Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 18th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his very helpful advert to all Members for forthcoming debates. I will ensure that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also heard the hon. Gentleman’s concerns about the bridge and, again, I will ask the Department for Transport to lean in.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

May I add my tribute to Tony Lloyd? He was a good man, who never underestimated or undervalued the extreme power of kindness.

The Leader of the House will have seen last month’s judgment in the case of the Duke of Sussex v. Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd, which records that witnesses for MGN accepted that, in 2007, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee was misled by the then executives at The Mirror trying to conceal the illegal and unlawful activities that were going on. The individual accused of misleading the Committee died in 2022. Does the Leader of the House agree that any attempts to mislead Committees are unacceptable, but especially those by media organisations, from which the public and Parliament expect honesty and integrity? Will she commit to keep the important issue of Select Committee powers under review, so that Committees such as mine can continue to operate without obstruction?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question. The powers and privileges of this House are necessary to enable Parliament to function freely and fully, and it is vital that Select Committees are able to obtain full and accurate evidence from witnesses as part of their inquiries. That is critical. The powers available to this House and Select Committees have been under continual review, and they have been investigated numerous times in the past decades. It is, of course, very frustrating when witnesses do not co-operate with Select Committees, and the Government support this House in asserting its powers to ensure that it can scrutinise effectively.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 30th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his advert for forthcoming debates. It is good to know that the Backbench Business Committee is busy. I will certainly let him know as soon as possible about the week of 18 December. He will know that we always try to give as much notice as possible.

I am very sorry to hear about his ongoing constituency issue. That is why we believe minimum service standards in vital sectors—transport is one of them—are so important. I will make sure that the Transport Secretary has heard about that ongoing situation. It is very well understood that students from lower socioeconomic groups will be disproportionately affected by such action.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

May we have a debate on decisions by probation and prison services to release on licence? Last Friday, my constituent Levi Kent was stabbed to death. The man charged with his murder was sentenced to two years in prison for wounding with intent just in January this year and was released on licence in September. Will my right hon. Friend back my calls for a serious case review into the licensing decision and monitoring, which may have freed someone who should be in prison to murder?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am sure I speak for the whole House when I say how appalled we are to hear of that situation. Our thoughts are with my hon. Friend’s constituents and all those affected by this appalling tragedy. The Lord Chancellor is aware of this case. I am sure it will need to be subject to a review into what happened in this instance, but I know the Lord Chancellor’s door is always open to her and I think he may have already contacted her. I thank her for all she is doing in her constituency in the aftermath of this appalling event.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 21st April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, but I know you would acknowledge that the timing is a matter for you. The issue of online safety is obviously very important, which is why so many colleagues wanted to speak about it, and why the Government are introducing the Bill. I have a number of times heard the hon. Lady ask, at the Dispatch Box, “When is the Online Safety Bill coming?” When we finally deliver it, she is still not happy. I can only deliver what she has asked for. The good news is that there will be plenty of opportunity to debate online safety, and I am sure that the Government will supply time for those debates.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

May we please have a debate about raising the quality of our bathing water? So many of my constituents love swimming and doing water sports on the Solent throughout the year, and I thoroughly recommend it, Mr Speaker, if you would like to try it. However, the bathing water regulations specify that testing is necessary only between May and September. May we have a debate on how we can improve the testing of our seas and rivers, so that more people can enjoy them all year round?

[Mark Spencer]

My hon. Friend has raised an important matter. Indeed, I have seen the Prime Minister bathing in the sea fairly recently. Of course, we introduced the landmark Environment Act 2021, which is intended to improve our environment, but my hon. Friend is right to raise the issue, and hopefully there will be an opportunity for her to raise it directly with Ministers on Thursday, during questions to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his personal good wishes. My wife and I are looking forward to spending a good deal of time in Wales after the general election, and I thank him for his welcome. I am also grateful to him for pointing out the importance of “Erskine May”. There were some farmyard noises in the House yesterday, and I am sure that when the Labour party has stopped being chicken about debating with the Green party, there will be less need for such things in the House.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the impact of falling oil prices on energy bills, but does the Leader of the House agree that transport companies should also be urgently considering how they can pass on any savings to their passengers? May we have a debate on that subject?

[Mr Hague]

This is an important point. People immediately think of the price of fuel for motorists, which is vividly displayed on every forecourt around the country, but it is also important that companies right across the energy sector pass on any reduction in prices. As we discussed earlier, the suppliers of energy to households are starting to do that, but it will be important for transport providers to do so as well, and I know that my right hon. Friends the Chancellor and the Energy Secretary will be keen to promote that.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 16th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I will pass on the hon. Gentleman’s point to my Home Office colleagues, who have to ensure that our visa system is not only rigorous but efficient—certain changes have been made to bring that about. He makes a point that we should examine, however, so I shall refer it to my Home Office colleagues.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

For 30 years, Abbey Homes has been sitting on the Stokesmead site in my constituency. It has been unable to develop the site, yet is unwilling to sell it to the borough council or indeed to local residents, who would like the site to be used as a village green. May we have a debate on such land banking, which does nothing to benefit our local communities?

[Mr Hague]

Such issues create strong feelings in local communities, and my hon. Friend always speaks up strongly for her local community. As has been the case with other matters raised by hon. Members, it is open to her to seek an Adjournment debate or a Back-Bench business debate, and I encourage her to do so.

Devolution (Scotland Referendum)

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Pete Wishart]

rose—

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

rose—

[Sadiq Khan]

I give way to the hon. Lady.

[Caroline Dinenage]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. I represent a constituency in the south of England; he might be aware of it—it is a place without very many Labour MPs. He keeps talking about this being a Westminster stitch-up—something coming down from Westminster—and saying that there is no requirement for it and there is nothing that is being driven bottom-up from the people in the constituencies, but I get letters about this every day of every week: English people want English votes.

[Sadiq Khan]

I did not say there was not an issue; I have said there is an issue, but I am also saying there are other issues as well, and rather than us imposing a solution, we should be speaking to the people who are raising those concerns. There are other issues as well. How can it be that we have a Parliament that is fully appointed—completely unelected—with 85% from the hon. Lady’s part of the country and London? That is unacceptable.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I am full of helpful suggestions—“Ask at the next DCLG questions” would be the first one. Of course, as the right hon. Gentleman, who is a very experienced Member of the House, knows, there are many other ways in which to raise issues in this House—through Adjournment debates and promoting Back-Bench business debates—and he is very well able to do so.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

In the light of South West Trains’ announcement that £210 million will be invested in rolling stock and not a single penny will be used on rail routes between Portsmouth and London, will the Leader of the House agree to a debate on the much-needed improvements to this important route, which has been painfully neglected for decades?

[Mr Hague]

The investment that my hon. Friend mentions is coming in to provide additional capacity to meet the expected increase in the number of peak-time passengers arriving at London Waterloo, and it is targeting the suburban network by creating extra platform capacity. A small number of evening peak services to Portsmouth will be lengthened, with more cars in the train, and I hope she welcomes that. I know that she will continue to make the case for investment that benefits her constituents. Again, there are many opportunities open to her, and to other hon. Members, to raise such issues in the House.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I will ask the Business Secretary to respond to the hon. Lady. I do not share her concerns about that matter. It is important to recognise that the Land Registry continues to make greater efficiencies and progress. She will have seen the written ministerial statement made today about the targets that are being set for the Land Registry’s future activities. That is important because of the service that it provides to people in this country.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

Despite National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines suggesting that women up to the age of 42 should be allowed up to three rounds of in vitro fertilisation treatment, women in my local area are offered only one round of IVF treatment up to the age of 35 by the local clinical commissioning group. Does the Leader of the House agree that we should have a debate on what is effectively a postcode lottery for fertility treatment in the UK?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend will no doubt recall that these are issues with which parts of the NHS have wrestled for a very long time. My view, and I think the view of the Government, is that clinical commissioning groups, in their responsibility for commissioning, should take full account of the NICE clinical guidelines. NICE has published fertility guidelines, which are not mandatory but are there for a reason. It should be recognised that the recommendation of three full cycles of IVF and the age limit is evidence based. Clinical commissioning groups should look to the evidence. If they do otherwise, large amounts of money will have been spent on investigations of infertility, but the opportunity to maximise the chances of conception in the IVF that follows will be undermined. It is important to use the resources that are used in the investigation to support proper treatment.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I will try, as I always endeavour to do on behalf of Members, to secure a response to the hon. Gentleman as soon as I can.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

Commuters on the south coast have been struggling with inadequate transport infrastructure for decades. Gosport is the largest town in the UK without a railway, it takes longer to travel on the fast train from Portsmouth to London than it does to go from London to Doncaster, and the A32 and M27 are virtually at gridlock. Will the Leader of the House arrange a debate on the transport infrastructure in the Solent region?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend might like to pursue the broader question of transport links in her area through an Adjournment debate, if she is able to secure one, but I shall of course get a reply from a Transport Minister, which will reflect the fact that we are making the largest investment in this country’s railways since the Victorian era.

Business of the House

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 9th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I was trying to examine to what extent legislation was brought forward when the right hon. Gentleman was a member of the previous Government, although there is nothing intrinsically good about the number of Bills being brought forward. Fifteen Bills were mentioned in the Gracious Speech yesterday, the same number as in 2012. That is, of course, fewer Bills than in 2010, which was a two-year Session, but more than in 2008 or 2007 and the latter part of the Government of which he was a member.

I would say that the Bills being presented are incomparably more substantial, bold and radical. The right hon. Gentleman should look at what is being presented today on the rehabilitation of offenders—my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice will say more about that in a statement later; at the pensions Bill and what it will mean for removing the absurd and perverse anomaly whereby people were incentivised not to save, and not given reassurance that the state pension would stand behind them so that their savings could add to that without detracting from it; and at the care Bill. I feel proud that we are addressing the reform of social care—something that signally failed under the previous Labour Government —and providing important protections for the carers of those in need. It is a bold and ambitious Bill from a coalition Government who, notwithstanding the difficult decisions we have had to make, have themselves been bold, ambitious and radical.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

I am sure the Leader of the House will join me in congratulating Portsmouth News and the Solent local enterprise partnership, which have worked together to introduce a successful “bridging the gap” scheme and used a £2.1 million regional growth fund bid to help generate local growth and boost local business. May we have a debate in the House to celebrate such successful, innovative business growth schemes, and share other innovative ideas for promoting local growth?

[Mr Lansley]

I do indeed join my hon. Friend in welcoming the “bridging the gap” scheme and those who have supported it in her constituency and around Portsmouth and the Solent. It shows how, by working closely with local authorities and businesses, local enterprise partnerships are able to deliver schemes that make sense locally, not least because they are rooted in their local communities and not part of a bureaucracy, which regional development agencies used to be. My hon. Friend draws on a good example of that.