Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: That is simply not true. If the House wishes to object, it can do so. In talking about the usual channels abusing the position, we could refer to the debate in which my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Mr. Miller) objected to the recent appointment of a Parliamentary Commissioner. Members who objected to the usual channels' nominations decided to debate them. The rules as...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: No, I have been generous and other Members wish to speak. I have given way to several Conservative Members. Because of the cynical way in which the subject has been introduced in an Opposition day debate—
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: None the less, it was done that way. I agree with the worthy intent at the heart of the Liaison Committee report to increase the expertise on Select Committees by inducing Members to stay with a Select Committee, rather than take the only way out currently available to Members seen to be doing a good job—the ministerial route. There is great merit in that. However, the matter has been...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: No, I will not. At the end of the day, it is worrying that the administering of discipline was slipped into the report. I find it worrying that there is suddenly reference to other bodies apart from Parliamentary Commissioners having responsibility for discipline. Perhaps there is more than meets the eye in the intention of some to pursue the report. Perhaps they are seeking to set up a...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: Will the hon. Gentleman reflect on the point that my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Mr. Sheldon) made? If Select Committees are not independent, why have so many of their reports in recent months criticised the Government? If the hon. Gentleman's assertion is correct, why are Select Committees so publicly critical of the Government? Their reports are also debated in...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: rose—
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: Is my hon. Friend aware that the report that, thankfully, he commissioned in Rochdale on the care of older people looks as if it will show that there has not been enough investment in intermediate and intensive home care for the elderly? Will he do everything he can to ensure that the investment is there to help our council to prioritise that much-needed home care, rather than there being an...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in allowing human rights monitors to enter Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: Does my right hon. Friend accept that my constituents in Rochdale are vigilant because we are aware that what happened in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley could happen to us? Does he agree that we all have an individual responsibility to do all we can to ensure that violence such as that which we saw on Saturday does not continue and get a foothold in our community? However, does he agree that we...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the asylum support adjudicators will publish their annual report and accounts for 2000–01.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he will publish the Probation Board for Northern Ireland's business plan for 2001–02.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when she will publish the report of Sir Andrew Leggatt's review of tribunals.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will bring forward secondary legislation under section 71 of the Race Relations Act 1976.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: I appreciate that the right hon. Lady cares deeply about this issue. Does she accept, however, that there is legal recourse for women who believe that they are as talented and able as male counterparts, but feel that they have suffered gender discrimination at work, and that such recourse simply does not exist in the political sphere? Although hon. Members are subject to sex discrimination...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: My constituent said that she now watches the House's proceedings because there are more women in this place who look like her. Now, as she thinks that our proceedings have something to do with her, she is engaged in the political process for the first time.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: Does the right hon. Lady accept that some of the hon. Gentlemen may be intelligent enough to realise that that has been the experience of women over the 700 years for which our alleged parliamentary democracy has existed?
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: Would it not be a bigger insult if we had to wait another century for equality? That is how long it would take if the current rate of change in the Conservative party were applied to the House.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to support the Aiding Communication in Education Centre North.
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: I welcome my hon. Friend to his position and endorse what has been said about raising the morale of staff whom we expect to deliver higher quality for all people who use further education, but does he agree about the importance of the education maintenance grant in widening access? It is pivotal to getting people from non-traditional backgrounds into higher education. I welcome the...
Ms Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects the investigation by the Criminal Cases Review Commission into the case of Mr. Nick Tucker to report.