Lord Empey: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his personal courtesies to me since I have been a Member of your Lordships' House. I welcome the increased allowances for small businesses and the reductions in corporation tax. Will the further reductions in corporation tax dissuade the Minister's right honourable friend the Prime Minister from considering devolving corporation tax-setting powers to the...
Lord Empey: My Lords, I have been reading the report since 8.30 am. I do not understand how the Official Opposition can come to the conclusion that another inquiry is needed when there are over 500 pages to be gone through. The inquiries into the six cases that flowed from Weston Park have required very substantial amounts of expenditure and effort put into finding the truth. Is the Leader of the House...
Lord Empey: My Lords, with regard to the two pieces of legislation before us this evening, I often wonder whether the European Union is getting too large to manage. That concern applies to those current practitioners who are in Brussels on a regular basis. With regard to the Irish protocols, I would draw the attention of the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner of Margravine, to the fact that these exceptions...
Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many members of the Armed Forces have sustained life-changing injuries as a result of their service in Iraq and Afghanistan; and what additional resources will be made available for their long-term care.
Lord Empey: I do not wish to get into an argument over statistics, but clearly the Minister's figures cannot possibly at this stage include people who will suffer from mental illness, which, as we know, emerges over time. However given that many of these casualties will require care for anything up to 60 years or more and that the care is of a specific nature which cannot inevitably be supplied by the...
Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of recent international developments particularly in the Middle East, whether they will review their plans for the future size, configuration and equipping of the Armed Forces.
Lord Empey: My Lords, I welcome the opportunity for the House to discuss defence issues, given the ongoing sacrifice that our soldiers, sailors and Air Force personnel are being asked to make on behalf of this country. Sadly, another example of that sacrifice has been drawn to our attention today. Leaving aside the question of how or whether we should be fighting in recent theatres of operation, the...
Lord Empey: My Lords, I thank the committee for at least trying to address some of the issues that some of us have over this. I am a relatively new Member-although if the information given by the noble Lord, Lord Barnett, is correct, I may very well soon be able to describe myself as a veteran Member. The Chairman of Committees raised a point about distance. Whether people perhaps realise it or not, the...
Lord Empey: My Lords, the noble Earl is concerned that people only met at a later stage in separate rooms. People in negotiations that I have been involved in have been in separate nations, separate continents and different places before we actually got together, so we are well versed in "proximity talks", which I think was the phraseology that was invented to cover those circumstances. We seem in this...
Lord Empey: My Lords, will the noble Baroness confirm that, because of the intermittent nature of wind power, there will be-there can be-no reduction in generating capacity from fossil fuel and nuclear sources? In this country cold weather, such as that we had two years ago, tends to be accompanied by high pressure, which means no wind. The intermittent nature of wind power will therefore not result in a...
Lord Empey: What is the role of the Charity Commission in this? If an organisation pays out to good causes only less than 1% of its revenue, does an alarm bell ring somewhere?
Lord Empey: My Lords-
Lord Empey: It was 19 minutes when I got up.
Lord Empey: My Lords, given that HMS "Caroline", which is currently moored in Belfast, is the last surviving commissioned light cruiser that participated in the battle of Jutland, what plans do the Government have for the future of that vessel?
Lord Empey: My Lords, I wanted to address a couple of issues this afternoon, the first being the economic dimension to the Commonwealth. As we have heard from many speeches, approximately one-third of humanity is engaged in the Commonwealth and it very largely shares with people and businesses in this country a common language and very similar approaches to law. Among these diverse countries are those...
Lord Empey: Can the noble and learned Lord clarify one point concerning the relationship between this legislation and the other Commonwealth countries and what the implications of change would be?
Lord Empey: My Lords, the Minister's proposals are, as he said, a matter of deep regret with regard to Northern Ireland. For those noble Lords who perhaps have not followed the case, the Northern Ireland Executive refused to allow the powers of a constable to be conferred on an NCA official. This means that, in practice, Sinn Fein vetoed the establishment of the National Crime Agency in respect of...
Lord Empey: Before the Minister sits down, perhaps he can address the question that I raised. In circumstances where agreement is not reached, where the Executive do not make alternative arrangements to pursue crime as was intended by the NCA, and where evidence emerges that crime is developing in Northern Ireland and is being spread to the mainland, what steps will the Government take?
Lord Empey: My Lords, perhaps I may briefly raise one very minor point. It has occurred to me that when we deal with supplementary Oral Questions, there might be a difficulty for some Members with mobility issues in getting up quickly enough to actually put a Question. I do not know what the solution is, but perhaps the Chairman of Committees and his colleagues would bear it in mind. It frequently...
Lord Empey: My Lords, every time the economy and public spending are mentioned, the word "growth" usually accompanies them. Today is no exception. People say that what we need are policies for growth, as this is the only way to close the deficit and reduce our borrowing. It is easy to see why this is a popular idea. When one looks at the graph of spending to borrowing, a rise in tax revenues brought...