Results 1-20 of 1,097 for speaker:Tony Wright

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: MPs' Expenses and Allowances (4 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: We have all made a speech saying that we want nothing to do with the setting of our own pay and allowances, and that we would like those things to be determined by an independent body. When that independent body comes along and determines them, we will logically have no alternative but to accept that. If we do so, that and the other changes that we are making will finally give us a realistic...

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

Tony Wright: I shall be extremely brief. It is unfortunate—in fact, that is hardly the word—that we have reached a part of the Bill that has some real meat in it and there is simply no time to discuss it. I hope that the Government will say how we can deal with the rest of the Bill, because at the moment the Committee will be unable to do so. Over the years, we have had endless arguments about...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Clause 7 — Minimum requirements for civil service and diplomatic service codes (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: This Bill has been through so many previous incarnations that it is sometimes difficult to keep up with it. In one of its incarnations, there was a list of various duties that civil servants would be obliged to perform, including the duty "to discharge public functions reasonably and according to law" and another duty to do with standards of administration. It seems to me that there are two...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Schedule 1 — The Civil Service Commission (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: In the spirit of not only co-operation and not being difficult, but total mystery, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Question proposed, That the schedule be the First schedule to the Bill.

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Schedule 1 — The Civil Service Commission (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: I beg to move amendment 55, page 33, line 22, leave out ', in exceptional cases,'. Following the tortuous nature of the previous discussion, I offer brevity and simplicity. I also rise to press the merits of an amendment that I assume the Government will have no difficulty in accepting. I simply want to remove the single phrase "in exceptional cases" from the reporting requirements being laid...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): Schedule 1 — The Civil Service Commission (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: It is really very difficult to keep a straight face, Sir Nicholas. What is really disappointing is that when the process of this Bill began, all the Front Benchers were saying, "Of course we will be open to amendments. This Bill is not fixed in stone, and we will bring it forward in a spirit of taking sensible amendments." Indeed, when the Cabinet Secretary was in front of our Committee just...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): [Sir Alan Haselhurst in the Chair] (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: I have some sympathy with what has been said, but as someone who has sat through countless discussions of this issue over the years I have to say that the conclusion the Government have arrived at is the conclusion most people have arrived at: that this is the only simple way to deal with the matter.

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): [Sir Alan Haselhurst in the Chair] (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: I want briefly to add my questions to those that have been asked. I have not heard an explanation as to why GCHQ was to be included in these provisions back in 2004 and why it is now excluded; I do not know what thought process or consultation has produced that change. I do not know why it would be thought appropriate that promotion on merit would not apply to the employees of GCHQ. I do not...

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation): [Sir Alan Haselhurst in the Chair] (3 Nov 2009) has video

Tony Wright: I was not giving way to the hon. Gentleman; in fact, I had concluded my remarks. However, I think that we are all asking more or less the same questions and looking forward to the same answers.

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

Tony Wright: My right hon. Friend mentions the role of the Quality Assurance Agency. Some time ago, I received a communication from it which said: "HE serves students best when it progressively and incrementally weans them off direct teaching". On this view, presumably the most effective university is the one that teaches least or indeed not at all. If that is the official view, is it surprising that...

Written Answers — Environment Food and Rural Affairs: Noise (27 Oct 2009)

Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on what date his Department first proposed that a neighbourhood noise strategy would be published; and when he now expects the strategy to be published.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Policing (26 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: At the weekend we changed the clocks, making it light at 6 o'clock in the morning and dark at 6 o'clock in the evening. Does my right hon. Friend believe that that is helpful or unhelpful to the criminal classes, and to police on the beat?

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Equitable Life (21 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: I shall speak for much less than 15 minutes; indeed, I had not anticipated speaking at all, but I rise simply to say that I regard the matter—this will not go down well in Whips' quarters—as a House matter. When our ombudsman—the parliamentary ombudsman—makes a report to the House and says that injustice resulting from maladministration has not been remedied, and when...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Equitable Life (21 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: That is a very fine offer and I shall certainly take it up. I am quite realistic about this. Such things test every Government. It is quite proper for a Government to say, "If we were to provide a remedy of the kind that the ombudsman suggests in this case, or indeed in any other case, there would be a cost." In this case, the cost is substantial—there can be no equivocation about that....

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Equitable Life (21 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: We are getting into interesting territory, and I am not sure how much further the House wishes to go, even though it is important territory. When the ombudsman was established 42 years ago, it was not said in the legislation that the ombudsman's findings would be binding. It was said that after recommendations were made, a response would be made. The assumption has always been that those...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Equitable Life (21 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: The hon. Gentleman is right. It is also right that we should have this discussion. Having made a decision, the Government should put their case in the best way that they can, and my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary is doing that. He made some important points about the mechanics of delivering redress systems, but the fundamental points are still at issue. Only the House can come to a...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Equitable Life (21 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: rose—

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Equitable Life (21 Oct 2009) has video

Tony Wright: So that the House is not misled, may I put it to my right hon. Friend that the issue is not the technical efficiency of different schemes for delivering redress, but a fundamental difference in approach between the ombudsman, who says that redress should be as of right because of regulatory failure, and the Government, who say that they shall create an ex gratia remedy for those who have...

Nato: Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill (20 Oct 2009)

Tony Wright: I was interested to hear my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State begin his speech by telling us that Her Majesty was pleased to allow the House to consider the prerogative powers, as it will do in parts of the Bill. I was interested, too, to see that just a few days ago, the Government issued a paper called "Review of the executive royal prerogative powers: final report". The Select...

Nato: Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill (20 Oct 2009)

Tony Wright: My hon. Friend tempts me to go wider than I am already going, and I think that I am going quite wide enough. Some little plans are being hatched to do something else about the balance between Parliament and the Executive, however, and I hope to be able to say more about them in the near future. Against that background, I want to extend a particular welcome for what I take to be the central...