Dr Jeremy Bray: I have a good deal of sympathy with the new clause moved by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Dame J. Knight). However, I think that there is a real problem in calling on the apparatus of the state—the courts—to enforce a declaration made privately, or, as she has acknowledged, very privately. The approach of the hon. Member for Gainsborough and Horncastle (Mr. Leigh) has fewer...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I am trying to understand what the hon. Lady is proposing. Does she propose that every couple will draft their own deed or select the items that will go into their deed? Or will there just be a standard deed?
Dr Jeremy Bray: Dealing with marriage counselling services is not quite as simple a matter as merely passing a few amendments in the House or even finding some money for it. The underlying problem lies in the great muddle and confusion in our society about the nature of marriage. I should have thought that the only way to make coherent proposals in legislation would have been for the genesis of the Bill to...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Will the Minister look further at the arrangements made for the exploitation of the GPRD, because a good deal more could be done?
Dr Jeremy Bray: In half a minute, will the Minister say what is the machinery for examining the interactions between safety and other matters?
Dr Jeremy Bray: At this point in the hon. Gentleman's account of events, might it be relevant for him to say that, although the European committee did not recommend action, the German committee took action in amending the licence and, furthermore, since then I understand from a pharmaceutical company that the CSM has written to it proposing a change in the licence?
Dr Jeremy Bray: Does the hon. Gentleman consider that he is advancing the cause of safety of medicines if he asks for watertight, cast-iron judgments on whether a product is safe? To insist on a reply to such a question would force Ministers and the system into a quite impossible position. The Minister must ensure that agencies spell out the facts and that a judgment is given, but we must recognise that it...
Dr Jeremy Bray: There were new data—I am sure that the hon. Gentleman accepts that—on second and third generation drugs. The new data showed that the risks from second generation drugs were lower than was thought and that the risks from third generation drugs were twice those of the second generation ones. The absolute level of risk depends on the denominator. A notorious problem in testing is that it is...
Dr Jeremy Bray: The House has given a good deal of attention to the warning given by the Committee on Safety of Medicines on third generation oral contraceptives last October. The committee was right to hold the views and take the actions that it did, given the evidence available at that time. Certainly, there was, and is, a need to review the announcement procedure. Owing to the immediate public reaction,...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Dr Jeremy Bray: On another point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Dr Jeremy Bray: The House is debating the civil service and the prior options study has been completed. The answers to the written questions on the Order Paper have been given to the Select Committee on Science and Technology.
Dr Jeremy Bray: Is the Minister aware that the closure of research institutes and the dismissal of research teams goes far wider than that? The prior options study is cutting a swathe through Government research establishments and greatly weakening the efforts in Scotland. Is he further aware that the progress of scientific research, which underlies the ability to tackle diseases such as BSE and CJD, depends...
Dr Jeremy Bray: To the ordinary man and woman in the street, the Bill seems to say—this is what will shape their attitudes—that all they need do to obtain a divorce is to claim that their marriage has broken down. They will be given the impression that either party can say that at any time.
Dr Jeremy Bray: My amendment is amendment No. 6, which states: Clause 5, page 3, line 22, at end insert——(2A) If the parties have entered into an agreement, following counselling by a body approved for the purposes of this section by the Lord Chancellor, not to make a statement unless each of them has sought further counselling (either from that body or from any other such body), any statement made by...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Will the Minister say whether the receipts from value added tax, being lower in the outturn than they were in the Budget forecasts over a period of years, are due to errors in forecasting or to failures in the collection of VAT? If so, what remedial measures are the Government taking?
Dr Jeremy Bray: In the context of the extension of higher education facilities in Scotland, the Secretary of State is aware of the proposal by St. Andrews university and Lanarkshire development corporation for the establishment of a university college in Lanarkshire on the Ravenscraig site. Will he confirm that he would encourage a proposal on those lines from Scottish Enterprise or Lanarkshire development...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Given that this is a Family Law Bill, we should have started with a commission on marriage and the family rather than a Law Commission report on the grounds for divorce. Even to get divorce law right, we need to see what has happened to marriage. Some of the Bill's sponsors seem to have an unrealistic concept of marriage. It is not a remote, irrelevant or unattainable ideal; it is a...
Dr Jeremy Bray: If there is no evidence of age specificity among the 10 cases that were examined, is the low average age of cases explained by the process of selection? Are there other cases that were not included in the sample study?
Dr Jeremy Bray: The Chancellor is putting the best face that he can on the economy in time for the general election, without much help from Conservative Back Benchers. Is he aware that the figures that he is quoting are short-term and cyclical? Is he satisfied that underlying investment in the economy is sufficient to maintain competitiveness?
