Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I congratulate the hon. Member for Burnley (Mr. Pike) on his speech and on attending a debate that is clearly dominated by representatives of the Conservative party in Lancashire. We cannot fail to notice that the hon. Gentleman is the only Labour party representative from Lancashire in the Chamber. His colleagues have doubtless asked him to speak for them and I expect that Liberal Democrat...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: My hon. Friend the Minister will no doubt be elevated to other positions on the Front Bench and will not reply to a debate on this subject next year. As so many of my hon. Friends wish to speak, I shall deal with just one aspect of the county structure plan: the western bypass, an important road in my constituency. This matter will loom large in the debate in county hall next week when the...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: The portion of the estate fell into possession in 1990—there was inflation throughout. If there is to be indexation for capital gains tax from 1982, why cannot people in those situations be helped too? It is monstrously unjust.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I am most grateful to Madam Speaker for allowing me to raise this matter today. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary for attending to respond on behalf of the Government. I make no apology for adding to his work, for I am about to talk about a glaring injustice in our tax system. The advantage of Adjournment debates is that a Minister can be asked to consider an...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: When considering class sizes in Lancashire, does my hon. Friend agree that the behaviour of the local education authority, which puts the interests of maintaining its centralised bureaucracy above that of maintaining or reducing class sizes, will only encourage more parents to consider grant-maintained status?
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Before my right hon. Friend leaves the subject of small businesses, will he comment on the excise duty on video games, which affects several small businesses in my constituency? Many small business operators who have been to see me fully recognise that video games should fall within the tax net, but the proposals in the Bill will kill the goose that lays the golden egg, and prevent the...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment on his powerful speech, which was one of the best expositions of its kind that I have ever heard. It is not easy to create a climate in which employers can provide more jobs, and perhaps the most difficult task for policy makers is to engage in the hard and clear thinking that is needed. My right hon. Friend did think...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: The hon. Lady should listen carefully to what I am saying. Indeed, if she reads my speech tomorrow, she will realise that I am not advocating anything that will disappoint her. I am simply pointing out the manifest unfairness in the nature of the funding when two commercial enterprises are in direct competition. Heysham port was acquired by Sea Containers in 1984, when the company purchased...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I will not cross swords with the hon. Lady on that point, because I am developing a wholly different point. The port of Liverpool suffered considerably from the fact that it was burdened by the absurd provisions of the dock labour scheme—something created out of the lunacies imposed upon the nation by Labour Governments before 1979. Perhaps the hon. Lady would like to think about that. It...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: The 14 per cent. increase for the joint funding scheme and 8 per cent. for the volunteer sending programme for 1994–95 are very significant increases at present.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: I know that non-governmental organisations will be assisting. At present, there are three aircraft. Two aircraft are on their way—one to Entebbe and the other to Nairobi. The first is the largest and will be unloaded in Entebbe; the second will arrive in Nairobi and wait for clearance to travel to Goma. A third aircraft is leaving tomorrow. Those aircraft are taking emergency humanitarian...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: We certainly remain ready to do more. As the hon. Gentleman is aware, since the crisis began, £11 million has been committed bilaterally for refugees and displaced people in the area. The assistance being delivered by the three aircraft to which I just referred, which is worth some £2 million, is additional to that.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: My hon. Friend is right. Non-governmental organisations generally react swiftly, are flexible and can get into remote areas more quickly than anyone else. It is for that reason that over the past three years we have doubled our overall funding to non-governmental organisations from £65 million to £150 million a year.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Yes, we have responded and continue to do so. As I said in my earlier answers, ODA officials were there only last week. They assessed what we could do immediately, and we are doing it. Goma airport is still closed, but we hope that it will be open tomorrow so that the second aircraft which I mentioned can land there, and the third aircraft can land on Wednesday.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Planning for the international conference on population and development is well advanced. My right hon. and noble Friend will lead the British delegation.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Yes, we very much hope that in the next two years—we have a planning figure in mind—we will spend some £100 million on family planning. That will be a 60 per cent. increase over current spending, which is already high and has increased every year since 1991. It will be vital for more to be spent in that sector following the conference.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Every second, almost three babies are born into the world and I very much agree with the impact of my hon. Friend's argument. We will certainly press all our European Union colleagues, and those responsible for the Commission's aid programme generally, to increase spending in that sector. We believe that the conference comes at a most critical junction, and it may well determine, through...
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: It is most certainly in the interests of us all, and I agree with the hon. Gentleman. It is particularly in the interests of many women and their partners in the third world. Over half of the couples in the world practise family planning now, but we believe that at least 100 million families who would like to plan their families do not have access to family planning advice and services.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: Both my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State and the Minister for Overseas Development had discussions with President Museveni during his recent visit.
Mr Mark Lennox-Boyd: My hon. Friend is quite right: Uganda has been a good story in recent years. British bilateral aid stands at about £34 million a year and has remained at that level in recent years. There is a great deal of approval of Uganda's economic policies, which have led to economic growth of about 5 per cent. a year since 1987. Tomorrow, at the World bank's consultative meeting in Paris, we shall...
