Andrew Slaughter: ...Opposition’s approach in amendment 23, which we tabled to leave out clause 1 in its entirety. I have also signed amendment 5, tabled by the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson, the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), which would leave out clause 2. In short, we see no merit at all in part 1 of the Bill and would strike it out. The purpose of judicial review is to determine whether...
Andrew Slaughter: ...Legal Aid Agency, is not fit for purpose. I would like to give a few examples of why the case for change is so important. The first is the case of Connor Sparrowhawk, who died after he drowned in a bath as a result of an epileptic seizure on 4 July 2013. He was admitted to a now closed down short-term assessment and treatment unit run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. Connor’s...
Andrew Slaughter: ...rented accommodation. What has also changed is where someone then goes. One of the worst things that the coalition Government did—I apologise to my Lib Dem friend over there, the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), but we have to remember the Liberal Democrats’ complicity in all these matters at all times—was to introduce a duty to permanently discharge into the private sector...
Andrew Slaughter: ...have gone into them? We are going to have a net reduction in the amount of social housing. It is an open secret in west London that the administration in Kensington and Chelsea could not run a bath. That is why the residents of north Ken have had such a raw deal for so long. So when will the Secretary of State put country before party and send in the commissioners?
Andrew Slaughter: I thank the hon. Member for Bath (Ben Howlett) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright) for bringing this matter before the House, as well as other Members who have spoken: my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey), the hon. Members for High Peak (Andrew Bingham) and for Newbury (Richard Benyon), my hon. Friend the Member for St Helens South and Whiston (Marie...
Andrew Slaughter: ...quite a big-bang approach; we are talking about an £85 million commitment. The amendments are not about saying, “Don’t do this.” They are about saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Don’t say that existing types of provision, particularly secure children’s homes, which tend to be smaller, more intimate and more highly staffed and have more supportive...
Andrew Slaughter: ...sector for £500 a week”. That four-bedroom property turned out to be a two-bedroom council flat that had been purchased and converted by the technique of putting a piece of plywood over the bath and making the bathroom into a bedroom, making the store cupboard into a bathroom, the kitchen into a bedroom, and putting the kitchen in the lounge. It was effectively a two-bedroom property...
Andrew Slaughter: ...these points. The recent Government amendment 47, to ask the court to consider whether the Secretary of State has considered PII, is purely cosmetic. The hon. Member for Chichester described it as bath-time activity for the Minister without Portfolio—and it certainly comes with the customary large amount of soap. Similarly, clause 7, inserted in Committee, purports to challenge the CMP...
Andrew Slaughter: Further to that point of order, Mr Crausby. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Cambridge, because I think he is trying to salvage my amendment from an early bath, if that is not a mixed metaphor. I raised this point with the Clerk, and I am happy to accept your and his advice. I think that the issue here is duplication. Amendment (a) would retain subsections (5) and (6), but those...
Andrew Slaughter: If that was the right hon. Member for Bath (Mr Foster) being a critical friend, I would hate to see him being sycophantic. I am afraid that the BBC’s uncritical friends do it as much damage as those, such as the hon. Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski), who would like to see it privatised and sold off to Mr Murdoch. However, I praise the hon. Member for Shrewsbury and...
Andrew Slaughter: ...expanded. I note that she said that IPP sentences were a good idea in theory. If so, surely we should work towards making them more effective in practice, rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water. I entirely agree with what the hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Rehman Chishti) said about the judiciary, which as a practitioner he has much experience of, and about the...
Andrew Slaughter: ...made redundant since October 2010, (b) are on notice of redundancy and (c) will not have their contracts renewed once they expire; (34) how many youth offending team employees or contractors in Bath and North East Somerset (a) have been made redundant since October 2010, (b) are on notice of redundancy and (c) will not have their contracts renewed once they expire; (35) how many...
Andrew Slaughter: ...interfere aggressively in many applications, who will misappropriate funds under section 106 agreements, who will take all his decisions while cloistered and hidden away, whether in Cannes, in the bath or wherever, and who will impose iron, unachievable targets on the poor borough councils by way of affordable housing and other matters. I have looked as closely as I can at the Bill and the...