29/02/2016 Monday in Parliament

Hello, and welcome to Monday in Parliament, our look

The headlines: Guidelines on what civil servants can and can't

say to ministers campaigning to leave the EU cause anger

This is a huge blunder, because out there, the general public will think

that this decision has been petty and has been vindictive.

But the government insists it's the best way to manage

The civil service code and indeed in law makes it clear that it is the

duty of civil servants to support the position of the day.

The role of civil servants as the government approaches

the in-out EU referendum was under the microscope

Ministers campaigning to leave the EU have been stopped

from receiving official documents relating to the vote.

Eurosceptic MPs argued it put the ministers and civil servants

But the minister Matthew Hancock said that under law the government

had to take a side - and the civil servants had

Ministers may depart from the government position

in a personal capacity on the specific question

On all other matters, including on other EU business,

government operates as normal, and in all things, the civil

servants support the government position.

Guidance on how well this will work in practice was set out

Other than on the specific question of the referendum,

all ministers can commission and see all documents as normal.

On the question of the referendum, and on this question alone,

ministers who disagree with the government position

naturally cannot commission policy work on the in-out question or see

documents setting out details of the case to remain.

There has been a question and answer briefing circulated

following the letter which states that the ministers may not see any

papers, and I quote, that have a bearing on the referendum

question or are intended to be used in support of their position

This has been described by one Minister, my right honourable friend

How can such a wide ban be justified?

How does my right honourable friend reconcile this with his comment

on Radio 4 this morning, and I quote, the government

is functioning on all questions other than the specific in-out

question in an entirely normal way, and he said, there are no other

roles other than those set out last Monday in a letter.

What about the question and answer briefing?

Of course there was functioning perfectly well.

In fact, I come to this House from the meeting with the right

honourable member for Witham about childcare policy,

which was carried out in an entirely normal way.

In fact, on Friday, I was visiting a prison with the Justice Secretary,

and I think those two points demonstrate that things

On the question of the civil service code, the civil service code,

and indeed in the law in the Constitutional Affairs Act

of 2010, makes it clear that it is the duty

of civil servants to support the position of the Government

of the day, and it is only because the Prime Minister

is allowing ministers to remain in government whilst disagreeing

with a single policy, which is the in-out position,

The referendum will dictate how, in the future, the UK handles

exports and imports, the world of work, the digital age,

human rights, intelligence sharing, the fight against crime and how

we adapt to climate change, and here we are all today discussing

the guidelines to civil servants and special advisers.

Mr Speaker, sadly, I am not in the strongest position

to lecture the poor Minister on handling splits in his own party.

My right honourable friend is hugely able, and he has shown his ability

But will he take it from me, this is a huge blunder,

because out there, the general public will think that this decision

has been petty and has been vindictive, and moreover,

they will say to our government, and this party, of which I am

so proud to belong, "If we are so much stronger

"What is it that we are so careful to hide?"

There is a serious constitutional issue here, which goes to the heart

We ask ministers questions and expect answers that

How can those who send us to this House of Commons have faith

in the answers we get it those that we are questioning purposely

have information withheld by their own civil servants?

I have a huge amount of respect for the right honourable gentleman,

and that is why I have come to this specific point,

That is, the question that he asks, is exactly the reason

for prescribing this guidance to only being about the in-out

I find it hard to believe that the Cabinet, on the 29th

of February, knew what it was actually doing.

The elections and political parties referendum act,

the central purpose of that is to achieve fairness

in elections and in a referendum, and now they government has parked

itself on one side of the argument, dwarfing any influence of either

of the campaigns, and it also goes against the strategic objective

of offering people a referendum to actually resolve this question

about Britain's role in the world, one way or the other,

and that question will only hold if this is seen to be fair,

and all of this runs against that strategic objective.

The Government's been pressed to do more to prevent hundreds of children

falling into the hands of human traffickers as the Calais migrant

camp known as The Jungle is demolished.

Labour's Yvette Cooper said asylum applications for unaccompanied

children were taking nine months in France and that 400

were at "serious risk" of disappearing.

But the minister told MPs in response to an urgent question

that safe accommodation was on offer and refugees should claim

Unaccompanied children in the camps, she said, had no where to go,

yet 150 had some of their closest family in the UK.

When an asylum claim is launched by a child with close family

connections in the UK, both governments are committed

to ensuring that such a case is prioritised.

But it is vital that the child engages with the authorities

This is the best way to ensure these vulnerable children receive

the protection and support they need,

and the quickest way to reunite them with any close family members

No-one should live in the conditions we have seen in the camps

The French government has made huge efforts to provide

suitable, alternative accommodation for all those that need it,

and has made clear that migrants in Calais

in need of protection should claim asylum in France.

There is a massive reality gap between what he said

Save the Children born that things are extremely chaotic and this

is making an appalling situation for children even worse.

He knows well there is a serious risk that those children

will now just disappear into the hands of traffickers

Will he accept the offer from the UNHCR to help process

applications and set up a fast system to reunite

The Minister has the power now to stop

the trafficking of hundreds of children on our doorstep.

The UK is about to seek out an asylum expert to the French

administration to facilitate the improvement of all stages

of the process of identifying, protecting

and transferring any relevant cases to the UK.

The right honourable lady references this period of nine

It should not take anywhere near that, and we remain

behind our commitments to see that there is an efficient

What we judge is a small number of cases that might have that direct

The best way to protect the maximum number of

vulnerable children is to minimise the number who are taking to this

in squalor, in camps outside Calais, in an attempt to make a dangerous

and illegal crossing into this country,

and the way to do that is to maintain our very close cooperation

There is no process on the ground for these

There is no meaningful advice to them that the reunification rules

I do urge the Minister to look again at the issue and consider

what practical support can be given in the next 24 hours.

Should we be welcoming rather than challenging

the recent Tribunal decision in ZAT to short cut the admission of three

As the right honourable lady suggests,

shouldn't we be looking to walk on the other 100 or so Calais

children identified by Citizens UK as having

family here in the UK, so that they can be reunited

The Minister seems to be implying that it is the responsibility

of children to declare themselves to the relevant

It is our responsibility here to make sure

There will be many thousands more children

in such an awful place, were it not for the fact that this

government is providing such a huge amount of aid

into Syria, and neighbouring countries, so that other children

As the honourable member has just said, if these are British children,

the test that would have to be applied to the government would be

The Minister is describing today a process of colluding

with the French government in a process that will

push them into the hands of people traffickers.

Is he really saying that we are at such a different

standard to the children of refugees as we do to our own?

I utterly reject that assertion, and indeed,

the joint working that our enforcement agencies are involved

in in confronting the people traffickers and going

after the gangs and seeing that there isn't

that exploitation is precisely part of the joint agreement

which was signed last August, and we are

supporting the French government to identify the vulnerable

and to see that they are given support.

People from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely

to be medicated for psychological disorders, Labour's Lady Lawrence

She called for greater access to other treatments such

In reply, the minister said this was not the case -

but was told by another peer that data on ethnicity and medication

should be collected - as it had been in the past.

BME patients are more likely to be given higher doses

My question to the Minister is, what is the government doing

to ensure that BME patients are offered the same access

to treatment option as their white counterparts and not

Although there is evidence that gender and ethnicity affect

the tolerability of some medicines, there is no evidence that people

from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are prescribed higher

On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that many

people from BME backgrounds are paying more, that they spend

more time in inpatient psychiatric facilities,

they suffer greater seclusion, and other aspects of the mental

health treatment for black minority ethnic people,

But isn't it the case that this whole issue

about the overrepresentation of black and minority ethnic people

in the mental health services has been going on for decades,

For example, Sarah Reed, a black woman who was incarcerated

in Holloway when she was well known to the mental health services,

was found dead in her cell in January, failed

by the Prison Service, mental health services

Why are black people, minority ethnic people,

far more likely to be locked up in prison instead

The noble lady makes a very important point,

and that is why the Prime Minister has asked David Lamy to conduct

an inquiry into precisely the issue that she raced.

Earlier this month, Minister of State Alastair Burt said

that he would be meeting with a wide range of stakeholders to look at BME

groups and their unequal access to mental health services.

Could my noble friend of the Minister please confirm that

that wide range of Stakeholders will include the community leaders.

As black and minority people are also disproportionately members

of faith communities, and if those community leaders

could be trained in recognising the early signs of mental health

problems, then perhaps more people would be referred earlier

into a mental health services that they need.

I will certainly have a word with Alastair Burt and the Minister

of state for health, who is having the meeting

that the noble lady referred to, and I will bring her comments

The noble Lord Minister was, of course Chairman of the CQC,

so he will be well aware of the Care Quality Commission

and their responsibility to lay before Parliament an annual report

on the monitoring of the Mental Health Act.

It took over for the Mental Health Act commission when

The Mental Health Act commission used a biannual report

with a varied, significant chapter on the details that he just talked

about, the disproportionate number of BME detained patients,

disproportionately used anti-psychotic drugs,

and levels above BMF recommended levels.

Could the noble lord the Minister tell me why the CQC in its annual

report doesn't present that level of data and evidence anymore

on a yearly basis, and how, without that evidence and data,

can it actually take steps to tackle this important area?

I don't have an answer to the question that he raises.

I don't know, is the straightforward answer.

But I hope that when the data comes through, and if we can extend that

to patients and carers as well, as was recently done in a report,

that evidence, that information should be available.

Isn't it a well-known fact mental health services are massively under

a good start to put some resources into that service?

The government is committed to putting more resources

I think there is a recognition across all parties in this House

that mental health has been a Cinderella service for ever,

and we are all committed, I think to mental health,

physical health, and more resources are now going into mental health.

You're watching Monday in Parliament.

Still to come - the Government is called to do more to protect

Russia's military tactics in Syria have been condemned as appalling

by the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon who said the fragile

ceasefire would only succeed if the Russians

Russian war planes began air strikes in Syria at the end of September,

initially with the aim of defeating so-called Islamic State,

but later targeting other groups the Russians considered terrorists.

Russian air strikes are clearly targeting civilian populations

in Syria which is killing and maiming innocent men,

women and children and degrading the Syrian moderate forces

that we are relying on to defeat Daesh in the region.

Will the Secretary of State outline what actions we are taking,

or we might take, to protect these populations and underpin our

I know my honourable friend will welcome the cessation

of hostilities at the weekend which appears to be

But it will only succeed if there is a major change

in behaviour by the Syrian regime and by its principal backer,

Russia must honour this agreement by ending attacks on Syrian

civilians and moderate opposition groups and using its influence

to ensure the Syrian regime does the same.

Both the Foreign Secretary and I have been very clear

and public that the Russian actions here have been undermining prospects

We welcome the Russian contribution to the most recent agreement that

Russia can and should play a positive role in the fight

against Daesh and indeed ending the conflict in Syria.

But I have to tell the House that over 70% of Russian air strikes have

not been against Daesh at all, they have been against civilians

and moderate opposition groups in Syria.

An appalling contribution to a conflict that must be ended.

Since the parliamentary vote on Syria at the beginning

of December there have been 319 RAF air strikes against Daesh in Iraq

and 43 RAF air strikes against Daesh in Syria.

Since we are meant to be targeting the head of the snake why have

there been seven and a half times more air strikes in Iraq?

There were more air strikes in Iraq than in Syria in December

and in January because we were engaged in assisting the Iraqi

forces liberate Ramadi, which is where most of the military

action was, and also assisting the Kurdish forces in the liberation

of Sinjar further north. The Secretary of State is absolutely

right to say we can simultaneously welcome the progress

towards a ceasefire and the contribution the Russians

have made, whilst condemning the previous Russian attacks

on the moderate forces that the Coalition is working with.

Can he tell us at this stage how reliable he thinks the estimate

of 70,000 moderate Syrian ground forces is at this moment in time?

I am grateful to the honourable gentleman and indeed to the official

support that has been given to the campaign against Daesh.

The 70,000 figure of course was not the Government figure,

it was a figure produced independently by the Joint

And we have no reason to believe that that figure is the wrong one.

Indeed the civil war in Syria has been raging for six years now

so there have been considerable forces engaged against

What support is the UK Government giving to the UN who are today

giving fresh aid to Syria in the albeit very fragile ceasefire?

We have been making a contribution through the United Nations

It is not easy for convoys to get through to some of the hard to reach

areas and the drop that was carried out last week

It was dropped from a great height into a high wind.

A number of the pallets did not reach the ground.

The best way of getting aid in is actually by land,

by land convoys, but that isn't easy in some of these particularly hard

The defence secretary Michael Fallon.

The Government has said it is backing the imposition

of higher tariffs by the European Union

But the Business Secretary rejected a call from Labour for ministers

to also support the scrapping of what's known as the Lesser Duty

In a Labour-led debate, the Shadow Business Secretary,

Angela Eagle, said the move would allow even higher duties

and protect the UK steel industry being destroyed by a tsunami

The European Union have finally set their tariff on a particular

product, Chinese rebar, at a level between 9.2 and 13%.

Meanwhile in the USA we've seen introduced defensive tariffs set

at 66% which were operating 45 days from the start

To work tariffs have to be high enough to deal with the problem.

Artificially over inflating the price of imported steel

would have a hugely damaging effect on British companies further up

Of course I would like to see such companies using British steel

rather than cheaper, lower quality imports.

Let me take this opportunity to urge them to do so.

However forcing them to buy British steel by making imported steel

prohibitively expensive is not the way to make this happen.

Come out strongly for manufacturing industry and be unequivocal

Get rid of the Lesser Duty Rule and prevent dumping by China.

Vote against giving China Market Economy Status

which would truly spell the death knell for UK steel.

Now, in the latest battle of wills over changes to the benefits system,

the House of Lords has defeated the Government over planned cuts

The Government wants to reduce ESA payments -

paid to sick and disabled people - by ?30 a week for many

But a crossbench or independent peer, Lord Low says the change

should not go ahead until the impact on claimants' finances and mental

The Government said that wasn't practical.

What is proposed in the majority of the amendment will be impossible

This is because the data which is currently available does

not allow us to make a meaningful estimate.

We would therefore need to undertake a large scale trial of several years

which would substantially delay implementation.

A trial starting perhaps in April 2017 of 15,000 claimants would not

It is perfectly clear from the very restricted nature of those

amendments that the Minister has been working with

I accept the Minister has done his very best and hope

he will understand that those sick and disabled people who genuinely

cannot find an employer willing to take them on,

and in my view that's the very big problem they face,

they will be faced by the most incredible hardship if clauses 13

The reality is that these changes have been debated extensively

by both houses and most recently last Tuesday in the other place,

where after a three hour debate the House of Commons insisted

with a majority of 27, above the Government's notional

majority, that the changes we made should be resisted.

I think the time has come to recognise, as I think the noble

Baroness has just indicated, that we should respect the view

Lord Low said that the Government lost the argument but won the vote.

Whether or not one has won the argument is a

Whether or not one won the vote was not a subjective decision

and that is the basis on which I think we should proceed.

The Minister has said it would be an expensive and time-consuming

matter to provide the information my amendment calls for.

But I would say that if the Government doesn't have this

kind of information they should not be seeking to implement such

a drastic cut to ESA in the first place.

In the end peers backed Lord Low's amendment by 289 votes to 219.

With parliamentary ping-pong under way, the Welfare Bill

Alicia McCarthy is here for the rest of the week,