29/11/2017 Prime Minister's Questions

I have been asked to reply on behalf

of my Right Honourable friend the

Prime Minister who is abroad in the

Middle East furtherering our

interests in a region that is

fundamental to national security and

prosperity. We wish Prince Harry and

making an market happiness in their

future. Today is the 150 #9th

anniversary of the RAF. The whole

house will want to express our great

today to their service to this

country.

The First Secretary's

congratulations to Prince Harry on

his engagement. Thanks to the

outstanding efforts by the Labour

council in North East Lincolnshire,

the Government has included the

Greater Grimsby project in its

industrial strategy document. But we

need more than a by line in a glossy

magazine to make its potential a

reality. Can the First Secretary

said when the Government will put

its money where its mouth is so we

can get going.

Beneath this, I can

welcome the fact the honourable lady

is welcoming the industrial

strategy. As she should do. It will

be good for Grimsby. It will be good

for many communities around this

country. Particularly those who may

feel in the past, they have been

left behind. I'm happy to assure her

that the industrial strategy will

come with Monet thatched as she will

have heard in my Right Honourable

Friend the Chancellor's budget.

Making a success of the South Tees

mayoral development corporation is

vital for Teesside. He was die

lighted toing with Welcome the Prime

Minister to my constituency this

summer. Will he join me in

recognising the scale of opportunity

the MDC makes and redefine Teesside

to the world. And the new money

awarded in the budget is only the

start of the process on delivering

its huge potential to change?

I can

see my honourable friend is getting

the hang of questions already. I'm

happy to assure him that we are

committed to working with him and

indeed, the Tees valley mayor, Ben

Houcham who's doing so much to

develop the area. We want to support

him and the South Tees develop

corporation. As he says, the

Chancellor announce £123 million of

new funding in the budget. We

recognise the significant economic

opportunities in that area.

Let me

join the Secretary of State in

congratulating the RAF on its

anniversary and congratulating

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on

their engagement. That's one

American couple we'll be delighted

to see holding hands. I'm sure

Prince Harry, the patron of Rugby

Football League will be joining all

of us in supporting the England team

in the World Cup Final on Saturday.

I will be waving my St George's

flag. On a much sadder note, I'm

sure the whole House will join me in

sending our thoughts to all those

killed and injured in Friday's

horrific attack on the mosque in

north Sinai. It is a bitter reminder

that the vast majority of the

victims of Jihadi terror are

Muslims. Before I get on with my

questions, can I ask First Secretary

a point of principle. Is he happy to

be held to the same standards in

Government as he has to others in

opposition?

Yes, I am. All ministers

should respect and debate the

ministerial code and I absolutely

think that that's a very important

part of confidence in public life.

Can I also echo her thoughts about

the terrible events in Sinai and,

also say that she may find it

difficult to wave the St George's

flag but I will be doing so for the

English rugby league team... As a

Welsh rugby fan, I may find it even

more difficult than her. But I will

be doing so as well.

The First

Secretary looked rather perturbed at

my line of questioning. He doesn't

need to worry. I really am not going

there. I merely wondered if he

remembered the question he asked at

Prime Minister's Questions almost 17

years ago when John Prescott stood

in forefootball and whether he could

answer the same question today. So,

what's the question? The question

was this. What percentage of new

nurses recruited in the past 12

months are now working full-time?

I

can't remember! LAUGHTER I can't

remember asking the question then.

I'd love to know what the then

Deputy Prime Minister answered. What

I'm happy to assure the right

honourable lady, is that we have

more nurses, more midwives, more

doctors... Working in the Health

Service now. The Health Service is

performing more operations now

certainly than it was 17 years ago.

And, in particular, in the budget

last week, my right hop rabbling

friend the Chancellor was able to

announce more than £6 billion extra

on health spending which will make

the Health Service even stronger in

the future than it is now.

I thank

him for that response. Since he

failed to answer my original

question oo ail dough it for him.

According to the Government's latest

figures. More than 40% of newly

recruited nurses are leaving

full-time employment within their

first year. It is not just the new

recruits that are quitting, the

overall number of NHS nurses and

health visitors is down by 1,500

this year. And the numbers are now

lower than when this Government came

into office. So, why does the First

Secretary think so many nurses are

leaving?

There are, as I say, more

operations being done, more nurses,

more doctors, more midwives. The

Health Service is expanding. We have

got 14,900 more doctors, 1500 more

medical school places each year and

we've 10,000 more nurses on our

wards and we've announced an

increase of more than 5,000 extra

nurse training places every year. We

are, of course, we have said in

addition, the Chancellor said in his

budget, that we would commit to make

sure that the nurse's pay increase,

the action for change, agenda for

change staffing covered would not

comout of other health spending. So,

nurses can be reassured that this

Government will continue to support

them both in pay and in terms of

numbers and that is why our health

service in England is getting

better. If she wants to look at a

health service where things are

getting worse... She can look to the

Labour Government in Wales. And she

doesn't need to take it from me, she

can take it from the public. Because

public satisfaction with the NHS in

Wales is lower than it is in

England. That's the effect of Labour

Government on health care.

I hate to

brake it to him, there are more

nurses in the NHS than those working

in emergency and acute wards.

Including, district nurses. They've

halved under the Tories. Guess who

picks up the slack in nurses are not

there? Nurses in acute care. Why are

so many nurses leaving the vocation

they love? According to the RCN, the

top four reasons are excess

workload, staff shortages, low pay

and worries about patient care.

According to the Government's own

figures, the number of nurses

quitting because of worries about

their finances or their health has

doubled since the Tories first froze

their pay. Let's get on to the

question that was asked by John

Prescott 17 years ago, he said,

nurses at his local hospital were

warning "staff shortages are putting

patients' lives at risk" so can he

tell me, what are those same nurses

telling the First Secretary today?

What I can tell you is that since 17

years ago, it is interesting that 17

years ago there were still

significant numbers of Labour

Government ahead with all these

pressures exposed to us, since 17

years ago, there are significantly

more nurses in post. I didn't quite

understand her point about wards.

She seemed to go on and off the

wards. But we know we've 10,000

morse nurses on our wards where

people want to see them. Also, if

she's interested in nurse's pay, of

course, I hope she'll find it in

herself to welcome the tax cuts that

were announced in the budget, the

increase in the personal allowances,

that will help nurses just as they

will help workers across both the

public and private sector. This is

good news for nurses. It was a

budget in the just good for the

Health Service but specifically good

for the nurses profession. I hope

she can bring herself to welcome

that.

Well, I notice he didn't want

to talk about patient care at his

local hospital. Could the reason be

that his local A&E according to the

board's most recent minutes "have

severe staff shortages in medical

and nursing care, which means

patient safety is being put at risk.

The only option to tackle those

shortages is to cancel out patient

clinics" it gets worse. And it gets

worse. At a public meeting tomorrow,

there is going to be a public

meeting tomorrow to consider closing

his local A&E for good. In other

words, all of things the First

Secretary has been denying what are

you doing to our NHS? It is

happening on your own doorstep.

Isn't it about time the First

Secretary got a grip?

THE SPEAKER:

THE SPEAKER:

I'm entirely innocent

in this matter. First Secretary.

The

right honourable lady's grasps at

the facts is shaky. The meeting

tomorrow in my constituency is about

the strategic transformation plan. I

am happy to assure her that I am

entirely in favour of option one of

that strategic transformation plan

which suggests not just leaving A&E

services in the hospital in my

constituency but expanding

specialist services there. I would

strongly suggest she doesn't think

she knows more about what's going on

in my constituency than I do.

I

suspect that neither the nation or

his own constituents will have taken

any reassurances from that answer.

But really, we have an NHS in the

grip of a choppic funding and

staffing crisis. GPs are quitting in

record numbers. Junior doctors are

running A&Es without supervision.

Our nurses are at breaking point at

before the winter crisis is coming.

So, let me finally ask the First

Secretary, what does it say about

the Government's priorities that

last week's budget could only find

£350 million to help the

cash-strapped stretched to the limit

NHS cope with the winter fuel

crisis?

Only £350 million to cope with the

winter crisis, and was able to find

11 times that amount, to spend on a

no deal Brexit. Isn't that the very

definition of a government fiddling

away while the rest of the country

burns?

The Right Honourable lady is

determined to talk the NHS down. It

is a Conservative Government which

is increasing funding, on the NHS,

so it remains the best Health

Service in the world, as the

independent Commonwealth fund has

repeated, for the second year in a

row. It is this party which promised

and delivered more money for the NHS

in 2010, 2015, and in last week's

budget where my Right Honourable

friend the Chancellor promised 6.3

billion extra for the NHS. More

patients treated, more operations

carried are out by more doctors and

nurse, when she says at the end,

that the Government is wasting £3

billion on preparing for Brexit, we

know that, we now know that the

Labour Party doesn't think it is

worth preparing for Brexit, they do,

though, they do, though, think it is

worth preparing for a run on the

pound. That is all you need to know

about Labour.

This week, one of Labour's last two

remaining councillors in Boston

crossed the floor to join the

Conservatives. And he said he didn't

want to see this country go back to

1973. Will the first secretary join

me in welcoming this new member to

the Conservative Party, and will he

agree with me, that an open

optimistic Britain deserved better

than reheated Marxism and Labour's

bankrupt economy.

I am very happy to

agree with my honourable friend and

indeed, with the wisdom of the

Labour councillor who has joined the

Conservative Party, quite right that

what we see from the party opposite,

is they would lose control of public

finances, hike taxes to their

highest ever peacetime level and

cause business, the new... I would

point out to the local councillor he

may have moved in anticipation

because I understand that moderate

councillors are being deselected by

the hard left. Thank you Mr Speaker

I can join the first secretary in

congratulating Prince Harry on his

engagement. Can I welcome the

moderator of the church of Scotland.

Can the First Secretary of State

tell the House how much money the UK

Government has received for arms

sales from Saudi Arabia since the

war with Yemen began. I don't have

the figure to hand, I do urge the

honourable gentleman, to recognise

the fact first of all, that our

defence industry is an extremely

important creator of jobs and

prosperity, in Scotland as well as

in other parts of the country and

that we have, because I am obviously

aware of the very terrible situation

in Yemen at the emno, but this

country has one of the most rigorous

and robust defence sales regimes in

the world, it was recognised in a

court case last July, and we are

absolutely determined to continue

the most rigorous robust system in

place because that is the right

thing to do, both for prosperity and

to ensure we keep a proper control

on arms.

That is a long time to be able no to

not answer the question. The UK

Government has received 4.billion,

from arms to Saudi Arabia since the

war in Yemen he garntion which has

created a humanitarian crisis. Yemen

is now on the brink of famine.

Unicef said 150,000 children will

die by the end of the year. Doesn't

the first secretary agree the best

thing the Prime Minister can do with

her meetings today is follow the

example of the Netherlands and

suspend licenses for arms sales to

Saudi Arabia.

I should correct

something the right honourable said

that the Government received money.

It will be the companies that

receive the money and therefore,

their worker, so, he can take that

position if he wan, I I know the

Labour Party's position is that as

well. But that would entail

significant job loss, what is very

important is is not only that we

have the robust regime which I

talked about, but that absolutely we

continue the humanitarian efforts

that we make, to try and alleviate

the terrible conditions in Yemen, we

are the fourth largest humanitarian

donor to Yemen, and the second

largest to the UN appeal. I would

also remind him that the involvement

of the Saudis in this conflict came

at a request of the legitimate

Government of Yemen and has United

Nations Security Council backing,

that is why we support it. This is a

conflict supported by the UN

Security Council, and I would hope

that the right honourable gentleman

will have some respect for the

Security Council.

Thank you Mr Speaker. This

Government's ambition to build more

homes is welcome, especially among

those struggling to get on the

housing ladder. Taub on the dene is

playing its part. With its garden

town status we must have houses that

are good places to live. Mr Speaker,

maybe even where we have showers

where people don't use microbeads in

the shower. But we must have the

right roads on these development,

would he agree the housing

infrastructure fund is key to

unlocking funds for vital roads like

the spine road through Taunton,

My

honourable friend is absolutely

right. I know what a stout champion

she is of the people of Taunton

Deane, she is quite right about the

housing infrastructure's fund as

well, we need more homes but

absolutely, we need the

infrastructure to back them up, that

is why the Chancellor doubled the

housing infrastructure fund in the

budget.

Thank you Mr Speaker. As the First

Secretary of State will know being

my Nair noon in Kent. As a result of

underfunding the County Council is

running out of cash and is cutting

the funding to buses by 70%. Four

hospital buses, 14 school buses and

over 100 other routes are to be cut.

Thousands of pensioner, especially

those in rural areas are to be

trapped at hope. Does the right

honourable member for Ashford

support such cuts.

I do not

recognise the characterisation of

Kent County Council's position,

which my constituency neighbour has

expressed. All Local Authorities as

all parts of the public sector have

to live within their means because

we have to continue paying down the

deficit that was run up by the

previous Labour Government. Kent

County Council is a very good County

Council which does many good things

for the people in Kent and will

continue to do so.

Is

Would my right honourable friend

agree that for decades the itch itch

member states in the European Union

have made large contributions to the

budget of the EU, because the

macroeconomic benefits of belonging

to the large free trade areas of the

single market make it a bargain to

pay that share of the cost. Should

we not therefore welcome the rumours

we have today, in the press, of a

possible imminent settlement of the

method of calculating future

contributions so it may enable us to

get on the serious negotiations

about how we retain the maximum

future access to all those benefits

of that free trade?

Well, my right honourable friend has

been round long enough to not know

not believe everything he readses in

the newspapers and it would be wrong

for me to go into figures now, he is

absolutely right that what we are

about, and what my right honourable

friend the Secretary of State for

Exiting the European Union is about

is making sure we get the best

possible deal at this stage so we

can move on to the trade talks and

Britain, as a country that meets its

international obligations of course

we, will, as it exits the European

Union, meet the obligations and have

all the rights we have in that

process, so we can maintain a deep

and special partnership with the

other 27 members of the European

Union, as we move forward in

friendship and cooperation after we

have left. Fear of publicity, some

of the reasons why very many women

are reluctant to report rape,

assault and sexual harassment. Does

he agree with me, that Government,

particle need to lead by example.

Will he, on behalf of Government

apologise to the victims who

Parliament and Government have been

letting down? I All of the political

parties, need to improve complaints

procedures and other aspects of the

culture of politics, to make sure

that young men or young women who

are interested in politics do not in

any way feel deed from playing an

active role in it. There is a place

for everyone in this House on all

sides and in all parties and indeed

the House authorities of making sure

this is the best possible working

environment for young people to come

into.

Mr Speaker, many mothers in

this chamber know how hard

childbirth can be, but we would

never use that knowledge in a veiled

threat against a journalist when

being questioned in the way the

honourable member for Hampstead and

Kilburn did when questioned by a

Channel 4 journalist recently. As I

assume the first secretary is not

pregnant would he complete the work

that the journalist tried and ask

the honourable member for Hampstead

to use her influence with her aunt

who is the Prime Minister of

Bangladesh whose regime is

responsible for the kidnap of... And

ask for his release.

I am sure

honourable lady

Order I am sure she

notified the honourable lady of an

intention to refer to her in this

question. She didn't? Well, that was

disorderly.

Sorry. Order, order. Order.

Nevertheless, the question has been

asked, nevertheless, perfectly

proper for the first secretary,

briefly, to reply.

You and the House

should be aware, I can only speak on

behalf of the Government, and I can

assure my honourable friend that

Bangladesh remains an important

human rights priority area for the

Foreign Office, and that we continue

to raise allegations of enforced

disappear at all levels of the

Government of Bangladesh I think I

should stop there.

Mr Speaker, at the present rate of

progress, it will take the three

officials at the first secretary's

old department more than 70 years to

investigate the claims of round

four-and-a-half thousand waspy women

deprived of their state pension. I

know this Government is slow but

isn't that adding insult to injury?

The honourable gentleman will be

aware that the Government committed

a sum of more than 1 billion £ to

make sure that no-one's pension

would be delayed more than 18 months

from the original period and he

also, I am sure, as a reasonable man

recognises that with increasing

longevity it is inevitable that the

pension age will rise. That is what

this Government is doing, and by

next year, pension inequality will

have been removed. We will hit 65

for both sexes, in next year, and

that means that we will then have an

equal pensions system. James Gray.

The Royal Air Force is unique having

been established by an act of

parablement which received Royal

Assent 100 years ago today. Will he

find time to Joan me and members of

both Houses and staff throughout the

Palace in celebrating the service

the RAF have given over the last 100

years in a unique parade this

evening at 7.30?

I have already

mentioned the sentry today and my

honourable friend is right not just

to bring it up again, we cannot pay

high enough tribute to the men and

women of the RAF for a century of

service that will go on for a long

time, into the future as well, and I

am glad he has managed to get an

advert in for the parade at

Portcullis House.

Thank you. The United Kingdom has

lost its seat on the international

Court of Justice. EU agencies are

pulling out of London, and there

will be no more European capitals of

culture in the United Kingdom. Is

the sun setting on empire 2.0 before

it has even begun?

I think the

honourable gentleman has, is not, it

is not surprising that EU

institutions are not going to be in

a state that is not a member of the

EU, that can't come as a surprise.

On the capitals of culture, I rather

agree, I think it is very

disappointing that after they had

let British cities asking, I know

some in Scotland, asking to apply to

be part of the process, the

Commission decided that they

couldn't. We are iner George

Entwistle gent talks with the

Commission about that and in

particular, we are making sure that

all those cities who applied can

continue with their cultural

development because cultural

development has been shown to be an

extremely good basis for the

regeneration of cities and towns

across the United Kingdom.

This Saturday, I will be announcing

the winners of Mayanual local shop

Kempeities as part of small business

Saturday. Will my Right Honourable

Friend wish all retailers the best

of luck and also wish those winners

congratulations?

I'm very happy to

share my honourable friend's

congratulations for her retailers. I

like I suspect many members will be

celebrating small business Saturday

this weekend. It has become an

extremely important part of the

calendar. Supporting small business

is at the heart of this Government's

economic strategy. We should all

take every opportunity to celebrate

the hugely important work they do in

innovation, entrepreneurship and in

serving the people.

Today we see

shocking new figures that child

knife deaths are nearing a 40-year

high. Five months ago, the Prime

Minister in this place promised

action. But she has failed to

deliver. Nothing in the budget on

policing and nothing meaningful to

tackle the causes as well as the

crime. It's clear we need

intervention now and not just from

the Home Office. Funding youth

workers in major trauma centres is

proven to get young people out of

the psych violence it would cost £6

million a year to fund. Will the

First Secretary in his role

establish a cross-Government

programme of action to come good on

the Prime Minister's promise?

I'm

sure the honourable lady is aware

the stance on knife crime this

Government is taking is tougher than

ever. We've made punishment against

repeat offenders stronger. We've

banned cautions for the most serious

offences. There is now a very clear

message, if you carry knives in

public you are more likely than ever

to go to price on. Price on. The

latest figures show 42% of adult

offenders were given an immediate

custodial sentence, the highest rate

in nearly a decade. I hope she can

be reassured this Government's being

tougher on knife crime than any

previous Government.

Does the First

Secretary agree with me we don't

need to break into the computer or

iPad to work out the half a trillion

he wants to borrow will attract £7.5

billion of interest payments over a

year.

The one difficult

THE SPEAKER:

This relates to no

Government policy the gentleman is

responsible or rather the Shadow

Chancellor for which he isn't.

Mr

Speaker, Sharon Jones is a

constituent who had a malignant

brain tumour removed 20 years ago.

This left her with excruciating

headaches and severe pain in her

neck and shoulders. Sharon has been

in receipt of ESA and the Department

for Work and Pensions accepts that

Sharon is not fit for work. Yet, she

has now been placed in the work

related activity group and her

benefit has been reduced. Will the

First Secretary justify this to

Sharon?

Obviously there will be

clearly be individual issues in this

case which I can't be aware of. I'm

sure my Right Honourable Friend the

Secretary of State for Work and

Pensions will be very happy to look

at this individual case to see if

something needs to be done for

Sharon.

I very much welcome the

announcement of a border lands

growth deal. This is positive news

for the border aya. But can the

First Secretary assure me this

initiative will receive sufficient

resource to ensure its success?

I

share my honourable friend's

enthusiasm for the borderlands

growth initiative. I've seen the

many benefits of city deals and

growth deals around all parts-of-UK

since I became First Secretary. I

think the borderlands growth innish

five is particularly important

because it will show the mutual

prosperity between his part of the

north of England and the southern

part of Scotland. All I can say is

since my Right Honourable Friend the

Secretary of State for Scotland is

actually a constituency MP in the

southern part of the Scotland, I

know this deal will get particularly

strict attention inside the Cabinet.

Does the First Secretary agree with

the Lord speaker's committee that

the House of Lords should be reduced

to 600 and the term should be

limited to 15 years? Does he not

feel the slightest sense of

embarrassment that the crisis of

credibility of the undemocratic

upper chamber's become so acute its

members are themselves begging for

reform whilst the elect the

Government refuses to act?

I think

when the honourable gentleman speaks

on behalf of all members of the

House of Lords in terms of begging

for reform, he may not necessarily

absolutely be representing the

entire range of views in another

place. But I'm happy to assure him

the Government's looking very

carefully at the proposal and we

will respond in due course.

Can my

Right Honourable Friend and

neighbour say what action the

Government's proposing to take guest

Russian-backed agenciesies spreading

fakes news? They have been doing it

in our political Tam wanes but

disinformation may be spread about

important issues about vaccines and

the flu jab.

My honourable friend is

right to raise this. Cybersecurity

is an extremely important issue.

Fake news and the dissemination of

potentially dangerous information is

one part of that. The National Cyber

Security Centre is looking very hard

at this. It takes a number of

measures to combat it. Some of

which, obviously, have to remain

private. I can assure him it is very

high on the agenda of the national

cybersecurity service which is

underover a year old. It is doing

good work in making sure the area of

cybersecurity is doing much better

than a used to.

An 11-year-old

primary school pupil approached me

to say he, his mother and two

brothers live in a one bedroom flat.

Can he find me a council flat like I

grew up in. It is very unlikely he

will ever have one. Can I ask

simply, given the measures announce

in the last week's housing budget

will not solve the scale of the

problem which sees over 100,000

children living in temporary

accommodation. What is he going to

do to make sure that boy, his family

and others living in temporary

accommodation gets the decent home

they need that they can call their

own?

I agree this is a serious

problem. And that's one of the

reasons why housing was at the

centre of my Right Honourable

Friend, the Chancellor's budget. I

hear from the opposition front bench

that is asking what we're doing

about it. I'll tell her. Last year,

we delivered more homes than we've

seen in all but one of the last 30

years. 217,000, taking us to 1.1

million since 2010. Over the next

five years, we'll invest £44 billion

in home building boosting the

funding for council, social and

low-cost housing to over £9 billion.

We are building more social housing

than the Labour Government did in

its 13 years in office. We'll build

even more in the future. This is a

Government that's addressing his

constituent's problems. Previous

Labour Governments failed to do so.

At the recent extremely successful

Cheltenham and Literature Festival

Hilary clin tan came and talked

about the importance of ensuring the

Russians cant inter veer with

British or American elections.

Should we be building an offensive

cyber capability so our opponents

know we have the will and where with

all to strike back?

My honourable

friend is right as you would expect

from the member of Parliament who

represents GCHQ. He is absolutely

right about the offensive capacity

that we may well need in the cyber

area and I'm happy to assure him and

the House we are indeed developing

that.

I would like to ask the

minister if, without Mensing the new

state pension, apprenticeships or

stating the false hood that the

Scottish Government can somehow fix

the problem and begin the Prime

Minister is a WASPI woman herself,

how he can justify a rise of 413% in

the number of women over the age of

60 in receipt of ESA because of this

Government's refusal to give them

their pensions?

As I applied to a

previous question on this subject, I

hope she would recognise the

principle that is right, that we

need, as we live longer, to move up

the pension age. And she knows as

well as I do, that actually, the

Scottish Government does have the

capacity to top up welfare payments.

They like to sit here and deny this.

In Holyrood, they know they could do

this. As ever with the SNP, they

should stop simply moaning in this

chamber. They should go back to

their own Government in Scotland and

say if they want to do something,

they should do it. Get on with the

day job of running Scotland.

I very

# Welcome the Government's modern

industrial strategy that was

launched this week. Does my Right

Honourable Friend agree that it's

really going to be important as this

country moves forward. We seek a

global Britain in in creating more

and better quality jobs? The point

about the industrial strategy, which

is a hugely important moment, is to

create not just a stronger economy,

but a fairer economy for decades to

come. That's why it's looking

forward to 2030. It is a long-term

attempt to make sure that we have

not just a global outward looking

economy but a modern economy where

we can capitalise on our huge

research strengths and our huge

intellectual strength to make sure

we actually benefit commercially

from that for decades to come.

That's the route for rising

prosperity.

This Sunday, the 3rd

December, is the year when

international day of persons with a

disability. So far, in Government

has refused to carry out a

cumulative impact assessment of its

social security policies of people

living with a disability. Will the

First Secretary now mark this day by

doing the right thing for disabled

people and carry out a full,

cumulative impact assessment?

I'm

sure the honourable lady, who has

great expertise in this field will

know that this Government is

spending £90 billion on disability

benefits. But, more to the point, we

are being more successful than ever

before in giving disabled people a

degree of independence. Hundreds of

thousands more disabled people are

in work than have ever been before.

We have a plan to have an extra

million in work over the next ten

years. That is an extremely

important and practical way to

improve the lives of hundreds of

thousands of disabled people. That's

what this Government is doing.

That's what we'll continue to do.

Given the President of Iran said

they will not be the first country

to breach the joint plan of action,

can the First Secretary assure

US-British diplomats are working

hard in Washington DC to persuade

our American friends it is in the

interests of the West and Iran to

uphold the JCPOA as a prelude to

solving other regional problems?

My

honourable friend is right. We think

the JCPOA is a very important part

of attempting to improve conditions,

not just between Iran and its

neighbours but across the wider

Middle East and we will continue to

argue that case in all parts of the

world.

I too join in offering

congratulations to Prince Harry and

Meghan Markle on their engagements.

One of the issues Prince Harry

highlightnd and campaigned on is the

issue of mental health. The invest

for livecam pain in Northern Ireland

is doing a fantastic job and

highlighting the need for extra

resources on that issue ewe. We join

in that campaign and have secured

extra resources. At a time when

issues like that, mental health,

education and all 9 rest need tor

prioritised in Northern Ireland by a

locally devolved Government working

on these issues and representing the

people of Northern Ireland, does the

First Secretary of State agree it is

a gross dereliction of

responsibility for Sinn Fein to

announce this week they are not

going to engage in further

discussions on the restoration of

devolution? If that's the case, we

now need to move quickly to restore

accountability and ministers to the

Northern Ireland Office to get on

with the people's business of

responsible Government in Northern

Ireland?

The right honourable

gentleman will know that my Right

Honourable Friend the Northern

Ireland Secretary is working as hard

as possible to restore democratic

control to restore the Northern

Ireland Executive. We all want to

see proper he devolved Government

restored in Northern Ireland. I

think that will be by far the best

thing for the people of Northern

Ireland and this Government will

continue to work tirelessly to that

end.