31/10/2016 Monday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Monday in Parliament, our look

Angry scenes in the House of Commons as the Home Secretary announces

there will not be an inquirx into the 1984 Battle of Orgreave -

one of the most violent events of the miners strike...

Aren't we right in concluding that the Establishment stitch up that she

has just announced today is nothing more than a nakedly politic`l act?

Amber Rudd insists she's wehghed the decision carefully.

The Health Secretary clashes with the Conservative chair

of the Health Select Committee on England's NHS funding...

I stick by those figures. I don t agree with the letter she wrote

today and I'm afraid I do think her calculation is wrong.

And the government says it won't be releasing the details

of its agreement with the Nhssan car plant in Sunderland.

There will be no public inqtiry into the events at the Orgrdave

coking works in South Yorkshire during the 1984 miners strike,

The police reaction to a picket - with charges by mounted polhce,

and allegations police statdments were pre-prepared by other officers,

has led to a long-running campaign for an inquiry.

In angry exchanges in the House of Commons, the Home Secret`ry

defended her decision, saying the so-called Battle

of Orgreave did not compare to the Hillsborough disaster,

because there had been no ddaths or miscarriages of justice.

I have concluded there is no case for either a statutory inquhry

This is an astonishing, and frankly chain for

-- frankly shameful decision by the government.

The government have led those families up the garden path

Does she not understand that the disinfecting

light of justice inquiry, a judicial inquiry, is the only

thing that will give those communities and those familhes

the confidence that they nedd back in the South Yorkshire Police force?

Once again, the name of South Yorkshire Police

does besmirch the brave officers on the front line.

And I have raised in this House on several occasions

and I will raise it again today will my right honourable frhend

along with my right honourable friend the police instead,

meet with me to have a serious discussion about whether

South Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police

could be merged to become Yorkshire Police so that thd name

South Yorkshire Police does not do an injustice to the officers

who are bravely putting thehr lives on the line every day?

Why is it that the government, and it appears to be the government,

have now taken a decision which is contrary to the ond

that the previous Home Secrdtary, now the Prime Minister, gavd

in answer to my right honourable friend several months ago?

I can tell the honourable gentleman that I had taken

I have spoken to the former Home Secretary about the decision

and I have ensured that all the matters and the papdrs

We have taken our time to arrive at this decision.

Only a willingness to look at all the evidence.

While the public enquiries can, in some instances, be successful,

too often they cost huge amounts of money, they take many ye`rs

and they don't even answer the question they asked.

Well, I thank my honourable friend for that point and in a way,

the easier decision would h`ve been for the government

But I cannot see that it is in the public interest,

given the substantial changds to policing that has

Given that the IPCC found evidence of perjury and perversion

of the course of justice, and given that in the last lonth,

new evidence has emerged from former police officers

who were at Orgreave, orchestrated violence and the mass

manufacture of police statelents, aren't we right in concluding

that the establishment stitch up that she has just announced today

is nothing more than a nakedly political act?

The right honourable gentleman is entirely wrong.

He chooses to politicise it where there is none here.

I had a meeting, as he knows, with the campaign group.

We had a frank exchange of information about it.

But the fact is, just because he disagrees

with the decision I have made, does not mean that it is

I have made it honestly, based on the evidence.

I wonder whether we could not consider the House having

the courage to have a Select Committee inquiry?

I say this because I can understand the government is dubious

about another public enquirhes with wall-to-wall lawyers

costing tens of millions of pounds and taking years.

But if the government could free an ad hoc Select Committee

where there is a head of steam behind the issue

from the Osmotherley rules, and we could get a proper

Select Committee under a senior member of the House and be `ble

to interview all witnesses, including advisers to ministers

we could deal with the sort of issue much more cheaply

Well, it's a very interesting suggestion

I believe that sort of setup would be a matter for the House

We know the South Yorkshire Police lied about what happened

at Hillsborough, yet only five years earlier,

the same South Yorkshire Police many of the same commanders,

behaved in a very similar way at Orgreave.

The Orgreave families and campaigners need the sale

-- the same justice as Hillsborough had.

They need the same type of independent inquiry

I would respectfully say to the right honourable ladx

that the Hillsborough situation was quite different to Orgrdave

It was right that we had an inquiry that analyse exactly

miscarriages of justice, there were no deaths.

The right honourable lady should be aware.

Therefore, it doesn't merit the same level of status as a public inquiry

The Health Secretary has defended his claim that ?10 billion

has been made available to NHS front line services in England.

But a Shadow Health Minister, whose urgent question on thd issue

summoned Jeremy Hunt to the Commons - said the only way it could be more

discredited is if it were on the side of a bus driven

After last year's spending review, I can confirm to the House

that the NHS will in fact rdceive an increase of ?10 billion hn real

terms over the six years since the five-year forward

In cash terms, that will sed the NHS budget increase

from ?98.1 billion in 2014-05, to ?119.9 billion in 2020-2021.

A highly significant rise at a time when public finances are severely

constrained in the deficit this government regrettably inherited.

Isn't it the reality, Mr Spdaker, that this government has cut adult

social care, they have cut the public health --

public health budget, has cut the NHS capital budget

and now we learn that the average amount we spend on health c`re

for each person in this country will actually fall in 2018 , 19

Does that not raise series questions, Mr Speaker,

about the claims ministers and indeed Prime Minister is having

-- and indeed Prime Ministers has been making from that dispatch box?

In fact, the only way that the government's figurds

could be further discredited is if the secretary of statd slap

them on the side of a bus and got the Foreign Secretary to drhve it!

Labour's promise of additional funding was ?2.5 billion.

That is not ?6 billion, not ?4 billion, but ?2.5 billion

more, less than a third of what the NHS said they ndeded.

And even if you accept the chair of the Select Committee's ntmbers,

which I will go on to explahn to the House, I do not,

Labour were pledging, over the course of the Parlhament,

only half what this governmdnt has actually delivered in the fhrst year

I accept that he doesn't agree with the health committee's

appraisal of the ?10 million figure, but I'm afraid I stick

-- the ?10 billion figure, H'm afraid I stick by those figtres

Well, let me start by saying that I have enormous respect

I respect her passion for the NHS, our knowledge about it

So I would always listen very carefully to anything that she says.

I hope she will also understand that just as she speaks plainly today,

I need to speak plainly back and say that I don't agree with the letter

she wrote today and I'm afr`id I do think calculations wrong.

Isn't there an urgent need to be absolutely straight with thd British

public about the resources we will need to maintain both

the NHS and the care system and to confront the fact

that we will all actually h`ve to pay a bit more to ensure

that our loved ones get card when they need it?

When he and I worked in govdrnment, we both campaigned hard on lany

occasions for more funding for the NHS, including ment`l

health, which is a particul`r priority of both of ours.

I think the answer to this question is yes.

The Secretary of State will know that I wrote to him over thd summer

because at Wellstone, we had trolleys bumper-to-btmper

-- at the Royal Stoke, we h`d trolleys bumper-to-bumper in

hospital corridor is not a winter, but in high summer.

Since then, we have had mord hospital bed closures

So can I repeat the invitathon and ask the Secretary of St`te

to come to Stoke-on-Trent and see for himself the crisis

in the funding settlement, hitting those with the most

I'm very happy to visit his hospital, it is a hospital H have

I know it has been particul`rly challenging in the wake

of what happened in neighbotring mid Staffs.

If the government has stood by their word and invested

the promised ?10 billion in the NHS, does the Secretary of State agree

that the downgrade of Dewsbtry A E might not have been necessary?

First of all, can I welcome to her place in this House.

I'm sure she will make extrdmely important contribution and xes,

she is filling very big boots, but she has made a very good start,

In terms of what happens with A E department,

the changes in the pattern of services we provide is something

that has been a feature of both when her party has been

in power and when my own party has been in power.

Because the needs of the people who use the NHS also changes.

The Health Secretary replying to Labour's Tracy Brabin,

who replaced her friend Jo Cox as MP for Batley and Spen.

The Business Secretary has hndicated he won't release his letter

to Nissan which led to the car maker's decision on new invdstment

at its Sunderland plant - securing the future of 7,000 jobs.

Appearing in the Commons, Greg Clark was pressed to provide

more details of his dealings with Nissan and Labour

called for his letter to the firm to be published...

A stunning tribute to the local workforce which has made

the Sunderland plant, in the words of the Chief Executive

of Nissan, a globally competitive powerhouse.

We are immensely proud of it and proud of them.

And of course, the decision is great news for the people

For our world-class automothve sector and for the whole of

Mr Clark said he had given assurances to Nissan

on competitiveness, training and innovation...

In our negotiations, to leave the EU, we will emphasise

the very strong common ground that there is, especially

in the automotive sector between ourselves and other EU

member states in ensuring that trade between us can be free

A good deal for the UK can `lso be a good deal for four other lember

states and that is how we will approach the negoti`tions.

Mr Speaker, can I join the Secretary of State in warmly welcoming

Nissan's decision to keep production in the UK.

It's fantastic news for Nissan's 7,000 employees and the 38,000

plus employees who rely on its supply chain.

It's fantastic news for Sunderland and for the country as a whole.

It's also a testament the skill relativity and ability

of the workforce and managelent that Nissan has such confidence

But he said Mr Clark had refused to be transparent

We on these benches won the economy firing on all cylinders,

not spluttering along on one or two macro.

As we embark on Brexit, Britain needs a government

that is visionary, not reactive that is strategic, not shambolic.

As a start, Mr Speaker, we need a government

that is transparent and accountable instead of secretive.

I say to the honourable gentleman, if you didn't offer Nissan

a sweetener, then what have you got to hide?

My responsibility on behalf of the government is to encourage

and to attract investment in this country.

And it's important that when companies of all types

and all sectors share with me their investment pl`ns,

that are of information to their prospective compethtors,

that they can be assured that they are not going to be

disclosed to their competitors, to their disadvantage.

She said yesterday that our objective yesterday would bd to have

continued access without tariffs or bureaucratic impediment.

Now, that has not been said today but I think that's correct.

But if that objective is not realised, what will the cost of each

of the taxpayer in terms of a deal with Nissan?

-- what will the cost be to the taxpayer.

How much will it cost to make good those tariffs should

That is the key question in terms of this.

He should just come clean on one other issue he left offers list

-- -- he left off his list of things.

which I'm sure he did say to them when he spoke to thdm,

which was he reminded them that the UK outside

the European Union will be `ble to set its own new trade de`ls

and just guess which car manufacturers will benefit from free

trade deals with the rest of the world?

It's a welcome example of t`rgeted government commitment

to a successful company in a strategically vital sector

However, will be same sort of targeted investment be available

If so, how will these be selected in the context

Special deals for the car industry, for the financial services sector,

actually offer very little comfort to the literally thousands of small

businesses and the length and breadth of this country,

which incidentally, does go north of Newcastle as well.

Isn't this deal a signal to those Remainers who have become

Remoaners that they should recalibrate their doom and gloom

and become far more optimistic about the future of this cotntry

Can he tell the House whether his offer of tariff free

access to the European markdt will be available to all other parts

of our manufacturing sector, given what he said a moment ago

when, if I hurt him right, he indicated that the government

might take a different approach to different sectors.

And if that means that some of them might not benefit from tariff free

access, they'd like to know pretty quickly.

It's not in my gift to offer tariff free access to the single m`rket.

What I was describing would be what would be a positive outcome

from the negotiations and therefore the demeanour we should takd

As I meet, and my colleagues meet, my right noble friend paid le

a personal compliment, my team share my vigour in talking

to companies up and down thd land to make sure that we understand

what is important to them to inform our negotiations.

That seems to be an eminently sensible thing to do.

You're watching Monday in Parliament.

Still to come, the House of Lords takes a look at children's teeth

There is an epidemic of child tooth decay and hospital admissions for

extractions. My lord, the state of the nation's children's teeth is

shocking. The scheme that assesses

claimants of disability bendfits is to be overhauled,

with ministers promising to extend a "revolution" of getting

more people into work. The Work and Pensions Secretary

Damian Green, told the Commons he wanted a personalised wax to help

more disabled people find jobs. But the opposition have acctsed

the Government of talk It's clear that for many disabled

people, the barriers to entdring For people in work who get hll,

too often fall out of work, lose contact, lose confidence

and don't return to work, the impact extends far

beyond the individual. Families suffer, the health

service faces extra strain, But most of all,

it's a human tragedy. Potential is left unfulfilldd,

lives are lessened. Of course, health and welfare

systems must support those that It should offer the opportunity

of work for all those who c`n, provide help for those who could

and care for those who can't. It is the help for those

who could that through this green This is the third Secretary of State

who has promised a plan, and yet During his announcement tod`y,

the Secretary of State clailed that he was confronting

negative attitudes, The audacity of this

statement is offensive. The gov-mac has been responsible

for more than anything of the negative attitudes

towards disabled people Only this morning,

he himself described as abld disabled

people as sitting at home The consultation itself demonstrates

that the Government is failhng to understand the reality of many

disabled people's lives. And the real anxiety that they feel

about the coded messages One of the keys to success hn ending

the enormous waste of human potential is for the very fhrst time

to get health services and his department working together

far more effectively at a community level to ensure that people

on long-term sickness benefhts get meaningful employment support

and effective health intervdntion, because at the moment, the current

system to often provides nehther. At my surgery on Saturday,

I saw a man who will be 59 in two weeks' time,

walking with tremendous difficulties on two crutches,

who has had his employment During the time I was

speaking to him, he broke What sort of position are wd in that

a law-abiding person of his age suffering from disablement

is in a position where he goes to his member of Parliament

is in such a state of distrdss I welcome the green paper

in its broadest sense and a dialogue about how we can improve

the livelihood of disabled people, but the point has just been made,

we need to make sure that ftnding In order to protect people back

into work, and those Perhaps there are two words missing

from the document today and the Minister's statement today,

and that is compassion and dignity. Let's hope that we get that

in the response from the Government. Can I suggest to the Ministdr two

things he could do for people One is to ensure that those

assessors undertaking work `bility tests are properly qualified,

and secondly, could we take out the small number of people

with long-term enduring mental health conditions who are ndver

going to work and stop them being on this merry-go-round

which is neither good for them I am grateful for the expertise

that the honourable And I will take both

his points on board, in fact his second point,

he may have seen, I have already announced that for those who have

got a condition which already means that they can't work

and which will only stay the same or get worse,

we are going to stop retesthng them, because that seems to me a piece

of pointless and heartless bureaucracy that we can

happily get rid of. A UN convention from 1954 sdeking

to protect the cultural property of different countries is fhnally

making its way into UK law. The measure has support

from Labour and the SNP. But it was suggested that some

of the most recent destructhon of cultural heritage by so-called

Islamic State or Daesh would not In recent months, we have sden

the wanton destruction of ctltural heritage in the Middle East

and North Africa. These tragic events are a rdminder

of how vital it is that the UK ratifies this convention and makes

a strong statement about the importance we place

on protecting cultural heritage Honourable members will remdmber

that it was in 1700 BC that the Assyrians invaded

Mesopotamia, now called Ram`di and Falluja in Iraq,

and stole the stone gods of the Arab tribes and took them back to Nineveh

to force the Arabs to negothate to get their gods back,

and it is a sad fact, I'm afraid, Mr Speaker,

that the current treatment of cultural artefacts

in the exact same locations has progressed so little over

the intervening 3500 years. A people's cultural heritagd

is a crucial part of who thdy are, For almost all communities

anywhere in the world, it is a symbol whose import`nce

cannot be overstated. What also cannot be overstated

is the social and economic importance that that cultur`l

heritage will be in helping Syria, Iraq and Libya and others,

once Daesh is defeated, Isn't the irony that part

of the topicality of this bhll and the enthusiasm for it h`s come

from seeing the horrors of Daesh in Syria and elsewhere,

but also the fact that this bill doesn't fully cover the acthvities

of Daesh, because as I understand, it only covers unlawfully exported

cultural property from occupied territories, of which Daesh

is not covered by that. The Secretary of State said she d

write to him further on that point. Now, the state of children's teeth

was under discussion in the House of Lords,

with the Liberal Democrat peer Lady Benjamin,

a children's broadcaster, telling peers action was nedded

as a matter of urgency. In the Government's

childhood obesity plan, Even though there is an epidemic

of child tooth decay, and hospital My lords, the nation's children s

teeth, the state of the nathon's children's teeth is shocking,

a huge cost to the NHS. Common sense says we need

targeted action now. The noble lady is right that

childhood oral health is very poor, 75% of children no longer h`ve tooth

decay compared to 69% in 2008. And the Government's policy is very

much around prevention The new contract being disctssed

with the dentists now will put it more on a capitative basis rather

than an activity basis. To introduce fluoride into the water

and ignore those people who think it is a bad thing, when all

the evidence seems to suggest that it would be a very good thing,

especially for deprived comlunities. My lords, I think the evidence

for fluoride is incontrovertible, There may be other issues

attached to fluoride, but in terms of teeth,

it is unquestionably a good thing. Interestingly in Birmingham

where they have had fluoridd in the water for many years,

the incidence of child tooth decay is 29%, whereas in Blackburn,

it is 57%, in Hull, it is 28%. So I think the evidence

is very strong. Given the harm caused by high

levels of sugar added to some processed foods,

would the Minister agree with me that the present restraints

on the food industry are wodfully inadequate, and would he further

agree that much tougher measures need to be taken if the Govdrnment

is to meet its own objectivds in public health on oral he`lth

diabetes and obesity? I think the introduction of a sugar

levy is evidence that the Government is taking this extremely seriously,

and believe that it can't jtst be left solely to industry

to reduce sugar levels. The House of Lords, online dvening

wear children were roaming the streets for sweets!