Dame Cheryl Gillan: I apologise for missing the start of the Minister’s speech. I was chairing a debate in Westminster Hall. Can the Minister assure me that the property registers and the holdings of properties will be accurate? I was recently given two lists of properties in my constituency that had been bought by HS2 Ltd, and they did not match. Properties that were missing from the second list had appeared...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: I think the hon. Gentleman is very much mistaken on my support for HS2. [Laughter.]
Dame Cheryl Gillan: I remind colleagues that there is a possibility of votes in the main Chamber during our proceedings, in which case I will suspend and we will have to return. This will be the last speech from hon. Members on the Back Benches, after which we will move on to the Front-Bench spokespeople.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: Does the right hon. Lady agree that the Department for Transport needs to update its national rail travel overview survey report, on which so much of its planning is dependent? It has not been updated since 2010. I received a written answer that said the Government are “currently considering updating the National Rail Travel Survey”. Does the right hon. Lady think that that needs to be...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: As my hon. Friend knows, I take a personal interest in this matter. I am sorry that I have not been here for the debate, but my parliamentary duties elsewhere have prevented me from being in the Chamber to support her. Does she agree that the precedent for this secrecy on HS2 was set when it was revealed that the main reports on the project were going to be kept not only from the public but...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department will update the National Rail Travel Overview Survey Report.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, (a) how many and (b) in which locations are office premises to accommodate HS2 staff (i) owned, (ii) leased and (iii) rented; and what the (A) length of tenure, (B) annual cost or purchase price, (C) number of people working in and (D) who lessor or vendor is for each of those office premises in the latest period for which figures are available.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the numbers of properties acquired by HS2 to enable the construction; and how many of those properties (a) are empty and (b) have been let and how much rental income of those properties was; and how many of those properties have required repairs or renovations and what the cost of those repairs or renovations was.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the latest estimate is at today's prices of the value of the properties that HS2 Ltd have purchased to facilitate the construction of High Speed Two.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: I am grateful to the Minister for the way in which she is responding. She mentioned that it is important to maintain trust in the regulatory bodies. In the light of the circumstances of this case, does she agreed that trust has been shaken? I will provide her with those details once my constituent provides them, so she may pass them on to the relevant authorities or look at them herself,...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: I agree with the Minister that victims should have priority in our criminal justice system—that is most important. She mentioned at the beginning of her response that she is working on new guidelines that will come out shortly. Could she give us a greater indication of when we can expect those new guidelines? Would there be any possibility of looking at the draft guidelines before they are...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: I beg to move, That this House has considered the disclosure of information in pre-trial abuse of process hearings. As usual, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I am pleased to welcome the Minister, who will respond. I am very pleased to have secured this debate, to raise a matter that concerns a constituent of mine, Mr Tom Perry. The Minister will be aware of...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: In the context of the debate, the hon. Gentleman makes a very valid point. My constituent, Mr Perry, was heavily involved in the case of Caldicott School, which was heard in Aylesbury Crown court. As a pupil there in the ’60s, he and many other boys suffered very considerable and grave child abuse that has been the subject of criminal proceedings. The Minister may recall that in that case,...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: I would like to make progress. The abiding concern of those complainants, however, is that to their knowledge nothing has been done to prevent the distressing situation in which they found themselves recurring in other cases, concerning other abused children. The men involved feel rightly aggrieved about the wrongfulness of the Law Society and the Bar, and their respective regulators, holding...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which ecologists HS2 Ltd has employed to monitor tree and hedge netting along the route of High Speed Two; on what dates and at which locations nets were put in place; on what days and during which hours netted sites have been patrolled and checked by ecologists; and what wildlife has been caught in the nets and subsequently (a) perished or (b)...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, why the board minutes of HS2 Ltd have not been made available since December 2018; and if he will publish those minutes immediately.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 May 2019 to Question 249174, how many non disclosure agreements have been signed with HS2 Ltd.
Dame Cheryl Gillan: The Minister is doing well in picking up on all the points. If it will be made mandatory for all developers, why do the Government not make it mandatory right now for HS2 to stop its netting?
Dame Cheryl Gillan: Can the Minister tell hon. Members present when we can expect the Environment Bill?