Michael Fabricant: What guidance his Department issues to local authorities on their membership of local enterprise partnerships; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the letter of 23 March 2020 to his Department from British Marine, Broads Authority and Canal & River Trust and subsequent correspondence, what steps he is taking to allocate £20 million covid-19 funding to support waterway businesses; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support (a) heritage and (b) tourism on the inland waterways during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to protect inland waterway based businesses that are affected by the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: What steps she is taking to prevent conventional and social media reporting which may lead to contempt of court; and if she will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: Journalists get training, but the average person does not know about contempt of court and we get contempt of court through social media, so what can the Solicitor General’s Department do to try to educate people when they might be doing just that inadvertently?
Michael Fabricant: It is not just the 800-year-old Lichfield cathedral that we have; we also have the beautiful leafy lanes, wonderful restaurants and bars. But I will tell you what we also have: the Lichfield Garrick, which is a major theatre in the area, and The Hub at St Mary’s. This is what I would like to know: I welcome the £1.7 billion grant that is being given to support our theatres and performing...
Michael Fabricant: When the Church Commissioners plan to reopen cathedrals and churches for worship; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: Thank you, Mr Speaker: from where I am sitting now Lichfield cathedral is just about 100 yards behind me. Lichfield has a great choral tradition; we have a choral school and the services are very good. It is open for two hours a day at the moment for private prayer, but when does my hon. Friend anticipate that we will be able to go to evensong and enjoy the wonderful choir that sings there?
Michael Fabricant: What recent steps his Department has taken to support the clinically extremely vulnerable during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: May I say how surprised and delighted I am to hear so many colleagues, on both sides of the House, who seem to have as their hobby being epidemiologists, and it is great to hear what they have to say? I say to the Minister that I am very reassured by the tone he is taking in the answers to these questions. He will be aware that in the United States, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and now China...
Michael Fabricant: What recent assessment he has made of the state of trade negotiations between the UK and the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: Is not the real problem that Michel Barnier has absolutely no room for manoeuvre because he has to do what has been agreed with the other 27 countries? Is not that lack of agility and flexibility the very reason we have decided to leave the EU and why companies such as Nissan and Unilever, which has announced this today, are centring their operations here in the United Kingdom?
Michael Fabricant: It is lovely to follow my great friend, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan). What more can the Government do to encourage people from the private sector to become involved in the management of civil services and agencies such as Public Health England in order to give good management expertise to deliver services to the public?
Michael Fabricant: What assessment the sponsor body has made of the potential merits of reducing the cost of the parliamentary works programme as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fabricant: May I associate myself with the comments made earlier about 650 super-spreaders returning to Parliament? We are currently spending in the order of several million pounds to repair the roofs and the brickwork, and to stop fire damage to that marvellous building, the Palace of Westminster. That is all correct. However, as my right hon. Friend said, there is perhaps some doubt as to whether R&R...
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to prevent a shortfall of GPs qualifying in 2020 due to the cancellation of the postgraduate assessments (a) Applied Knowledge Test and (b) Clinical Skills Assessment, as a result of covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment he has made of the viability of using another form of such assessment during the...
Michael Fabricant: We all know that it will take a while yet, but eventually the UK will be free of covid-19. When that happens, what is my right hon. Friend’s vision? Does he want to see a return to the old normal of pollution and crowded commuter trains, or does he see a better, cleaner future?
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when driving licenses depicting the flag of the European Union will cease to be issued.
Michael Fabricant: What steps he is taking with his international counterparts to ban wet markets and butcheries in (a) China and (b) south-east Asia where viruses have crossed the animal-human interface; and if he will make a statement.