Miss Melanie Johnson: I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to make my maiden speech. I also thank the hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) for his comments on Aldershot and Farnborough—I know the area a little. I shall not, however, debate the more controversial comments in his speech. As a retread, he can risk making such comments, but, as a new Member, I do not think that I can risk doing...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Does the Prime Minister not find it astonishing that some 100,000 children do not attend their school in England and Wales each day? Will he tell the House what the Government intend to do about that?
Miss Melanie Johnson: What lessons does the Prime Minister draw from the fact that, although Margaret Thatcher said, "No, no, no" to Europe, she did not manage to succeed in getting legal protection for our frontiers?
Miss Melanie Johnson: Does my right hon. Friend agree that, just as education would help the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry), the new deal will provide excellent opportunities to improve the employability of young people, which is an important product of the scheme? Does he also agree that it will be a high-quality scheme and not one designed purely to massage the employment figures, like those of the...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Would the hon. Gentleman care to comment on the record of Cornwall county council, which I understand is Liberal Democrat-controlled, which underspends its SSA on education, and which last year cut its adult education provision by half? How does that compare with the record that he has just been describing? Will he further comment on the fact that 47 per cent. of three and four-year-olds...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Would the hon. Gentleman care to welcome the £12 million extra that Buckinghamshire health authority will receive from the Government next year to fund services? Does he accept that Buckinghamshire would not have received those funds under a Conservative Government?
Miss Melanie Johnson: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require the manufacturers and retailers of paint stripping equipment and fluids to provide consumers with information about lead in paint manufactured before 1960; to require the Secretary of State to provide information to the general public about the dangers of lead in older paint; and to provide for the testing of children under the...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Young children should be tested, initially through targeting and sampling. Most of all. I want to ensure that people are aware of the risks. Lead in paint need not be a major health hazard, if we act sensibly and make information available.
Miss Melanie Johnson: Is my hon. Friend aware that the decision to end the means-testing of grants for disabled students in full-time education has been widely welcomed?
Miss Melanie Johnson: Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should not keep it a secret that his Minister of State has a 40th birthday today? I am sure that the House will join me in congratulating him on his birthday. Does my right hon. Friend agree that Dorset health authority has had substantial extra funds? I understand that these are an additional £401,000 for intensive care for children, and an...
Miss Melanie Johnson: I shall endeavour to be brief, because I understand that many of my hon. Friends want to contribute to the debate. The hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) has now left the Chamber, but I shall still say that listening to her speech I found it difficult to understand why, after all that she had done, we had not seen a more marked improvement in the situation. She is unduly...
Miss Melanie Johnson: No, it certainly is not. It is genuinely felt, and I am sure that there are Conservative Members of whom the hon. Gentleman would say the same. Madam Speaker is another example. She performs her role with great energy, and she has clearly passed 40—I shall put it that way. What can people in their middle and older years contribute? I believe that merit is the proper criterion for...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Will the Minister join me in welcoming the fast-growing enthusiasm among employers for signing up to the new deal? Perhaps that enthusiasm is attributable to the fact that real-life employers have been used in the national advertisements, and that their enthusiasm is evident to everyone watching them. Does he agree also that young people's enthusiasm is growing? For the first time, they are...
Miss Melanie Johnson: What responses he has received to his White Paper on freedom of information. [30864]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I thank my right hon. Friend for his response and for the very full consultation on the much-welcomed White Paper. What is the timetable for the proposed draft Bill, which will be one of the first Bills to go through the new pre-legislative Select Committee procedure? I am sure that the Select Committee would like to receive the Bill in early June so that it can carry out much of the...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Millions of people will be interested in this debate. If they have been listening to the right hon. Gentleman's contribution, they must be mystified about where his arguments are coming from. What is wrong with the proposals that have been put forward and how would the Opposition tackle the problems—problems that we were left because of the previous Government's proud record of expansion,...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Does my right hon. Friend agree that not only have we put in an extra £1.7 billion, but we have had to face the fact that the Conservatives in government wasted a huge amount that could have gone towards cutting waiting lists on the introduction of the marketplace in the health service, and that that led to the increasing waiting lists that we have inherited? We are now promoting...
Miss Melanie Johnson: Can my hon. Friend confirm the excellent comments made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health at an Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry event last Thursday evening? He made a well-received speech, in which he rightly said that we would ensure that money spent on pharmaceuticals and on drugs was used most effectively. His concern was not about budgets, but...
Miss Melanie Johnson: First, hon. Members must ask how they want to use taxpayers' money. It is important to use a lot of that money to help people into the education system early and to give them every support, so that they come out of the school system with good qualifications and educated to a high standard. Secondly, we must ask ourselves what is fair for students and for taxpayers. Those questions must both...
Miss Melanie Johnson: I shall give way in a moment. What we have here is a process that gives people a fair deal, whether they are poor or rich.