Results 1-20 of 2,007 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Corbett of Castle Vale

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council — Question (8 Jul 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, can my noble friend confirm that the main reason why this move to the city of Birmingham was made is that it has one of the finest museums and art galleries in the country, and also because it has more canals than Venice, which do not smell as bad?

Building Britain's Future — Statement (29 Jun 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, will my noble friend confirm that history teaches us that the worst thing that any Government can do at times of peril for families, for children, for young people, for jobs and for homes, is to throw up their hands and say, "there is nothing we can do"? I remind my noble friend that when I was a constituency MP, I asked a postman once how many giros he delivered through the doors...

Olympic Games 2012: Shooting — Question (25 Jun 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, I was at that meeting with Members of this House and the other place. It was far from conclusive. Will the Minister urgently invite LOCOG to look again at the presentation shown by British Shooting on 16 February—it was seemingly dismissed as inaccurate information—that demonstrated that the Olympic shooting events can still be staged at Bisley, within existing...

Afghanistan: Improvised Explosive Devices — Question (24 Jun 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, against the background that seven out of every 10 British and coalition troops killed in Iraq are killed by Iranian-made roadside explosive devices, with Iran training the people to deliver them and smuggling them across 58 routes into Iraq, of which the MoD has details, can the noble Baroness give an estimate of how many of those devices are now beginning to be used in Afghanistan?

Olympic Games 2012 — Debate (18 Jun 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Coe, for staging this debate. He may recall that, when we won the bid for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, I dropped him a note saying something along the lines of, "It's great to know that you can still come in first". I congratulate him on the progress that is being made by the organising committee on time—ahead in some cases—and, one...

Creative Industries — Debate (4 Jun 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Bragg and congratulate him on the masterly way in which he introduced the debate. However, I gently chide him for overlooking the astonishing contribution of the members of the Lunar Society in Birmingham—among them James Watt, Matthew Boulton, and Michael Faraday, to name but a few—who saw the problems facing people at the end of the 1700s...

Olympic Games 2012 — Question (2 Jun 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, has my noble friend seen LOCOG's claim that one of the reasons why Bisley was not chosen as the appropriate—and cheaper—venue for the Olympic and Paralympic shooting events is that it could not identify a longer-term use for it? Will he ask the ODA and LOCOG for the minutes of the meeting with the British Army and British Shooting on 16 February this year which show...

Turkey — Question (20 May 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, will the Minister confirm that since the election of Mr Christofias as the President of the Republic of Cyprus and Mr Mehmet Talat as the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Turkey is playing a much more positive role in trying to assist that settlement process, not only because of the pressures around the application to join the European Union but because it is now recognised...

Immigration: Sangatte — Question (18 May 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, how many people over the past year or two have the French found to be illegally present in France and deported to their country of origin? Do the French still tolerate this class of people they call people without papers—personnes sans papiers? They are left there, wandering around like lost souls. That does not seem to comply with the undertakings they have given about the...

Wilton Park — Question (12 May 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, as a former member of the council of Wilton Park, may I attest to the great value of that setting both to the people of this country and especially to those from developing countries? To put it crudely, there are very few places on this planet where people can safely go and think out aloud in trying to find solutions to immensely important problems.

Health: Contaminated Blood Products — Debate (23 Apr 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, it is with great sadness that I thank and congratulate my noble friend Lord Morris of Manchester on staging this debate. There is a huge monument of shame to successive Governments, who for more than 20 years have found ways of avoiding what are clearly their responsibilities to the victims who were infected with dirty blood and to their carers, often spouses, who are left behind...

Houses of Parliament: Use of CS Gas — Private Notice Question (1 Apr 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, can the Chairman of Committees confirm that armed police officers were introduced into the Palace of Westminster without any consultation with Members of this House or another place?

Privacy: Government Databases — Question (25 Mar 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, while we are all properly concerned with the personal data held by government and commercial organisations that snoop around our shopping habits, what view does the Minister take of the objectivity and academic rigour of the Rowntree report?

Parliament Square: Right to Protest — Question (16 Mar 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, can the Minister give the House an assurance that the police will do everything they can to facilitate peaceful protest during the coming G20 summit rather than obstructing it and praying in aid terrorism laws that were not introduced for that purpose?

Iraq: Ashraf City — Question (2 Mar 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, is the Minister aware of demands by the Iraqi Prime Minister and the Iraqi President, alongside the Iraqi national security adviser's threat, that PMOI members should be removed from the base at Ashraf, which would be a direct breach of their human rights? Will he confirm—I think that he did in his Answer to the noble Baroness—that we still have a residual responsibility...

Identity Security: Visas — Question (12 Feb 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many arrests have been made for identity forgery in the last year, following the introduction of biometric visas.

Identity Security: Visas — Question (12 Feb 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that encouraging news. Can he confirm that without the use of biometrics, it is likely that the 5,246 individuals he mentioned would have gained entry to the United Kingdom, would have remained here illegally and possibly worked illegally as well? Does the checking of fingerprints for biometric visas identify those who have previously come to the attention...

Iran — Question (5 Feb 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, has the Minister made any representations to the authorities in Iran about the virtual closure of the British Council's operation in that country? What lessons does he draw from the launch of a new missile in Iran earlier this week?

Prisoners: Early Release — Question (20 Jan 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: My Lords, is there any difference in reconviction rates between prisoners released under the two schemes that we are discussing and those released in the normal way?

Iran: Human Rights — Question (19 Jan 2009)

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent representations they have made to the Government of Iran concerning human rights.