02/02/2017 Thursday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Thursday in Parliament.

The Government sets out its Brexit policy paper.

The Transport Secretary says expanding Heathrow

will be good for Britain post-Brexit.

a former minister talks about growing up

I know what it's like to feel that cold nausea

when you find the empty bottles hidden around the house.

But first, the Government has published its 75-page

Brexit policy document, laying out what its objectives

are in the forthcoming negotiations on extracting the UK

The principles were contained in the Prime Minister's

keynote speech last month, so there were few surprises.

The Secretary of State, David Davis, said it confirmed

the Prime Minister's vision of an independent, truly global UK.

The Government recognised the need for clarity and certainty.

The white paper also sets out we will take control of our own laws

so they are made in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast,

and ensure that we will control the number of people coming

And the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice

It will be for Parliament and the devolved legislatures

to determine significant changes to reflect our new position.

I've said this at the dispatch box before, there will be

any number of votes on substantive policy choices.

To that end, the white paper makes clear that we expect to bring

forward separate legislation in areas such as customs

Delivering smooth, mutually beneficial exit, avoiding

a destructive cliff edge will be the key.

Whatever the outcome of our negotiations,

we seek a more open, output looking, confident and fairer UK

The white paper is available on the Government website,

and I've arranged for copies to be available in the libraries

Mr Speaker, I would normally thank the Secretary of State

A week ago, at Prime Minister's Questions,

the Prime Minister said there would be a white paper.

Yesterday, she said there would be a white paper tomorrow.

The Secretary of State now makes a statement,

But the white paper has not been delivered until a few minutes ago

so that we can meaningfully actually ask him questions about it.

He repeated a demand for a vote in the commons on the final deal

Otherwise, all honourable members will have to watch on their screens

as the European Parliament debates our deal

before we get to express any views on it.

That is completely unacceptable, and it's demeaning of this House.

There's no point in having a vote after he's already signed it off

treating Parliament as some sort of afterthought.

So can he rule out now the Government

showing such contempt for Parliament?

This is now my sixth statement in this House

The House will have the opportunity to vote on any number of pieces

of legislation before we get there, and it will have the vote at the end

to decide whether or not it is acceptable.

I can't see how you can make it more meaningful than that.

Mr Speaker, the Secretary of State is more experienced

It's very striking that we get a white paper after the second

reading, and two sitting days before the committee stage.

Now, we have just got this before he got on his feet.

Is that respectful to Parliament, to be able to question him on it,

when it only goes out just as he goes on?

I find that an astonishing disrespect of Parliament.

It's going to have an impact on each and every one of us,

On page 49 of this white paper, the Government said, and I quote,

"we have an open mind on how we can implement new customs

Just for the avoidance of doubt, because it I think it is important

to be clear so that everyone knows where we stand,

will the Secretary of State confirm today

that we are not only leaving the EU and single market,

we are definitely leaving the customs union?

If he reads the rest of that chapter, he will see we exclude

ourselves from the common commercial policy and the common external

tariff, which amounts to exactly what he said.

A former Defence Minister has welcomed the decision

of a disciplinary tribunal which has struck off a human rights lawyer

who brought claims of murder and torture against British soldiers

It found that Phil Shiner had acted dishonestly

and upheld 12 charges of misconduct against him.

He'd admitted acting without integrity at an earlier hearing.

Phil Shiner - who founded the firm, Public Interest Lawyers -

was accused of drumming up false abuse claims,

and paying thousands of pounds to a fixer to find Iraqi clients.

Speaking in the Commons during a debate on the armed forces,

the MP for Aldershot and a former defence minister,

Sir Gerald Howarth, gave his reaction.

I felt at the time that that man, Phil Shiner, was a disgrace.

He was a dreadful man, engaged in a cowardly

and unacceptable activity of trying to find people

who would stand up and accuse his fellow countrymen

who had gone to relieve the people of Iraq from their suffering,

and he went to try and do down those people.

I'm very pleased to hear today he has been struck off.

Frankly, I don't think that's enough.

But then I always was a supporter of capital punishment.

We need to do more to protect those who have done the most for us.

Because what the covenant should be about is to ensure

that those who have served, who have risked all,

safe in the knowledge that they are safe

and they are not going to be pursued by charlatans

and liars like Philip Shiner, who has been struck off today

by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority for his deceit,

dishonesty and absolute treason to this country,

in the way he has pursued fine people.

If people like that had been around

in the aftermath of the Second World War,

and if our troops in the Second World War

had known that they would have to face the duplicity

and the manoeuvrings and the outrages perpetrated

on a subsequent generations of soldiers by people like that,

then I do not think they could possibly have fought

with the valour that they did, in the defeat of Nazism and fascism.

A third runway for Heathrow Airport was approved by the Government

in October, but we've still not had the very final decision.

to actually build the runway is now underway.

The Transport Secretary has launched a four-month consultation

and set out planning and infrastructure proposals.

a staunch supporter of leaving the EU -

couldn't resist making a connection with Brexit.

By backing the north-west runway at Heathrow airport,

and publishing our proposals today, we are sending a clear signal

that when we leave the EU, Britain is open for business.

So, Mr Speaker, today I lay before Parliament

a draft Airports National Policy Statement

and begin a period of extensive public consultation

There is an increasing concern regarding air-quality,

which is linked to 40,000 early deaths a year.

David Cameron's former aide, now Baroness Camilla Cavendish,

claimed existing policy on air-quality underwhelms

Given this inadequacy, what further and stringent measures

will be imposed to mitigate expected expansion at Heathrow?

Of course, some of the things we are consulting on today,

Mr Speaker, for example, smarter use of airspace,

one of the things we will be able to achieve through airspace reform

and through the technology that's now available to us

is to avoid - to anything like the degree we expect

at the moment - planes stacking over the south-east of England,

emitting additional emissions into the atmosphere,

That's one of the benefits that comes from smarter use of airspace

that will help contribute, as will cleaner, newer generation,

more efficient aircraft that we will see, I think, extensively

in this country over the coming years.

The Secretary of State will be aware that on the 23rd of January,

we had a black alert in air pollution in London,

and 12 local authority areas signalled red alerts.

That means toxic air, and it is at crisis point in London.

So I think if you're going to reassure the people

of London to continue to support this decision,

we need a much more comprehensive air pollution strategy,

not the Government's current plans that the courts have said

Will he explain what he will do if the airport cannot be

delivered with the legal air obligations limits?

Proceed anyway, change the air-quality objectives,

Well, Mr Speaker, it's very clear the airport will not be able

to secure its development consent order if it cannot demonstrate

It is binding, it will have to achieve those.

In terms of our broader strategy, after we have

left the European Union, the air-quality standards in place

this country will be UK air-quality standards,

but it is not the intention of the Government to reduce

It is our intention to deliver a strategy that cleans up our air.

How can you consult on airspace strategy when you don't

have a credible policy of how to address

How can you offer a consultation National Policy Statement

when you have no credible or legal plan of how to reduce air pollution?

How can you have consultations ending on the 25th of May

with no credible or legal plans of addressing critical noise

I know how strongly my honourable friend feels about this,

I do know about the concerns in her constituency,

and I very much respect her for what she's doing.

This is one of the difficulties of a big strategic decision like this.

It's impossible to take it without some impacts.

I give her simply my assurance that we will take all steps we can

inevitable though it is that there will be some.

This is going to be an investment of something not far off

?20 billion, which is a great boost to post-Brexit Britain,

on top of the expansion at London City Airport.

Can he give his best estimate as to when he believes

the first plane will take off from the north-west runway?

Well, Mr Speaker, both of us would share the aspirations to do

But the working assumption is that the first plane

will take off in the middle of the next decade.

Of course, we perhaps should have come to this

At the very least, we are doing it now.

We will get on with it as soon as possible.

We have to do it in the right way, we've got to do it in a sustainable

way, and we've got to do it with great care with

The National Health Service in England is still failing

to learning from its mistakes, MPs have heard.

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

has published a report on how the NHS deals with complaints.

It calls on the NHS to move from a culture of blame

The committee also urged the Department of Health to build up

The purpose of complaints is not just the redress of grievances...

Which I have to say in the NHS is extremely unsatisfactory anyway,

Complaints are a tool by which public services

When medical professionals are forced early to be concerned

with avoiding liability and responsibility and are trapped

in a culture of blame, there can be no learning.

There is an acute need for Government to follow

through on its commitment to promote a culture in which staff

will be able to speak out and which the emphasis is placed

The committee also recommended legislation to ensure

the new complaints body is truly independent.

Clearly from the candid completion this morning, there is a long way to

go before we eradicate the culture of defensiveness that he has

described. The Minister said the Healthcare

Safety Investigation Branch - or HSIB - would be up

and running in April. The committee has called for it to

be statutorily independent. We agree that it should be as independent as

possible if it is to discharge its functions fully and effectively. We

would not rule out the option of legislation. His committee also

raised in this week report various recommendations and its role. We

will be responding to that in due course. We are committed to making

sure that the NHS is committed to learning from its mistakes.

You're watching Thursday in Parliament, with me,

The Government's been told to rethink its alcohol strategy

and bring in a minimum unit price for alcohol in England and Wales.

The call came from across the chamber as MPs debated

ways to tackle the harm caused by drinking.

One MP focused on the damage done when pregnant women drank,

revealing his own adopted children were both affected by

a condition called foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

The debate was opened by the chair of the all-party

There are currently over 10 million people drinking at levels

which increase their risk of health harm.

Among those aged 15-49 in England, alcohol is now the leading risk

factor for ill-health, early mortality and disability.

In England, the average age of death of those dying

More working years of life are lost in England as a result

of alcohol-related deaths than from cancers of ?

and there are many of these ? the lung, bronchus,

trachea, colon, rectum, brain, pancreas, skin,

ovary, kidney, stomach, bladder and prostate combined.

But she argued the Government had done little since the last

In the foreword to the 2012 strategy, the then Prime Minister

We're going to set a minimum unit price.

But five years on, this has still not been done.

Two MPs turned to the impact of drinking during pregnancy -

foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD.

FASD causes learning disabilities, Balliol problems.

FASD also causes learning difficulties, behavioural problems,

and a high proportion of people convicted of crimes in our prisons

Research by the Medical Research Council has concluded that even

moderate cringing in pregnancy has an impact on IQ and

If we all knew that 35,000 children were born every year in this country

with brain damage that could be prevented completely,

we would of course do everything in our power to prevent it.

And yet, worrying evidence is emerging that that may be

what is happening in this country every year and the figures

As an adoptive parent, I discovered just how common this

Including amongst my own two children.

I don't know if he can recall, when we were receiving evidence

in our all-party group about the impact of foetal

alcohol syndrome on adopted and fostered children,

but one survey done indicated that of the cohort of adopted and foster

children who were assessed, up to 70% of them were

There is now a suggestion that many, many children put up for adoption

And we heard a description from one adoptive parent that adoption is now

a family finding service for children with foetal

An SNP MP moved on to the scale of the problem in Scotland.

I have a very personal stake in this debate.

By all accounts, my own father, of whom I have no memory,

But that was not readily talked about in 1960s working-class

I did not witness his heavy drinking because he died

Not least because of his heavy drinking.

My own husband's father was an alcoholic as well, and that

In Glasgow, where both my husband and I grew up, this was not unusual.

And even today, it is still more common than you would think.

The Scottish Government has lowered the drink-driving unit and is trying

to bring in a minimum price. What else could kill 22 people

in Scotland each week, cause 600 the hospital admissions

each week, cost ?3.6 billion each A Labour MP and former minister had

spoken previously about growing up For much of my life,

I have grown up with that gnawing insecurity that is all too common

for many children of alcoholics. That constant feeling of guilt,

constantly asking yourself whether you're doing enough,

why is it that you can't do more to stop your mum

or dad from drinking? I know what it is like to feel that

cold nausea when you find the empty I know what it is like to feel sick

when you hear your parent being sick first thing in the morning

because they have drunk too much. He said the children of alcoholics

often fell through the gaps in provision.

The Shadow Health Minister said his alcoholic father had moved

to Thailand and not come home for his wedding.

His friends that he had made over there told me

he was drinking a bottle of whisky a day, over there.

They told me he could not come to the wedding because he did not

Because we were from a working class family in Salford.

You know, I had gone to university, I had become a politician.

"Posh people" would be at the wedding.

He felt he would embarrass me by being there.

And that was... I will always regret that.

So, look, I am the Shadow Health Secretary, I am going to do

lots of criticising the Tories because that is my job.

But can I say to the minister, I will work with Government to put

in place a proper strategy for supporting children of

Because, quite simply, 2 million children are suffering,

let's send them a message that they should no

The minister said there were grounds for optimism.

People under 18 are drinking less. Attitudes are changing. There has

been a steady reduction in alcohol-related road traffic

accidents. We are seeing real progress in Government working in

partnership with industry. Industry removed 1.3 billion units of alcohol

from the market through improving consumer choice of law alcohol

products, annually 80% of bottles and cans now his plate unit content

and pregnancy warnings on labels. As to minimum pricing... We are

considering minimal unit pricing in England and will. But we are waiting

for the outcome of the court case in Scotland because until we are the

result of the Supreme Court decision, which is still unknown,

and we are supporting the process of that case, we cannot proceed with

any policy decision in the UK. She had an emotional moment at the end

of speech. I do take courage from today's

debate, because great social change requires three things,

I think. It requires long-term

political will, it requires nonpartisan partnership,

and it requires bravery. And I have heard all

three of those today. And I hope that each member who has

spoken here today will continue to work with me as we fight

on to tackle this social injustice. The Health Minister, Nicola

Blackwood. The Government's being urged to do

more to secure the release of a British-Iranian woman

being held in Iran. A court there has rejected an appeal

against a five-year prison sentence given to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,

who has dual British The charity worker has been accused

of security offences and was detained while trying

to leave the country with her baby daughter

after visiting relatives in April. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe,

who is from London, said his wife's detention was a "stain" on Iran

and her family denies Mr Ratcliffe was in the Lords

gallery as the Foreign Office minister explained

what the Government Officials are in regular contact

with her family and we continue to do everything we can for the family.

I thank the noble lady. Unlike Mr Trump, we seek improved relations

with Iran. Here we have a mother, British Iranian citizen imprisoned

after visiting her family there with her daughter. And her daughter is

solely a British citizen. Surely the time has come for the UK to call for

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release before she, her little daughter and

her husband, yet today with his own mother, suffer any more. The

suffering of the family can barely be imagined. And regardless of some

of the extraordinary claims made on the internet, we should remember

this is a loving father who simply wants his family to be reunited. I

wholly respect that. That is why, my Lords, we are urgently seeking

information on what further legal actions are available to Nazanin

Zaghari-Ratcliffe. We will continue to offer support to the family both

here in London and Iran. I am a Government trade envoy to Iran. Is

she aware they have raised this issue with the Iranian government

and they associate wholly with the question asked? Has the Minister

noticed the statement by the president of Iran, the moderate

president there who has said that if Iran is to attract more investment

and commercial engagement with the wider world, it needs to make people

who visit Iran both welcome and safe?

Does the noble Baroness understand the disappointment felt by those who

supported the nuclear agreement and have welcomed the improving

relations between Iran and the United Kingdom? Would it not be

unfortunate, to say the least, if the fact this matter is not resolved

should sully or undermine that improving relationship. The child, I

understand, is entirely British. What is the Government doing about a

British subject being held in Iran? We have made it clear, here in this

dispatch box and colleagues in other places, we are ready to facilitate

the return of Gabriela to this country. She is solely a British

citizen and we stand ready to assist in the family ask us to do so.

And that's it from me for now, but do join me on Friday night at 11

for a round-up of a busy week here at Westminster that's been

dominated by Brexit and the UK's relationships with the US.

But for now, from me, Alicia McCarthy, goodbye.