Shailesh Vara: It has everything to do with the Speaker, because it is the Speaker who presides over the House, and his guidance would be most welcome, although any change would be initiated by the Government. It would certainly be a House matter as well as a Government matter. The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) gave a typically passionate speech and he rightly dealt with the difficulties...
Shailesh Vara: I have a reputation for being very willing to give way to many people, but on this occasion I shall not. The hon. Gentleman breached many conventions by not having the courtesy to give advance warning—a point that was mentioned by Madam Deputy Speaker—and so on that basis I shall not give way to him. The hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone) gave a wide-ranging...
Shailesh Vara: I am not sure that my hon. Friend is in a position to bless us. We were, however, certainly privileged to have access to a private conversation that he had with the Pope; I am sure that all those people who read Hansard will be grateful to have access to that conversation, too. My hon. Friend was right to pick up on the fact that the Government are simply limping along without a proper or...
Shailesh Vara: I wish to clarify a point. Clearly, I recognise that the Government would initiate any reduction in the number of Members of Parliament. What I was trying to say is that the Speaker, by virtue of sitting in the Chair, would have to oversee such a radical change. Clearly, the initiative comes from the Government, but at the end of the day, the Speaker—a servant of the House, as we have just...
Shailesh Vara: rose—
Shailesh Vara: I am most grateful to the Minister for giving way. She is being very generous indeed with her time. We are all agreed that treatment in a specialist unit is the preferred option. However, some 81 per cent. of all stroke patients are initially admitted to a generic admission unit. We all want that figure to be much lower. Can the Minister therefore give us some indication of the Department's...
Shailesh Vara: We have had repeated assurances from the Leader of the House that Ministers' written answers will have attached to them all relevant information, so that it is easily accessible to other Members as well as to members of the public who may read Hansard. It simply is not good enough that Ministers make reference to the "information being in the House of Commons Library". Earlier this week,...
Shailesh Vara: I, too, welcome the conclusions before us and congratulate the Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young), and all the Committee's other members, on having undertaken a thorough investigation and come up with their conclusions. All of us recognise the importance of this issue. If Select Committees are to...
Shailesh Vara: I congratulate the deputy Leader of the House on her appointment and look forward to working with her as closely as I did with her predecessor on the best practice and business of the House. On Committees, will the hon. Lady inform us whether the Government have any intention of establishing a Select Committee on science. There is a huge amount of pressure to set up such a Committee, not...
Shailesh Vara: We have the extraordinary situation in which we are discussing a business motion, but a substantial part of the business has already been withdrawn by the Government. Given that the motion to establish a Select Committee on the reform of the House was withdrawn yesterday—the same day that it was tabled—the House will have much more time than it would otherwise have had to discuss the...
Shailesh Vara: The hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) is not a Tory.
Shailesh Vara: May I press the Foreign Secretary on the matter, raised by the shadow Foreign Secretary, of those who have fled Kenya to neighbouring countries such as Uganda? Will he give an assurance that, where humanitarian aid is concerned, those who have fled Kenya are also taken into account? A country such as Uganda has its own economic problems; the last thing that it wants is starving and hungry...
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions the Information Commissioner was contacted by his Department to report breaches of data protection security in each of the last five years.
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many breaches of data protection security there were in (a) his Department and (b) his Department's agencies in each of the last five years; and if he will provide details of each breach.
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many suicides there were in each 10 year age cohort in each of the last 10 years.
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much aid was given to Sudan in each of the last five years; what conditions were attached to the aid provided; and if he will make a statement.
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a Criminal Records Bureau check would return information on whether an individual's DNA was stored on the DNA database.
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the extent of the illegal trade in human organs in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 4 December 2007, Official Report, column 1130W, on transplant surgery: waiting lists, how many people were on a waiting list for an organ transplant in each primary care trust area in each year since 2001, broken down by type of organ.
Shailesh Vara: In his speech to the Labour party conference, the Justice Secretary said that he would like to "review the balance of the law" in this area. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government's new clause does not amend or review the balance of the law? It simply tinkers with the existing state of affairs. The Opposition new clauses would achieve what the Secretary of State said he would achieve...