |
Wales will continue to recehve convergence funding while wd are in | :33:39. | :33:42. | |
the EU. In any case, what the Treasury on the Prime Minister's | :33:43. | :33:50. | |
pledge to continue the Swansea Railway, making a part of the | :33:51. | :33:55. | |
pan-European network, and m`ke it part of a manufacturing hub two will | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
he met on that pledge? That is a matter for the Tr`nsport | :34:01. | :34:06. | |
Secretary. As the Chancellor has made clear, this Government is | :34:07. | :34:08. | |
committed to improving our infrastructure. | :34:09. | :34:19. | |
Number nine, sir. The Government is committed to | :34:20. | :34:24. | |
helping the Midlands in terls of its economic potential and making it a | :34:25. | :34:27. | |
powerful engine for growth. We're backing skills, innovation hn the | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
automotive and aerospace injuries examine map industries and putting | :34:33. | :34:39. | |
power into local people's h`nds by voting a new mayor for the Lidlands. | :34:40. | :34:43. | |
I think it's also in order to mention our excellent candidate in | :34:44. | :34:49. | |
this race. I thank him for the answer. A report | :34:50. | :34:55. | |
earlier this year suggested 53 billion could be contributed at to | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
the UK economy by the East Lidlands by 2020, reflecting the central role | :35:02. | :35:04. | |
the area continues to play hn driving growth. Does my honourable | :35:05. | :35:08. | |
friend agree that to sustain this triggered a success it is absolutely | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
vital we continue to deliver an investment in Leicestershird's | :35:13. | :35:14. | |
roads, rail and broader infrastructure. Might I instructed | :35:15. | :35:24. | |
my colleague on the benefits of the blue pencil? | :35:25. | :35:33. | |
Very good advice, Mr Speaker. Investment in infrastructurd between | :35:34. | :35:36. | |
our major cities is vital. We are investing over five billion in | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
transport infrastructure to put the Midlands at the heart of a lodern | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
transport network. Pettiness personified. | :35:46. | :35:54. | |
Can the Minister confirm no be no delays today I'd have locathon of | :35:55. | :35:58. | |
the East Midlands railway lhne. Yes, he can. | :35:59. | :36:10. | |
Question Time, Mr Speaker. If people feel they have had their | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
tax credits incorrectly withdrawn, they should urgently contact HMRC. | :36:16. | :36:22. | |
It will review all complaint cases and pay redress where appropriate. | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
Labour welcomes the cancell`tion of the Concentrix contract, with the | :36:28. | :36:34. | |
Minister reassure the thous`nds of single parents that their t`x | :36:35. | :36:43. | |
credit, erroneously stocked by Concentrix, will be reinstated | :36:44. | :36:46. | |
immediately, said their children can be kept safe and warm and not go | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
unsaid as winter approaches? She is right to draw the Hotse's | :36:52. | :36:59. | |
attention to vulnerable clahmants. She may be interested to know that | :37:00. | :37:03. | |
HMRC had a further drop in for colleagues on the 19th of October, | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
attended by 15 members and ` number of complaints and issues were raised | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
their, which we are on the way to resolving. In terms of rest`rting | :37:13. | :37:20. | |
claims, is to get right information. HMRC had taken back a vast number of | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
cases, and I will say more `bout this tomorrow, their priority is to | :37:26. | :37:28. | |
get the right information and get them started again as soon `s factor | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
established. After a previous question, the | :37:34. | :37:38. | |
Minister said, demands to bd paid to the supplier are reduced as actual | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
performance fails to meet standards set in the contract. Does that | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
include penalties for withdrawing tax credit when they should not have | :37:48. | :37:51. | |
been withdrawn? The terms of the contract bdtween | :37:52. | :37:56. | |
HMRC and Concentrix are in the public domain. It is right that when | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
performance is not as per the contract, there are associated | :38:01. | :38:05. | |
deductions. I will be in a position to offer the House more information | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
on the contract tomorrow during the opposition day debate. | :38:09. | :38:12. | |
A number of my constituents have been affected by this, not least one | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
who was a front line police officer, who had her benefits withdr`wn, | :38:18. | :38:24. | |
meaning her childcare could not be paid, and she could potenti`lly be | :38:25. | :38:29. | |
unable to go to work. One officer intervened and benefits werd but | :38:30. | :38:34. | |
what is you going to do further people are upset about this | :38:35. | :38:36. | |
treatment is? That two things here - if pdople do | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
feel the tax credits have bden incorrectly withdrawn because of | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
errors, they should contact HMRC will review it and redress can be | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
made. There is a second point that customers can as a mandatorx | :38:51. | :38:53. | |
reconsideration, when they don't feel their circumstances had been | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
correctly identified. Some of the time, that is because peopld don't | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
send through the right information until they've... | :39:03. | :39:09. | |
Mr Speaker, the UK will leave the European Union and introducd control | :39:10. | :39:12. | |
of migration between Britain and the EU. Working with officials `cross | :39:13. | :39:23. | |
governments, the Government undertakes to a number of | :39:24. | :39:26. | |
contingencies will stop I'm afraid were not going to provide a running | :39:27. | :39:30. | |
commentary. We do want the best outcome for the UK, which mdans | :39:31. | :39:35. | |
Alaba spoke arrangements whhch allows companies access to Duropean | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
markets. There was many failed targets and | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
plans, including ?1 trillion of export, a target which is nowhere | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
near being reached, and that is with full access to the single m`rket. | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
Other markets such as Germany, meanwhile, explore more than us to | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
China and other markets. Dods the Chancellor agree that the f`ilure | :40:00. | :40:02. | |
the Government to improve the export performance has led the Govdrnment | :40:03. | :40:05. | |
unable to take advantage of opportunities outside the ET. I | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
think the honourable lady should prove a powerful person in the | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
library of the House. What the Government can support and | :40:16. | :40:21. | |
enable exporters, it cannot do their job for them. It is for exporters to | :40:22. | :40:25. | |
make their businesses competitive and sell their wares around the | :40:26. | :40:29. | |
world. We will do everything we can to support them in that enddavour. | :40:30. | :40:36. | |
Does my honourable friend agree that unless the European Union are going | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
to impose trade sanctions on the UK, there will be nothing to stop us to | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
have access to the single m`rket when we leave? | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
My honourable friend is right in the sense that every nation that is a | :40:50. | :40:57. | |
member of the WTO, and we are a member of the WTO, has the right to | :40:58. | :41:02. | |
access the markets of other members and WTO times. But those tiles will | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
be challenging for some othdr industries. For example, thd | :41:07. | :41:09. | |
automotive industry, the wittier terms apply a temper sent G`reth on | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
the car is markets. the Chancellor will know th`t West | :41:14. | :41:22. | |
Yorkshire is the beating he`rt of the manufacturing economy in this | :41:23. | :41:27. | |
country. Can I tell him that my manufacturing leaders and the | :41:28. | :41:30. | |
employees Federation feel ldft out of the loop in terms of what their | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
future is after Brexit. Could he reassure them? They are disturbed | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
that the future. I can reassure the honourable gentleman that | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
manufacturing industry is vdry much at the forefront of our thinking as | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
we approach these negotiations and I'm sorry I've not had a ch`nce to | :41:49. | :41:51. | |
go to West Yorkshire, but I have been engaging with businessds in all | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
sectors of the economy incltding many businesses from the North who | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
have attended a roundtable discussions in Downing Stredt over | :42:02. | :42:04. | |
the last few weeks to set ott their concerns so we can take thel | :42:05. | :42:09. | |
properly into account. In wdlcoming my right honourable friend's stands | :42:10. | :42:17. | |
on this, could I suggest as it's not only a large balance of paylents | :42:18. | :42:20. | |
deficit with Europe but specifically a large one on automotive, ht is in | :42:21. | :42:26. | |
the EU's interest to strike a decent deal with us, as he intends to do. | :42:27. | :42:33. | |
Mr Speaker, our intention is to get the very best deal that we can with | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
our neighbours in the Europdan Union to allow access for our companies to | :42:39. | :42:43. | |
trade their goods and services into the European Union. But I would | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
caution him that looking at him -- the economic arguments alond is the | :42:49. | :42:51. | |
mission very important point. There is a political debate going on in | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
Europe, where European politicians are very conscious of the ilpact of | :42:58. | :43:02. | |
Britain's departure on their political project. And I don't think | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
we can be certain that economics alone will dictate the course of | :43:08. | :43:08. | |
this negotiation. Mr Speaker, the government has | :43:09. | :43:19. | |
provided a guarantee that all European structural and invdstment | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
project signed before the Attumn Statement and we have also provided | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
a guaranteed for all ESI F project signed after the Autumn Statement | :43:29. | :43:34. | |
and before the UK departure from the European Union provided thex pass | :43:35. | :43:36. | |
the test of value for money and are in line with domestic stratdgic | :43:37. | :43:43. | |
priorities. I listened closdly to the Chancellor's previous answers | :43:44. | :43:46. | |
about regional distribution of investment and the latest fhgures | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
show that only a quarter of national infrastructure projects are either | :43:51. | :43:53. | |
in the North west or north dast of England with just one of thd top | :43:54. | :43:57. | |
funded 25 project actually hn the area. With further damaging cuts to | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
net investment due to come during the remainder of the parlialent | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
where will this government `ddress the inequality, match its rhetoric | :44:07. | :44:09. | |
with action and start properly funding the northern powerhouse I | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
make three points to the zero honourable lady. First of all we | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
have an Autumn Statement in three weeks and I will set out more of the | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
forward plans that time, and secondly I am not sure of the top of | :44:23. | :44:26. | |
my head what the population proportion of the UK in the | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
north-west and north-east rdgions is, but if the figures she puotes | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
are correct, a quarter of infrastructure investment, H'm not | :44:35. | :44:37. | |
so sure that that is a disproportionate underfunding. I | :44:38. | :44:40. | |
would need to check that. The third point I would make, it is the case | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
that the very large investmdnt in Crossrail is a strategicallx | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
important national Roger Kahn has had the effect of skewing | :44:51. | :44:52. | |
infrastructure investment towards London over the last few ye`rs - | :44:53. | :44:58. | |
extremely important national project. Can I thank him for his | :44:59. | :45:04. | |
interest in these topics. The natural infrastructure commhttee | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
says that the smart energy system would be put at between ?8 billion | :45:10. | :45:15. | |
per year by 2030. I'm grateful for the Minister for his response. Head | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
of the Autumn Statement, wotld the minister look at the role of the | :45:23. | :45:26. | |
Treasury that it might play in digitising the energy systel by | :45:27. | :45:29. | |
accelerating the StorageTek knowledges, demand-side response on | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
the upgrade of the distribution networks so we can get the | :45:34. | :45:37. | |
productivity gains he expects? The Treasury will continue to work with | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
the Department for business, energy and strategy to drive forward a | :45:43. | :45:44. | |
smart energy system. The government has committed to implement hn the | :45:45. | :45:50. | |
recommendations in full. Topical question. Mr Speaker, my prhncipal | :45:51. | :45:58. | |
responsibilities to ensure the stability and prosperity of the | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
economy and in the current circumstances that requires a | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
combination of the time measures to respond to the shock that the | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
economy has received an longer-term measures to manage structur`l | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
adjustments as the UK transhtions out of the EU. Mr Speaker, today is | :46:16. | :46:25. | |
my 30th wedding anniversary. So I hope the Chancellor will john me in | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
wishing the long-suffering Lrs Double and a happy annivers`ry. Take | :46:31. | :46:37. | |
a Brazilian -- below for thd tax breaks for married people, `nd easy | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
going to try and increase this and I would encourage him to do so. I will | :46:44. | :46:47. | |
join him in wishing the honourable member and his wife a very happy | :46:48. | :46:52. | |
30th anniversary. Taking my cue from last week I'm probably not going to | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
suggest how Mrs Double might commemorate the event. He is quite | :46:57. | :47:02. | |
right to highlight the valud of a marriage in society and I hope I can | :47:03. | :47:05. | |
reassure him that the government remains firmly committed to | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
supporting the important institution through the marriage allowance. A | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
married couple could benefit by up to ?432 per year. We have jtst | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
passed the landmark of 1 million families who have made succdssful | :47:21. | :47:22. | |
applications but I agree with my honourable friend that uptake is not | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
enough and that is reason, darly next month, HM RC will launch a new | :47:28. | :47:30. | |
campaign to increase awarendss and take-up of the marriage allowance. | :47:31. | :47:37. | |
If I can bring the Chancellor back to Brexit, and happy anniversary by | :47:38. | :47:41. | |
the way, and the role of his department before the referdndum, he | :47:42. | :47:44. | |
said that the Treasury publhshed a paper warning about the dangers of | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
leaving the single market would be up to ?67 billion loss. Last week | :47:51. | :47:53. | |
the permanent Secretary to the Treasury told a select commhttee | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
that these figures were not directly applicable and then the Chancellor | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
questioned his own department's calculation is by referring to | :48:02. | :48:04. | |
mitigation factors not taken into account. There is not just funding | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
chaos on Brexit in the Cabinet, it's in the Treasury as well it seems. | :48:09. | :48:12. | |
Can the Chancellor clarify dxactly what is his department's adtlation | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
for the Outlook to public fhnances if access to the single market is | :48:18. | :48:22. | |
not achieved -- calculation. The honourable gentleman can calculate | :48:23. | :48:27. | |
it how he likes, but all economic models have to make assumpthons In | :48:28. | :48:30. | |
terms of that model the Tre`sury produced in April it assumed no | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
policy response by government, and we know there has been a policy | :48:35. | :48:38. | |
response in the form of the monetary expansion delivered by the Bank of | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
England on August two. And ht assumed that the article 15 notice | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
would be served immediately after the referendum, and as we now know | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
that is not the case --. Article 50. The honourable gentleman will just | :48:53. | :48:55. | |
have to wait until the Novelber 23rd when the Obi I will publish the | :48:56. | :49:05. | |
forecast. -- ODI. -- oh BR. There is no figure attached, just confirms | :49:06. | :49:09. | |
the chaos in Cabinet and in his department. Can I ask the Chancellor | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
to pass on thanks to the officials in the department to very hdlpfully | :49:15. | :49:17. | |
published on the Treasury wdbsite the document labelled public sector | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
finances briefing, official, sensitive for internal use only | :49:22. | :49:27. | |
This document does at least give us some information in that it confirms | :49:28. | :49:30. | |
that the government is failhng to meet predictions on tax recdipts and | :49:31. | :49:35. | |
deficit reduction. It also reveals that this is based upon acthvity | :49:36. | :49:40. | |
from before the referendum, so any post-referendum downturn will | :49:41. | :49:44. | |
exacerbate this. Does this document prove once and for all that far from | :49:45. | :49:48. | |
fixing the roof while the stn is shining, this country was | :49:49. | :49:53. | |
scandalously economically or prepared and politically totally | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
unprepared for the Brexit ddcision? Just so the honourable gentleman is | :49:58. | :50:00. | |
absolutely clear, it's quitd wrong to suggest that my department | :50:01. | :50:04. | |
doesn't have any figures. It does have figures, I'm just not giving | :50:05. | :50:11. | |
them to him. As for the doctment he has spent such a lot of timd rather | :50:12. | :50:14. | |
unsuccessfully trying to tott around the media, it was published by | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
mistake but all of the figures in this document have already been | :50:20. | :50:23. | |
published elsewhere. All of them are in the public domain. Kevin | :50:24. | :50:31. | |
Lancaster and Simon Davies started their business from scratch in the | :50:32. | :50:37. | |
year 2000 and they now generate ?1.7 million in profit and a leading | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
industrial cooling firm. Last week the Institute of physics aw`rded it | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
a business innovation award for its innovative application of physics or | :50:48. | :50:50. | |
generating jobs and profit. Will the Chancellor joined me in | :50:51. | :50:54. | |
congratulating them and outlining what the government is doing to | :50:55. | :50:58. | |
support research and develop in so other self starters like Kevin and | :50:59. | :51:03. | |
Simon can grow? I think all of the Treasury ministers would be | :51:04. | :51:07. | |
delighted to congratulate the company on the innovation award they | :51:08. | :51:11. | |
have one. Of course the govdrnment touched on this earlier and we are | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
committed to supporting resdarch and development in British businesses | :51:16. | :51:18. | |
provided one of the most generous tax credits schemes in the world to | :51:19. | :51:22. | |
small businesses and it is claimed by over 20,000 businesses. Why does | :51:23. | :51:28. | |
the Chancellor believe that corporation tax receipts collapsed | :51:29. | :51:32. | |
in September 2016 to their lowest level since 2009, and why does he | :51:33. | :51:36. | |
believe they will overshoot the OBR forecast this year? I'm sorry to be | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
boring, but all of these issues will be addressed at the financi`l Autumn | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
Statement when we have the latest fiscal projections from the OBR I | :51:47. | :51:52. | |
know there will be a statemdnt in a moment but it's been reportdd that | :51:53. | :51:55. | |
Heathrow has been the chosen option for expansion. It is import`nt | :51:56. | :51:58. | |
therefore that every part of the UK benefits from this and so do the | :51:59. | :52:02. | |
regional airports. Would he agree to meet with me how we can improve | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
connectivity to Leeds Bradford Airport and how we might get funding | :52:07. | :52:11. | |
for a rail link? As my honotrable friend on the house will know, the | :52:12. | :52:15. | |
announcement has been made that the airport committee this mornhng | :52:16. | :52:22. | |
decided to move ahead with the North West runway at Heathrow, and my | :52:23. | :52:25. | |
right honourable friend, thd Transport Secretary, will m`ke a | :52:26. | :52:28. | |
statement to the house very shortly. My honourable friend is verx right. | :52:29. | :52:33. | |
Regional connectivity is vitally important, and regional slots at | :52:34. | :52:36. | |
Heathrow have been squeezed out by the pressure on the runways there | :52:37. | :52:41. | |
and we will ensure, as part of the package, that regional slots are | :52:42. | :52:46. | |
protected in the future. Tens of thousands of UK jobs depend on euro | :52:47. | :52:53. | |
denominated clearing in the UK. Could the Chancellor Telles how | :52:54. | :52:55. | |
important he regards it that it should still be permissible in the | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
UK after we leave the Europdan Union -- tell us? The right honourable | :53:01. | :53:06. | |
gentleman but a finger on an important issue, and he will know | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
that we've already had one go at trying to prevent euro denolinated | :53:10. | :53:12. | |
clearing from taking place hn the UK and it's no doubt a very iconic | :53:13. | :53:18. | |
issue for many of our Europdan partners. It is an important part of | :53:19. | :53:23. | |
the overall financial structure in London and not easily separ`ted from | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
the other activities that operate in London but in terms of jobs and | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
value attached to it, it is a relatively small part of thd total. | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
What's he planning to do with Bradford and Bingley's assets? Mr | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
Speaker, following the annotncement in budget 2016, we have launched a | :53:45. | :53:50. | |
programme of sales of Bradford Bingley mortgage assets that it | :53:51. | :53:53. | |
holds. This will be designed to raise sufficient proceeds to repay | :53:54. | :54:00. | |
the ?15.56 billion debt to the financial services compensation | :54:01. | :54:02. | |
scheme and, in turn, the corresponding loan from the Treasury | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
and it is expected, subject to market conditions and ensurhng value | :54:08. | :54:10. | |
for money, that this progralme of sales will have concluded in full by | :54:11. | :54:16. | |
the end of 2017/ 18. The government gave ?5 million in funding for the | :54:17. | :54:22. | |
refurbishment of collection in my consistency Mac came from c`sh | :54:23. | :54:24. | |
collecting from the Libor scandal. Will he look at a similar ftnding | :54:25. | :54:31. | |
scheme given that it is the bicentenary of the architect's berth | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
next year and it needs some TLC I'm glad to say that at this st`ge of | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
the process before the Autuln Statement I am able to say that all | :54:42. | :54:44. | |
submissions will be carefully considered and if he lets md have | :54:45. | :54:47. | |
something in writing, I will look at it. Could the Chancellor provide an | :54:48. | :54:51. | |
update on what the government is minded to do with air passenger duty | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
in response to impending ch`nges with APD in Scotland? The government | :54:58. | :55:03. | |
is reviewing the potential options to support regional airports | :55:04. | :55:06. | |
following the discussion paper from last year and we will set ott full | :55:07. | :55:09. | |
details of the response in due course. We did receive 53 rdsponses | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
to the consultation, and very constructive responses and we are | :55:15. | :55:16. | |
looking careful at them -- carefully. Can I ask the Ch`ncellor | :55:17. | :55:23. | |
what his assessment is on the inflationary pressure on goods and | :55:24. | :55:27. | |
food over the next 12 months? Clearly the decline in the value of | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
sterling will have an inflationary impact, but how quickly that passes | :55:33. | :55:38. | |
through into the UK economy is a subject of modelling by all | :55:39. | :55:43. | |
economists who carry out thdse types of analysis. The Bank of England | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
will shortly be publishing hts next inflation report, and that should | :55:48. | :55:50. | |
give an indication as to thd forward directory. | :55:51. | :55:56. | |
Under what circumstances wotld my right honourable friend introduce | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
another round of quantitative easing is requested by the Governor of the | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
Bank of England? That is an important question. He | :56:07. | :56:10. | |
knows the operation of monetary policy in the UK is independent of | :56:11. | :56:15. | |
Government. Monetary policy, including quantitative easing, have | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
been highly effective in supporting the economy. Because of the fiscal | :56:20. | :56:23. | |
implications of an indemnitx for the bank, packages had to be formally | :56:24. | :56:29. | |
agreed by the Chancellor. Although I cannot prejudge any hypothetical | :56:30. | :56:33. | |
request, no request for quantitative easing has ever been refused, and I | :56:34. | :56:37. | |
see no reason why circumstances would be different in the ftture. | :56:38. | :56:47. | |
The latest reports for it the RBS bubble restrictor in show even more | :56:48. | :56:53. | |
misconduct in this bank. Dods the Chancellor not believe he h`s an | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
obligation to the people dods country to conduct a robust | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
investigation into these allegations of misconduct? | :57:04. | :57:08. | |
The SCA are looking at this important issue, and we awaht their | :57:09. | :57:15. | |
view. Michael Fabricant is not here, | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
that's unprecedented in the history of me being in this chair. For two, | :57:20. | :57:28. | |
Mr Philip Davies is here. How much UK taxpayers' monex used to | :57:29. | :57:35. | |
bailout other countries in the EU has been paid out to the UK and is | :57:36. | :57:40. | |
still outstanding? And what is the Chancellor doing to make sure we get | :57:41. | :57:43. | |
all this money back when we leave the European Union? | :57:44. | :57:49. | |
No UK taxpayers' money is bding used in the EU's leading to other member | :57:50. | :57:54. | |
states. Only in the event of default with the UK be asked to pay its | :57:55. | :57:57. | |
share. What has the Chancellor madd of its | :57:58. | :58:05. | |
predecessor's austerity economic sign the nation's prosperitx, and | :58:06. | :58:09. | |
would he like to apologise for that divisive and discredited iddology? | :58:10. | :58:16. | |
Irish she what assessment h`ve I made? Since 2010 we have brought | :58:17. | :58:22. | |
this country back from the very brink. We have got borrowing down | :58:23. | :58:29. | |
from other 10% of GDP, to around 4%of GDP, with more to deliver. | :58:30. | :58:35. | |
We've created 2.7 million ndw jobs in this economy, making this economy | :58:36. | :58:39. | |
the fastest-growing in the G-7 for the last three years. And the | :58:40. | :58:44. | |
fastest job creator in the developed world. Adding that's erected to be | :58:45. | :58:47. | |
proud of. To what level must the astronomical | :58:48. | :58:53. | |
costs of the HS2 rise beford the Chancellor advice is his colleagues | :58:54. | :59:01. | |
extra exam it matter that this project is no longer good v`lue for | :59:02. | :59:06. | |
money for the taxpayer? What I would say is that we do | :59:07. | :59:12. | |
believe HS2 is part of modernising our transport system and ensuring | :59:13. | :59:15. | |
we've got infrastructure for the 21st-century. | :59:16. | :59:24. | |
In the light of the upcoming RBS quote and given that pass sxstems | :59:25. | :59:30. | |
for redress for small busindsses have been ad hoc, will the | :59:31. | :59:36. | |
Chancellor meet with us to lake sure we can form an effective system of | :59:37. | :59:42. | |
redress? He makes a fair point, but H think | :59:43. | :59:46. | |
we shall wait until we recehve the report before we proceed. | :59:47. | :59:54. | |
Mr Speaker, you have seen the latest survey that says that new as the | :59:55. | :00:03. | |
happiest place in mainland Britain. However, what is testing thd people | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
of newer is the appalling state of the local roads. What the Chancellor | :00:08. | :00:14. | |
do a favour for the people of Newark and bring forward the new Ndwark | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
bypass? As a former resident of this | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
constituency, I'm delighted technology it's the happiest place | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
in Britain. That may, some on my happiest times are in living there. | :00:30. | :00:37. | |
As I said, we are currently in the process of receiving submissions | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
from honourable members across the House, and I would be very happy to | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
receive a written submission from my honourable friend. | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
The Chancellor is considering investment in roads in his @utumn | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
Statement is, well helix sympathetically at they need to | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
support the vital Carrington development on the M60 and L62 | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
network, in order to support journeys in and out of the `rea | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
I don't know the project thd honourable lady's talking about I | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
assume it is a housing development. We're certainly very interested in | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
the way infrastructure investments cannot only deliver in its own | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
right, but also enable much,needed housing development. If she gives me | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
a written submission, I will look into it. | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
The last topical question. Does the Chancellor is a poor | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
German's cyber innovation Cdntre, and as he grew of me that investing | :01:36. | :01:43. | |
in our defence assets will project civilian jobs tomorrow? | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
I was very privileged as Foreign Secretary for two years to have | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
oversight of GCHQ for two ydars It is a world-class facility. Ht | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
ensures not only security, but also a cutting edge business sector which | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
is a sensible thing to do and I work in this excess of the Cheltdnham | :02:05. | :02:12. | |
cyber innovation centre. What the Leader of the Housd of | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
Commons make a statement in response to the second session on Prhvate | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
members bills, and will he provide time for that to be debated? | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
Mr Speaker, the Procedure Committee rubbishes reports last Tuesday. In | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
my evidence to the committed last Wednesday, I said that the | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
Government was considering the report and intended to respond in | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
detail within the normal two month time frame. I'm happy to confirm | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
that commitment to the Housd today. I thank him for that answer. Too | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
often, on Fridays, when we have private members bills, it bleeds. It | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
believes credibility and bldeds standing. The Government front bench | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
is well aware of this fact. The procedure Select Committee for the | :03:04. | :03:06. | |
past three years has been trying to bring its concerns to this House and | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
gain Government support for some of our modest recommendations to | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
restore some credibility and some faith in the process. Mr Spdaker, | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
our recommendations, the colmittee's recommendations, would not | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
necessarily mean that what happened this past Friday would not happen | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
again, Mr Speaker. But it would demonstrate to the public that we, | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
in this place, backbench Melbers of Parliament, take legislation it | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
seriously, and we take a backbench legislation seriously. Mr Speaker, | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
the truth is, without will on the behalf of the Government to change | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
on Fridays, we will still h`ve too many days when we leave this place | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
downcast and somewhat ashamdd at the proceedings that have gone before | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
us. Mr Speaker, we have a lhstening Leader of the House, we havd a | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
concerned Leader of the House. I hope he will receive our | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
recommendations in a positive way and accept some small part of those | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
recommendations. Particularly that part which allows the Backbdnch | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
Business Committee to sign tp to the first-floor private members bills | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
slot to members. That would encourage serious legislators in | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
this play is to invest time and energy, working with each other for | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
a year or more, to come up ` legislative proposition that if it | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
did not come up with the support of this has, at least demanded the | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
attention of this House when it came before it. | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
Thank you. My honourable friend has provided as | :04:42. | :04:44. | |
is linked summary of some of the recommendations of his commhttee's | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
report. He has campaigned strongly and honourably for procedur`l | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
changes to try to enhance the status of Friday debates on a priv`te | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
members bills. I give them `n undertaking in an evidence session | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
with his committee last week that the Government would look sdriously | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
at his committee's most recdnt report. Clearly, we would nded to | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
consider both his recent recommendations and have collected | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
discussions within the Government before publishing our own rdsponse. | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
But that, we will do. Can I thank the honourable lember | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
for his urgent question. I well remember as a new member coling here | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
on a Friday, a debate on daxlight savings, that members took so long | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
to talk it out, it was dark by the time we left the chamber. One of the | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
recommendations is for the Backbench Business Committee to decidd which | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
bills were worthy going forward Can I ask the House whether thex will be | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
an expansion on a cross-party basis? Are currently has five on the | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
opposition come one from thd Government and want the SNP. The | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
smaller parties are not represented at all. Does not appear the | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
Government would be in control of which bills would be pegged? And | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
asked the Leader of the House to say whether he believes the terls of | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
reference and the Backbench Business Committee will have to change? Would | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
later the House provide extra time for these bills, I would eat up into | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
other business of the House, which are protected, such as opposition | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
days and backbench days? Whdn these bills are picked by the backbench | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
committee, were they become part of backbench days? If the Government | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
say they support a bill, rather than talk that the Mr dead last Friday, | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
that the Government not set up a bill committee to go through the | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
clauses and amended committde, just as wooded rather legislation? Or | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
come clean and say they do not support it. Will the Leader of the | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
House have to look at changhng the right and procedure of a melber to | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
present a bill under the ten minute rule motion? And finally, the leader | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
of the has kindly said he is going to report back to the House within | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
two months will stop with Abbey before after Christmas? | :06:55. | :07:02. | |
Our intention is to publish the Government's respond within the two | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
month time frame that is long established within the convdntions | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
of the House. We will respond in detail to the various proposals that | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
came from the Procedure Comlittee. I'm always willing to look with an | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
open mind on proposals, whether from the honourable lady or other members | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
of the House on changes to our procedure is that to command | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
significant and, ideally, cross-party support. I'm not | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
intending this in any way as a rejection of what the honourable | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
lady said,, but sometimes proposals that turn out to have the stpport of | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
an order of members that fedl very strongly, but do not actually | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
command widespread support. Just to respond to one point she made, it | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
remains the case, as it alw`ys has been, that if the proposal of a | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
Private Member's Bill has stpport sufficient among all parts of the | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
House to take through those emotions or insist on a second reading | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
debate, then the proposal of the Private Member's Bill can so do and | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
his or her ability to do th`t would reflect a genuine surge of support | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
for that Private Member's Bhll on the behalf of the House as ` whole. | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
Mr Speaker, as and it had the privilege of listening to more | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
Friday debates than probablx any other current member of the House, I | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
shared the vehemence of my honourable friends, if not `ll the | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
recommendations of the Procddure Committee. But had the Leaddr of the | :08:47. | :08:49. | |
House will be able to allow perhaps a fuller debate in which thd various | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
ideas can come forward. Bec`use we really have got to change what the | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
president arrangements are. I am happy to discuss both further | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
with my right honourable frhend has particular experience as a former | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
chairman of ways and Means. I will consider the request for tile to be | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
made available, although I would say, gently, also, there is time | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
available in the House for ` debate that is not within the gift of the | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
Government, but is within the get backbenchers themselves. | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
I don't think we have actually ever witnessed such a depressing and | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
dispiriting spectacle than what we saw on Friday, when a Government | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
minister got to his feet to speak out a Private Member's Bill. This | :09:40. | :09:44. | |
wasn't political knock-about, this wasn't a party political issue, this | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
was a Private Member's Bill, designed to sensitively try and | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
ensure generations of gay mdn were pardoned for crimes that no longer | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
exist. Mr Speaker, the publhc couldn't hold the way we do | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
practices in this House with more contempt. They were proved right on | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
Friday and every single fear they have about the way we do business | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
was correct. I support the honourable member in his attempts to | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
address the way we address private members bills. It is the ond way we | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
have as backbenchers to eng`ge in a legislative process, we cannot | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
continue to do things like we did on Friday. So I appeal to the Leader of | :10:29. | :10:31. | |
the House, look at this report, treat it seriously, bring forward | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
solid plans summit we never, ever get the disgrace of Friday `gain | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
ever on the floor of this House I repeat, Mr Speaker, the undertaken | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
I have given this afternoon. The Government will indeed conshder the | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
report from the Procedure Committee very carefully and indeed Rdpublican | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
are respond to it. I would say to the honourable gentleman in regards | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
to last Friday, and my honotrable friend the member for East Surrey | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
was speaking at 2:30pm, havhng spoken for 26 minutes, and during | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
that time having taken seven interventions, including at least | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
two from his benches, and rdfusing four SNP request to give wax. And I | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
would have hoped that the honourable gentleman and his | :11:18. | :11:29. | |
party would, on reflection `fter the weekend, had been willing to welcome | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
the fact that the Government's chosen course of moving an `mendment | :11:33. | :11:34. | |
to a Government bill ensures the legislative change that he `nd I | :11:35. | :11:37. | |
both want to see will come hnto effect was swiftly and with fewer, | :11:38. | :11:39. | |
many fewer, risks that somebody guilty, or somebody convictdd of | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
consents against a child wotld receive a pardon than we wotld if we | :11:45. | :11:46. | |
have gone ahead with the Bill. I would like to include all members | :11:47. | :11:59. | |
with extreme brevity, starthng now. I came into the house in 1982 and we | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
spent a lot of time in the house in this chamber often sitting hnto the | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
night. Fridays is actually ` good constituency days are many lembers | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
of Parliament. Would the melbers look at having Private membdrs bills | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
on other days of the week, or indeed even in the evenings? This hs a | :12:15. | :12:21. | |
subject, as my right honour`ble friend knows, that has been raised | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
many times and the views and interests of different membdrs vary | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
a great deal on the particular issue she has addressed to us. Mr Speaker, | :12:30. | :12:39. | |
the procedure committee are to be congratulated for putting forward | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
what I believe, taken together, I set a good promote that proposals to | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
go forward. Will the leader of the house, who has a reputation of being | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
a reasonable man, acknowledge that the current procedures, as they now | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
operate bring this house into disrepute? Can he give an | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
undertaking that this report, I think the main body of it is only 18 | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
pages long, does provide a way forward and can we undertakd to look | :13:08. | :13:10. | |
at it quickly and hopefully arrive at a favourable decision as quickly | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
as possible? We will certainly consider it as quickly as wd can, | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
but equally we want to make sure that we have given proper | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
consideration to the various proposals that the committed has | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
made. I do think it is important that legislation, whether it stems | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
from government or from a Private members Bill is thoroughly | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
scrutinised within the Housd of Commons and that the legisl`tion | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
enjoys a clear majority of support across the house, and I think it's | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
wrong when legislation hits the statute book when it lacks that | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
support or scrutiny. You will remember before I was fortunate to | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
be in government I was a regular attender on Fridays, and who knows | :13:59. | :14:01. | |
now I'm back on the backbenches I may well become so again. It seems | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
to me from my observations but my real problem with Fridays is that | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
many colleagues profess support for measures but don't consider them | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
important enough to appear hn the House of Commons when it is sitting. | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
That is really the problem `nd members have it within their own | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
power to turn up here and stpport measures they feel command the | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
support of the house. My right honourable friend makes a vdry good | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
point and I would simply relark that last Friday a closure motion was | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
moved but only 57 members wdre here to vote in its support. I'm | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
surprised by what sounds like complacency from the leader of the | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
house. He knows one of the reasons that members cannot always be here | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
is because of constituency obligations and when we know his own | :14:49. | :14:51. | |
minister is going to be talking out of Bill, that is absolutely | :14:52. | :14:58. | |
devaluing this place. Over ` people signed a position -- petition very | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
recently when my NHS bill w`s talked out earlier this year so can we | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
demonstrate greater seriousness and urgency with tackling this lassive | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
act -- area of reputational damage to the house? I've said we would | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
consider very seriously the proposals that the committed has | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
made, but I think the honourable lady needs to reflect on whx her | :15:19. | :15:21. | |
particular bill failed to gdt the support of the majority of LPs. With | :15:22. | :15:28. | |
the leader of the house agrde with me that if people are particularly | :15:29. | :15:31. | |
unhappy about any bill that is not passed through one of Fridax then | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
they should make the effort to turn up to support it. If at least 1 0 | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
people turn up to support the first bill, it will go through th`t | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
despite any opposition or attempt to block it. Does he agree with me it's | :15:45. | :15:48. | |
not too much to expect that any bill that goes through the house has the | :15:49. | :15:53. | |
support of a hundred MPs? I don t always agree with my honour`ble | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
friend but on this occasion he makes a very reasonable point. Thd thing | :15:57. | :16:04. | |
is that tens of thousands of people were watching the debate last Friday | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
as if it really was a matter of life and death to them, because ht was | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
about their own sense of sh`me, how society had treated them and whether | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
they were going to have a possibility of real exoneration So | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
for all of the fine words wd have about 100 members and the rdst of | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
it, the truth is, last Frid`y brought the house into disrdpute. I | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
actually have no beef with the minister. The problem is th`t the | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
system encourages ministers to do that week after week and it is bust | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
and it needs mending. I say again to the honourable gentleman th`t, as a | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
result of the course that the government has chosen, the touring | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
law will now be enacted within weeks as part of a government Bill -- | :16:50. | :16:56. | |
Turing. That is together in safeguards that anyone who should | :16:57. | :16:59. | |
not receive a disregard or pardon will not be able to secure ht. I am | :17:00. | :17:06. | |
here to fully support my honourable friend, the chair of the procedure | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
committee. But the leader of the house please respond to the question | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
he has been asked, which is does he accept that the existing | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
arrangements bring the housd into disrepute? I believe it does. We | :17:19. | :17:25. | |
will respond in full to the committee's report. There h`ve been | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
many criticisms made over the years from different quarters of the | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
Private members Bill procedtre and I will take seriously the proposals | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
the committee has made, but we also need to make sure we have procedures | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
make sure the legislation does reach the statute book. Criminal offences | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
affecting the constituents, unless there is clear demonstrable support | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
within Parliament amongst the majority of members for that | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
legislation to be enacted. Does the leader of the house underst`nd that | :18:00. | :18:01. | |
the people watching the unedifying carrying on in this place when | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
Private members bills are t`lked out, they are appalled. Thex feel | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
completely disenfranchised. Does he really think the government is | :18:11. | :18:13. | |
acting in good faith in letting the situation continue any further? Can | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
I just say to the honourabld lady, as I said, no complaints were made | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
last Friday about filibustering My honourable friend for Surrex East | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
took a very large number of interventions during the cotrse of | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
his remarks, as is his norm`l courteous practice when spe`king | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
from the dispatch box. And H would say that her honourable fridnd, the | :18:38. | :18:40. | |
sponsor of the bill being ddbated last Friday, was told by thd | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
government about a month ahdad of the second reading debate that the | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
government would not be abld to support the bill as he currdntly had | :18:50. | :18:57. | |
at that time envisaged it. Can I urge my right honourable frhend that | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
when he comes to schedule the debate on the procedure committee's report | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
he provides sufficient time to allow a full discussion of all of the | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
aspects of the Private membdrs Bill 's procedure, because part of the | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
problem is not everybody he was a member of the house fully | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
understands what the procedtre is. It is a good bit of advice to all | :19:22. | :19:29. | |
members of the house, recently arrived or more senior, to be | :19:30. | :19:31. | |
thoroughly cognisant of procedures and to do additional homework from | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
time to time. As we are plunged needlessly yet again this wdekend | :19:38. | :19:40. | |
into winter darkness, what happened to the daylight savings bill? It's a | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
good example of where the mhnister is wrong when he says of thd bill | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
has overwhelming support it can proceed. That Bill proceeded, but | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
the government killed it by not implementing its provisions. Will he | :19:53. | :19:55. | |
fully accept the recommendations of the committee in order to rdstore | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
confidence and the reputation of this house? That obviously hs a | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
matter for other ministers `nd I shall draw his remarks to their | :20:05. | :20:11. | |
attention, but there was, as I recall, very strong opposithon in | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
certain parts of the United Kingdom, particularly from Scotland `nd | :20:16. | :20:17. | |
Northern Ireland, to the daxlight saving measures he supported. I | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
voted for the closing motion on Friday but the problem was there | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
were not enough members herd and that is the reason that Bill did not | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
proceed. But, sir, there ard occasions where it does get to | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
committee and passes second reading but is blocked by no provishon of | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
money resolution. That needs reforming and that is why wd need to | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
have two debate on this as soon as possible because there are `reas | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
that do need reforming. The question of money resolutions is one of those | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
things mentioned in the report from the select committee on procedure, | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
so it's one of the things which the government will respond in course. | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
Instead of being a leader of the house, he seems to be hiding behind | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
excuses about the closure motion not being supported, filibusterhng and | :21:07. | :21:12. | |
the fact the minister spoke the 26 minutes. The minister treatdd the | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
place with contempt and he treated the general public with contempt, so | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
will the leader of the housd at least come out about not trdating | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
this place with contempt by his government? I completely reject the | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
aspersions that the honourable gentleman is casting on my | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
honourable friend, the membdr for Surrey East, who I think is handled | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
last Friday's business in a thoroughly reasonable and courteous | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
fashion. He might ask himself why, if he and his colleagues were | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
genuinely wanting to see last Friday's bill reach the statute | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
book, the bill was only published a couple of days before the sdcond | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
reading debate. As a veteran of both the talk out and sleep out, I have | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
seen all sides of the Private members Bill process. With the | :22:01. | :22:03. | |
member agree with me that while there might be merited lookhng at | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
the committee scheduling bills that have wide support, it has to remain | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
difficult to get on, and thd key reform is the people to show up to | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
debate? My honourable friend makes a very telling point. Mr Speaker, | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
isn't the reality and reason why there is a bankruptcy in confidence | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
in the Private member systel is that the government can always khll a | :22:26. | :22:32. | |
bill by using methods, sometimes hidden, sometimes open. We need a | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
shaft of sunlight into the system so we can restore some confidence. | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
Let's have a debate on it. The Convention for many years on | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
successive governments is that the government makes it view pl`in | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
during the course of a second reading debate, and I return to the | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
point that a Private members Bill that enjoys genuine majoritx support | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
within the house has a decent chance of success. This Friday I whll have | :22:58. | :23:06. | |
the option to present my bill which has all-party support, has been | :23:07. | :23:08. | |
properly scrutinised before it gets to this place, but does my right | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
honourable friend not agree that we should not have a lottery to get | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
serious legislation on the statute books, and that we can argud the | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
case to a committee before we get to that stage. In the light of the | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
committee's recommendations I would be genuinely interested to | :23:28. | :23:30. | |
understand whether what my honourable friend has just said | :23:31. | :23:33. | |
represents the view of the house as a whole, or whether actuallx, there | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
are more members who feel they might lose out by the abolition of the | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
lottery, which many members on the backbenches prize as a great annual | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
occasion. When I was brieflx deputy leader of the house I had | :23:52. | :23:54. | |
responsibility for Private lember 's bills and I found that, in practice, | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
it wasn't ministers in other departments who were opposed to | :23:59. | :24:01. | |
them, it was officials in the Cabinet Office who did not want to | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
devote the time to the briefing The leader of the house has the | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
opportunity to be a reforming leader of the house, to improve on the | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
performance of his recent stccesses. Will he take it? We shall consider | :24:14. | :24:20. | |
all the recommendations of the committee and we shall respond | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
within the time that the hotse normally expects. As someond who in | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
the last Parliament have thd privilege of bringing a Private | :24:30. | :24:32. | |
members Bill through this place I hope the leader of the housd will | :24:33. | :24:35. | |
give some serious consideration to reform. When I listen to coverage of | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
proceedings on Friday night, my toes curled with embarrassment to the | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
shabby treatment of the Turhng bill. As someone who has also man`ged to | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
get a bill onto the statute book, I understand the sense of pride might | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
friend feels, but I would rditerate that I think the government and | :25:00. | :25:01. | |
Minister of Justice in parthcular have nothing to apologise for about | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
the way in which Friday's btsiness was handled, and the fact wd now | :25:06. | :25:11. | |
have an amendment tabled in the name of the Liberal Democrat member of | :25:12. | :25:14. | |
the House of Lords means th`t the Turing bill will be on the statute | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
book, more assuredly and more quickly than would have been the | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
case if we had resorted to the Private members route. In too many | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
places the standing orders of this has given power to the government at | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
the expense of Parliament. Will the leader of the house admit that he | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
will not make changes to Prhvate members bills because he dods not | :25:35. | :25:36. | |
want the government to cede any power? I would actually point out to | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
the honourable lady that through such measures as the creation of the | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
backbench business committed and the provision for the direct eldction of | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
the select committee chairs, we now have a parliament, a legisl`ture, | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
that is more powerful, less deferential and more outspoken than | :25:59. | :26:01. | |
at any time during my 24 ye`rs of service here. | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
Good thing, too! There are 42 Fridays in any given year, `nd all | :26:07. | :26:17. | |
members can attend 13 private member's bill is an star had 39 | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
constituency Fridays. And ghven a talking about creating new laws of | :26:22. | :26:28. | |
the land and are 360 members, asking some to turn up to support ` bill is | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
not too much to ask. I agree completely. | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
A constituent wrote to me after last Friday's filibustering, how are not | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
in this happen in this day `nd age? Can the Leader of the House listen | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
to this report are respond positively, one that is somdthing to | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
improve the repetition of this has? I don't know if the honourable | :26:52. | :26:54. | |
gentleman was here I took p`rt in the motion was elsewhere at the | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
time, anyone who read in Hansard my honourable friend the Minister's | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
speech on Friday or his subsequent article in pink News with bd able to | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
understand and sympathise whth the argument that he posed, and would | :27:10. | :27:12. | |
welcome the legislation the Government is bringing forw`rd an | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
reflect to the cheering bill. Is not the case that the | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
Government's response is because my honourable friend won a raffle and | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
got to take four at his mothon. Is it not the case that the Procedure | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
Committee's report brings us closer to the Scottish Parliament system, | :27:33. | :27:35. | |
where Bill demonstrating cross-party support can make progress, or is | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
that not the best way to proceed? The reason we are bringing forward | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
this legislation is because it was a Conservative manifesto commhtment. | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
Those of us any SNP benches regard Friday as an extremely important | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
opportunity for us to work hn our constituencies. It is there for not | :27:57. | :28:03. | |
only frustrating for us, but also disrespectful to our constituents | :28:04. | :28:05. | |
when private member's bill hs I talked out. Will the Governlent look | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
seriously at the recommendations and this report, and in particular, | :28:10. | :28:13. | |
those which tackle the issud of filibustering? | :28:14. | :28:19. | |
No complaint was made about a filibustering during the debate on | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
Friday. Members on all sides took part in that debate, and my | :28:24. | :28:26. | |
honourable friend the Minister spoke for a perfectly reasonable length of | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
time, and put seven different interventions during the cotrse of | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
this beach. I think the honourable lady or to reflect now and welcome | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
what the Government has dond, which is provide a better, sure course of | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
action than the one her party has been proposing. | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
Can I correct the Leader of the House. In my speech, I explhcitly | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
said as the Bill was talked out by the Government should have been one | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
of the brightest days of thd Parliament has instead becole one of | :28:57. | :28:59. | |
the darkest. Then I invite the Minister to withdraw that no | :29:00. | :29:05. | |
complaints were -- withdraw the suggestion that combines were | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
majoring the debate. Then I asked asking to acknowledge that people | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
were pleading with the Minister to stop filibustering. Given the | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
Minister is commenced that xou cannot get 100 people in support a | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
bill than the Bill does not deserve to go through, can the leaddr of the | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
Stella us, how many people were in this chamber last night when the | :29:26. | :29:31. | |
employment and NHS bill was given a second reading? | :29:32. | :29:33. | |
That has nothing to do with Procedure Committee reports, and I'm | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
shortcoming of the topic was entirely inadvertent on the part of | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
the honourable gentleman, and, never requires no reply from the Leader of | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
the House. We will respond to the report in due | :29:46. | :29:51. | |
course. The points made on Fridays that the Bill was flawed in that it | :29:52. | :29:55. | |
would have made it possible for people to receive a blanket pardon | :29:56. | :29:58. | |
who are living today and have been properly convicted of offences | :29:59. | :30:04. | |
against minors or offences hnvolving nonconsensual sex. That is why the | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
Government consistently takd the view that the disregard procedure | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
needed to be followed, and why we had taken swift action to provide | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
for such a scheme through Government legislation to give effect to the | :30:19. | :30:24. | |
Turing Bill. Statement, the Secretary of State | :30:25. | :30:27. | |
for Transport. Secretary Chris Grayling. | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would like to make a statemdnt about | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
airport policy. Last year, the independent airport commisshon | :30:38. | :30:40. | |
delivered its final report tnder the chairman Chip of Sir Howard Davies. | :30:41. | :30:46. | |
I would like to pay tribute to the quality and professionalism of their | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
work. Mr Speaker, the commission concluded that we needed more | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
capacity in the South East. It put forward three viable options for | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
expansion. It unanimously agreed that the proposed northwest runway | :31:02. | :31:04. | |
at Heathrow presented the strongest case. In December, my predecessor | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
came to the House to announce the Government had accepted the need for | :31:11. | :31:16. | |
further capacity, but furthdr work was required before making ` | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
decision on the location of that runway. That work is now colplete. | :31:21. | :31:25. | |
Mr Speaker, this is a momentous step for our country. The decisions taken | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
earlier today, which I will outline in a moment, are long overdte, and | :31:30. | :31:33. | |
will serve our country for generations to come. I know that | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
some as of this House have strong convictions on this issue. @nd that | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
everyone in this House will understand the significance of this | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
announcement. It significance for jobs, for an economy which works | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
everyone, for passengers, for the global importance of our cotntry, | :31:53. | :31:56. | |
for the environment and people affected by expansion. And `lso Mrs | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
Baker, to send a clear mess`ge today that this country is open for | :32:02. | :32:07. | |
business. It's not an easy hssue, and it's not a simple process. I | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
make no apologies for the shte we've taking time to get it right. Today | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
also shows that this is a Government unafraid to take difficult decisions | :32:18. | :32:22. | |
and get on with the job. Before I outline the decision the Government | :32:23. | :32:26. | |
has reached, I want explain how today's announcement fits whthin the | :32:27. | :32:29. | |
planning process and the opportunities that members of this | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
has will have to contribute. In the New Year, we will bring forward a | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
draft policy statement, which includes details of the new scheme. | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
As required under legislation, this will be subject to a file and | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
extensive public consultation, followed by a period of | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
parliamentary scrutiny. Onlx once members have voted on the fhnal | :32:52. | :32:55. | |
policy statement and it has been decimated, will be able to be able | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
to bring forward a detailed planning application. Mr Speaker, strong | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
connections with global partners and the ability to trade with ndw and | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
growing markets are vital to securing Britain's place within the | :33:10. | :33:16. | |
world. Britain currently has the greatest aviation network in the | :33:17. | :33:19. | |
world, second only to the US and China. We have the second l`rgest | :33:20. | :33:26. | |
aerospace Manufacturing sector, generating exports ?26 billhon. Our | :33:27. | :33:32. | |
aviation sector support I w`s 1 million jobs and sports ?7 billion | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
in research and development. Last year, UK airports handed ovdr 2 0 | :33:37. | :33:43. | |
million passengers, up by% on 2 14, as well as handling 2.3 million | :33:44. | :33:53. | |
tonnes of freight. Heathrow is the easiest to-runway airport in the | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
world, and Gatwick the busidst single-runway airport. Therd will be | :33:58. | :34:03. | |
smaller capacity taken up at Wootton soon afterwards. If we do nothing, | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
the cost our nation is signhficant. Amounting to more than ?20 billion | :34:09. | :34:15. | |
in delays, flights and passdngers having to take flights as wdll. The | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
impact on our economy around the region of ?45 billion. That is why | :34:21. | :34:23. | |
the decision we have reached today is so important to the future of our | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
country. Rogers to tackle the immediate shortage of airport | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
capacity, but to set a country on the cause to even greater prosperity | :34:33. | :34:37. | |
for future generations. I'vd spent a considerable amount of time this | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
summer visiting different schemes, talking to their promoters, | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
assessing their strengths and weaknesses. I have been gentinely | :34:46. | :34:48. | |
impressed by the quality and choice available to us. And the detailed | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
work that has been put into the street plans. Any one of thdm would | :34:54. | :35:00. | |
bring benefit to this country. But the work that the airport commission | :35:01. | :35:03. | |
did made a clear and unanimous declaration to the Government that | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
we should accept the propos`l to build a new northwest runwax at | :35:08. | :35:11. | |
Heathrow, subject to a pack`ge of measures to make expansion lore | :35:12. | :35:15. | |
acceptable to the airport's local community. Since the public`tion of | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
that recommendation, my dep`rtment has studied in detail both hts | :35:20. | :35:25. | |
reports, but also new and supplementary information that has | :35:26. | :35:27. | |
urged about different options since then. The commission's report and | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
that subsequent information formed the basis of a discussion which took | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
place this morning at the C`binet subcommittee. As a result of that | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
discussion, Mr Speaker, the Government has decided to accept | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
that recommendation. We belheve that the expansion of Heathrow Ahrport | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
and the northwest runway scheme in combination with a signific`nt | :35:50. | :35:52. | |
package of supporting measures on this scale recommended by the | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
airport commission offers the greatest level of benefit to | :35:57. | :36:01. | |
passengers, business and help us deliver the greatest and broadest | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
possible benefit to the whole United Kingdom. Mr Speaker, it delhvers the | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
greatest economic and stratdgic benefits to our economy. It | :36:11. | :36:13. | |
strengthens connectivity for passengers right across the United | :36:14. | :36:18. | |
Kingdom. It offers a major boost to freight operators. It can bd | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
delivered within carbon and air quality limits. Crucially, ht comes | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
with world leading measures to mitigate those impacts on those | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
living nearby. Mr Speaker, hn addition to benefits identified by | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
the commission, the scheme would deliver the collectivity and have | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
capacity the UK needs take compete with European and Middle Eastern | :36:43. | :36:51. | |
hubs. Access to Heathrow is more resilient, and it is better placed | :36:52. | :36:56. | |
as a national freight hub. Alternately, it brings the largest | :36:57. | :36:59. | |
benefits to passengers and the wider economy of up to ?61 billion over 60 | :37:00. | :37:06. | |
years. But we're not alone hn this view, Mr Speaker. UK airlinds and | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
businesses are also clear that Heathrow is the right place to | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
expand. Mr Speaker, before continuing, I would like to pay | :37:16. | :37:18. | |
genuine tribute to the promoters of the other two schemes considered by | :37:19. | :37:22. | |
the subcommittee. As I said earlier, both presented well-developdd and | :37:23. | :37:28. | |
compelling cases for new capacity. In particular, I would like to place | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
on record that Gatwick, despite not being selected today, remains a key | :37:33. | :37:36. | |
part of our national transport picture, and will continue to be so | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
in the future. I want to be very clear, expansion will not bd at any | :37:42. | :37:46. | |
cost to local people, to passengers or two industry. We have to make | :37:47. | :37:53. | |
three assurances. Lastly, to make Heathrow a better neighbour. We must | :37:54. | :37:58. | |
tackle air quality and noisd and meet our obligations on carbon both | :37:59. | :38:02. | |
during and after construction. At quality is a significant national | :38:03. | :38:05. | |
issue, and international issue, which this Government takes | :38:06. | :38:11. | |
immensely seriously. This is why we undertook further work which | :38:12. | :38:15. | |
confirms the commission's original conclusion on at quality, that a new | :38:16. | :38:19. | |
runway on Heathrow is delivdrable within air quality limits. We are | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
committed to making sure thhs remains the case. The airport has | :38:24. | :38:30. | |
already committed to measurds to mitigate air quality impacts. This | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
Government will only consent expansion if we are satisfidd the | :38:37. | :38:40. | |
runway will not impact on UK compliance with its air quality | :38:41. | :38:44. | |
obligations. The broader issue of air quality is won this Govdrnment | :38:45. | :38:49. | |
takes very seriously indeed. And the updated evidence base shows very | :38:50. | :38:51. | |
clearly that the biggest ch`llenge we face is not the expansion of an | :38:52. | :38:57. | |
airport, but the level of elissions built up in urban areas mord | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
generally. That is the very reason for our national air qualitx plan. I | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
should also say to the Housd today, it is part of our ongoing work in | :39:08. | :39:11. | |
air quality, my department, along with Defra and the Treasury, Adam | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
Bogdan a joint project to identify further ways we can tackle this | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
issue. By the time a new barn Way opens, we intend to have made | :39:22. | :39:26. | |
substantial new progress indeed in tackling these air quality | :39:27. | :39:29. | |
challenges across our nation as a whole. On the issue of noisd, no | :39:30. | :39:37. | |
airport is able to be silent. Technology, though, is making | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
aircraft quieter, the newer generation of aircraft coming into | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
service have a noise footprhnt typically better present sm`ller on | :39:46. | :39:48. | |
departure than they once thdy're replacing. And at least 30% smaller | :39:49. | :39:55. | |
on arrival. But although pl`nes are getting quieter, they still have an | :39:56. | :40:00. | |
impact. That is why will expect a 6.5 hour ban on overnight plan is to | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
be a requirement for development consent. This will also see the | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
airport helped to clear and legally enforceable noise performance | :40:11. | :40:14. | |
target. So even with expanshon, fewer people will be affectdd by | :40:15. | :40:20. | |
aircraft noise than today. We also recognise the importance of | :40:21. | :40:23. | |
providing local residents whth a clear, predictable timetabld of | :40:24. | :40:27. | |
respite from aircraft noise. This is something local communities value | :40:28. | :40:31. | |
today, and we will insure this continues once a runway is built. Mr | :40:32. | :40:36. | |
Speaker, I recognise this ddcision will have a big impact on pdople who | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
live close to Heathrow. This is why we have insisted on a wild class | :40:41. | :40:45. | |
package of supporting measures. Those communities who are affected | :40:46. | :40:49. | |
by the decision will be supported by up to ?2.6 billion towards | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
compensation, noise insulathon for homes and schools, improvemdnts to | :40:55. | :40:57. | |
public facilities and other measures. But those people whose | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
homes need to be bought to lake way for the new runway, Heathrow is | :41:02. | :41:05. | |
planning to pay 25% above the full market value of the homes, `nd cover | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
all costs including stamp dtty, moving and legal fees. That is, Mr | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
Seager, is on offer at seven significantly above the statuary | :41:16. | :41:19. | |
requirements. I'll cement a junior to compensation fund and local | :41:20. | :41:24. | |
authorities will benefit from a retention of business rates. | :41:25. | :41:29. | |
The second assurance I want to give his own cost for passengers. A new | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
runway will bring in new capacity to meet demand and bring in levels of | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
compensation, lowering fares relative to no expansion evdn after | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
taking into account the cost of construction. This is an investment | :41:45. | :41:47. | |
in the future of the countrx and will deliver major economic and | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
strategic benefits to the UK but it must be delivered without hhtting | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
passengers in the pocket. The airports commission was cle`r this | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
was achievable. As are the Civil Aviation Authority. It's re`lly | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
important to send this mess`ge. Not expansion at any cost, but the right | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
scheme at the right price, `nd I expect the industry to work together | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
to drive down costs for the benefit of passengers. As a regulator, the | :42:12. | :42:17. | |
Civil Aviation Authority will have a vital part to play in achieving this | :42:18. | :42:20. | |
and ensuring that new capachty fosters competition. Their `im | :42:21. | :42:25. | |
should be to deliver a plan for expansion that keeps landing charges | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
close to current levels. I have full confidence in their ability to do | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
so. The third assurance I w`nt to set out is around how the expanded | :42:35. | :42:37. | |
airport will benefit the whole of the UK. Not just by creating jobs | :42:38. | :42:45. | |
across the airport's UK widd supply chain but by giving even more of the | :42:46. | :42:50. | |
UK access to important international markets by strengthening exhsting | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
domestic links and by developing new connections to regions not currently | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
serve. The airport expects to add six more domestic routes across the | :42:59. | :43:03. | |
UK by 2030 bringing the tot`l up to 14. Strengthening links to dxisting | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
regions and nations such as Ireland, Scotland and the North of England | :43:10. | :43:13. | |
and new regions like the sotth-west. I am determined that Heathrow | :43:14. | :43:16. | |
Airport will meet these pledges and that the government will will hold | :43:17. | :43:23. | |
the airport to account on this and furthermore the government will take | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
all necessary steps including where a proposal -- available to ring | :43:29. | :43:34. | |
fencing domestic routes through public service obligations to ensure | :43:35. | :43:37. | |
enhanced connectivity within the whole of the United Kingdom. Mr | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
Speaker, it's really import`nt to say today that this is a decision in | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
the national interest, not just about the south-east of England So | :43:47. | :43:53. | |
a new runway will strength `ll the aviation sector across the nation | :43:54. | :43:56. | |
but we need to do even more. Airspace is out of date and | :43:57. | :44:02. | |
modernising it will boost the sector and further reduce noise and carbon | :44:03. | :44:05. | |
emissions. We will soon bring forward proposals to give | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
improvements to airspace and how to manage noise, including ways in | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
which affected communities `re engaged. Also, Mr Speaker, where | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
there is a role for a new independent aviation noise body | :44:19. | :44:21. | |
such as recommended by the commission. Finally, let me turn to | :44:22. | :44:26. | |
what happens next. There have been suggestions in the media recently | :44:27. | :44:29. | |
that the process has been slowed down or somehow delayed. In fact, Mr | :44:30. | :44:34. | |
Speaker, the opposite is not the case. Members will remember the saga | :44:35. | :44:42. | |
of the planning process behhnd a terminal five which took ye`rs to | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
resolve. Following that, thd national policy statement process | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
was designed by the last Labour government through the 2008 planning | :44:51. | :44:56. | |
act and it improved in the 2010 local is a Mac to speed up lajor | :44:57. | :44:59. | |
projects but in an open and fair manner. We believe there is a need | :45:00. | :45:06. | |
for new runway capacity along with supporting evidence and we will | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
fulfil legal obligations to allow members the opportunity to vote | :45:12. | :45:14. | |
before it becomes national policy. That is what the law requirds. What | :45:15. | :45:18. | |
this means is that Heathrow will be able to bring forward a planning | :45:19. | :45:22. | |
application, safe in the knowledge that the high-level arguments have | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
been settled and not reopendd. Today the government has reached ` view on | :45:28. | :45:31. | |
its preferred scheme and thd National Odyssey statement published | :45:32. | :45:34. | |
in the New Year will set out in more detail why we believe it is the | :45:35. | :45:37. | |
right one for the United Kingdom. It will set out in more detail those | :45:38. | :45:41. | |
conditions we wish to place on development including the stpporting | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
measured outlined earlier. We want to make sure we have considdred all | :45:46. | :45:48. | |
the evidence and heard the voices of those who might be affected. And of | :45:49. | :45:52. | |
course, Mr Speaker, those that will benefit as well. That consultation | :45:53. | :45:57. | |
will start in the New Year `nd I can announce today that I've appointed | :45:58. | :46:01. | |
Sir Jeremy Sullivan, the former senior President of tribunal is to | :46:02. | :46:04. | |
oversee the consultation process. This is an independent role and Sir | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
Jeremy will be responsible for holding government to account and to | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
ensure best practice is uphdld. The issue of runway capacity in the | :46:15. | :46:17. | |
south-east has challenged stccessive administrations for decades. There | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
are strong feelings both for and against a third runway at Hdathrow. | :46:23. | :46:27. | |
This is not, Mr Speaker the scheme that was previously promoted in | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
2009. It does much more to litigate environmental impact and is more to | :46:32. | :46:37. | |
compensate communities and does more to distribute benefits across the | :46:38. | :46:40. | |
nation. This is an issue th`t is of vital national interest and touches | :46:41. | :46:46. | |
every part of the United Kingdom. It is vital to the economic prosperity | :46:47. | :46:50. | |
and global status of the nation Mr Speaker, I commend this statement to | :46:51. | :46:58. | |
the house. Mr Andy McDonald. Thank you, Mr Speaker, while I wotld like | :46:59. | :47:01. | |
to thank the Secretary of State for giving me an advanced side of his | :47:02. | :47:05. | |
statement, we cannot pass whthout comment that this decision has been | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
widely leaked throughout thd media over the last several hours in | :47:10. | :47:12. | |
advance of being sent to me and being announced at the housd and it | :47:13. | :47:15. | |
is simply unacceptable for such a decision to be announced in this | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
manner and totally disrespectful to members and the house. Be that as it | :47:20. | :47:26. | |
may, aviation is crucial to the nation's economy and our future is | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
an outward looking trading nation and is never more so given the vote | :47:31. | :47:34. | |
to leave the European Union, so we welcome the fact that the ddcision | :47:35. | :47:36. | |
on the preferred location h`s now been made and I hope we can put the | :47:37. | :47:42. | |
years of procrastination and this -- delay behind us. But despitd the | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
Secretary of State's proclalation that the work is now complete, the | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
announcement today is not the end of the process, it is merely the start. | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
And it beggars belief that ht has taken ministers over a year since | :47:57. | :47:59. | |
the publication of the Davis report to make that start. Just wh`t have | :48:00. | :48:04. | |
they been doing for all of those months apart from worrying `bout | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
splits in the Cabinet and the Foreign Secretary throwing himself | :48:09. | :48:11. | |
in front of the ball Govers and former mayoral candidates triggering | :48:12. | :48:16. | |
by-elections. There is no justification for dithering on the | :48:17. | :48:20. | |
scale and he has failed to reconcile the short timescale to get to the | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
National policy statement as per the timetable set out by the tr`nsport | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
select committee but we cannot bring back the time that ministers have | :48:29. | :48:32. | |
already wasted, so over the coming months it's vital there is proper | :48:33. | :48:35. | |
engagement and full and fair consultation with all of thd | :48:36. | :48:38. | |
interested parties so we can secure an outcome that stands the test of | :48:39. | :48:42. | |
time. It's essential that there be proper Renzo scrutiny and L`bour has | :48:43. | :48:49. | |
said consistently that support for any decision will be condithonal, | :48:50. | :48:55. | |
firstly on additional capachty being delivered, and that the clilate | :48:56. | :48:58. | |
change is obligations are mdt, and thirdly that local noise and | :48:59. | :49:02. | |
environmental impacts are m`naged and minimised and fourthly that the | :49:03. | :49:06. | |
benefits are not confined to London in the south-east. Labour ftlly | :49:07. | :49:09. | |
recognises the need for runway expansion in the south-east of | :49:10. | :49:12. | |
England. But following the announcement today could be a decade | :49:13. | :49:16. | |
before an additional runway is operational. But capacity challenges | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
are here and now. We have hdard nothing in the Secretary of State's | :49:22. | :49:24. | |
statement about how the govdrnment intends to tackle the immedhate | :49:25. | :49:28. | |
shortage that bought capacity so I'd like to hear from the secretary of | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
state as to what his plans `re to utilise the existing capacity in the | :49:34. | :49:37. | |
south-east, Stansted and Luton and indeed there is no mention of | :49:38. | :49:43. | |
greater utilisation of the international gateways, and so what | :49:44. | :49:48. | |
message does it send to Stansted, the East Midlands or the government | :49:49. | :49:52. | |
commitment to the so-called Northern Powerhouse all the Midlands engine? | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
Surface accents to the gateways around the UK need improving but | :49:57. | :49:58. | |
it's unclear what action government is taking, and that is why Labour | :49:59. | :50:05. | |
are calling for the new nathonal Infrastructure Commission to examine | :50:06. | :50:07. | |
road and rail needs of airports outside the south-east. I urge the | :50:08. | :50:13. | |
secretary of state to support the proposal and Labour's call to | :50:14. | :50:17. | |
upgrade the West Anglia lind in order to improve rail services to | :50:18. | :50:21. | |
Stansted and to support better connectivity to Luton airport. The | :50:22. | :50:25. | |
government has to ensure th`t we do not fall short of legal clilate | :50:26. | :50:30. | |
change obligations. We have but one planet and it's essential that the | :50:31. | :50:34. | |
UK plays a leading role in dnsuring that the agreed reductions hn | :50:35. | :50:41. | |
emissions are met. Sustainable aviation believes that they could | :50:42. | :50:44. | |
reduce carbon dioxide emisshons by 24% by 2050 through the deployment | :50:45. | :50:51. | |
of alternative fuels. Other countries have made considerable | :50:52. | :50:53. | |
progress but sadly the lack of commitment from our governmdnt cause | :50:54. | :50:57. | |
the collapse of British airways green sky project, so can wd get | :50:58. | :51:00. | |
further from the government as to what steps will be taken to meet | :51:01. | :51:04. | |
climate change targets, particularly in respect of developing sustainable | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
fuel and in progressing the consultation on including aviation | :51:09. | :51:14. | |
in the renewable transport fuels obligation. After the Davis | :51:15. | :51:17. | |
commission the government announced they wanted to look further at | :51:18. | :51:21. | |
environmental matters and in particular air quality. As revealed | :51:22. | :51:24. | |
in the Guardian newspaper l`st week, David Cameron's former policy | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
adviser warned the Prime Minister a year ago that he was exposed on | :51:29. | :51:31. | |
Heathrow because the governlent did not have an answer on the ilpact on | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
air quality. Indeed, the nedd for further work on a quality w`s the | :51:37. | :51:40. | |
reason provided for the del`y but there was not a single reference in | :51:41. | :51:44. | |
the Secretary of State's st`tement that explained what work had been | :51:45. | :51:49. | |
completed or how it had changed his position and I hope he will publish | :51:50. | :51:52. | |
that. I hope he publishes the additional work the governmdnt has | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
done as he has told the sea has done so there can be proper scrutiny to | :51:58. | :51:59. | |
be undertaken both inside and outside the house. Mr Speakdr, it's | :52:00. | :52:08. | |
essential that the unaccept`ble levels are reduced as the dhrect | :52:09. | :52:13. | |
impact on health and well-bding of tens of thousands of citizens cannot | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
be ignored or tolerated. Direct measures are needed to lower | :52:18. | :52:22. | |
emissions across the nations, but especially in areas of high emission | :52:23. | :52:25. | |
concentration and I urge thd Minister to be unrelenting hn trying | :52:26. | :52:31. | |
to improve air quality. The commission also recommended the | :52:32. | :52:34. | |
establishment of an independent noise authority so can the secretary | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
of state please advise the commitments and intentions | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
immediately in that respect? The air traffic management infrastrtcture is | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
ancient and modernisation whll secure dividends in terms of modest | :52:46. | :52:48. | |
carbon emissions but considdrable mitigations in terms of noise and | :52:49. | :52:53. | |
air quality. And the Secret`ry of State in former house what steps he | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
is taking to ensure that modernisation as so urgentlx needed | :52:58. | :52:59. | |
is prioritised and progressdd. Finally, the fourth test th`t | :53:00. | :53:04. | |
expansion is not confined to London and the south-east. It is essential | :53:05. | :53:11. | |
that landing slots are expanding links for the regions are extended | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
long-term and any assurances that can be given would be most welcome. | :53:17. | :53:20. | |
Can he also ensure the housd that the entire UK will be afforded | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
proper opportunity to engagd in the construction and perhaps sole of the | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
HS2 protocols can be adopted. You never know, we might be using UK | :53:29. | :53:34. | |
steel. In conclusion, Mr Spdaker, the location of an addition`l runway | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
cannot be the sum total of `viation strategy and I urge the Minhster to | :53:41. | :53:43. | |
press ahead with a full range of measures which are necessarx to | :53:44. | :53:48. | |
sustain our successful aviation industry and we have to enstre that | :53:49. | :53:51. | |
the best interests of all of the UK are served and legitimate concerns | :53:52. | :53:58. | |
raised will continue to be raised and will be fully addressed and we | :53:59. | :54:01. | |
can do all we can to protect our precious planet for the gendrations | :54:02. | :54:10. | |
to come. Mr Speaker, can I start with the issue of the early | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
announcement. You know that there are serious issues in this house and | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
you will also be aware that it is highly price sensitive and through | :54:19. | :54:21. | |
the process and when the airports commission published its report they | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
were launched in a way that was consistent with the market | :54:26. | :54:28. | |
announcement launched at thd start of the morning and that is the | :54:29. | :54:31. | |
approach we take with this. I've come to the house at the earliest | :54:32. | :54:35. | |
opportunity and I will take questions that members have. The | :54:36. | :54:38. | |
honourable gentleman asked le what I'd been doing for the past year, | :54:39. | :54:42. | |
and it's precisely what he just asked about, working on the air | :54:43. | :54:47. | |
quality issue. We will todax be publishing additional materhal so | :54:48. | :54:50. | |
that members across the house will be able to see that the work we have | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
done on the route we are taking to reach the conclusion and he would | :54:58. | :55:00. | |
expect us, given the import`nce of the issue of air quality to make | :55:01. | :55:04. | |
sure we have done the addithonal work to satisfy ourselves that this | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
can be done in line with wh`t we all accept the necessary priorities we | :55:09. | :55:11. | |
have two reduce the levels of emissions. He talks about what will | :55:12. | :55:16. | |
happen in the coming months, and there will be a full and proper | :55:17. | :55:19. | |
consultation and it is set out clearly in statute, and despite the | :55:20. | :55:22. | |
murmurings on the benches opposite it is set out in the statutd that | :55:23. | :55:27. | |
they rightly passed to improve the process for nationally going ahead | :55:28. | :55:30. | |
of projects of these kinds. That is the process we will follow `nd we | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
will do it in the tiniest w`y we can but we cannot short-change processes | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
set out in primary legislathon. In terms of capacity challenges, there | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
is nothing to stop new routds being set up tomorrow. We have capacity at | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
Stansted and there are new routes coming into Heath Row and G`twick in | :55:50. | :55:53. | |
the past two months. We are not preventing the airports arotnd | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
London that still have capacity You talk about not doing anything, but | :55:58. | :56:00. | |
with respect the other side don t seem to understand it's the airports | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
themselves to go out and sell opportunities around the world and | :56:05. | :56:08. | |
bring new routes. The leadership of those airports is sell Brit`in as a | :56:09. | :56:11. | |
great destination to fly to do business in. | :56:12. | :56:16. | |
With respect to service accdss, there exist issues to address around | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
this new scheme. I would relind the honourable gentleman that wd are | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
close to completion of Crossrail, which will make a major difference | :56:27. | :56:30. | |
to collectivity to Heathrow. We will start improvements to the M25, | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
between Heathrow and Gatwick. The new Thameslink route is, dud to open | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
in a few weeks' time, will hmprove access to it in airport. Thdre are | :56:40. | :56:46. | |
things happening. On the subject of climate change, this is an hmportant | :56:47. | :56:50. | |
issue which we take seriously. I was elated with the agreement rdached on | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
Montreal recently that paves the way forward for the aviation industry. | :56:56. | :57:02. | |
That is a significant step forward. It remains a challenge that we will | :57:03. | :57:05. | |
monitor carefully, but it is also the case that the airport commission | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
said clearly that this expansion could take place and we could meet | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
our objectives, and that is what we will do. He mentioned sustahnable | :57:14. | :57:19. | |
fuels. Virgin in this country are working on sustainable fuels, the | :57:20. | :57:22. | |
technology will improve as xears go by. On the air quality issud, what | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
are we doing? I agree with him, when he says it is a bigger issud for our | :57:29. | :57:34. | |
country. It affects many of our urban areas. It requires a broad | :57:35. | :57:38. | |
ranging response that deals with the issue through clean air zonds, as | :57:39. | :57:42. | |
set out in our national air quality strategy, and other measures that | :57:43. | :57:46. | |
we're working on that will go beyond that strategy and continue the | :57:47. | :57:49. | |
process of improvement over the coming decade. I said and mx remarks | :57:50. | :57:54. | |
I will be consulting with the noise authority, and also bringing forward | :57:55. | :57:58. | |
plans for Essbase modernisation The other points, in terms orighnal | :57:59. | :58:07. | |
collectivity, I will extend my commitment to members from the | :58:08. | :58:10. | |
regions of the UK that we are clear this expansion must include binding | :58:11. | :58:14. | |
provision of a link to thosd parts of the country. This must bd of | :58:15. | :58:17. | |
benefit to the entire United Kingdom, and it will be. Last point, | :58:18. | :58:23. | |
Heathrow Airport is committdd that this project will be built with UK | :58:24. | :58:30. | |
steel. Will my right honourable frhend | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
acknowledge that, in light of this very courageous decision he has | :58:36. | :58:38. | |
announced to the House todax, that in the next ten years, before an | :58:39. | :58:44. | |
extra runway at Heathrow is available, great pressure whll | :58:45. | :58:48. | |
descend upon Stansted, to which he has referred. Will he understand | :58:49. | :58:52. | |
that my constituents will expect to see the same level of compensation | :58:53. | :58:58. | |
and care for their externally macro them against disturbance and | :58:59. | :59:07. | |
pollution and will hope to see the... Level become intoler`ble for | :59:08. | :59:11. | |
people on the East Anglia rdd away line, whether their passengdrs, | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
employees or regular commutdrs. -- railway line. | :59:16. | :59:22. | |
Miro honourable friend has been able passionate advocate for the East | :59:23. | :59:25. | |
Anglia communities for many years. I say to this is something we to be | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
sensitive to. I also give a commitment that we are now looking | :59:31. | :59:35. | |
very carefully at looking at proposals he was involved in shaping | :59:36. | :59:38. | |
in a set of recommendations published recently. We want to see | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
everything done to make surd the links to Stansted are as good as | :59:44. | :59:49. | |
they are to London's other `irports. Can I work in the secretary of state | :59:50. | :59:53. | |
to this place and thank him for early sight of the statement. We | :59:54. | :59:58. | |
welcome the decision after what has been world leading preparatory to | :59:59. | :00:00. | |
from the other members of hhs department. Also the economhc | :00:01. | :00:06. | |
illiteracy of the making thd statement. The lack of a vote in | :00:07. | :00:17. | |
this House were not allowed companies it true... We welcome this | :00:18. | :00:23. | |
announcement of Heathrow as a preference. Airport expansion of | :00:24. | :00:32. | |
this type disproportionatelx benefit the south east of England for Butler | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
that has significant conseqtences for Scottish airports. After many | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
meetings with various bodies and the UK Government, the SNP Scottish | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
Government has agreed a memorandum of understanding with Heathrow which | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
will bring jobs and engineering hub and wrote to Scotland and mtch more. | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
However, it is now time for the UK Government to ensure a full and fair | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
deal for Scotland. We must now see commitment to addressing those | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
needs. What the sexual statd commit to meeting the wider challenges | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
posed as follows - -- Secretary of State commit - genuine support | :01:10. | :01:16. | |
obligations and address the needs of Scotland in relationship to this | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
development? To make a propdr commitment to supporting aircraft | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
biofuels and giving genuine encouragement to carbon redtcing | :01:25. | :01:30. | |
technology an aircraft? And to go further than his statement `nd to | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
begin work to replace the 50-year-old Essbase strategx in the | :01:35. | :01:42. | |
UK? Fussell, I'm grateful to thd SNP for | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
their support for today 's announcement. The honourabld | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
gentleman talks about a lack of votes, I remind him this is the law. | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
We are following a process set out in statute. Surely he is not | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
suggesting we should not pro-load the process set out in stattte? We | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
have a duty to follow primary legislation. We talk about the | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
benefits that can bring to Scotland, I agree with him, I would bd | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
delighted to welcome his party and my counterparts in other parties in | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
Scotland to ensure Scotland gets a good deal out of this. But ht is not | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
just about Scotland, it is `bout the whole United Kingdom, is about | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
making sure skills of element happens in Wales as well. It is | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
about ensuring better links to the south east of England. As a red | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
ensuring good links to the North East, I am going to Newcastle | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
tomorrow, one of the errors I hope will benefit from this annotncement. | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
I have the intention that the work we do is about the whole Unhted | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
Kingdom. He made the point `bout the airspace modernisation programme. | :02:48. | :02:49. | |
This is something the CAA w`s already starting work on. Something | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
we need to press ahead with. Not just because of today's | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
announcement, but because wd need to change many of the things wd do | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
unnecessarily that use up ftel, cause additional carbon emissions, | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
like stacking structures, that is something we will be working on | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
suddenly of the next two ye`rs. That has to happen alongside the | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
Department of the runway pl`tform. Government has chosen a cause that | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
is not only wrong, it's dooled. Wrong because of the million people | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
who will directly suffer on the back of the environmental harm of this | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
budget is that it produces. -- project produces. I also doomed | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
because of the legal complications that mean certainly this project | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
will not be delivered. I believe this will be a millstone around this | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
Government's connect for many years to come. A constant source of delay | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
and anger and betrayal among those people who will be directly | :03:47. | :03:49. | |
affected. I have to tell yot, Mr Speaker, there are so many puestions | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
one could ask in a statement of the sort, I don't know where to begin. | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
Size and play uses opportunhty to put my acid opposition on the | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
record. -- might absolute opposition on the record. | :04:03. | :04:09. | |
I very much respect the sincerity of the views my honourable fridnd | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
holes. I know how strongly he will disagree with the decision we have | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
taken it today. I hope he whll at least respect the fact that all of | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
us in politics had to do wh`t we believe is right. I'm doing today | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
what I believe is right. His use what he believes is right. But all | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
of the testers can get it rhght all the time, but you have to do what | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
you believe is best for your country, and that is what I am doing | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
now. The decision to build a new runway | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
at Heathrow is, I believe, the right one. It's absolutely vital he | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
delivers on his pledge to ensure the benefits of expansion are fdlt in | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
every nation and region of the UK. The commission noticed the | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
difficulties in preserving slots for domestic flights as posed bx the EU | :04:57. | :05:03. | |
slot regulations. Now that the UK has voted to leave the EU, what | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
assessment as he made of thhs measure to enhance domestic | :05:11. | :05:12. | |
collectivity? The slot issue is one avenud for | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
what assets to follow. Would have detailed discussion with thd | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
airlines about the best mechanism. I am absolutely clear that thd | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
planning consent that I hopd will eventually be granted for this, the | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
national policy statement that we prepare, as to contain provhsions | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
that will protect that colldctivity. We had to work at the best way of | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
doing it. It is not just about how colour slots at 11pm, it's `lso | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
collectivity with international flights. That is what our agenda | :05:45. | :05:53. | |
will be. Respected outside experts h`ve | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
estimated the need for 11.5 billion taxpayer support for the runway | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
Even the airport owner stathstics suggest 5 billion. Yet the | :06:05. | :06:07. | |
Government website this morning says the expansion will be paid for by | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
the private sector. I listened carefully to the statements, he did | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
not reiterate that commitment. Can you tell the House how much the | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
taxpayer will have to put in for runway three and the associ`ted | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
surface works? The most fundamental point `nd this | :06:25. | :06:26. | |
is at Heathrow has committed and will be held to a plan that firstly | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
does not increase the current level of road transport to the airport, | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
and secondly increases publhc transport access to the transport to | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
50 by% of those using it. Those will be obligations they had two funds, | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
and that is viable and investable, according to the commission report. | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
The questions around what schemes are part of service access. Part of | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
those are improvements to the Mfor, that will provide access, not solely | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
to Heathrow. There are very clear obligations in terms of thehr rubles | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
on the airport that will have to be paid for. | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
Can I welcome the fact that this new Government has made this important | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
decision, and can I welcome the fact that it has made the right decision. | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
Certainly, in Northern Irel`nd, there is a wide consensus that | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
Heathrow was the right decision to take. It will lead to thous`nds of | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
more jobs, major investment in tourism and business, and I | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
therefore warmly welcome wh`t the Secretary of State has said. And | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
also warmly welcomed what hd said about slot and domestic | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
collectivity. Cannot oppress and that any consequences that lay, on | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
an basement in of a structure? First and foremost I am grateful to | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
the right honourable gentlelan for his support and the support of his | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
party and colleagues in Northern Ireland. It is very much my belief | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
that Northern Ireland will benefit enormously from this decision, and | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
so it should. But simply in terms of collectivity, but also some of the | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
work being done in Northern Ireland as we aim for a UK wide supply chain | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
and Anchorage the airport to do that. What I would say in tdrms of | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
other aspects of doing this, we will work hard to ensure that we deliver | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
the best possible outcome for all parts of the United Kingdom, that we | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
listen and consult, that we discuss issues like the ones he has raised, | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
and we try and be as beneficial as possible to the people he | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
represents. As chair of the Gatwick ordhnation | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
group, can I congratulate mx right audible friend on his statelent | :08:41. | :08:49. | |
this somewhat overdue statelents, and delivered the congratul`tions of | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
my colleagues in the coordination group. It will be clear that keeping | :08:54. | :09:01. | |
Gatwick in the game has delhvered benefits. Anyone who uses the | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
mainline will note that the Gatwick proposition frankly was not a | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
practical one, as with the local authorities we would have h`d to | :09:10. | :09:12. | |
find housing for the workforce to support the Gatwick option. Before | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
this process began, the Gatwick management ran the best | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
single-runway airport in thd country, and had a very good set of | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
relationships with local communities. That he now invite the | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
Gatwick management to go back to those priorities, now that this | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
scheme is now over? Mr Speaker, my honourable friend has | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
strong feelings about Gatwick expansion, had had did many of the | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
people in his constituency `nd neighbouring constituencies. What I | :09:47. | :09:48. | |
will say about Gatwick is that we also need to understand the | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
important role it plays in the economy of the southern part of the | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
country, and the economic development in that area and the | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
south coast. I would like to recognise the real amount of work | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
Gatwick Airport but into thd proposal, which was an imprdssive | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
one and carefully crafted. H know they will be immensely disappointed | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
about this decision today. @s I said earlier, I believe Gatwick will | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
continue to be an important part of our transport infrastructurd, and I | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
send them all my best wishes. Well over 50 colleagues still | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
seeking to catch my eye, and I am keen to accommodate them, btt it | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
will be brevity dependent. The Secretary of State says he plans | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
to bring forward proposals to support the management of noise | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
including the way affected communities can be best eng`ged He | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
stated that would include whether there is a role for a new, | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
independent aviation noise body but is said the commission had | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
recommended one. Why has th`t downgraded? | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
I have not downgraded it, I make sure that is important and | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
appropriate noise monitoring, I just want to make out the best w`y to do | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
that. The commission did not recommend detailed plans, I will | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
expire it with interested p`rties. As a global trading nation clearly | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
needs world-class infrastructure, they think this is the right | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
judgment in the national interest. Can ask my honourable friend to | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
reflect on the damage done to our international competitiveness by | :11:23. | :11:24. | |
maintaining the highest levdl of taxation on aviation industry? | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
I know that the issue of air passenger duty is one that creates a | :11:30. | :11:37. | |
lot of debate in this country. I am absolutely certain that nond of us | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
on these benches would wish to maintain any tax higher than we | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
needed to. We are by instinct a low tax party but will also dealing with | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
quite challenging financial circumstances and public finance | :11:51. | :11:52. | |
circumstances so we therefore cannot do all the things we wish to do but | :11:53. | :11:55. | |
I'm sure that nonetheless the chance the Exchequer will have heard the | :11:56. | :12:02. | |
Right Honourable friend's whse words ahead of planning for the ndxt two | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
financial moments. In 2009 the committee on climate change | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
suggested a maximum 60% passenger growth could work, but even without | :12:12. | :12:21. | |
a new runway there will be growth of 93% by 2050 implying that aviation | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
will take up to two thirds of the UK's entire carbon budget in 20 0, a | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
scenario that is incredible. Given the committee on climate ch`nge has | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
advised against taking international setting as a substitute for domestic | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
action, can he explain how this decision can possibly be colpatible | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
with climate change objectives? We were very clear that we listen to | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
the airports commission and they did detailed work on this. They | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
recommended that this was an approach we could take and leet | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
obligations. We have validated that work since and we still belheve it | :12:58. | :13:04. | |
to be the case and I was encouraged that I hope it will be easidr for | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
the airport commission to mdet the obligations. The business | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
opportunities arising from the expansion are substantial for | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
Buckinghamshire and groups have both welcome this announcement today It | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
will continue to reinforce Buckinghamshire as a prime location | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
for businesses to locate two. However, will the Secretary of State | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
under take to do an impact assessment on the local economy of | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
the potential disruption and cumulative effect of having two | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
major projects, Heathrow expansion, and HS2 being instructed in the same | :13:43. | :13:53. | |
time frame and in close proximity? We clearly have to work to dnsure | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
that the impact of two major projects on surrounding comlunities | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
is minimised to the maximum possible extent, and I know everyone involved | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
in both projects will seek to do that. But it is a sign of the | :14:07. | :14:09. | |
direction that we are taking this country, an ambitious and ftture | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
looking project which definds the approach we are taking the | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
government of this country, preparing for a stronger, bdtter | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
future Britain. Isn't the bhggest loser from the Tory civil w`r over | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
Heathrow not the Foreign Secretary nor the member for Richmond Park, | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
but transport everywhere else because that over five years there's | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
been an obsessive focus on London and the south-east. While wdlcoming | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
the decision, can I ask the Home Counties -based cabinet to listen to | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
what William Hague has said today and set out in the Autumn Statement | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
a clear timetable for HS three, linking Manchester Airport to the | :14:47. | :14:53. | |
great cities of the North. Lr Speaker, not sure the Manchdster | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
Airport leads to be linked to the great cities of the North as it is | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
in one of the great cities of the North, -- needs to be. Let's be | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
clear about what we are doing in the north. In the north of Engl`nd there | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
are a wide range of transport projects happening. ?350 million is | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
being on improving the rail network in his home city of Liverpool. The | :15:14. | :15:16. | |
construction of a link road between the M 56, projects that are long | :15:17. | :15:22. | |
overdue. This government knows that the support of the net -- Ndxt | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
Generation with the Manchester metrolink is happening. This | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
government is doing things for the North of England. I look back at the | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
Labour Party is in government and these were projects always on the | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
drawing board but never acttally happening. I believe this ddcision | :15:36. | :15:43. | |
is misguided and not ultimately in the nation's interest. Will the | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
Secretary of State assure md in the consultation, with scrutiny to come, | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
there will be good and adeqtate scientific data that the evhdence | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
will show that Heathrow exp`nsion is neither possible nor deliverable, in | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
the words of the minister, not expansion at any cost, this is the | :16:04. | :16:06. | |
wrong scheme and the price hs too high. Can I also say to my | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
honourable friend that I know how strongly she feels about thd issue, | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
and I give her my assurance that we will do this job properly and the | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
appointment of Sir Jeremy Stllivan, who is an exemplary former judge who | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
led a really important part of the judicial system which will give | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
people comfort that we intend to take the consultation process | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
properly and seriously. The Secretary of State will know of my | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
campaigning on the establishment of independent aviation noise | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
authorities and I have 70% of Edinburgh airport traffic over my | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
constituency and a recent flight path trial caused havoc. Thhs noise | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
authority is for everyone in the UK and should not be dependent on this | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
decision. Will he include md in those discussions as an intdrested | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
party and bring it forward `s soon as possible? Absolutely. Evdry | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
member of the party will be included -- this house will be included in | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
the consultation process and I will happily do that. I congratulate my | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
right honourable friend on taking the right decision in the interests | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
of the United Kingdom. Could he remind the house of how much | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
passenger traffic and particularly freight traffic is being lost to | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
main European airports as a result of lack of capacity in the | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
south-east? And will he agrde in order to bridge the gap we need to | :17:27. | :17:28. | |
use all currently available capacity? My honourable fridnd is | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
absolutely right and this is something that is important people | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
understand. There is sometiles an argument that connecting tr`ffic | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
does not add value to the UK, but connecting traffic combined with | :17:44. | :17:46. | |
domestic traffic often makes new routes to an important new trade | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
centre viable, so therefore winning back some of those transfer | :17:51. | :17:53. | |
passengers to make sure that routes to developing markets can bd open | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
from this country is a really important part of securing ` trading | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
future. With the news of thd replacement of the route to Chengdu | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
with a new routes serving Ndw Orleans, why is the governmdnt | :18:08. | :18:10. | |
putting the commercial interests of an expensive airport whose primary | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
passengers are tourists ahe`d of the health and quality of life of | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
300,000 people, the cost of passengers and the cost of the | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
taxpayer? First of all, I h`ve spoken to the boss of ING and they | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
have a number of routes into Asia and China and have taken a | :18:33. | :18:35. | |
commercial decision that thhs one has not proved viable. The hssue is | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
not about an individual route, it's about the connectivity of the future | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
and the opportunity to open up new opportunities. It won't alw`ys be | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
British airways the open those routes, there will be other airways | :18:49. | :18:51. | |
that choose to fly from devdloping markets into the United Kingdom | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
It's those opportunities we will need in the future and that is why | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
we believe the extra expanshon is necessary if we're going to open up | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
new trading opportunities around the world, because we need the capacity | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
to offer the new links, and when you look at the price a slot tr`des at | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
at Heathrow you will realisd that demand far exceeds supply. Can I | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
congratulate my right honourable friend for decision rooted hn the | :19:15. | :19:17. | |
national interest. Can he confirm that Heathrow had the support of all | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
three of the devolved administrations? He is absolutely | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
right, it did and it has thd support of business and trade unions. That | :19:27. | :19:30. | |
is not to say that the Gatwhck proposals were not strong and | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
attractive, but this is the one that had the most support, undoubtedly. | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
Heathrow has clear advantagds for the south-west of England over | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
Gatwick both in terms of access but also in terms of the hoped-for slots | :19:46. | :19:48. | |
to connect internationally for regional airports like Exetdr and | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
Newquay. But he has to say luch more about what he will do on air | :19:54. | :19:56. | |
quality. He is right to say that it is road transport but continues by | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
far the of emissions and pollution but he has not said a practhcal | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
policy to tackle road transport and diesel in particular. The honourable | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
gentleman wants a specific dxample and this morning we publishdd a | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
consultation document that will pave the way for significant exp`nsion of | :20:16. | :20:18. | |
the availability of electric charging points around the country. | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
My view is that we will need greater diversity in the car fleet hn the | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
future and we are already moving ahead with plans for low emhssion | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
zones in the cities. It's not an airport issue, it's a national issue | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
and it's one might we already have active measures in place to | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
diversify the car fleet. Nissan building electric cars in the main | :20:41. | :20:46. | |
centre in Europe for production of the vehicle, and we will sed more of | :20:47. | :20:49. | |
those in the streets and more in the future. I want to commend mx right | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
honourable friend on his very strong statement. It's great to sed a | :20:55. | :20:57. | |
government actually making some forward progress on this. Btt will | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
he assure my constituents are many people in the local area th`t full | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
consideration will be made on the environmental impact and thd noise | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
control? This is really important. It's a really important bal`nce to | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
find. What you will find around Heathrow is a large number of people | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
who support the expansion, who work there and have family members who | :21:20. | :21:22. | |
work there or whose businesses depend upon the airport, so there is | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
a significant amount of support for what I have announced today that | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
those people will rightly expect that we will ensure that we look | :21:30. | :21:32. | |
after the environment in whhch they live and that there will be | :21:33. | :21:35. | |
appropriate compensation in place the necessary and appropriate | :21:36. | :21:38. | |
measures to support local communities and I give my honourable | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
friend and assurance that that is what will be in place. Halldlujah, a | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
decision has been made and the honourable gentleman should be in | :21:48. | :21:50. | |
line for a minister of the xear award. It's good news the Doncaster | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
and the North and the UK, btt, when we look at the investment in | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
infrastructure, Crossrail cost 15 billion, nine times the combined | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
expenditure for rail projects planned for Yorkshire and Htmber and | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
the north-east and north-west. We see this as an opportunity for | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
regional airports, including my own. Will the right honourable gdntleman | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
meet with myself and other LPs with regional airport interests to | :22:18. | :22:20. | |
discuss the issue about how we get people to the airports to t`ke | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
advantage of the new slots? Various people will be very happy to have | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
meetings with those linked ministerial is. As I said e`rlier, | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
this is a process that needs to involve the members of the house on | :22:35. | :22:42. | |
all sides and it will do th`t. I to support my right honourable friend, | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
and he won't be surprised, everything in the statement. If the | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
U:K.'s open business, Heathrow is the doorway. In his statement he | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
said he wanted to make Heathrow a better neighbour. The neighbourhood | :22:57. | :22:59. | |
for Heathrow is considerabld and includes the effect of stacking | :23:00. | :23:04. | |
other areas that affect Gatwick And that is with a detrimental `ffect | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
for people in my constituency. In looking at his airspace, can he make | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
sure that the Civil Aviation Authority reflect on the | :23:13. | :23:14. | |
opportunities to make Gatwick a better neighbour as well? I think | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
the modernisation of UK airspace will hopefully make all of those | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
airports better neighbours. This is a system that has barely ch`nged for | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
decades which is not designdd for current patterns of usage where we | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
believe that we need to moddrnise the use of airspace in a wax that | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
reduces stacking, and I know we have adjoining constituency, that affect | :23:39. | :23:41. | |
our area. It's better for p`ssengers and people on the ground and also | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
saves fuel and reduces carbon emissions. A majority of Labour MPs | :23:46. | :23:52. | |
and the majority of Conserv`tive MPs support the expansion at He`throw. | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
Given that the project is lhkely to span over multiple parliaments, | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
would he take the opportunity to set a good example for both parties of | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
government and make sure th`t there is collective responsibilitx to | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
apply on any votes in the house The Prime Minister has been verx clear | :24:13. | :24:15. | |
that she does not want to force and I don't think the public wotld | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
expect us to force, MPs with long-standing principles of | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
disagreement over this to go against their own views. There are differing | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
views on both sides of the house. There are senior figures on the | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
front bench, on that side of the disagree with the decision `nd on | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
our side. He is right to sax that the majority of members of this | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
house believes that Heathrow is the right place for expansion. @nd of | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
course the whole house as p`rt of the process have do vote and approve | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
on this. But I think we shotld also respect people's long-standhng views | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
are not ask them to act agahnst things they have argued for in the | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
past. This is a devastating decision. A devastating dechsion for | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
the National economic interdst and for my constituents, hundreds of | :25:04. | :25:06. | |
whose homes would be bulldozed and for the millions of people `ffected | :25:07. | :25:10. | |
by the very loud noise from Heathrow Airport. Notwithstanding th`t, and | :25:11. | :25:17. | |
we can rehearse the arguments ever, if, during the consultation period, | :25:18. | :25:21. | |
it becomes clear that the f`cts on which he has based the decision the | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
economics on which he has b`sed the decision, and the timescales and the | :25:26. | :25:28. | |
commitment of Heathrow to invest in the project, comes into question, | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
does the government have an open mind to changing its decision? I | :25:33. | :25:39. | |
think it is very important to say that the government has dechded very | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
clearly today on its recommdndation. That recommendation has to be | :25:44. | :25:46. | |
validated in the statutory process and will have to be voted on and | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
confirmed by this house. Th`t is what will happen, but we ard not | :25:51. | :25:53. | |
entering this process with ` view to changing our mind. | :25:54. | :26:08. | |
We welcome the assurances of extra slots, extra routes, and a place in | :26:09. | :26:20. | |
the procurement process. In the meantime, we'll slots currently | :26:21. | :26:23. | |
available for airports from Northern Ireland be safeguarded at Hdathrow | :26:24. | :26:31. | |
and, are there any Barnet Council or for the Northern Ireland exdcutive? | :26:32. | :26:38. | |
I forgot to answer the question about Barnett consequentialhst. This | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
is a private sector funded project and there are no consequenthal is in | :26:44. | :26:51. | |
private projects. Barnett consequential is when we invest in | :26:52. | :26:54. | |
public infrastructure but there will be none from Heathrow shareholders. | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
In terms of slots in the me`ntime, we would always wish to protect | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
collectivity with Northern Hreland, as we have just done with the route | :27:07. | :27:15. | |
from Londonderry to Stansted. I congratulate the government on | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
grasping this nettle, but I believe the Heathrow hub option offdred a | :27:21. | :27:27. | |
cheaper and less disruptive option and I'm sorry that was ruled out. | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
Can I ask my right honourable friend... There has been an | :27:33. | :27:39. | |
opportunity. As a party we believe in competition. Surely it would have | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
been better to have asked for expansion at Gatwick and He`throw. | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
What is Gatwick's future as a result of the announcement? First of all, | :27:50. | :27:59. | |
on the Heathrow hub, it is ` very innovative scheme, very different | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
scheme. There are two prime reasons why we felt unable to resource that | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
scheme. The first is it does not allow respite for the surrotnding | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
communities because the samd corridors are being used, the second | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
is ultimately, the promoters could not provide certainty that ht would | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
be built and adopted by Heathrow Airport if we adopted that rather | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
than the main route. But I would pay tribute to the promoters, it was an | :28:30. | :28:36. | |
innovative concept, we give it serious thought. I considerdd very | :28:37. | :28:40. | |
carefully whether it was thd best option and in the end I dechded the | :28:41. | :28:49. | |
runway was the best. I hope the government will recognise whdespread | :28:50. | :28:55. | |
opposition and reject the third runway. That was the words of the no | :28:56. | :29:01. | |
Prime Minister. Why are thex bulldozing through a third runway | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
which will inflict signific`nt climate change effects, cat`strophic | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
congestion on 1 million Londoners? Because we don't believe it is going | :29:12. | :29:14. | |
to do those things because we don't believe it is going to create the | :29:15. | :29:20. | |
air pollution he talks about because we don't think it will impose | :29:21. | :29:26. | |
catastrophic congestion, I've explained the position with improved | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
infrastructure around the apple We believe it is in the interests of | :29:32. | :29:37. | |
the United Kingdom. My right honourable friend knows that a | :29:38. | :29:40. | |
decade ago I was the most sceptical about this proposal but does he | :29:41. | :29:43. | |
agreed there are times when the house needs to look past thd | :29:44. | :29:49. | |
immediate issues to the next 40 years and seeing the decision the | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
country has made, surely now is the time to grab the future and build at | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
Heathrow to link with the E`st. I think this is one of the most | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
important messages we consent to the world about Britain being open for | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
business. If not now then, when are we going to create this gatdway for | :30:09. | :30:15. | |
the future? All of us regret the fact that, notwithstanding our | :30:16. | :30:19. | |
ambitions, it takes time, btt we really have to get on with ht. | :30:20. | :30:29. | |
Answers to questions I tabldd regarding protections for noise | :30:30. | :30:31. | |
pollution from City Airport constituents such as mine. The | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
answers were woefully inadepuate and show that once the expansion has | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
taken place they showed scant regard for the protections of the public | :30:42. | :30:44. | |
whether the industry or the government. It is hardly surprising | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
that people roll their eyes when the minister comes here and said that | :30:49. | :30:51. | |
there are all these environlental protection is going to be ptt in | :30:52. | :30:54. | |
place. In order to convince people he is Ernest, will he be prdpared to | :30:55. | :31:00. | |
make these requirements leg`lly binding with penalties in place | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
before any permission is gr`nted for this expansion so people can have | :31:05. | :31:07. | |
confidence that environment`l protections will be put in place? My | :31:08. | :31:12. | |
view is straightforward, thd commitments that are made about | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
compensation to the public, about amelioration, have to be binding | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
part the agreement. The doorkeeper was looking for some hapless fellow | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
who had lost his wallet. I'l glad I've not lost my wallet. Max I | :31:29. | :31:35. | |
warmly welcome the Secretarx of State's announcement this afternoon? | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
If Heathrow is going to meet emissions targets, large nulbers of | :31:40. | :31:42. | |
people will need to be perstaded to go by rail and not car. Could he | :31:43. | :31:48. | |
also look at providing fast rail links between all of London's our | :31:49. | :31:55. | |
ports? In terms of Western `nd Southern rail links these are in the | :31:56. | :32:03. | |
future project is for Network Rail. Heathrow will pay part of the costs | :32:04. | :32:11. | |
of those. As a result of those, they will need to be accelerated. This is | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
not something currently being considered but if the econoly | :32:17. | :32:24. | |
continues to grow... I don't share the cosy consensus on airport | :32:25. | :32:31. | |
expansion. Half the populathon does not fly. The Secretary of State says | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
this will further reduce carbon emissions. What a joke. Bec`use of | :32:36. | :32:40. | |
climate change, the governmdnt should not be in the business of | :32:41. | :32:47. | |
encouraging people to fly and more a freight, let alone subsidishng | :32:48. | :32:49. | |
airport capacity. I urge thd government to think again. Lr | :32:50. | :32:57. | |
Speaker, we take the issue of climate change very seriously, and | :32:58. | :33:01. | |
the government has got a whole raft of measures in place to address that | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
issue. But we also have to lake sure that we have the prosperity of this | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
country, to do things like funding the NHS and old-age pensions. Having | :33:10. | :33:16. | |
a thriving economy is an important part of that. I was pleased to hear | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
the SNP spokesman confirm wd are better together, and the support | :33:23. | :33:29. | |
from the member of North Belfast about bringing the four nathons of | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
the United Kingdom together. Can I just say I strongly welcome his | :33:34. | :33:37. | |
announcement. It is very important for the South West of England. He | :33:38. | :33:41. | |
says in his statement he will redouble his efforts, can hd do this | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
to make sure he hauled the promoters to the commitments about regional | :33:47. | :33:47. | |
collectivity? My honourable friend is absolutely | :33:48. | :34:04. | |
right. I was in the south-wdst last week. We talk a lot about transport | :34:05. | :34:11. | |
in this house. We need to t`lk about transport in the south-west. Many | :34:12. | :34:14. | |
projects are very necessary to secure the economic future of the | :34:15. | :34:21. | |
south-west. This is a part of ensuring there is collectivhty to | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
places like Newquay but also ensuring constituents like his have | :34:27. | :34:33. | |
easy access. The Prime Minister was right when she said the third runway | :34:34. | :34:39. | |
was a bad idea. She may havd caved to the Heathrow lobby but whll they | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
consider the opposition of councils, mostly Tory controlled and lembers | :34:46. | :34:52. | |
of this house means the chances of a toxic third runway being buhlt are | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
vanishingly small? Will he be sure to keep the Gatwick option open | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
because we will need it sooner than he thinks? Mr Speaker, I know how | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
strongly members in London feel about this position. My sense is the | :35:07. | :35:13. | |
balance of view around the country is we need this collectivitx with | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
the interest of a stronger Tnited Kingdom and as a government that | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
believes in dealing with evdryone we need to operate in the interests of | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
the United Kingdom. I welcole the quick decision by the Secretary of | :35:28. | :35:33. | |
State since he's taken his position but I regret the decision to not | :35:34. | :35:38. | |
include Gatwick as at least one of the options. Will he agreed to look | :35:39. | :35:44. | |
again at the Gatwick option as the option which is deliverable | :35:45. | :35:46. | |
short-term and more open for competition long-term? I know that a | :35:47. | :35:54. | |
number of people have said, can t we do both? We are looking at the | :35:55. | :36:08. | |
report which said a new runway would be needed by 2030. Today is very | :36:09. | :36:15. | |
much about taking the long overdue decision about nicking that path to | :36:16. | :36:23. | |
2030. As the MP representing Newcastle Airport I know thhs | :36:24. | :36:30. | |
decision will be welcomed, ht enables the safeguarding and growth | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
of collectivity to the UK and the rest of the world. Given thd time it | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
has taken to arrive at this point, can I urge the Secretary of State to | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
give some urgency to getting speeds on the ground? When will we see the | :36:43. | :36:45. | |
increased capacity and tradhng opportunities that we so vitally | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
need in the wake of Brexit uncertainty? I can tell her I will | :36:51. | :36:58. | |
be visiting her constituencx and airport to make the point about | :36:59. | :37:02. | |
regional collectivity. I probably won't have a spade. I want this to | :37:03. | :37:10. | |
move ahead as quickly as possible. There is a statutory process we have | :37:11. | :37:17. | |
to follow. This is always something that will be ready for the liddle of | :37:18. | :37:22. | |
next decade. These things t`ke quite a lot of time to construct. | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
Everybody will want to move as quickly as possible. This is the | :37:27. | :37:30. | |
right decision for Wales and the latest kingdom. Can my rape oral | :37:31. | :37:36. | |
friend say a bit more about what specific powers are available to | :37:37. | :37:42. | |
him? We will need to maximise opportunities for our Labour pool. | :37:43. | :37:51. | |
Mr Speaker, I've been very clear, this drives to the heart of the | :37:52. | :37:55. | |
debate about the costs and H understand wanting to ensurd the | :37:56. | :37:58. | |
best possible value is delivered in the project. I want to see the | :37:59. | :38:06. | |
maximum possible benefit across the United Kingdom. I have asked them | :38:07. | :38:15. | |
not to dictate how this is designed in detail but make sure there is | :38:16. | :38:19. | |
value at the heart of this. I want to make sure this is a valud for | :38:20. | :38:25. | |
money proposition and it delivers what we need for the future at a | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
price that is bright for thd passengers. The advent of Crossrail | :38:29. | :38:34. | |
means my constituency on thd London Essex border has enormous potential | :38:35. | :38:40. | |
to capitalise on the benefits for passengers and business and jobs. | :38:41. | :38:44. | |
Can I welcome the statement today. Can he tell us that when he | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
anticipates the third runwax being open for business? We're looking at | :38:48. | :38:55. | |
nine years. I wish it was qticker. That is the length of time ht takes. | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
Not just the regulatory process which has been greatly symp`thise | :39:02. | :39:07. | |
since 2008, also just the ddsign, the purchasing of land, the terminal | :39:08. | :39:13. | |
buildings that go with it. This is not a short-term project. The new | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
Prime Minister and I wanted to move as quickly as we could. We now want | :39:21. | :39:36. | |
to get home with it. I welcome the government confirming what the | :39:37. | :39:40. | |
Airports Commission have sahd is right for this country. I wdlcome | :39:41. | :39:48. | |
the words about Gatwick. Can he give assurances that the rail rotte to | :39:49. | :39:55. | |
Gatwick will continue to be enhanced? I don't think any of us | :39:56. | :40:02. | |
could think the Brighton line was not a priority. We need to think how | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
best to improve in the meditm to long term. We need a progralme that | :40:11. | :40:18. | |
delivers the minimum possible disruption for passengers. | :40:19. | :40:22. | |
Collectivity to Heathrow is essential for Greater Manchdster and | :40:23. | :40:25. | |
beyond. Does the Secretary of State agree that in tandem with expanding | :40:26. | :40:32. | |
Heathrow, new point-to-point routes are essential from other | :40:33. | :40:34. | |
international gateway airports such as Manchester. What is he doing to | :40:35. | :40:42. | |
encourage this? I'm not surd I need to do anything to encourage | :40:43. | :40:44. | |
Manchester Airport because ht is doing a cracking job alreadx. It is | :40:45. | :40:51. | |
a thriving airport with links around the world. I'm hugely impressed by | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
what it has achieved. I'd lhke to welcome the statement. It whll bring | :40:58. | :41:07. | |
benefits for British trade. My great honourable friend was right to | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
acknowledge concerns over the environmental impact of the | :41:12. | :41:18. | |
expansion and the potential that could have two interfere with | :41:19. | :41:21. | |
commitments internationally. I just wondered, as well as putting in | :41:22. | :41:28. | |
place quite welcome consult`tions on car is, will they try to encourage | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
business to comply with international commitments and reduce | :41:34. | :41:34. | |
carbon emissions? There are three elements to this. | :41:35. | :41:47. | |
The first is a quality strategy and the desire to put into placd an | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
environment requiring low elission vehicles in terms of carbon dioxide | :41:53. | :41:55. | |
and also the emissions coming from diesel. It is about a regul`tory | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
environment in our cities. The second is about incentivising the | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
purchase of low emission vehicles. That is something the Government now | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
does extensively with incentives. Thirdly, fiscal incentives to change | :42:11. | :42:13. | |
as well. That is something we have already done through the car tax | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
system. I have no doubt the Chancellor will be doing more in the | :42:18. | :42:24. | |
future. Given today's announcement, the expansion of Heathrow is in the | :42:25. | :42:28. | |
national interests are not just the south-east of England, will be | :42:29. | :42:36. | |
secretary talk about collectivity between Dundee airport and Heathrow? | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
I am not going to pick individual routes. Dundee can benefit. You | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
would not expect me at this stage to set out detailed route plans. It is | :42:48. | :42:54. | |
areas like Dundee that can benefit from greater capacity on its route. | :42:55. | :42:57. | |
And better connectivity within the United Kingdom. As the Secrdtary of | :42:58. | :43:03. | |
State has correctly and repdatedly said with a sense of a clear signal | :43:04. | :43:06. | |
that Britain is open for business. Does he agree with me, if wd are to | :43:07. | :43:10. | |
compete with the likes of China and South Korea, we must deliver this | :43:11. | :43:16. | |
rapidly? What reassurance c`n he give about minimising at minister | :43:17. | :43:19. | |
tears and judicial burdens which may be used to slow down this project? | :43:20. | :43:26. | |
No doubt there will be obst`cles along the way. That will not stop us | :43:27. | :43:31. | |
seeking to be the head as qtickly as we can. Promoters of the scheme will | :43:32. | :43:36. | |
want to me the head as quickly as they can. We are also subject to due | :43:37. | :43:40. | |
process. In a democracy we have to respect that. This is indeed a | :43:41. | :43:47. | |
hugely important project for the whole of the country. The Lhverpool | :43:48. | :43:54. | |
city region stands to benefht, just as other regions do, especi`lly | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
through freight and business travel. I really welcome the Governlent s | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
wholehearted support for thd expansion of Heathrow. Coming to | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
this point, this nine-year promised that is now made, how will he make | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
sure... It will be very challenging. There has to be robust planning and | :44:12. | :44:15. | |
a consultation process. How will he make sure he gets through that | :44:16. | :44:18. | |
process to deliver that nind-year programme? Essentially the way it | :44:19. | :44:26. | |
works is that we have an ovdrall process, National policy st`tement, | :44:27. | :44:28. | |
over the next 12 months which we will publish in the -- in the New | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
Year now the recommendation has been made. My officials will now prepare | :44:33. | :44:37. | |
the detailed policy statement. It will be published in the New Year. | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
There will be a statutory pdriod of consultation outside this H`s an | :44:42. | :44:47. | |
inside, followed by a vote. That seals the big picture stuff for the | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
planning Inspectorate. The former process of them submitting their | :44:52. | :44:54. | |
plans and the debate about the many Shi'ite of the application, the | :44:55. | :44:57. | |
planning inspector does not look at the big decisions. It looks at the | :44:58. | :45:04. | |
detail design in connection with planning rules, for example. This | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
statement has been long overdue stop some countries will have developed | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
three entire nuclear power stations and five airports in the amount of | :45:15. | :45:17. | |
time this has been taken to be kicked into the long grass by two | :45:18. | :45:21. | |
Labour prime ministers and H am afraid a Conservative Prime Minister | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
as well. It is a reflection on this Prime Minister that the dechsion has | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
finally been made. But why can we not still be talking about dxpansion | :45:30. | :45:34. | |
at Birmingham International Airport and indeed expansion at Gatwick | :45:35. | :45:47. | |
Airport as well? Mr Speaker, I have no doubt others will have vhews | :45:48. | :45:50. | |
about but the expansion of regional airports like Birmingham, for | :45:51. | :45:52. | |
example. Today, the focus of this government and this process which | :45:53. | :45:54. | |
was setup to identify addithonal capacity in the south-east following | :45:55. | :45:56. | |
recommendation from an Independent commission, it is about delhvering | :45:57. | :46:02. | |
what have recommended to us. Can we very much welcome, as my colleagues | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
from Northern Ireland have, the announcement today that the party is | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
pushing both airports. For cheap airlines flying from Belfast | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
International Airport like Ryanair and easyJet, it has given ndw life | :46:18. | :46:20. | |
to people in Northern Ireland. Can we not keep the door open to | :46:21. | :46:25. | |
Gatwick? Worry not make the most that? It helps all of us. -, can we | :46:26. | :46:34. | |
not? Gatwick is an important part of our national transport systdm. Today | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
it is about meeting a very real need, as identified by the `irports | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
commission report. I don't think today is the mode to start getting | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
into broader discussions about other airports. Let's get this job done. | :46:47. | :46:54. | |
It has taken too long. I welcome the Secretary of State's announcement | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
today. Now this decision has been made, can my constituents now be | :46:59. | :47:01. | |
assured that the blight to their homes has been suffered for over a | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
decade for the threat of a peninsular airport that these | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
proposals are now finally ddad? Mr Speaker, what I would say to my | :47:13. | :47:15. | |
honourable friend is that the airports commission has looked at | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
the issue of an S3 airport `nd came to begin to loosen it was not a | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
viable option. I share that view. The Government has no intention of | :47:26. | :47:33. | |
reopening that discussion. Lr Speaker, transport for London has | :47:34. | :47:37. | |
estimated the cost of assochated transport infrastructure will be | :47:38. | :47:41. | |
around ?20 million. Any givdn the cast-iron guarantee today that any | :47:42. | :47:44. | |
public many years to pay for that work will result in full bonnet | :47:45. | :47:49. | |
consequential is? Is he sayhng that those routes identified by TEFL will | :47:50. | :47:57. | |
be paid for fully by privatd sources? It is important to look at | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
committed outputs. What Heathrow Airport has committed to is an | :48:02. | :48:05. | |
expansion without an increase in the number of motor vehicles ushng the | :48:06. | :48:09. | |
airport and an increase in the vehicle accessing the airport by | :48:10. | :48:13. | |
public transport to a level of 5%. That is the objective they have to | :48:14. | :48:18. | |
meet. They have a financial obligation to get to that point | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
Crossrail is nearly completdd. Western Southern roots are `lready | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
in Network Rail's plans to contribute to that. Clearly, there | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
is an obligation on the airport to meet those objectives. My honourable | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
friend has not said a great deal about the already horrendous | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
congestion on the M25 both north and south of Heathrow cost of does his | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
department monitor the extent of the existing traffic jams which are | :48:45. | :48:47. | |
already really bad question will anything be done as part of Heathrow | :48:48. | :48:51. | |
expansion to try to improve capacity on the M25 to people can get to and | :48:52. | :48:57. | |
pass the airport? As I said earlier, the situation around partictlarly | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
the south-west of the M25 is a matter for concern. We will have | :49:03. | :49:08. | |
plans in place to start to dress some of those problems. In ly | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
experience, some of the worst jams occur where four lanes go into | :49:14. | :49:18. | |
three. I have asked highways England to look at how we address that | :49:19. | :49:24. | |
issue. I welcome the Secret`ry of State's met in to developing new | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
connections to the regional airports. Is he aware that ht takes | :49:30. | :49:34. | |
two and a half hours from Wdst Cumbria to get to our nearest | :49:35. | :49:37. | |
regional airport? Will the Secretary of State look at how Carlisle | :49:38. | :49:42. | |
airport can benefit from an expanded Heathrow? Mr Speaker, clearly, if | :49:43. | :49:48. | |
there are more slots available to Heathrow, there is a marked supply | :49:49. | :49:55. | |
to Cumbria, there will be an opportunity for a operators to do | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
that. I am keen that we look at capacity for regional airports. | :50:01. | :50:03. | |
Where, how and which airports will be a matter for the future. Can I | :50:04. | :50:09. | |
congratulate my right honourable friend? No doubt this is in the | :50:10. | :50:13. | |
interests of the nation and all of our vigilance in the south-west | :50:14. | :50:17. | |
where my seat is. Could he kindly confirm how many direct rail links | :50:18. | :50:20. | |
from the south-west there would be to Heathrow as this will be | :50:21. | :50:24. | |
absolutely key for my consthtuency and anyone else from the sotth-west? | :50:25. | :50:30. | |
Mr Speaker, there are two options. The plans will be to have a southern | :50:31. | :50:36. | |
rail link joining up with the South West trains network and the Western | :50:37. | :50:40. | |
link joining up with the grdat Western network. There will be a | :50:41. | :50:43. | |
choice. The train path would be a matter for the operators at the time | :50:44. | :50:46. | |
for will have a choice of which route to follow. Thank you. This is | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
indeed the right decision for the UK and for Scotland. Can I get the | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
Secretary of State to absolttely confirm any additional slot capacity | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
for domestic airlines will dither be guaranteed in the planning process | :51:02. | :51:05. | |
or indeed guaranteed in leghslation? Furthermore, will the Secretary of | :51:06. | :51:08. | |
State do an ongoing assessmdnt of the impact on regional airports like | :51:09. | :51:12. | |
Edinburgh, in terms of their ability to attract direct route, as a result | :51:13. | :51:19. | |
of Heathrow coming on streal in a few years' time? We will look at the | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
right mechanism. It may not be as simple as getting a number of slots. | :51:24. | :51:28. | |
I want the right connectivity. I do not want regional airports to have a | :51:29. | :51:32. | |
tail end slot of 11pm at night. It or not allow regional airports and | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
international destinations. We'll have to think about what thd best | :51:38. | :51:41. | |
mechanism is I guarantee be protections for the regional | :51:42. | :51:45. | |
airports and the they need. Whilst I warmly welcome a statement from my | :51:46. | :51:51. | |
right honourable friend. It will be several years before the new runway | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
comes into use. Can my right honourable friend urged his | :51:57. | :51:59. | |
colleagues in the Treasury to allow zero or reduced passenger dtty rates | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
on new routes from regional airports like Manchester, which readx has the | :52:04. | :52:10. | |
existing capacity to expand? -- which already. All I can re`lly say | :52:11. | :52:14. | |
on that as I have no doubt ly right honourable friend, the Chancellor of | :52:15. | :52:20. | |
the Exchequer, will have he`rd about that, and the subsequent budget I | :52:21. | :52:24. | |
welcome the fact that Heathrow proposals include potential | :52:25. | :52:32. | |
logistics. Can I also ask, hn terms of strategic thinking, could there | :52:33. | :52:39. | |
be a spaceport decision as well That will allow long-term sdcurity | :52:40. | :52:46. | |
for Prestwick. That decision is one that is on the way. I am delighted | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
he thinks the United Kingdol's choice of a spaceport would be in | :52:51. | :52:58. | |
Prestwick. That would cement the bond between Scotland and the United | :52:59. | :53:01. | |
Kingdom as we are all part of one United Kingdom. We need mord airport | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
capacity. Of the choices av`ilable to the Government, it is my view | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
that Heathrow is the worst option, particularly for my constittents in | :53:12. | :53:13. | |
Kingston and Surbiton. Would my right honourable friend confirm the | :53:14. | :53:19. | |
final decision would be madd here in this House and this House whll be | :53:20. | :53:25. | |
free to reject Heathrow? First of all, can I say to my honour`ble | :53:26. | :53:32. | |
friend and two others, I do know this is a very difficult decision | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
for a number of colleagues. I respect and have every symp`thy for | :53:38. | :53:40. | |
the pressure we are putting them under by doing this. I know he is | :53:41. | :53:44. | |
one of them put on here is ly next-door neighbour. I have worked | :53:45. | :53:47. | |
hard for him in the past. I was delighted when he won. At the same | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
time he will understand that the Government has to do what is in the | :53:52. | :53:57. | |
of the whole of the United Kingdom. Sometimes that is difficult for | :53:58. | :54:00. | |
colleagues you take those ddcisions. I can say to him this matter will | :54:01. | :54:04. | |
have to be approved by the House. The house will have a final say If | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
it does not secure approval, it cannot happen. The statement by the | :54:11. | :54:17. | |
minister, the Democratic Unhonist Party where the first polithcal | :54:18. | :54:24. | |
party to back Heathrow. It will support growth in Northern Hreland | :54:25. | :54:30. | |
and strengthen the union. Mhnister, can you commit yourself to continue | :54:31. | :54:33. | |
the vital link in the supplx chain between Northern Ireland businesses | :54:34. | :54:42. | |
and their path to every corner of the globe? This is an important part | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
of what this announcement is about was that it is not always at the top | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
of the agenda for the it is the UK's 's freight hub and an important | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
point of conductivity the btsinesses around the United Kingdom in | :54:55. | :54:57. | |
shipping products around thd world. I absolutely say to him, thhs is an | :54:58. | :55:04. | |
important part of the way forward. Yet another major transport | :55:05. | :55:07. | |
infrastructure investment in the south of England for the Will the | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
Secretary of State plea show similar decisiveness in support for long | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
haul routes at Manchester Ahrport, a road link for Leeds Bradford | :55:16. | :55:18. | |
Airport, electrification of the trans-Pennine routes, and m`ybe a | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
new junction 204A on the M6 to two near Huddersfield? | :55:25. | :55:29. | |
Are honourable friends who represent the North of the country now that I | :55:30. | :55:38. | |
am very much of the view th`t we need to do more for a these regions. | :55:39. | :55:45. | |
One of the most pleasurable things in arriving in this job havhng | :55:46. | :55:49. | |
shadowed it ten years ago, going round the country looking at schemes | :55:50. | :55:52. | |
which should happen but werd simply sitting on the drawing board, year | :55:53. | :56:00. | |
after year. Now I find therd is more on the way and I look forward to | :56:01. | :56:05. | |
delivering more improvements to help more constituents of more honourable | :56:06. | :56:11. | |
colleagues in this house. In reaching this decision, what weight | :56:12. | :56:17. | |
did ministers gave to the bdnefit for UK supply chains? Peopld in | :56:18. | :56:21. | |
Corby will be very pleased with Heathrow's commitment to usd British | :56:22. | :56:25. | |
Steel because that will be good for steel jobs in my town. I was very | :56:26. | :56:33. | |
pleased with that undertaking. I think inevitably Heathrow whll want | :56:34. | :56:41. | |
to use supply chains throughout the eye could kingdom and I hopd Corby | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
will be one of the benefici`ries. My honourable friend the member for | :56:47. | :56:49. | |
Richmond has warned us that notwithstanding a decision taken by | :56:50. | :56:53. | |
this house it will be prevented from being implemented by proceedings in | :56:54. | :56:57. | |
courts elsewhere. As my right honourable friend considered any | :56:58. | :57:03. | |
legislative remedy to prevent that notwithstanding the fact he's | :57:04. | :57:06. | |
already told us this is a ddmocracy after all? I suspect from what I've | :57:07. | :57:15. | |
read in the newspapers therd may be some legal attempts to challenge | :57:16. | :57:26. | |
this decision. Court cases tsually rely on this position. We understand | :57:27. | :57:38. | |
the hurdles we have to overcome this is a right channel -- rational | :57:39. | :57:47. | |
decision. My view is the eldcted government is there to take out | :57:48. | :57:54. | |
careful decisions. I hope the courts will not seek to challenge that I | :57:55. | :57:58. | |
welcome the statement by thd Minister which shows respect for the | :57:59. | :58:03. | |
workings of the Davies Commhssion, which had previously rejectdd the | :58:04. | :58:11. | |
pie in the sky idea because of structural concerns. I thank the | :58:12. | :58:15. | |
Minister for making the right decision on the evidence and in the | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
national interest. I'm gratdful to my honourable friend for his | :58:21. | :58:26. | |
comments. The commission did a first-rate job in looking at all the | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
options. In the end it came down very clearly. You will see Sir | :58:31. | :58:39. | |
Howard Davies emphasising this. When you set up the independent | :58:40. | :58:45. | |
commission government should listen to that immensely carefully about | :58:46. | :58:51. | |
what we've done. May I welcome the announcement, but could he `s sure | :58:52. | :59:00. | |
people -- as sure people th`t the decision on Gatwick is not going to | :59:01. | :59:05. | |
continue to like their lives? If you talk about the relief he is offering | :59:06. | :59:09. | |
to the people of Heathrow, could he not extend that ban on night flight | :59:10. | :59:14. | |
to Gatwick where we suffer `ll the time? I'm very aware of the issues | :59:15. | :59:23. | |
around Gatwick, the issue of noise. I will talk about how to find the | :59:24. | :59:34. | |
balance for residents in thd area. Today's announcement is verx much | :59:35. | :59:43. | |
about this decision. The airport commission's view is we need one | :59:44. | :59:48. | |
runway in the South East by 203 and that is what the government has | :59:49. | :59:54. | |
sought to do. May I congrattlate the Secretary of State for finally | :59:55. | :59:56. | |
making a decision on this which will be great news for Tory businesses. | :59:57. | :00:06. | |
-- Torbay. This makes more pressing another question, the A303 routes | :00:07. | :00:15. | |
and the decision on Stonehenge. The planning work is well under way | :00:16. | :00:24. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. For ` hot airport -- central airport to | :00:25. | :00:32. | |
benefit the whole country, regional airports need focus. How many more | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
slots will be available to regional airports? Can I push the pohnt that | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
landing charges must not work against internal flights? I'm very | :00:42. | :00:49. | |
keen to insure we do not sed a big uplift in landing charges in this | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
project. We've brought it through in a level that is affordable. It's got | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
to be delivered in a way th`t delivers best value for everyone | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
involved. In terms of collectivity, I'm not in a position to st`rt | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
sending out details of numbdrs or slots or exact mechanisms. This will | :01:08. | :01:18. | |
be binding part of what we conclude. I welcome the commitment made for | :01:19. | :01:25. | |
regional collectivity. Not least because Heathrow flights have been | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
increasingly popular. Would he agreed to meet with me so that we | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
can explore how we can further the campaign to have a rail link? Albee | :01:35. | :01:45. | |
happy -- I will be happy to have that conversation with him. It is a | :01:46. | :01:54. | |
great pleasure to move on to the ten minute rule motion. The honourable | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
member must find it encouraging to have paternal support so ne`rby | :01:59. | :02:08. | |
Victoria Prentice. I do find it encouraging to have paternal, | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
maternal and indeed filial support. I beg to move that leave big event | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
for me to bring in a bill to make provision for mandatory consultation | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
in relation to changes in sdrvices proposed by NHS trusts and health | :02:24. | :02:29. | |
care commissioning authorithes and connected purposes. This bill is the | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
result of our experience in Oxford this summer. During this, the | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
foundation trust suspended consultant led maternity services at | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
our local General Hospital with no warning and no consultation. The | :02:47. | :02:52. | |
gift was a -- the hospital was a gifted to the people of Banbury in | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
1872. It serves a constituency of 180 people. The patients ard spread | :02:59. | :03:08. | |
across six parliamentary constituencies covering a l`rge | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
rural hinterland in some of the most private areas of Oxfordshird. For | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
generations of my family have been treated here. -- four. I'm proud of | :03:20. | :03:26. | |
my local hospital and feel passionate about keeping actte | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
services there. Our unit was small by those standards. It was | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
well-regarded medically and by the families that chose it. Despite the | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
fine reputation it has been under threat for as long as I can | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
remember. The first speech H made at primary school was about saving | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
maternity at this hospital. The last major threat we faced was in 20 8 | :03:51. | :03:58. | |
when my predecessor, the former Prime Minister and a passionate | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
group fought to save the hospital. At that time the matter was given to | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
an independent panel who looked at the evidence in considerabld detail | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
and concluded that there ard major concerns over whether such ` large | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
unit is that proposed at thd John Radcliffe would be safe or | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
sustainable. There are suffhcient concerns about ambulance provision | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
and the transfer of very sick babies from Banbury to Oxford call into | :04:29. | :04:31. | |
question the safety of what is being proposed. After this we thotght the | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
fight was over for some considerable time. How wrong we were. On the 20th | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
of July I was invited to wh`t seemed to be a routine meeting with the | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
trust. I ask a member of st`ff to go. No other members of Parliament | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
were asked to go. I was horrified to hear the report. The trust had | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
failed to recruit sufficient obstetricians and it would be | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
downgraded as an emergency. There would be no consultation on the 31st | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
of August. The trust board `pproved this. Obstetricians left and we | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
became a midwife unit. Colldagues know that I am with good re`son | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
passionate about maternal and perinatal safety. Nevertheldss I | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
accept most deliveries, these are the safe places to be. That is the | :05:25. | :05:35. | |
nub of our problem. If a wolan changes her mind about having an | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
epidural our labouring mothdrs will be transferred by ambulance to | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
Oxford. It is 23 miles. The average time taken in a blue light `mbulance | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
will be between 30 and 45 mhnutes. The traffic is dreadful. Thd traffic | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
is unpredictable. Many of mx constituents go to enormous lengths | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
to avoid driving into Oxford. Guidelines make clear that when an | :06:01. | :06:07. | |
emergency Caesarean needs to take place it must be done within 30 | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
minutes. Once you factor in transport time this would bd quite | :06:12. | :06:22. | |
impossible. The problem is, some will not make it in time. Clearly | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
most will not deliver in Banbury. In the last three weeks there have been | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
12 births and order narrowlx there would be 90. -- order narrowly - | :06:31. | :06:43. | |
normally. Many of them live up to one hour away. I worry about these | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
women and the babies that whll be borne by the side of the ro`d. I | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
cannot imagine the situation of women who do not own a car. The | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
journey by public transport is virtually impossible. I've | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
repeatedly asked for risk assessments and receive nothing | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
There is an alarming number of high risk factors including transfer | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
time, ambulance provision and the ability of them to cope with | :07:15. | :07:27. | |
additional berths. The unit should have been staffed by locals and | :07:28. | :07:40. | |
professionals there was an emergency, I was told, whether | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
clinical research Bagram had been deemed... Enquiries are madd about | :07:45. | :07:52. | |
timely efforts to recruit. @s a new MP, on meeting the Chief Exdcutive I | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
would have expected this problem to be flagged and welcomed the chance | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
to try to solve the problem as my constituents are now doing, offering | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
discounted housing, school fees and even free beer to those who apply to | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
be obstetricians. My constituents are fearful and angry. We'vd had a | :08:12. | :08:20. | |
summer of protest. Many are against the suspension and have complained | :08:21. | :08:28. | |
furiously that the consultation was taken over the school holid`ys. I | :08:29. | :08:31. | |
have sympathy for those who believe this is a wider conspiracy to | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
downgrade our local hospital. For many years a vociferous contingent | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
of the trust have wanted to centralise services in Oxford and | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
use our site for outpatient services. One of the options | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
proposed in the forthcoming sustainability plan is for dxactly | :08:48. | :08:54. | |
that. Maternity services wotld become midwife led. We fear the | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
situation this summer has bden engineered in order to make this a | :09:00. | :09:10. | |
figure, Lee. -- to make this a fait accompli. I like to believe the best | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
of our public servers but I feel let down by the way we've been treated, | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
by the lack of good managemdnt, transparency or evidence -b`sed | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
decision-making. I'm concerned without changes to the law other | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
areas could suffer like we have The trust holds all the cards. Only it | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
has the ability to manipulate the number of births. We have no control | :09:33. | :09:40. | |
over recruitment. Only they have the ability to make the post is | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
attractive. The clinical commissioning group has been notable | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
for their silence. This bill would increase the credibility of local | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
authorities. -- increase accountability. Medical consortiums | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
are not a replacement for ptblic consultation. The doctor max know | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
best but only when he has lhstened to the patient. Local | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
decision-making can work but only with democratic accountabilhty. We | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
in the surrounding area rem`in hopeful that our unit will reopen | :10:20. | :10:26. | |
next March when sufficient obstetricians have been recruited. | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
In the meantime we further the safety -- fear for the safety of | :10:31. | :10:37. | |
mothers and babies. The question is that the honourable member have | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
leave to bring in the Bill. As many as would say I, I think the eyes | :10:43. | :10:51. | |
have it who will appear in bringing the bill? David McIntosh, Alex Chok, | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
Nigel Huddleston, will commdnce Adie Allen, Maria Caulfield, Harriet | :10:58. | :11:06. | |
Harman, Robert Coutts, Mr D`vid Hanson and myself. | :11:07. | :11:20. | |
National Health Service provision local consultation bill. Second | :11:21. | :11:47. | |
reading what day? Friday thd 27th of January. Here, here. The cldrk will | :11:48. | :11:56. | |
now proceed to read the orddrs of the day. Criminal finances Bill | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
second reading. Good afternoon. I beg to move that | :12:00. | :12:12. | |
this bill now be read a second time for the first may I through you | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker, apologise under half of my right honotrable | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
friend, the Home Secretary. She is detained on departmental business | :12:23. | :12:24. | |
pertaining to national security and has asked me to open the second | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
reading debate. Madam Deputx Speaker, both terrorism and serious | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
and organised crime pose a real threat to the United Kingdol. Those | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
involved in terrorist activhties in danger domestic security and | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
overseas interests. If terrorism is the greatest threat we face, serious | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
criminality argue because of the greatest harm, costing the Tnited | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
Kingdom at least ?24 billion annually, causing loss of lhfe and | :12:53. | :12:54. | |
depriving people of prosperhty and security. Honourable members must | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
not doubt the scale of the problem. It damages the economy and community | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
's it impacts on real peopld, whether your grandparent behng | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
scammed out of life savings, the trader weapons which enabled the | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
type of marauding firearms `ttacks we have seen in Paris, smuggling | :13:10. | :13:17. | |
drugs or organising of trafficking of young women. These impact on the | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
most vulnerable in society for that they ruin the lives of real people. | :13:22. | :13:25. | |
This is part of a truly global issue. As David Cameron has said, | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
international corruption is one of the greatest enemies of progress in | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
our time but it is the cancdr at the heart of so many of the world's | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
Financial profit is at the heart of all forms of serious and organised | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
crime. The UK drug trade is estimated to generate ?4 billion in | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
revenue. It is estimated ?10 billion is lost in tax evasion and criminal | :13:51. | :13:58. | |
attacks against the tax system. The quote you made from the forler Prime | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
Minister, the thrust of the bill. One of the great concerns for | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
Christian Aid if the bill does not extend or legislate for Crown | :14:07. | :14:09. | |
dependencies of overseas territories. Can I ask the linister | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
to respond to that in consideration of a second reading? This bhll does | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
extend, some of the offences in here, and some other powers, to | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
cover extra territorial extdnt which will go a considerable way to get | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
into the bottom of money-latndering. Whether that is carried out here | :14:28. | :14:34. | |
elsewhere around the world ht goes some way to make sure is soleone | :14:35. | :14:37. | |
invades tax overseas, and overseas tax, just because it is not invading | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
our tax or robbing another country we would like to take action against | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
those individuals. It goes some way to getting there. I will progress on | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
a no doubt throughout the ddbate members will be able to makd their | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
points. Many criminals live in plain sight, untouched by law enforcement | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
agencies. They reap the bendfits by money-laundering, moving, hhding and | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
using the proceeds of their crimes to fund their lifestyles and enable | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
further criminality. It is essentially that the annual amount | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
of money-laundering globallx manse to $1.6 trillion. The National crime | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
agency assesses many billions of pounds are laundered into or through | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
the United Kingdom as a restlt of international corruption. Wd should | :15:19. | :15:27. | |
be proud of the UK's status as a global centre. This is one of the | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
best places in the world to do business. We must recognise the size | :15:32. | :15:38. | |
of our sector and open economy attracts the London propertx market | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
and makes his country exposdd to the risk of international | :15:43. | :15:44. | |
money-laundering. That is why the Government is taking action. To | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
combat money-laundering and combat terrorist corruption. We ard sending | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
a message will not stand for money-laundering or the funding of | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
terrorism through the UK. I am extremely grateful to the Mhnister | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
for giving way. I agree with his remarks. I would like to pursue | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
further the issue that has been raised by the right honourable | :16:06. | :16:12. | |
member. Does the minister agree with me that transparency is absolutely | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
key to trying to tackle somd of the corruption and money-laundering that | :16:17. | :16:19. | |
takes place question if he does agree, why is he not using this bill | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
to ensure the overseas charhties and Crown dependencies would cole under | :16:26. | :16:29. | |
our jurisdiction to publish publicly available registers of beneficial | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
ownership? I am grateful for that point. I do agree that transparency | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
is one of the steps along that path to make sure we tackle corrtption | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
and money-laundering. That hs why the Prime Minister said -- | :16:44. | :16:52. | |
reaffirmed that commitment. Hopefully to make sure that by the | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
end of this year and into ndxt there will be that transparency. There'll | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
be amount of public legislature for benefit and also automatic | :17:04. | :17:07. | |
information exchange between our tax authorities and those dependencies | :17:08. | :17:10. | |
so people hiding tax from us, we will be able to have access from | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
that, to that information. Our law enforcement agencies will sdt about | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
tackling it for that this bhll is part of that process. The kdy | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
element of this approach is going to be making sure we work with the | :17:24. | :17:26. | |
private sector to make the TK are more hostile place for thosd who use | :17:27. | :17:35. | |
or hide the proceeds of crile. Prosecuting corporations for failing | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
to execute economic crimes was expected to be a big part of this. | :17:41. | :17:43. | |
It seems, despite government indications it would providd | :17:44. | :17:53. | |
provisions to such effect, ht is not part of the bill. Could the minister | :17:54. | :17:56. | |
claiming he has chosen not to include such cautions? Yes. I will | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
come to that part of the bill later. It is our intention to prosdcute | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
those corporate bodies allowing their companies to facilitate tax | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
evasion. That is currently, under the current system and individual | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
can be prosecuted for evading tax but also, if someone within a | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
company that it -- facilitates that evasion they can be prosecuted. It | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
is very hard to prosecute the corporate body and we are intending | :18:25. | :18:27. | |
to do that in our bill. If xou read the building will see how wd can do | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
that. Not only to a corporate body here in the UK but if the company as | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
an overseas company we will go after them in the same extraterritorial | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
way we do. Can I congratulate the minister on his appointment as a | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
minister in the Home Office? In evidence to Parliament earlher this | :18:47. | :18:49. | |
year, the private sector made it very clear that they are trxing to | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
cooperate with the Government. There were 381,000 suspicious acthvity | :18:56. | :19:01. | |
reports made under the Elmer system. However, only 20,000 could be looked | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
into. What support is he giving to the National crime agency to allow | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
them to have a better systel in order to deal with these reports? I | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
grateful to the honourable gentleman and for his kind comments about my | :19:15. | :19:23. | |
deployment. Some of the regtlators or bodies we deal with say we would | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
like to pass more to you but we feel we are not protected from sharing | :19:29. | :19:31. | |
wider information. First of all we are going to remove those b`rriers | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
so that the National crime `gency will be able to see the full chain | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
of a financial instruction for example. Also, we are going to | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
empower them with a stronger disclosure order so they can force | :19:46. | :19:48. | |
people. They can apply for `n order to force people to release | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
documentation or comply with questions about a particular | :19:54. | :19:56. | |
transaction that currently only exists in the Proceeds of Crime Act | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
where it covers fraud. We c`n now do this for money-laundering. Thirdly, | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
what we are going to do with this is to make sure that the time limit for | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
a suspicious activity report, we can extend it. At the moment thdre is a | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
one-off extension up to 31 days Actually we would like to do that | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
longer, up to I think six months, so the National crime agency h`ve much | :20:20. | :20:22. | |
longer to investigate it. Vdry full answer. The real problem is that the | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
system is old. The system ndeds to be replaced and renewed. Is he | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
giving the National crime agency the additional resources to pay for the | :20:33. | :20:39. | |
new system, to do all the things he is suggesting? Without a new system, | :20:40. | :20:47. | |
20,000 does not going to 380,00 ? He is right. 381,000 referrals is a | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
hefty amount to get through. You need to make sure there is time to | :20:52. | :20:54. | |
get through them full stop we do not want to see is the private sector, | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
by default, making a suspichous activity report. If we can remove | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
those excuses about why thex can't get to the bottom of the tr`nsaction | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
before they pass it on, we `lso think that will make sure they pass | :21:08. | :21:10. | |
on proper suspicious activities rather than once they can actually | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
satisfy themselves that there is not such a problem. That goes some way, | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
cuts out some of the referr`ls. I am grateful to the Minister for giving | :21:21. | :21:23. | |
way. He has been very generous. Does that illustration he has just given | :21:24. | :21:30. | |
not actually illustrate what prosecutors are up against here and | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
the complexity of these casds? That is why compulsion for transparency | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
is needed and puts prosecutors on the front foot. He will look at this | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
matter again that has already been raised as the bill progressds. I can | :21:48. | :21:50. | |
assure the right honourable gentleman that throughout the | :21:51. | :21:53. | |
passage of the bill and aftdr it, it is part of a longer process. We will | :21:54. | :21:56. | |
make sure that we will conthnue to look at where we can't get hold of | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
the information we need to prosecute people that are delivered e`ch | :22:01. | :22:03. | |
trying to evade tax but also people who are trying to launder money as | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
well. I think, we are in... I think it is the right thing is th`t this | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
is part of the process. Manx of these powers, including the | :22:17. | :22:19. | |
unexplained wealth order, which gives us the benefit of the doubt | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
but that is on to us to say, we think you are linked to serhous | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
organised crime. You explain to us or your money is from. At the very | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
least that will get over sole of those hurdles about not being | :22:31. | :22:33. | |
awarded at the bottom of thd information in that process. That is | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
one of the steps that I hopd the right honourable member will support | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
of the bill goes through. I thank my honourable friend for giving way and | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
welcome him to his place as security minister, which is much desdrved. | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
Can I just ask about is easher and forfeiture powers. Previous | :22:52. | :22:54. | |
legislation in this area has not been entirely successful in ensuring | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
the assets of criminals are seized. Can he explain to the Has whder | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
provisions in this bill will make a difference so we make sure we can | :23:04. | :23:06. | |
grab the money of the criminal so they cannot carry on with their | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
ignoble enterprises? Thank xou. Lee on gentleman is right. In the past | :23:12. | :23:18. | |
it has been a challenge. -- the honourable gentleman. They have put | :23:19. | :23:25. | |
the proceeds into things like fast cars, paintings, or betting slips. | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
The Government is keen we look at that. First of all, I'd think we can | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
broaden it out and make surd that when they are crafty, we ard crafty | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
as well and hopefully take that This government has done more to | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
tackle money-laundering and terrorist financing. More assets | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
have been recovered from crhminals. The money recovered in 2015/16 and | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
hundreds of millions frozen and put beyond the reach of criminals. The | :23:54. | :24:02. | |
setup aid task force doing short a joined up approach. In an | :24:03. | :24:05. | |
anti-corruption Summit by Bhll capacity with overseas partners It | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
is important to note that wd are already doing there. The UK returned | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
?28 million to Macau in 2014 which were the proceeds of corruption | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
which was laundered in the TK for the latter is a concrete ex`mple of | :24:21. | :24:23. | |
us giving back money to those countries that have been robbed by | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
crooks, who have used Britahn to launder it or make the monex in this | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
jurisdiction. I think I would like to see more of that for it go | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
further. There is a need for legislation. They need to btild on | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
the process of the anti-corruption Summit and to find out wherd we were | :24:41. | :24:43. | |
still vulnerable. In October 20 5 the Government published thd | :24:44. | :24:49. | |
National risk assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing | :24:50. | :24:52. | |
identifying areas where this can be strengthened. Our response, the | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
action plan for anti money laundering and counterterrorist | :24:58. | :24:59. | |
finance was published in April of this year and represents a | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
significant change. The crilinal finance bill will give effect to key | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
elements of that action plan. It will significantly enhance the | :25:12. | :25:14. | |
capability of UK law enforcdment to tackle money-laundering and recover | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
the proceeds of crime. It whll strengthen the relationship between | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
public and private sectors `nd will combat the financing of terrorism. | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
Part one of the bill contains a number of measures which amdnd the | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
proceeds. This includes the creation of unexplained wealth orders for the | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
criminals declare themselves penniless yet control millions of | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
pounds. Law enforcement agencies may suspect assets are the praises of | :25:39. | :25:41. | |
international corruption but are unable to freeze or cover them, | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
often because they cannot rdly on for cooperation with other | :25:46. | :25:47. | |
jurisdictions to obtain evidence. The court will be able to m`ke an | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
unexpected wealth order, repuiring an individual organisations affected | :25:54. | :25:55. | |
of association with serious commonality to expand the origin of | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
assets. Where they appear to be disproportionate to their known | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
income. If that person does not respond, this may enable thd | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
property to be recovered under existing civil recovery powdrs. Part | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
one chapter one also extends the use of disclosure orders allowing a law | :26:12. | :26:14. | |
enforcement officer to requhre someone with relevant inforlation to | :26:15. | :26:19. | |
answer questions as part of an investigation. These orders are | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
already in use for civil recovery and confiscation investigathons and | :26:24. | :26:25. | |
will be available for money-laundering cases. | :26:26. | :26:29. | |
Chapter two will enhance thd process by which private sector companies | :26:30. | :26:36. | |
report suspected money-laundering, the suspicious activities rdport, or | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
SARs regime. Where it is suspected they make commit a money-latndering | :26:43. | :26:53. | |
scheme, they are obliged to submit a SAR to inform the decision. The bill | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
will give law enforcement agencies more time to investigate thdse | :26:58. | :27:00. | |
suspicious transactions, whhch require consent, and the NC@ extra | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
powers to get further inforlation from companies to conduct whde and | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
analysis. The bill will also provide a gateway for the sharing of | :27:11. | :27:14. | |
information between regulatdd companies subject to appropriate | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
oversight, helping them to build a broader picture of suspected | :27:20. | :27:22. | |
money-laundering. This has been piloted through a programme known as | :27:23. | :27:25. | |
the joint money-laundering intelligence task force. In 12 | :27:26. | :27:31. | |
months from fabric 2015, thhs task force led to 11 arrests, Thd Imps | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
restraint of over half ?1 mhllion, and the identification of 1700 bank | :27:38. | :27:40. | |
accounts linked to criminal activity. We want to build on that | :27:41. | :27:46. | |
by providing legal certaintx that companies can share information for | :27:47. | :27:48. | |
the purpose of detecting serious crime. Part one chapter thrde will | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
improve the ability of law enforcement agencies to recover the | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
proceeds of crime. There ard powers to confiscate cash, but crilinals | :28:01. | :28:06. | |
hold proceeds in other forms, and we must adapt. The types of assets | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
recovered are listed on the face of the bill, so that Parliament can | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
scrutinise its potential usd. We will consult operational partners on | :28:16. | :28:18. | |
requirements, and I suspect we will bring forward a Government `mendment | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
to extend this list to incltde gambling slips and tokens. These are | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
often used by organised crilinals to launder ill gotten gains. I hope | :28:29. | :28:31. | |
that such an amendment will be supported on a cross-party basis. | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
The rest of part one extends to existing powers over other | :28:37. | :28:42. | |
organisations, including HMRC and the Financial Conduct Authority and | :28:43. | :28:49. | |
also makes a range of measures to the Proceeds of Crime Act. The | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
terror threat is real and growing. If we are to combat this threat we | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
must cut off the funding streams that enable terrorist relatdd | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
activity. The 2015 national risk assessment identified two kdy | :29:04. | :29:10. | |
weaknesses. Money, service, businesses and cash career hn the | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
private sector, and the abuse of the charitable sector. To combat these | :29:15. | :29:17. | |
issues, part two will make changes to powers to terrorist finance cases | :29:18. | :29:22. | |
by mirroring many of the provisions in the bill such as SARs and | :29:23. | :29:28. | |
compensation powers so that they are also available under the terrorism | :29:29. | :29:35. | |
act 2000. And part three will deliver on the commitment to make it | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
a crime of companies fail to put in place measures to stop economic | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
crime such as tax evasion. @t present, if an individual innovator | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
tax, the individual taxpayer will have committed a crime, and those | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
facilitating it can also be prosecuted. But it is very difficult | :29:53. | :29:55. | |
and often impossible to hold the corporate entity to account. This | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
needs to change. That is whx we are creating two new offences rdlating | :30:01. | :30:09. | |
to tax evasion, one in relation to UK taxes, the other in relation to | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
tax owed to other countries. It cannot be right that a business | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
operating in the UK can esc`pe criminal liability in blue because | :30:19. | :30:20. | |
of the tax losses suffered by another country rather than the UK. | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
The new offence in relation to foreign taxes will be particularly | :30:26. | :30:31. | |
beneficial in combating fratd in foreign countries. Banks, | :30:32. | :30:39. | |
accountants, legal practices, everyone is clear of the nedd to | :30:40. | :30:42. | |
take responsibility for enstring the highest sub or standards colpliant | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
in this area, and as I have said, tax evasion and corruption hn the | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
developing world are key contributors to global poverty, and | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
those crimes are frequent are committed by companies in other | :30:56. | :31:02. | |
jurisdictions. The UK's fin`ncial sector should lead on tacklhng | :31:03. | :31:08. | |
financial corruption. Madamd Deputy Speaker, the Government is committed | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
to reducing the burden on btsiness which can make it harder for | :31:14. | :31:16. | |
companies to focus on real risk The measures in the bill were ddveloped | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
in close partnership with l`w enforcement agencies and thd | :31:21. | :31:23. | |
regulated sector, including major financial institutions, as well as | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
key representatives. With the Minister agree with me that whilst I | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
support the bill there is no point in legislating if the agenches who | :31:33. | :31:37. | |
are tasked with enforcing this legislation don't have the resources | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
to do it? For example, sincd the creation of the OFS side, t`lking to | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
lawyers who work in white-collar crime, there has been no enforcement | :31:47. | :31:52. | |
whatsoever, so all of us who want to support this bill would likd to hear | :31:53. | :31:55. | |
that there will be resources to match the good intent. I am grateful | :31:56. | :32:02. | |
to the honourable gentleman. I have been visiting crime centres up and | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
down the country, and they `ll say that their barrier to getting | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
further with some of these problems is not the resource issue, they all | :32:14. | :32:16. | |
say to me that their barrier has been the ability to find thd cash, | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
Steve Cash and sees it, and I think those three things are incrddibly | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
important. We can put all the resources into the world in our law | :32:26. | :32:29. | |
enforcement agencies, but if they don't have the power at the end of | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
the day to take back stolen assets, it won't make a difference. The sick | :32:34. | :32:39. | |
thing that struck me doing this job is that I thought I knew a bit about | :32:40. | :32:46. | |
terrorism, but what has shocked me is the weight and strength of | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
organised crime across the Tnited Kingdom, to see the depth of it and | :32:51. | :32:54. | |
how it affects my communitids in the north-west and how close it comes to | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
all of us, it takes your brdath away, and I am determined that not | :32:59. | :33:04. | |
only the guys at the top, the Mr bigs get sent to jail for as long as | :33:05. | :33:07. | |
possible, but those people who consider themselves removed from it, | :33:08. | :33:13. | |
the facilitators, the white collar smoothies who launder the money into | :33:14. | :33:16. | |
properties, that they also face their time in court, and I'l | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
determined to do that, becatse they are the people who contribute to the | :33:23. | :33:25. | |
message that there is a perlissive society and it is OK to be | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
associated with crime, and they are the people that helped the nasty is | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
put a gloss on themselves, `nd that is what I am determined to do. I | :33:36. | :33:44. | |
will use this bill to try and build momentum in the non-regulatdd | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
sector. I will be asking thd regulators estate agents accountants | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
about what they are doing to play their part, and why is it that if we | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
can change the powers here, if their members get in trouble, what are | :33:57. | :34:00. | |
they going to do to hold thdm to account? It is important th`t the | :34:01. | :34:05. | |
legislation is only one part of this, and I hope that everyone will | :34:06. | :34:09. | |
send out the message that there is the more to do, and that those | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
people who facilitate other once also coming after. I thank ly normal | :34:15. | :34:21. | |
friend forgiving way again, he has been generous. Would he agrde it is | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
not just a question of laws that of culture of the organisations as | :34:27. | :34:34. | |
well? Previous iterations of the NCA all seem to be more culturally | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
bureaucracies, the NCA seems to be more intelligence led and to have | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
officials at the top who ard more intelligence operatives, and it | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
seems to me from everything I see that the NCA is far more vigorous at | :34:49. | :34:51. | |
chasing down the intelligence, which is where you really need to be? The | :34:52. | :35:00. | |
National Crime Agency does have the big Trinity is on this, and I see a | :35:01. | :35:03. | |
professional organisation ddtermined to tackle the threat that it faces, | :35:04. | :35:09. | |
or that we face. But also, the complement to the police forces up | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
and down the country, who h`ve put past and put away old-fashioned | :35:14. | :35:20. | |
territorial boundaries, but organised crime used to exploit and | :35:21. | :35:22. | |
have been determined to work together. Police Scotland and in our | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
area is regional organised crime, all the other regions, when you go | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
there you see police forces all sitting around the same table | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
working together for their own ends, led by intelligence, deciding on | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
what is their priority, sharing capabilities and getting on with it | :35:41. | :35:43. | |
rather than focusing on thehr smaller areas, and I think those two | :35:44. | :35:48. | |
issues together, the NCA and the regional organised crime unht have | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
given us an impetus, and thd results. To speak for themsdlves. I | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
can ensure that the provisions will be subject to safeguards and | :35:59. | :36:04. | |
oversight so that they can only be used when necessary. There hs an | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
option for a legislative proposals to institute the action plan. I am | :36:10. | :36:16. | |
grateful to all those that responded to the consultation. There were | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
inevitably some additional pieces of statutory guidance to underpin the | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
measures. We will seek whether possible to make this avail`ble to | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
Parliament to ensure the widest possible consultation on how the | :36:30. | :36:33. | |
Bill will work in practice. This Bill is only part of the wider | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
package, as I have said earlier aimed at strengthening the | :36:38. | :36:39. | |
Government was my response to money-laundering. Our wider | :36:40. | :36:45. | |
programme involves improving the wider regime for the regulated | :36:46. | :36:52. | |
sector, and reforming investment in systems and processes, and further | :36:53. | :36:55. | |
increasing our international reach, working with other governments and | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
international organisations to crack down on money-laundering, t`x | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
evasion and corruption. We lust ensure that the Bill and other | :37:06. | :37:10. | |
projects have the greatest hmpact on money-laundering and financd in this | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
country and abroad. I welcole the honourable lady, the Shadow Home | :37:15. | :37:17. | |
Secretary, to her post, and I am pleased she has been able to meet | :37:18. | :37:20. | |
with me since her appointment to discuss the Bill, and I am delighted | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
to continue to meet with her and her team through the passage of this | :37:26. | :37:28. | |
Bill to make sure that we gdt it right, and work to ensure that the | :37:29. | :37:31. | |
whole House takes this Bill through and sends a message to crooks and | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
criminals and facilitators that we will not tolerate it. I hopd that | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
she and her colleagues along with the SNP benches will agree that | :37:43. | :37:45. | |
public interest in this leghslation is passed at the earliest | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
opportunity, and what is hopefully a clear cross-party support. H also | :37:51. | :38:00. | |
congratulate the member who has a wealth of experience on the home | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
affairs committee and I look forward to discussion these issues with her | :38:04. | :38:06. | |
at select committee. The Government is committed to protecting the | :38:07. | :38:14. | |
security of our citizens, and we must ensure that we can vigorously | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
pursue those who abuse it for illicit means. That is what bills | :38:19. | :38:22. | |
bill will do, and I commend it to the House. The question is that the | :38:23. | :38:33. | |
Bill will now be read a second time. Diane Abbott. Madame Deputy Speaker, | :38:34. | :38:41. | |
if you walk around London's most expensive neighbourhoods, you will | :38:42. | :38:43. | |
see house after house that hs dark every night. Someone have no lights | :38:44. | :38:48. | |
on because the owners are ott. Many more will have no lights on because | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
they have been bought as investments, and lie empty lost of | :38:54. | :38:57. | |
the time. But some of the most expensive properties in the capital | :38:58. | :39:03. | |
are an occupied because thex have been bought solely for the purpose | :39:04. | :39:11. | |
of laundering dirty money. So in 2016, money-laundering is something | :39:12. | :39:14. | |
that is not just happening hn accountancy offices or in the back | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
rooms of banks. It is happening in the plain sight of ordinary | :39:20. | :39:28. | |
Londoners, because we see some of the most expensive domestic | :39:29. | :39:30. | |
properties in the world change hands, but remain mysteriously and | :39:31. | :39:37. | |
persistently empty. So we wdlcome this Bill, brought in with the | :39:38. | :39:40. | |
express purpose of introduchng new powers and safeguards to improve the | :39:41. | :39:51. | |
Government's capability of tackling money-laundering and terrorhst | :39:52. | :39:53. | |
financing. I want to make it clear that in principle on this shde, we | :39:54. | :39:59. | |
support the aims of the Bill. We support it occurs it is vit`l to do | :40:00. | :40:06. | |
as much as we can to bear down on illegal activity, and that hncludes | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
the enablers of illegal acthvities, the lawyers, accountants, estate | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
agents. We support it because public opinion, partly encouraged by the | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
work of the Public Accounts Committee on the distinguished past | :40:21. | :40:24. | |
and present leadership, public opinion rightly demands that | :40:25. | :40:27. | |
politicians do more to stop tax evasion, but we also support this | :40:28. | :40:31. | |
bill because some of the poorest countries in the world are the ones | :40:32. | :40:36. | |
that have their treasuries denuded by money-laundering. If herd in the | :40:37. | :40:42. | |
UK, which is often described as one of the money-laundering centres of | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
the world, we could act effdctively against money-laundering, the people | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
who would benefit would not just be our own tax authorities, but the | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
populations of those countrhes in the global South from which some of | :40:56. | :41:03. | |
this money has been looted. But we would wish to ascertain that the | :41:04. | :41:08. | |
provisions of this Bill acttally work, and impact in reality on the | :41:09. | :41:13. | |
harms the Minister has set out, and we will weigh carefully the civil | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
liberties implications of its provisions. Furthermore, we will | :41:18. | :41:22. | |
want assurances that the Government agencies tasked with implemdnting | :41:23. | :41:28. | |
the provisions of the legislation will have all the resources and | :41:29. | :41:30. | |
support they need. It is on the point of resources | :41:31. | :41:41. | |
which has been raised. Desphte the very effective way in which the | :41:42. | :41:44. | |
minister put his case he did not answer my question. That was, when | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
is the National crime agencx going to get a new computer systel? When | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
is Alma going to be renewed, to allow them to be able to look | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
through these suspicious activity reports. It is a system deshgned for | :42:00. | :42:05. | |
20,000, currently dealing whth 385,000 complaints? We need a new | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
computer system to do what the minister and my honourable friend | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
want this bill to achieve. H am grateful to my honourable friend for | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
that very important intervention. I can assure the minister, if he won't | :42:20. | :42:25. | |
give a clear applied to the member for Leicester to his question here | :42:26. | :42:31. | |
on the floor of the House, we will pursue this issue in committee. The | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
minister said earlier that loney was not the main obstacle to pursuing | :42:36. | :42:42. | |
the money-laundering is and the criminal actors but it surely cannot | :42:43. | :42:49. | |
help when agencies like the National crime agency are experiencing cuts. | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
The House of Commons home affairs select committee produced an | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
important report on the proceeds of crime in June. And I am inddbted to | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
the chair and the committee as a whole for their investigatory remark | :43:05. | :43:11. | |
-- work. Money laundering t`kes many complicated forms. These range from | :43:12. | :43:16. | |
complex financial vehicles `nd activity in tax havens around the | :43:17. | :43:19. | |
world to property investment in London and high value jewellery I | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
share the select committee's astonishment that over a million | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
that is not that of over a lillion property transactions last xear | :43:29. | :43:34. | |
only 335 words deemed to be suspicious. I also agree with the | :43:35. | :43:40. | |
select committee's conclusion that the supervision of the propdrty | :43:41. | :43:44. | |
market has been totally inadequate and has, laid out the welcole mat | :43:45. | :43:53. | |
for the money-laundering. The select committee report also made the | :43:54. | :43:58. | |
important point that it is `ll too easy for people who want to launder | :43:59. | :44:04. | |
money to buy property in London let it out in London's high-valte | :44:05. | :44:10. | |
lettings market, and then t`ke in clean money in perpetuity. Overall, | :44:11. | :44:15. | |
the National Crime Agency bdlieves up to 100 billion of crimin`l funds | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
could be part of the UK each year in the form of property, luxurx cars, | :44:20. | :44:26. | |
art and jewellery. Transpardncy International say there are hundreds | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
of properties in the UK that are stronger suspected to have been | :44:31. | :44:35. | |
acquired with the proceeds of corruption. Land Registry fhgures | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
show UK real estate worth more than 170 billion is held by more than | :44:41. | :44:48. | |
30,000 tax haven companies. I do not argue that there can never be a | :44:49. | :44:53. | |
legitimate reason for holding UK real estate in a tax haven company | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
but I do believe that all too often, what we are seeing, could wdll be | :44:59. | :45:10. | |
illicit activity. As a formdr tax officer, the reason these companies | :45:11. | :45:15. | |
and tax havens only UK propdrty is because it was possible to do a tax | :45:16. | :45:21. | |
duty avoidance scheme called Ember loping under the last Labour | :45:22. | :45:24. | |
government. Action taken by this government has put a stop to a lot | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
of that abuse. I made a point of saying there can be legitim`te | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
reasons for holding UK propdrty in tax haven companies and I should | :45:35. | :45:39. | |
remind the rebel gentleman that it is not every single detail of the | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
activity of the last Labour government that I supported. -- the | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
honourable gentleman. Most owners of these companies hide behind | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
anonymous trusts or nominee directors and shareholders. For | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
instance, in a single 50 story apartment complex in London, the | :45:59. | :46:05. | |
tower at St George wharf in Vauxhall, a stone's throw from the | :46:06. | :46:10. | |
House, a quarter of the house are held by offshore companies. This | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
bill hopes to close a loophole which meant that authorities were not able | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
to seize property from overseas criminals unless the individuals are | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
first convicted in their cotntry of origin. The orders will apply to | :46:23. | :46:27. | |
property and other assets worth more than 100,000. If the owner fails to | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
do straight that a home or piece of is acquired using legal sources of | :46:32. | :46:37. | |
income, agencies will be able to seize it. On this side of the House, | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
we would stress that for thd new law which we support in principle to be | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
effective, agencies must be given the financial and political support | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
to take powerful and wealthx individuals to court. Furthdrmore, | :46:55. | :47:00. | |
there is some concern which we will explore in committee that the | :47:01. | :47:06. | |
measures may be too widely drawn. Throughout, the safeguard for | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
seizure orders is the reasonable suspicion of a police officdr on | :47:12. | :47:15. | |
their own authority. This m`y be too low a bar as a safeguard ag`inst the | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
incompetent use or abuse of state power. I am most grateful to my | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
honourable friend and I thank her for the kind comments. Sir Bernard | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
Hogan Howe, in evidence to the committee, suggested the crhminal | :47:32. | :47:34. | |
law should be amended to ensure that those who had not paid a | :47:35. | :47:41. | |
compensation order should bd subject of a second criminal offencd. Does | :47:42. | :47:44. | |
she agree it is wrong for those who are subject to a compensation order | :47:45. | :47:49. | |
to go to prison, finished their sentence, come out and it is still | :47:50. | :47:55. | |
not being paid? We need to look at this very carefully indeed. I am | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
very grateful to my honourable friend was he is right but we knew | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
to look at this area, about people who, in effect, are able to serve | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
perhaps a relatively short prison term but flout the compensation | :48:08. | :48:15. | |
order. I quite take the point that my right honourable neighbotr makes | :48:16. | :48:20. | |
but, very often, when the criminal is sentenced, along with a | :48:21. | :48:26. | |
compensation order or a process of crime order, he is sentenced to an | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
additional term of imprisonlent in the event he does not pay b`ck the | :48:31. | :48:35. | |
money. Sometimes those extended sentences can be very long `nd | :48:36. | :48:39. | |
indeed as long, or even longer, than the original sentence. Far be it | :48:40. | :48:46. | |
from me to bandy words with the many lawyers in the chamber but H repeat, | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
we will seek to examine the question of people flouting compensation | :48:53. | :48:55. | |
orders as this bill goes through committee. But, overall, in relation | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
to bearing down on money-latndering, we welcome the relevant provisions | :49:01. | :49:03. | |
of the bill, including the unexplained wealth orders, the | :49:04. | :49:08. | |
reform to these suspicious `ctivity reports regime, information sharing, | :49:09. | :49:15. | |
and the new disclosure orders. This bill also deals with the qudstion of | :49:16. | :49:20. | |
tax evasion. In recent years there has been a great deal of public | :49:21. | :49:24. | |
interest and a raft of government measures on tax avoidance. @rguably | :49:25. | :49:31. | |
there has been less attention paid to tax evasion. There is sole | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
blurring between the two terms. Broadly, tax evasion is when an | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
individual or corporate enthty acts in breach of the law but tax | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
avoidance occurs when an individual or corporate entity complies with | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
the letter but not the spirht of the law. In recent years, Her M`jesty's | :49:51. | :49:55. | |
Revenue and Customs has produced estimates of the tax gap, that is to | :49:56. | :50:01. | |
say the difference between tax that is actually collected, and that | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
which is theoretically due. Clearly, any such estimate must be | :50:07. | :50:09. | |
speculative. I would draw the attention to the fact the most | :50:10. | :50:17. | |
recent estimate is that it ?6 billion. This is the equivalent of | :50:18. | :50:26. | |
6.5% of total tax liabilitids. Of that ?36 billion that is lost, .2 | :50:27. | :50:32. | |
billion is lost to evasion `nd only 2.2 billion is lost to avoidance. If | :50:33. | :50:38. | |
you do welcome the measures in this bill to bear down on tax ev`sion and | :50:39. | :50:44. | |
we welcome the provision whhch makes it a criminal offence for | :50:45. | :50:47. | |
corporations which failed to stop their associated persons facilitated | :50:48. | :50:54. | |
tax evasion. We particularlx welcome the fact this will have | :50:55. | :51:01. | |
extraterritorial jurisdiction. However we regret the fact that in | :51:02. | :51:07. | |
the tax evasion measures in part three of the bill, there is no | :51:08. | :51:12. | |
reference to the British Ovdrseas Territories and Crown dependencies. | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
This, I have to say, is a startling oversight. There are 14 British | :51:17. | :51:21. | |
Overseas Territories in all. The British Virgin Islands is mdntioned | :51:22. | :51:25. | |
no fewer than 113,000 times in the Panama papers. BVI, with a | :51:26. | :51:34. | |
population of just 29,000, fewer than my own constituency of Hackney, | :51:35. | :51:40. | |
is home to 452,000 internathonal businesses. Maybe the 29,000 | :51:41. | :51:48. | |
population is particularly skilled at accountancy and banking. But | :51:49. | :51:52. | |
maybe some of those business entities are shells for tax evasion. | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
There are also three Crown dependencies, Jersey, Guernsey and | :51:58. | :52:02. | |
the Isle of Man. It is freqtently argued that the British Overseas | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
Territories and the Crown dependencies are the largest tax | :52:07. | :52:11. | |
evasion network in the world. So, the failure to mention them in a | :52:12. | :52:15. | |
bill, which purports to deal with issues around tax evasion, hs a | :52:16. | :52:21. | |
major omission and we will be seeking amendments as this bill goes | :52:22. | :52:27. | |
through committee. It is frdquently asserted that it is not possible to | :52:28. | :52:31. | |
legislate for British Oversdas Territories and the Crown | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
dependencies but the Ministry of Justice seems to think diffdrently. | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
This is an issue that we will be exploring. The minister refdrred to | :52:40. | :52:47. | |
the beneficial ownership register that we are encouraging the overseas | :52:48. | :52:50. | |
territories and the Crown dependencies to introduce. He must | :52:51. | :52:54. | |
be aware that at least some of the overseas territories are bo`sting | :52:55. | :52:59. | |
they are in practice invading the Government's efforts to get them to | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
set up beneficial ownership registers and many of them `re | :53:04. | :53:07. | |
saying that these registers will not be publicly available. On this side, | :53:08. | :53:15. | |
we insist that if this government is serious about tax evasion, ht must | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
ensure that the overseas territories and Crown dependencies, not just set | :53:22. | :53:26. | |
up beneficial ownership reghsters but make them publicly available. We | :53:27. | :53:33. | |
also note there is little distinction in the bill between | :53:34. | :53:37. | |
corporate or partnership bodies who facilitate tax evasion. And those | :53:38. | :53:46. | |
who do it routinely and as ` central part of their business model. We | :53:47. | :53:49. | |
believe that we should look into a new provision at specifically | :53:50. | :53:57. | |
criminalising entities and individuals for whom tax ev`sion is | :53:58. | :54:00. | |
at the heart of their busindss model and punishing them more harshly I | :54:01. | :54:09. | |
would not want to leave my remarks on tax evasion without menthoning | :54:10. | :54:13. | |
the Labour Party's tax transparency enforcement programme. We w`nt a | :54:14. | :54:17. | |
public enquiry to examine the loss of tax revenue. We want increased | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
powers for HM RC, including a specialised tax enforcement unit. We | :54:23. | :54:26. | |
want to force foreign firms correct solicitors and beneficiaries and we | :54:27. | :54:33. | |
want the introduction of thd general avoidance policy and rules to cover | :54:34. | :54:40. | |
offshore abuses. Finally, this bill deals with the important qudstion of | :54:41. | :54:48. | |
terrorist finance. We know, those of us that have watched with horror, | :54:49. | :54:54. | |
terrorist atrocities all ovdr the world and here in London, that | :54:55. | :54:59. | |
terrorism is an existential threat to us in our society. We sh`red | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
government aims to reduce the terrorist threat, not just to us in | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
the UK, but to our allies and interests overseas was that we agree | :55:10. | :55:12. | |
that one way of doing it is depriving terrorists of the | :55:13. | :55:19. | |
financial resources required for terrorism related activity. | :55:20. | :55:22. | |
Globalisation means we must constantly update our legal | :55:23. | :55:25. | |
instruments so we note the changes the bill will make to the l`w | :55:26. | :55:32. | |
enforcement intelligence agdncies in relation to offences under the | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
Terrorism Act 2000, but we will be examining these proposals bdcause we | :55:38. | :55:42. | |
are anxious that they do not bear to harshly on genuine charities. So in | :55:43. | :55:50. | |
conclusion, on this side, wd support the principle of the bill. We will | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
scrutinise the detail with care but we insist that it is vital that | :55:56. | :55:59. | |
agencies like the National Crime Agency get the money they nded for | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
implementation, otherwise the bill will be a dead letter. For too long, | :56:04. | :56:13. | |
London has been accused of being a hub for money-laundering. Whth all | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
its terrible effects, both on the take of our treasury, but also on | :56:19. | :56:23. | |
the lives and countries of lany of the poorest people in the world We | :56:24. | :56:30. | |
hope that this bill is the beginning of a process which brings the | :56:31. | :56:36. | |
curtain down on the era when London could be described as a | :56:37. | :56:39. | |
money-laundering hub and instead ensures that London and the UK set | :56:40. | :56:47. | |
an example internationally `bout what can be done to bed down on | :56:48. | :56:50. | |
money-laundering and tax ev`sion. Me I begin by declaring an hnterest. | :56:51. | :57:07. | |
I am currently instructed bx the Serious Fraud Office in a ntmber of | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
matters which touch upon thhs Bill and some of its predecessors. | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
Secondly may I apologise to my right honourable and honourable friends | :57:18. | :57:23. | |
and also to the honourable lady that you may not be able to be hdre at | :57:24. | :57:28. | |
the wind-up, but I hope that my right honourable friend the Great | :57:29. | :57:37. | |
Yarmouth will forgive me. All being well, this debate may run short if I | :57:38. | :57:42. | |
don't talk too much! LAUGHTER | :57:43. | :57:50. | |
I broadly support the princhple behind this bill, and I asstme it is | :57:51. | :57:54. | |
entirely uncontroversial. Wd all want to see the sorts of crhminals | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
who are we hope to be touchdd by this Bill caught and prevented from | :58:01. | :58:05. | |
committing these sorts of fhnancial crimes. The days when peopld went | :58:06. | :58:09. | |
into banks with sawn off shotguns are long over. Criminals ard now | :58:10. | :58:14. | |
much more sophisticated, thdy go round the back with a set of wires | :58:15. | :58:18. | |
metaphorically and extract loney out of banks and other financial | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
institutions through the usd of computer crime rather than violence. | :58:23. | :58:30. | |
And we need to keep up with them, as my honourable friend from Preston | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
North End, we have to be cr`ftier than the craftier woods. In our | :58:34. | :58:41. | |
enthusiasm to pass this leghslation, there are one or two matters which I | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
think we need to be a littld cautious about, and I'm surd that | :58:47. | :58:49. | |
the Government will during the course of the passage of thhs Bill | :58:50. | :58:54. | |
think about how to get the detail of the Bill Wright, and many of the | :58:55. | :58:57. | |
points that I am going to m`ke, it should be said should be in the | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
support stage rather than the second reading, but I will make thdm now | :59:03. | :59:07. | |
whilst I am on my feet. In relation to unexplained wealth orders, as a | :59:08. | :59:15. | |
matter of principle they ard in line with earlier legislation and | :59:16. | :59:21. | |
Proceeds of Crime Act and shmilar provisions, in that they sedm to | :59:22. | :59:26. | |
reverse the burden of proof, making the respondent to the order explain | :59:27. | :59:30. | |
themselves rather than requhring the prosecution or the state to make a | :59:31. | :59:37. | |
case against them. I think that principle is now accepted in our | :59:38. | :59:43. | |
criminal law so long as there are sufficient protections for the | :59:44. | :59:47. | |
respondent within the legislation. We know that under the Bill, the | :59:48. | :59:53. | |
High Court may on an applic`tion made by one of the prosecuthon | :59:54. | :59:57. | |
authorities or the enforcemdnt agencies make an unexplained wealth | :59:58. | :00:01. | |
order in respect of any property if the court is satisfied that each of | :00:02. | :00:04. | |
the requirements for the making of the order is fulfilled. The order | :00:05. | :00:09. | |
will be made in the High Cotrt, and the application of course whll be | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
made to the High Court in rdlation to a respondent who has shall we say | :00:15. | :00:22. | |
a criminal connection, but `lso to politically expose persons, and I | :00:23. | :00:26. | |
think we need to be careful that politically exposed persons who will | :00:27. | :00:33. | |
as I understand it be foreigners are sufficiently protected from the | :00:34. | :00:40. | |
making of an order which cotld trash their reputation, or rather the | :00:41. | :00:42. | |
making of an application whhch could trash their rip it Asian whhch when | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
not acceded to buy the High Court judge nonetheless still leaves them | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
exposed to the allegations that will have been made against him or her, | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
and I suppose to a lesser extent the same could be said to respondent who | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
has some form of criminal protection. It seems to me that the | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
way around this is to do wh`t has been done in the Crime and Courts | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
Bill 2013 in relation to deferred prosecution agreement is, and if one | :01:13. | :01:20. | |
looks at Schedule 7 team of the 2013 Crime and Courts Bill, paragraphs | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
seven and eight, there is a way of dealing with these things so that | :01:25. | :01:34. | |
reputations cannot be damagdd until the necessary time when a p`rticular | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
state of affairs has been approved. In deferred prosecution agrdement | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
is, the parties, in this case the Serious Fraud Office, would apply to | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
the court for a declaration that entering into a deferred prosecution | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
agreement with the correspondent would be likely in the interest of | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
justice and the proposed terms are fair, reasonable and proportionate, | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
and that hearing is in priv`te. Once the court is satisfied on the | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
parties are agreed that the terms of the order are correct, you then go | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
back to the judge and he makes an order which is made public, and he | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
also makes public the judgmdnt that he made in the private hearhng some | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
days or weeks earlier. That seems to me a perfectly sensible way of | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
maintaining the interests of doing justice in public but holding in | :02:28. | :02:35. | |
private the initial hearing so that in the event of an order not being | :02:36. | :02:48. | |
made or being altered in a way which makes the respondent look a lot less | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
guilty than he might otherwhse have been, it allows that hearing to be | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
heard without damaging an innocent man's reputation. So it seels that | :02:56. | :03:03. | |
is simply a matter of mechanics and if the Government could spare the | :03:04. | :03:06. | |
time between now and when this Bill leaves the House of Commons, we | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
could achieve the end that we all want to see achieved without causing | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
collateral or unintended dalage I am also a little concerned that it | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
may be something that can bd dealt with at a later stage, that the Bill | :03:22. | :03:29. | |
particularly in clause one deals with income is though that for all | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
that needs to be considered. In 362 B, sub clause three, it says the | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
High Court must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for | :03:43. | :03:44. | |
suspecting that the known sources of the respondent's lawfully obtained | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
income would be insufficient for the purposes of enabling the respondent | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
to obtain the property, and one can see on the other side of thd page on | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
sub clause six known sources of the respondent's sources of income, | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
whether arising from assets or otherwise, are ascertainabld from | :04:05. | :04:06. | |
available information at thd time of the making of the application for | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
the order. If income simply means money received, then I can | :04:12. | :04:13. | |
understand what it means, btt if it means income as opposed to capital, | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
then I think we need to makd clear that income does not just include | :04:20. | :04:27. | |
the interest from capital or the salary or whatever it may bd, but | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
actually means all that the respondent owns, so that we can | :04:33. | :04:42. | |
capture the distinction between income and capital. A respondent | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
could be capital rich and income poor, and it seems we need to avoid | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
them getting away from the order I saying that his income doesn't | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
amount to much, whereas we `ll know all we can anticipate that his | :04:59. | :05:05. | |
capital is rather larger. I am sure there are plenty of houses which the | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
honourable lady the Shadow Home Secretary spoke about which were | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
bought the cash, essentiallx bought from great loves of capital rather | :05:14. | :05:21. | |
than from borrowings. I am concerned about the use of the word ptrports | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
to comply in the Bill. I appreciate that this is an expression to be | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
found in earlier and similar bills, but to me, purporting to do | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
something either means to do your best or to attempt to do so, or to | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
do something speciously, to appear to do it falsely, and I think we | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
need to be clear, albeit th`t I accept as I said a moment ago in | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
earlier legislation this expression is used. I think we need to be clear | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
that to pretend to do something should not be a defence or `n answer | :05:55. | :06:04. | |
to an accusation that you h`ve failed to comply with an undxplained | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
wealth order. I turn now to the question of | :06:09. | :06:21. | |
enforcement, which has been brought up on a number of occasions. Let us | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
assume that an unexplained wealth order is made, let us assumd that | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
the hearing initially perhaps single-handed by the authorhty is | :06:34. | :06:41. | |
made, and it then either coles back for a hearing between both parties, | :06:42. | :06:49. | |
or moves on in some other w`y. It is all very well making these orders if | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
there are not the necessary police officers or investigators to ensure | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
that they are enforced. I h`ve noticed that in the past with | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
confiscation orders. Very often the courts will make an order and either | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
the order is never even put into action, or very little of the amount | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
that is required of the offdnder is ever recovered, and we do nded to | :07:15. | :07:17. | |
make sure that this is not just a piece of legislation written in | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
error, but has real teeth, `nd real teeth which are able to detdr those | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
who think they can get away with this sort of misbehaviour, but also | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
enables the Treasury to recover the ill gotten gains. And I dard say the | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
same could be said in relathon to suspicious activity reports. Finally | :07:37. | :07:44. | |
on the question of unexplained wealth orders, is there to be any of | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
appeal system? It strikes md that at the minute, under 362 H, an | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
application for an unexplained wealth order may be made without | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
notice. I have dealt with the points about that. But is it a procedure | :07:59. | :08:05. | |
which is going to be success to any sort of appeal, and if not, why not? | :08:06. | :08:13. | |
Can I now finally turn to the matter of the failure to prevent | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
provisions, which my honour`ble friend the Minister mentiondd in his | :08:17. | :08:26. | |
opening speech. I heartily `pprove of this new system of dealing with | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
corporate misconduct. We saw it first in our jurisdiction under the | :08:33. | :08:40. | |
bribery act 2010, and althotgh there have been only a few cases hnvolving | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
section seven of the briberx act 2010, it does strike me as being a | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
way of dealing with the difficulty that we face under English law at | :08:51. | :08:59. | |
least of pinning upon corporations criminal liability. In the Tnited | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
States, a corporate body can be held to be criminally liable bec`use it | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
employed the criminal. It is vicariously liable for employing the | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
criminal, and his activities are pinned upon the company. In this | :09:11. | :09:17. | |
company and certainly in thhs jurisdiction, we rely upon the | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
Victorian principle of the directing mind, and that is with huge | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
international companies with hundreds of thousands of employees | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
posted right across the world, albeit that the headquarters of the | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
company may be in this jurisdiction, it is extremely difficult to | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
demonstrate that the directhng mind of the company knew what thd | :09:38. | :09:45. | |
criminal MP was up to. And so section seven of the briberx act | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
gets around that by requiring.. Of course. Thank you, Madam De`dy | :09:51. | :09:58. | |
speaker. Whilst I accept thd directing mind principle, does he | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
not agree with me that employees that engage on perhaps less than | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
ethical practices that have caused a lot of the problems we have seen in | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
the UK, unless the liabilitx goes to the top of the organisation, that | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
organisation will never devdlop the protocols to make sure that the | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
employees are loyal for thehr actions. What he says is perfectly | :10:23. | :10:30. | |
true. Does that mean I accept what he says? I'm not sure. The point I | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
am trying to get across is that companies can avoid liability absent | :10:36. | :10:42. | |
section seven of the briberx act, the individuals can be prosdcuted | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
and imprisoned, but the company gets away free, and the advantagd of | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
section seven is that it brhngs the company within the ambit of | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
responsibility. Yes, the colpliance systems within banks and financial | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
institutions nowadays are mtch more sophisticated, much more vigorously | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
engineered, so that anybody from top to bottom should know what they are | :11:09. | :11:11. | |
supposed to do and what thex are supposed not to do, and to lake sure | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
that that culture goes right the way through the company. There hs no | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
excuse, it seems to me, for failing to behave properly, since wd all | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
should know now and certainly the compliance world is very kedn to | :11:26. | :11:28. | |
make sure that employees in banks and so forth know what they are | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
supposed to do. But what I would like to do is not just limit the | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
failure to prevent provisions to section seven of the briberx act and | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
to this clause dealing with tax evasion, but to increase thd failure | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
to prevent regime to all those offences or at least those offences | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
which can sensibly be brought under it, set out in part two of Schedule | :11:53. | :11:58. | |
7 teen of the Crime and Courts Bill 2013. Where there are about 40 or 50 | :11:59. | :12:07. | |
economic or financial crimes which corporations should be requhred to | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
prevent. And that way I think we can put a blanket right across ` whole | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
range of criminal financial offences which at the minute are four example | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
not dealt with. For example, fraud, theft, false | :12:19. | :12:29. | |
accounting, suppression of documents, wrongfully obtaining | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
credit. The exportation of prohibited or restricted goods. The | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
list is therefore the Government to look up. I hope thought will begin | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
in not only just to increashng it to the evasion of taxation both here | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
and abroad but to some if not all of the offences listed in that | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
schedule. Finally, on one slall point, coming back to the rdsources | :12:55. | :13:02. | |
point, there was an article in the Times this morning on the online | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
column, the brief, where a senior lawyer at a city firm of solicitors | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
complained that tax officials are failing to use the existing tools | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
against tax avoidance schemds while seeking to expand their powdrs. This | :13:19. | :13:25. | |
lawyer said, the huge range of swingeing powers H R C has been | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
given in recent years may h`ve helped its image but to datd they | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
have been little used as an enforcement tool. Some may puestion | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
the public time and resourcds could have been better spent before | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
granting HM RC yet further powers. Parliament should consider whether | :13:41. | :13:46. | |
such powers are actually nedded and ask HMRC to explain why such powers | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
have been underutilised. I don't know whether what he says is | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
pinpoint accurate or what btt it seems to me we can do both. We can | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
better use the powers we have, provided to HMRC, and make sure they | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
use them, but also widen thd hamlet of our ability to prevent fhnancial | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
crime by introducing the fahlure to prevent the provisions in this bill | :14:13. | :14:24. | |
and I hope in the next form. Before I go through the crux of my speech, | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
I can sum up our position on this bill is simply for the B support in | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
principle the aims of the bhll. To be truthful, there is not mtch | :14:35. | :14:37. | |
within the four corners of the bill we would dispute. Our probldm is not | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
what is in the bill, our problem is what is not in the bill. I will make | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
that clear as I go through our speech. When I studied the system at | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
the university in the 1990s, the focus of financial crime and the | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
Government in this regard w`s anti-money laundering regul`tions | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
and proceeds of crime legislation geared specifically towards getting | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
at the proceeds of drug traffickers. And quite frankly bank robbdrs. For | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
the most part, this has worked. Long gone are the days when crimhnals | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
could eat it -- easily legitimise cash from ill gotten gains. The only | :15:16. | :15:22. | |
concern for robbing a bank was being caught red-handed. The percdption of | :15:23. | :15:25. | |
criminals was if they could evade capture and not flash the c`sh they | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
could eventually spend the loney for that in many cases, laws cotld be | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
incarcerated for crimes and still look forward to spending thd loot | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
when they were released. Many now needs to be accounted for. Banks | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
must consider the source of funds and be satisfied they are | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
legitimate. Police have powdrs to recruit proceeds of crime. Dven if | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
they have been spent by the criminals, pass them back to the | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
victims. In my view, you silply could not believe in the rule of law | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
unless you could have supported the evolution and the rule of l`w should | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
be at the heart of everything we do as a society. It is not fair for | :16:03. | :16:05. | |
anyone to live in a world where criminals are free to gener`te cash | :16:06. | :16:09. | |
and spend it without fear of repercussions for that therd must be | :16:10. | :16:12. | |
a level playing field for the vast majority of society who plaxed by | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
the rules. These past changds did not disincentive I've criminals | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
doesn't matter disincentive I've criminals, they drove a coach and | :16:23. | :16:29. | |
horses through their plans. I suggest they would not have | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
committed those crimes with tougher money-laundering regulations. The | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
challenges today are very, very different. We live in an er` of | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
evolving financial crime and we now face a very different threat. It is | :16:43. | :16:49. | |
the threat of grand corrupthon, particularly in relation to | :16:50. | :16:57. | |
politically exposed people. Earlier this year, the Guardian revdaled | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
through the Panama papers how powerful member of the good daffy | :17:03. | :17:05. | |
inner circle had built a multi-million pound portfolho of | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
boutique hotels in Scotland and luxury hotels in London. He was head | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
of the Libyan infrastructurd fund for a decade and has been accused by | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
government prosecutors in Tripoli for plunging many rental schools, | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
hospitals and archaeology. Scottish police have confirmed they `re | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
investigating Libya. They h`ve made a request for an asset freeze which | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
has not been implemented. These challenges mean new and tougher | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
legislation is required to give law enforcement the tools to do | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
something about it. This is a principle which we, in the SNP, | :17:41. | :17:47. | |
support. Without wishing to undermine your consideration of the | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
bill, I would request we believe this bill applies to Scotland. | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
Specific sections make good the provisions and how they would apply | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
to Scotland. As for devolved competency, I would suggest the SNP | :18:01. | :18:03. | |
Scottish Government has demonstrated its commitment to tackling criminal | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
finances and tax avoidance `nd boasts a successful track rdcord in | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
so doing. Scotland has introduced robust anti-avoidance rules. It is | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
described as one of the toughest in the world. The SNP government | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
approach demonstrates we ard deadly serious about tackling tax `voidance | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
in Scotland. For example, rdvenue Scotland established the Scottish | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
general anti-avoidance rule. That will allow revenue Scotland to take | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
counter action against artificial tax avoidance schemes to make it | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
more difficult for people to circumvent the requirement to pay | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
tax. That said, whilst we stpport the broad principle at stakd, we | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
note with interest the clear terms of the most recent Tory manhfesto. | :18:51. | :18:57. | |
We will continue to lead thd world on tax and transparency. We will | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
make it a crime if companies failed to put into place measures to stop | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
economic crime. We will crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
avoidance. The principles m`y be once we support but we have real | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
doubts the bill goes far enough to achieve these goals, which hs | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
something I and my honourable friend will make clear as we move through | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
this debate. There are many mechanisms and vehicles provided for | :19:29. | :19:35. | |
in the bill. One of the most important and perhaps the e`siest | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
for the public to understand our unexplained wealth orders. This will | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
enable the court to make an unexplained wealth order. Upon | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
application by Scottish minhsters requiring an individual or | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
organisation to explain origin of asset if there are reasonable | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
grounds for suspecting they may be involved with criminality or intend | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
to use the wealth for criminal purposes and the value of the assets | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
exceeds ?100,000. This would be available to the court wherd assets | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
appear to be disproportionate to the known legitimate income. For | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
example, as recently reportdd, where a taxi driver owns a ?1 million fish | :20:17. | :20:28. | |
tank. A failure to provide ` response to the order and explain | :20:29. | :20:30. | |
the legitimate source of funds would give rise to a presumption that the | :20:31. | :20:33. | |
property was indeed recover`ble making any subsequent civil recovery | :20:34. | :20:35. | |
action much easier. As a lawyer the notion of reversing the burden of | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
proof is not one which sits comfortably with me. But, as another | :20:39. | :20:45. | |
rabbit -- other areas, that is proportional to the issue at stake | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
here. Sounds legal principlds like the presumption of innocencd and the | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
burden of proof should not inadvertently protect criminals | :20:55. | :20:57. | |
which I suspect may have happened thus far. Unexplained wealth orders | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
will also help explain the owners of property. Figures show real estate | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
worth ?170 billion is held by more than 30,000 tax haven companies The | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
key to this provision is th`t a criminal conviction will no longer | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
be necessary before law enforcement can pierce the criminals thdre which | :21:21. | :21:23. | |
camouflage is the wealth. Gdtting away with the crime will no longer | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
protect a criminal's well. This will allow for this power to be `pplied | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
to foreign policy issues and officials, or those associated with | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
them, known as politically dxposed persons, helping to tackle the | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
issues of grand corruption hs overseas being laundered in the UK. | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
On the point of unexplained wealth, I have a couple of specific | :21:47. | :21:53. | |
questions. I understand the minister will not be in his place for the | :21:54. | :21:56. | |
summing up at the end of thd debate but the other minister is thankfully | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
here and will hear these qudstions. I was going to ask him to p`ss them | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
on but that is redundant. In relation to unexplained wealth | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
orders, there is a motion about freezing orders. If a motion is | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
made, one could presume the respondent would be keen to out of | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
the country with a stash of cash. Freezing orders are available if the | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
court is satisfied that thex are necessary. Can the Government | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
consider strengthening this position to ensure that the hotfoot | :22:24. | :22:30. | |
temptation is not available to these criminals? I can imagine thd rush to | :22:31. | :22:36. | |
flee. Perhaps an automatic freezing order on granting of the application | :22:37. | :22:39. | |
for the unexplained wealth order might be something that is | :22:40. | :22:46. | |
considered. And will be ?100,00 threshold create a new out for grand | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
corruption? Well politicallx exposed people collaborate with manx people | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
to do numerous transactions under ?100,000. This should also be | :22:56. | :22:58. | |
considered and these provishons should make sure we catch these | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
activities. Madam Deputy Spdaker, current legislation does not make it | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
easy to seize criminal assets in the former bank accounts and other value | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
assets such as precious met`ls and jewels, or indeed casino chhps and | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
high value betting slips. There is evidence these movable items are | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
being used both domesticallx and across international borders. This | :23:23. | :23:25. | |
bill will create civil powers similar to the existing cash seizure | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
and future schemes in current legislation to close this g`p. These | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
powers will be exercise book where there is reasonable suspicion the | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
property is the proceeds of crime or the fact it will be used in unlawful | :23:41. | :23:47. | |
conduct. The SNP manifesto hn 2 16 stated that we will argue for a | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
change in the law at Westminster to enable the police to seize htems of | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
monetary value from criminals, such as high value betting slips and | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
casino chips. I was pleased at the minister 's statement that these | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
will be included in an amendment forthcoming. I'm struggling to see | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
how they can be caught by the face value batches provision in the Bill. | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
I was grateful for that statement and thank the Minister for so doing. | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
The next point is about corporate failure to prevent tax evashon. This | :24:19. | :24:22. | |
is the Government's attempt to legislate on what we understand as | :24:23. | :24:29. | |
being corporate economic crhme. This will create two new offences. | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
However, again, we support these measures and as far as they go. We | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
see this as a huge missed opportunity for that nothing in this | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
bill, for example, would crhminalise the banks themselves for thdir | :24:43. | :24:53. | |
employees rigging the Libor market. They may see this as a slight copout | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
and a continuation of the status quo which has got us into so much | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
difficulty. It is hardly uncontroversial to hold companies to | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
account for the tax evasion of their employees. It is tax evasion, for | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
goodness sake. The public would expect it to be criminally sanction | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
of all. The public wants to see stronger measures to hold companies, | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
in particular banks, liable for the crimes of their resident rogue | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
bankers. It seems strange that the Government seems to have ducked this | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
issue. As someone who has worked for a very well-known retail bank, | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
something I do not advertisd as much these days as much as I used to I | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
can testify with absolute cdrtainty that until banks themselves are in | :25:41. | :25:44. | |
the frame, as was the point with my intervention, they will nevdr | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
develop risk management and other protocols necessary designed to make | :25:49. | :25:51. | |
sure their agents were that deploys, do not commit these crimes. It is | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
any when liability goes to the top that we will ever begin to solve | :25:56. | :26:03. | |
these issues. So I ask the linister the question, will the Government | :26:04. | :26:06. | |
consider reacting to what the public understands as corporate crhme and | :26:07. | :26:10. | |
make banks liable for practhces causing so much economic he`rtache | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
to so many ordinary people since 2008? Why should the innocent | :26:15. | :26:20. | |
ordinary punter pay for the mistakes of rogue bankers? If you make the | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
bosses libel, you will see this tightened up almost instantly. I | :26:25. | :26:25. | |
give way. I am grateful to the honour`ble | :26:26. | :26:38. | |
gentleman and my honourable friend. The first step, at least encourage | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
the Government to look at the scheduled to the 2013 act where the | :26:43. | :26:46. | |
economic and financial crimds are set out and see whether we can get | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
failure to prevent added into this bill, and then perhaps he and I | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
could get together and try to persuade the American vicarhously | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
the system. I have a great deal of sympathy with both of those points, | :27:02. | :27:08. | |
however particularly the first point is a half house measure and doesn't | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
go far enough. It won't pin criminal liability on the banks. The point in | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
relation to vicarious liability the United States is considered to be | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
the free-market monster of the world, and yet they feel colfortable | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
criminalising banks for the actions of rogue employees, and I stggest | :27:29. | :27:30. | |
that we do the same in the TK. Deputy Speaker, it is always a joy | :27:31. | :27:52. | |
to be between two barristers! There is always a | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
fine for avoiding tax, becatse we think that will change behaviour. It | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
is one thing to fine a comp`ny capped fee, but you have to not only | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
change the bosses' attitude but also the shareholders' attitude, and | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
massive fines make the diffdrence, and coupled with our changes in | :28:12. | :28:14. | |
power of the FCA, we hope that will change behaviour. Misty Deptty | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
Speaker, I agree with what the Minister says, but I agree that this | :28:21. | :28:28. | |
only extends to tax evasion, not beyond that, that is my point. | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
Within the four corners of this bill, there is very little to | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
disagree with. It doesn't go beyond tax evasion, and I think th`t is a | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
huge omission. There are other sections of the Bill that wd in the | :28:42. | :28:44. | |
SNP can support without much hesitation. The expansion of the | :28:45. | :28:52. | |
SARs regime, and combating terrorism. We support all of these | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
measures in principle. Notwithstanding our in principle | :28:57. | :28:59. | |
support of this bill, we don't think it goes far enough. Mr Deputy | :29:00. | :29:07. | |
Speaker, I will take you through some of the points very quickly that | :29:08. | :29:10. | |
we think are missing from the Bill, but before I do, I wish to lake a | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
small point about the time we have had to consider this bill and its | :29:16. | :29:22. | |
content, and we do not think that we have been given enough time. The | :29:23. | :29:26. | |
Bill has been constructed whth high-speed, admirable though that | :29:27. | :29:33. | |
may be, but we were shown draft clauses only in the last fortnight, | :29:34. | :29:42. | |
and even then they were att`cked -- tagged in confidence. The Scottish | :29:43. | :29:50. | |
Government has not had the chance to consider this bill, nor havd I, in | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
sufficient detail to consult properly with Scottish stakdholders | :29:56. | :29:57. | |
and to provide the Minister and Government with detailed advice The | :29:58. | :30:02. | |
Scottish Government will do so in due course. In addition, we are | :30:03. | :30:09. | |
already aware of concerns along Scottish stakeholders, parthcularly | :30:10. | :30:11. | |
the civil recovery unit, th`t their advice has not been listened to or | :30:12. | :30:18. | |
acted upon. The provisions lay not be the most effective avail`ble but | :30:19. | :30:21. | |
I would encourage the Minister to continue his dialogue with the | :30:22. | :30:26. | |
Scottish Government which hd demonstrated yesterday evenhng that | :30:27. | :30:28. | |
is ongoing, and I thank him for that. So, what is missing? Ht | :30:29. | :30:35. | |
remains the case for us that the most notable aspect of the Bill is | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
what is not in it. An tax evasion, the Tory manifesto had its headline | :30:41. | :30:44. | |
objected to deal with tax evasion, but this bill makes no menthon of | :30:45. | :30:51. | |
the UK overseas territories and UK crown dependencies. Given the | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
statement of intent in the Tory manifesto and the problems | :30:57. | :30:58. | |
highlighted by the Panama P`pers and the public reaction to the Panama | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
Papers, this omission seems very peculiar indeed. I am grateful to my | :31:05. | :31:11. | |
noble friend for giving way. The OECD estimates that tax havdns may | :31:12. | :31:17. | |
be costing developing countries are some up to three times the global | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
aid budget. Does he agree whth me and the charity Christian Ahd that | :31:24. | :31:26. | |
the most effective thing thd Government could do to counter | :31:27. | :31:34. | |
corrupt financing is to set a deadline for overseas territories to | :31:35. | :31:39. | |
adopt the same transparency is the UK, and this bill is a missdd | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
opportunity to do so. Unsurprisingly I agree wholeheartedly with my | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
honourable and learn a colldague. And I would make the point that the | :31:49. | :31:55. | |
way to do this, is there anxway we could compel the overseas | :31:56. | :31:58. | |
territories and crown dependencies to publish registers of offhcial | :31:59. | :32:02. | |
ownership, which would provhde much-needed transparency to what is | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
turning out to be a bottlendck in the fight against tax evasion? Does | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
he agree with me there is precedent for doing this, because the | :32:12. | :32:15. | |
Government has repeatedly ldgislated in respect of overseas terrhtories, | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
for example on issues relatdd to corruption, a abolishing thd death | :32:20. | :32:30. | |
penalty and so on. Yes, agahn I agree with my friend. Where there is | :32:31. | :32:34. | |
a political will, there will be away, and if this Government is | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
inclined to legislate in relation to the overseas territories and crown | :32:39. | :32:41. | |
dependencies, no doubt that could be done. The omission and the fact that | :32:42. | :32:45. | |
they haven't done indicates to me there is not the political will to | :32:46. | :32:50. | |
do so. We don't believe that this bill will tackle tax avoidance | :32:51. | :32:54. | |
appropriately, which is increased under this Conservative govdrnment. | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
The UK tax gap for last year was a staggering 36 billion, and despite | :32:59. | :33:02. | |
the rhetoric coming from thd Tory front bench is, this has increased | :33:03. | :33:08. | |
by 2 billion last year. Mord needs to be done to achieve everybody s | :33:09. | :33:14. | |
stated ends. On tax, why was the tax code not addressed? The UK has one | :33:15. | :33:20. | |
of the most complex tax codds in the world, which has led clearlx to | :33:21. | :33:23. | |
opportunities to both creatd and exploit existing loopholes. We | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
therefore call on the Treastry to convene a commission and report back | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
within two years following ` competence of consultation on the | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
simple of occasion of the t`x code. By opening the door to a silplified | :33:37. | :33:40. | |
tax system, the UK Government could increase tax yield, encourage | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
compliance and avoid exploitative loopholes such as the Mayfahr | :33:45. | :33:50. | |
loophole and employee benefht trust. Change is one thing but it could be | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
coming as if we don't alloc`te the resource necessary to ensurd the | :33:55. | :33:56. | |
Bill and subsequent measures have real effect. That is why we think | :33:57. | :34:06. | |
the UK's decision to close ` HMRC offices is live. These resotrces are | :34:07. | :34:12. | |
needed to boost compliance, not to mention the human cost that has | :34:13. | :34:15. | |
occurred and had on families, employees, communities and hndeed | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
local business. One final point I would make to the Minister, which | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
will be expanded by my Ahdel friend later, can I request that this | :34:25. | :34:30. | |
reserved issue of Scottish limited partnerships are dealt with in the | :34:31. | :34:36. | |
Bill, which they are not at present? Mr Deputy Speaker, it is thd view of | :34:37. | :34:42. | |
the Scottish Government that provisions will be needed for | :34:43. | :34:50. | |
seizure powers over wealth owners and the powers contained in the | :34:51. | :34:53. | |
Criminal Finances Bill. It will also include the specific revisions and | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
civil recovery and criminal confiscation required by thd | :34:59. | :35:00. | |
Scottish Government for inclusion in the Bill. Mr Deputy Speaker, we will | :35:01. | :35:07. | |
not trigger a division on this bill this evening, but we want to | :35:08. | :35:12. | |
reiterate very, very firmly that this bill does not go anywhdre near | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
far enough in dealing with what I think is a real and tangibld outcry | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
from the public given what has happened over the last five, six, | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
seven years, and if we are serious about maintaining and creathng | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
confidence in the banking sxstem again, which has evaporated, then we | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
need to tackle this issue hdad on and do more than we are doing in | :35:31. | :35:38. | |
this bill. Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise to support this bill, not to | :35:39. | :35:41. | |
complain about what is not hn it but to praise the Government and agree | :35:42. | :35:44. | |
with the Government on what they have put in this bold bill. I should | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
declare that I am a barristdr and have represented a number of police | :35:51. | :35:54. | |
forces across the country, but that experience has taught me two things. | :35:55. | :35:59. | |
First, a genuine admiration for the men and women of our fantastic lease | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
service for the dedication they show in the task of keeping us s`fe. | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
Thanks to their excellent work led by Chief Superintendent Glenn | :36:09. | :36:12. | |
Tunstall, Kingston is now the safest borough in London, but as I learned | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
at our recent police awards, even in London's safest borough, thdre are | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
humbling examples of everyd`y heroism and compassion by otr police | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
officers. We don't hear abott them enough, and we are truly gr`teful. | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
At the election, I pledged to do what I could to give the police the | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
tools to do their job, and that brings me to the second thing I have | :36:34. | :36:36. | |
learned from my work with the police, that there are a nulber of | :36:37. | :36:41. | |
powers in this bill that thd police have been and indeed still `re | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
hamstrung without. Where thdy are powerless to act in the facd of | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
wrongdoing. Before I get onto those powers, I want to make a broader | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
point. I am proud to serve `s a London MP, representing those who | :36:56. | :36:57. | |
live and work in the best chty in the world. London is the world's | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
financial services capital, and I know that the Government is working | :37:03. | :37:05. | |
as hard as it can to ensure that that remains the case after | :37:06. | :37:10. | |
Britain's exit from the EU, but over the last few years, there h`ve been | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
reports that London is becoling the capital of something more insidious, | :37:15. | :37:20. | |
money-laundering. After the global financial crisis, property hn London | :37:21. | :37:22. | |
has become one of the safest investment in the world, and one | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
which rich criminals and money-laundering is attractdd to in | :37:27. | :37:30. | |
just the same way as people who have made their money legitimately. And | :37:31. | :37:34. | |
put shortly, Londoners want this stain removing from their chty, and | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
this bill will help to do that tonight. And it is not just London. | :37:38. | :37:43. | |
The National Crime Agency assesses that billions of pounds of proceeds | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
of international corruption are laundered into or through the UK | :37:48. | :37:53. | |
every year. HMRC estimates that ?4.4 billion was lost to the exchequer | :37:54. | :37:57. | |
last year alone due to tax dvasion in the UK. Globally, | :37:58. | :38:02. | |
money-laundering is estimatdd to amount to 2.7% of global GDP, or 1.6 | :38:03. | :38:09. | |
trillion US dollars. To put that into perspective, Mr Deputy Speaker, | :38:10. | :38:12. | |
there are only nine countrids in the world with GDP greater than $1. | :38:13. | :38:21. | |
billion. As the leading nathon in the world for soft power, as a | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
nation that is trying to le`d the global debate on anti-corruption, we | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
need to make sure that we gdt our house in order. And tonight's bill | :38:29. | :38:34. | |
is part of the Government's wider efforts to ensure our house is in | :38:35. | :38:38. | |
order, and I want to touch on just a few aspects of the builders evening. | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
Firstly, unexplained wealth orders. We have seen many cases in the press | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
where individuals suspected of grave criminal offences lead lavish | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
lifestyles well beyond what any legitimate income that they could | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
evidence could possibly support And it is insulting to the many | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
hard-working people in the TK who play by the rules, who go to work | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
day in and day out to earn `n honest living to support themselves and | :39:08. | :39:10. | |
their families to see this happening, and it creates a feeling | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
of impunity in the upper echelons of criminality. Unexplained we`lth | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
orders will require those stspected of involvement in or associ`ted with | :39:20. | :39:23. | |
serious criminality to expl`in the origin of assets over ?100,000 that | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
appear disproportionate to their known income, and a failure to | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
provide a response or a sathsfactory response could lead to a prdsumption | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
that the property in question is recoverable in civil proceedings. | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
These unexplained wealth orders will have to be made by a High Court | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
judge an application of a rdlatively wide enforcement officer, btt even | :39:45. | :39:46. | |
with those protections as you would expect as a lawyer, I would ask the | :39:47. | :39:51. | |
Minister to give a little more assurance about the nature of the | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
protections in place, given that this does reverse the burden of | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
proof which normally rests on the crown. I am sure the Ministdr will | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
be able to provide that reassurance. And I entirely agree that while my | :40:04. | :40:08. | |
honourable friend from the Scottish National Party said, that this does | :40:09. | :40:15. | |
appear to be proportion, thd law enforcement officers find themselves | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
so. Having spent many mornings in Magistrates' Court up and down the | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
country making Poca applications, I do have a little familiaritx with | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
this area. The current powers under Poca apply to cash, so the police | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
may seize it where they havd reasonable grounds to suspect it is | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
the proceeds of crime. They can then apply to the Magistrates' Court to | :40:39. | :40:41. | |
forfeit that cash, and the classic example is a shoe box found in a | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
house with some drugs and some roles of cash. But it applies to cash | :40:45. | :40:51. | |
alone, and the more sophisthcated criminals are not those that have | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
roles of cash with the bit of cannabis or cocaine in a shoe box. | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
They are the criminals who have their money in bank accounts and in | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
high-value items of personal property that are much harddr to | :41:04. | :41:08. | |
trace and much more easy to move around both domestic league and | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
internationally, like precious metals and jewels, and indedd | :41:13. | :41:15. | |
betting slips, which was solething I was not aware of, and I'm grateful | :41:16. | :41:21. | |
to the SNP for drawing that to the Government's attention. So, the | :41:22. | :41:31. | |
seizure and forfeiture provhsions mean that the law on the police s | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
powers are keeping up with the way crimes are being committed. That is | :41:37. | :41:37. | |
a welcome move. I would like to turn to part three | :41:38. | :41:47. | |
of the Bill and the corporate offence to tackle tax evasion. | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
Another manifesto commitment the Government is delivering two nights | :41:53. | :41:55. | |
of it is already the case t`xpayer who fraudulently base this commit a | :41:56. | :42:04. | |
criminal offence. A banker or an accountant or a tax advisor who | :42:05. | :42:11. | |
knowingly assists someone commits a criminal offence. A company | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
employing that banker or accountant or tax advisor or other professional | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
who criminally facilitates tax evasion does not commit any offence | :42:20. | :42:22. | |
itself that they are outsidd the reach of the law for that this bill | :42:23. | :42:26. | |
aims to bring those companids within the reach of the law, not to | :42:27. | :42:31. | |
duplicate the liability on their employee or agent, but to | :42:32. | :42:34. | |
criminalise a failure by thd company to prevent those acting on hts | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
behalf from facilitating tax evasion. Allowing an atmosphere to | :42:41. | :42:45. | |
be created where that is possible. This may seem Draconian to some In | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
my view, it is absolutely ndcessary. Companies will have the defdnce | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
much like under health and safety regulations, that if they c`n show | :42:56. | :42:59. | |
they have a reasonable prevdntative procedure in place, they have a | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
proper defence and they havd not committed the offence. This new | :43:06. | :43:08. | |
offence will be the stick that will drive up companies own efforts to | :43:09. | :43:12. | |
ensure that the own procedures do the utmost to ensure that prepare | :43:13. | :43:18. | |
bashers event that employers facilitating tax evasion. -, | :43:19. | :43:30. | |
would he agree there's a re`l case to be made for extending bexond tax | :43:31. | :43:37. | |
evasion issues, the remix this bill? I certainly think that is something | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
that can be looked at and consulted on. This bill is achieving ` | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
manifesto commitment to doing exactly what it says on the tenth of | :43:48. | :43:50. | |
that is what the Government is trying to deliver this evenhng. I | :43:51. | :43:57. | |
will carry on if I may. Hopdfully this will have the same effdct as | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
health and safety legislation has had with companies taking the lead | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
in rooting out bad practice to avoid being liable themselves, for | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
incidents caused by their elployees. Some businesses may dismiss this as | :44:13. | :44:18. | |
red tape. If it is red tape, it is important red tape. It is vdry much | :44:19. | :44:25. | |
focused on the aim it is trxing to achieve. It is important to ensure | :44:26. | :44:31. | |
the integrity of our world leading financial services sector in London. | :44:32. | :44:35. | |
This has been welcomed by m`ny in the industry, including the chief | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
Executive of the British bankers Association, although his utterances | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
are not necessarily supportdd by me. Mr Deputy Speaker, I have touched on | :44:46. | :44:49. | |
a few provisions in this bill. There are many other provisions which are | :44:50. | :44:53. | |
tidying up provisions, that are extensions of existing laws based on | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
feedback to the garment frol the police and law enforcement `gencies | :44:58. | :45:00. | |
on the deficiencies in their current powers. That approach is to be | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
strongly welcomed. When it comes to the fast moving world of crhminality | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
that our police are trying to prevent and detect, we in this House | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
must be fleet of foot. The Government is doing so tonight. | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
Honourable members from across the house will welcome the aims behind | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
this bill unreservedly. I hope that means all the clauses as well. Thank | :45:26. | :45:32. | |
you. I am the first nonlawydr to speak from the backbenches. I think | :45:33. | :45:37. | |
I am the first member in thd House of Commons to acknowledge actually | :45:38. | :45:41. | |
the role played by our formdr Prime Minister in giving leadershhp on | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
this issue of anti-corruption and indeed the right honourable member | :45:47. | :45:50. | |
for Brentwood and Ongar, thd anti-corruption czar. I think they | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
should both be acknowledged that the work they did lead to what we are | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
considering. I am with everxbody who has spoken so far. This bill is | :46:00. | :46:05. | |
extremely important. The estimates, whether by the National Crile Agency | :46:06. | :46:12. | |
or HMR see of the billions of pounds that are laundered through the UK, | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
the billions of pounds lost to public services, because HMRC are | :46:19. | :46:25. | |
unable to collect them make this a very important measure. I slightly | :46:26. | :46:34. | |
fear the rhetoric that many have given this afternoon does not | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
reflect the reality. I hope the minister will be able to respond to | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
some of the issues I want to raise with him. Others have raised the | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
issue of the omission of tax havens. I think the failure to take action | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
on the overseas territories and Crown dependencies, which act as key | :46:52. | :46:59. | |
jurisdictions in support of a lot of tax evasion, tax avoidance, and | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
corruption, is a grave error. I hope the minister will reflect on it | :47:05. | :47:08. | |
during the proceedings of the bill that we can see whether or not we | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
can introduce some amendment. I have to say to the Government th`t their | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
failure to mention these territories makes them complicit in fachlitating | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
the very corruption they sax they wish to tackle through the clauses | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
of this bill. Thank you for giving way. I agree with the previous | :47:30. | :47:34. | |
speakers that is something was done about the overseas dependencies it | :47:35. | :47:37. | |
would give more credibility to the Government because the Government | :47:38. | :47:40. | |
has committed itself to report on tax avoidance in some of thdse tax | :47:41. | :47:48. | |
havens overseas. If they're going to negotiate with other governlents and | :47:49. | :47:52. | |
get them on board, they shotld do something about overseas | :47:53. | :47:55. | |
dependencies. I agree entirdly with the comments from my honour`ble | :47:56. | :48:04. | |
friend. Well she give way? H will indeed. Does she not agree that the | :48:05. | :48:12. | |
actual danger, while we support what is in this bill, you might drive | :48:13. | :48:16. | |
even more business towards the overseas territories and encourage | :48:17. | :48:21. | |
even more of the problems that have been identified already? Indeed I | :48:22. | :48:25. | |
would also add I think prob`bly with the Brexit provisions that light | :48:26. | :48:30. | |
also lead to increased activity through the overseas territories the | :48:31. | :48:38. | |
tax havens as well. There are a number of dangers on that. There are | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
a number of members who havd already raised evidence suggesting the | :48:44. | :48:47. | |
importance of this. I would point to two or three facts. There w`s the | :48:48. | :48:53. | |
World Bank review of 213 corruption cases which was undertaken. A review | :48:54. | :48:59. | |
of cases over a 30 year perhod from 1982 to 210. Many of those cases | :49:00. | :49:08. | |
involved shelved entities. The UK Crown dependencies and overseas | :49:09. | :49:11. | |
territories were second aftdr the US on the list of those providhng shell | :49:12. | :49:16. | |
entities. I think that is vdry clear evidence the importance of the role | :49:17. | :49:23. | |
from the Crown dependencies and overseas territories. Do we really | :49:24. | :49:27. | |
always have to wait for another leaked to understand the role that | :49:28. | :49:30. | |
is being played by these Crown dependencies? I think the ldak of | :49:31. | :49:38. | |
the Panama papers is one in a stream. If you look at the | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
information garnered from those leaks, there were over 200,000 | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
corporate entities. More th`n half were registered in BDI, in that | :49:47. | :49:57. | |
territory. Again, I would ask the minister to consider that. Something | :49:58. | :50:03. | |
else I came across, and Afrhcan progress panel, which found that | :50:04. | :50:05. | |
citizens of the Democratic Republic of the combo -- Congo word deprived | :50:06. | :50:15. | |
of resources, money that was twice their health and education budgets | :50:16. | :50:18. | |
combined. That was due to the sale of mining contracts to five | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
anonymous companies. Those `ssets were sold at about a six of their | :50:23. | :50:29. | |
commercial value and then it enabled the secret of offshore comp`nies to | :50:30. | :50:35. | |
sell them on and secure profits of over 500% of the original monies | :50:36. | :50:40. | |
that they take. Again, losing desperately needed public rdsources | :50:41. | :50:45. | |
to the poorest of the countries in the world. If we are really to | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
tackle the corruption, the dvasion and the avoidance which occtrs in | :50:52. | :50:54. | |
jurisdictions over which we have ultimate control, we have to have | :50:55. | :50:59. | |
the transparency, which a ntmber of members in this afternoon's debate | :51:00. | :51:07. | |
have asked for. I listen carefully to what might Honourable Lady Sarah. | :51:08. | :51:13. | |
I just ask will she not concede that since, and in the lead up to the | :51:14. | :51:19. | |
anti-corruption Summit in M`y, when the Crown dependencies and overseas | :51:20. | :51:21. | |
territories agreed to establish central registers and agreed to a | :51:22. | :51:30. | |
data-sharing system with thd United Kingdom enforcement agencies, almost | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
in real time it will give us access to that data, that goes a long way | :51:35. | :51:41. | |
to meet some of her concerns. I recognise that this is wantdd to be | :51:42. | :51:49. | |
public. That goes some way. On the other side, the and explaindd wealth | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
orders will allow us to grab the money, should they put the loney in | :51:54. | :51:55. | |
this country and live in thd nice houses they somehow seem to do. I | :51:56. | :52:02. | |
have to say it is my view and that of the British government, | :52:03. | :52:05. | |
publicising those registers of ownership. It is absolutely crucial. | :52:06. | :52:11. | |
We decided to do it for ourselves. Why are we using powers to dnforce | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
it on the Crown dependencies and overseas territories? The rdason we | :52:17. | :52:19. | |
have decided to do this are multiple. For many of the poorer | :52:20. | :52:25. | |
countries, actually getting that agencies up to speed so thex are | :52:26. | :52:29. | |
able to pursue and know what questions to ask is tough. Hf you | :52:30. | :52:35. | |
have public registers, that is much easier for others to interrogate it, | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
civil society to interrogatd it You are more likely to be able to see | :52:40. | :52:47. | |
that. The other thing is, again it is a very reactive response. If it | :52:48. | :52:53. | |
is only a register that can only be interrogated by the international | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
agencies, the international agencies who are allowed to have accdss, it | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
means you have to get to thd point where you know there is somdthing | :53:03. | :53:05. | |
you want and you after before you are going to be able to discover | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
whether or not there is information about beneficial ownership which is | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
relevant to a criminal activity or aggressive tax avoidance or whatever | :53:15. | :53:20. | |
it is. It presupposes a degree of resources, intensive resources, and | :53:21. | :53:23. | |
knowledge, which won't necessarily be there. We welcome the crdation of | :53:24. | :53:31. | |
these agencies but having them public is absolutely essenthal to | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
making them work. Actually, the minister should listen to the words | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
of the former Prime Minister. He was absolutely clear, year-on-ydar, when | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
he talked about these issues, that it was openness and transparency of | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
these registers that matter. He said in 2013, to the Crown dependencies | :53:52. | :53:57. | |
and overseas territories, that they would have to rip aside the cloak of | :53:58. | :54:03. | |
secrecy by creating a public register of beneficial ownership. He | :54:04. | :54:08. | |
said in April 2014, when he wrote to the overseas territories, bdneficial | :54:09. | :54:11. | |
ownership and public access to the central register is key to hmproving | :54:12. | :54:18. | |
the transparency of company ownership and vital to meethng the | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
urgent challenges of illicit finance and tax evasion. He said he hoped | :54:24. | :54:27. | |
overseas charities would follow suit to consult on a public registry and | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
look at what we were doing here in the UK. He said on a trip to the | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
Caribbean in September 20 14th, some of the British Crown dependdncies | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
and overseas territories ard making progress in this direction. Others | :54:42. | :54:44. | |
are not moving anywhere near fast enough. I say to them all today | :54:45. | :54:50. | |
including those in this reghon, the Caribbean, if we want to brdak the | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
business model of stealing loney and crowding it in places where it | :54:55. | :54:59. | |
cannot be seen, transparencx is the answer. And he said, when wd | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
established our own public register here in the UK, there are m`ny wider | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
benefits to making this information available to everyone. It is better | :55:10. | :55:13. | |
for business here and we will be able to identify who really owns the | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
companies they are trading with It is better for developing cotntries | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
who have easy access to all this data without having to submht | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
endless requests for each lhne of enquiry. It is better for us all to | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
have a system which everyond has access to because the more dyes that | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
look at this information, the more accurate it will be. I would simply | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
say to the minister, I really do agree, in this instance, with the | :55:39. | :55:46. | |
former Prime Minister, and H hope the present government will listen | :55:47. | :55:49. | |
carefully to the wise words that he had to say. I am very grateful to | :55:50. | :55:53. | |
the Honourable Lady for givhng way. She is making a very powerftl speech | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
was that does she agree with me that the Government can be comforted that | :55:59. | :56:01. | |
extending this transparency to the tax havens would be a very popular | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
myth that the public? It shows over two thirds of people think the | :56:07. | :56:09. | |
Government should do this and research published by Oxfam shows | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
there are high levels of support for extending this transparency across | :56:14. | :56:14. | |
the political spectrum. I have seen that survey, and I think | :56:15. | :56:22. | |
any action the Minister would take would be warmly welcomed by the | :56:23. | :56:27. | |
public across the whole of the United Kingdom of all ages `nd | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
genders. It is a really important bit of work which I hope thd | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
Minister will take seriouslx. And I am concerned by the actions so far. | :56:37. | :56:42. | |
I am concerned that in Decelber 2015 we had the joint ministerial | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
Council, the Government failed to persuade those territories to | :56:47. | :56:49. | |
implement public registers. I am concerned that in March 2014 the | :56:50. | :56:54. | |
Cayman Isles and the British virgin Isles refused to meet Ministers from | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
the Foreign Office and the Treasury. I am concerned that they fahled to | :57:00. | :57:02. | |
meet the financial Secretarx's request that they would adopt | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
registers by 2015. I am concerned that they have ignored lettdrs from | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
UK Government Ministers, and I am deeply concerned, and I hopd | :57:12. | :57:16. | |
Ministers can answer this point that tax isn't even on the `genda | :57:17. | :57:25. | |
for the forthcoming meeting. We do have the powers, we have usdd them | :57:26. | :57:30. | |
before as the honourable lady told us earlier. The Government lust act, | :57:31. | :57:36. | |
and I would say even this. Hf the Minister could today tell us that | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
these things have a timelind at the end of which, if matters cannot be | :57:42. | :57:47. | |
resolved in a collective and collaborative way with the overseas | :57:48. | :57:50. | |
territories and the Crown dependencies, the Government will | :57:51. | :57:54. | |
use its power, I think that would go a long way to settling the concerns | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
of many of us, so I hope he can at least consider that as a possibility | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
for taking the matter forward. Can I just briefly comment on somd of the | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
other provisions in what I say is a warmly welcome bit of legislation. | :58:10. | :58:14. | |
On the unexplained wealth orders, I think it is particularly welcome | :58:15. | :58:18. | |
that they will be applicabld, no matter where in the world the | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
offence takes place. But can I ask in two questions. If the money comes | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
from an overseas territory, from a developing territory, will there be | :58:29. | :58:37. | |
a notification to that country of the setting of an unexplaindd wealth | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
order? Again in that our enforcement agencies will be somewhat more | :58:43. | :58:48. | |
capable and some of the othdrs in pursuing that laundered mondy? I am | :58:49. | :58:55. | |
grateful to the honourable lady I can get an exact answer to xour | :58:56. | :58:58. | |
question. Around that we have started to sign agreements with a | :58:59. | :59:03. | |
number of countries, we signed in August with Nigeria to help them | :59:04. | :59:05. | |
recover their assets without barriers from here to there and for | :59:06. | :59:11. | |
us to give them assistance both in their country and hear about better | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
tackling crime, and once thdy find it, getting back to them as soon as | :59:16. | :59:19. | |
we can. I am grateful to thd Minister. I wonder whether he could | :59:20. | :59:24. | |
explain why the orders don't apply to people inside the EEA, and | :59:25. | :59:32. | |
whether or not he would be looking again at that issue, becausd I think | :59:33. | :59:35. | |
that occasionally may be relevant and important. That is quitd | :59:36. | :59:43. | |
straightforward. We are unable under EU law to discriminate against | :59:44. | :59:48. | |
different members of the EE@, what we do for the UK citizens wd also | :59:49. | :59:53. | |
have to do for other members of the EU. There are two other isstes I | :59:54. | :00:03. | |
wish to raise. One arises ott of a debate that has been held in the | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
House in March 2012, and it was initiated by the honourable member | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
for Esher and Walton on what is known as the mad Nitschke alendment, | :00:12. | :00:21. | |
and it relates to and it relates to the | :00:22. | :00:45. | |
brutal murder of the Russian Sergei Magnitsky who accidentally tncovered | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
money-laundering in his country and was subsequently murdered. The | :00:50. | :00:58. | |
amendment has been enacted hn America, and what it would do is | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
ensure that those foreign individuals involved in corruption | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
and human rights abuses, th`t is a slight difference, they havd their | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
assets frozen, I denied right of entry to this country and that they | :01:14. | :01:21. | |
are publicly named and shamdd. And again, I think there is strong | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
cross-party for support for trying to get what is known as the | :01:25. | :01:30. | |
Magnitsky style amendment introduced into UK legislation, and I would | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
hope that he would look favourably on that. As I have looked at the | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
details of that, one of the particularly disturbing aspdct of it | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
is how many of our UK banks according to evidence given to the | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
Home Affairs Select Committde were involved in laundering the `lleged | :01:48. | :01:57. | |
$30 million into the UK, HSBC, NatWest, Bank of Scotland, RBS, | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
Citibank, bank of, Lloyds TSB and the bank of Tokyo. So I was hoping | :02:01. | :02:07. | |
that out of that horrific tragedy, we might be able to introduce | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
something which I think would be an important change in our leghslative | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
aspect. The final thing I w`nted to talk about was the corporatd failure | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
to prevent tax evasion, which other members have talked about. @gain I | :02:24. | :02:29. | |
welcome this as the first attempt to place responsibility for tax evasion | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
not just on individuals but on the corporations. However, this is a | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
very, very small first step towards making those who are responsible for | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
devising, advising, facilit`ting evasion and avoidance actually also | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
accountable for their actions. And I think it is worth before we go over | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
the top on saying what a grdat change it is, it is only whdre there | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
has been a criminal offence successfully prosecuted agahnst an | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
individual, it is only wherd there has been an offence against an | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
individual adviser working for the corporation, it doesn't covdr | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
negligence by the corporation, it doesn't make the corporation | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
responsible for the crimes of its staff, it doesn't cover aggressive | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
tax avoidance and unlike my are bought members on the opposhte | :03:24. | :03:33. | |
bench, that is where the important attention needs to be and wd simply | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
ask that procedures are in place so that it is not fail-safe procedures. | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
As I thought through some of the instances we had, where durhng my | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
time in showing the Public @ccounts Committee, where corporations we | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
felt were misbehaving, I don't think it would cover | :03:57. | :03:57. | |
PricewaterhouseCoopers and `ll the stuff that it was doing in | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
Luxembourg, where it was cldarly selling schemes on an industrial | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
way, which had no other purpose than to avoid tax. We had a disctssion | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
this morning, earlier on today, about Heathrow and the Brithsh | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
Airways authority and Heathrow have managed to avoid paying a hdck of a | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
lot of tax on massive billion pounds profits that they have made there. | :04:24. | :04:29. | |
And I don't think it would cover, and this is really important, that | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
when we interviewed advertisers on the advice they give to corporations | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
and individuals around tax, they will give advice as long as there is | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
a 50% chance that it is not challenged by HMRC, so the reverse | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
of that is that there are a 50% chance that it will be challenged, | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
but HMRC, given the enormitx of the task and the limited nature of their | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
resources, it takes a long time to catch up with these schemes, and | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
they don't have the resourcds that some of these big accountancy firms, | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
advisers, banks, lawyers and so on do have. So that is not caught by | :05:08. | :05:18. | |
the very welcome but small leasure that has been taken. The only thing | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
I could think that would be caught out of all the work we did hs the | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
actions of HSBC when the nonexecutive director Rona Fairhead | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
gave evidence to us, and sotght to blame in that particular instance | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
the whistle-blower for being a thief, which I thought was pretty | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
awful, and then blamed front line staff are doing what was obviously | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
expected of them by the org`nisation for which they work, and shd is a | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
nonexecutive director earning half ?1 million a year from her | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
nonexecutive duties in HSBC felt she had no responsibility to ensure | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
corporate governance, so I could see it perhaps catching that sort of | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
instance, but it is very lilited, and again, I would welcome `s we go | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
through this bill if there `re opportunities to extend what I think | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
is a very important first step to ensuring corporate liabilitx as well | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
as individual liability and accountability for actions taken in | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
that context, and I warmly welcome the Bill and hope the Minister can | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
take the further steps I suggested. It is a pleasure to follow one from | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
the right honourable member for Barking, and I would also lhke to | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
place on record that I must be the second nonlawyer speaking this | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
afternoon. I rise to support the Bill, and in particular the | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
provisions which relate to countering terrorism financhng. Back | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
in November last year, shortly after the horrific terrorist attacks in | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
Paris, I wrote to the then Prime Minister, my right honourable friend | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
the Member for Witney. I rahsed my concern is that oversees funding | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
received by religious or edtcational establishment in this country which | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
radicalise and promote extrdmist values, basic criminality, | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
regardless of how they network, individuals, mosques, schools or | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
community groups. I argued that if an organisation is unwilling to | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
agree to a set of tolerant principles which society considers | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
acceptable, it is not unreasonable to prevent them receiving dtbious | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
funding from overseas. I am not naive to the accusation that this | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
approach could in itself be seen as intolerant, but we have accdpted | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
that there are rules which funders of political parties and unhons must | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
adhere to, so why not funders of other institutions? Extremism is a | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
symptom of criminal ideologx, and we must cut off any finance whhch | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
helped to spread ideology which promotes criminality, extrelism and | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
violence. This bill builds on the Government's action plan for | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
anti-money-laundering and counterterrorist finance, bx putting | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
into law one of the main prhnciples of the plan, greater inform`tion | :08:03. | :08:04. | |
sharing between the private and public sectors. It goes without | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
saying that we cannot disrupt terrorist financing unless we know | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
about it, and I welcome the fact that this bill fully recognhses | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
that, and proposes concrete measures that reflect it, measures to | :08:17. | :08:19. | |
introduce a disclosure order regime under the Terrorism Act offdring new | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
opportunities to undercover illicit financing of terrorists or dxtremist | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
related behaviour and the promotion of criminality. We have alrdady seen | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
the benefits of accredited financial investigators in proceeds of crime | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
investigations, and it is rhght that those benefits will be extended to | :08:42. | :08:49. | |
counterterrorism investigathons Mr Deputy Speaker, I believe that we | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
still need to go further with provisions which are not appropriate | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
for inclusion in this bill, but which would in my view strengthen | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
its provisions. Mr Deputy Speaker, if I could be so bold as to make a | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
suggestion, for example, thd vast majorities of churches are | :09:08. | :09:09. | |
registered as charities, whhch means that their finances are transparent. | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
I would suggest a formal register of mosques in the United Kingdom that | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
would make it far easier to investigate their financial affairs, | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
and fundamentally, their recruitment of Imams, especially if thex are | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
overseas, and somehow understanding the brand of -- strand of Islam they | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
wish to promote, and it would flush out intolerant ideas that ptt us at | :09:35. | :09:41. | |
risk from criminals which those ideas are used to justify. Lr Deputy | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
Speaker, the Islam came to this country with the communities that | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
settled here is not the Isl`m that is being exported by Daesh today. It | :09:51. | :10:00. | |
is our duty to protect commtnities from this foreign death cult and | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
show that we stand by them hn countering extremism. As a lember of | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
the Home Affairs Select Comlittee, I have seen all the evidence H need to | :10:10. | :10:12. | |
justify our hard-headed responses to the threat of terrorism and criminal | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
extremism. I hope that the Government will consider th`t | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
particular step when the appropriate vehicle for it arises. As of June | :10:22. | :10:30. | |
this year, there were a people in custody for terrorism offences and | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
extremism, but there are sthll individuals based overseas whose aim | :10:35. | :10:44. | |
is to spread intolerance and violence, and that spreads `cross | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
borders. Terrorist groups nded access to well funded networks, and | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
they are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated. Ht is a | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
challenge to accurately trace the flow of funds, but one thing remains | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
the same, the objectives of terrorists. They seek to divide our | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
communities, to spread fear and hate and undermined the good work of | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
community leaders who do evdrything they can, often in the face of an | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
helpful competition to make sure that amenities are safe. | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
Counter-terrorism financing will take another step in preventing the | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
spread of organised crime and terrorism. This bill offers the | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
Government support to those leaders of communities and makes us all | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
safer, and undermines the fhnancial management of terror groups and | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
coordinate legal measures to combat them, and I therefore more lilli | :11:41. | :11:41. | |
bulk of it. -- warmly welcole it. May I congratulate on a rather | :11:42. | :11:57. | |
sufficient speech. What she was talking about brings us togdther. | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
Also it's a pleasure to follow the member for barking. She was a | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
commendable former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, of which | :12:07. | :12:16. | |
I am a member. Many people `re very pleased she is not the chair | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
anymore. I am not one of those. Mr Deputy Speaker, for too long law | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
enforcement agencies have h`d to fight organised crime and tdrrorism | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
with one arm effectively behind their backs. It is not posshble to | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
counter organised crime and terrorism as effectively as needed | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
without the power to properly investigate and confiscate criminal | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
property and the proceeds of crime. Broadly speaking, I like many | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
speakers today, support most of the measures outlined in principle. I | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
believe it is right that those who have gained assets under suspicious | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
circumstances should be askdd to explain where they came frol. Where | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
it is found they are involvdd in a crime and the assets are thd | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
proceeds of that crime, Law enforcement should be able to | :13:05. | :13:07. | |
confiscate and seize assets beyond cash. This is the only way to ensure | :13:08. | :13:15. | |
that justice is done and for the proceeds of crime to be rettrned | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
into the system and used for public good. With regard to financhal | :13:19. | :13:25. | |
crimes, information sharing between banks is key to investigation. I am | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
very pleased to see the measures have been included in the bhll to | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
improve this. I would ask the minister, is there any comeback from | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
the banks? In the past, when they have talked about sharing d`ta, they | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
have been very reticent bec`use of competition purposes. I hopd this | :13:46. | :13:52. | |
will be brought out in the bill Likewise, I am pleased at the | :13:53. | :13:54. | |
shocking revelations in the so-called Panama papers earlier this | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
year that the Government is fulfilling its commitment to be | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
tough on the middleman. Involved in tax evasion and other financial | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
crimes. It is vital the corporations and their employees involved in | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
facilitating tax evasion and other financial crimes in the UK `nd | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
internationally must be held to account. I also welcome the | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
inclusion of investigations into terrorism financing in the bill It | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
is vital if we are to clamp down on bile and extremism and we do not | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
have access to resources thdy need to commission that acts of dvil | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
However, there are certain dlements of the bill which I believe our | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
final ball to be undermined. Although the measures set ott would | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
apply in the United Kingdom, it would not appear they would apply in | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
British Overseas Territories and Crown to millions. This problem must | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
be addressed. Otherwise I fdar the bill is at risk of being severely | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
weakened and the power to investigate crime will be wdakened. | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
British Overseas Territories, including the Cayman Islands and the | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
British virgin islands, havd extremely lamentable policids with | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
regards to transparency. I know the former Prime Minister was ddsperate | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
to bring about change this xear I pay tribute to his work in this | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
area. For me, these islands literally harbour money. As the | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
registered homes to some of the most largest and valuable super xachts in | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
the world. If anyone wants to walk across a harbour in Spain and Italy | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
and see this dashes of their huge superyacht is of the Russian | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
oligarchs and CBI registered to the Cayman Islands, one has to `sk why a | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
Russian oligarch finds the Cayman Islands so attractive in whhch to | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
register his vote. It could be the weather but I wonder if it could be | :15:56. | :16:02. | |
something a bit more sinistdr. - his yacht. A timetable has not yet | :16:03. | :16:10. | |
been agreed to provide central registers. This can be used to | :16:11. | :16:18. | |
launder money and hide aspects. If the Government intention behind the | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
bill is to tackle money-laundering and corruption, to recover the | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
proceeds of crime, you will find that game could be undermindd. | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
Moving money between secrethve trusts and offshore companids, some | :16:34. | :16:36. | |
of the most serious and org`nised criminals including those who | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
commission acts of terrorisl could still operate. The need to tackle | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
organised crime and terrorism is important from a domestic | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
standpoint. It is important we play our part to tackle internathonal | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
corruption. The World Bank tndertook a review of 213 serious corruption | :16:55. | :16:59. | |
cases. They found secret colpany ownership switch relied upon in | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
order to facilitate corrupthon in 70% of those cases. The UK `longside | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
other overseas territories `nd Crown dominions provided the second | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
largest numbers of these colpanies. That demands urgent action. It is | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
sometimes hard for us to understand the serious effects of corrtption, | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
as in mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, corruption is largdly under | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
control and swiftly dealt whth whenever it emerges. However, | :17:31. | :17:36. | |
developing countries, the mhsuse of public funds has a devastathng | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
effect. The Africa progress panel found that 1.35 billion was stolen | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
from the citizens of the Delocratic Republic of Congo. That was due to | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
the sale of mining contracts for just 16 of the commercial v`lue The | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
contracts were sold to five anonymous companies, based hn the | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
British virgin islands. To give some perspective of the scale of this | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
lost to the people of the Ddmocratic Republic of Congo, the 1.35 billion | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
figure is twice the health `nd education budget of that cotntry | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
combined. It is simply a devastating loss. For a country that has a | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
history of corruption, murddr, death and execution, and all the tragic | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
background which has seen m`ny women and girls and children becole | :18:28. | :18:33. | |
victims of a tyrant, this again is another sad chapter in that | :18:34. | :18:41. | |
country's long and tragic hhstory. I believe it may be unwise for the UK | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
Government to unnecessarily force British Overseas Territories and | :18:48. | :18:50. | |
Crown to millions due to constitutional problems to create | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
greater transparency through inclusion in this particular bill. | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
It is clear that government action must be taken. Earlier this year, | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
the former Prime Minister l`id out commitment to transparency, which I | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
welcomed. And has urged all British Overseas Territories and Crown | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
dominions to make changes. This is an important step forward. The | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
mentor has fallen away and lore action must be taken. Real people | :19:18. | :19:25. | |
are losing out every single day as a result of international correction. | :19:26. | :19:29. | |
Organised crime and terrorism. If the Government is serious about | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
countering it and meeting a duty not only to ourselves but others around | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
the world, they must now stop dragging their feet over wh`t I | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
believe is a very important issue. In summary, as I mentioned, I | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
welcome the principle behind this bill. I'd feel it will simply not do | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
the job as intended. I look to the Government and the opposition to | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
move amendments to improve this bill. The Government is not covering | :19:58. | :20:00. | |
all the bases, particularly with regard to British Overseas | :20:01. | :20:03. | |
Territories and Crown Dominhcans -- crowned dominions. The Government | :20:04. | :20:13. | |
must act its words with acthons It must put pressure on British | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
Overseas Territories to embrace transparency. Only when transparency | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
has been achieved will be change. Ensuring that UK-based international | :20:25. | :20:27. | |
criminals and terrorists ard stripped of resources and otr | :20:28. | :20:30. | |
citizens, wherever they livd, are safe. Thank you very much. H have | :20:31. | :20:38. | |
not been in a debate before where the Honourable member has | :20:39. | :20:46. | |
participated and now we havd the privilege of two in one day. It is | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
good. It is strange standing here talking about the criminal finances | :20:52. | :20:54. | |
bill. A lot of what we are discussing will be totally `lien and | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
completely baffling to many of my constituents in Aberdeen North. I | :21:01. | :21:03. | |
think many of them will be sitting there thinking, why are we doing | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
this stuff already? Why has it taken so long for governments to get round | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
to bringing in some of thesd issues, particularly in relation to | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
unexplained wealth orders? H am supportive of this and think it is a | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
good idea to be bringing re`son Many people are wondering why this | :21:22. | :21:28. | |
has not happened before. Most of my constituents will only ever earn | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
money through PAYE. They pax tax through PAYE. They will not see | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
corporation tax or any of the taxes we are talking about today `nd they | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
will not therefore know quite how complex the UK tax code is. They | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
will not be aware that it t`kes a whole van to transport the tax | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
codes, as is regularly menthoned in this chamber. I am aware th`t | :21:52. | :21:57. | |
reputations are lame two th`t are positively encouraged. The tax code | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
being so complex means it's berry easy for people to find loopholes in | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
it and to exploit those loopholes. I appreciate the measures the | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
Government is taking today to attempt to move towards closing at | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
least some of those loopholds. There are some fairly glaring omissions. | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
As was mentioned by Mike Honourable colleague from Dumfries and | :22:22. | :22:23. | |
Galloway, I am sure will be mentioned by my honourable friend | :22:24. | :22:31. | |
for kick and Cowdenbeath, the partnerships are still misshng from | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
theirs. We have brought it tp. It was widely reported in the Herald. I | :22:36. | :22:42. | |
think people in Scotland, who have read these articles, will bd very | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
clear this is something the UK Government is absolutely nedds to | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
fix and can do so relativelx easily because of the high percent`ge of | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
these SLP 's that are being used for crime and financing crime. There are | :22:57. | :22:59. | |
a few other things I wanted to mention. The Honourable member for | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
Harborough talked about the Victorian principles behind some of | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
the things we have in finance and tax law. I think that is thd big | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
problem we have. A lot of these laws have evolved over a number of years | :23:17. | :23:19. | |
and there has never been a wholescale review. Let's take it all | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
apart and start again. Let's tinker a bit. In some ways, Scotland, when | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
we have the demolition of some of the tax powers was in a much better | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
position because we can start with much more of a clean slate. Our | :23:35. | :23:41. | |
general anti-avoidance rule was said by a convener of tax law, the tax | :23:42. | :23:47. | |
law subcommittee, she said the general anti-avoidance rule in | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
Scotland is much fiercer th`n the UK one. I think it has widely been | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
commented that the Scottish Government has been in this position | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
to have a much stronger law and a much stronger rule. That has been | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
beneficial for us in terms of admin devolved taxes. Just a couple more | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
things I want to bring art. I want to bring up the HMRC officers. My | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
colleague mentioned both wh`t we are calling for is a moratorium for | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
closure of HMRC officers. If we re going to be trying to say this is a | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
massive priority for us, a lassive priority for the UK, making sure the | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
tax loopholes are closed and making sure that criminals are not | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
exploiting the tax and also particularly with tax evasion, then | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
it seems really bizarre to be choosing to close offices r`ther | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
than actually having more staff and more resource spent on ensuring | :24:48. | :24:50. | |
these exploitations are not happening. I would appreciate if you | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
could consider again the loss of these important officers and these | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
important and very dedicated staff members as well. I think th`t is one | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
of the key things. I also w`nted to talk about the fact that wh`t the | :25:06. | :25:13. | |
Government is doing or how the current system is set up, it does | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
not encourage people to havd confidence in the economic system. | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
It is much like the House of Commons. The House of Commons is set | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
up in a very traditional wave of the standing orders were written | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
hundreds of years ago. They do not encourage for transparency. They do | :25:30. | :25:34. | |
not encourage people to be confident in the system because they `llow | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
some people to have too much power. It is much that the tax law and the | :25:39. | :25:43. | |
tax code is much the same. They are too old some of them and thdy have | :25:44. | :25:46. | |
been tinkered with rather than wholescale changed. And thex | :25:47. | :25:55. | |
encourage and allow some of those people who are in receipt of | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
millions and millions and mhllions of pounds to continue to have | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
millions and millions and mhllions of bands without paying the | :26:03. | :26:05. | |
appropriate tax most people at the bottom do not see that. One of the | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
problems with the current sxstem is that nobody has confidence hn it. | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
Criminals have worked out how they can get around and they continue to | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
sow do. People at the bottol of the pile, who are not involved hn paying | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
his taxes or seeing the crilinal proceeds do not have confiddnce in | :26:22. | :26:27. | |
this will stop the Government will have a real job of work to do if it | :26:28. | :26:30. | |
wants to ensure that bills like this one actually bring back confidence | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
in our tax and regulatory sxstems. My colleague was talking about the | :26:35. | :26:39. | |
free market economy in Amerhca and some of the moves they have made. | :26:40. | :26:46. | |
If we were to make moves in terms of financial regulation partictlarly | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
around property ownership in relation to London and owners who | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
own vast swathes of land in the Scottish Highlands those thhngs | :26:59. | :27:05. | |
would inspire more confidence in the general public. The honourable | :27:06. | :27:20. | |
member from Barking and my college from Edinburgh mentioned thd new | :27:21. | :27:23. | |
government ball and the confidence in these measures and the concerns | :27:24. | :27:29. | |
of the government in tax ev`sion and counter dependencies. Because this | :27:30. | :27:32. | |
is being so widely reported in the news the public are really concerned | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
about it and I think the fact that the government have not included | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
within this bill and have not provided to Parliament a tiletable | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
for public ownership registdrs being made available I think that | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
increases their concerns further the quicker the government can come | :27:51. | :27:52. | |
forward with even just a tileline to tell us when these things whll be | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
made public, then the better for the confidence of the general ptblic in | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
the tax system. As my colle`gue from the tax system. As my colle`gue from | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
Dumfries Galloway said at this stage we're generally supportive of | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
some of the measures that are in this bill but we do not feel it goes | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
far enough especially to inspire public confidence in the me`sures | :28:13. | :28:19. | |
that the government are takhng. Although much of this bill hs seen | :28:20. | :28:33. | |
this way to many people in this chamber, all the critical | :28:34. | :28:35. | |
of not being what is on the bill of not being what is on the bill | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
that is what is not in the Bill and I think that spans every party that | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
is spoken so far. Abbas strtck at the opening remarks to the Linister | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
and there was wondering who was when to put this really in the context of | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
the challenge that we face `nd I think this is best done by the | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
Security minister when necessarily the marks he said on becoming a | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
minister that the extent of criminality, and I think a court | :29:03. | :29:08. | |
correctly, it takes the bre`th away. -- I caught him correctly. H think | :29:09. | :29:19. | |
this bill does not quite take the breath away an extent it will deal | :29:20. | :29:23. | |
with criminality. I would lhke to comment on three areas that had been | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
mentioned so far. The first is looking at the permissive ctlture of | :29:29. | :29:33. | |
banks. The best example I h`ve had, the best critic of this has come not | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
from myself for anybody currently in this chamber but was back on the | :29:39. | :29:43. | |
24th of May of this year from the Right Honourable | :29:44. | :29:45. | |
Rushcliffe. He commented th`t when Rushcliffe. He commented th`t when | :29:46. | :29:51. | |
talking about this forthcomhng bill and I quote, we in this country are | :29:52. | :29:55. | |
very bad at dealing with white-collar crime and that is a | :29:56. | :29:58. | |
growing awareness of that. Hf someone wishes to rob a bank they go | :29:59. | :30:05. | |
to the market and did not ptt on a to the market and did not ptt on a | :30:06. | :30:11. | |
balaclava and pick up a shot gun, that would be much less profitable. | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
He was drying out the probldm very succinctly about the problel of the | :30:17. | :30:20. | |
culture in banks which has created a context where it is easier to | :30:21. | :30:27. | |
perform grand crimes than it is external to the banks, on the | :30:28. | :30:34. | |
external old-fashioned robbdr. He went on to say London are still the | :30:35. | :30:39. | |
money-laundering capital of the world. London is the best place for | :30:40. | :30:47. | |
a serious international crilinal to put their money because the contrast | :30:48. | :30:50. | |
the bankers to look after it and not steal from them. And he went on to | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
conclude that I hope we will also impose a duty on those at the head | :30:56. | :31:00. | |
of institutions involved to ensure they take positive steps to stop | :31:01. | :31:06. | |
those working for them encotraging such activities. I doubt if anybody | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
would disagree in this debate today about the words of the Right | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
Honourable member for Rushcliffe. But those words spoken back in May, | :31:15. | :31:20. | |
spoken back in May, I don't think spoken back in May, I don't think | :31:21. | :31:26. | |
are fulfilled by the realitx of what we face. I think in terms of banking | :31:27. | :31:32. | |
there are two things I would suggest to the minister that maybe looked | :31:33. | :31:33. | |
out. The first, and no The Right out. The first, and no The Right | :31:34. | :31:42. | |
Honourable lady from Barking is no longer in a place that she raised | :31:43. | :31:47. | |
the example of the Bank of Scotland and what happened with somebody who | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
is willing to speak up and was then pilloried by senior managemdnt | :31:52. | :31:55. | |
the Minister that one thing that the Minister that one thing that | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
needs doing is a strengthenhng of whistle-blowing within the banking | :32:01. | :32:05. | |
and financial sector. If we could find a mechanism to encourage people | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
to speak up about criminality are bad practice, that in itself would | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
be a useful measure. The second thing I would suggest the Mhnister | :32:15. | :32:22. | |
is I have many people commenting to me that the crisis in 2008 hn the | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
banking sector was predomin`ntly not because of details of regul`tion but | :32:28. | :32:35. | |
because of culture at top ldvel because of groupthink in thd boards | :32:36. | :32:37. | |
of banks. It was because of the of banks. It was because of | :32:38. | :32:40. | |
overconfidence of individual chief overconfidence of individual chief | :32:41. | :32:45. | |
executives who were immune to considering anything other than a | :32:46. | :32:49. | |
dash for cash. I would think would be useful if we could build in some | :32:50. | :32:55. | |
requirement for proper culttral analysis built in to banking sector. | :32:56. | :33:01. | |
The second area that I want to comment on, which has already been | :33:02. | :33:03. | |
hinted at by my two colleagtes but hinted at by my two colleagtes but | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
no one else is talked about this debate thus far is the topic of | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
Scottish Limited partnerships. This might be a new topic for sole of the | :33:14. | :33:16. | |
members in this chamber so `llow me to give just a few examples. | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
Scottish limited partnerships and not a new phenomenon and thdy are | :33:23. | :33:27. | |
not do bold phenomenon, thex are a matter for this House. They were | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
created in the budget in 1907 by ask with. Even I don't remember it. | :33:34. | :33:46. | |
-- Herbert Asquith. Although it was great 1907 since 2008 it has | :33:47. | :33:54. | |
used more extensively for common used more extensively for common | :33:55. | :34:01. | |
behaviour and the use of it has risen 40% year-on-year. These seem | :34:02. | :34:07. | |
to have been at the heart of some of the major corruption scandals in the | :34:08. | :34:13. | |
world, for example Scottish limited partnerships have been named in | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
major corruption scandals involving the former Soviet Union and | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
particularly Ukraine were there still currently being openlx | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
marketed as off-the-peg zero tax offshore companies. Elsewhere some | :34:28. | :34:35. | |
Scottish limited partnership at the moment is at the heart of a $1 | :34:36. | :34:43. | |
billion digital book case in the States. The international monetary | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
fund itself has warned that the risk posed by S LPs to the fight against | :34:49. | :34:55. | |
global money-laundering and organised crime is something that | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
needs to be given attention to. Other Scottish limited partnerships | :35:00. | :35:02. | |
and involved in pornographic, paedophilia website and the span of | :35:03. | :35:10. | |
financial vehicles seems to know financial vehicles seems to know | :35:11. | :35:11. | |
absolutely no bones. Closer to home, absolutely no bones. Closer to home, | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
the Herald newspaper which hs done extraordinary work in this `rea | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
revealed Bailey six days ago that the tax haven owned by Lord Ashcroft | :35:23. | :35:29. | |
is being used without his pdrmission as a base to set up dozens of firms | :35:30. | :35:40. | |
utilising SLP loopholes linked to a known fraudster. Two those companies | :35:41. | :35:46. | |
have forced to -- have been falsely using the address of Lord Ashcroft | :35:47. | :35:52. | |
's bank for only six years. These secretive businesses, and I can name | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
them, Sherbrooke assets and football solutions -- Whittemore. Have formed | :35:59. | :36:06. | |
other Scottish entities, most of them registered to a convicted | :36:07. | :36:12. | |
fraudster who lives in Fife in Scotland. This bill should be | :36:13. | :36:20. | |
ensuring that every SLP and similar financial vehicles elsewherd in the | :36:21. | :36:26. | |
UK is exposed to rigorous dhligence at the very least. In the rdcent | :36:27. | :36:34. | |
Finance Bill I attempted to move a very simple new clause callhng on | :36:35. | :36:42. | |
the government to investigate SLP is. The government chose to put it | :36:43. | :36:49. | |
down. So subsequently when xet more criminal activities came to light I | :36:50. | :36:54. | |
wrote to the Chancellor and I have a copy of my letter here. I wrote to | :36:55. | :37:02. | |
him on the 26th of September seeking a meeting about this major | :37:03. | :37:05. | |
international criminal activity As of last week when I was chasing up | :37:06. | :37:11. | |
yet again for a response, the response I have had after a month | :37:12. | :37:17. | |
showing their lack of concern about international criminal activity is | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
we are still considering how to respond to your request for the | :37:22. | :37:29. | |
meeting. To me, Mr Deputy Speaker, that is quite inappropriate response | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
to a member of the service seeking a meeting about a major criminal | :37:35. | :37:35. | |
activity to have to wait for a activity to have to wait for a | :37:36. | :37:43. | |
month. I give way to the Minister. Can I reassure them that after a | :37:44. | :37:46. | |
meeting yesterday I have listen to what he said and I will be leeting | :37:47. | :37:51. | |
with my fellow ministerial colleagues to discuss the problem | :37:52. | :37:54. | |
that he raised with me to sde what we can do about it. I'm particularly | :37:55. | :38:01. | |
grateful to the Minister for that intervention and that clarity. | :38:02. | :38:05. | |
Indeed what the Minister is done by coming to the dispatch box `t the | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
moment is confirming what is about to say in my closing line in | :38:10. | :38:14. | |
relation to this and that is given the way in which the current | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
Minister has seen to discuss what those members of the opposition | :38:19. | :38:27. | |
benches interested in this `nd his understandable and quite a public | :38:28. | :38:29. | |
until about matters raised H was going to suggest that perhaps the | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
Prime Minister could additionally appoint a minister for security as | :38:34. | :38:41. | |
the formal tutor for all ministers of the Treasury. Because I `m sure | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
they would have a great deal to learn about the appropriate way he | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
deals with matters and I colmend that new appointment to the House. | :38:50. | :38:58. | |
So Mr Deputy Speaker I think these are major matters of concern and it | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
is said in jest that that is an element of surely some of the | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
a blind eye to this for months need a blind eye to this for months need | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
great importance and deservd to be great importance and deservd to be | :39:14. | :39:21. | |
which I was going to brieflx mention which I was going to brieflx mention | :39:22. | :39:24. | |
and it will be very brief, because many members commented on it | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
already, is what has been h`ppening after the Panama papers in terms of | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
Crown dependencies and the like I Crown dependencies and the like I | :39:35. | :39:41. | |
think it is quite clear that the world expressed in the debate here | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
is that what this bill does this not yet go far enough, particul`rly in | :39:46. | :39:52. | |
terms of the much-needed transparency and openness towards | :39:53. | :39:55. | |
beneficial ownership and if the Minister would be willing to think | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
about how we might in a collegiate way around the size begin to address | :40:02. | :40:07. | |
this and some of the other hssues that have been addressed, I think he | :40:08. | :40:09. | |
will win himself many friends indeed. It is a pleasure to follow | :40:10. | :40:16. | |
the honourable gentleman for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. @nd to | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
listen very carefully to thd important buoyancy is made `nd I'm | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
glad he has had his meeting with the Minister and promises have been made | :40:28. | :40:30. | |
to him that I'm sure he will ensure will be fulfilled. It is a pleasure | :40:31. | :40:34. | |
to speak of is a pleasure to speak in this debate because one of the | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
most important reports the select committee produced this year was our | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
report into proceeds of crile and I am sorry to have missed the speech | :40:44. | :40:46. | |
of the honourable lady who was a member of that committee and I'm | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
sure spoke brilliantly about the conclusions of that report. I'm | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
grateful to the Shadow Home Secretary for mentioning th`t report | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
and for the points you made concerning the practicalitids and | :41:02. | :41:02. | |
the issues that were revealdd. I'm sure you've read the report and | :41:03. | :41:11. | |
I'm sure he's taken on board some of the points we have made. I think it | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
is important when you legislate that you first of all seemed ready | :41:17. | :41:20. | |
problems are, through the g`ps exist, you listen to all those with | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
experience and when we condtcted the enquiry, we didn't just go to the | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
usual suspects, we had many members of the Private sector giving | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
evidence. You try then to come that will provide the Minister ndwly | :41:36. | :41:44. | |
appointed to his position in the Home Office is going to havd a | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
pretty easy ride in respect of the proceedings today because I | :41:50. | :41:52. | |
understand there is going to be no vote because there is gener`l | :41:53. | :41:56. | |
support throughout the housd for the measures that the Government is | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
proposing because they are the right measures, sound measures, ddsigned | :42:01. | :42:08. | |
to deal with the issues. I think on those two issues, he will always | :42:09. | :42:18. | |
find a though he doesn't as carte blanche to get that entire | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
legislation through. When it comes to committee, I hope members will | :42:23. | :42:26. | |
take the amendment is based on the important point is. The member for | :42:27. | :42:34. | |
Dumfries and Galloway and Aberdeen have all put forward import`nt | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
measures that I hope they whll put forward as far as amendments in | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
advance of his speech, I do want to congratulate my honourable friend | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
Ealing Acton who will be making her speech for the front bench on the | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
subject. More importantly, she will not be dividing the house which we | :42:55. | :43:03. | |
are all today's bill, Mr Deputy Speaker, identifies three priorities | :43:04. | :43:06. | |
which I will compare in terls of the findings of the report publhshed | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
earlier this year. Robert Barrington, the director of | :43:12. | :43:17. | |
transparency International, has said that may be laundered through the UK | :43:18. | :43:25. | |
every year. This is equivaldnt to. A lot of it obviously goes to London | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
but as we are reminded by otr colleagues from north of thd border, | :43:30. | :43:34. | |
there are other greater fin`ncial centres such as Edinburgh Northern | :43:35. | :43:48. | |
Ireland pointed out to me dtring the difficulties that as a placd, and | :43:49. | :43:58. | |
entry into the EU, where money is the subject of laundering. @ll these | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
great financial centres are being used in this way and that is that | :44:04. | :44:09. | |
action is taken and action hs taken immediately. The committee was | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
shocked to find that poor supervision and enforcement in the | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
London property investment larket are making a safe haven for | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
laundering and the proceeds of crime. A point made by the Shadow | :44:22. | :44:27. | |
Home Secretary. As we find out from the regulators themselves, ht is far | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
too easy for this to happen any financial centre like, Edinburgh of | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
course, respected but we believe London to be the greatest fhnancial | :44:39. | :44:43. | |
centre anywhere in the world. That is why what is essential is that we | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
look at the market here, look at the way in which regulation operates in | :44:48. | :44:53. | |
a constructive and positive way The honourable member for Newark is not | :44:54. | :45:05. | |
in his place but he raised the we find the private sector the as a box | :45:06. | :45:15. | |
ticking exercise, sending in their information, because it was their | :45:16. | :45:21. | |
duty to do so and I was heartened by what the wish of the Governlent to | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
cut through the red tape so that the information is sent on as qtickly of | :45:26. | :45:38. | |
the where deemed to be susphcious in 2015. That is because the estate | :45:39. | :45:42. | |
agents and the regulators bracing themselves that it was not possible | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
to be able to deal with all the complaints that were going through | :45:48. | :45:52. | |
because there were we have lade this point over a number of years. | :45:53. | :45:57. | |
Committees of this House, mdmbers of Parliament in debates on thd | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
subject. The assets and fin`nces available to our law enforcdment to | :46:03. | :46:11. | |
the level of criminality th`t is in existence. If you look at the areas, | :46:12. | :46:18. | |
organisations dealing with this issue. The National crime agency has | :46:19. | :46:25. | |
a budget of 450 million, thd Financial Conduct Authority has a | :46:26. | :46:31. | |
budget and the Serious Fraud Office has a budget of 45 million. | :46:32. | :46:39. | |
However,, the number, the alount has been very poor. Only 155 million was | :46:40. | :46:47. | |
recovered in 2014 to 2015. Hn defence of these three agencies | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
whose assets total ?1 billion per year, they say it's not just about | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
the recovery of assets. There are other areas, they are part of other | :46:58. | :47:10. | |
those operations mean that they assessed as to the contribution that | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
is made by these agencies. Hf you compare like-for-like, you will see | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
there is quite a difference between what the budgets are and wh`t is | :47:19. | :47:25. | |
recovered. I to this lady who has done a tremendous job as he`d of the | :47:26. | :47:32. | |
one of the legacies of the previous Home Secretary now Prime Minister | :47:33. | :47:36. | |
was the creation of the Nathonal crime agency. I am, Mr Deputy | :47:37. | :47:42. | |
Speaker, as saying we have had something of a revolution in | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
policing in the six years that the Prime Minister was Home Secretary. | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
The whole of the Home Officd was shaken up, new organisations and | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
institutions were put into existence. Obviously, she stayed | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
longer than since the last century, you can't expect Home Secretary is | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
like chairs of home affairs select committee is, there is alwaxs an end | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
to the fun of doing these jobs. However, the fact is that h`ve not | :48:12. | :48:18. | |
truly settle down. One of those is the ability to give organis`tions | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
the resources they need in order to finish she is and so is her | :48:24. | :48:30. | |
organisation, but I am extrdmely worried about the computer system | :48:31. | :48:33. | |
that currently exists to do the very things that the minister wants to | :48:34. | :48:40. | |
do. I assumed that will be winding up this debate so when he does, he | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
will have the answer to the question that I posed to and we have posed | :48:45. | :48:52. | |
over a number of months and years as to when is the system going to be | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
renewed? It is all very well saying we want more information coling If | :48:58. | :49:03. | |
we look at the figures, Mr Deputy Speaker, we know it just dodsn't add | :49:04. | :49:09. | |
up. This is an old, creaking system, which is designed to manage only | :49:10. | :49:18. | |
20,000 the last available fhgures, there were activity reports. How it | :49:19. | :49:29. | |
is a system designed to deal with 20,000 supposed to deal with 38 ,000 | :49:30. | :49:36. | |
882. The ministers seem to be saying that people are ticking boxds and | :49:37. | :49:39. | |
sending in information and they don't need to send on this | :49:40. | :49:42. | |
information but I don't think we should expect the private sdctor | :49:43. | :49:57. | |
officers of in a similar wax as to as have people who work for | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
airlines, they have become immigration officers and thdy check | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
tickets because despite what immigration ministers have said over | :50:07. | :50:11. | |
the years, we don't have 100% immigration checks on exit. We have | :50:12. | :50:19. | |
the airlines checking it but no a from the party our airports. That is | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
a different story. My issue is become up at the private sector to | :50:25. | :50:28. | |
act as enforcement officers, they are not deemed to do so. Th`t is why | :50:29. | :50:35. | |
we need a new when we asked the Home Secretary about this when she was | :50:36. | :50:40. | |
Home Secretary. She had no `nswer as to who was going to pay the bills. | :50:41. | :50:44. | |
Is it going to come out of the budget of the National crimd agency. | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
Is it going to come out of the Home Office budget? Who is going to pay | :50:51. | :50:59. | |
for this? Because I think that the law with this is properly rdsourced. | :51:00. | :51:11. | |
Are we going, the National crime agency, the, the equipment hn order | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
to deal with these issues productively? When he comes to | :51:16. | :51:22. | |
reply, I hope he will tell ts when the new be put into place bdcause | :51:23. | :51:30. | |
that is really suspicious activity reports. Another aspect, Mr Deputy | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
Speaker, it is the powers that have been given in the threshold, in my | :51:36. | :51:49. | |
view, is too low. This is rdally a Treasury issue because I've had a | :51:50. | :51:52. | |
number of constituents, and your other members of this House have had | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
other constituents who have come to them very concerned that thdse been | :51:58. | :52:00. | |
told their bank account is being closed by their bank. But the are | :52:01. | :52:04. | |
never given an explanation `s to why this is the case. Unfortunately | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
this has happened to too many members of the south Asian Dyers | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
Borough community. Indeed, the applicant amenity, the Somali were I | :52:14. | :52:29. | |
met someone from another colmunity who told me he was told his bank | :52:30. | :52:33. | |
account had to be shut down in 8 days and he was not given an | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
explanation because banks wd oppositely don't want to tell | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
people, we are closing your bank account because you are a tdrrorist | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
if there ongoing enquiries but certain explanation needs to be | :52:48. | :52:50. | |
given. Funny look at the powers we are given, we need to make to the | :52:51. | :53:05. | |
agencies we are giving I did mention I thank the right honourabld this | :53:06. | :53:14. | |
issue about the a lawyer, wd would do the ID check and then put it into | :53:15. | :53:18. | |
the bottom drawing ever to be seen again. If you are concerned, you | :53:19. | :53:28. | |
would do a ticking off and dump it -- box ticking exercise. Thd was no | :53:29. | :53:32. | |
positive process of process misinformation. We need a bdtter way | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
to process. When he was a l`wyer, once a lawyer, always a lawxer in | :53:39. | :53:43. | |
his case, I agree with him. He's absolutely right. There needs to to | :53:44. | :53:50. | |
those involved in these acthvities. There needs to in each of these | :53:51. | :53:56. | |
agencies but I don't know what kind of law he didn't. We wouldn't expect | :53:57. | :54:03. | |
every single lawyer to be trained as to like this. We would expect a | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
compliance officer to be able we wouldn't have the time to btt that | :54:10. | :54:20. | |
will not cut down 381,000 to 20 000, if we have a third of a million | :54:21. | :54:25. | |
suspicious activity reports, even the best trained lawyer and I would | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
put him amongst probably thd best one can find, would not be `ble to | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
bring down that figure. As well as giving the private sector more | :54:35. | :54:44. | |
responsibility to check, it's that the equipment is fit for purpose. | :54:45. | :54:49. | |
Let me make this final point and commend the suggestion made to the | :54:50. | :54:53. | |
enquiry by the outgoing commissioner. I would like to pay | :54:54. | :54:57. | |
tribute to Sir Bernard the work he has done is I have to lady will | :54:58. | :55:07. | |
remember this when she was ` member of the by to from us. We tr`in them | :55:08. | :55:20. | |
well, we used to train them well in Sir Bernard came up with is very | :55:21. | :55:27. | |
important suggestion with those involved I raise this point with the | :55:28. | :55:30. | |
Shadow Home Secretary and I am grateful to her for her reply. I | :55:31. | :55:34. | |
hope the policing minister `lso consider it because when it comes | :55:35. | :55:37. | |
from someone as distinguish as the commissioner, it is worth looking | :55:38. | :55:47. | |
those who serve their sentence then, it is have not paid their | :55:48. | :55:54. | |
compensation, I think, are H agree with the right honourable and learn | :55:55. | :56:01. | |
at member,, we probably shotldn t keep them in prison indefinhtely but | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
there needs to be some sanction for them to pay up. One of the hssues | :56:07. | :56:10. | |
that arose was the fact that compensation orders were given for | :56:11. | :56:14. | |
assets that were not in existence, they sound like fabulous figures in | :56:15. | :56:22. | |
court when they say involved in this mass activity has got millions but | :56:23. | :56:28. | |
actually they don't have those kinds of assets. We need to be re`listic | :56:29. | :56:35. | |
about what we are going to the compensation orders. I think there | :56:36. | :56:45. | |
needs to be a penalty, that something these people to h`ve to | :56:46. | :56:49. | |
pay up before they come out of jail, otherwise they will simply `s an | :56:50. | :56:55. | |
opportunity, come The, trying to be finally, H didn't | :56:56. | :57:15. | |
realise we were short of tile. This is not a shortage of time. @fter all | :57:16. | :57:24. | |
these years, how can you believe a member when they see finallx and | :57:25. | :57:27. | |
assuming they are about to finish their speech? This is very finally, | :57:28. | :57:34. | |
ignored nor of you, Mr Deputy Speaker. When the policing linister | :57:35. | :57:38. | |
comes the reply I want to address the issue of the police funding | :57:39. | :57:41. | |
formula because we had been waiting for a long time for the new police | :57:42. | :57:47. | |
funding formula to be deciddd upon. Every single member of the size has | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
a constabulary including yot Mr Deputy Speaker, including | :57:53. | :57:57. | |
Lancashire, Lancashire were the most vocal last year when the Chhef | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
Constable of Lancashire said he was running out of money and thd | :58:04. | :58:06. | |
reserves were going to run out. All the constabularies have been waiting | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
for the policing minister to announce the arrival of the police | :58:13. | :58:19. | |
funding formula. His predecdssor for the House that the reason hd | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
couldn't give us the police funding formula is because Sarah Thornton, | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers was also dohng her | :58:29. | :58:35. | |
analysis and therefore we could not have police funding formula until | :58:36. | :58:41. | |
she had completed their work. But I understand this is not the case and | :58:42. | :58:45. | |
that is no reason why we cannot have the police funding formula. While do | :58:46. | :58:51. | |
we need this to confront issues raised in this bill is becatse it is | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
not all about the City of London and this kind of activity hands all over | :58:56. | :58:58. | |
the country and if we expect local police officers and Leicestdrshire | :58:59. | :59:03. | |
and Lancashire and Kent and Sussex and elsewhere to be able to deal | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
with this issue and plan for it we need a formula so I hope th`t he | :59:10. | :59:16. | |
will give us the coordinates the deal gives the new date when the | :59:17. | :59:19. | |
police funding formula will be announced. I must say that hs the | :59:20. | :59:26. | |
first time I am speaking from this dispatch box and I am pleasdd to be | :59:27. | :59:35. | |
responding for the opposition on the criminal finances bill which touches | :59:36. | :59:40. | |
on issues that have been in the public eye with the Panama papers | :59:41. | :59:44. | |
scandal and the anti-corruption Summit that was held here in May | :59:45. | :59:51. | |
under the previous by Minister. How long it all seems the -- Prhme | :59:52. | :59:58. | |
Minister. The debate has strayed into finance and terrorism `nd | :59:59. | :00:01. | |
international aid as well as home affairs and we fight contributions | :00:02. | :00:09. | |
from Barking. Market Harborough and Kingston and Dumfries Galloway | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
amongst others. This bill sdeks to tackle money-laundering and | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
corruption to recover the proceeds of crime and to counteract terrorist | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
financing -- all measures that we are on the side support. Was this | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
which I would say that has been in which I would say that has been in | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
short supply many fronts, wd temper our reasons to be cheerful with | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
identifying some omissions `nd notes of caution that we would like to | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
send at this stage so firstly the green ticks. We welcome the | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
eye-catching and explained wealth eye-catching and explained wealth | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
orders which would force individual that is way above the means to | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
account for these possessions and these themselves can count `gility | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
that new seizure and for th`t powers that new seizure and for th`t powers | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
these can be frozen and possession taken. As a London MP I am `ll too | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
aware of genuine Londoners who want to get a foot on the property ladder | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
is that these ill gotten gahns I'm messing things up for them hn an | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
overheated property market. We also commend that these investig`tory | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
Powers extended to politically exposed persons. A thumbs up as well | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
to the new failure to prevent our facilitation of tax evasion applied | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
to corporations and reconciliation bodies and we also applaud hmproved | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
data sharing between privatd and public sectors and the government | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
extension of disclosure orddrs to extension of disclosure orddrs to | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
money-laundering investigathons bringing them into line with | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
corruption and fraud investhgations, also to be commended and thd | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
strength and suspicious acthvity reports before the period of | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
investigation was 31 days and note adds up to 186 extra days. We live | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
in an age where terrorism is probably the biggest threat about | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
times so we welcome the extdnsion of powers in this Bill to areas of | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
terrorist property and finances So what is not to like? Well, H think | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
once we acknowledge the steps here once we acknowledge the steps here | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
in tightening the net and corrupt practice, and we're not seeking to | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
defy the House this evening, that is more that could be done to | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
counteract the accusations of the endless status of the UK as a magnet | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
for dirty money. That should be no safe haven, particularly in our own | :02:38. | :02:40. | |
international corruption often turn international corruption often turn | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
up. Taken with its overseas taken trees and Crown dependencies. - | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
territories, the UK as a whole package constitutes the most serious | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
tax jurisdiction in the world. Good work has been done by the Ptblic | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
Accounts Committee on home `ffairs select committee on my right | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
honourable friend for Barking and Leicester East in their reports But | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
not all of their suggestions have been taken up so we suggest that | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
there must be action from m`ny right honourable members from both sides | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
who are flagged up overseas dependence and Crown dependdncies. | :03:23. | :03:24. | |
The British virgin islands `nd The British virgin islands `nd | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
Cayman Islands are some of the worst offenders. And we administer them. | :03:28. | :03:35. | |
This is the most gaping hold of all the trick has been missed hdre. | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
Transparency on these or pax corporate structures of the key part | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
of the solution of this bill does not go there. 75% of the corruption | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
cases investigated by the Metropolitan Police proceeds is a | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
crushing unit involve companies in secrecy jurisdictions and 70% | :03:53. | :03:53. | |
those companies involved ard those companies involved ard | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
registered and UK overseas territories Crown dependenches. We | :04:00. | :04:01. | |
need for transparency in thhs build is not go far enough. Also | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
previously trumpeted in May 201 was failure to prevent economic crime | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
and it is missing here. Without some degree of transparency and company | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
ownership we're not even colpletely aware of the skill of the problem | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
and the damage done. Kenya `nd Nigeria and Afghanistan | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
fourth-seeded the point. -- have all conceded the point. People need | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
resources to weaponry for resources to weaponry for | :04:31. | :04:32. | |
crime-fighting could do with an update. The National crime `gency | :04:33. | :04:40. | |
will have more work so that cost implications. As says is thd success | :04:41. | :04:48. | |
of several bodies being man`ged and notwithstanding their one-off cash | :04:49. | :04:49. | |
injection had the spending review injection had the spending review | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
funding. My right honourabld friend funding. My right honourabld friend | :04:54. | :05:01. | |
for Leicester East raised a very eloquent point that the seediest | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
question marks over the IT system designed to support the reghme. | :05:09. | :05:19. | |
Originally designed for 20,000 it is processing 381,882 of them. A new | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
system was promised and I whll reiterate again when will wd expect | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
this? Will my honourable frhend give way? Does it come off my tile? I can | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
assure her I would never want to come off a time and she's speech and | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
I congratulate on a maiden speech at the front bench. The delay hn Elmer | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
and the new system the government was to Britain to moves on, all that | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
means is there will be more criminal activities of the quicker this done | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
the better. I thank my right honourable friend. She is qtite safe | :06:02. | :06:09. | |
in giving way during a wind,up speech. She has plenty of thme, | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
indeed she has until ten minutes to seven, but I think she will know the | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
House would prefer that she does not take quite a long and she does need | :06:21. | :06:28. | |
to worry. I'm grateful to M`dam Deputy Speaker and my vice friend | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
for his intervention. I will finish well before Tim to seven. Hd makes a | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
very good point that we cannot fight modern sabre was with cataptlts and | :06:41. | :06:49. | |
technology changes are made to upgrade the system. We were told it | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
was happening and we want to know where. New powers for the Sdrious | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
Fraud Office are all well and good that we need officers with the right | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
training. It does seem that the public purse is being used to train | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
officers area of financial crime yet officers area of financial crime | :07:11. | :07:12. | |
we are simultaneously powerless to we are simultaneously powerless to | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
prevent them falling prey to privates sector projects and | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
something should be done thdre. There was to be a working p`rty on | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
the recruitment and retention of investigators so I would like to | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
know what became of that. Are some of these deficiencies to be plant at | :07:30. | :07:36. | |
a later stage? At the moment 27 separate bodies are responshble for | :07:37. | :07:44. | |
asset recovery, the people who investigate the SARs. They `re | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
sometimes funded by the people that they regulate. I am also kedn to | :07:52. | :08:03. | |
know what process is being lade on the arm to crush a strategy dualling | :08:04. | :08:13. | |
of the year? --Tsars. I unddrstand that is a joint council and then of | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
next week. If the minister doesn't know could he have a word whth his | :08:18. | :08:19. | |
friends the Foreign Office to find out if it is not on the agenda and | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
call out by the suggested to be added urgently? And finally, what is | :08:25. | :08:39. | |
the government actually doing at the moment to install transparency in | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
its overseas territory and Crown dependencies? My right arm or friend | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
for Barking and suggested it could at least send a timeline whhch would | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
give them time to adjust. Wd'll give them every support in the mdantime | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
to transition their business? They have propped up this business model | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
for a long time. So the need to move away from facilitating corrtption. | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
Without this action are tax havens I'm afraid the small bits of good | :09:07. | :09:08. | |
news in this bill will be overshadowed by the governmdnts | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
failure to act issues are ilportant area. The government should be able | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
to persuade its own territories of least to follow this lead and | :09:18. | :09:24. | |
several members from both House of paid tribute to the former premise | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
that this here. We asked me to get away from the idea that not paying | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
tax by avoidance and evasion of victimless crimes. Countries the | :09:33. | :09:39. | |
developing world lose three times as much to begin made through tax | :09:40. | :09:44. | |
havens through illicit funds and we laundering and adds up to a Chilean | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
pounds per year and at the same time we are pumping aid into those | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
places. It makes no sense at all. At a time when we should justify every | :09:54. | :10:00. | |
pound spent given our own straitened circumstances, each MRC esthmates at | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
tax gap of ?36 billion incltding 5.2 billion or two Arsenal from tax | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
evasion. I think my right more friend for Barking courted the same | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
figures and the religious scriptures say these are conservative | :10:17. | :10:29. | |
estimates. -- are from tax dvasions. -- there are other interestdd groups | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
who say these are conservathve estimates. You could get 54,054 | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
nurses for the same amount. I think my writer more friend the mdmber for | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
Leicester East said Liverpool record of recovery because they don't pay | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
for themselves, the costs ndeded to recover these. Madam Deputy Speaker, | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
the practices this bill seeks to tackle exposes the dark sidd of | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
globalisation and its links to terrorism and the way that global | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
finance and cross-border crhme and terrorism, all these things can be | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
done nowadays at the click of a mouse. | :11:08. | :11:15. | |
and have we don't want that to happen. We don't want to all the | :11:16. | :11:31. | |
signs they like and people can but more things need to be matched with | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
action. This is then a case of to do better on the Government's report | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
card. I would urge the Government to work together with us and wd will be | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
pressing on some of the isstes outlined today and more bec`use | :11:45. | :11:51. | |
surely, when the opportunitx for a the Government don't want to go down | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
as having we will not opposd this bill and we look forward to | :11:57. | :12:05. | |
constructively looking at its passage thank you, Madam Deputy | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
Speaker. I want to thank honourable and right Honourable members for | :12:11. | :12:13. | |
this informed and valuable debate. There have been some very strong and | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
important contributions and support from and cross-party the prhnciple | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
there have been some discussions at the committee stage. I will come to | :12:27. | :12:34. | |
this there can be no doubt `bout the seriousness of the threat of | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
terrorism and organised crile by the scale of the challenge that we face | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
in combating them. As of July last year, there were around 5800 | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
organised crime groups or the - operating in the UK. Organised crime | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
is thought to cost the UK around ?9 billion and the social and dconomic | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
cost of drug supply are esthmated to be some 10.7 these are not, as the | :12:59. | :13:06. | |
right honourable lady outlined earlier today, faceless thex have an | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
impact on people that we know and they have an impact on the people | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
who live in our own constittencies. As we have heard, the UK is the | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
fantastic place to do busindss, something that we as the Government | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
want to maintain. We gave a very clear message out across thd country | :13:27. | :13:34. | |
we are but if we are to maintain our, we must ensure, that this is | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
one of the cleanest and safdst places to invest. We need to send a | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
very clear message to those who would seek to corrupt legithmate | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
trade. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am grateful to all audible and right | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
Honourable members who have contributed to the debate today the | :13:53. | :14:04. | |
member for Ealing Central Acton and indeed Honourable members from | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
Dumfries Kirkcaldy. I was pleased that my honourable friend h`s to | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
hear that he has been discussing the bill with both the opposition and | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
Scottish National party members prior to today's debate and sharing | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
some of the paperwork some two months ago I know as a convdrsation | :14:27. | :14:33. | |
during the passage of this bill It's clear members across the house | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
want to contribute and have their say in making sure we end up with | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
the robust strong system to be proud of as I know that almost without | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
exception those Honourable lembers who have spoken have understood the | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
importance of these powers `nd have been vocally supportive of ht is of | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
course right button issues like money-laundering and terrorhsm, this | :14:57. | :15:06. | |
bill is presenting a united front. I welcome the fact that an error | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
consultation on the bill, wd are a very diverse group of stakeholders, | :15:11. | :15:19. | |
major banks, law, there has also been an overwhelmingly positive | :15:20. | :15:23. | |
response to its provisions. I wanted to touch any few of the I w`sn't | :15:24. | :15:42. | |
able to contribute to the while I accept there is a huge weight of | :15:43. | :15:45. | |
unity about the provisions here the real action is to do with how | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
enforceable they are and thd danger has been in the past and it is all | :15:50. | :15:56. | |
and more important that. Thd danger is we will put onto the statutory | :15:57. | :16:02. | |
break a lot, often some might regard as rather Draconian which whll end | :16:03. | :16:11. | |
up not being properly enforced by the judiciary when that is due I | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
would have that one caveat hn mind whilst he is absolutely right to see | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
these are very important new powers in relation which wasn't an issue | :16:22. | :16:28. | |
back in 2002 when the act c`me to be. My right honourable fridnd makes | :16:29. | :16:39. | |
importance of the committee stage to make it's where I think he can have | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
a huge amount of faith in the work of my honourable friend to open the | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
debate today and its interpretation to work with colleagues to lake sure | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
that the robust bill. It very clear that that is not going to continue, | :16:53. | :16:59. | |
a country is open for busindss but we also believe in fairness and we | :17:00. | :17:02. | |
want to ensure that fairness prevails. Members across thhs House | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
of top direct a range of issues and a couple of particularly core issues | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
have come up a number around comments made the previous lember of | :17:15. | :17:23. | |
the home affairs select comlittee and others the will have | :17:24. | :17:40. | |
unrestricted and incorporatdd in I have to say, I think the pohnt was | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
made by the Right Honourabld Lady, the member for Barking, who outlined | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
the excellent work and a strong message was given by David Cameron | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
when he was something we ard determined to see continue that .. | :17:55. | :18:02. | |
It is important that we are working very closely with our colle`gues | :18:03. | :18:05. | |
around the world to ensure we have a very strong and robust systdm. We | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
have surely lead on this. Those territories have agreed thex must | :18:12. | :18:19. | |
commit so that the HMI can investigate later this year, HM RIC | :18:20. | :18:28. | |
have new data on billions of -- held in the overseas Territories by I | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
think this is a big step forward and I know we as the honourable friend | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
are determined to ensure th`t we stamp out that kind of behaviour. | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
What's also been mentioned today by honourable friends as well `s the | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
Right Honourable gentleman, the member for issues around funding let | :18:49. | :19:01. | |
me MCA itself has actually had an increase in and police budgdts | :19:02. | :19:08. | |
themselves year, which means that we do actually see that increase coming | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
through, particularly when xou look at the NACA itself which ard million | :19:13. | :19:25. | |
pounds, what was 440. Each LRC has seen that increase in funding, up to | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
3.6 billion with the 241 million imputed that the honourable lady was | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
referring to. I can also be very clear about the fact we are | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
determined to make sure the police and NCA is part of that, have the | :19:39. | :19:42. | |
resources they need to be able to look all of this, the honourable | :19:43. | :19:56. | |
gentleman, the... You'll have to excuse me for resisting for now I | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
have few weeks to all Chief and crime commission is asking them to | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
come and talk to me as we go through that process to deliver, as we said | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
in our election manifesto, ` fairer funding formula for police `nd we | :20:13. | :20:23. | |
will do that. I'm pleased to be that have literally registers of | :20:24. | :20:32. | |
beneficial ownership that m`ny of the members have spoken abott here | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
today. All of the overseas Territories have now agreed to a | :20:37. | :20:40. | |
central registries which will be accessible to law enforcement | :20:41. | :20:42. | |
authorities, we will continte to push for all countries to introduce | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
public registries. This is good news and we will continue to work I'm | :20:47. | :20:54. | |
delighted at that good news that the Minister has just given. Can he | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
confirm whether the announcdment he has been given that those rdgisters | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
will as I just said, my closing few words as he was standing up, we will | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
continue to push for all cotntries to introduce and we will continue to | :21:11. | :21:20. | |
work the other issue raised by his good self as well as the melber for | :21:21. | :21:29. | |
Kirkcaldy and others is the issue. I will hope he to make the pohnt work | :21:30. | :21:48. | |
on that to work Kingston, great contributions today, partictlarly | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
Honourable member for Wilton who outlined the as the part it plays in | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
making sure that back work `round funding of extremism as well. We | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
have discussed the vital importance of this bill in protecting the UK's | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
position and status as a global financial centre and ensure | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
criminals cannot benefit from the proceeds I expect and hope that | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
Honourable and right Honour`ble members will want to give in-depth | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
scrutiny to this bill as thdy have outlined the sacrament as wd move | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
onto a clause by clause exalination committee and I look forward to a | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
lively debate I am proud th`t in comparison to most European | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
countries, we are positioned high in the league table of having ` strong | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
and independent judiciary as well as a determined law enforcement. If we | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
are to maintain our record `nd our position, we need to always stay one | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
step ahead of those that sedk to undermine us. Especially in such a | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
fast-moving global environmdnt. That is why this legislation is so | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
important, it is so reassurhng to see that principle cross-party party | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
supported in this House as ` clear message. For all the proceeds of | :23:02. | :23:12. | |
their crimes, tackle terrorhsm finance and bring more offenders to | :23:13. | :23:15. | |
justice. I hope this House will agree this is what is in thd public | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
interest and this legislation is passed by the earliest opportunity | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
with clear, continued cross,party support and on that basis, H can -- | :23:24. | :23:32. | |
commends this bill to the shgn that the question is on the order paper. | :23:33. | :23:44. | |
As many of that opinion CES? On the Isa have it. We now come to be the | :23:45. | :23:53. | |
question is as on the order paper. As of many of that opinion, no? The | :23:54. | :24:02. | |
yes have it. And the money resolution to be moved formdrly The | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
question is as on the order paper. As many of yes? On the contrary no? | :24:08. | :24:14. | |
The yes have it. The we now come electricity. As many h`ve it | :24:15. | :24:34. | |
ayes? The ayes habit. We cole to motion number six on ministdr to | :24:35. | :24:41. | |
move. The question is as on the order paper. As many of that yes? | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
The ayes to thank you Madam Deptty | :24:47. | :25:00. | |
Speaker. I am delighted for this opportunity to present this petition | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
to the house is calling for fear transitional arrangements for 1 50s | :25:06. | :25:15. | |
born women who are... Other people should not be standing up in this | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
chamber while Mr Boswell is speaking. If members wish to leave, | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
they should do so swiftly and quietly. Mr Philip Boswell. Thank | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
you again, Madam Deputy Spe`ker 1950s born women who are affected by | :25:29. | :25:37. | |
changes to the state pension change, that group the Government's | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
ministers promised transitional arrangements to ease that btrden but | :25:42. | :25:49. | |
those have not constituency and many others facing hardship. I thank all | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
those who have signed the pdtition and those in similar terms presented | :25:54. | :25:57. | |
by other vulnerable members. I thank the office for their work. The | :25:58. | :26:06. | |
petition states, of the declares that as a result of the way in | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
between 1995 pensions act and the 2011 pensions act were impldmented, | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
women born in the 1950s on or after the 6th of April 1951 have tnfairly | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
born the burden of the incrdase to the state pension age. Further, that | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
hundreds of thousands of wolen have had significant changes imposed upon | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
them with little or. Implemdntation took place faster than promhsed | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
further that this gave no thme to make alternative pension pl`ns and | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
further at that retirement plans have been shattered with thd House | :26:41. | :26:53. | |
of Commons urges the Governlent to. Who have an unfairly born the burden | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
of the increase to is a, implementation of the 199 and | :26:57. | :27:22. | |
to those 11 pensioners. This monthly pension acts. The question hs that | :27:23. | :27:34. | |
this House do know adjourn. -- now adjourn. I know this is a pdrsistent | :27:35. | :27:42. | |
cause of mine and I sometimds feel I should apologise to the Minhster for | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
bringing to this place to dhscuss this portfolio so I want to save it | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
said how impressed I and many others in this have been pressed bx his | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
commitment to this agenda. Ly comments are in no way addrdssed to | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
him and his God to work so hard It is not easy. The political work is | :28:07. | :28:15. | |
chaotic at present. -- political world. Prizes are hard to ddfine the | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
truth is the challenge and closing the gap on what we say from that | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
dispatch botched and how it feels to our men and women and said hncreases | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
in severity along with the bid. -- dispatch box. There's the ongoing | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
cost of the recent campaign as country is undertaken in Afghanistan | :28:35. | :28:48. | |
and Iraq. People are now experiencing battle fatigue know | :28:49. | :28:49. | |
that operations are bidding from that operations are bidding from | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
public view and I regret to say from government as well. In Janu`ry last | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
year I met the previous by Linister and presented a report to hhm that | :28:58. | :29:00. | |
for the first time had almost universal support across thd | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
veterans care sector. It ex`mined as the sustainable veterans care model. | :29:05. | :29:14. | |
I also presented to the Secretary of State for Defence and others. The | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
paper was not my solution btt for many involved in the arena, serving | :29:19. | :29:24. | |
and retired. And those in the third sector. It was greeted with warm | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
words about duty responsibility and the promise of a response btt after | :29:29. | :29:32. | |
awhile, regrettably nothing really materialise all. I'm very grateful | :29:33. | :29:40. | |
to him for giving way and m`y congratulate him accusing this | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
debate and all that he does in this field. -- securing this deb`te. The | :29:47. | :29:52. | |
point of single contact is one. Can I invite to read another paper, the | :29:53. | :29:57. | |
Armed Forces weighty health and well-being team from Dorset. Can I | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
invite to look at that and see how that fits in with his model as well? | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
I would be delighted to look at that and I will take that forward from | :30:06. | :30:14. | |
there. In the current polithcal landscape I fear that veter`ns care | :30:15. | :30:17. | |
has received other good punt down the road after Brexit. I fedl the | :30:18. | :30:30. | |
new Prime Minister is to tackle a job that can seem impossibld. I | :30:31. | :30:35. | |
could not wish a more strength to take on these charges supporter to a | :30:36. | :30:42. | |
fault. I believe you'd achidve nothing on your own politics and the | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
strength to tackle the challenges ahead on this team on this side of | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
the House but I must confess that I'm disappointed on first shght and | :30:51. | :30:56. | |
the single issue. In July I challenge the premised on hdr | :30:57. | :30:59. | |
leadership campaign in front of my entire party about a commitlent to | :31:00. | :31:01. | |
this agenda and a willingness to look at the government department or | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
something similar to finallx much words with deeds becomes thd 2. | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
million veterans in country. How response which is not keen to | :31:12. | :31:14. | |
departments beyond the department departments beyond the department | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
for exiting the European Unhon which I can well understand but you can | :31:20. | :31:21. | |
imagine my concerns as to whether imagine my concerns as to whether | :31:22. | :31:25. | |
that Vince will item agenda over the summer. As I alluded to regtlarly I | :31:26. | :31:35. | |
support the government that did not widen the stores too. I was further | :31:36. | :31:37. | |
concerned that the veterans care agenda was being polluted. The | :31:38. | :31:47. | |
Minister today spoke more stddenly. That is increasingly enormots | :31:48. | :31:49. | |
challenge as the military reconfigures its relationshhp with | :31:50. | :31:52. | |
the reserves this country hdading into 2020. This was a clear movement | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
which we were pursuing which is not which we were pursuing which is not | :31:58. | :32:00. | |
a notice by those who strivd in this field to deliver this country's duty | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
to those who serve. That is where we are tonight with an ever increasing | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
demand and the general and very understandable declining interest in | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
this agenda now the vessel wounds of war and not flying back frol Iraq or | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
Afghanistan every week and the government challenged by | :32:19. | :32:21. | |
unprecedented political dem`nds I hear what he says in regards to the | :32:22. | :32:27. | |
fading memory when one of mx constituents came to see me the | :32:28. | :32:34. | |
legacy of the injuries which he sustained in Iraq with everx day. He | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
talked about sustainability which my honourable friend stalking `bout as | :32:39. | :32:44. | |
well. -- spoken about as well. He also spoke about the need for a | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
simple transparent system for those who served with potentially | :32:49. | :32:52. | |
life-threatening life impacting entities need to have a mord simple | :32:53. | :32:58. | |
way in getting the help thex are entitled to. -- injuries. I entirely | :32:59. | :33:05. | |
agree and I will come onto later than the speech about the four key | :33:06. | :33:14. | |
tenets of which that is one. We all these people and we must deliver it. | :33:15. | :33:26. | |
challenge the government to do its challenge the government to do its | :33:27. | :33:29. | |
duty to those who do the bidding from the size and annoyed c`n be | :33:30. | :33:32. | |
tedious watching a blessing to me keeping on again about this agenda | :33:33. | :33:40. | |
and I do not do it because H've nothing else to do because that are | :33:41. | :33:43. | |
particularly good career prospects this line of work because that is | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
some of intangible crowd th`t I play too. I do it for the one silple | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
thing that also many others the last decade and a half to conduct an | :33:53. | :33:58. | |
popular was on the ballot this nation and that one word whhch I | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
remember compelling that Maria referred to by patrol to do his duty | :34:03. | :34:08. | |
and refusing a belief in it and seeking out explosive devicds for | :34:09. | :34:11. | |
seven long once they are today. The kind of thing that makes our young | :34:12. | :34:19. | |
loses composure in heat of battle as loses composure in heat of battle as | :34:20. | :34:24. | |
he died in front of his men. It is my duty to these men to keep up this | :34:25. | :34:33. | |
fight and a sacrifice I makd and do -- in doing this is so small | :34:34. | :34:35. | |
compared to those of you must keep going. -- that I must keep going. I | :34:36. | :34:45. | |
applaud the government efforts on this agenda but it is nowhere near | :34:46. | :34:48. | |
enough. I have no doubt whatsoever that this minister and a st`rt-up | :34:49. | :34:52. | |
night and day trying to delhver this agenda but you can only work with | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
the resource and priorities he is given by the Secretary of State for | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
Defence and by Minister. I thank him for giving way and attraction | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
congratulate him for securing this incredibly important debate. I | :35:07. | :35:09. | |
normally shares my concerns about normally shares my concerns about | :35:10. | :35:12. | |
the mental health veterans of this country. Does he share very specific | :35:13. | :35:17. | |
concern about the availabilhty of mental health services for our | :35:18. | :35:20. | |
veterans which we know and several parts of the country are patchy I | :35:21. | :35:28. | |
thank her for her interventhon. The truth is this mental health issue | :35:29. | :35:31. | |
that we have moved so far away from getting involved in getting our | :35:32. | :35:35. | |
hands dirty and sorting this out that we are now in danger of being | :35:36. | :35:38. | |
in a place where the perception is that everybody who leads thd Armed | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
Forces has some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder is | :35:43. | :35:45. | |
wildly inaccurate and we nedd to provide services for those who need | :35:46. | :35:50. | |
it and I completely agree whth my right honourable friend. Given his | :35:51. | :35:57. | |
current operating envelope the Minister has achieves significant | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
things. Let's take his work in the health care arena. For servhce | :36:02. | :36:07. | |
personnel and veterans pay scheme announced in July assuming the | :36:08. | :36:11. | |
palaces successful could fundamentally change the wax care | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
for most seriously injured hs using the pressure on local CCG 's and | :36:16. | :36:18. | |
retaining knowledge and expdrtise for those who have been injtred | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
This is a first step and I would urge the Prime Minister to note the | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
early successes of the schele and look to roll it out nationwhde. | :36:27. | :36:30. | |
Again I would play for him `nd his department not to take my | :36:31. | :36:32. | |
observations personally. He conducts observations personally. He conducts | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
valuable work but it is my job to speak the truth and I would be | :36:39. | :36:41. | |
filling my job if I did not do that. I think the truth is the evhdence | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
and the evidence is not endless announcements about what we have put | :36:46. | :36:49. | |
into the sector. These annotncements are cooler to be welcomed though I | :36:50. | :36:52. | |
cannot help but feel they are rather plain to home crowd. The evhdence | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
for this is how what we do `ctually effect on matters those who we are | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
trying to help. I have a long time said that until we fundamentally | :37:03. | :37:06. | |
change this conversation from what we are endlessly pouring into the | :37:07. | :37:09. | |
sector to what it actually feels like to be a veteran in the United | :37:10. | :37:14. | |
Kingdom in 2016 we will nevdr truly understand the scale of the work to | :37:15. | :37:19. | |
be done. I would say to the Secretary of State for Defence the | :37:20. | :37:22. | |
premise that the evidence is there if only we were to look. A study | :37:23. | :37:27. | |
done just before summer recdss indicated that 85% of veter`ns feel | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
that the UK Government does not support them well enough. 84%. The | :37:32. | :37:41. | |
much heralded Armed Forces covenant, 84% did not believe it is bding | :37:42. | :37:45. | |
implemented and even half of them serving and not heard of thd Armed | :37:46. | :37:51. | |
Forces covenant. We need to think about how this is being implemented | :37:52. | :37:59. | |
and it is a lot of the, a choice lottery where local authorities and | :38:00. | :38:06. | |
others choose to implement ht and this question is whether government | :38:07. | :38:09. | |
is in reality for our service men and women. It has become catchphrase | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
number ten that it is quickly increasingly becoming meaningless to | :38:16. | :38:18. | |
the service community unless we stop this trend. I see this as someone | :38:19. | :38:25. | |
who met privately with the previous premise that last week. He was a | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
good man and someone who generally got the military in this cotntry and | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
I could tell his genuine prhde in his achievements of this policy but | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
the gap between the top and the reality on the ground is so vast. I | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
reference one study for evidence of truth there are many. In thhs | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
country will be blessed for some time by a public on the third sector | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
which is done wonders for Armed Forces veterans of the year. The | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
thousands who work in the sdctor for little reward, of them I want to | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
mention one couple have left the sector in recent months leaving the | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
indelible mark and the convdrsations around veteran skier in the kingdom | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
are forever changed. Rick P`rry and his wife Emma setup Help For Heroes | :39:09. | :39:16. | |
in 2007 as a result of the catastrophic dereliction of care for | :39:17. | :39:19. | |
veterans but they know to ghve them the government in the early days of | :39:20. | :39:23. | |
Afghanistan and Iraq. The third sector presents its challenges as | :39:24. | :39:26. | |
much as any other sector in this country in so congested market | :39:27. | :39:29. | |
competing for the same fundhng and trying their best to do what they | :39:30. | :39:32. | |
veterans. You will hear good and bad veterans. You will hear good and bad | :39:33. | :39:39. | |
of every organisation. But the truth for this is that Help For Hdroes is | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
completely and fundamentallx changed her veteran skier Hamza 's country | :39:44. | :39:47. | |
today. Like any success story Help For Heroes are that the tractors and | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
I'm not naive to this but I will never countenance, I'm afrahd. I'm | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
from the generation who had nowhere else to go in 2007 for a veteran | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
skier. They proved faster than any other similar organisation hn | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
history and that things are many neglect. They retained a focus on | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
who it is all about, the guxs and the girls. You have now passed your | :40:09. | :40:13. | |
torch to your successors. Btt your light will never go out. From a | :40:14. | :40:18. | |
generation of soldiers who felt nothing really geared -- nobody | :40:19. | :40:21. | |
want to thank you to the bottom of want to thank you to the bottom of | :40:22. | :40:25. | |
our hearts for what you did and he committed your light of this pursuit | :40:26. | :40:28. | |
and delivered extraordinary change of sugar to we would be without you. | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
As much as shudder to think we would be without you. -- I shudder to | :40:35. | :40:44. | |
think we will be without yot. Disagree with me that the | :40:45. | :40:46. | |
responsibility is to support responsibility is to support | :40:47. | :40:48. | |
veterans integrate back into civilian life and should sugar don't | :40:49. | :40:50. | |
find themselves homeless is critical? I do and I would commend | :40:51. | :40:56. | |
the work of some of the brilliant charities that we have gottdn this | :40:57. | :41:00. | |
country and I shudder to thhnk we would be without them. | :41:01. | :41:10. | |
the state it's not good enotgh, the Americans realise that he is making | :41:11. | :41:24. | |
I am proud to represent the town of Colchester and I know too wdll the | :41:25. | :41:28. | |
fantastic charities that work in the sector that has been withdr`wn from | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
theatres does he agree this is the time that we should be investing | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
that money in supporting our veterans? I thank him for hhs | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
intervention. I would absolttely support what he is saying. We are | :41:42. | :41:51. | |
reaching a point of the mindset and the money is declining as wdll and | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
if we don't get this right now, it will be far too late I thank him. He | :41:55. | :42:05. | |
is making a very passionate case as always a point about a charhty which | :42:06. | :42:16. | |
and their these out providing emotional and practical help could | :42:17. | :42:19. | |
provide very good models for the Government to incorporate in all the | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
things that my honourable there are some brilliant there are cases out | :42:27. | :42:34. | |
there we could learn from qtite quickly, not only in this country | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
that internationally as well. The but there is a job the Government | :42:40. | :42:44. | |
are doing bringing it the third sector remains a deeply challenging | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
one and that is the reason for this debate tonight. There are almost two | :42:48. | :42:54. | |
and a half thousand militarx charity funds in but this gives you a | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
picture into the chaos. I would not be here having this debate hf either | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
every single one of the charities was doing good. It is an awkward | :43:02. | :43:05. | |
conversation that we do not have it we will be doing a disservice to | :43:06. | :43:09. | |
those we are trying to help. Some charities struggle with fin`ncial | :43:10. | :43:14. | |
management, some are crimin`l. Some practice evidence -based thdrapies | :43:15. | :43:25. | |
and to nonetheless unproven the veterinary staff management which | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
means we must sort this problem out as time goes on, the Iraq and | :43:31. | :43:35. | |
Afghanistan generation Warrhors will fade from memory. We will bd on the | :43:36. | :43:39. | |
same pages as the Falklands and the Gulf War, as the same chaptdr of the | :43:40. | :43:42. | |
Americans in Vietnam and thd public will stop giving and income in some | :43:43. | :43:48. | |
other major charities is down by a third this financial year. No | :43:49. | :43:56. | |
organisation can this will eventually run out. The dutx to our | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
veterans will only increase as the scars of our recent worries reveal | :44:01. | :44:09. | |
themselves feel to combat stress are up 71%. Now is the time to have this | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
dirty fight of sorting out the third sector. I can't help but fedl that | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
most of the sector would th`nk us for it. The load criminal charges as | :44:18. | :44:25. | |
much as I do, they feel when they struggle like everyone else, the | :44:26. | :44:29. | |
coast the lack of a comment needs assessment so we have to st`rt each | :44:30. | :44:32. | |
case from scratch causing more trauma to the individual ushng their | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
services. If we don't have this fight and the Government ard the | :44:37. | :44:39. | |
only ones who can do it, it looks like we don't care. We don't want to | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
have this conversation becatse it is too difficult, too dirty for us to | :44:44. | :44:46. | |
get involved. I'm afraid it comes back to what I was discussing at the | :44:47. | :44:58. | |
beginning, it duty. The to dnsure veterans's care in this country to | :44:59. | :45:05. | |
ensure it is accessible to `ll, particularly our too many h`ve no | :45:06. | :45:08. | |
idea how to access some of the brilliant services provided by our | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
third sector. To insure it hs be standard and a safety that hs | :45:13. | :45:15. | |
applicable to those who havd served or indeed any other UK citizen. To | :45:16. | :45:20. | |
ensure it is evidence -based, correctly staffed to insure cases | :45:21. | :45:26. | |
are managed and individuals are guided through these are enormously | :45:27. | :45:29. | |
complex treatment pathways, to ensure that the great British public | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
who have carried this chargd for so long do not get ripped off by | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
individuals raising money which the British public will never stop he is | :45:39. | :45:50. | |
making a very powerful speech in which are set before the veterans | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
leave the service, it is not good enough to allow them to just after | :45:55. | :46:01. | |
they've left the forces. It seems to be happening is of the cases I've | :46:02. | :46:11. | |
some education before peopld leave would be helpful. I underst`nd there | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
is a more any third direction this pathway is sure to be welcole. Why | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
do we have to do this? I wotld ask you Madam Deputy Speaker to beat | :46:24. | :46:26. | |
yourselves in the shoes of the average user, a corporal two or | :46:27. | :46:30. | |
three years out who gave his best years of his. Now any civilhan job | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
he starts to find his past ` chance to deal with. We have seen them in | :46:37. | :46:40. | |
our constituencies up and down this land, he doesn't want sympathy. He | :46:41. | :46:45. | |
was proud to serve this nathon of errors, he just wants to know | :46:46. | :46:48. | |
vertigo. He doesn't want to have to retell his story all the tile. His | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
wife wants to know that the quality is doing is says, he will bd looked | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
after, his treatment has a fair chance of working. She wants to know | :46:58. | :47:06. | |
that someone crucially, she wants to know that he will get that help in a | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
timely manner before his condition deteriorates and becomes so much | :47:12. | :47:19. | |
harder and so I congratulatd you on securing such an important debate. | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
Would you that the Armed Forces covenant should maybe an opportunity | :47:25. | :47:32. | |
that in places like Staffordshire relocation of people from Gdrmany to | :47:33. | :47:35. | |
the Staffordshire Regiment, it now means that we can actually think | :47:36. | :47:40. | |
about the next ten or 30 ye`rs by how we help veterans now and when | :47:41. | :47:43. | |
they retire so they can build real families and homes and not worry | :47:44. | :47:45. | |
about some of the issues th`t younger | :47:46. | :47:57. | |
members it is a complete lottery and I've seen it done well, I'vd seen at | :47:58. | :48:03. | |
an appallingly. There is no accountability that which is why I | :48:04. | :48:07. | |
hate to use the phrase about it becoming meaningless but unless it | :48:08. | :48:10. | |
means something, it's just `nother phrase. It get out of jail from the | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
dispatch box in terms of talking about it. That's | :48:15. | :48:24. | |
what I does he accept the mhlitary Government has many huge te`ms | :48:25. | :48:42. | |
to Government I wouldn't dismiss what I but I refer him back to the | :48:43. | :48:56. | |
evidence which 85% is a significant who don't believe that that is the | :48:57. | :49:04. | |
case in looking at all this, I really struggled a bit my fhnger on | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
why any of this is so desperately hard the Government to achidve. | :49:09. | :49:19. | |
Nobody else is the third -- fake charities to succeed. It nedds | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
leadership, it needs a small but strong department with a cabinet | :49:25. | :49:35. | |
falls on veteran's carer. In the. To actually delivering it. It needs the | :49:36. | :49:39. | |
game changing events such as the Help For Heroes provided in 200 . It | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
is within the PM's gift to do this and I would plead with her there are | :49:45. | :49:49. | |
always reasons not to and I've heard them all. But every ally we fought | :49:50. | :49:57. | |
alongside have tried ways to create a separate department for vdterans | :49:58. | :49:58. | |
affairs and we should we mustn't give the impression, Madam | :49:59. | :50:28. | |
Deputy Speaker, that help and charity, the that all these | :50:29. | :50:32. | |
charities have helped for a very long time and and continue H think | :50:33. | :50:44. | |
we must that these people who have helped my soldiers from, who unlike, | :50:45. | :50:56. | |
at least to start with, Help For Heroes that did nothing. I just want | :50:57. | :51:04. | |
to rise and say please, this House, do not see that help was a get on | :51:05. | :51:15. | |
with the job. They did and they carried and they looked aftdr our | :51:16. | :51:24. | |
men and women I thank my honourable friend for his intervention and I | :51:25. | :51:34. | |
have I do believe the changd the market when it came to veteranthe | :51:35. | :51:42. | |
charity sector has carried this burden for and people like lyself | :51:43. | :51:46. | |
and my honourable friend will be enormously grateful for I whll close | :51:47. | :51:58. | |
now, Madam I wanted to give than I gave in the last time. This duty is | :51:59. | :52:06. | |
not going for my colleagues in this place for my persistence on this | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
matter which must appear yot cannot have had the experience I h`ve had | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
for one has seen and felt the sacrifice of our Armed Forcds Day | :52:18. | :52:21. | |
after day far from the publhc gaze and give up this torch now. I am | :52:22. | :52:26. | |
privileged beyond anything `nd I will use and abuse that privileged | :52:27. | :52:30. | |
until the situation changes because they deserve it. Some lost body | :52:31. | :52:42. | |
parts they would lost wives in a process that is ongoing to the MA | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
deserved a country and a Government that cares in the world I fhnd so | :52:47. | :52:54. | |
incredibly selfish and cruel, they sacrificed. That is without | :52:55. | :53:02. | |
mentioning, I said at my first day here and it will forever relain | :53:03. | :53:10. | |
true. The years on this nathon's continuing freedom and we mtst never | :53:11. | :53:15. | |
tire in duty I will not havd to repeat this to many | :53:16. | :53:27. | |
were I start by congratulathng my honourable friend the his sterling | :53:28. | :53:38. | |
work and passion in ensuring that our veterans have the necessary | :53:39. | :53:45. | |
support and welfare that thdy deserve as a veteran himself he is | :53:46. | :53:50. | |
well placed to speak to the House on their behalf. Since arriving in the | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
House in 2015, he has made ht his mission to campaign on this and | :53:56. | :53:59. | |
whilst I cannot claim to be a veteran quite yet, although last | :54:00. | :54:06. | |
week I was described at the Army borders seasoned oak, it cldarly | :54:07. | :54:15. | |
can't through my more the ilportance of this subject. Equally, I am | :54:16. | :54:21. | |
grateful to him for his concern about my ever although, I confess | :54:22. | :54:30. | |
with reserves added a serving member of the Army reserves and a Royal | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
engineer for 20 years, I usdd to say "aye" look far too long to have been | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
a Royal engineer for 20 years but I fear now I do not it is least a | :54:40. | :54:45. | |
brief I have some basic understanding on and didn't have to | :54:46. | :54:53. | |
do too comments are in need of it the armed it is really the | :54:54. | :54:58. | |
recognition that the nation as well as the Government have a | :54:59. | :55:02. | |
responsibility to ensure th`t our veterans suffer at no disadvantage | :55:03. | :55:08. | |
as a result of there was implication that the Cabinet has not bedn | :55:09. | :55:14. | |
applied consistently across the United Kingdom. This is a concern | :55:15. | :55:18. | |
that I have had for some tile, which is why earlier this year, I | :55:19. | :55:26. | |
commissioned the to do a review of the covenant across they have | :55:27. | :55:35. | |
recently report which is effectively aimed at showing best practhce and I | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
would encourage any of my colleagues in the house tonight to beat that | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
report and, crucially, the light that best practice and encotrage | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
their local authorities to follow it. There are some fantastic and it | :55:50. | :55:56. | |
will come as no surprise th`t those local authorities would seel to do | :55:57. | :56:00. | |
it best are those with the greatest proportion of members of thd Armed | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
Forces. I would simply use this opportunity to send please spread | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
that report far and wide because that is the means with which we can | :56:11. | :56:12. | |
begin to improve a level of We have been supporting an tmbrella | :56:13. | :56:30. | |
organisation of 250 charitids and plasterwork and I will talk about | :56:31. | :56:33. | |
this in greater detail throtghout the course of the debate. Mx | :56:34. | :56:36. | |
honourable friend and I agrde on many things, though I fear that is | :56:37. | :56:42. | |
one that we do not. I once `gain note the reference made by ly | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
honourable friend for the sdparate department for veterans. I can only | :56:47. | :56:50. | |
repeat what I said at the ddbate in March this year that on bal`nce I | :56:51. | :56:53. | |
did not believe this to be the best approach although of course if it | :56:54. | :56:57. | |
does mean that I end up in the Cabinet then perhaps maybe he could | :56:58. | :57:02. | |
persuade me to change my mind but I feel it would not be me that were to | :57:03. | :57:09. | |
be in the Cabinet. The needs of veterans fired up Whitehall | :57:10. | :57:12. | |
boundaries national borders because first and foremost they are veterans | :57:13. | :57:17. | |
previously that was my honotrable previously that was my honotrable | :57:18. | :57:20. | |
friend and I agree in the end we did not necessarily agree on thd means. | :57:21. | :57:27. | |
I fear our veterans ministrx would duplicate work which alreadx exists | :57:28. | :57:30. | |
throughout the Department of Health and the Department for Work and | :57:31. | :57:33. | |
Pensions and apartment for communities and local government and | :57:34. | :57:38. | |
many organisations and government agencies. I also believe th`t the | :57:39. | :57:44. | |
work of defence business services, veterans UK, provides a valtable | :57:45. | :57:45. | |
service bringing together pdnsions service bringing together pdnsions | :57:46. | :57:53. | |
in compensation and welfare support. He is making an important point | :57:54. | :57:57. | |
about whether or not a department of veterans affairs is better for | :57:58. | :58:02. | |
westerns are worse. -- veterans Would that demotivate those and | :58:03. | :58:13. | |
apartment block in pets elsdwhere who are committed to the veterans | :58:14. | :58:18. | |
issue and would then say th`t is not to do with me, that is over to them? | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
I think to a degree it comes back to the principle of the Armed Forces | :58:24. | :58:26. | |
covenant which is really an agreement between the nation as a | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
whole and are veterans. I would hate to think that we move to a position | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
responsibility to a single responsibility to a single | :58:36. | :58:38. | |
department allowing others to feel that somehow it is not their | :58:39. | :58:42. | |
responsibility to play a role in supporting our veterans. I do | :58:43. | :58:46. | |
believe that the current system where responsibility for veterans | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
across government is a positive move. Yes, more should be done to | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
ensure that all are playing the part but I think I would agree on balance | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
of my honourable friend that probably would be a retrogr`de step | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
to have a dedicated veterans department and I think we nded not | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
look too far across the Atl`ntic to see some of the problems thdy have | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
their and this is not simplx financial but the very complex way | :59:15. | :59:15. | |
in which care is given to otr in which care is given to otr | :59:16. | :59:20. | |
veterans can be diverted and the author have the advantage of the | :59:21. | :59:23. | |
National Health Service which is a very comprehensive health sdrvice | :59:24. | :59:26. | |
the thing that is a very good medium in which to support our vetdrans. | :59:27. | :59:39. | |
I have listened very carefully to what honourable gentleman s`id and I | :59:40. | :59:45. | |
also great respect to my honourable friend from Plymouth. But I asked a | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
question you are the veterans Minister and I take it. He the | :59:50. | :59:58. | |
veterans Minister. I'm getthng carried away. The honourabld | :59:59. | :00:06. | |
gentleman is the veterans Mhnister and as the veterans most I take it | :00:07. | :00:11. | |
that you actually have fingdrs and other ministries such as he`lth and | :00:12. | :00:17. | |
from your own efforts that veterans from your own efforts that veterans | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
are well served and you are the focus. The honourable gentldman is | :00:23. | :00:31. | |
getting me seriously carried away. It is his fault. I certainlx am the | :00:32. | :00:42. | |
only minister with veterans and his title. I'm certainly prepardd to say | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
that take the lead and veterans matters. I would however argue with | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
my honourable friend that all ministers and government should have | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
veterans on their mind. And do what they can to support our vetdrans, so | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
yes, I am happy to take the lead and yes, I am happy to have the title | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
and my portfolio and yes, I am happy to try and ensure that all of my | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
ministerial colleagues also show the same interest but I would not want | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
to be the only minister was sole responsibility for veterans for | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
reasons I gave for men answdred my honourable friend for North | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
Wiltshire. Despite this, I do recognise that the Ministry of | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
Defence has a responsibilitx to ensure that the transition from | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
service to civilian life is as smooth as possible. Allowing service | :01:36. | :01:46. | |
bosses are they might -- service personnel to have transferable | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
skills of the abandoned servers But I'm not saying there's not lore that | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
could and should be done. I believe firmly that effective transhtion to | :01:55. | :01:57. | |
civilian life as a major factor to ensuring effective care. I lust | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
emphasise that most service leaders transfer well to civilian lhfe | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
through a robust and effecthve settlement system known as ` career | :02:09. | :02:11. | |
transition partnership which has helped 85% of service leavers find | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
sustainable employment in 2014 015 sustainable employment in 2014 015 | :02:17. | :02:24. | |
in six months. But I do unddrstand there is a small percentage of | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
service leavers who did not make a smooth transition and those are the | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
people that we must work hard to identify and support. This hs also | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
why am keen to include a qudstion on veterans and the National cdnsus. | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
This will help us identify the veteran community and I asstre my | :02:42. | :02:44. | |
honourable friend that I will continue to pursue this | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
energetically with the Office of National Statistics. Would he also | :02:48. | :03:00. | |
ensure that his colleague, the Secretary of State for the Cabinet | :03:01. | :03:02. | |
Office, is fully briefed on this? And then of the day the ONS and not | :03:03. | :03:11. | |
vital marker for the future. Here we vital marker for the future. Here we | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
have a perfect example of why it is so important that the responsibility | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
for veterans is across government peace because as the veterans | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
Minister it is not within mx power to force the chief statistician to | :03:25. | :03:34. | |
Cabinet Office do have, I understand Cabinet Office do have, I understand | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
of my honourable friend is right, the ability to do that. Transition | :03:38. | :03:49. | |
is seen as a through to measure it process and as people join the Armed | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
Forces they concede they not only have the possible to have the full | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
career but also that wanted it will become as avoiding the need to | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
prepare for this. Career tr`nsition to start a day one of service and we | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
must indicate this message the very first day and individual johnts | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
However whether our veterans who have had difficulties in tr`nsition | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
the government, local authorities in charge of the sector must step in to | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
ensure they afforded appropriate support. Alongside the government | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
some tuna have thousands service charities also play a role. The | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
Confederation of service ch`rities and which many of the charities and | :04:27. | :04:36. | |
a member discuss mental health and housing and encourage collective | :04:37. | :04:42. | |
working and to raise ideas to implement solutions. To esthmate | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
some of the ideas make the debate in March in relation to the role of | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
charities in the veterans c`re sector we value our partnership with | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
the charitable acuity sectors which address wider welfare requirements | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
particularly to the more vulnerable individuals in the Armed Forces | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
committee. Last week I chaired the ministerial service charitids board | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
meeting attended by relevant government officials and Help For | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
Heroes of the Royal British Legion and others. The recognition of some | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
of the concerns my honourable friend races I reset its role with a focus | :05:18. | :05:19. | |
on cooperation and a strategic on cooperation and a strategic | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
approach to discussions where actions are taking on current and a | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
portent issues arising in the sector. -- important. I do believe | :05:30. | :05:39. | |
that accountability is important. As Minister for veterans I do walk a | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
tightrope when it comes to dealing with charities. Automatically I have | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
no power to direct a charitx to do anything. Charities are not | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
responsible to government, charities are responsible to the trustees but | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
role in providing leadership to try role in providing leadership to try | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
supporting veterans and this is a supporting veterans and this is a | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
role I try to fulfil. Help For Heroes is a charity that st`rted off | :06:09. | :06:15. | |
in 2007 and the Armed Forces having recently re-engage in Afghanistan | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
have stayed there for a further seven years. The support inhtially | :06:19. | :06:25. | |
divided by Help For Heroes forefoot for the horrendous injuries | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
Throughout the seven years `nd Throughout the seven years `nd | :06:29. | :06:30. | |
beyond along with improvements equipment we have made great strides | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
in ensuring the best medical support available by medical charithes and | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
the NHS. I would like to take this opportunity to major route to | :06:42. | :06:52. | |
Brennan and Emma Parry. -- lajor tribute to Bryn. I had meethng with | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
the Deputy Minister. It couldn't come any sooner. In Northern Ireland | :07:01. | :07:07. | |
be fired 100 veterans of last year and a half of last year and I have | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
tried to commit suicide. Those veterans who served in Afgh`nistan | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
did not have any regimental Association. What can be done to | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
reach those people who are tnder the radar who nobody knows about but who | :07:22. | :07:24. | |
are affected very quickly bx what they have seen? I intend to visit | :07:25. | :07:33. | |
Northern Ireland shortly because for reasons that are obvious we have a | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
unique set of circumstances over there witch am determined to do my | :07:39. | :07:40. | |
bit to address that medicathon is the key. It is important, and I will | :07:41. | :07:50. | |
get on this in a moment, to make sure that services and support are | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
predicated and too often th`t is help out there but it's not clear | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
how our veterans access that. I intend to say a few words about that | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
at the moment of the honour`ble gentleman will bear with me. And | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
from the House earlier this year of a plan to improve the care received | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
by the most seriously injurdd and how the dependent service vdterans | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
and personnel. Cover this is delivered by a number of separate | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
illnesses including Ministrx of Defence and the NHS and a ntmber of | :08:22. | :08:24. | |
charities and similar organhsations. We have a pilot on menses cleared of | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
this kind coordinated and ddlivered by an new high dependency c`re | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
system. It produces a joined up an improved system of care for the | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
community groups. The early signs community groups. The early signs | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
are that this is going well and I'm happy once it is established to how | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
will we can extend it to a wider cohort of veterans. On that very | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
point can I invite the minister to point can I invite the minister to | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
look at the Dorset model as mentioned a few minutes ago? To see | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
that feed into the model thd that feed into the model thd | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
ministers just averted. I would be delighted to look at than model | :09:08. | :09:15. | |
That model will provide confidence for a small number of indivhduals | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
and families that their clinical and sport needs will be continud to be | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
met and leave the Armed Forces and for the rest of the lives. Hn | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
relation to the point of a single point of contact for veterans I have | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
good news. The Armed Forces covenant fund has ?10 million each ydar to | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
support the covenant by funding projects which address spechfic | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
priorities. One of those behng the creation of veterans gatewax. They | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
love this initiative is to provide a single point of contact via a fully | :09:44. | :09:50. | |
transactional website and bx telephone providing information | :09:51. | :09:51. | |
clearing house which takes hnto account the needs of all veterans | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
they may be located. The announcement will be made vdry | :09:55. | :10:01. | |
shortly on the preferred bidder of this contract with this fachlity | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
been launched in 2017. Further to this we have the Armed Forcds | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
covenant website itself which is serving and former serving personnel | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
may access. The support of our veterans and the services that are | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
provided for the welfare is not perfect but I, like my honotrable | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
friend and all on members hdre tonight, are determined to do more. | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
Important work is being dond by the government for the communithes of | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
local government is supportdd housing, ensuring that local | :10:34. | :10:34. | |
authorities have afforded bx at authorities have afforded bx at | :10:35. | :10:39. | |
Devizes June. They have also introduced various measures to | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
improve access to social hotsing for the service community which includes | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
changing the law to ensure seriously injured personnel and veter`ns with | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
serious housing needs are ghven high priority for social housing by local | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
authorities. In health NHS Dngland are bringing in new initiathves for | :11:00. | :11:01. | |
mental health provision services for veterans, the details of whhch M O D | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
officials have provided expdrt input to. These are just a few ex`mples of | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
the collaborative work we'rd putting into government. | :11:14. | :11:20. | |
Veterinary Kerry is a very specialist area and doctors and | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
nurses and staff need trainhng and support if the are to care for | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
veterans act quickly and we have a lot to learn from veterans. That | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
centre was set up because of having to look after veterans coming back | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
from war which has benefited the country as a holder. Indeed. I | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
absolutely agree with my honourable friend, this is a crucial area. An | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
area when it comes to veter`n's mental health care I've been looking | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
at a lot. I'm delighted to see my honourable friend for South West | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
Wiltshire just enter the ch`mber because it was his report which did | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
so much work in this area and I m delighted that we have been | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
permitted nearly all of his recommendations. Equally I do | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
believe very strongly the work going on at the moment about being able to | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
transfer service personnel ledical to civilian National Health Service | :12:17. | :12:24. | |
is vital in this area as we can effectively track our veter`ns. | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
Critically we must ensure it right from the day that service pdrsonnel | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
joined to the day that the leave that they are ready for the | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
transition to the civilian world and collaboration and cooperation is the | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
key. We must continue to work with other Government departments, local | :12:44. | :12:45. | |
authorities and the charitable sector to build on what we have | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
achieved thus far but I also thank my honourable friend for | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
reasoning... I sense he is beginning to wind up and I just wanted to say | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
to my honourable friend and thank him for his response. It is | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
imperative on this side of the House that we do everything based on the | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
evidence that is presented to us and we can persistently talk about the | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
Armed Forces covenant working but you can see by the strength of the | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
people that a tonight and the stories that are coming out on a | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
weekly basis that at the molent it is not working as well as it should | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
be and I understand his dislissal of the Department for veterans affairs | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
but it works elsewhere. Othdr people have done it. It's completely | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
different and I would just `sk him not to close his mind to thhs | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
concept because I think unthl we do something like that and | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
fundamentally change this, we will not stop the haemorrhaging of | :13:47. | :13:52. | |
veterans care in this country. I would say two things. It is not just | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
this side of the house that care is passionately about this. I `m | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
confident both sides of the house care passionately about this | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
subject. I have been greatlx encouraged by the very positive | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
cooperation I have seen frol Her Majesty's loyal opposition hn trying | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
to support constructively progress in this area. Equally, I wotld say | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
and I hope that continues, H'm sure it will. Equally, I would s`y that I | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
don't have a closed mind about anything. I would like to think in | :14:27. | :14:39. | |
my ten year as veterans Minhster to date that I have demonstratdd there | :14:40. | :14:45. | |
have been a number of issues, where I have tried to take a fresh | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
approach, I have looked isstes again and there are a couple more issues | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
in my inbox the moment I looking at. No, I don't have a closed mhnd. All | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
I'm saying is at the moment on balance I do not believe it's the | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
right approach and I think we have examples this evening over how other | :15:04. | :15:06. | |
areas of the Government can effectively contribute to ensuring | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
the care of our veterans and equally I am concerned the point made by my | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
honourable friend for North Wiltshire but I wouldn't want to | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
move to a position of effectively the rest of Government and society | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
feels that somehow responsibility for our veterans has been ddlegated | :15:25. | :15:31. | |
to a small part of Government. That on balance at the moment I believe | :15:32. | :15:40. | |
would be a mistake. The question is did is how is now an adjournment? As | :15:41. | :15:53. | |
many of that opinion say ayd? The ayes have it. Order, | :15:54. | :15:54. |