Patrick Grady: What recent discussions he has had with (a) the Scottish Government and (b) professional bodies in the education sector on the effect of the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill on Scotland’s education system.
Patrick Grady: Well, that is a very unequivocal answer, so we look forward to that not coming back to bite them at any point in the future. I am glad the Minister is engaging with the GTCS, because in the other place the Minister has had to table an amendment to specifically include school teaching in the list of exempted professions. School teaching could be interpreted narrowly as solely relating to the...
Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with officials at UNESCO on the UK’s (a) participation in and (b) ratification of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Patrick Grady: Despite the right hon. Lady’s bluster earlier, we all know that the Prime Minister’s preferred candidate has decisively lost the US presidential election. Give that the Obama Administration’s position was that Brexit would put the UK at the back of the queue for a US trade deal, where does she think the UK stands in that queue now?
Patrick Grady: I thank my constituent, Ellen Reynolds, for her actions in bringing the petition together. She has experienced what it is like to work a so-called trial shift and not to get paid. She does not want anyone else to go through that. Her e-petition on the parliamentary website has more than 7,000 signatures. I hope there will be more, so that we get a Government response, a debate and perhaps...
Patrick Grady: If anything will be disastrous for devolution, it is the Government’s United Kingdom Internal Market Bill, but the Minister does not seem to get the point put to him by several Members. How is the Government’s determination to reinstate the clauses that allow them to break international law compatible with the assurance that the Prime Minister gave President-elect Biden that he would not...
Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Saudi Arabian counterpart to secure the release of (a) Loujain AlHathloul and (b) other human rights defenders in that country; and if he will make a statement.
Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her timescale is for moving asylum seekers in (a) Glasgow and (b) elsewhere in the UK from the hotel accommodation to which they were transferred back to appropriate accommodation.
Patrick Grady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend the temporary 5 per cent reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, hotel and holiday accommodation businesses for the 2021-22 financial year.
Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the merger between his Department and the Department for International Development on the criteria for (a) acceptance and (b) refusal of international development grant applications.
Patrick Grady: When my name went down on the call list, I thought this would be a debate on one of the usual consensual motions, when we congratulate the candidates on the quality of their CVs and wish them all the best, but it has clearly turned into just a little bit more than that—although that is certainly the case in respect of Professor Maguire. That suggests that the process has been successful in...
Patrick Grady: That is exactly where we seem to be heading, because it seems to me that if the integrity and the suitability of a candidate that has gone through the entire system is now being questioned on the Floor of the House, then in fact the integrity and suitability of the whole system are being questioned, and that is very serious. It is a bit of a problem, not least because the same system has...
Patrick Grady: It goes back to my fundamental point that I do not see how the system can produce one qualified candidate and one non-qualified candidate. It suggests that the Government are questioning the integrity of the system as a whole, and in that case we have to have a much bigger discussion than the one we are having right now. As the former Chair of the Standards Committee, the hon. Member for...
Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that face coverings sold privately for use by the general public are of a high standard and effective.
Patrick Grady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend business rates relief for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England for the 2021-22 financial year.
Patrick Grady: The Chancellor seems to be either deaf to or in denial about some of what Opposition Members are saying to him today. EY has calculated that over £1 trillion of assets are being moved out of the UK to the EU as a result of Brexit. Does he accept that? Is he proud of it? Does he think it is a price worth paying for Brexit? Does he seriously think that what he is announcing today will mitigate...
Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of applying the British Nationality Act Remedial Order to British born Windrush descendants whose families gained the right to settle in the UK via the Immigration Act 1971.
Patrick Grady: I wonder whether the Home Secretary or one of her Ministers would be prepared to engage with some of the asylum support groups that I met recently in Glasgow to hear at first hand how they feel that the ASPEN—asylum support enablement—card system is financially and digitally excluding them during the covid virus pandemic and making them feel that the hostile environment has not gone away.
Patrick Grady: I will be brief, because there is pressure on time, but I just want to say that the hon. Lady is making an incredibly powerful speech that is demonstrating the importance of the scrutiny that her Select Committee has been able to provide. I want to re-emphasise the point I made to the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) that the Scottish National party fully supports the...
Patrick Grady: I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing the debate and apologise for the fact that we have not been able to field a Front-Bench spokesperson from the Scottish National party today. I endorse everything she is saying and the points she is making about the importance of global access to a vaccine, when it is developed. As she says, it should be treated as a common good. We have to seek...