Former Conservative MP for Solihull
Will the Leader of the House, even at this eleventh hour, cause his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to come to the Dispatch Box and tell the House exactly what is going on in China concerning MG Rover, which has massive implications in the midlands for the work force of MG Rover and the supply chain? This is a matter of great anxiety, which should be resolved...
Perhaps the hon. Lady shares my experience as a junior Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, when I was probably the only person there who had run a business with fewer than 10 employees. As chairman of an enterprise agency, I learned that the real handicap to starting a new business—I applaud the hon. Lady's emphasis on ethnic minorities—was not the absence of a business plan...
When Ministers sign PII certificates, they are not making any decision beyond deciding to put matters before a judge, who will have the last word. The Minister makes the application, and the judge makes the decision in the interests of justice.
On cue! The hon. Gentleman knows my theme—about needing a passport to acquire a new car. He was talking about accessing public services with the aid of an identity card. Would he care, just for a moment, to speculate on how widely the use of an identity card might be made necessary in private sector transactions?
The hon. Gentleman is addressing the question of producing an identity card in anticipation of public services. Would he take note of my recent experience buying a new motor car last autumn when the dealer required me to produce my passport? I suggest that the application of identity cards would not be confined to public service but might also become widespread in private sector transactions.
rose—
Does my hon. Friend agree, perhaps along with my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), that one of the best ways of ensuring that all this guillotining is not necessary is to introduce fewer Bills so that they can all be considered properly?
It has been my experience as a former Government Whip and as a Back-Bench sponsor of private Members' Bills that such Bills run out of time, as euphemism has it, only if the Government do not try to help them. That is very much in the Minister's gift this morning, and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Newark (Patrick Mercer) would be pleased to receive reassurance, especially as a...
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will instruct the Economic Secretary to the Treasury to provide substantive answers to Questions concerning decennial censuses after consulting the Registrar General; (2) whether Treasury Ministers have used their powers under section 2(1) of the Census Act 1920 to control and direct the Registrar General since 1990; (3) whether the...
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will meet representatives of the Civil Service Pensioners' Alliance.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance he has issued on whether people with epilepsy may be sectioned under the Mental Health Acts; and if he will make a statement on the case of Mr. Martin Buckley, currently in the care of the National Society for Epilepsy, Buckinghamshire, whose mother is a constituent of the hon. Member.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the recent statement by West Midlands police on the force's ability to detect crime.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action was taken by Ministers in his Department to establish that the Registrar General had statutory authority to state that personal information from the 1981 and 1991 decennial population censuses for England and Wales would be retained in his Department for 100 years before being released.
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the Lord Chancellor has ever exercised a power or authority to apply Public Records Act Instrument No. 12 (1966) to decennial population census records for England and Wales that have been retained by the Registrar General and have not been deposited in the Public Record Office/National Archives.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the statutory penalties are for refusing to complete a decennial population census form for England and Wales; and how many successful prosecutions there were for that offence in connection with the censuses for (a) 1981, (b) 1991 and (c) 2001; (2) what the statutory penalties are for unlawfully disclosing personal information from closed...
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the Registrar General was permitted to retain the 1921 to 1971 decennial population censuses for England and Wales during the period 1997 to 2004 in his Department for renewable periods of 10 years.
