🗣️ Speeches and Debates
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It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Redcar (Ian Swales), because we have served together on a number of Finance Bill Committees during the past five years. The debates on the details of a Finance Bill in Public Bill Committee are often better than those on the parts of the Bill taken on the Floor of the House. The theory is that the debates on the more important and bigger...
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I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Of course the position she sets out is exactly what we saw in the early part of this Parliament when VAT was increased and a number of other measures were put in place. At that point, inflation hit about 5.5%, which then allowed the Government to say, “Aren’t we wonderful? We have just put pensions up by the biggest ever amount.” But that...
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I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Clearly, those are the kinds of concern that people have. On the VAT proposals, the changes and exemptions that the Government may wish to make for some worthy cause are welcome. I am talking here about the help for organisations such as hospices. But there is scope to go further. I will say something now that, although not Front-Bench policy, is...
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I think that campaign has taken off again, having been going for a considerable number of years.
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Indeed. As the current campaigners have noted, there is no VAT on shaving cream, but there is on sanitary products, which suggests—
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Yes, it is gender-made law. We will all have received a considerable number of e-mails about that recently, and I am sure that the campaigners would be pleased to hear the Minister commit at least to reviewing the situation.
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That is a very interesting piece of information, and it is something that people should bear in mind—
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Thank you for your guidance, Mr Hood. I am sure that you would not want me to stray on to the whole issue of food banks, which would probably take us to midnight. In conclusion, new clause 1 would provide us with an opportunity to look at the impact of VAT changes over this Parliament. We believe that they have been regressive and that many of our constituents have been affected, and we are...
More of Sheila Gilmore's speeches and debates
✍️ Written Questions and Answers
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To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2014, Official Report, column 618W, on official visits, what domestic visits he has made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the average proportion of pensioners' energy bills that was met by the winter fuel payment in winter (a) 2003-04 and (b) 2013-14.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2015 to Question 221342, what the name is of the first of two evaluation partners who have been appointed by his Department to independently evaluate the 17 Innovation Fund pilots set up under the Help for Separated Families initiative.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which of the 17 Help and Support for Separated Families Innovation Fund pilots will finish in March 2015 as originally planned; and which of those pilots will continue, and for how long.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an external evaluator has been appointed to provide an independent assessment of the 17 Innovation Fund projects set up under the Help for Separated Families initiative to establish what works in assisting separated parents to co-operate in the interests of their children; when it is planned that that evaluation process will take...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was spent on professional interpretation services in each prison in England and Wales in 2012; and on how many occasions each such interpretation service was used.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the success rate in supplying interpreters was under the Capita TI interpreting contract in each month from January 2012 to March 2014.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls were received by the Child Maintenance Options Service from parents who had been in contact with the Options Service during the period covered by his Department's most recent survey of effective family-based arrangements.
More of Sheila Gilmore's written questions
