Browse content similar to 02/11/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello, this is Monday in Parliament, our look at the day in Westminster. | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
Should Whitehall's top staff have noticed | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
One senior civil servant admits he did pause before the agreement | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
I will be powerfully honest, I wasn't totally comfortable with it. | :00:24. | :00:36. | |
I was never totally comfortable, it was an issue I found a close call | :00:37. | :00:38. | |
and a difficult one. The pilot | :00:39. | :00:39. | |
of a yellow card scheme for benefits sanctions is hailed by the SNP | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
as a sign the system is failing Why is the Government waiting until | :00:43. | :00:51. | |
next year to bring in this pilot scheme and in the meantime Willie | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
please stop sanctioning people that are seriously ill? | :00:55. | :00:56. | |
And should British long-term expats have a role | :00:57. | :00:58. | |
One peer points out how their lives could change. | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
Where they need to apply to become a citizen of the country they live | :01:04. | :01:10. | |
in? Without even be possible? Will they pass any financial or a | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
language requirements? What will happen to their health care | :01:14. | :01:14. | |
arrangements? But first, two senior civil servants | :01:15. | :01:15. | |
have told MPs the collapsed charity Kids | :01:16. | :01:17. | |
Company got no special treatment. But giving evidence to the Public | :01:18. | :01:19. | |
Accounts Committee, both admitted The former Cabinet Office Permanent | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
Secretary, Richard Heaton, spoke of the decision to give | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
Kids Company ?4 million in one go as The committee chair, Meg Hillier, | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
began by referring to a report and setting out the job description | :01:31. | :01:37. | |
of the two witnesses. They represent the top people | :01:38. | :01:49. | |
of the Civil Service, their accounting officers are | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
supposed to stand up to ministerial pressure and if necessary, require | :01:52. | :01:53. | |
a letter of direction to locate the responsibility on Ministers | :01:54. | :01:56. | |
when they override advice. In the case of Kids Company, | :01:57. | :01:58. | |
as this report clearly shows, officials have been aware | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
of the problems for 13 years, and Kids Company has been passed | :02:02. | :02:03. | |
around Whitehall like a hot potato, Kids Company was a charity | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
which Ministers and the Government collectively supported over many | :02:08. | :02:14. | |
years. The Prime Minister said | :02:15. | :02:16. | |
as much last week. The section 17 of the Charities Act, | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
which was the power Ministers have defined | :02:21. | :02:22. | |
charities, is a fairly broad one. It is entirely proper for Ministers | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
to decide which charities in Our job as officials was to make | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
sure that any support Ministers wished to give any charity, | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
including Kids Company, was within managing public money and wants | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
a decision was made, that it was properly implemented in a way that | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
delivered value for the taxpayer. You gave, in a task | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
of over two years, something like Which, if that was all they were | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
delivering, was at a cost of They exceeded that, as | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
the report says, by a factor of 25. Which obviously, | :02:54. | :03:04. | |
as you have just said, might indeed be indicative of the fact that they | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
were doing fantastic work. It might also be indicative | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
of the fact that the actual criteria Richard Heaton was asked | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
whether alarm bells had rung when Kids Company asked | :03:15. | :03:22. | |
for ?4 million in one chunk. You didn't consider seeking | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
a ministerial direction In the way that you | :03:29. | :03:30. | |
did six weeks later. OK, I will be perfectly honest, | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
I wasn't totally comfortable with it, no, I was never totally | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
comfortable with it. It was an issue that I found a close | :03:37. | :03:38. | |
call and quite a difficult one. But I thought we had sufficient | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
evidence to suggest that this charity could be put | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
on a sustainable footing, because of the indications and | :03:45. | :03:46. | |
the capability they were building. It wasn't an open and shut case | :03:47. | :03:48. | |
at all. And I did consider a direction, | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
but I... And the second part of my question | :03:54. | :03:55. | |
was, at that time, did you consider seeking a ministerial direction | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
for that 4.5 million, in the way No, I considered it | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
and discussed it with officials, my team that I chose, but I decided | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
that I didn't require direction. But I did consider it. Within weeks | :04:09. | :04:25. | |
of the 4.3 million, we were, I have to say, startled, shocked, | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
surprised, for the charity to come to the Government and ask for more | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
emergency funding. It was astonishing. The charity had | :04:34. | :04:42. | |
apparently spent our money and was already requiring more emergency | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
funding. White at any point did no one say, try it yourself first? Why | :04:46. | :04:58. | |
on Earth is not be named ministerial direction all the way through? Your | :04:59. | :04:59. | |
judgment and that of your judgment and that of your | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
predecessors has been flawed. It seems there has never been a point | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
at which you have said, we are not really making what we would like. | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
While the work they were doing was very interesting. ?6,000 worth of | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
the children who needed it would have revolutionised the world. For | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
the period of, this organisation was competitive bids for schemes, | :05:23. | :05:30. | |
fulfilling those schemes being monitored and appeared to be. | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
Delivering that the outputs that we had set out in the bid. On the | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
questions of ministerial directions, that did not arise because the | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
Government was getting for its pounds what the charity had set out | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
in its bid. Politicians will have lots of pressures on them to make | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
decisions, good bad, you are responsible for watching | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
taxpayers's of money so it has been instructed to hear what you have to | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
say. Our report will be coming out shortly. It is important that the | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
learning lessons you have highlighted frankly strike us as | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
rather staggering, that these are things that were not asked some time | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
before today, when everything has gone belly up. | :06:18. | :06:18. | |
Now, doubts about the Government's controversial bill giving | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
Housing Association tenants the right-to-buy have been voiced | :06:22. | :06:23. | |
Labour MPs feared that too few homes-to-rent would be | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
And several Tory MPs wanted guarantees that there'd be | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
But the Government insisted it was a good deal. | :06:34. | :06:40. | |
And the Minister read out an e-mail from one enthusiatic tenant. | :06:41. | :06:43. | |
I'm absolutely eternally grateful to everyone in the | :06:44. | :06:45. | |
Conservative Government that has helped push this forward. | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
I absolutely cannot wait until the point, hopefully in 2016, | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
where I can be holding the keys to the house that I own, a house that | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
will be my savings for the future, a house that will allow me to pass | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
Please, please, pass on my very heartfelt gratitude | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
to everyone involved in ensuring that this was made a reality. | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
Mr Speaker, these are the people, up and down the country, | :07:09. | :07:16. | |
that this policy, agreed with the Housing Associations, | :07:17. | :07:19. | |
As this lady made clear, it is giving the chance to fulfil a dream | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
Can the Secretary of State explain how selling Housing Association | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
properties, subsidising that sale by selling council properties, half of | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
the stock, in the case of my local authority, reducing local authority | :07:34. | :07:36. | |
incomes to build properties by reducing rent and allowing | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
developers to get away without building any social homes, how does | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
that help the thousands of people in housing need in my constituency? | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
I will come on to address the points that the honourable gentleman makes. | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
But I will say at this point, the reason that it helps is that we | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
are requiring that there is a new home built for every home that | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
And this will improve the housing stock in London. | :07:59. | :08:05. | |
Given that the bill fails to include any legal commitment to replace | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
social homes that are sold under right to buy on a one-to-one basis, | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
will he accept that selling off valuable council homes to fund the | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
expansion of right to buy means that we are losing two social homes to | :08:17. | :08:19. | |
rent in return for just one social home to buy? | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
The honourable lady will find that actually, | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
the rate of additional stock that is being provided in response to | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
the reinvigorated council right to buy is running at over one-to-one. | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
The agreement that we have been able to reach with the Housing | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
Associations makes it very clear, and if the honourable lady hasn't | :08:42. | :08:44. | |
had a copy of that, I will make sure that she has a copy, that these | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
homes will be replaced on at least a one-for-one basis. I shouldn't | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
say replaced, because of course, the homes that continue to be | :08:53. | :08:55. | |
occupied, they trigger an additional home that is being built. | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
Like the cuts to tax credits, this bill is the Chancellor's work, | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
with his political fingerprints all over it. | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
It is a bill that makes the same mistakes as the tax credits. | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
Divide and rule politics overriding good policy. | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
And like tax credits, it faces a looming row on all fronts. | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
Above all, it fails the same low and middle | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
income working families that the Tories claim they will represent. | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
It will lead to a huge loss of affordable homes to rent and buy, | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
and be a huge let down for those who believed the Tory election pledges. | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
It is a bill that will prove to be bad policy and bad politics. | :09:40. | :09:44. | |
It will be a slow burn problem, all the way to 2020. | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
And we will oppose it in the voting lobbies tonight. | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
I want to amend this bill to guarantee that it works | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
We should extend the right to buy, but at the same time, we must gain | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
significant numbers of low-cost homes, and we know that is possible. | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
So, the amendment that I will table after this debate today will ask for | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
a binding guarantee that London will see a net gain in affordable housing | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
A guarantee that in addition to the replaced Housing Association | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
homes, London will see at least two low-cost homes built for every | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
That is the intent of the amendment that I will table today. | :10:27. | :10:33. | |
Along, I have to say, with the support of every single backbench | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
Conservative colleague representing the London constituency. | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
Conservative colleague representing a London constituency. | :10:43. | :10:44. | |
And I strongly urge the Government to work with us to help us deliver | :10:45. | :10:47. | |
Over recent years, there has been no like-for-like replacement | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
of affordable homes sold, under the existing right to buy scheme. | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
The Secretary of State couldn't dispute | :10:55. | :10:56. | |
his own department's figures, which I put to him, in London since | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
2012, only one in seven council homes sold have been replaced. | :11:01. | :11:07. | |
So, how can anyone believe there will be any difference this time? | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
There is nothing in the bill to guarantee money must | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
be reinvested in the local area, replacing like-for-like sold homes. | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
The Department for Work and Pensions has carried out | :11:23. | :11:24. | |
around 60 investigations into suicides among people who had | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
At Prime Minister's Questions last week, the SNP leader at | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
Westminster, Angus Robertson, called for the reports to be published. | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
His SNP colleagues have been keeping up the pressure. | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
But the Work and Pensions Minister, Priti Patel, told them it would be | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
We all in side concerned about the terrible damage the ideological cuts | :11:44. | :11:57. | |
being made are doing to the most vulnerable in our society. The last | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
two weeks, my right honourable friend has asked the Prime Minister | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
about suicides following on from benefit reductions. Will the | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
Minister publish the details of these investigations were flipped? | :12:11. | :12:17. | |
-- forthwith. The department carries out reviews to identify whether any | :12:18. | :12:20. | |
lessons can be mad but I should emphasise that the Information | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
Commissioner has considered this issue and has upheld the decision | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
not to publish these because of the level of personal information | :12:30. | :12:31. | |
contained and for that reason it would be unlawful to release this | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
information. Thank you, Mr Speaker. In 2014, the Scottish Association | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
for mental health cost of an's leading mental health charity, | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
published research which found that 90% of their service users said they | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
mental health had deteriorated as a direct result of welfare reform. | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
Further research this year by the same charity in the facility they | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
run in my constituency confirmed that benefits sanctions mean -- are | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
detrimental to the mental health service users there. What starts | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
with Government take to address the adverse effects benefits sanctions | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
on those with mental problems? Well, first of all, let me start by saying | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
that sanctions play an important part in the labour market and | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
encourage people and support them to go back to work and specifically | :13:24. | :13:26. | |
with regards to support for claimants with mental health | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
conditions, our staff are trained to support individuals with conditions | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
during their job search and they also have access to more expert | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
advice should it be needed. People with mental health problems do have | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
particular barriers to get them back into the labour market and into | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
productive work. With the Minister agree that the Government should be | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
taking all steps to ensure that people with mental health problems | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
are not sanctions unnecessarily and they should be showed flexibility | :13:58. | :13:59. | |
around making sure they get back into the jobs market? | :14:00. | :14:00. | |
A few weeks ago, the Department for Work and Pensions | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
announced that it would be trialling a warning system | :14:04. | :14:05. | |
to alert claimants to possible sanctions. | :14:06. | :14:08. | |
Before the Government is able to report to the House on the impact | :14:09. | :14:15. | |
of a good warning system to people that there may be sanctions coming | :14:16. | :14:18. | |
down the road, they will need to begin the trials. | :14:19. | :14:20. | |
Is there any chance of the Minister today telling us | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
when the trials will begin and when they will be completed? | :14:24. | :14:25. | |
Well, I thank the Chair of the Select | :14:26. | :14:27. | |
Committee and I can tell him we are working out the details now and I'll | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
be very happy to discuss further details as to when we'll be rolling | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
The so-called yellow card pilot scheme is actually an admission | :14:35. | :14:44. | |
by the Government that the sanctions regime isn't working | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
at the present time and is particularly badly failing people | :14:48. | :14:49. | |
Why is the Government waiting until next year to bring in this pilot | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
scheme and in the meantime will they please just stop sanctioning people | :14:55. | :14:57. | |
What I'd say to the honourable lady is that I would | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
respectfully disagree with her on the point she is making. | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
Claimants are only asked to meet reasonable requirements taking | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
into account their circumstances and I think, as she will find with the | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
pilots as they get under way, that this is about how we can integrate | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
support for claimants and, importantly, provide them with | :15:21. | :15:23. | |
the support and guidance to help them get back to work. | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
There is no evidence to suggest mental health claimants are being | :15:28. | :15:29. | |
We provide the support through our job centres | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
and our claimants are only asked to meet reasonable requirements. | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
Mr Speaker, the Minister may have inadvertently slipped up there. | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
There is clear evidence from last year that 58% of people with mental | :15:48. | :15:53. | |
health conditions on employment support allowance work-related | :15:54. | :15:55. | |
Obviously that is over half and that's equivalent to 105,000 | :15:56. | :16:08. | |
people, 83% in a Mind survey, saying their health condition was | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
The Minister replied that the sanction system was kept under | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
constant review, but it plays an important part in the labour market. | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
You're watching Monday in Parliament on BBC Parliament. | :16:19. | :16:20. | |
Top civil servants have admitted there are lessons to be learned from | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
the collapse of the charity Kids Company, but insists the charity was | :16:25. | :16:26. | |
Still to come, questions about the human rights record | :16:27. | :16:35. | |
as Egypt's president meets with a dry response in the House of Lords. | :16:36. | :16:38. | |
We are rushing around trying to sell arms to one of | :16:39. | :16:41. | |
the most barbarous regimes, to Saudi Arabia, one of the most barbarous | :16:42. | :16:43. | |
Wouldn't it be discriminatory to even think of excluding... | :16:44. | :16:54. | |
President Sisi from these human rights abusers? | :16:55. | :17:02. | |
But first, should all British citizens living across the | :17:03. | :17:04. | |
European Union be given a vote in EU's upcoming EU in-out referendum? | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
That demand was rejected by the Government as the House | :17:12. | :17:13. | |
of Lords debated the EU Referendum Bill, which sets out | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
The idea was put forward by the Liberal Democrat Lady Miller. | :17:17. | :17:23. | |
These British expats in the EU will be facing | :17:24. | :17:25. | |
a giant step into the unknown should the vote be to exit the EU. | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
Will they need to apply to become citizens | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
Would they pass any financial or language requirements? | :17:36. | :17:42. | |
What would happen to their healthcare arrangements? | :17:43. | :17:45. | |
How quickly would reciprocal arrangements cease? | :17:46. | :17:48. | |
These have all been raised with me by very worried people. | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
We have been encouraging our firms and our citizens to take | :17:54. | :17:56. | |
full advantage of the economic opportunities that are offered | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
by the European Union and that involves, for many people, working | :18:00. | :18:02. | |
We do not know where these people are, in which countries, or indeed, | :18:03. | :18:11. | |
We don't know where they live, we're going to have difficulties | :18:12. | :18:18. | |
contacting them and I'm just nervous that if we make | :18:19. | :18:20. | |
a commitment that we cannot meet, it will end up in a mess. | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
The best criteria is to have the Westminster franchise. | :18:26. | :18:30. | |
Of course I'm entirely sympathetic to much that lies behind this | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
amendment, having regard to the Government's commitment in respect | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
of votes for life, but I should finally point out that many British | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
citizens living in the EU and elsewhere in the world will be | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
able to vote in this referendum as long as they have not been living | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
The parliamentary franchise already allows them to vote. | :18:50. | :18:57. | |
So whilst sympathetic to this amendment, | :18:58. | :18:59. | |
I do not believe this is the time or place to make those changes. | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
Lady Miller withdrew her amendment on the EU Referendum Bill, | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
but peers are expected to return to the subject at later stages. | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
Now, concerns have been raised about Egypt's human rights record ahead of | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
The Government has defended its decision, describing Egypt | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
The human rights campaigner Labour's Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws | :19:23. | :19:29. | |
explained why she felt the visit to Downing Street was inappropriate. | :19:30. | :19:35. | |
Is the Minister aware that Sisi has been responsible for the murder of | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
He has used torture and rape on dissidents, imprisoned tens | :19:39. | :19:49. | |
of thousands of political opponents, including elected MPs. | :19:50. | :19:51. | |
He has denied medical aid to people in prison, he's been responsible for | :19:52. | :19:54. | |
In fact, Egypt is becoming an incubator for | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
He's employed extrajudicial killing and has held trials, because he's | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
corrupted the judiciary, held trials where the death penalty has been | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
passed on people after very swift trials on very little evidence, | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
including on a young woman who is a student at | :20:14. | :20:15. | |
She's there studying for a Masters degree and now is forced into exile. | :20:16. | :20:23. | |
Is this a man who should be invited to Downing Street? | :20:24. | :20:25. | |
And are we going to confront him with his tyranny? | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
My Lords, the noble Baroness mentioned a number of different | :20:30. | :20:32. | |
It is in Britain's interests to work with President Sisi. | :20:33. | :20:39. | |
Together we need to combat terrorism, | :20:40. | :20:42. | |
we need to counter extremism and help bring stability to Libya. | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
We also need to talk candidly about Egypt's long-term future. | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
Reform that revitalises the economy and political progress | :20:52. | :20:53. | |
that is the foundation of the long-term stability. | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
My Lords, we've lavished hospitality recently on the President of China, | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
where there is gross abuse of human rights, as we heard earlier in an | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
answer to an earlier question, and where the ruling clique presume to | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
tell people how many children they can and cannot have. | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
Shortly, we'll be lavishing similar hospitality to Narendra Modi, | :21:21. | :21:28. | |
who until recently was excluded from this country and the United | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
States for possible genocide against the Muslim community in India. | :21:32. | :21:39. | |
We are rushing around trying to sell arms to one of | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
the most barbarous regimes, Saudi Arabia, one of the most barbarous | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
Wouldn't it be discriminatory to even think of excluding | :21:47. | :21:54. | |
President Sisi from these human rights abusers? | :21:55. | :22:02. | |
We want to see more progress in Egypt. | :22:03. | :22:04. | |
Better protection of Egyptians' constitutional rights, | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
freedom of expression, more space for NGOs and civil society. | :22:10. | :22:11. | |
Our relationship with Egypt lets us raise these issues. | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
Ministers and officials regularly do so and the President's forthcoming | :22:19. | :22:21. | |
visit is a further opportunity to raise issues of concern. | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
Would the Minister please confirm that the UK will unequivocally raise | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
concerns about the flagrant and wide-ranging abuses of human rights | :22:31. | :22:32. | |
And can the Minister confirm also that there | :22:33. | :22:40. | |
will be absolutely no negotiation or agreement on the transfer | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
of any arms or equipment that could be used for internal repression? | :22:45. | :22:50. | |
My Lords, as I said before, we will raise these issues with | :22:51. | :22:53. | |
As far as the arms situation is concerned, as the noble Baroness is | :22:54. | :23:04. | |
aware, this is a highly regulated regime and we try to ensure that | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
Egypt remains subject to the EU Foreign Affairs Council over this | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
This suspension means licenses are suspended | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
if we judge that they might be used in internal repression. | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
We assess all applications for Egypt against the FAC threshold | :23:28. | :23:30. | |
My Lords, is it not always the prime duty of the British Government | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
of whatever party to protect the interests of the United Kingdom? | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
That means, very often, talking to people and welcoming | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
people whose internal policies we may not wholly approve of? | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
The noble Lord has just mentioned one or two. | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
The President should be made welcome, but it should also be | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
in no doubt that there are concerns in this country about certain | :24:01. | :24:03. | |
Egypt, yes, is on the front line in the war against Isil | :24:04. | :24:13. | |
It is the biggest country in the Arab world. | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
The biggest destination for British tourists with almost one million | :24:19. | :24:21. | |
It is also hosting people displaced by crises in neighbouring countries. | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
And finally, at the start of the day, Labour's | :24:28. | :24:29. | |
Chief Whip, Rosie Winterton, launched the process for the | :24:30. | :24:32. | |
Oldham West and Royton by-election following the death last month of | :24:33. | :24:35. | |
Michael Meacher, who was a Labour MP for 45 years and a former Minister. | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
I beg to move Mr Speaker to issue his warrant to the clerk of the | :24:44. | :24:51. | |
Crown to make out a new writ for the electing of a Member to serve | :24:52. | :24:54. | |
in this present Parliament for the borough constituency of Oldham West | :24:55. | :24:57. | |
and Royton in the room of the Right Honourable Michael Hugh | :24:58. | :24:59. | |
The question is that I do issue my warrant to the clerk of the Crown | :25:00. | :25:13. | |
to make out a new writ for the electing of the member to serve | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
in the present Parliament for the borough constituency of Oldham West | :25:18. | :25:19. | |
and Royton in the room of the Right Honourable Michael Hugh | :25:20. | :25:21. | |
As many as are of the opinion say aye. | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
It will be the first by-election of this Parliament and it will be | :25:28. | :25:36. | |
Georgina Pattinson is here for the rest of the week. | :25:37. | :25:42. |