Miss Joan Lestor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the penal institutions for young offenders which Home Office Ministers have visited in the last 12 months.
Miss Joan Lestor: Those visits having been made, the hon. Gentleman must be aware of the enormous concern that is felt by specialist groups and others about the conditions under which some young men are being held, with a lack of educational and recreational facilities and a lack of specialist psychiatric treatment. Is he aware that if we are to avoid more suicides and attempted suicides among people at a very...
Miss Joan Lestor: May I point out to the hon. Gentleman that this Government's aid programme is exactly half the level left by the Labour Government in 1979? If he is proud of that, I am not. The recent proposal by the Dutch in Strasbourg—that countries should agree to try to reach the United Nations target by the year 2000 —was also opposed by the British Government.
Miss Joan Lestor: There can be no one in the House, or in the country, who does not know of the case of my small constituent, Laura Davies. Her story and that of her family's struggle with bureaucracy is harrowing and raises important and fundamental questions of principle which I believe have not been properly addressed by the Department of Health or by the Secretary of State. I seek clarification on those...
Miss Joan Lestor: Last October, Laura became so ill that she had to be ventilated on a machine for two months. She recovered, but soon fell ill again. As a result, she now has severe liver damage. It was agreed that Laura was in urgent need of a life-saving operation to rebuild her bowel and to replace her liver. [Interruption.] I wish that the Minister would listen. Many people are interested in this case and...
Miss Joan Lestor: Will the Minister comment on the situation in Feltham young offenders institution, which I visited recently with my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Mr. Keen). I was told—it was quite clear—that, despite the low level of literacy among many of the young men there, education classes and evening classes have all been cut and that there are only about 36 vocational...
Miss Joan Lestor: May I remind the Secretary of State that my constituent, Laura Davies—to whom the hon. Member for Rochdale (Ms. Lynne) has already referred, without consultation with me—does not have two years or two months to wait for funding for her operation in America? I have written two letters to the right hon. Lady in the past two weeks asking what financial help is forthcoming in addition to the...
Miss Joan Lestor: If the right hon. and learned Gentleman is so concerned about public provision and helping families, why was there nothing in the Budget to help women back to work by helping with child care? Single families and people living in poverty will receive nothing. Child benefit, which would have helped people in need, was not increased either.
Miss Joan Lestor: I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will not accuse me of ranting and raving as I am always the sweet face of reason. I agree with the hon. Member for South Hams (Mr. Steen) about the dangers of Ecstasy. There is not a parent of teenage children who is not worried out of their life about the use of cocaine, Ecstasy and heroin, especially when our children can obtain them almost without...
Miss Joan Lestor: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will state the number of youth training scheme places available in Eccles.
Miss Joan Lestor: Will the Minister cast his mind back to the letter that he wrote to me last October—a soothing reply to the representations that I had made to him—pointing out that the Salford careers service, which covers my constituency, had forecast a shortfall of between 400 and 450 YTS places? As I say, his reply was most soothing. May I inform him, as he has not answered my question, that the same...
Miss Joan Lestor: The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry seemed to be saying two or three things. One was that there was a world recession which meant that there was nothing that the Government could do and that it was not their fault. He spoke as if that absolved him from any responsibility for what has happened in the country generally and especially in my region over the past few years. If it is true...
Miss Joan Lestor: That is an interesting question. It has saddened me over the years that the Government have always found the money—be it very little—to pay people not to work. Armies of unemployed people are dependent on social security and many are hard up. However, when people such as my hon. Friend the Member for Preston, who pointed to the needs of the country, suggest that we put money into training...
Miss Joan Lestor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will state the infant mortality rate for each of the last 10 years.
Miss Joan Lestor: Although those figures are welcome, is the Minister aware that we do not compare well with our European colleagues and that our declining infant mortality rate is not as good as many of their rates? Also, there are big differences between social classes and regions in this country in terms of the opportunities for children to survive. Does the Minister consider it fair that, if a child is...
Miss Joan Lestor: I want to refer to the Asylum Bill and to some of the comments made by the Home Secretary. The Guardian has nicknamed the Bill the national humbug Bill. Unless the Home Secretary or the Minister can answer a few questions, that nickname may remain. I am not surprised that the number of people seeking asylum in this country or elsewhere has increased. We all know that repression, war,...
Miss Joan Lestor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will exempt school uniforms from value-added tax irrespective of size.
Miss Joan Lestor: I remind the Minister that I received precisely that reply long before the regulations relating to the EC were introduced. Is she aware that the myth that children's clothes are exempt from VAT is easily exploded by the fact that children grow much faster than the rate allowed for by the Treasury? With the increases in VAT, thousands of parents suffering unemployment, combined with family...
Miss Joan Lestor: I apologise to the House for not being here earlier, but I have spoken in every debate on Cambodia since the issue was taken up. The debate is about the Government's policy towards Cambodia. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Mr. Bowis) that we should now be trying to look forward as things are looking far more healthy following the recent meeting in Peking with the...
Miss Joan Lestor: Bearing in mind the concern felt by the whole country at revelations of an increase in reported cases of child abuse within the family and at places of safety, the growing number of missing children, and the rising number of those sleeping rough on our streets, how do the Government justify the cut made by the Department of Health in its grant to the National Association of Young People in...