Jane Ellison: I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden speech and to follow my hon. Friends the Members for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart), for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes) and for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney), and the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram), who set such a high standard. To pick up this afternoon's running thread of football commentary, I am...
Jane Ellison: Has the Secretary of State had a chance to meet people from the neighbourhood school campaign in my constituency, who have already made considerable progress towards the establishment of a new secondary school in Wandsworth-a campaign that I note that the shadow Secretary of State supported prior to the election?
Jane Ellison: I welcome the Home Secretary's statement. In my short time as a Member of Parliament I have met people who are in this country as economic migrants and working for large, established employers who should be establishing training schemes, taking people on and equipping them with the relevant skills. Does she agree that those employers should put their efforts into setting up apprenticeships...
Jane Ellison: Many of the speeches this afternoon rightly referred to the human rights of women and girls around the world. Will my right hon. Friend make a brief comment on the extent to which the human rights of gay people are under threat in some parts of the developing world with which we have significant ongoing relationships? I am wary of any sense of using aid as a political weapon, but I hope that...
Jane Ellison: It is obviously important that we are discussing the issue of school buildings, but I fear that members of the public listening to the questions and answers over the past hour might have been left with the impression that first-class teaching and inspirational school leadership play no part in improving children's life chances. Would the Secretary of State like to confirm that on the...
Jane Ellison: I very much welcome my right hon. Friend's statement. It will be even more warmly welcomed by Mrs Zineera Aamer and her children -the family of Shaker Aamer, the last UK resident in Guantanamo Bay. They are also my constituents. They are British citizens, and they have suffered greatly over the past eight years. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it adds urgency to the case that, in the...
Jane Ellison: I apologise in case I have to leave before the end of the Minister's remarks, because I have to ask a question in the main Chamber at 11.30 am. Slightly fewer of my constituents are affected than those of the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), but I want to pick up on the point about Clapham Junction, because one problem is that it is not an effective interchange, despite being pretty...
Jane Ellison: What plans he has to reduce the regulatory burden on the voluntary and community sectors.
Jane Ellison: All over the country this Sunday there will be "big lunch" street parties, and Battersea is no exception. In my area it has been greatly facilitated by the council issuing a flat-rate charge for street closures with an easily completed form, and generally being accommodating and encouraging. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should encourage all councils to do that?
Jane Ellison: If he will take steps to reduce the functions of the non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible.
Jane Ellison: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. When I am talking to the leader of my local council-Wandsworth, a top-rated council-one of the great frustrations expressed is about the number of plans and strategies that senior officers are compelled to write in areas such as youth offending and adult social services, when their time would be better spent delivering those local services. May I have...
Jane Ellison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the level of housing benefit payments on people's willingness to seek employment.
Jane Ellison: I very much welcome the comments made by my right hon. Friend a moment ago about housing benefit. There are particularly difficult problems in London, where housing benefit has contributed to some enormous discrepancies in rent. May I ask him to take a particular interest in the problem in the capital, where the poverty trap is one of the greatest in the UK?
Jane Ellison: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to make a brief contribution to this debate, as the only member of the Backbench Business Committee from the new intake-a representative, if you like, of what the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) called the geographically and procedurally lost in this House. The other reason why, as a new Member, I stood to serve on the Committee was...
Jane Ellison: I want to support that view. I represent Battersea, and Battersea dogs home is a great source of expertise. It says that those dogs come through its doors as the victims of irresponsible back-street breeding and irresponsible ownership. It is a tragic sight to go to the dogs home and see many dozens of abandoned dogs that have little chance of being re-homed because someone bred and treated...
Jane Ellison: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made on the Government's review of rail franchising; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison: To refer my right hon. Friend to earlier answers on rail franchising-
Jane Ellison: I think this is the appropriate moment to ask my question, Mr Speaker. In her discussions with rail franchises and franchisees, will my right hon. Friend ask them whether they will consider bringing longer trains through stations whose platforms have not been lengthened when they have available rolling stock? That is common on the continent, but we do not do it here, and it would greatly help...
Jane Ellison: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities if she will hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on proposals to change the access to work programme to increase opportunities for disabled people to find employment. [Official Report, 6 September 2010, Vol. 515, c. 1MC.]
Jane Ellison: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel) and the hon. Members for Hyndburn (Graham Jones) and for Livingston (Graeme Morrice) on their excellent maiden speeches. May I pick up the point made by the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), who is no longer in his place, about the facility for a substantive response from a Minister to points raised in the...
