Results 1-20 of 1,552 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Danny Alexander

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Incapacity Benefit (19 Oct 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: How many recipients of incapacity benefit who have been reassessed for employment and support allowance (a) have been placed in the work-related activity group, (b) have been placed in the support group and (c) did not meet the qualifying criteria.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Incapacity Benefit (19 Oct 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: I am grateful for that answer, but my experience from my constituency case load, and the experience of the Inverness citizens advice bureau, is that the new rules for ESA are being used to exclude far greater numbers of people than were excluded from the previous benefit. In one case, a former member of staff at the Department for Work and Pensions was rendered unfit for work and retired on...

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Broadband (Highlands) (14 Oct 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: What recent discussions he has had with Scottish Executive Ministers on the provision of next-generation broadband in the Highlands.

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Broadband (Highlands) (14 Oct 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. She will know from the recent Highlands and Islands Enterprise report that access to broadband technology in the highlands lags far behind that in the rest of the country. If we were to get the next generation of broadband in the highlands, that would make more difference to our area than to almost anywhere else in the country. Will the Minister...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Trident (13 Jul 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: When he expects the initial gate decision on the planned replacement of the Trident nuclear deterrent to be made; and if he will make a statement.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Trident (13 Jul 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: I am grateful to the Secretary of State for that answer. However, given that a number of people, including retired military officers, former Defence Secretaries and academics, are now saying that Trident is both irrelevant and unaffordable, will the Secretary of State defer the initial gate process and the hundreds of millions of pounds that it would commit us to spending until a further,...

Energy and Climate Change: Fuel Poverty (9 Jul 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: What recent progress the Government have made towards their targets for the alleviation of fuel poverty.

Energy and Climate Change: Fuel Poverty (9 Jul 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. Given that people who use heating oil and liquefied petroleum gas are more than twice as likely to be in fuel poverty than the rest of the population, will he assure me that the ongoing renewable heating incentive consultation will not propose an additional levy on heating oil and LPG? That would be paid by people who use heating oil and LPG in...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Rural Economy (2 Jul 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: What his most recent assessment is of the effect of the recession on the rural economy.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Rural Economy (2 Jul 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: The Minister will be aware that one sector that has been hit hard by both rising costs and falling demand is the hill sheep farming sector. That is reflected in the fact that in the highlands, for example, more and more farmers are taking their stock off the hills. That has a knock-on effect on one of the industries that could buck the economic trend, tourism, because of the work that hill...

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Topical Questions (30 Jun 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: Is the Foreign Secretary aware that among the appalling abuses perpetrated by the Iranian regime is its record on executing children? According to a report to be published today by the Foreign Policy Centre, in the past five years 33 children have been executed, and a further 160 juveniles are on death row. Will he work through international bodies to put pressure on the Iranian regime to end...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Topical Questions (16 Jun 2009)

Danny Alexander: Apparently, as the Secretary of State will know, there is cross-party support for the introduction of a power of recall in relation to Members of the House of Commons. With that in mind, will he tell us when he will be in a position to present proposals, and can he explain why Labour peers were whipped to vote against the idea last night?

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: My hon. Friend may be less combative than my hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael), but does he agree that it is a strange approach for Ministers to take to say that they have identified a problem, but that they refuse to lift a finger to try to solve it? That may have been the approach that they have taken to most of the economic problems facing the country, but on...

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: There is just a political one, as my hon. Friend says. Indeed, I understand that UK Ministers supported the power to vary fuel duty in the Council of Ministers. I fail to see why, having done so, our Ministers cannot find a way to apply that power in the UK for the benefit of the remote and rural communities of this country. The derogation in the directive allows a maximum differential of...

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: It would therefore potentially increase tax revenue, too; that is quite right. It is worth saying that the cost of the measure would be very low.

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: The hon. Gentleman indulges in economic forecasting. There is reason to believe that the measure would bring some benefit by increasing economic activity, reducing the burden on small businesses, putting more money in people's pockets that they could then spend on other things, and supporting the tourism industry. All those things are potentially revenue generators that would help to defray,...

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: I am grateful for that guidance, Mrs. Heal. The point that I was seeking to make in the context of the overall Government spending of many billions of pounds on an economic stimulus and by highlighting one individual commitment that was entered into by a Minister was that it should be a matter of great ease for Treasury Ministers to support the scheme. It is low cost, simple and fair; it has...

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: It is a great pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath), who eloquently set out precisely why the measure proposed in the amendment would be of great benefit to people who live in remote and rural areas. First, I shall attempt to answer some of the points made by the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke), because I do not believe that...

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: Our proposal is not sketchy. It is well thought through and carefully analysed. Although I do not want to steal his thunder, I may say that it was set out in the paper that my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso) prepared last year and circulated—including to Conservative Front Benchers, so the hon. Gentleman has had the opportunity to study it.

Bill Presented: Clause 16 — Rates and rebates from September 2009 (13 May 2009) has video

Danny Alexander: My hon. Friend makes an important point. If the Conservatives wanted to support such a measure, they could produce one that they thought would be workable. They have failed to do so over the many years in which Liberal Democrat Members have proposed such measures—