John Hemming: The petition is from 573 residents of Acocks Green. The petition states: The Petition of residents of Acocks Green and customers of the Post Office in Acocks Green and others, Declares that the Petitioners oppose the proposed move of Acocks Green’s Post Office branch from 1100 Warwick Road to 1131 Warwick Road; further that the proposed new location has fewer serving hatches, a...
John Hemming: Leah McGrath Goodman, an American journalist, was banned from entering the country by the UK Border Agency, as a result of which she was prevented from investigating child abuse in Jersey. The allegations involved a senior UK politician. I hear what the Home Secretary says about terms of reference, but the terms of reference would exclude investigation of an issue that falls into two...
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the terms of reference for Matthew Oakley's review of jobseeker's allowance sanctions omitted sanctions for employment and support allowance.
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral contribution by the Minister of State for Disabled People of 5 September 2014, Official Report, column 554, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the Affordable Homes Bill would cost about £1 billion of public expenditure.
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will review sanctions for employment and support allowance.
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will indicate what constraints there are on publication of case papers, inquiries or other documents relating to the Birmingham Pub Bombings on 21 November 1974.
John Hemming: The hon. Gentleman is making the case for shorter Parliaments. The question is who should make the decision. Should the term be fixed or should the Prime Minister be given back the power to make the decision purely on party interest, thereby costing everyone a lot of money?
John Hemming: Why does the hon. Gentleman believe that the Prime Minister alone should be able to make that decision, rather than Parliament through a majority?
John Hemming: I thank the hon. Gentleman for the confirmation that it would be a party decision taken in the party interest. Should it not be a decision that is taken in the public interest?
John Hemming: Obviously, we have had fixed-term Parliaments for a long time; it is just that the Prime Minister had the power to call an early election. Who does my hon. Friend believe should have the power to decide to have an early election?
John Hemming: I thank my hon. Friend for his previous answer. He said the effective test of whether the Prime Minister’s decision to have an election was a good one was whether the Prime Minister got elected, and that the test was measured by the political party. In essence, such a decision is driven by the party interest, not the public interest.
John Hemming: rose—
John Hemming: I am sure that my hon. Friend agrees that a key priority of this Parliament has been to sort out the finances, but uncertainty creates greater instability in the financial markets. If we had to pay another 1%, it would cost us about £10 billion or more a year. Does he think that that is a reasonable price for the taxpayer to pay for giving back a power over general elections to the Prime...
John Hemming: I share the hon. Gentleman’s concern about the power of the Executive. Does he agree that the constitution should be established in the best interests not of the Prime Minister, but of the country as a whole, particularly in circumstances in which we are having to borrow a lot of money on the money markets to fund the deficit, which means the stability that arises from the Prime Minister...
John Hemming: Anyone reading this debate may wish to refer to the speech I gave when I first put forward most of these proposals. I had more time to speak to them, so I spoke at greater length. I hope that that will inform people better,
John Hemming: As I have said on a number of occasions, the media cannot afford to have someone in every family court. Does the Minister accept that media access to hearings is not, in itself, that big a thing?
John Hemming: I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. This is in a sense the Bill’s second outing. I had the impression from its previous outing that it would be allowed to get its Second Reading, but now I know that it will be talked out. That is rather sad, because in the long term the Government will regret not having adopted a number of the measures in the Bill at an earlier stage...
John Hemming: I am not 100% certain that this Bill legally traps it, but that was the intention. I do not think that it is perfectly drafted, so we do not know—that is one of the difficulties with these Bills. Let us take some examples given by the Campaign for Freedom of Information. The information that the Information Commissioner has said does not have to be made available under FOI includes the...
John Hemming: I thank the hon. Gentleman for correcting me. As the previous inquiry’s rapporteur, he will obviously have better knowledge than me. I have been told that there is a problem, so I will need to chase that up. I might visit his office for some assistance. That would be good. The Government have always got themselves confused on the flows and quantity of children in care. On compulsory care,...
John Hemming: Article 9 of the Bill of Rights states: “That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.” Believe it or not, Brussels is a place. If we have a regulation rather than a directive, the regulation automatically overrides domestic law. Because the Bill of Rights was established as part of the...