John Nicolson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates renovation work on the Number 11 Downing Street flat took place.
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has plans to assess whether the Charity Commission appropriately complied with the Public Sector Equality Duty in giving the LGB Alliance charitable status.
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the Charity Commission monitors the LGB Alliance’s revised social media policy to ensure that it meets ethical standards under law.
John Nicolson: What recent assessment he has made of the effect of his policies on living standards.
John Nicolson: My goodness, what a disastrous week for the UK Government. While they have been mired in scandal and slithering through sleaze, the SNP has committed to doubling the Scottish child payment and carers allowance and to introducing a new winter heating payment. Does the Chancellor accept that these are more noble social objectives than enriching well-placed cronies?
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent fraudulent phone calls from overseas being routed through UK exchanges.
John Nicolson: Online abuse is a curse. Once upon a time when kids got bullied at school, that bullying stopped at the school gates. Even if they did not talk about their ordeals—and sadly, we know that many children feel that they cannot—back at home, in a loving household, they were safe. All that has changed with social media. Today, the bullies and trolls pursue their victims home and online. We...
John Nicolson: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Moray (Douglas Ross). He has clearly not heard that the Hamilton report has found no breach of the ministerial code. I know he would want to be gracious and to congratulate the First Minister. I understand people who once opposed Scottish independence. My dad saw himself as a proud Scottish patriot, but a youth forged in war and then the values...
John Nicolson: As if the Government’s refusal to underwrite live music insurance was not bad enough for the industry, the UK Government rejected a deal with the EU that would have allowed artists and their crews to tour without visas, as they did pre Brexit. At her recent Select Committee appearance, the Minister said that as far as she knew, no negotiations with individual states were taking place to...
John Nicolson: I thank all the people and constituents who asked for this debate, and the hon. Members who have spoken. I felt the Minister’s pain as she tried to cope with saying “East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow” a couple of times. I was interested to hear the Minister say that whales, dolphins and porpoises are legally protected. They are not being protected if they are being blown up,...
John Nicolson: I beg to move, That this House has considered the disposal of unexploded ordnance for offshore windfarm construction. I express my appreciation to the right hon. Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale) and the hon. Members for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) and for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) for supporting my application for the debate. All of us welcome the extraordinary potential of our...
John Nicolson: I thank the hon. Member for Solihull (Julian Knight) for securing the debate and Members across the House for their contributions so far. How we have all missed culture and sport, which are the very heartbeat of our national life and which have been put on ice by this grim pandemic. I know that other Members ache, like me, to hear the roar of a crowd at a gig, to sit lost in music at a...
John Nicolson: While the UK Government are extending rates relief for only three months in England, the Scottish Government are doing so for the whole year, helping the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors. The Scottish Government want to go further still, so will the Minister support Scottish businesses by calling for the full devolution of financial powers to Scotland?
John Nicolson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much tax is reclaimed annually through gift aid.
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many places she plans to offer to refugees, per annum, under the new UK Resettlement Scheme.
John Nicolson: “Converting gays”—just wonder for a moment about how primitive that concept is. It is a cruel hangover from a darker time—a time when to be gay, lesbian or trans was to be flawed or inadequate. I do not know why I am gay. I do not know why I have green eyes or curly hair, but I do know that no one made me gay; I was born gay. When I was younger, to borrow from Alfred Kinsey, I would...
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will hold discussions with the Intellectual Property Office on the potential role of a national copyright exhaustion regime in supporting the UK’s (a) publishing industry and (b) other creative exports.
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will request that the Intellectual Property Office publishes an impact assessment of the potential effect of an international copyright exhaustion regime on the UK’s (a) publishing industry and (b) other creative exports.
John Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will request that the Intellectual Property Office's consultation into the copyright exhaustion regime considers the feasibility of (a) specific arrangements for the publishing sector, (b) other sector specific arrangements and (b) a national exhaustion or international exhaustion outcome.