Mr Nicholas Scott: I am grateful for the opportunity to make a modest contribution to the debate. I shall be brief because I know that many others want to speak. I apologise to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and to those present in the Chamber, as I shall not be present for the whole debate because of unavoidable commitments outside the House later this evening. The thrust of the Bill is to protect the public from...
Mr Nicholas Scott: At a time when images of Culloden pour from our screens and appear in our newspapers and other journals week by week, it may be that it is another lost cause that I espouse in this brief debate this morning, in which I look forward to the response of my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment. The London Electronics college in my constituency was founded in 1892...
Mr Nicholas Scott: With the leave of the House, I shall speak briefly. First, I wish to apologise on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Kent (Mr. Rowe), who has left the Chamber briefly to respond to a green card that has been delivered to him. Secondly, I wish to express my gratitude to all those who have played a part in the progress of the legislation to this stage. I am grateful for that unanimous...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. Some get-rich-quick schemes operate on the same basis as chain letters, with each member recruiting further members. Members pay out large sums in the expectation of a high return. Those payments are nearly always based on unrealistic forecasts of earnings from recruitment. The forecasts are derived from what I described during an...
Mr Nicholas Scott: This approach to franchising developed on the other side of the Atlantic and, like so many other trends, favourable or unfavourable, it came to this country first—perhaps because of the commonality of language. As my hon. Friend rightly says, the approach is likely to spread, and perhaps it has already spread, to the retailing sector in many other EU countries. Perhaps a Union-wide approach...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I thank the hon. Member for Monklands, West (Mr. Clarke) for his gracious remarks earlier. We understand that it is the duty of the Opposition carefully to examine legislation and other Government proposals, but the hon. Gentleman made quite a meal of his objections today. The vast majority of hon. Members will welcome the Bill, introduced by the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon....
Mr Nicholas Scott: We shall need to look carefully at the regulations when they come out, to ensure that they cover that point. The last point that I should like to make is that the payments of cash to disabled people should, when calculated, provide not only for the actual cost of the provision of care, but for matters such as national insurance, statutory sick pay and insurance, which are necessary for a...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. This is the first time for many years that I have moved a Second Reading without the comforting support of the Dispatch Box. However, the appeal throughout the House of this Bill was not apparent for many of the measures that I moved from the Dispatch Box, especially when I was a Social Security Minister. I hope that the Bill, which has...
Mr Nicholas Scott: In terms of recompensing local authorities which have to bear the burden of expenditure resulting from both homelessness and the provisions of the Children Act, is it not the case that not only will authorities be recompensed for future expenditure but for backdated costs which they have already borne?
Mr Nicholas Scott: I am grateful for the opportunity to draw the attention of the House to the case of Catherine Laylle, who holds dual British and French nationality and whose case has been raised in the press on more than one occasion in recent months. The importance of her case is underlined by the presence today of a number of right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House who have taken an interest...
Mr Nicholas Scott: Hanging in my office in the Norman Shaw North building is a cartoon that was given to me in 1987. It was drawn by that marvellous cartoonist, Marc. It shows two Back Benchers—I think that my hon. Friends would probably recognise them—and one is saying to the other: I used to have this nightmare that she'd made me Minister for Northern Ireland, but lately it's been Minister of Health". I...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I stand before the House as an unreformed addict, having spent seven years hooked entirely on social security. I have had a bare seven months off the habit and feel constrained to come back today to congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and his colleagues on the orders and regulations which he has placed before the House and which we are discussing. They enshrine a proper...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I shall deal with many of those matters, including incapacity benefit, in a moment or two. I should have thought that, having been so long on that side of the House, the Opposition would by now have found some device whereby they could commit themselves to something when they discuss those matters, even though they are under the constraints that I mentioned. At present, however, the House...
Mr Nicholas Scott: My right hon. and learned Friend should recognise that he not only deserves but has the support of the vast majority of people in the House and the country for the work that he is putting into the enterprise to which he has set his hand. If that enterprise succeeds, it has the promise of lifting from the backs of the people of Northern Ireland the burden of terrorism that they have borne...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend on this package of measures, especially those involving education and employment, which will ensure a much greater part in our national life for disabled people. Will he ensure that when he comes to set up the disability council and to decide the pattern of cash payments, which is an immensely important step in the right direction, he will involve the...
Mr Nicholas Scott: First, I apologise to my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for not being present for the whole of his speech. In the same breath, I congratulate the hon. Member for Redcar (Ms Mowlam) and welcome her to her responsibilities on the Opposition Front Bench. She takes on those responsibilities at a challenging and important time and I am sure that we all...
Mr Nicholas Scott: My experience was that examining the background of offenders who had probably been sentenced by the courts in Northern Ireland, the possibility of their reoffending if they were released and the part that they could play in persuading others to turn away from the path of violence was a constructive contribution to the process of bringing about a change of mind and heart in the paramilitary...
Mr Nicholas Scott: This is not—although I must say that it slightly seems like it—a maiden speech. I look on it rather more, after 13 years, as breaking my duck in my second innings as a Back Bencher in this House. It has been an immense privilege to serve as a Minister for the past 13 years. Life in Government is demanding, but also very rewarding. It is, however, with some sense of relief that I return to...
Mr Nicholas Scott: With permission, Madam Speaker, I should like to make a statement regarding the publication today of a consultation document on measures to tackle discrimination against disabled people. The document addresses five key areas affecting their lives. The Government would welcome comments on the proposals in the course of the next three months. The Government give a high priority to helping...
Mr Nicholas Scott: I recall a story about a parson who from time to time used to write in the margins of his sermons the initials "AWSL". They stood for "argument weak: shout loudly". Nothing better typifies the hon. Gentleman's approach than those initials. The previous Labour Government's record bears no comparison with that of this Government in meeting the needs of disabled people over the past 15 years....