Results 1-20 of 4,128 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Chris Grayling

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Chris Grayling: (Urgent Question): To ask the Minister for Borders and Immigration if he will make a statement on the Freedom of Information Act investigation into the withholding of immigration documents.

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Chris Grayling: This morning the Home Secretary used the front page of a national newspaper to say that he wanted to start a national debate about immigration. It is a shame that he is not here to start that debate this afternoon. More and more evidence is now emerging to suggest that the Government broke freedom of information laws and tried to cover up a deliberate change of policy designed to encourage...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (2 Nov 2009) has video

Chris Grayling: (Urgent Question): To ask the Home Secretary if he will make a statement about the dismissal of the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (2 Nov 2009) has video

Chris Grayling: Let me start by reiterating my view that the Home Secretary's decision on Friday regarding Professor Nutt's future was the right one. Independent scientific advice is important, but those who take on formal roles with the Government have to be extremely cautious about the things that they say. Professor Nutt's comments earlier this year, comparing the risks of ecstasy with those of horse...

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

Chris Grayling: Over the weekend, we have heard some pretty controversial reported comments by a former adviser to the Government about their immigration policy. May I invite the Minister to put the record straight? What was the motivation behind the very rapid increase in immigration under this Government?

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

Chris Grayling: I think a lot of people will notice that the Minister has made no attempt to answer my question. What Mr. Neather, the former adviser, said was that the policy of rapid expansion was done to put pressure on the right. Would it not be utterly disgraceful for any Government to decide immigration policy that was in the interests not of the country, but of a political party? Was that what happened?

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

Chris Grayling: indicated dissent.

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: Will the Home Secretary explain to the House why three years ago, in primary legislation, this Government gave the Home Secretary greater powers to intervene in such matters, but—up to this time—the Government have not implemented the provisions of that legislation?

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: I beg to move, That this House expresses its very great concern that the Extradition Act 2003 is being undermined by a series of high profile cases that are jeopardising confidence in the extradition system; and calls on the Government to hold immediately a review of the Act with a view to reforming it at the earliest opportunity to deal with the issues of public concern. I am grateful to...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: I absolutely agree with the right hon. Gentleman. The principle of reciprocity is particularly important, and I will return to it later in my remarks.

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: I absolutely agree with the right hon. and learned Gentleman. Indeed, if the Home Secretary will consider opening such a review, as I very much hope he will after today's debate, I believe strongly that the principle that the right hon. and learned Gentleman has just outlined should underpin it. The right hon. and learned Gentleman referred to the United States. Our arrangements with the...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: The hon. Gentleman's comments speak for themselves, and he is absolutely right. This issue must be addressed.

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: I agree with the hon. Lady. In this place, it is very easy to believe that Governments either get it all wrong or get it all right. Actually, the truth is somewhere between those two extremes. They get things wrong, and they get things right, and she is absolutely right to say that it is the mark of a strong Government to accept when they have got something wrong and to make changes.

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. The House would be grateful to the Home Secretary if he withdrew his amendment, accepted the principle of the motion and agreed to look again at the arrangements. There are three big problems with the current arrangements. The first relates to the people who are being extradited. We have long argued that the Extradition Act 2003 has resulted in a...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: My hon. Friend makes an important point, and I will come back to that issue, because another key question is where we should implement justice when a case involves multiple jurisdictions. British citizens can be extradited to other parts of Europe for a range of extraordinarily ill-defined offences that might not even constitute a crime here or in many other European countries. There have...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: I would love to be able to give my right hon. Friend an answer to that question, but I do not have a clue—it makes no sense to me, and I simply cannot understand the thought processes. I know that the Home Secretary has inherited from his predecessors a pig in a poke, but I cannot understand why reciprocity was not a basic principle of an extradition treaty. It makes no logical sense,...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Home Secretary and I will have days when we spar and days when we do not, and I very much hope that today can be one of constructive discussion leading to a genuine consensus across the House that a review is necessary to deal with a whole range of actual or potential injustices that have taken place in our extradition system in recent years as a result...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. I am tempted to say "very rough equivalence", because the gap is really quite big, as we have seen in some of the cases. I do not suggest that it was initially the Government's intention that some of these injustices should take place, but none the less they have taken place, and there are real concerns about individual cases. Perhaps more than anything...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: The right hon. and learned Gentleman may well be right, but sufficient time has now passed, regardless of the original reasons, for it to be both sensible and logical to embark on a review of those arrangements in order to see what can be done to improve them. Some other countries refuse to extradite their citizens at all. As a nation, we have not chosen that path, but we should exercise...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: US-UK Extradition Treaty (15 Jul 2009)

Chris Grayling: If the Home Secretary wants me to do so briefly, we could take the case of the former chief executive of Morgan Crucible, for example. We greatly debated the NatWest three at the time, and I suspect that as our debate continues we will hear from a number of hon. Members about cases where similar issues have arisen. I do not know the exact number, but there are many cases—probably a...