Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many cases the Child Support Agency has refused to consider because they were already the subject of a court order. [14356]
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Will my hon. Friend consider the plight of many women, such as my constituent Mrs. Dennett, who may enjoy the so-called benefit of a court order in favour of their children and cannot be helped by the CSA, but whose former husbands have paid no money for 10 years or more under that court order? They are thereby effectively denied justice by the system. Is it not ironic that a system that was...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: The hon. Gentleman says that Conservative Members are self-seeking. In January, a discussion paper, not a decision, was issued by county hall for consideration by county councillors. It dealt with cuts in primary and secondary school funding of £25 million. I appreciate that we must draw a distinction between specific cuts and cuts in education generally. The figure was later changed to cuts...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Will the hon. Gentleman clarify something that he said earlier? He is in close contact with Lancashire county council's ruling group. Is the council going to increase its education spending by £26.6 million in the coming year—the amount that the Government have provided?
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: One thing that all Lancashire Conservative Members and county councillors are determined upon is to do everything in their power to help to raise the educational standard of the children of their constituents and that is why I am so pleased to see many of my colleagues here today. I look forward to contributions, if there is time, by my right hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Mr....
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I agree with my hon. Friend. The other aspect with which I shall deal is that the council says no to funds that the Government have made available to supplement the money that it has to spend on education. All the changes have given immense opportunities to schools to improve their standards and they have been of immense help. However, there is one point that is often not properly understood...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Yes, indeed.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: My real point—the hon. Gentleman will be able to comment on my speech in his contribution—is to ask whether the £26.6 million extra provided by the Government will be spent by the county on education in the coming financial year. Will all that—
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: It is interesting to hear, that because we have not heard it from the council. Two things cause prime concern to Conservative Members—I have just touched on one. The first is when the county fails to pass on all the increase that the Government have found for education to the most important of its services. The second is when the county fails to manage its bureaucracy properly and, compared...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: My hon. Friend has made a valid point. I must add that, in their work, he and Conservative county councillors in Lancashire make it a priority to point out to the county, which as we know is Labour-controlled, precisely what is going on.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I will comment later on what the hon. Gentleman has said. The county's management of its funds for education over the years is a story of gross, in some cases outrageous, financial mismanagement. In 1994–95, it cut the schools budget by £5.1 million. As we know, last year the Government were able to increase their allocation to the county for education by only a modest amount—it was a...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Following what my hon. Friend says, I hope that all Lancashire parents will write to county councillor Wright. What was said in September was uncalled for as, in December, the Government announced that they would increase the county's allocation towards education costs by £26.6 million or 5.5 per cent. I hope that all parents will write to him insisting that that increase from the Government...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Into schools. Again, reasonable people will be astonished by the county's reaction to the wonderful news of such a substantial increase. So far, its reaction has been this. In early January, it published a discussion paper that outlined possible cuts in primary and secondary school funding of £25.2 million. That was greeted by parents, teachers and Conservative county councillors with...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I agree with my hon. Friend. What I and I am sure any parent in Lancashire find perplexing is how any county council could propose cuts of £6.7 million in education when the Government have increased its share by £26.6 million. That is what County Councillor Stan Wright must answer. I am fortunate in the timing of the debate, because the county must make a final decision about its funding...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hughes), who made several comments with which I agree. I shall refer to the issue of national self-interest, which he touched upon, in my short remarks. I had the great privilege to be a Foreign Office Minister for four years, and for two of those years I answered for the Overseas Development Administration in this place. I was...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Japan's aid programme is smaller than ours as a percentage of gross national product, so perhaps the hon. Gentleman should temper his enthusiasm to support his hon. Friend the Member for Eccles (Miss Lestor), who opened for the Opposition. When the Japanese give aid, the four-wheel drive vehicles and other manifestations of Japanese commercial clout arrive shortly afterwards. I believe that...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I hope that the hon. Lady will provide more details, if she intends to make a contribution to the debate, about what she wants to be done about aid and trade provision. I shall be interested in what she says because I believe that arguments in favour of aid provision which do not also favour national self-interest are unlikely to enjoy public support. Anyone who wants the aid budget to...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Has my right hon. Friend received representations from the bingo industry? In the recent Budget, general gaming duty was cut by 1 per cent. and pools duty by 6 per cent., but the bingo industry was excluded. That appears extraordinarily unfair to an industry that provides gambling with entertainment to millions of people, is well run and even in this day, when the national lottery is...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I rise to speak briefly in support of my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester, South and Maldon (Mr. Whittingdale), who is to be commended for drawing a problem to the attention of the House and for clearly explaining in detail and with care the restrictions placed on a successful and so far profitable industry, which provides a public service to many people in different communities. I...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Is my right hon. Friend aware that employees at the two nuclear power stations at Heysham in my constituency will be most approving of his statement and of the way in which he is seeking to privatise the nuclear industries of Scotland and England jointly? No doubt the alternative would have been that Scottish Nuclear would have somehow acted in a predatory way to grab a couple of English...
