Results 1-20 of 5,428 for speaker:John Denham

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I hope that the hon. Lady will deal with a point that I made. Government publication of statistics is now governed by procedures and rules, which have broadly been agreed with this House, about independent assessment by the Office for National Statistics. Most of the data that are made available in the Total Place pilots are perfectly good and usable at local level, but they are not of...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and add: "recognises the role of strong, accountable local government in delivering high quality local services and entitlements to services whilst ensuring value for money; welcomes Government investment, through local councils, in providing real help now to families; reiterates the importance of providing...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I agree about the importance of such information. I was merely making the point that suggesting, as the hon. Member for Meriden did, that expenditure in institutions that operate at a national level should be covered in local spending reports is a misunderstanding of what the original 2007 Act was about. It would be better to concentrate on how we make relevant and timely information...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I will come to that point, although I am glad that the hon. Lady does not seem to share the desire of the Conservative Opposition simply to do away with those structures and pretend that nothing should exist between central Government and local expenditure. That is a huge gulf between us, and it puts the Opposition in a terribly weak position when they try to argue that they have policies...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point. He says that the Government say that they support Total Place, but the Government invented it. We are driving Total Place forward, and I am grateful for his support for it. I will come to Total Place, the lessons that we can learn from it and how it fits into the wider picture in due course. However, it is important in a debate on local...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: Given the support that the hon. Lady gave to Conservative councils to resist attempts to provide land for housing, she has some difficultly in trying to explain how that would provide the land needed for housing. The second point about local spending plans is that the Opposition would like there to be a lot less local spending. They are on record as saying that my Department should have its...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: The Conservatives are uncomfortable when it is set out in front of them what their policies mean for the quality of local public services, so I am not surprised that I am being urged to move on. I will do so, but it is important to put this on record. There is a great deal of interest in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill outside this Chamber, and it is important...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I should like to make a little progress, then I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman. My hon. Friend went on to say that he was talking about "expenditure that can be easily identified as relating to a particular area". I have previously made the point about the desire of the hon. Member for Meriden to include the Infrastructure Planning Commission in this, but it would be difficult in...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: The Government made it clear at that stage that there were limits to what would be immediately provided, and that there were some absolute limits on what could be provided. This is an important point, and I will come in a moment to the case of Cumbria and to other examples. It is a completely wrong charge to suggest that what the Government have done so far represents a stepping back from the...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: When I was listening to the hon. Member for Meriden earlier, I certainly shared the concern that if that is what has been communicated outside the House about the reasonable expectations and the Government's attitude, it might well have had that effect. I share that concern, and it is something that I wish to address. It is important for Members of the House to provide information to those...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: The right hon. Gentleman makes a very fair point, and it is one that I wish to pursue in suggesting that the House support my amendment proposing a further report in December. I do not believe that the job is yet done in a number of areas. Let me refresh the House's memory on where we had got to. The first stage of local spending reports was published on 29 April. The data that they...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: If the right hon. Gentleman had waited for just a moment longer, he would have heard me explain that these are serious and practical issues that are worthy of a proper debate. Given the experience of right hon. and hon. Members who will speak later, I hope that they will also address them. First, there is the question of how we characterise the spending that takes place physically in one area...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I shall give way to the right hon. Gentleman so that he can answer my question.

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: That would be one way of approaching it, although I fear that it might be misleading. The question of Cumbria has come up; indeed, the right hon. Gentleman himself may have raised it. There are two points to be made here—I shall come back to the second—and the one for this afternoon's debate, in which I have some interest, is that Cumbria's public spending includes expenditure at...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I think that the right hon. Gentleman accepts the point of principle that I am making, even if he disagrees with the conclusion I have reached.

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: That is a possibility that we will certainly continue to explore. When I produce my report in December, I may well form a view on this. The idea, however, that expenditure on Southampton and Southampton Solent universities is a secret that our constituents would find enormously difficult to discover if they wanted to know how much money was involved, is also ridiculous. What I am most...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: This is an important issue. In my area, people in Southampton would be able to have that discussion, but people in Eastleigh would not, as they do not have a university. People in Winchester could have that debate—they have a university, or bits of a couple of universities—but not those in Eastleigh. I think that the hon. Lady would accept that it is a bit of an illusion to think...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I will give way one more time to the right hon. Gentleman, but then I must make some progress.

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: I would make two points. First, I am not anticipating the next stage of the process in detail. I want to commit the Government to taking this process forward today, which is why I am approaching the issue constructively. Secondly, there are some real issues of presentation and understanding, and the sort of information that I am talking about is not hard to find. I am making what I think are...

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Local Spending Reports (28 Oct 2009) has video

John Denham: No, I have already given way many times; I must make some progress.