Results 1-20 of 4,044 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Christopher Chope

Business of the House (19 Nov 2009)

Christopher Chope: The Leader of the House referred to the Wright Committee, so can she give greater detail about the timetable for debate on the report, once it is published? For example, can she guarantee that we will have a debate, and that resolutions will be put before the House, before the Christmas recess?

Points of Order (12 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Can you confirm that it was widely anticipated that there would be a motion before the House before Prorogation to approve the appointment of Sir Ian Kennedy as the chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority? The fact that that has not appeared on the Order Paper is a matter of great concern. We cannot raise it with the Leader of the House,...

Business, Innovation and Skills: Employees' Rights (12 Nov 2009)

Christopher Chope: Will the Minister confirm that the helpline number that he has given to the House is available to hon. Members' staff who are threatened with redundancy by the recommendations of Sir Christopher Kelly?

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: The Deputy Leader of the House has not yet told us when the board will start its work. I wonder whether she could tell us that and, at the same time, perhaps answer the question that I put earlier about whether there is any possibility of the Government ensuring that the Kelly report is published sooner. It is already at the printer's and could be published before this week is out.

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: Is it the Minister's hope and desire that the board will be up and running before the end of this calendar year, so that it can deal with these important, urgent matters?

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker). He, like other hon. Members and, obviously, my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young) on the Front Bench, will have been taken by surprise by the motion suddenly appearing on the Order Paper today. This meant that the only opportunity to table an amendment that would add my...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: I am very grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for making that clear. I look to my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne to decide whether he wishes to put forward a manuscript amendment in his own name that could then be put before the House.

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: I think that the process that my hon. Friend needs to go through is to demonstrate a willingness to serve. I suspect that there are sufficient Members in the Chamber willing him to put his name forward and therefore prepared to sign up to a manuscript amendment for his name to go forward in substitution for one of the other names on the Order Paper. In order for that to happen, my hon....

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: Usually the advice that hon. Members receive from Mr. Speaker is that if they wish for some assistance in drafting or presenting an amendment, they should speak to the Clerk at the Table, who I am sure would, as always, be more than willing to assist. [ Interruption. ] While my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne goes and carries out that process, I shall address my remarks further to the...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: The Minister is nodding in agreement with that proposition, so I look forward to hearing her expand on it. How is this Committee, when appointed, going to interact with the Kelly committee's recommendations? As you know, Mr. Speaker, earlier today I raised a point of order about the extraordinary announcements leaked from the Kelly committee. There are conflicting opinions as to where those...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman has been able to remove that possibility, but I spoke to a senior Member of the House this morning about the matter. I will not disclose his name, because he is not in his place at the moment, although I can say that he is among those whose membership of the Committee we may vote on later. He assured me on good authority that he thought that the details...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: It is rather like the definition of an elephant—when one sees one, one knows one. When we look at the right hon. Gentleman, we know that he is a senior and respected Member of this House, but I assure the House that he is not the person to whom I was referring in my remarks about the alleged leak by the leader of the Liberal Democrats. That takes us to another possibility that is being...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: Exactly, Mr. Speaker, and what we are talking about tonight is the membership of that Committee and how qualified it will be to deal with its functions. I therefore wish to address some of my remarks to those functions, and I hope that the Deputy Leader of the House will tell us about the interaction between the Committee members and their role in dealing with recommendations from the Kelly...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: It has not been officially published as a document, but the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Sir Stuart Bell), who serves on the Members Estimate Committee, said on the radio this morning that there had been an authorised disclosure of it. Although it has not been published officially, there seem to be a large number of people who know about its contents. That is causing a lot of problems for...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: Absolutely, I agree with you on that, Mr. Speaker—I am certainly not qualified to carry out a leak inquiry. I am trying to ask the Deputy Leader of the House, who has admitted that this is an urgent issue and that that is why the motion is on the Order Paper at such short notice, to assure us that the Committee will be up and running in time to make the necessary appointments to IPSA....

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: IPSA will certainly do so, if it is advised by the contents of the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, which makes it quite clear that "IPSA must...prepare the scheme" for MPs allowances and "review the scheme regularly and revise it as appropriate." I am sure that IPSA's work will be informed by the Kelly Committee report, but I do not think that it will be dictated to by it, in accordance...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: Of course it could, if there was the will on the part of the Government. I hope that the Deputy Leader of the House will accept that, given the reality of the situation, it would be desirable and fair for the Kelly report to be published this week, rather than delayed until Wednesday of next week. In that way, we would not get more speculation—it keeps coming out gradually, in leaks,...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: Perhaps I could start off with my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire. He has been a loyal servant of the House for many years. The work he did from the Back Benches as Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee was of immense value. It was authoritative and earned him great respect from all his colleagues. My only concern about his name being on the Order Paper is...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: That may be incidental. I am sure that my hon. Friend is right that our right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry) is a worthy champion of Back Benchers' interests, but he is taken account of under paragraph 1(c) of schedule 2 to the 2009 Act, along with you, Mr. Speaker, under paragraph 1(a), and the Leader of the House of Commons under paragraph 1(b). My point is that...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (28 Oct 2009) has video

Christopher Chope: My right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire and I go back many years, and I shall not explain to the House the way in which we have interacted in various posts. He knows that the comments that I make are not directed at his integrity, which is 100 per cent. absolute, but at the fact that inevitably, by becoming a shadow Minister, he has become separate and apart from those of us...