Results 1-20 of 541 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Adam Afriyie

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

Adam Afriyie: The Minister has verbally painted a beautiful picture of the future of further and higher education through a wish list of what he wants for the future, but without offering an explanation as to how it might be achieved. I hope that that is in the documents, but he certainly has not explained it today. The only thing that was missing was motherhood and apple pie. My question is this: does he...

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

Adam Afriyie: Was it made clear in Professor Nutt's employment documents, in the code of conduct or in writing that he was not permitted to speak on these issues in the public domain?

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: I am delighted that this debate has arisen today. It covers an important issue, and provides a timely opportunity to consider whether stronger fireworks safety regulations are needed. I welcome the debate, therefore, and thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) for his vigorous campaigning. It is an important issue, and I think that the Minister has highlighted some of...

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: It was not an uncontroversial Act.

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: It was not uncontroversial, because it contained enabling measures bestowing the power on a future Secretary of State to create regulations and make decisions that were at that point undefined. Conservatives are always uneasy when the Government take on new powers without defining them. However, the Fireworks Act was a good step forward, and we are glad that it is in place.

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: I thank the Minister for his intervention. That debate on fireworks safety, which led to the introduction of the legislation, was conducted sensibly and rationally. It was a good step in the right direction, although there is always hesitation from Conservative Members over enabling legislation. This is not the first time, therefore, that we have considered fireworks safety. There has been a...

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: Very much so, which is why I mentioned in my opening remarks that we have to consider the irresponsible use of fireworks at non-designated times, which can have a dreadful impact. In Windsor, we have two race courses and a wonderful array of wildlife, but horses, dogs and cats are startled by the use of fireworks. It is really important to consider that, especially when there is a legal...

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: Quite right. My hon. Friend has put the point clearly and fairly eloquently. As I said, I hope that those points will be picked up and examined further during this short debate. Looking back through previous debates, it seems that almost everything has been considered on many previous occasions. Today we have an opportunity to examine the evidence and to see whether anything has changed to...

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: I will come to that point in general terms in a moment, but we are open to looking at the evidence of what may have changed since 2003 and 2004, when the legislation was brought in. Let us look at the trends in the numbers of injuries and complaints. If there is something to respond to, we will be open to responding with appropriate measures.

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: A little boy was squeezing my hand at the last fireworks night and saying, "Why don't they make fireworks a bit quieter?" He likes the spectacle, but he was not sure about the crashing and banging, so I sympathise with the hon. Gentleman's point. We have different categories in place, but my personal preference would be to consider the noise nuisance a lot more than the light nuisance. We are...

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: The point is incredibly well put and I agree with it entirely. The statistics have been gathered since the mid-1970s, I think, and it could be argued that we should gather them in even greater detail, but to abandon collecting them altogether is a very odd move by a Government who say that they are interested in the outcomes of their policies.

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: I am glad that my hon. Friend has told the House the numbers. The question now is: what has been the impact of the regulatory changes in 2003 and 2004 on the number of injuries that we are concerned about? If the information is not collected, there will be no way for the House to make a sensible judgment on what may or may not need to happen next.

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: There is a cost to data collection, and we must ensure that it is not disproportionate. However, in this case, given firework safety, the antisocial aspects of fireworks and the impact on animal welfare, the figure would have to be pretty enormous to fail to justify merely recording the causes of an incident when somebody arrives at accident and emergency or wherever. I think that the data...

Business of the House: Fireworks Safety (29 Oct 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: With the advent of modern technology—distributive processing, systems being able to interoperate with each other, cloud computing and virtualisation—such data transfers and interconnections are pretty easy to make. I am not sure that there would be an enormous or disproportionate cost to transmitting those data to the appropriate location. Doing so would certainly give hon....

Business, Innovation and Skills: London Metropolitan University (16 Jul 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am sorry for taking a while to get to the Dispatch Box—there are many colleagues on the Front Bench. London Metropolitan university offers excellent scientific research, high level science degrees and an ultra modern science centre. The Minister's answer was not good enough because, on 20 May in a debate in Westminster Hall, following serious allegations of...

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

Adam Afriyie: The Minister is talking about industrial activism and support as regards climate change. That is all to be welcomed, of course, but how much of that £750 million has seen the light of day? How much has been spent or invested so far, when it was announced months ago?

Bill Presented — Sustainable Energy (Local Plans) Bill: National Express East Coast Franchise (1 Jul 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: The Minister complains that a private company has walked away, in the interests of its shareholders, from a contract with the Government. Given that the Government wrote the contract and capped the liability on the private company's holding company, does the Minister accept that they have any responsibility for this mess up?

Hydrofluorocarbons Limitation: Clause 5 — MPs' financial interests rules (30 Jun 2009) has video

Adam Afriyie: We heard a brilliant contribution from my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman); I hope that he changes his mind at some point. On sources of outside income, we have to be absolutely clear that we are talking about jobs undertaken and time spent in addition to our work as Members of Parliament. Clearly, a ministerial job is additional to the duties of a Member of Parliament....