Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Monday 7th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

There was a discernible world-weariness in the Minister’s reference to this question having been answered several times already. I simply remind those observing our proceedings that repetition is not a novel phenomenon in the House of Commons. It never has been, and I doubt that things are going to change very much.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

An article in The BMJ shows that researchers have highlighted a possible link between an increase in the number of babies who die before their first birthday and child poverty. They estimate that there were an additional 570 excess deaths between 2014 and 2017, with 172 attributable to an increase in child poverty, so will the Minister scrap the two-child limit and the benefit cap, which are driving up child poverty?

Point of Order

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Thursday 5th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Government introduced a negative statutory instrument just three days before the summer recess for a pilot of managed migration to universal credit and payments to severely disabled people who lost out in transferring to it. The Secretary of State said that the Government had been advised by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments to use a negative SI, but my office has since been informed that the Committee had not reported on the instrument in question and that no such advice had therefore been given. Mr Speaker, will you please advise on how she could set the record straight?

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order and for her courtesy in giving me notice of her intention to raise it. Ministers are, of course, responsible for the accuracy of their answers in the House, and I am sure that the points made by the hon. Lady will have been noted on the Treasury Bench. It is open to the Secretary of State to correct the record if she thinks that that is the appropriate course of action. Moreover, I think there is a salience about this, and I understand that the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments has been alerted to the statement made by the Secretary of State and will be writing to the Department about this matter. In the light of that, I think we have to await the sequence of events, and people must draw the appropriate conclusions, both from what I have said and more widely.

Points of Order

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Monday 24th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Last June, the Government pledged to make payments to people in receipt of severe disability premium who had lost out in transferring to universal credit, but a year later those payments have still not been made. They were part of regulations to the managed migration pilot, which is due to start in July. It will be July next week and the Government have failed to tell this House what is going to happen with either the pilot or the payments. Have you, Mr Speaker, had any indication of whether the Government intend to make a statement to clarify the situation? If not, could you advise on how I might secure such a statement?

[Mr Speaker]

I have certainly received no indication of any intention on the part of a Government Minister to make an oral statement in this Chamber. However, the consequence of the hon. Lady raising this point of order is that the Treasury Bench has been alerted to her concern. I would very much hope, in the spirit of courtesy, that the Government would give her advance notice of their intention to make such a statement. I hope that that is helpful.

Universal Credit

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Monday 14th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On 6 January, it was reported in The Observer that the Government had—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Lady is always ahead of herself. What she does at this stage is say, “To ask the Minister to make a statement on universal credit”. We will get her full blast in a moment.

[Margaret Greenwood]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Minister to make a statement on universal credit.

Point of Order

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Monday 11th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Have you had any indication from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on whether she plans to make an oral statement on transitional protection in universal credit for people claiming severe disability premium?

On Thursday, the Government announced, via a written statement, that people receiving severe disability premium would not transfer to universal credit until its managed migration begins in 2019, at which point they will receive transitional protection. People who have already moved to universal credit will receive back payments.

This is an extremely important issue affecting more than half a million people. This is the fourth review that the Department has been forced to undertake in the past year, and an oral statement from the Secretary of State would give Members the opportunity to seek clarity over the steps the Department is intending to take in relation to the people affected.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order and for her courtesy in giving me advance notice of her intention to raise it. The short answer is that I have received no indication from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that she intends to make an oral statement on this subject. I advise the hon. Lady and the House that the question of whether the Government choose to announce a change of policy by written statement or by oral statement is a matter for Ministers to decide rather than for the Chair. That said, if the hon. Lady is dissatisfied—she has voiced her dissatisfaction this afternoon that a judgment has been made to indicate the change only via a written statement—there are various avenues open to her to pursue the issue further. The fact of being unsuccessful one day does not automatically preclude the possibility of success at a later stage, but Members are usually advised to be sensitive to the priorities of the House on the days in question. For example, tomorrow—I mention this en passant, although not entirely at random—the House is focused on very important legislative matters, and the same is true of Wednesday. But in my experience in this House, a combination of persistence and patience can pay. Meanwhile, the hon. Lady has put her view firmly on the record, and it will have been heard on the Treasury Bench.

Personal Independence Payments

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Monday 4th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Marsha De Cordova. [Interruption.] Ah, there has been a change of personnel. I was advised that it would be the hon. Member for Battersea. Never mind, I call Margaret Greenwood.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) on securing this urgent question. I was disappointed to hear the Secretary of State be so dismissive of concerns that have been expressed by Members right across the House. For the second time this year, the Secretary of State has been forced to acknowledge that her Department has made a serious error in assessing claims for personal independence payments. The previous error resulted in potentially 220,000 people being underpaid PIP, causing misery that could and should have been avoided. The Secretary of State now admits a second error, this time relating to activity 3 of the daily living component, “Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition”. The Department has again got the law wrong on interpreting PIP descriptors, leading to perhaps thousands of disabled people not getting the crucial support that they need.

In January, when the DWP last admitted that there had been an error, my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) asked the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work a series of questions that should have been answered but still have not been. If anyone is to have confidence in the Department, the Secretary of State must now answer our questions.

How quickly will the Department be able to identify claimants? Will the Secretary of State publish her criteria for reviewing cases? Will she include the cases that did not originally score sufficient points? Exactly how many claimants have been wrongly assessed for PIP? What assessment has she made of the administrative cost to her Department of undertaking yet another complex exercise? Given that this is the second error in the Department’s interpretation of its own guidance to come to light in six months, what reason do disabled people have to believe that her Department is fit for purpose?

Points of Order

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Wednesday 17th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. That response was clear. If others wish to continue discussing the matter, they can do so, but they should not do so in this Chamber. I am deeply obliged to the hon. Gentleman for what he has said.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. During a debate on the NHS winter crisis last Wednesday, the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Winchester (Steve Brine), misquoted what I said in the course of the debate. I tried to intervene to correct the matter, but he would not take my intervention. He said that I had said that the NHS is a political organisation. I said no such thing. What I did say was that the NHS is a political entity. Had he taken my intervention, I would have explained that the very existence of the NHS, which of course was created by a Labour Government, and the way in which it operates are reliant on the political decisions made in this Parliament. I feel that the Minister owes me an apology, and I also feel that he owes an apology to this House. I wonder whether you could advise, Mr Speaker, on how such apologies may be secured.

[Mr Speaker]

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for giving me advance notice of her intention to raise this matter. I will just inquire of her whether she has given notice of this to the Minister concerned.

[Margaret Greenwood]

I have not.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Lady should have given notice to the Minister concerned, but I will not dwell on that point; it speaks for itself. Nevertheless, I would say to the hon. Lady that if the Minister feels, having heard what she has said, that he has been inaccurate, it is open to him, and would normally be expected of him, to correct the record. Meanwhile, the hon. Lady has made her view of the matter clear, and it is on the record.

I hope that the hon. Lady will not take it amiss if I say that, notwithstanding the importance of the matter that she raises—not least to her—it is not uncommon for Members of this House to be, or to feel that they have been, misquoted or misrepresented. Some of us have some decades’ experience of this. I very gently counsel the hon. Lady, while perfectly legitimately pursuing the matter, if she so wishes, not to allow the matter to disrupt her sleep pattern.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Thursday 17th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure we will get a report in due course.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

7. What steps the Government are taking to reduce marine litter and plastics pollution.

Police Funding, Crime and Community Safety

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Wednesday 24th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Greenwood]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. Does he agree that those of us who work in this building every day—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) extended a generosity that it was not within his capacity to grant. It was very decent of him, but he gave time that he did not possess.

Energy Bill [Lords]

Debate between John Bercow and Margaret Greenwood

Monday 18th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Before the hon. Member for Wirral West (Margaret Greenwood) intervenes, I should have said to the House, in case people are waiting with bated breath, not least an hon. Member from Brighton, that the amendment, although orderly, has not been selected. I wanted to release the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) from her misery before we proceeded further. We took the view that there was adequate opportunity for her to dilate on these important matters, and I feel sure that she will not disappoint us in that, or any other, regard.

[Margaret Greenwood]

Underground coal gasification is an issue of major concern in my constituency, because Cluff Natural Resources has been granted a licence for the Dee estuary, which runs along the side of the constituency. In the Secretary of State’s speech of 18 November she announced the Government’s welcome intention to close coal by 2025 and restrict its use by 2023, commenting that coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, damages air quality and is simply not sustainable in the longer term. As the Government are proposing—