03/12/2015 Thursday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Thursday in Parliament,

Calls for a security review after MPs face intimidating

behaviour following the debate on Syrian air strikes.

Sadly, some of the abuse - I think we would all agree -

for all members of this House, has been beyond the pale.

Peers express concerns over the review into the powers

of the House of Lords following the blocking of tax credit cuts.

They were unprecedented. They did raise serious questions.

And good news for those who are frustrated by poor or no broadband.

By the end of this Parliament, people will have a legal right

to request a broadband connection, no matter where they live.

But first, the debate over Syria and the decision to give

the go-ahead for air strikes against Islamic State miltiants has

It has provoked passionate feelings on both sides of the argument, both

Labour's Chris Bryant has called for a review of security for MPs

and their staff as a result of abusive messages and intimidation.

Several people have had their offices barricaded.

Some have been called murderers, terrorist sympathisers, whatever. I

hope the Leader would agree that whilst all members expect a degree

of hurly-burly in political life, it is a fundamental principle that all

members are sent not as delegates, but as representatives, with the

full power to exercise their judgment and conscience, and to

speak and vote without fear. No MP should ever be intimidated. Sadly,

some of the abuse, for all members of the House, has been beyond the

pale. Several members have had their offices barricaded.

One member had her house surrounded, while many have had photos

of dead babies pushed through their front door at home.

Today I gather that some members have received photos

MPs have broad shoulders - of course we do - but may I ask

the Leader to review the arrangements regarding the security

This is not just about members, it is about their families

and indeed their staff, as several members have pointed out.

Mr Bryant wondered whether the responsibility

for funding security should be returned to officers of the House.

The Leader of the House said he would not discuss security measures,

but the authorities would continue to look at the situation.

We are all subject to legitimate public scrutiny, but it will never

be acceptable for members' personal safety to be put in jeopardy or for

them to be the victims of activities that a court would judge illegal.

But please, Leader of the House, let us never have another debate

Such was the demand to speak in yesterday's debate that about

50 members never got the opportunity to contribute, and many of those who

did were confined to just a few minutes at the end of the day.

We live in a new type of representative democracy,

where MPs are lobbied and communicated with by means that were

never anticipated, certainly when I was a new member of Parliament.

Constituents expect to see their MPs in this House expressing their

opinions, particularly on massively important issues of state such as

yesterday's, and I am disappointed that the Leader of the House could

not commit to the request from all around the House

and the country to have a proper, structured debate that would have

allowed everybody who needed to contribute to the debate to get in.

Hearing speeches from all sides of the house, some really impassioned

and powerful speeches. Some speeches that will be memorable in the

history of this place. I think the debate we had yesterday

showed this House at its best. We heard from 104 members

after what had been, over a period of a week and a bit,

about 20 hours of debate, discussion I think yesterday, this

House got it right. The debate on Syria,

as MPs mentioned, lasted over 11 hours and Mr Speaker

chaired every single minute. Some of us are wondering whether,

like Davros in Doctor Who, you have secretly had some kind of feeding

and filtration system fitted into the chair, or some hidden tubes.

Or perhaps it is down to drugs. May I also congratulate you,

Mr Speaker, It is not for nothing that you have

the title of Golden Bladder for the way you chaired

yesterday's debate. And there was acknowledgement for

the feat from someone in the know. May I pay tribute to you,

Mr Speaker, for your Olympic When I was Deputy Speaker,

I once had to sit in the chair for six hours, and halfway through I had

to put out a call of emergency to the Chairman of Ways and Means to

replace me for a couple of minutes. How you did it, I will never know,

and I pay tribute to you. Peers have made

a pre-emptive strike against any moves to strip them of the power to

oppose some Government measures. There have been reports ministers

want to prevent the House of Lords vetoing secondary legislation

after it rejected the Chancellor's Peers were accused

of triggering a constitutional crisis by ignoring a convention that

says financial measures approved The former Conservative leader

of the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, has been given the task of reviewing

the powers of the Lords. In view of the 1994 resolution

of this House that we have an unfettered right to vote

on secondary legislation, which was confirmed by the Joint

Select Committee on Conventions, if the noble Lord proposes reducing

the powers of this House, she will ensure that a further

Joint Select Committee of both Houses is established to

consider the consequences both I certainly do not want to pre-empt

my noble friend's conclusions when he comes forward with his response

to the Prime Minister, but it is worth me reminding the House that he

is looking into the constitutional issues that were raised

by the proceedings in this House They were unprecedented -

they did raise serious questions. My noble friend is looking

at them while consulting widely - both members of the other place

as well as here. When he reaches his conclusions,

I am confident that we will have an opportunity to consider them

carefully and decide next steps My Lords,

does my noble friend accept that, had this House passed the secondary

legislation on tax credits, it would have had the immediate force

of law and prevented the Chancellor of the Exchequer abandoning his

proposals in his Autumn Statement? My noble friend raises

an interesting point. It is interesting because it

allows me to say two things. It demonstrates what this House did

- it withheld its approval from a motion that had already been

voted on three times and decided The key thing

about the review that my noble friend is doing is not what the

views of this House were, but how it decided to express them and the

route by which it chose to do so. My Lords, will Her Majesty's

Government heed the serious concerns expressed by the Constitution

Committee and the Delegated Powers Committee of your Lordships' House,

to the effect that the threshold between primary and secondary

legislation continues to move upwards, with secondary legislation

used increasingly for matters of policy and principle which should be

the subject of primary legislation? My noble friend is examining how to

secure the decisive role of the elected House on matters associated

with secondary legislation. Clearly, it is important that all

Governments use the right vehicle to secure Parliament's decision

on their business. That is what all Governments seek

to do, and it is what we have been My Lords, given that the Leader

of the House has indicated that the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde,

and his review team will take into account the views of members of your

Lordships' House, will she take this opportunity to commend the view

of one noble Lord who said in oral evidence to the

Joint Committee on Conventions: "I think we can spend a great deal

of time thinking "about how one could improve the

convention on secondary legislation, They were the words of

the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde. Another noble

and learned Lord gave evidence to the same Joint Committee - the noble

and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. He said this

about secondary legislation: "The question is not is the power

there to vote against it? "is there a convention that

says constitutionally we The answer to the question must be,

and is, no. Now, how fast is

your internet connection? Or are you one of the many people

living in a broadband black hole? Slow connection speeds

for computer users in rural parts of the UK is one

of the most regular complaints made to MPs, and one of the things those

MPs raise most often in Parliament. So the Culture Secretary had

some good new By the end of 2017,

95% of homes and businesses in the United Kingdom will have

access to superfast broadband. As my right honourable friend the

Prime Minister announced last month, by the end of this Parliament,

people will have a legal right to request a broadband connection,

no matter where they live. We will be consulting

on these plans, which will put access to broadband

on a similar footing with other Those of us who are long

and strong advocates of universal service welcome the

Government's U-turn on this matter. Only a few weeks ago,

I was told by the Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy

that this was not possible, I will be taking part

in the consultation, but will there be any new Government

money from the UK, the Welsh I would be extremely surprised

if that was what my honourable friend said, as he has been

a leading advocate of the universal service obligation policy, which

will benefit all the honourable gentleman's constituents,

just as it will every other Given the report that was published

this week by Ofcom, which illustrated the differences in

broadband speed in Northern Ireland and the fact that Northern Ireland

has 73% coverage compared with 88% in the rest of the United Kingdom,

what action will the Secretary of State and his officials take to

address this matter? I believe that the Ofcom report

showed different possible causes for slower broadband, including,

I am told, Christmas fairy lights. That is why it is making available

an app to measure I can tell the honourable lady that

in Northern Ireland, we expect that by the end of the superfast

broadband project, 87% of homes There won't be many successful

business parks where the highway stops short of the park

and people have to get out of their Can we apply

the same logic to another important highway - broadband -

and make sure that business parks are properly connected so that small

businesses can thrive and prosper? Telford residents in the Trench Lock

and Lightmoor new-build areas, and of historic Ironbridge,

tell me that struggle daily with inadequate When can they expect

the same, connectivity -- they struggle daily with

broadband. Point-to-point wireless can provide

a solution today - up to 30 megabits - but the organisations

behind those facilities will not invest because state aid will one

day bring fibre to those communities Five years after abandoning Labour's

universal service commitment and having delayed his own super-slow

crawl-out at least three times without proper consultation with

either Ofcom or the industry, the Prime Minister magics a universal

service obligation out of thin air. The Minister for Culture

and the Digital Economy, with whom I have the deepest sympathy,

is forced to pretend that it is part of some strategy that has not been

published or even consulted on. The Chancellor, however,

is not in on the trick. The comprehensive spending review

does not mention the issue once. Does the Minister have any idea of

how much the obligation is going to cost - or it just a sop to his Back

Benchers, whose mailbags are bulging That was a good try

by the honourable lady. But in actual fact, we are making extremely

good progress. We will achieve 95% by the end of 2017. The universal

service obligation is to allow those few remaining homes that do not

benefit to have a legal right to require broadband. As to the costing

of it, we are in discussion with the industry about it and will be

consulting. We welcome all input including those from the honourable

lady. You're watching Thursday

in Parliament on BBC Parliament. tracking the tax evaders

in Britain's overseas territories. But first - measures to toughen up

charity regulations have had The Charities Bill

will give the Charity Commission And there'll be a new system

of self-regulation to ensure that vulnerable people

in particular are not put under It follows the death of pensioner

Olive Cooke, who received numerous For all that, the Minister dealing

with the Bill emphasised that Nevertheless, he said, there

were challenges for charities. I myself have dressed up

as a sumo wrestler. I have carried a pedometer

for a week. I have even lost two stone to race

a charger Charities channel the best

of our instincts against

the worst that life can inflict. Sickness of mind and body entrenched

poverty, national disaster, in any other kind of enterprise charities

trade upon their reputation. Scandals

of poor governance or unscrupulous Tarnishing the vast majority

of charities that are well run Earlier this year we saw

the tragic case of Olive Cooke. Britain's longest

serving poppy seller. For years,

she was targeted with hundreds of Over 70 charities had bought

her details or swapped them In one month alone, she apparently

received 267 charity letters. Sadly, since then, more cases

of unscrupulous fundraising This is a good and important bill

and we on these benches welcome it. There is some room for improvement,

of course, and I will come to that in my speech but

its objectives are to be welcomed. We all know the vital role that

charities play in building a strong Thousands of people around

the country give up their time every day as trustees and volunteers

and thousands more depend on vital But she said Labour would try

to stop the Government removing measures on housing associations

added by the House of Lords. The clause sets out that the Charity

Commission should ensure that independent charities are not

compelled to dispose of their assets in a way that is inconsistent

with their charitable purposes. We will continue to defend this

clause to give housing associations the statutory backing to ensure they

can make their decisions in the best interests of their tenants, not be

bullied by a government determined to sell off and run down affordable

housing. We think it's absolutely right

that charities have the freedom to dispose of their

assets One MP focussed

on the possible impact of the I'm concerned that the wording

of the bill says that the Charity Commission shall issue a warning to

a charity trustee or just trustee for a charity that

it considers guilty of some form of I note also within subsection two,

sub clause two of clause one that the Charity commission simply

on that point may issue A Labour MP was also worried about

the impact of extra regulations. Across England and Wales there

are 943,000 trustees. I think we in this house bear some

responsibility to make sure we don't The bulk of charities

in this country, they are not like kids company who appeared to have

got away with a remarkable amount. We are talking about people who

give up their time on management committees, often when they don't

have very much time to give up. We don't always do that well

in terms of diversity of trustees. I think it is only about one in

200 between the ages of 16 and 24. So I am rather reluctant, if we do

anything that scares too many off. MPs have called for faster progress

by Britain's overseas territories in improving the transparency

of their banking and tax systems. The territories,

which include the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands,

have agreed to central registers, disclosing information on who owns

and profits from a company. Two years ago, David Cameron urged

British overseas territories to get their house in order, and there'll

be a summit next year to focus on How satisfied is he that there

really was significant progress in relation to the signal stance

that the Prime Minister has taken The strong indications that were

made in terms of the criteria that were sent out

by the Treasury, in terms of the requirements for real transparency,

for proper registers, of beneficial In these overseas Territories,

because these are the locations, they are the roots of shelter

for all the scams and shams An enormous amount of progress has

been made in the last few years in relation to financial services

transparency, particularly I think the I think all members

of the overseas territories signed up by all members and agreed to

by the UK Government. They agreed to hold beneficial

ownership information on respective jurisdictions

by settlement registers. There's a lot more text

but I'll end with a final sentence. We agree that addressing this issue

will be given the highest priority and that progress on implementation

will be kept under continuous Labour's Catherine West told MPs

that the Financial Times has reported the Cayman Islands have

refused the UK's request to give law The Prime Minister has been calling

on Surely it's clear now that

his government must redouble its efforts to bring

the standards of to scratch. In fiscally difficult times at home,

the overseas Territories being leaders in international finance,

should have world leading standards, not world leaders in enabling

corruption and tax evasion. My party made a manifesto commitment

to require the overseas territories to produce a publicly available

registers of the real owners When will the government match

our and indeed the general public's I have much more to say for BBI,

Caymans and Bermuda. It is wholly untrue to say that

the position at the end of the joint mysterious conference

was one of obstruction from Cayman, Now was George Osborne just a

"lucky Chancellor" - as some of his critics said - at the time

of last month's Autumn Statement? The independent Office for

Budget Responsibility, the OBR, said public finances were set to be ?27bn

better off by 2020 than forecast. This was mainly

down to better tax receipts During a debate in the Lords

on the economy, Peers discussed whether Mr Osborne

had been lucky, or clever, or both. As we know, to paraphrase

Napoleon Bonaparte, it's not enough to be a good Chancellor of the

Exchequer, it's important to be a Although Chancellors

on the whole create their own luck, as somebody, a golfer, I think,

once said, "it's funny how the My lord, I do congratulate

my noble friend Lord Carrington of Fulham for his excellent

introduction to this short debate. If I could supply one small

addition, it was Gary Player who was "the more I practice,

the luckier I get." He was commenting on the supposed

luck for the ?27 million extra which the Office for Budget Responsibility

discovered in the last few months. First of all, the Chancellor created

the Office for Budget Responsibility so it's an entirely independent body

that came up with this new figure. Secondly, he has created

the conditions in which the Office for Budget Responsibility could come

up with such a figure. So he did, as my noble friend

pointed out, deserve his luck. The Autumn Statement gave

the Chancellor and early Christmas In the guise of the Office

for Budget Responsibility. The figures in the last three months

alone improved by ?27 million and like a nervous gambler, the

Chancellor has cashed in all his chips on this issue, despite the

issue that the OBR said there is more than a 50% chance

of the government achieving This, my lord, from

a Chancellor who has consistently Peers debated many of the

Chancellor's announcements. Including

the 3% extra on stamp duty or buy-to-let properties

from next April. Empty properties for people when

people are inadequately housed, or However, these proposals are

not without complexity. And apologising, my lords,

if I have missed further detail, I asked the government in

the promised consultation on policy First,

we need to encourage older people to move at the right time from

a family home to something smaller. That transition could be difficult

enough for people who are ill or vulnerable or recently widowed, for

instance, without the threat of a stamp duty penalty if their sale and

purchase do not precisely coincide. Secondly and finally not without

interest for the clergy of my diocese, I refer to those who occupy

tied accommodation during employment or service, as a condition of

employment, often on low or modest incomes,

they seek what may technically be a second home in order to provide for

their housing needs in retirement. I'll be back with the weekly

round up, looking at what's been going on

in the Commons and Lords this week. Until then, from me,

Georgina Pattinson, goodbye.