Results 1-20 of 1,058 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Paul Holmes

Coroners and Justice Bill: Removal of limitation on warrants under Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: The amendments are variously technical, minor and consequential, and we support them. I add my thanks to everybody who has taken part in this process over the past year. The only group that we have forgotten is the humble parliamentary researchers, including mine who did all the work earlier in the year, and my new one who has done all the work to prepare for the debate in the past week....

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 35 — Contents of injunctions: supplemental (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: Although we welcome amendments 30 to 39 as a partial step forward in the right direction, we need to remember the background. The courts rejected the experiment in Birmingham on the grounds that other measures, such as ASBOs, could be used instead, and that there was not enough evidence from police and councillors in Birmingham to justify the imposition of such injunctions. Many people have...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 96 — Retention and destruction of samples etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: Lords amendments 40, 41 and 42 are very welcome, because they remove the Government's attempt to give themselves a blank cheque to act on such a controversial issue, whereby in light of the European ruling on DNA, they would say, "We'll go away and come up with suggestions in private. We'll write them into law. We'll put them through a Statutory Instrument Committee. There'll be no debate in...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 27 — Increase in penalty for offence (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: The right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz), the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, observed that it was good to see constructive engagement between Government and Opposition. Over the past year I have probably seen more give and take, with the Government listening to suggestions and adopting them, than I have seen in the case of most other Bills with which I have been involved...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 27 — Increase in penalty for offence (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: The hon. Gentleman's comments bring me on to the point that I was about to make. I recommend that the Minister and his colleagues also look to take more proactive action. Let me give the example of something I witnessed when on patrol in Chesterfield with Derbyshire police this summer. On one evening, I went out in the van that undertakes what the police there call the Be Safe programme. They...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: Does the hon. Lady agree with my earlier comment that we need to hear from the Minister exactly how the Government envisage the consultation by those local authorities that do not adopt the legislation taking place? If that consultation consists of an advert in the local paper that nobody responds to, it will be toothless. However, if it is to be a proper consultation, those constituents who...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Authorisations of covert human intelligence sources: conditions (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: I agree with the points that have just been made. These are very straightforward technical arrangements to facilitate co-operation between two forces working across force boundaries so that they can have a controller from one force area and a handler from another force area, if that is relevant to an operation in progress. We support these amendments. Lords amendment 1 agreed to. Lords...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: As the Minister said, Lords amendments 6 to 10 improve the definition of how we establish that a sex worker has been coerced into that line of work. They use the words "exploitative conduct", which allow for a wider definition that includes things such as deception and threats—for example, the withdrawal of accommodation—rather than the earlier definition, which relied much more...

Probation Service (4 Nov 2009)

Paul Holmes: I congratulate the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Llwyd)—my apologies if I have mangled the Welsh language—on securing the debate and on having outlined, as did the other speakers, the values of the probation service and the problems that it faces. Those problems are twofold: the cuts in funding of 2.68 per cent. and the increase in case load at the same time. In...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Children's Commissioner (19 Oct 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: I regret very much the way in which, in his opening comments, the Secretary of State tried to suggest that this was all about the Opposition having a go at the Government, and the way in which the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) tried to suggest that it was all about a Labour Government possibly appointing someone who might or might not be a Labour sympathiser. The Committee that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Social Care (13 Oct 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: What recent representations he has received on his Department's Green Paper on social care.

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Social Care (13 Oct 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: I thank the Secretary of State for that response. A number of my constituents have contacted me about the Green Paper. Typical of their responses was one from a lady who said: "I am deeply concerned about the proposals in the green paper to hand disability benefits over to the local authorities...It has taken me a long time to get the DLA Lifetime Award which is a tremendous help to me and...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Paul Holmes: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Paul Holmes: I was going to agree with the hon. Gentleman absolutely until he made his last point. Everything that he says about Conservative policy, about the fact that the origins of the problems lie in what the Conservatives did in the 1980s, and about their lack of an answer now is true. However, is the hon. Gentleman—a former Minister—happy that after 12 years of a Labour Government we...

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

Paul Holmes: Before the right hon. Gentleman moves on, will he confirm something that he has just said? When the US was being considered for designation as a category 2 country for the Extradition Act 2003, the Conservative spokesman in the House of Lords said that his party had enough faith in the US judicial system not to be worried about the unfair treatment that British citizens would face. Given what...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism: Council Tax (9 Jul 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: In the course of this short debate, three issues have arisen. First, there is the concept of a notional budget and whether that has any status in law. As we have heard, that issue may be going to two judicial reviews, one relating to Surrey and one to Derbyshire. Secondly, what is an excessive budget? Who decides what an excessive budget is, and what are the criteria for deciding that there...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism: Council Tax (9 Jul 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: I thank the hon. Gentleman. Surrey is one of the great exceptions, as it is one of the police authorities for which as much as 50 per cent. of the money comes from local people. I remember a previous Police Minister, two or three Ministers ago, saying a couple of years ago when we debated the underfunding of Derbyshire police that one way forward was to use the Surrey example of switching the...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: rose—

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Paul Holmes: I thank the Minister. Other democratic countries do not have anything like 28 days' detention without charge. Typically, they have two to seven days. The USA and Canada have two days and New Zealand has one day. The Minister pointed out that they have different legal systems, and one difference is that they make extensive use of post-charge questioning to overcome the difficulties of getting...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Paul Holmes: Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that the public were in favour of ID cards when they thought they would solve terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, but as they are now realising that they will not do that, and also that they will have to pay for them, their satisfaction ratings are falling?