Results 1-20 of 6,346 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:Tim Loughton

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: We have a dilemma here, because if my right hon. Friend goes ahead with new clause 16 on the basis that the review could take until 2019, we must vote against it. She has just said that an immediate review is possible. Will she clearly tell Government Members whether she agrees with the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), who has made it clear that she thinks a review can...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: Will my hon. Friend give way?

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: My right hon. Friend clearly said we do not know the cost of the proposals in the amendments. Will he therefore put on record that it was entirely irresponsible and misleading for the Government to brief that the cost could be £3 billion, £4 billion or, as they said today, between £4 billion and £8 billion, and that that may have falsely swayed the argument?

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: I hear what the right hon. Gentleman is saying. No doubt there are some Machiavellian Members of the House who have such motives. He knows, because of the clear votes that we have had on Second Reading and this evening, that there is every likelihood that the Bill will pass through this House and the other. I will undertake to do everything in my power to stick to the Government’s...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: I hear the point that my hon. Friend makes and it has been made before. I will come on to say that all that work was done in 2004. I am trying purely to mirror the sort of arrangements that were made back in 2004 when civil partnerships were introduced. If just one in 10 cohabiting opposite-sex couples were to enter a civil partnership, that would be some 300,000 or so couples and their...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: There is a trade-off, because if the Bill goes through in its current form an inequality will be created and there will be a delay—we do not know for how long—for opposite-sex couples, who are unable to access civil partnerships, with no commitment that it will be addressed, while same-sex partners will be able to access marriages in fairly short order. I have a few more remarks...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: If what my hon. Friend has just said were true, I would be delighted, but I think that what the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston said might have raised a few eyebrows on the Government Front Bench. If she is saying that part of the deal is that the review, which would be an added consultation on the back of the one we had before the Bill was introduced, will take place and result in...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: An awful lot of rubbish has been spoken and reported in the media over the last few days. Not all of it has been attributed to me. There have been claims of wrecking amendments, of leadership bids, of Front-Bench mischief and of U-turns. Members will be forgiven for being in a state of some confusion as to where we have arrived at tonight, therefore. Let me explain what I can make out from...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: I hope that we have achieved something, in that a provision that the Government thought was not necessary only days and weeks ago has become a matter that merits review, albeit at least five years away and with no guarantee that it will take place. Now it has apparently become a bit more urgent. We seem to be moving in the right direction, but the extraordinary thing is that everyone seems to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: My hon. Friend is right. The trouble is that, given that there has been such fast movement in various peoples’ positions, goodness knows what the position will be after the vote has taken place. I want to support new clauses 10 and 11, tabled in my name and those of other hon. Members on both sides of the House and on all sides of the argument, and in doing so I must oppose the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: I can understand why people are trying to cause mischief on that basis. I approach the new clauses in the expectation that the Bill will probably become law, whether I and other hon. Members like it or not. We must therefore plan on that basis. I think it could become better law if it provided for equality in civil partnerships which we could give to opposite-sex couples, and I now want to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 16 — Review of civil partnership (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: Of course, it would also not be right to be putting out spurious figures. The figure of £4 billion is not the result of an official cost impact assessment by the Department for Work and Pensions. It is an entirely hypothetical figure based on every cohabiting opposite-sex couple choosing to convert to a new civil partnership, with maximum pension liabilities. Is not that actually where...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: New Clause 1 — Education Act 1996 (20 May 2013)

Tim Loughton: Is not the situation worse than that? In Committee, the Government, in effect, designed a hierarchy of exemptions. A Catholic surgeon is perfectly entitled to refuse to conduct an abortion paid for by public funds, but a Catholic registrar, who is similarly in public service paid for by public funds, could lose his position if he declined, out of a conscientious objection, to perform a...

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

Tim Loughton: I have visited Syria twice and on the last occasion met President Assad, and it is quite clear that he does not necessarily run the country—rather, it is run by a shadowy regime of military and Assad family members. May I gently suggest to the Foreign Secretary that the inevitable fall of Assad should not be treated as an end in itself?

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

Tim Loughton: Ministers will be aware of the long-overdue changes to shared parenting in the current Children and Families Bill. Will they liaise with their hon. Friends in the Department for Education to ensure that non-resident fathers are not deterred from engaging in their children’s lives as much as possible because of welfare changes that might make it difficult for them to secure appropriate...

Business without Debate: Development orders: development within the curtilage of a dwelling house (16 April 2013)

Tim Loughton: I do not know about omelettes, but the Secretary of State is making a very soft-boiled case for supporting the Government, and I am really trying hard. I do not know about him, but I hear complaints from many of my constituents, at my surgeries or through local councillors, that their neighbours have extended the remit of their planning permissions in terms of height, length or type. How many...

Finance (No. 2) Bill (15 April 2013)

Tim Loughton: I am slightly puzzled that the shadow Minister cannot see the link between the reductions in corporation tax and attracting businesses to this country. He should get out more. Is he not aware of a number of companies which have relocated from the Republic of Ireland, for example? Bank of America has relocated £50 billion worth of its trading business to the City of London. Firms in my...

Finance (No. 2) Bill (15 April 2013)

Tim Loughton: On that point about families in which one parent is an earner, will the hon. Gentleman therefore commit his party to supporting a transferable tax allowance for married couples, which, as well as sending out a strong message, would specifically help those couples where one person goes out to earn and the other looks after the children?

Finance (No. 2) Bill (15 April 2013)

Tim Loughton: Perhaps the Minister will remind Opposition spokespeople that corporation tax is payable only on profits. Many banks that were forced into disastrous mergers by the previous Government are still turning in losses, which might account for the shortfall in the figures given by the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie).

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: New Clause 15 — Restraint orders and legal aid (18 March 2013)

Tim Loughton: I rise briefly in support of new clauses 12 and 14, which were put forward so ably by my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Nicola Blackwood) and are supported by the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey). A key part of the four-point action plan “Tackling child sexual exploitation”, which was launched in November 2011, was a better court procedure for...