Points of Order

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Wednesday 16th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

rose—

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I think we shall have a change of party for a moment, but we will return to the hon. Member for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland).

[Hannah Bardell]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is my first point of order, just in time for Christmas. On a very serious point, it has come to my attention recently that the Department for Work and Pensions plans to operate “business as usual”, as it did for the first time last year, in the run-up to Christmas. That basically means that people will be sanctioned up until and on Christmas eve. How can I hold the Secretary of State to account on this matter and have it dealt with, hopefully positively, so that we do not have a Scrooge-like approach in the run-up to Christmas?

[Mr Speaker]

I think the hon. Lady has just done it, although there is one further parliamentary day. Of course, the scheduled debates for tomorrow are what they are and I am not at all sure that either of them would facilitate her in that respect, but there are other opportunities on every parliamentary day and she will have to use her ingenuity, which is not inconsiderable, to see if she can refer to the matter again and extract some sort of ministerial response in the Chamber.