Results 1-20 of 1,643 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Christopher Huhne

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Christopher Huhne: I am sympathetic to the right hon. Gentleman's case for the importance of bonuses in leading to potentially excessive risk taking, but I wonder whether he thinks it necessary to go as far as having new legislation, because the Financial Services Authority already has the power to increase capital requirements for financial institutions that, in its view, are taking extra risks. It could...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Christopher Huhne: To reinforce the right hon. Gentleman's excellent point about Glass-Steagall, does he agree with me that the Canadian example offers no obvious illustration of how such a measure would fail, given that the Canadian banks have never been known for their investment banking activity and are, in effect, universal retail banks?

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: It would be useful if the Lord Chancellor put on record what I understood him to say earlier from a sedentary position—that the Lord Chief Justice could go on exercising that veto, should he so desire.

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

Christopher Huhne: We will sustain public consensus behind the value of legal immigration only if controls are effective and illegal immigration is firmly countered. That has clearly not been the case. First, there is clear evidence that immigration policy was to grant applications rather than to refuse them, and to give the benefit of the doubt to the applicant—a policy that was never made public or...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: Does the right hon. Lady realise that crime has fallen in every western European country except Belgium? Does that reflect on anything that she is saying?

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I was about to compliment the right hon. Member for Salford (Hazel Blears)—before she finished with that outrageous slur on my party—on a thoughtful and interesting speech. I very much agree with her central thrust, which, as I understand it, is that we need to deal with the problem by using a set of agencies across the Government and locally. I recently visited the Liverpool...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I will happily give way to the right hon. Gentleman.

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I am astonished, because I was recently at a youth offending institution in west London where a large number of the children were on remand—admittedly for serious issues, in many cases, but not for any offence. I have cited the Government figures on reoffending rates. Some 73 per cent. of antisocial behaviour is perpetrated by males, and almost half were under 18 years of age. The Youth...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I recommend that the hon. Lady does what I have done myself in such circumstances: try, as the local MP, to get together a case conference involving the agencies and knock heads together. That actually works. If we have to wait until the police are at the point of issuing an ASBO, the people who have been suffering from the antisocial behaviour will have been doing so for far too long. Later,...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: The hon. Gentleman makes a good point about the need for support from the family. One of the issues with ASBOs has been the lack of application of support orders to ensure that they are backed up. If that is the hon. Gentleman's point, I entirely agree with him. The same National Audit Office study found that on average acceptable behaviour contracts cost £230 and were 65 per cent....

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I just gave the actual breach rates for acceptable behaviour contracts, and they are on the record. I pointed out that breach rates go down substantially at the second intervention and that at the third intervention, there is 93 per cent. effectiveness. That was in the NAO study. Sadly, no solution operates as a magic wand; I am not saying that. I am slightly surprised that the hon. Member...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I will happily give way and happily trade Hansard references with the hon. Lady, if that is what she wants.

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I have looked back at the record very carefully, and I assure the hon. Lady that we were on the record in this Chamber supporting ASBOs as a last resort. When we voted against the Third Reading of that Bill, for all sorts of other reasons, we were accused of voting against everything in the Bill. [Interruption.] The hon. Lady is entirely free to go on making such claims, but they are simply...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I agree with my hon. Friend, fundamentally so on his initial point that if we are to have such law it must be properly enforced. The real problem with ASBOs is that the Government's periodic attempts to use them have not been matched by the necessary back-up. If they were used as a last resort at the end of a whole series of measures that were able to bring gradual pressure to bear, we would...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman —he is absolutely correct. We need much more serious assessment of the costs and savings across Government agencies, particularly if any Government are going to persuade the hard-nosed men and women at the Treasury that it is something worth doing. If someone from a Department goes in to the Treasury saying, "I want to spend more on this",...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: Before the hon. Gentleman moves away from the issue of getting more police on to the front line, may I ask what commitment his party is prepared to give in respect of putting more officers on the streets?

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: The hon. Gentleman mentioned the proposal of the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) to introduce grounding orders, but he did not mention the other proposals made at the same time, which included those to confiscate mobile phones. Has his party dropped those proposals?

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: Given that there is a fairly small difference between 17 and 21 per cent., is the Minister convinced that it is greater than the margin of error for the poll that was used?

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

Christopher Huhne: It is not true.

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

Christopher Huhne: Both the Home Secretary and the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) have missed the point. The hon. Gentleman is at risk, indeed, of becoming the Home Secretary's Mini-Me, because today he again insisted that the only difference between them was that he thought Professor Nutt should have been sacked sooner. The Government do not want evidence, and the official Opposition want...