06/09/2016 Tuesday in Parliament

Hello, and Welcome to Tuesd`y in Parliament, our look at the best

of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

Keith Vaz is no longer asking the questions at the Home Affairs

Committee, but Ministers are still put under pressurd.

What on earth is the point carrying on with this defence that somehow if

you went to guarantee them the right to stay you could get rid of them?

You have just told us that xou can't.

After revelations about conditions at Sellafield

on Panorama, how safe is it to work at the nuclear reprocessing plant?

These staff are committed to the highest standards of safety. They

are a huge asset to our nuclear industry and they feel undermined by

what has been said in this programme.

And sensible idea or a waste of money?

MPs debate whether paying councillors a salary

Perhaps rather than offering them ?37,000 a year it could be shorter

meetings and making sure th`t meetings are in the evening.

But first, as political resignations go, it was one

The departure of Keith Vaz from his job as chair of

the Commons Home Affairs Colmittee had been on the cards since tabloid

The long-serving Labour MP had, in fact, faced three days

of adverse media coverage, centred on allegations that he'd

paid for the services of two male sex workers.

Keith Vaz said in a statement that the important work

of the Home Affairs Committde had to be conducted

He added, I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it

impossible for this to happdn if I remain chair.

The latest session of the Home Affairs Committee lentioned

Thank you very much for comhng. You will notice there has been ` change

of regime and the chairman of the select committee has tenderdd his

resignation today. He remains technically be chairman of the

select committee until the Speaker has formally announced his

resignation. We made an announcement earlier about that and the committee

have nominated me to act as the interim chair until the election for

the new chair takes place, probably in October, so if you are hoping to

see Mr Vaz we are sorry to disappoint you but we will `ttempt

to keep standards up. The session soon turned to Britain's

departure from the European Union. A Labour MP focused on the rights

of EU nationals living in the UK. Can I just start off by askhng which

EU nationals you are talking about it in the end of wanting to get the

right to stay? Are you talkhng about EU nationals here at the tile of the

referendum, so people who wdre in the country on 23rd of June, or are

you talking about EU nation`ls who are in the country on the d`te that

the UK leads the European Union What is the reference point? 23rd

June 2016 is one day that could be used, but there are other d`tes on

the occasion of the Article 50 of the day we leave or other d`tes in

between, that is yet to be determined but the message H would

give to EU citizens living `nd working or studying here is that

there is no threat to their treaty rights as long as we remain a member

of the European Union and the only circumstance under which th`t

wouldn't be the same would be if similar reciprocal rights wdre not

extended to British people living and working... Just to be clear the

answer to the question is that currently you have and determine

what the reference point is. Yes. Arguably, if you were an EU national

wishing to stay in the UK and the reference date was set for the date

of our departure from the Etropean Union, as long as you get hdre

before that date you might be in with a chance of being able to stay

here if you achieve your ail? That is one of the considerations we will

have two seriously look at before we decide. There are a number of dates

we pick end if for arguments sake, this is the worry of the government

in the context of the Brexit negotiation, that British N`tional

is in other EU countries ardn't guaranteed reciprocal rights under

no circumstances you are saxing you wouldn't guarantee the rights of

European nationals here to stay if that scenario transpired, the

argument I am making is that if you were to seek to remove them from the

country you don't know who lost of these people are. You don't know how

many of them haven't become entitled to stay here through having been

here for five years, you don't know. In terms of the number of ET people

living and working here, until the British people voted to leave the

European Union it was probably not a figure that the British govdrnment

was interested into the samd extent that are now. Also, that qudstion

with all the same, it would not be a negotiation, a negotiating objective

of the UK to remove people living and working here and making a

contribution to our health service and agriculture and all the other

areas that they do and neither do I suspect it would be an objective of

our European partners to send a load of British pensioners back from

Spain. There are too many ifs in that question. OK, I will ask your

question without any ifs. Are you in a position to identify and therefore

remove EU citizen in this country? I can't see a situation that would

even think about that. I asked you a question that had no ifs in it. I am

just asking if you are in a position to identify every EU citizen

currently living and working in the United Kingdom and thereford to

require the removal? No, we're not in a position and I can't foresee a

circumstance when we want to be in that position. So, what on darth is

the point of holding out thd hope that somehow you could not guarantee

them the right to stay here? If you can't identify all the EU n`tionals

in our country and thereford be in a position to remove them, wh`t on

earth is the point carrying on with this pretence that somehow, if you

went to guarantee them the right to stay, you could get rid of them You

have just told us you can't. I can see the sort of route you are trying

to take me down... It is not a route I don't think we're ever gohng to be

taken down. Then on to discussion

about the migrant camp at C`lais known as the Jungle,

scene of recent protests. The camp is home to around 00,0 0

migrants and refugees from war-torn This committee had been to Calais

more frequently than Home Office ministers and clearly it has been

very much in the forefront of the news and the amount of people in the

camp that Calais appears to be greater than ever and certahnly the

estimates I have seen in thd last few days have about double the

levels of when the committed last visited. Clearly this is becoming a

political issue ahead of thd French election as well. How confident are

you that Calais will no longer exist, the camps in Calais, will no

longer exist in its current form by what date, when the president and

the Ministry of the interior suggest that they intend to clear the

campus. Whether fully or partially remains to be seen but clear the

camps by the end of the year, that is something I believe they intend

to do. We have seen previous clearances so I have no reason to

believe they are not intendhng to carry out that particular role. I

think it would be a good thhng in many ways and no one should be

expected to live in that calp with the organised crime that is going on

and that is unacceptable. The French are now building up capacitx around

the country for people to bd moved elsewhere. Dispersal. To be quite

clear, your visit to Calais? I intend to visit soon as I possibly

can. Is that sufficient? Since you have accepted this is a hum`nitarian

plight, shouldn't you have visited already, even in the brief time you

have been minister, or do s`y this week or next? I will look at my

diary to make clear that I have made it clear to my officials th`t I need

to go to Calais and see the situation myself. In the me`ntime...

Indeed! In the meantime I h`ve made it clear to everyone involvdd that

the situation facing the chhldren in that camp is not acceptable. The

latest session of the home `ffairs select committee.

An investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme has uncovered

a catalogue of safety concerns at Britain's most

The programme found that sections of the Sellafield nuclear

re-processing plant often h`ve too few staff to ensure safe opdrations

and that radioactive materials have been stored

The programme heard claims that parts of the facility

Sellafield management says the site in West Cumbria is safe and has had

significant investment in recent years.

When an urgent question was asked in the Commons,

an Energy Minister said high standards of safety and sectrity

in the nuclear industry were a priority for the govdrnment.

We have a strong regulatory system and all operators are answerable to

an independent regulator. The Office of Nuclear Regulation is satisfied

and it has been confirmed again this morning that Sellafield is safe and

the regulation of these fachlities is the ONR top priority with a team

of 15 inspectors deployed. The ONR once the site to continuously

improve and they have confirmed that none of the issues raised in the

panorama programme on you. The MP who'd raised the isste said

he was a former third I know that the workforce there is

acutely aware of its responsibilities to the enthre

community in the country as a whole and as such I welcome the interest

of journalists and politici`ns, anybody and everybody in thd work

undertaken at Sellafield. Vhsibility and accountability for that work

should be welcomed. We have the most regulated and save his nucldar

industry in the world and I do not want to encourage any sense of

complacency in that but it hs a fact that any nuclear power stathon in

the UK must comply with our stringent nuclear safety laws,

overseen by a robust industry regulator and this is an arda in

which we lead the world with our skills. I appreciate that the

Minister has a duty to offer reassurance but I have to w`rn him

that the content of tone -- content and tone of what we have he`rd today

does come dangerously close to complacency. The people who have

been responsible for these historic errors of judgment and

underinvestment are still involved in the industry today and these

words will be heard with concern in the North of Scotland where we are

currently seeing nuclear waste shipped out from the former plant at

Dounreay. What this really shows is that the economic cost we know about

of nuclear is high but also the security and safety concerns action

on the colour and it is a price that is to hide to play. We'll bd

scrapped the nuclear industry at Hinckley and what assurances are

that that there will be no `ttempts of retribution towards the

whistle-blower? I have constituents who work at Sellafield may have been

in touch with me, as has thd union, because they have been concdrned

about what the programme sahd about safe staffing levels. These staff

are committed to the highest standards of safety and thex are a

huge asset to our nuclear industry and they feel undermined by what has

been said in this programme. I quite understand why residents and people

working in the site might h`ve been upset and disturbed by the programme

last night but I hope that the house and my corroborating statemdnts from

other members have reassured them that as far as the government is

concerned, not least becausd as far as the independent regulator is

concerned, who attaches importance to Sellafield and the resources they

commit to monitoring this on a very proactive basis, Sellafield is safe.

You're watching our round-up of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

Still to come: A plea for bdtter recognition by firms of the needs

of employees who've suffered child bereavements.

The new justice minister has held out the possibility that victims

of revenge porn could be given the same anonymity as that

Phillip Lee told the Commons he would consider the move to help

combat the "terrible abuse of trust which can leave victims feeling

A Crown Prosecution Service report on crimes against women shows more

than 200 people have been prosecuted since a new revenge porn law came

into force in England and Wales last year.

So-called revenge porn often involves an ex-partner uplo`ding

sexual images of the victim to cause the victim

The CPS report was raised by a former women and

Boring the Government was rhght to make it a crime. Figures today show

that had been 200 prosecutions, yet there be more than a thousand

reported cases of revenge pornographer reporter to thd police.

Does the Minister agree that as with other sex-related crimes, pdrhaps

anonymity for victims need to be carefully considered indicators of

revenge pornography? I thank her for her question and the work that she

and her Select Committee do in this area. Revenge pornography is a

terrible abuse of trust leaving victims feeling humiliated `nd

degraded. By making it a spdcific offence carrying a maximum sentence

of to macro years in prison, we ve made it clear this crime will be

tolerated. As regards anonylity I'm interested in what she is s`ying and

if she wants to write to me, I will consider it. Can I welcome the

Minister and ask if he's sedn the comments of the director of the CPS

this morning that social media is a driving force behind a record high

in recorded crime is and violent crimes against women and girls? I

welcome what he said about needing a broader response to these issues, so

can he tell me what he plans to do to safeguard the specialist services

that exist to support women suffering online harassment and

abuse? Many of which are suffering from a funding cuts at the present

time. As I've already said, this crime is deplorable and I stspect

it's always happened and th`t social media has facilitated it and we are

now detecting a greater levdl of crime of this kind. I'm detdrmined

to maintain services that stpport women and indeed men who ard

subjected to this crime and will continue to keep a close eyd on

that. Today's brought on violence against women and girls shows an

increase in prosecutions, btt victims charities remain concerned

about their futures as was stated by the chair of the Association of

police and crime commission are supporting victims group ond asking

the ministry to funding avahlable to PCC's earlier this year. Now the

minister told the honourabld member for Wigan will be keeping an eye on

this matter. That is not good enough, with respect. While the

Secretary of State now confhrm that services for victims will rdceive

the full funding their requhre? The Budget has increased signifhcantly

from ?40 million to around 85 million in the current financial

year. In 2016 for example, we've allocated around 7 million to rape

support centres and providing practical help to male and female

victims of rape and child sdxual abuse. I do not recognise the

description on the Shadow mhnister has given. This Government hs

committed to protecting victims and particularly women who are victims

of crime. Elsewhere the new Justice Secretary was asked what cotld be

done to reduce violence agahnst prison officers and inmates in

Britain's prisons. Make prison reform a centrepiece of the agenda.

He rightly described the deterioration of safety imprisons a

terrible. The figures are now worse. He committed to an action plan to

tackle violence in our prisons. Wiltshire reaffirm that and tell us

what specific steps will be taken to deal with what is a ticking time

bomb in all Criminal Justicd System, because nothing else works. --

worked. I have been very pldased to meet the chairman of the Select

Committee and I take the advice of lawyers, be particularly thd

chairman of the Select Commhttee extremely seriously. This is a

critical issue facing prisons, we cannot have reform in our prisons if

we do not have safe prisons for people to work in. Those thhngs go

hand and I'm committed to a agenda of making all prisoners safd and

places of reform. I will be laying out my plans shortly on this issue

and I look forward to discussing it more with the Select Committee

tomorrow. Last month Theresa May raisdd

concerns with the president of Iran over the imprisonment of thd aid

worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The 37-year-old woman was ddtained

in April as she tried to le`ve Iran after a visit with her

two-year-old daughter. She is accused by Iran's

Revolutionary Guards of tryhng The Prime Minister said

it was important to resolve the case of Zaghari-Ratcliffe in orddr

to strengthen diplomatic relations And the issue has now been raised

in the Lords. There is no evidence whatsodver no

charges have been put under any circumstances, should the Government

not to make it clear that it is acceptable for Iran to expect an

improvement in relations if they behave this way? The Governlent have

forbidden BA to operate as they did in the bowler situation in Sierra

Leone and they could do so now to Iraq. My Lords, is the fact we take

control cases seriously. It's also a fact that Ratcliffe has dual

nationality and we are not `ble to have conch shell access. In the

upgrading up -- brought up xesterday and diplomatic relations with Iran

and the decision BA to provhde six flights a week to Iran, what a cow

was taken on this brutal regime s execution of a thousand people last

year, the continuing incarcdration of Mrs Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and

the detention of her British daughter whose passport has been

confiscated? We share the concerns of this family and the stresses and

strains they have been throtgh and we have a great care for not only

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, but also of course the whole family hncluding

Gabriella. Gabriella is not detained in Iran, my lords. We have not

requested the return of her passport as her father has decided she should

stay with her grandparents for the time being. With The Record --

regard to the generality of the noble lord's questions about BA

that is a commercial relationship that of course is part of the

development whereby we see Hran coming back into the intern`tional

community with all the responsibilities that involves. I

would if she can tell us who the forest office ministers havd called

on the Iranian ambassador to discuss this issue and if not, if there are

plans for ministers to ask the Iranian ambassador to come hnto the

Foreign Office to discuss what is after all a really serious hssue for

us. As I explained earlier, they are having an ambassador in Iran and

therefore the letters of accreditation were presented. At

this stage, we are looking to be seen what implications therd are 400

representation at ambassadorial level. I hear what the nobld lady

said and I feel the concern of this House.

A Conservative MP whose son was stillborn two years ago has

urged the Government to givd parents who suffer the tragedy of losing

a child the right to a fortnight's leave from their employer.

Introducing a Bill under the 10-minute rule, Will Quhnce said

the paid leave should be made a legal requirement.

I know that every member of this House will agree that there can be

few more distressing life events than the loss of a child. Ydt with

up to 5000 children dying every year, many thousands of pardnts go

through this personal tragedy. Most employers are excellent and act with

compassion and kindness, offering the bereaved stuff the time they

need to come to terms with their loss. However, some do not. They

behave in a manner which falls well short of what we would expect of

them. Of course we expect elployers to axe with sensitivity and

flexibility like this yet ghven the countless examples of organhsations

acting without sensitivity `nd with up to in flexibility, surelx it is

time for the Government to `ct? Will Quince was allowed to bring his

Bill forward. Now, does local government need

a bit of a shake-up? Would paying councillors a salary

improve the situation? The West Yorkshire Conservative MP

Alec Shelborroke is advocathng having fewer paid councillors

as a way of breathing new lhfe He told a Westminster Hall debate

that the majority of councillors I came to the conclusion th`t on

that basis of how hard counsellors work and the new power that had been

passed down to them, I feel it's time it is recognised in pax. A much

larger salary and allowing people to take this up and give a full

attention. I've made a proposal of ?37,481, which is half of a

backbench MP's salary. Many counsellors work and lose ott

financially when the become a counsellor. That's OK until they get

a family, then it becomes too difficult. My concern is not that

the proposal is intended to elevate the income level of councillors but

it almost will exclude people who have a career and wants to continue

with council work. I've got concerned about that element. We

need to attract captains of industry who are talented yet time short so

perhaps rather than offering ?3 a year, they could have shortdr

meetings are making sure thdy are in the evenings so they don't clash

with their work. Moving to single members warder representing... It

would save ?30 million. That's a basic calculation on backbench

salaries added to look at other allowances paid top. It shows there

is an ability to reward councillors. Have one councillor represents

15,000 people. That may be appropriate for an urban situation,

but not in rural areas. I think is fair that local councillors get paid

a wage. It currently stands at 16,008 had a ?93, which is not huge.

Some people do still working councils in Scotland and depending

on what that looks like, thdy made meat in the evening call thd day.

The bigger councils meet during the day. You have to think about the

people who come in and the hmpact the waiters have on them. Whth

recent cuts to local authorhty funding reform and a new wave of

devolution, future local governments are matter which we need to look at.

All members and their consthtuents share an interest in this. H would

welcome any changes to local Government that brings about a

greater accountability and connection through local people and

those elected to represent them I do think there are benefits in

having councils who can bring their employment experience to thd chamber

and benefits of people being able to take their experience of thd council

chamber back to their workplace Until then, from me,

Keith Macdougall, goodbye.