Results 1-20 of 1,449 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Kelvin Hopkins

Business, Innovation and Skills: First Capital Connect (12 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: As a daily user of First Capital Connect services, I have a personal interest in the situation—particularly today, because train cancellations caused me to miss Question Time. Last year First Capital Connect was given the Evening Standard award for the company that combined the worst service with the biggest profits. May I ask my hon. Friend to intervene with the company, and suggest...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Clause 37 — The Comptroller and Auditor General (4 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I give notice that I shall seek leave to withdraw amendment 68, but I want to make a few remarks in response to the debate. First, I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for her kind remarks about my health: it is improving but it is not quite there yet. The amendment has provoked a debate, and that is important. I was particularly impressed by the speech from the hon. Member for Gainsborough...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Clause 37 — The Comptroller and Auditor General (4 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I beg to move amendment 68, page 18, line 19, at end add— '(9) The principal function of the Comptroller and Auditor General is to further the purposes of national audit set out in section [Purpose of Part 7] by way of investigation and report.'.

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Clause 37 — The Comptroller and Auditor General (4 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: It gives me great pleasure to speak to these amendments, if briefly. In a major piece of legislation it is important that its purposes should be clear, but the Bill nowhere specifies the purposes and aims of national audit, although the National Audit Act 1983 does so. The amendments are intended to remedy that omission.

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Clause 37 — The Comptroller and Auditor General (4 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I accept entirely what my right hon. Friend says, but I hope that one purpose of the Bill is to restate the objectives of audit.

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Clause 37 — The Comptroller and Auditor General (4 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: Clearly my right hon. Friend and I disagree, but I hope it will be accepted that the restatement of the 1983 Act would not go amiss in the Bill. New clause 41 is intended to be inserted at the head of part 7. It repeats the opening of the 1983 Act, with the addition of the word "probity", which seems appropriate in current terms. Amendment 68 is intended to make clear the function of the...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Clause 8 — Special Advisers code (3 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I say at the outset that I do not intend to press my amendments to a vote. One good reason is that, unfortunately, there are some slight technical errors. However, they are important amendments and I hope that my Front-Bench colleagues will at least consider incorporating their spirit, and even some of their wording, into the Bill at a later stage. They are about special advisers and seek to...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Clause 8 — Special Advisers code (3 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: Well, it concerned me at the time. I have been a member of the Public Administration Committee for seven years, and we have discussed these matters on a number of occasions. I have made very strong criticisms of that mode of operating, which changed the nature of our constitution and the relationship between Ministers and the civil service. It was a great mistake. I have used stronger...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Clause 8 — Special Advisers code (3 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I do not wish to speak for too long, although I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. This issue has been drawn to our attention by some former heads of the civil service who have been before the Select Committee. They reminded us that back in the days of the Wilson Governments, and perhaps those of the Callaghan Governments, there was a remarkable range of views within Cabinet. It...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Clause 8 — Special Advisers code (3 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I beg to move amendment 79, page 4, line 33, leave out 'special' and insert 'Ministerial'.

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Bingo Industry (3 Nov 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I have raised this with my hon. Friends on the Front Bench before, but is it not more sensible to tax the more dangerous forms of gambling more than the innocent forms, such as bingo?

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: The hon. Lady talks about ticking boxes. I have had two cases recently in my surgery involving people who have been interviewed by a doctor on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions and told that they are fit to work when they clearly are not. They have then looked at their form and found that the doctor has lied: the individual has said that they cannot do something and the doctor has...

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I admire my hon. Friend for the consultation process that she has held. If I were to put my view to her constituents—or perhaps to my own—that the best system would be a professional public service, with fully trained public servants employed on an accountable basis, available to everyone, would they not have preferred that?

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: The problem with the taxation system is that it is regressive. If it were made much more progressive, the sort of taxpayers at the conference would not suffer. In fact, they would be better off.

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: Is the hon. Gentleman saying that there should not be a postcode lottery, but a standard that we should all expect, wherever we are?

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I very much agree with what my right hon. Friend is saying. I think that Beveridge, or the National Insurance Act 1948, set capital limits on ownership. However, the amount of capital that someone had to have was, in today's terms, absolutely enormous, so it covered only a tiny fraction of the richest parts of the population. If that were applied today, everyone would accept it; the problem...

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: Would my right hon. Friend say that the consultation has been genuinely open about all possibilities of funding care, including funding out of general taxation for everybody?

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way again, and I want to address this funding matter again. I have spoken on many platforms, suggesting that care should be fully funded from taxation. I have not had a single person disagree with me; they all think that would be the sensible and fair way to do it, just as with the national health service.

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: Does my right hon. Friend agree that at the heart of the Beveridge plan was the principle of universality? It was also at the heart of national health service planning. However, what my right hon. Friend talks about is not universal.

Business of the House: Social Care Green Paper (29 Oct 2009) has video

Kelvin Hopkins: At this moment, people feel pressurised into keeping their relatives at home because they fear losing what may be a relatively small amount of equity to some people, but is a lot to them—and the only equity in the family—if they lose granny's house having been forced to use it to pay for granny's care. That is what is happening. I have come across cases in my constituency of...