Andrew Mitchell: I rise to address the House for the first time in a spirit of great humility—deeply honoured to represent my constituency in this place. I am particularly pleased to have caught your eye relatively early in the Session, Madam Deputy Speaker, so that I may pay tribute to my predecessor, Sir Philip Holland. Philip's love and knowledge of this place and his service to his constituency was...
Andrew Mitchell: asked the Secretary of State for Employment what measures he is taking to ensure that YTS training is of a high quality.
Andrew Mitchell: Given that in my constituency 65 per cent. of young people on YTS have graduated to full-time employment, what steps has the Minister taken to spread this good news more widely?
Andrew Mitchell: asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has about the level of council rent arrears in England.
Andrew Mitchell: I congratulate my hon. Friend on her first appearance at the Dispatch Box. Does she agree that the collection of rent arrears owes nothing to local party politics, but everything to efficiency and management? Does she agree that the failure to make these collections is a scandalous misuse of valuable resources?
Andrew Mitchell: rose——
Andrew Mitchell: Has my right hon. Friend had a chance to review the fact that in Gedling, a neighbouring colliery to Linby, there has been a productivity increase in the past year of nearly 30 per cent.? That is the way to preserve the future of the industry. It is not a matter of keeping open uneconomic or exhausted pits.
Andrew Mitchell: The motion underlines the difficulties and challenges faced by the NHS at this time. No one can be unmoved by the stories of unsatisfied need that have appeared in the press. They were rightly headline stories, but headlines can never record the hundreds of thousands of success stories which occur daily in the NHS. To a great extent, the problems of inner London are the result of the...
Andrew Mitchell: I dispute the facts that the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) has put before the House. I have checked the information carefully with the authority today just in case my memory has deteriorated in the two months since I left. In my view, and in that of other members of the authority, the Royal Northern hospital's acute beds should have been closed before now, and it may be to the...
Andrew Mitchell: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to beat the attractions of foreign coal is to continue the increase in efficiency and competitiveness that the industry has already seen? In that connection, does my right hon. Friend agree that our congratulations are due to the entire industry on the magnificent figures recently announced by British Coal in respect of productivity per man shift?
Andrew Mitchell: I shall be brief, not least because I am an enthusiastic co-sponsor of the early-day motion proposed by my hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) that urges that Back-Bench speeches should be limited to 10 minutes. I wish to make three points. First, this year's Autumn Statement has been delivered against a background of profound international turbulence and nervousness in the...
Andrew Mitchell: I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this annual debate on the Army, although I do so with a certain amount of trepidation, conscious as I am of the wealth of expertise and military experience that surrounds me on these Benches. My brief military service in the Royal Tank Regiment, and subsequently with the United Nations peace-keeping forces in Cyprus, afforded me a taste of...
Andrew Mitchell: Does my hon. Friend agree that it is not so much liquidations as new business start-ups that are the important figures? Does he agree that new business start-ups under the Government have been—
Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the growth of productivity in the United Kingdom economy over the period since 1980.
Andrew Mitchell: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the very low productivity which used to characterise our economy and which got to the heart of our national economic ills has now been replaced by increasing and increased productivity, which is why we shall compete so effectively and why we are the envy of our Western industrialised competitors?
Andrew Mitchell: When my right hon. Friend sees the chairman of British Coal, will he pass on his congratulations to the Nottinghamshire mineworkers, who have exceeded their previous figure for productivity per man shift three times this year? The figures is now 428 tonnes per man shift. Will he reflect that that figure would have continued to increase had it not been for the unfortunate disruption caused by...
Andrew Mitchell: I am grateful for the chance to make a brief contribution to the debate. I hope that the Leader of the House will now consider whether we should have a debate about the procedures of the House, particularly to have a close look at the way in which we handle these timetable motions. Along with most of my hon. Friends on the Committee, I have sat relatively quietly listening to the arguments...
Andrew Mitchell: The hon. Gentleman has almost answered his own point. Such people are covered by rebates. Monks and nuns, who are outside the state support system, have taken vows of poverty and do not receive benefit. They are clearly exceptions to the normal rules. The principal reason why I support this generous timetable motion is that time will now be specifically allocated to ensure the scrutiny of...
Andrew Mitchell: The hon. Member asks what that means. One of the major points that came out of the guillotine debate on the Education Reform Bill—
Andrew Mitchell: I apologise for allowing myself to be led up the garden path by the hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham). It tends to happen a great deal in Committee. We must ensure that the measure proceeds in an orderly, structured, and rapid way. Those of us who were previously involved in inner-city areas, who saw the way in which businesses were treated by Left-wing authorities in respect of...