Dr Jeremy Bray: The hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Duncan) is concerned, quite correctly, about avoiding the ghettoisation of the unemployed and the handicapped. He has advanced proposals in support of a scheme which at least makes a return to employment possible; that is a laudable objective. However, I wonder whether he is being entirely realistic. I shall deal first the plight of those who...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Will the Minister give way?
Dr Jeremy Bray: The consultation and treatment of the mentally ill has been continuing, as the Minister says, and I hope that it will continue. Is he satisfied that the manuscript addition of a mental illness in regulation 10 is the only amendment required to cover the ground that he has been discussing with the Royal College of Psychiatry, or are there other amendments on, for example, the disqualification...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Do those figures include mortgage interest relief, defence procurement expenditure, transport subsidies and similar matters that are directly budgeted for as Government expenditure?
Dr Jeremy Bray: Incapacity benefit.
Dr Jeremy Bray: Will it be made explicit by including mental illness among the types of illness which do not require a works test?
Dr Jeremy Bray: I am glad to hear the Minister's intentions. I hope that she will listen also to my hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney). I assure the hon. Lady that he is a sensitive, active and able advocate on behalf of the causes of which she is speaking.
Dr Jeremy Bray: I am grateful to you, Madam Speaker, for putting at the top of tonight's agenda the subject of employment rights after manic depression. Each kind of disability has its own problems, challenges and opportunities but of none is that more true than of manic depression. I mean nothing but encouragement for concerns about other kinds of disability and for disability in general in raising this...
Dr Jeremy Bray: The right hon. Member for Brent, North (Sir R. Boyson) gives the impression of a man torn between his undoubted high principles and his realistic view of performance. I shall deal later with some of the aspirations that he held out. The Chancellor set himself three priorities in the Budget: to keep the economy on track, to create more jobs and to strengthen the economy in the long term. We...
Dr Jeremy Bray: The Minister's argument about a so-called "direct relationship" between economic growth and transport used to be argued about electricity demand—until the oil price increase. Does he not anticipate the same thing happening in respect of roads?
Dr Jeremy Bray: The Secretary of State has been unduly modest about one aspect of the Government's proposals—their commitment to implement a 5 per cent. per annum increase in the motor fuel tax. Does he dispute the arithmetic, logic or politics of the royal commission's recommendation that that increase should be upped to 9 per cent?
Dr Jeremy Bray: Is the Secretary of State aware that the enterprise zone sites in Lanarkshire are not filling up rapidly with this inward investment? Will he not only investigate the positive discrimination about which my hon. Friend the Member for Motherwell, North (Dr. Reid) has informed the House, but examine whether there are positive measures which could be taken to get the investment flow going into...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I understand what the Minister is saying and he is right to say that the subject is complex. That is why we asked that it should be thoroughly examined. Has the Minister seen the Inland Revenue evaluation of Bronwyn Hall's paper? If not, will he read it and lay it before the House?
Dr Jeremy Bray: Tax credits, as income tax allowances, would help small companies as they would give them credit against future tax liability. The Inland Revenue published an evaluation eight years ago. The Minister was quite right to say that it would be for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to publish it, but surely he could give an undertaking to make representations to the Chancellor to the effect that he...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Is not one of the most worrying aspects of the Chancellor's letter that he says that he is generous? Is the Chancellor in a position to be generous to anyone?
Dr Jeremy Bray: The hon. Member for Pudsey (Sir G. Shaw) has added to the signal services that he has given the Select Committee by his wide-ranging speech, which clearly presented the scope and depth of the report and reflected many of the views which the whole Committee would take of the Government's response and the Committee's disappointment with some aspects of it. The Chairman of the Committee rightly...
Dr Jeremy Bray: Will the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ask the research councils jointly to undertake a review of the career structure and prospects of research scientists, particularly at the post-doctorate level, because they are continuing to deteriorate?
Dr Jeremy Bray: It is a great pleasure to follow the maiden speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Monklands, East (Mrs. Liddell), not least to welcome her into the doughty and select company of Lanarkshire Members of Parliament. Our constituents expect a great deal from us and over the many years that we have known her, in her election campaign and, now, in her remarkable maiden speech, she has...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I wonder whether my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Brown) chose the right target in blaming the Government for all the difficulties in the development of the field that we are discussing. I have known sufficient Leaders of the House and Ministers who have tried to press things on both sides of the House over the years. I am afraid that the administration of the...
Dr Jeremy Bray: I am grateful, and I am sure that the Leader of the House—
