Claire Hanna: While we welcome minor amendments to the petition of concern to make it a little more difficult to table one, that does not improve how the POC works or restore it to its intended purposes. Amendments 11 and 12 seek to do that by restoring some of the Belfast agreement’s factory settings, as it were, and reinserting the special procedure described in paragraphs 11 to 13 of strand one,...
Claire Hanna: I thank the Minister. We appreciate that this flows from NDNA, but I am unclear whether there was a specific request for those particular provisions to be withdrawn. They existed before the New Decade, New Approach deal. Other aspects have been enhanced, and this one has been diluted. It is not clear to me why that would be the case—why it would have been weakened. I will keep my powder...
Claire Hanna: Once again, Mr Stringer, I appreciate your indulgence. I promise that we will be expert going forward, and I will be very brief about amendments 17, 18 and 19. As the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley outlined, the amendments are about compelling and encouraging Ministers to implement the programme for government. Notwithstanding the fact that one is not currently agreed, a programme of work...
Claire Hanna: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. Apologies for my lateness. I was outside the Boothroyd Room, uncharacteristically on time, and am new to this process. On the ministerial code, we welcome clause 4—
Claire Hanna: I beg to move amendment 13, in clause 4, page 5, line 22, after “be accountable to the Assembly” insert “users of services,”. This amendment would ensure that Ministers and Departments are accountable and responsible to users of services, as well as to the Assembly and the public.
Claire Hanna: Thank you very much, Mr Stringer. I appreciate your guidance. We welcome the strengthening of parts of the ministerial code, which we think will protect, enhance or potentially and eventually deliver good governance in Northern Ireland. Indeed, we think it could have wider purchase. Amendments 13 and 14 refer to our concern that parts of the ministerial code that were in the Good Friday...
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that clinical studies for (a) ME, chronic fatigue syndrome and (b) long-covid are conducted using appropriate outcome criteria.
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030 which calls on donors to fulfil respective official development assistance commitments including the commitment to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income, if he will...
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the provision of humanitarian aid in the Tigray region.
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the calls of the UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030 to fully mobilise the resource needs of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through its replenishment conferences, if the Government will make it its policy...
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of a reduction in funding for the HIV response on the ability of the international community to reach the targets included in the UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030.
Claire Hanna: Q A previous speaker addressed some my questions around the code of conduct. By the way, it is very good to see you all, if only virtually. On the provisions on enforcement of the code of conduct, do you think the Bill needs to specify who should be the arbiter of those provisions?
Claire Hanna: Q Lesley or Gareth, would you have any suggestions on that? Should there perhaps be more power, or more definition of the scope of the Northern Ireland Assembly Commissioner for Standards?
Claire Hanna: Q I want to pick up on an issue that has been discussed today by a number of witnesses: the processes that were envisaged originally regarding the use of the petition of concern, but that have not been regularly used, such as this Ad Hoc Committee on Conformity with Equality Requirements. I remember, from my time in the Assembly, a previous committee being in place for the POCs on welfare...
Claire Hanna: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David. Thanks for your evidence, Mark. You commented briefly on the original intent of the Good Friday agreement versus how it has latterly been used as a way to, I suppose, thwart minority rights rather than protect them. Could you give an assessment of what Daniel Holder this morning called the St Andrews veto, deployed at the...
Claire Hanna: Q I want to pick up on another change to the Good Friday agreement at St Andrews that is also covered, in part, in the Bill, which is the change from jointly electing First Ministers to the arrangement that we currently have. What was the point in principle of that change? Do you think it has been a factor in the recurring instability that we have seen over the last number of mandates and years?
Claire Hanna: Q I do not want to hog all the time, but I want to ask what your assessment is of the Government impact of the potential period of caretaker Ministers. The phrase that has been in my head all day is the former First Minister’s phrase “rogues and renegades”. I am thinking of the issues around powers and scrutiny. What is your assessment of that?
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that reductions in the foreign aid budget do not prevent the (a) distribution and (b) administration of lifesaving drugs in developing countries.
Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much will the UK's next contribution to the Global Partnership for Education be.
Claire Hanna: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson). We served together as Belfast city councillors and his voice and his views are always worth hearing. I believe that if they were the values and views projected by his party we would be in a much better position. While not seeking to put him on the spot, I think that was a very important point to make about the fact...