House Building: London
I ask our last three speakers to stick to their five minutes.
Showing every spoken contribution, including 5,750 under 12 words. Hide short remarks
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House Building: London
Order. I have to draw you to a close there, Mr Bailey.
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House Building: London
I call Luke Taylor on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. You have eight minutes.
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House Building: London
Order. Mr Taylor, you have taken two lengthy interventions. I am afraid that they will not be in addition to your time.
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House Building: London
Order. I think this might be the point at which you need to conclude.
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House Building: London
I call the Minister to respond to the debate, and perhaps he can give Mr French a minute at the end to wind up.
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House Building: London
Mr French, you have 30 seconds to conclude the debate.
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House Building: London
Duly noted.
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Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access
I will call Gordon McKee to move the motion. I will then call the Minister to respond. Two other Members have indicated that they may wish to speak, but they can make a speech only with the approval of both the Member in charge and the Minister. I proceed on the basis that those two Members have that permission. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention in 30-minute debates.
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Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access
I sense that a large number of people want to make an intervention, but they must keep them short; otherwise, Mr McKee will not get to deliver his speech.
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Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access
I am going to take it that that was your speech, Mr Moon. I will not call you subsequently.
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Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access
I call Ben Coleman, who has up to five minutes.
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Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access
Can the hon. Member respond and also conclude, so that the Minister may respond to the numerous points that have been made in the debate?
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Before we start proceedings, I want to say two things. First, this debate is oversubscribed, so not everyone will get to speak. I hope to call 10 Back- Bench Members to contribute for three minutes each. If Members take interventions, they will not get extra time because this is an hour-long debate. Secondly, we expect Divisions in the House shortly. The procedure will be to suspend the debate for 15 minutes for the first Division and approximately 10 minutes for each subsequent Division.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
The debate may continue until 6.30 pm.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
I call Paul Kohler. You have three minutes.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Well done for sticking to time.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Can the hon. and learned Gentleman conclude in 30 seconds, because there is no additional time for interventions?
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
The hon. Gentleman is not taking that intervention, so let us continue.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
The hon. Gentleman is not giving way. Members may disagree with what he is saying, but we will conduct this debate in an orderly way.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
I already know that is not a point of order in relation to the content of the hon. Gentleman’s speech.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Order. You have had your three minutes.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
You did not take any interventions.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Order. Thank you, Mr Moon.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Order. Thank you, Mr Wishart.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Sincere apologies to everyone I was not able to call. We now come to the Lib Dem spokesman, who has five minutes.
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Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
Minister, the proceedings are due to conclude at 6.30 pm. You may wish to give Ms Eccles a few moments to wind up the debate.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
This is a thorough piece of work from Professor Francis. There are things in it to welcome, including the retention of key stage 2 assessments and the triple science entitlement, although the Government will have to say where the resourcing will come from to make that a reality. In truth, there are other things that we just do know yet. It remains to be seen what the changes in English literature mean and what will get squeezed out; it also remains to be seen what the new computing GCSE is relative to computer science—I hope it is not a return to the pre-computer science days of the information and communication technology GCSE. One thing I regret is the demise of the EBacc. Let us remember what that is: a set of subjects that is presented clearly to children and their families, including and especially disadvantaged children, who, by studying this core set of subjects, will keep their options most open and have the most opportunity to progress in life. The EBacc did increase uptake for history and geography. It could have been mitigated if the Secretary of State had kept Professor Francis’s recommendation to retain the structure of the current Progress 8. Why did she ignore that recommendation? Is she giving up totally on modern foreign languages?
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Diversity, Equality and Inclusion: Public Sector
Labour’s previous definition of “Islamophobia” was adopted by councils that had grooming gang scandals, and it said that even talking about grooming gangs was an example of “anti-Muslim racism”. We know from Louise Casey that public servants did not speak up because they were scared of being called racist. The Government are now bringing in a new definition, but they are refusing to tell the public what is in it. Will the Minister commit to publishing the draft definition, before it is adopted, for full public scrutiny?
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Topical Questions
In January, the Supreme Court ruled that sex means biological sex. This was a huge victory for women’s rights, but now we hear that the Minister is kicking the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s much-needed guidance into the long grass. The law is not changing—the law is as it has always been—so will she release the guidance and make sure that women’s rights are protected?
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Employment Rights Bill
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, at Prime Minister’s questions earlier today, the Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister was asked by my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) no fewer than five times whether he was aware of any prisoner being released early, having claimed asylum. We now know that he had in his possession at that time a folder containing details of the accidental release of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif from Wandsworth prison last week—a man previously convicted of sex offences and who is, as we speak, at large and posing a risk to the public. It has emerged since then that another man, William Smith, was accidentally released on Monday. The Deputy Prime Minister failed to disclose that relevant information to this House. The House and the public are entitled to be told about such things, but the Deputy Prime Minister withheld that information. The police have subsequently confirmed that they have no objection to that information being released, contrary to briefings from the Government. Will the Justice Secretary come to this House before the close of business and make a statement so that Members can question him? We cannot wait until the House returns on Tuesday for a proper account.
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Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The recent Cabinet Office annual accounts show that the departed Cabinet Secretary and the permanent secretary collectively received a quarter of a million pounds in golden goodbyes. I asked the Minister for the Cabinet Office the rationale for such a use of taxpayers’ money, and the Minister without Portfolio replied that it was the Government’s policy not to comment on individuals. That is clearly nonsensical. There is a clear expectation of accountability and transparency on payments to the most public senior officials, so do you agree that this approach is in keeping with the House’s resolution on ministerial accountability to Parliament?
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House Building: London
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I salute my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French) for initiating the debate. The debate is timely given the decision last week, by the Government and City Hall, to lower targets for affordable housing in developments, in exchange for the granting of supposedly faster planning permission. That is a real concern. The briefing that we have received from Crisis demonstrates that more than 13,231 people were rough sleeping in London during the last year—a record high and a 10% increase on the previous year. Some 70,000 households, including 90,000 children, are in temporary accommodation. Not only is that bad for the families, but it is costing Londoners and the taxpayer something like £5 million a day in London. In particular, money is being spent on bed and breakfast accommodation, which is not only unsuitable for families but expensive for London authorities to bear. There are 336,366 households on social housing waiting lists in London. The crunch is whether this decision is actually going to deliver any improvement in social housing. Before anyone starts talking about the previous Government or the former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, I remind hon. Members, particularly newly elected Labour Members, that I tried to carry through a Bill on behalf of Boris Johnson to increase house building in London. We were blocked by the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter), who is no longer in his place, and the hon. Member for Islington—I am not sure which.
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House Building: London
No, the other one: the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn). That meant that whole sites in London were not developed to provide housing when they should have been. Clearly we have a serious problem here. In my constituency, there is a planning application that has been outstanding, after having been reviewed at various times, for nearly 10 years. It would provide housing units that we desperately need, but the housing association refuses to develop it. It is now trying to sell the site again to further developers. Our other problem in London is where developments have taken place. There have been developments such as Battersea power station, around Wembley stadium and other areas where housing has gone up, but that housing has not been sold to local people; it is been sold to developers or owners abroad, then rented out at exorbitant cost to local London people, who then have to apply for housing benefit and depend on welfare payments rather than having a home of their own. We have to conquer this.
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House Building: London
I do not speak on behalf of my party; I speak on my own behalf. As the hon. Lady well knows, I have been promoting building 90,000 socially rented homes a year across the country, and for the past 30 years Governments of all persuasions have failed to build the homes that we need at the prices that people can afford. The sad reality is that we have to look at how we are going to deal with this. We could deal with the Transport for London land. TfL owns huge amounts of unused land that could be developed for housing, and that could be done in co-operation with City Hall, but the sad fact is—[Interruption.] Government Members need to focus on this: not only was Sadiq Khan as mayor given the money that my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup mentioned, but he returned it to the Treasury; he could not spend it because he could not get development under way. We have to look at what we are going to do across the House to make sure that houses are being built in London. I hope that we are not going to reduce the safety requirements for these buildings. That would be a disaster—we know of the terrible tragedy that happened in Grenfell. We should not even contemplate moving away from what has been done to protect people. Lessening those protections would be a mistake in many ways. I have a couple of questions for the Minister. How are the Government going to ensure that the affordable homes that we need in London are provided when the restrictions have been removed and developers are therefore less likely to build affordable housing that we need? Before agreeing to this decision, what assessment has the Minister made of the impact it will have on those on the affordable housing waiting lists in London? That is a real crisis, and London councils right now are in desperate need of more finance to build more housing. There are possibilities to develop the brownfield sites that TfL and the Government own, but that is being restricted. There is a solution that we could advance. We hope the Government and the Minister, who I have a lot of respect for, can influence the Mayor of London to make that happen.
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House Building: London
Do the new standards apply to new planning applications that are being considered or to ones, already in the pipeline, in which developers have proposed developments with less affordable housing?
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Engagements
Q2. On Sunday and on Tuesday we will honour those that made the ultimate sacrifice, not only from this country but from across the Commonwealth. I wear not only the poppy but the marigold to honour the Commonwealth troops that gave their lives. A week on Sunday, there will be a parade at the Cenotaph by the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, where Jewish people will come together—veterans, men, women and children—to parade with the medals that their forefathers won during world war two, the great war and other conflicts. It will be particularly apposite this year, with antisemitism on the rise, that a senior Cabinet Minister comes to that parade and lays a wreath on behalf of this House and the whole country, to remember the Jewish people that gave their lives for this country so that we could all be free.
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Violence against Women and Girls
12. Whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on reviewing the strategy entitled “Tackling violence against women and girls.”
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Violence against Women and Girls
In June I asked the Government to consider my private Member’s Bill calling for them to publish a strategy to tackle interpersonal abuse and violence against men and boys. The strategy would ensure that male survivors of crimes that are considered to be violence against women and girls—such as rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, forced marriage and honour-based violence—were given dedicated support, and would also prevent male survivors from having to be in spaces that should be for women. On 1 September, the Minister told me that the strategy “will be published early in the autumn.” We are now well past that. What is causing the delay in the publication of the revised VAWG strategy, and can the Minister assure me that it will specifically address male survivors of crimes that are considered to be violence against women and girls?
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Violence against Women and Girls
Strangulation is an extremely common form of gendered violence: up to two thirds of women suffering domestic abuse report having been strangled. I have corresponded with the Minister about the need for the Institute for Addressing Strangulation to have funding certainty beyond March next year in order to continue its vital work, but have had no assurances. I know how seriously she takes this issue, but can she tell us what she is doing to make it clear to the Chancellor that sustaining this lifesaving work must be a priority if we are to meet the Government’s target of halving violence against women and girls?