25/04/2017 Tuesday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to the programme, coming up in the next half hour...

ask what the government is doing to combat

street drugs, described as

In the Commons there is concern over the

future of the high Street Post Office.

And there is a call for a cap on charges for unauthorised

There is a bitter irony that it is a better deal for some people who need

short-term credit to go to a payday lender than to their High Street

bank. But first, the use of synthetic

cannabis, known as Spice, is reaching epidemic levels

according to a Labour MP. One homeless charity has claimed 95%

of Manchester's homeless are now taking the drug which appears

to freeze those who smoke it, While simulating the effect

on the brain of cannabis, its chemical make-up is different

and its side-effects Some experts say it can be up

to 100 times as potent Later the Justice Secretary

was asked about another synthetic As the Minister will be aware,

the use of Spice and its impact on our communities is now

reaching epidemic levels. It is particularly hitting city

centres like Manchester and other towns and cities across the country,

what discussions is the Minister having with colleagues in other

departments to get a proper handle and a crackdown on this issue,

because it is putting intolerable The honourable member makes

a very important point. It is a blight on our communities,

but also in our prisons, it fuels the disorder and violence

that we have seen in our prisons where they take it extremely

seriously and I worked with my colleagues in

the Home Office to not only deal with this in the custodial system

but also in the community. Banning psychoactive

substances is one thing, but physically keeping them out

of our prisons is quite another, could the minister tell the House

what active measures he is taking to prevent the substances

getting inside our jails? He is absolutely right,

we are determined to keep these drugs out of our jails

and that is why we have approved 300 dogs that detect these substances

but we have also introduced new drug tests for psychoactive substances,

the UK is the first jurisdiction The testing has been rolled out

and we cannot comment on the impact yet because it started just last

year but we know from evidence that drug testing does have a deterrent

effect on use and possession. Wrexham like many other towns up

and down the country is being blighted by the impact

of so-called Spice. I have received a letter this month

from the Home Office which directly contradicted a letter

from the Minister on the question of whether possession

of Spice was an offence. This confusion is causing real

problems in enforcement by police officers who have already

had their numbers cut Will the Minister take this

more seriously and act urgently to confront this

really serious problem? I agree with the honourable

gentleman that it is a serious problem and it is also a problem

that as I have said before, in our prisons, possession of Spice

in a custodial setting is an offence and is subject to imprisonment

and I will look in more detail, if he could forward to me the letter

from the Home Office Mr Speaker, could I say how much

I welcome the 2016 act, having lost two young men

to what used to be And that the extra powers it

provides and the rigorous application of law to rapidly

changing chemicals, What is the big game plan

for the post office? The post office announced

earlier this year that 37 Crown offices, large branches found

on the high street, are to be closed MPs are worried that a vital public

services is shrinking at a time when it could be cashing

in on its trusted name Where exactly is the Post Office

going? Book is everything the Post Office has done and the statistics I

have mentioned in terms of making it efficient and in terms of losses and

perhaps extending some hours, are all based on retrenchment. It is all

based on a policy that sees the Post Office is getting smaller and

offering fewer services to its customers.

He said financial services ought to be a money spinner

Why is the Post Office not making more of banking and financial

services in particular, giving that they are trusted name, a presence on

the High Street at a time when conventional banks are disappearing

from the High Street? It is a great mystery, Sarah Bird, as to why the

Post Office is not at this time expanding, becoming more profitable,

better for the taxpayer and for their customers, rather than

following a long-term strategy which appears to be based on retrenchment

and shrinking. A Labour MP explained

how a post-office in his constituency

was first threatened

with closure in 2013. I found no one who wanted to see the

Post Office close. Then came the welcome news and it was indeed

welcome, it said that the Post Office had changed its mind. Instead

of closure, it had been decided to retain and invest in the local Post

Office and it was part, listen to these words, part of building a

modern, profitable and sustainable network. Joy does not last long with

the Post Office management. And under the latest closures, it is due

to face the axe. It is almost trite to say that post offices and sub

post offices in particular are central to the life of so many of

our small rural and village communities, but that is very much

the case and indeed, as we now see the withdrawal of other services

such as the cleaning banks from small communities, that is an

important that will only grow. Maintaining a vibrant and vital

network of sub post offices across our smaller and more rural

communities is therefore more now important that I has ever been.

Sheryll Murray talked about the situation in Lostwithiel in

The Post Office opens for two days a week and sadly the announcement was

made on social media for political gain, but for the consultation with

the local community. But it is welcome, however, this town is due

to lose its permanent bank and it is having a mobile banking service for

two sessions a week and there is no bus service and I am asking the

minister today, I am pleading with the Minister today, to do everything

she possibly can to make sure that my constituents, in this town, that

is the rest of vital public services, can actually have a

permanent Post Office again. An SNP MP said there was a campaign

to stop a post-office The locals are feeling very strongly

about this and I have a petition here with 640 signatures and I have

another 500 signatures from online and I will be presenting this

position -- Michael petition today. This is a Post Office at the heart

of the local community. Its removal will be devastating for the area of

Drumchapel. Instead of making the Post Office fit for purpose for the

21st century, this government has let the Post Office fall by the

wayside and has only contributed to manage decline of this well loved

and trusted institution. The minister said the post-office

network had been transformed with a And the subsidy that the taxpayers

have been obliged to put in during this period has fallen by 60% since

2012 and that is why it is more stable than it has been in a

generation and the Post Office has managed this transformation while

achieving customer satisfaction levels that have remained at over

95% throughout this programme. And she said the Crown

post offices had to be made more efficient

and affordable. We are just not closing Branson is,

we are franchising them, making them more efficient and we are able then

to fulfil our promise to areas that need a post-service that would not

have won if we were to continue to invest in loss-making Crown Post

Offices. You're watching Tuesday in

Parliament with me, Alicia McCarthy. There are nearly four

and a half million refugees MPs on the International Development

Committee heard sometimes distressing evidence

about their plight. First, there was an insight

into life in a refugee camp in Kenya, as told

by a Somali refugee. Growing up there was very difficult

because there was no way out and I had no access to employment,

no freedom of movement. And there was education,

some sense of security, but there was nothing beyond that

because life is more than safety. Life is about dignity,

life is about freedom of movement and I could not go out

and there was no way. All I knew was about

the international organisations So should people in refugee camps

in Kenya go home to Somalia? We are at the moment

strongly encouraging people in Kenya to go to Somalia

which is a double edged sword. It is convenient politically to do

so but we need to ask ourselves morally if that is the right thing

to do and pragmatically if it is just going to make

the problem more complex where we have a situation

where people go to Somalia, realise there is no sustainable

future, realise there is no livelihood, there is no dignity

there at all and then return. But unfortunately returning refugees

no longer have prima facie refugee status if they are Somali in Kenya

which means they have to begin again the process of seeking asylum,

which means they don't have access to food distribution

and services that they had What we need to do is be

building in these kind Let us not assume that Somalis

will be able to go back to Somalia in the next year,

maybe not in the next five years But to keep it open as what has

basically been a permanent emergency is only going to be inefficient

for everyone in the I think just to return to the point

that if we can figure out those coping mechanisms that refugees

in the host communities actually have and are putting into practice

on a day-to-day basis, we will probably find

a lot of the answers Another question was about

the effects of President Trump's temporary suspension

of refugee admissions. It is one of the most successful

examples of large-scale settlement and in fact I have spoken

to councils and others here in the UK around what we can

learn there and we now work with the German government

in partnership to bring some of the lessons

of the US context there. So President Trump's announcement

to cut numbers so dramatically is really a blow for that

21.3 million refugee population, only a fraction of whom qualify

for resettlement and indeed only a small fraction get to go and that

fraction has got even smaller. What I would say is that

when you set that against the contributions of other

countries, it is time for Europe to step up and particularly

the United Kingdom as a global humanitarian leader,

but also as a global It is an opportunity

waiting for UK leadership, so we hope they will take up

the commitment to our target MPs wanted to know if the current

crises were preventable. Our analysis is that these crises

are primarily driven by conflict and that really they are then

compounded by drought and poverty, but the key driver is conflict

which means that they are man-made Particularly I think

that issue about early warning and early action,

we know that a lot of the analysis after the 2011 drought said that

if we want to prevent this happening again, we need to have sustained

investment over a period of time And yet the response plans

were underfunded between 2011 and 2016 and part of the reason

for the crisis now is we did not have as much early action

as we could have done. The key thing we are finding

is that the needs continue to outpace us in terms

of our ability to respond and it's particularly a problem this time

around because the rainy season which we have been waiting for now

obviously is too late to impact the people in the current situation,

but if it comes now and if it comes in a very heavy quantity,

you have a real risk of an outbreak of diseases, particularly diarrhoea,

cholera, because you have a lot of animals, dead animals,

and they have the risk of being drawn into the water

courses and with people now with the displacement moving

into confined areas you have got very strong risks of an outbreak

of disease, but equally if the rains don't come you have also got

problems for the crops A Labour MP says some banks

are charging more for overdrafts than payday lenders and should face

a cap on their charges. Rachel Reeves argued that

a voluntary limit set by banks was not working,

and that they needed "improve their behaviour"

and protect vulnerable customers. The first case is of a 42-year-old

man who will wrap up overdraft charges after losing his job.

Interest on his overdraft meant that on average ?80 a month was added to

his debt. Over a year his overdraft debt increased by more than ?1000

because of interest and unauthorised overdraft charges. The problem is

not that there is not a voluntary cap, the problem is we need a lower

cap set by the regulators and not by the banks. The monthly maximum

charge as proposed by the competition and market authority

will do nothing to stop the deepening of a person's debt crisis.

Banks should be passing on the low rates to their customers, not

punishing them. Heavily unauthorised overdraft users are the least likely

to switch accounts. Given the substantial revenues by these

unauthorised overdraft, there is little incentive for the banks to

lower their charges. I do not want to deny the banks to charge for

services provided, but I am calling for fairness and proportionality.

There are no great offer is amongst the high street banks for

financially honourable customers. The exact opposite is the case. Most

of us regard banks as more reputable and fair than payday lenders, so it

is a bitter irony that it is a better deal for some people to go to

a payday lender than to go to their high-street bank. Banks need to

improve their behaviour and I urge them to step in and to help their

them to step in and to help their customers.

Well Rachel Reeves won the right to take her bill forward,

but with this parliament coming to an end this week,

MPs have approved a slimmed-down Budget to ensure tax and spending

measures are in place before Parliament dissolves

Some tax avoidance proposals announced by Chancellor Philip

Hammond in March were among the policies taken out

But moves to introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks with the most added

In the final stage of the debate the Treasury said proposals

to tackle tax avoidance would be brought forward after the election,

but the shortened bill still tackled three government priorities.

Firstly, the measures in this bill take further action to reduce

the deficit and secure the nation's public finances, and it raises much

needed revenue to fund the public services we all value.

Secondly, this Bill takes the next steps to achieve this government's

aim of a fairer and more sustainable tax system.

It makes clear that the tax system will keep pace with the different

ways that people choose to work, and ensure fair treatment

And finally, Madam Deputy Speaker, and a cause particularly close

to my heart as a former Public Health Minister,

this Bill marks an important step in tackling childhood obesity,

by legislating for the soft drinks industry levy, something on which,

as I have noted before, we have achieved a great deal

This will help to deliver a brighter and healthier

I am delighted that we were able to bring it to the statute book.

Labour welcomed the soft drinks levy and where the money would go.

A primary school and PE sport premium of ?160 million,

going up to 320 million, annually, ?10 million extra

for breakfast clubs, expansion, and of course that 56% of the public

support the levy, and the Obesity Alliance found that the levy

could potentially save up to 144,000 adults and children from obesity

and prevent 19,000 cases of type two diabetes and avoid

The SNP turned to what had not been in the bill.

What we are looking at is, whatever government comes in having

having a new budget and having a new Finance Bill,

and we have not seen from this government any recognition,

barely a year on from the Brexit referendum, we are nearly a year

on from that and we have not seen, in any discussion finances

an acceptance from the UK Government about the effects

that this is going to have on the UK Government's budget, on the tax take

and on the employment levels and on the jobs that

our constituents have, on the businesses coming in,

We have not seen any recognition at any reading, as I say,

I hope that when this Parliament comes back into a new session

of a new government that we can see the government recognising

the financial impact that Brexit all have and we can see them

the financial impact that Brexit will have and we can see them

recognising the impact that this will have on household

And that we will see real changes and real recognition from this

government taking into account the effects of Brexit.

And the finance bill was just one of the last few bills

that the government was trying to get through Parliament

Down the corridor the Lords too were dealing with their final

to the neighbourhood planning bill which will make it harder to turn

pubs in England into flats or supermarkets.

The House of Lords made the amendment initially

and ministers accepted the argument and said action would be taken

But the campaign for real ale have welcomed our approach. Noble Lords

will be keen to see regulation as soon as possible in order to prevent

any further loss of pubs without local consideration. I can commit to

the House today that we will raise secondary regulation immediately

after Royal assent to come into force at the end of May.

A move welcomed by Labour's Lord Kennedy who had

pressed for the change said he was delighted

and highlighted his "personal" interest.

I like pubs, I like a pint as the noble lord said, like him I should

have bought a few shares in the odd pub or brewery. I have spent enough

money in them over the years. I have spent enough money

in them over the years. education bill and the buses bill

also completed their passage Britons who have lived abroad

for more than 15 years will not be allowed to vote

in the June General Election, the Government has confirmed,

to protests in the Lords. Cabinet Office spokesman Lord Young

of Cookham said legislation scrapping the 15-year rule would not

be introduced before the poll. I understand the disappointment for

those affected, however it is my hope this is something that will be

delivered in the next parliament so those who have lived abroad for more

than 15 years are able to participate in future elections. I

thank the Minister for his reply, but I do not think hundreds of

thousands of disenfranchised British expats would thank him. The

government has been in place for two years, why has it not fulfilled its

promise in its 2015 manifesto to give votes for life for these

people? Is it not because the government is afraid of how they

might vote given that the government has ruined the lives of many of them

who lived in other parts of the EU by choosing a hard Brexit? My Lords,

when members of parliament voted overwhelmingly, including Liberal

Democrat members of parliament last week that there's Parliament should

come to a premature close, it was inevitable that certain measures

would not be introduced in this Parliament. However, I hope if it is

introduced in the next Parliament it will have the full support of the

Liberal Democrats in view of the interest the noble lady has just

interest the noble lady has just shown.

Parliament's newest MP made her maiden speech just two days

before it is expected to be dissolved for

Trudy Harrison took the seat of Copeland for the

Conservatives in a by-election at the end of February.

The constituency had been held by Labour's Jamie Reid who stood down

to take a job in the nuclear industry.

As is the tradition she praised the beauty of her

constituency and in thanking those who had helped her get elected she

I cannot give my maiden speech without thanking and acknowledging

that I wouldn't be standing in this house today if it were not

for the fantastic and unwavering support of my family,

My husband Keith, my parents, brother and daughters, Gabriel,

They have been incredible towers of strength.

From the moment I decided to stand they were there with me,

campaigning, delivering leaflets and knocking on doors.

Why girls had become quite the persuasive activists.

It has been wonderful to see their interest in politics grow.

Having four teenage daughters aged 14, 15, 17 and 18 I was also

Equalling the balance between all of history's women

members and the current number of male members.

Meanwhile Labour MP who is standing down at the election said goodbye to

the chamber saying it had been a privilege to be an MP.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all those who have

serve for 30 years for the wonderful constituency

of Oxford East, my family and friends, my neighbours

in Blackburn, our party members and supporters,

my trade union USDAW, my office staff and party organisers

across the years and most of all my constituents.

And that's it from me for now but do join me at the same time tomorrow

for the last prime minister's questions before