Mr Philip Holland: While I applaud my hon. Friend's plea for the abolition of more quangos, I nevertheless strongly approve of tighter control being exercised.
Mr Philip Holland: You may, Mr. Deputy Speaker, find it difficult to believe that I have a very charming eight-year-old granddaughter named Claire. Last summer for her birthday she expressed a wish to see me at work, so my son brought her along one evening to the Strangers' Gallery and I dutifully took my seat in the Chamber. The business of the House on that occasion was, as I recall, the Report stage of a...
Mr Philip Holland: If the hon. Gentleman will have patience, he may learn the true figure. Steady progress was made between 1979 and 1984 in reducing the total by more than 700, in spite of the birth of nearly 100 new quangos. The new willingness on the part of Government to open up to public and parliamentary scrutiny the numbers, nature and cost of those bodies was of great importance in that period. First...
Mr Philip Holland: Does my right hon. Friend agree that attempts to persuade her to intervene directly in the miners' dispute were merely a device to trap the Government into providing additional subsidies for uneconomic effort? Will my right hon. Friend undertake to reject any such proposals in the future, as she has done so admirably in the past?
Mr Philip Holland: rose—
Mr Philip Holland: With permission, Mr. Speaker, I shall answer that allegation. I was in the Lobby to thank hon. Members who had stayed on a series of private Members' motions. I was in the side where the majority of hon. Members were and I thanked the majority. The Members who were in the other side were there for a very good reason, to promote their own amendment. Therefore, the Members who stayed not to...
Mr Philip Holland: Clearly the hon. Member misunderstood what I said. When I spoke of co-operation, I meant co-operation in terms of taking all vacancies on Select Committees or taking only some. It was to that that I was referring, not any personal co-operation between individuals
Mr Philip Holland: I beg to move, That Mr. Richard Body, Mr. Robin Corbett, Mr. David Harris, Mr. Michael Lord, Mr. Albert McQuarrie, Miss Joan Maynard, Mr. James Nicholson, The Reverend Ian Paisley, Mrs. Marion Roe, Mr. John Spence and Mr. Tom Torney be members of the Agriculture Committee.
Mr Philip Holland: The Committee of Selection has tried to meet the wishes of the House in relation to the departmental Select Committees. I believe that, when the House understands the complexity of the problem, it may wish to review the present arrangements. As this is almost certainly the last occasion on which I shall have the honour to address the House as Chairman of the Committee of Selection, I should...
Mr Philip Holland: I said that the minority parties had not always taken up the places offered to them. I will give one or two examples. On 9 December 1981 we appointed hon. Members to four Standing Committees, on two of which the minority parties did not wish to appoint Members. Fourthly, when we selected the nominations for the Select Committees in 1979—
Mr Philip Holland: I have answered it in my own way. In 1979 two minority parties over-subscribed Members and three exhibited little interest in the Select Committees. As interest and application from the smaller opposition parties in 1979 was uneven—I am not arguing against the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) on this matter — the Committee of Selection was not surprised when only one...
Mr Philip Holland: We are the Parliament of the United Kingdom and not a Parliament purely for Scotland or Wales. The Committee of Selection must observe that fact as a fundamental principle. The task of finding sufficient Members for the Scottish Select Committee is outside the scope of the debate. However, the hon. Gentleman will note that we did find sufficient Members for that Committee——
Mr Philip Holland: —appropriate to the numbers on both sides of the House. However, we are not discussing the Scottish Select Committee. The difficulty of preparing nominations that would find general acceptance in the House arises from the existence of no fewer than seven dissimilar opposition parties. Without a negotiating process — the wheeling and dealing that makes the smooth function of democracy...
Mr Philip Holland: Support for the hon. Member for Woolwich was immediately expressed with no dissenting voice. Therefore, as Chairman, I was not required to express a view. As I did not express a view to the Committee, it is not my intention to do so tonight on the merits or demerits of either candidate or to vote on the amendment. That is something that the House must resolve. The amendments to the Welsh...
Mr Philip Holland: Will my right hon. Friend be able to find an occasion later today to impress upon her right hon. Friends with departmental duties that there is no close season for hunting the quango? Will she perhaps encourage them to renew the cull of that species in the near future?
Mr Philip Holland: I welcome the progress currently being made. Does my hon. and learned Friend have it in mind to remove further functions from that outsized quango, the Manpower Services Commission?
Mr Philip Holland: Can my hon. Friend give the assurance that none of the appointments to any of the bodies that he has listed will be made by the Minister?
Mr Philip Holland: Is not the hon. Gentleman confusing training boards with training? They are quite separate. The lack of training boards does not by any means signify a deterioration in the standard or level of training.
Mr Philip Holland: The hon. Member for Eton and Slough (Miss Lestor) will not expect me to match her expertise in what is important for the employment of women. She referred, however, to the inadequacies of training for women, even under the training board schemes. Therefore, I wonder whether she is right in her diagnosis that they should be retained rather than trying to put something better in their place.
Mr Philip Holland: I actively supported the Industrial Training Act 1964 in the final year of my first term as a Member of this honourable House. In the same year that that Act reached the statute book, there was a general election and I lost my seat—and it serves me right. That was not, however, the end of the story. On losing my seat, I obtained employment as a personnel manager with a large electronics...