Paddy Tipping: What steps he is taking to ensure that CAP reform increases job opportunities in rural areas. [39115]
Paddy Tipping: Is not the most effective way of creating new jobs in rural areas to ensure that Departments work together? Will that not ensure that planning, training and support for small businesses are used effectively? Does my right hon. Friend accept that the present departmental structures and agencies are not necessarily organised in the best possible way?
Paddy Tipping: What proportion of millennium projects will be outside London. [41998]
Paddy Tipping: Will the Secretary of State continue to consider the amount of funding going to the English regions, particularly the east midlands? Will he turn his attention to the coalfield community landmark scheme, which I know he supports, and look at the apparent difficulties between the Millennium Commission and the partners?
Paddy Tipping: It may come to that.
Paddy Tipping: Could we have a statement next week about the Government's energy policy and the consequences for the deep-mined coal industry? The Leader of the House will be aware that the current agreements run out on 30 June. In coalfield communities, not just in Nottinghamshire but all over the country, coal miners are asking for fairness, not favours. There is an urgency about the matter now.
Paddy Tipping: Will the President of the Board of Trade ensure that there is an early announcement, because the current coal contracts run out on 30 June? Despite reports to the contrary, will she ensure that the coal industry gets fairness, not favours, and has the ability to compete over the long term with other industrial sectors?
Paddy Tipping: Will my right hon. Friend accept that her statement will be widely welcomed in coalfield communities, because it provides a framework that gives to coal fairness but no favours? Will not her announcements on the review of the pool and on tighter consent for gas stations give the opportunity for both coal producers and generators to come to new contract arrangements? Although that is a matter...
Paddy Tipping: I am extremely pleased to follow my neighbour, the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke). I join him in recognising and praising the importance of a Government who are going to deliver on their election promises. The right hon. and learned Gentleman might not be sitting on the Opposition Back Benches now if he had been a member of a Government who could persuade people...
Paddy Tipping: What representations he has received on access by (a) general practitioners and (b) patients to information about the clinical performance of their local hospitals. [50989]
Paddy Tipping: Is it not the case that knowledge and information are power? Extending information to patients empowers them. That must be right, because they not only use the health service, but pay for it.
Paddy Tipping: Coalfield areas have gained substantially from European funding—£200 million a year. Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be strange if the South Yorkshire coalfield got objective 1 status while north Nottinghamshire, which has the same conditions but just misses objective 1 perhaps on unemployment and GDP data, were excluded? Is that not an example of where flexibility ought to be applied?
Paddy Tipping: Do not supermarket chains have enormous power? It must be right that British meat, which is of the highest quality, produced with good animal welfare standards, should be promoted and sold in our supermarkets. The reductions in prices at the farm gate should be passed on to consumers. Will my hon. Friend talk strongly with supermarkets to ensure that British farmers and British consumers get...
Paddy Tipping: People who work in the health service will praise the provision of this extra £250 million. Will my right hon. Friend accept the good wishes of the chairman and chief executive of Nottingham health authority, whom I met last Friday and who spoke warmly about the extra money for the winter and for waiting list reductions? When he allocates the extra £21 billion, will he ensure that health...
Paddy Tipping: What recent discussions he has had with supermarket chains about meat prices. [58042]
Paddy Tipping: Given that some controversy has arisen between some producers and some supermarket chains over the fact that farmgate prices have fallen rapidly, while supermarket shelf prices have remained static, will my hon. Friend consider two possibilities: first, of commissioning some independent research to find out what is happening in the food and price chain; and, secondly and more important, of...
Paddy Tipping: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the extra £120 million is essentially designed to meet the short-term crisis? In the mid to long term, is it not our aim to bring about reforms of the CAP which would lift the landscape and enhance the environment, and, more particularly, bring new investment, new jobs and a new future to the wider rural economy?
Paddy Tipping: My right hon. Friend has been clear and determined in his support for coalfield communities and his aspirations to help coalfield local authorities such as Nottinghamshire. Can he confirm that this is a good settlement for coalfield communities but, at the same time, accept a degree of regret that the big issues such as area cost adjustment and additional educational need have not yet been...
Paddy Tipping: As Derbyshire does not have millennium compliance and Nottinghamshire does, will my hon. Friend take steps to ensure that the new ambulance trust of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire rises to the level of the best rather than sinking to that of the worst.
Paddy Tipping: I apologise for the fact that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House cannot be with us today. She is involved in Privy Council business and, to my cost, I am at the Dispatch Box. I am grateful to hon. Members for their good wishes. The hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Sir P. Cormack) said that he was surprised to see me here, but I doubt whether he was half as surprised as I am. I...