Results 1-20 of 1,017 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Pearson of Rannoch

Terrorism Act 2006 — Question (11 Nov 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, when we use the word terrorism in this context, are we mostly referring to violent Islamism, to the jihadists, or are other sects involved when we use that word, in which case how many and to what extent?

Banking — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, do Her Majesty's Government agree that the EU's emerging common financial policy—illegal though it may be, as your Lordships' Select Committee has found—will prove a worthy companion to those planetary disasters, the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy?

Banking — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords—

International Development: Aid Spending — Question (21 Oct 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, is there any truth in the dictum that foreign aid is—

Political Parties and Elections Bill: Third Reading (9 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, to save time, I have agreed not to table an amendment but to speak for two minutes on the Question that the Bill do now pass. I had thought of tabling at Third Reading an amendment to Clause 5 of the PPER Act to require the Electoral Commission to report on elections within a set period of time; say, four months. That seems generally sensible, but it would have specifically ensured...

Reforming Financial Markets — Statement (9 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, may I press the Minister on one thing that he said in the Statement, which is that the Government will retain, "the crucial link between national regulators and Governments"? I ask him about that against the background of the letter written to me and placed in the Library on 1 July by the Leader of the House. She said that, "measures are needed to ensure that rules are enforced,...

Armed Forces: Trident — Question (9 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, can the Minister repeat the assurance given to your Lordships' House the last time that this subject was raised in Oral Questions, to the effect that the two new aircraft carriers will not be diluted into any European defence force?

Constitutional Reform — Question for Short Debate (6 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, I am most grateful to noble Lords who are to speak in this short debate. It is a trial run at the Constitutional Reform Bill of my noble friend Lord Willoughby de Broke, which is to be found in the Printed Paper Office. That Bill is not having its Second Reading now because there is no time for it to complete all its stages in this Session of Parliament. However, I am sure that my...

EU: Lisbon Treaty — Question (6 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, will the Minister take the opportunity to put the remarks of his noble friend Lord Tomlinson into perspective by agreeing that all polls taken in the United Kingdom put support for a referendum on Lisbon at around 70 per cent and that a recent poll in Germany puts German support for a referendum on Lisbon at no less than 77 per cent?

EU: Financial Institutions — Question (2 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the powers granted to the new European Union financial institutions will develop in future; and whether they will affect the independence of the United Kingdom and its financial institutions.

EU: Financial Institutions — Question (2 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that reply. However, it does not accord with the view of the French President, which is worth putting on the record. He said: "We have agreed a European system of supervision with binding powers ... It is a complete sea-change in the Anglo-Saxon strategy ... We could have gone further, but I believe that it will widen [its powers] through experience and...

EU: Financial Institutions — Question (2 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, that was a comment on the Minister's Answer. When can we expect the Commission's impact assessments on all this and on the proposed hedge fund directive? Will the Minister be good enough to put copies in your Lordships' Library when he gets them? Secondly, have Her Majesty's Government made their own assessment of the damage to our economy caused by firms leaving the City in droves,...

Policing and Crime Bill: Committee (2nd Day) (1 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: Before the noble Lord moves on, with respect, he has not quite answered the point that I put to him, which was to try to get inside the mind of an arresting officer—what the officer knows when he arrests the client. It seems to me that, if the person has been trafficked, in order to make the arrest and bring a successful prosecution, the arresting officer has to be able to prove who...

Policing and Crime Bill: Committee (2nd Day) (1 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: Not really. Surely when the police make this famous arrest, the activity in the brothel is likely to change immediately. People will all bolt like scalded cats in all directions. The Minister has not answered the question about what is in the knowledge of the police to make a successful arrest under this clause.

Policing and Crime Bill: Committee (2nd Day) (1 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: Perhaps I may ask the noble Baroness for clarification, because of my ignorance. She says that most of the trafficking takes place outside this country, which is of course true for those who capture these unfortunate women in the first place. However, when these women have been captured and brought into this country, there must be agents of those external traffickers who continue the work of...

Policing and Crime Bill: Committee (2nd Day) (1 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: I, too, apologise for intervening when I did not speak at Second Reading. However, a question has since been put to me on this part of the Bill that I have not yet heard raised in our proceedings, although the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, alluded to part of it in her remarks on this amendment when she said that she hoped that the Bill would not reduce police attempts to address traffickers...

EU: Lisbon Treaty — Question (1 Jul 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness to her new position and, indeed, commiserate with it, but will she tell your Lordships, and through your Lordships' House the Irish people, what happens if there is not another accession treaty for Croatia, Iceland or any other country? What then is the position of what she calls the binding guarantees if they cannot be turned into protocols? Would she...

European Council — Statement (23 Jun 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, I trust the noble Baroness will not mind if I suggest that she was perhaps a little disingenuous when she suggested that the European Parliament carries any form of democratic legitimacy. After all, the majority of law which is now imposed on this country is proposed in secret by the European Commission and passed in secret by the Council, and this Parliament can do nothing about...

European Parliament: Expatriate Candidates — Question (22 Jun 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, in that case I take it that the Government welcome the election of the EU's former chief accountant, Marta Andreasen, to the European Parliament. I shall repeat a question that I asked on Thursday 18 June, which was not answered at the time. Has the Minister read her new book, Brussels Laid Bare?If so, does he believe that that book will do anything to endear the project of...

Parliament Act 1911 — Question (22 Jun 2009)

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, are the Government not putting the cart before the horse? Would it not be more sensible first to retrieve our democracy from Brussels, where the majority of our national law is now made? We should then organise the Select Committee procedure in the House of Commons to hold the Executive to account. Having done that, we should decide whether we want a second Chamber, how it should be...