Results 1-20 of 1,176 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:Richard Burden

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Syria (20 May 2013)

Richard Burden: It is absolutely understandable that most of the questions have concentrated on the agonising choices that the Foreign Secretary has had to make, but may I press him a little further on humanitarian intervention, and in particular on non-governmental organisations seeking much clearer action to secure humanitarian access to the 4.25 million people displaced inside Syria? What further...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Topical Questions (20 May 2013)

Richard Burden: The Secretary of State and his ministerial colleagues have taken a number of questions on Atos and the work capability assessment, and I think that many people listening to these proceedings would consider their answers relaxed to the point of complacency. Does he recognise that people who have intermittent, real problems with working—people with brain damage and with mental health...

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: EU Free Trade Agreements (23 April 2013)

Richard Burden: The Foreign Secretary will be aware that the EU has a trade agreement with Israel that allows goods to be imported under preference. He and 16 other EU Foreign Ministers have written to Baroness Ashton asking for guidelines to be drawn up to ensure goods produced in illegal settlements are not imported to the EU labelled “Made in Israel”. What steps are being taken to draw up...

Oral Answers to Questions — International Development: Palestinian Authority (13 March 2013)

Richard Burden: I agree with the Minister that it is very important that we oppose all those who promote hate in the middle east. May I invite him to say that we must also stand with those human rights organisations in Israel and in Palestine that stand out against hate crimes such as the so-called price tag attacks?

Opposition Day — [19th Allotted Day] — Tax Fairness: Apprenticeships (12 March 2013)

Richard Burden: Like other hon. Members here today, I welcome national apprenticeship week. Last night I was pleased to be able to attend an event organised jointly by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and Semta on apprenticeships in the motor industry, where I met Carolyn Lee and James Doughty, two new apprentices working for Jaguar Land Rover. If anybody ever doubted the value of...

Forced Conversion of Schools to Academies — [Mrs Anne Main in the Chair] (12 March 2013)

Richard Burden: Will the Minister give way?

Forced Conversion of Schools to Academies — [Mrs Anne Main in the Chair] (12 March 2013)

Richard Burden: Can I take the hon. Gentleman back to what he said before? I have had a number of schools that have received not only that suggestion, but the message, “Don’t talk to the parents before everything is signed, sealed and delivered.” Is it not also strange that ministerial policy is that Members of Parliament should be told about academisation only after the funding agreement...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Overseas Aid (Private Sector Contracts) (11 March 2013)

Richard Burden: Along with other members of the International Development Committee, I have just come back from Ethiopia, and I can tell the Secretary of State that DFID staff are already working with colleagues in other Government Departments to try to involve British business in development. There is nothing wrong with that, but will she accept that there is no easy line to be drawn between tied aid and...

Science, Technology and Engineering (Careers Information in Schools): Local Government Finance (England) (13 February 2013)

Richard Burden: To put it as politely as I can, some of the figures the Minister has been using today are questionable to say the least. He emphasised his willingness to talk. Core Cities twice wrote to his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to ask for a meeting. There was no response. The Secretary of State is sitting alongside the Minister. Will he tell us through the Minister whether he is prepared...

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Syria (Humanitarian Response) (4 February 2013)

Richard Burden: In recent months I have been able to visit camps in Turkey and Jordan for people fleeing Syria. May I endorse what the Secretary of State said about the efforts of the Governments there and elsewhere and of the international agencies, but also mention the incredible generosity of ordinary people in taking Syrian refugees into their own homes? Last night it was estimated that over 2,000...

Council Tax (Benefit Claimants) (29 January 2013)

Richard Burden: In reality, Birmingham is losing £11 million in Government support to help people on low incomes or on fixed low incomes with their council tax. It is being told by the Government that for two years, perhaps—no commitment after that—it might get £2 million back if it does what the Government say. The Government’s financial envelope, looking forward to the next five...

Council Tax (Benefit Claimants) (29 January 2013)

Richard Burden: Why is the support scheme that the Government are offering only temporary?

Council Tax (Benefit Claimants) (29 January 2013)

Richard Burden: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I am pleased and reassured that he has drawn breath before anything more serious happened in the Chamber. I think he might agree with me that all this takes place in a context. As I recall, at the time when Labour was in power, the hon. Gentleman was very vocal, both as a councillor and subsequently as a Member of this place, in saying that...

Afghanistan (17 January 2013)

Richard Burden: I welcome you to the Chair, Mr Walker. It is a pleasure to follow the Chair of the Select Committee, the right hon. Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce). As he said, I was not able to go on the last Committee visit to Afghanistan. Injury, sadly, prevented me from doing so. However, I was on the visit that we paid to the country in 2007. It is the only time I have been there, and is an...

[Sir Roger Gale in the Chair] — Tax (Developing Countries) (17 January 2013)

Richard Burden: I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. If I understand her correctly—I hope she will tell me if I have got this wrong—in terms of the outline agreements that are being reached with the United States and the work that is being done in relation to overseas territories, are the Government saying that they see those as a kind of pilot scheme for a more extensive automatic...

[Sir Roger Gale in the Chair] — Tax (Developing Countries) (17 January 2013)

Richard Burden: Thank you for calling me to speak, Sir Roger. As always, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, and I will address another knight to say that it is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce), who is the Chair of our Committee. The report that we are debating now is, as all our reports have been so far, the product of a cross-party consensus. There...

[Hywel Williams in the Chair] — Manufacturing (West Midlands) (15 January 2013)

Richard Burden: I congratulate the hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Gavin Williamson) on securing the debate. I agree with a lot of what he said. He was right to emphasise the importance of continuity. I am pleased that he began his speech by mentioning the 800 new jobs that have been created at Jaguar Land Rover. That is a tribute to many people, including Jaguar Land Rover itself, under the ownership...

[Hywel Williams in the Chair] — Manufacturing (West Midlands) (15 January 2013)

Richard Burden: My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are all a bit like cracked records when we say this. I chaired the Regional Select Committee on the West Midlands, and our first report was on that issue. We highlight it time and again, and if we are to make the step change that is needed, we must deal with it. I have already taken five minutes, but I want briefly to mention two things, beginning...