Results 1-20 of 3,050 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:James Plaskitt

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Higher Education (3 Nov 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: I welcome my right hon. Friend's statement and particularly the progress that we have been able to make as a result of the 2003-04 changes in respect of widening access. In the forthcoming review of fees, will there be a presumption against a completely unrestricted fees market, which would make it impossible to maintain that progress on widening access?

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Regional Spatial Strategy (27 Oct 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: Warwick district council has just finished its consultation period on its options within the RSS, which are being clearly rejected by the community. I believe that the council needs to reconsider and return with alternative proposals. Will my right hon. Friend support my suggestion to the regional Government office that the council be given some extra time to work on that without jeopardising...

Fostering Services (Ofsted Supervision) (21 Oct 2009)

James Plaskitt: Before my hon. Friend moves on—has he moved on from the cleansing of the records?—I will return to the subject. From what he has said, it remains the case that documentation is being accessed by local authorities that are considering fostering placements that refers to my constituent, and it contains statements and comments about her that are untrue and unfounded and are clearly...

Fostering Services (Ofsted Supervision) (21 Oct 2009)

James Plaskitt: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for indulging me. Ofsted may not have the power to instruct local authorities, but how would my hon. Friend feel about writing to local authorities requesting that they take a look at their records on this case?

Fostering Services (Ofsted Supervision) (21 Oct 2009)

James Plaskitt: I am grateful to have the opportunity, granted by Mr. Speaker, to raise this matter, which is important to my constituent and to me. At issue, in essence, is the conduct of successive regulatory bodies in respect of fostering and the fact that, early on in this case, as I will explain in a moment, regulators seemed to get off on the wrong track and have simply not been able, for various...

Bills Presented: Afghanistan and Pakistan (16 Jul 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate, having spent last week in Helmand with British forces at Camp Bastion and in Kandahar. I should like to put on record my thanks to our Ministry of Defence staff who facilitate such visits for Members of Parliament and to all those involved in theatre who make time to brief us, which they do very extensively. Such visits are...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Savings (9 Jun 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: I welcome my hon. Friend back to the Treasury; it is nice to see her in the team again. As my hon. Friend will know, the savings ratio tends to be geared to what is happening to house prices, so it is no surprise that now that we are seeing a house price deflation there is a recovery in household savings. At a time of low inflation, savers will be looking for good deals, and I welcome the...

Developing Country Debt (Restriction of Recovery): Finance Bill (6 May 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: The hon. Gentleman has referred several times to what he describes as the difficult fiscal circumstances. Given that that is how he sees them, why do the first votes cast by his party and by him in Divisions on the Budget add £6 billion to the projected Budget deficit?

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Credit Unions (28 Apr 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: The extra financial help from the growth fund is extremely welcome and will be of great assistance to many credit unions, but they sometimes need help that does not have a price tag. In some instances, they simply need a place in which to deliver their services in the community. Through the ministerial work that my hon. Friend does with other Departments, will he look into the possibility of...

Council Tax Rebate: The Economy (31 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: I want to return to the daunting agenda in front of the G20 and in particular—this will come as no surprise to my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary—to focus on finding a way forward for the future regulation of the global banking system, coming away from the problem we have at the moment, which is a Balkanised regulatory system trying to deal with global institutions. As...

Council Tax Rebate: The Economy (31 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: Does the hon. Gentleman not recall what his party's then Front-Bench spokesperson said in the debate on the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which introduced the Financial Services Authority? He said: "we believe that regulation should be minimal".—[ Official Report, 28 June 1999; Vol. 334, c. 43.]

Council Tax Rebate: The Economy (31 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: rose—

Council Tax Rebate: The Economy (31 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: I will tell the hon. Gentleman what I am clutching—the Conservative election manifesto from 2005. As he mentions the Bank of England and the tripartite arrangement, and all his warnings, can he explain why that manifesto, on which he stood for election, includes a discussion about the Bank of England with not one word about the tripartite arrangement, the level of bank regulation or...

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: General Affairs Council (31 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: What discussions he had in the most recent meeting of the General Affairs Council on the contribution of the European Council's European economic recovery plan to the development of employment in the environmental sector.

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: General Affairs Council (31 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: On Friday, I met representatives of several companies in my constituency, all of which are involved in environmental technologies with a wide range of potential applications. They seek in particular help with research and product development. Does the EU recovery plan contain anything for them?

Food Labelling Regulations (Amendment): New Clause 1 — Jobseeker's allowance (17 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: rose—

Food Labelling Regulations (Amendment): New Clause 1 — Jobseeker's allowance (17 Mar 2009) has video

James Plaskitt: Is the hon. Gentleman telling the House that he has junked the policy of the social justice policy group, which is headed by the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith), his former party leader, and which called for parents whose youngest child was under five to have between five and 10 hours a week preparing for work? Has he now dumped that policy?

G20 Summit (17 Mar 2009)

James Plaskitt: I hear my right hon. Friend say that the Basel system should be improved, but, as I said, my main concern is that, between Basel I and Basel II, although the second was an improvement on the first, there was no departure from the underlying principle common to both—the internal risk-basing approach. That means, as far as I can find out, that there is no independent, objective body...