Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Grant and David Burrowes(11 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mrs Grant
The hon. Gentleman raises a lot of issues and I will do my best to deal with them in the time available. The measures will certainly put an end to unsupervised easy cash-based staking above £50, allowing continued use of machines while ensuring greater opportunities for supervision and protection. The measures are targeted, reasonable and proportionate, and completely justified on a precautionary basis. We have made no change to the stake and prize. The U-turn is absolute nonsense. The shadow Minister knows that I have declared continually that there is no green light for FOBTs, and our package of reforms has been carefully considered. In my opinion, our proposals are targeted and proportionate; his proposals were knee-jerk and impractical.
Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)
I invite the Minister to take no lessons from the Opposition who are just opportunistic about FOBTs—in 2000 there were none, but in 2010 there was an explosion of 30,000 FOBT machines. The packages yesterday to protect communities are welcome in my constituency, which has seen a saturation-level of FOBTs, particularly in Palmers Green. Will she also consider the introduction of a cumulative impact test for licence applications? Is it part of the package? That would assist communities that want to take back control of this issue.
Mrs Grant
I know that my hon. Friend has considerable concerns about FOBTs, not just in his constituency but around the country. We will see strengthened play protections that will help to deal with the risks of FOBTs, wider self-exclusion and more intervention. I am happy to have a chat with him about the issue of impact assessments that he has raised.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Grant and David Burrowes(12 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)
4. What steps she is taking to prevent women from becoming victims of human trafficking.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (Mrs Helen Grant)
Raising awareness with potential victims in source countries and training front-line professionals in the UK are key to our work in identifying and preventing the exploitation of potential victims of all ages, genders and nationalities.
Mr Burrowes
Given the shocking statistic that British girls trafficked for sexual exploitation make up nearly half of all modern-day slavery victims in the UK, what voice and help is the Minister giving those voiceless and helpless girls?
Mrs Grant
The Government recognise that, sadly, trafficking can and does occur in the UK. The inter-departmental ministerial group on human trafficking brings together all parts of the Government and raises awareness of trafficking, which can affect boys and men in addition to women and girls, across the UK. The group also highlights the tailored support available through the Government’s contact with the Salvation Army. The police are also doing a great deal of very good work to tackle trafficking.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Grant and David Burrowes(12 years, 7 months ago)
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Mrs Grant
We are of course concerned about all victims. The scheme provides some payment in recognition of loss of earnings, but it was never designed to compensate for a full lifetime’s loss of earnings. Eligible applicants will receive a clear, predictable sum that will supplement other amounts that they may receive from other sources, such as state benefits. Our changes to the scheme should also allow victims to receive payments in a much speedier manner.
Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)
Do not the changes confirm the important principle that, although the state is not liable for compensating for the criminal actions of others, it has a particular responsibility for the victims of serious crime, to ensure that they do not have to wait months or even years for compensation from an unsustainable scheme?
Family Policy
Debate between Helen Grant and David Burrowes(14 years, 2 months ago)
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Mrs Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash (Jessica Lee) on securing this important debate.
The family is a fundamental and vital tool in holding society together. It can provide security, stability and commitment. In the family we learn how to give, how to share, we learn how to be kind and how to care, and we learn how to build relationships. However, the family has been and continues to be badly neglected as an institution, notwithstanding the fact that it is a key element in dealing with issues such as gun crime, knife crime, teenage pregnancy, truancy and antisocial behaviour. The Government need to do everything they can to support and protect the family.
Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)
My hon. Friend puts the matter in its proper context, referring to issues such as antisocial behaviour and gun crime. Would she commend the work of Barry and Margaret Mizen following the tragic murder of their son Jimmy? They helped to set up Families United because they wanted to channel their grief into the positive energy of trying to support such families, that being the best way of dealing with those very deep issues.
Mrs Grant
I am happy to commend that special initiative, and the bravery of the individuals affected.
Since the general election, some good and positive family policies have been announced; they include underpinning Sure Start, more health visitors, flexible working and parental leave. However, much more is needed.
I was a legal aid family lawyer for 23 years—I am giving away my age—prior to becoming a Member of Parliament. I declare an interest, in that during those years I saw a relentless rise in family breakdowns. As the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, Mr Justice Coleridge described family breakdown as a
“never ending carnival of human misery—a ceaseless river of human distress”.
The judge went on to say:
“We are experiencing a period of family meltdown whose effects will be as catastrophic as the meltdown of the ice caps”.
From practice, I know that the situation is indeed dire. Our family courts are overstretched and under-resourced, and there are many delays. The situation will be made even worse with the demise of legal aid and the increasing number of litigants in person. This comes at a time when ever more people need family lawyers, and families are marching through the family courts at an ever-increasing rate and with no sign of decline. Sir David Norgrove, in his interim family justice review, acknowledges the capability and dedication of those who work in the family justice system, but he also says that the family justice system is no system at all. He identifies fundamental failures and faults, and he concludes that our children are badly let down.
Successive Governments seem to have been oblivious to the realities of family life for many—and oblivious, too, to the profiles and personalities, psychological and otherwise, of those who rely on the family justice system and use the family courts to resolve their problems. If those Governments had appreciated the situation they would not have hesitated in comprehensively reforming the family justice system, including the substantive law of divorce, and questions of money and cohabitation; they would also have adequately funded the system, including giving legal aid for family cases.
My firm looked after about 14,000 clients in south London, Surrey and west Kent. The family profile that I shall describe to the House is, sadly, not unusual.
Mother presents with some learning difficulties, a history of violence and a history of drug abuse, but says that she is now clean. She has three children, all girls, with three different fathers. Mother seeks a non-molestation injunction order against X, the youngest daughter’s father, mum having been hit over the head with a pickaxe. There are numerous other incidents of violence. The two older children, too, need injunctions to protect them from X. There are also allegations by the eldest girl that X had touched her in an inappropriate manner. All the girls are having problems at school. The middle girl has been diagnosed with ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The school has threatened suspension because of disruptive behaviour. Mother is on income support and feeling suicidal. All the children are on the child protection register. When I took instructions from this lady, her physical appearance and her demeanour when she came into the room led me to think that she was about 50; only when I asked for her date of birth did I realise that she was only 25 years old. That is a true story.
Tragically, the children growing up in these families are watching and learning from bad behaviour and absent boundaries, and they will breed future generations of victims and perpetrators. It is an absolute vicious circle.