Results 41–60 of 1000 for speaker:Gordon Banks

Written Answers — Home Department: Immigration Detention Centres (18 Oct 2005)

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detainees held in immigration detention centres in 2004–05 (a) were granted leave to remain, (b) were deported and (c) remain in detention.

Written Answers — Cabinet Office: Better Regulation Agenda ( 8 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on progress in removing unnecessary burdens on small businesses through the better regulation agenda.

Orders of the Day — Terrorism Bill (10 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: I have listened intently to a large amount of the debate on the Bill over the past few days and weeks. I am glad that I have the opportunity to raise a few issues today, and I will be brief. In the early stages of the Bill's consideration, I had reservations about the Government's proposal for the pre-charge detention period of up to 90 days. I came to the opinion that there was significant...

Orders of the Day — Terrorism Bill (10 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: I did not speak to him directly, but I spoke to one of his staff officers, and was told that his position was the same as that outlined by the chief constable of Fife on behalf of ACPOS.

Orders of the Day — Terrorism Bill (10 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: The police were happy with the proposal. They are the experts, and I will be guided by them. I believe that we should be guided by the experts—the police and the security forces—because they are charged with protecting our security, and because they risk criticism and condemnation if they fail to keep us safe should further terrorist atrocities occur. I believe that new threats require...

Orders of the Day — Terrorism Bill (10 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: We have had that discussion several times today and in earlier debates, and enough convincing arguments have already been made. I have spent only a short time in Parliament, but I want to say that this debate has impressed me most and that applies to both sides of the House. Despite my disappointment about the conclusion of last night's vote, I recognise the will of this democratically...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Benefit Fraud (11 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many inspectors the Department has employed for the investigation of benefit fraud in each of the last 10 years.

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Howell Opinion (11 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the impact of the Howell Opinion in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland.

Orders of the Day — Violent Crime Reduction Bill: Clause 27 — Prohibition on sale or transfer of air weapons except by registered dealers (14 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: I commend the Bill because in the smallest county in Scotland, of which my constituency is part, in the first seven months of the year, 41 of the 50 crimes involving firearms related to airguns. There was an incident similar to that raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Washington, East (Mr. Kemp) when a 13 or 14-year-old boy was shot under the eye. Anything that can be done...

Written Answers — Defence: Royal Regiment of Scotland (14 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence If he will make a statement on the progress made to date on the formation of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Electricity (15 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to tell the House what measures the Government are taking to ensure that the full potential of wind power in Scotland is exploited to the benefit of energy consumption in Scotland and the UK?

Ministerial Code (15 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: Members on both sides of the House have mentioned not only ministerial codes of conduct but standards in public life in general. The Minister referred to what we see in the pages of the press. On what basis did the Cabinet Office approve the memoirs of Sir Christopher Meyer, which have been serialised in one of our daily papers?

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: I would like to set out the background to the Bill as I see it. Since 1997, we have come a long way. In 1998, we had the Good Friday agreement, leading to the early release of 440 prisoners, and we have also had devolved government. With only 14 early releases being returned to jail for breach of the licence conditions—a 97 per cent. success rate—it would appear that the action has been...

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: What I will say is that it is right for Northern Ireland to move on and take advantage of all the benefits that have accrued since 1997.

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: I have not been party to those discussions, but my answer is very similar to the one that I gave to the previous intervention: it is that I believe that it is necessary to move forward so that there is a reduction—[Interruption.]

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: We must ensure that crimes such as have been described today do not occur in the future. I do not want to hear that such things are continuing to happen, and I believe that the Bill will help us to make progress in that regard.

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: No, not at the moment. Secondly, the Bill offers an opportunity to move to a safer and more tolerant Northern Ireland. That Northern Ireland will be able to put violence and prejudice firmly behind it and close the door on the paramilitary past. Among other requirements, the Bill provides for the appointment of a certification commissioner to determine eligibility, an appeals commissioner to...

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: If my right hon. Friend had written the speech for me, I am sure that it would be much better than my version. The Bill attempts to preserve the current system while addressing a situation that could be quite demanding, legally. In various briefings, much has been made about the absence from the Bill of provisions for trial by jury. However, it is vital to understand that it deals with...

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: I want to finish this point. At this stage, it is difficult to predetermine an end-date, as we are not sure of the numbers of crimes involved. At present, there appear to be between 60 and 160 but, given that there are some 2,000 unsolved murders in Northern Ireland, it is difficult to predict the level of take-up that may emerge in future.

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill (23 Nov 2005)

Gordon Banks: No, as I want to finish this point. That the Secretary of State has a power to end the programme is understandable. The Bill allows the decision to be taken at some future date, with a level of evidence and detail that we can only guess at today. However, if during consideration of the Bill we can come up with a proposal for a way to incorporate an end-date, I am sure that I and many other...


<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>

Create an alert

Advanced search

Find this exact word or phrase

You can also do this from the main search box by putting exact words in quotes: like "cycling" or "hutton report"

By default, we show words related to your search term, like “cycle” and “cycles” in a search for cycling. Putting the word in quotes, like "cycling", will stop this.

Excluding these words

You can also do this from the main search box by putting a minus sign before words you don’t want: like hunting -fox

We also support a bunch of boolean search modifiers, like AND and NEAR, for precise searching.

Date range

to

You can give a start date, an end date, or both to restrict results to a particular date range. A missing end date implies the current date, and a missing start date implies the oldest date we have in the system. Dates can be entered in any format you wish, e.g. 3rd March 2007 or 17/10/1989

Person

Enter a name here to restrict results to contributions only by that person.

Section

Restrict results to a particular parliament or assembly that we cover (e.g. the Scottish Parliament), or a particular type of data within an institution, such as Commons Written Answers.

Column

If you know the actual Hansard column number of the information you are interested in (perhaps you’re looking up a paper reference), you can restrict results to that; you can also use column:123 in the main search box.