Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Holmes and Dominic Raab
Tuesday 14th December 2021

(2 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
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13. What progress his Department has made on reducing reoffending rates.

Dominic Raab Portrait The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Dominic Raab)
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This Government are tackling the drivers of reoffending to keep our communities safer. That includes the investment of £70 million this year to keep prison leavers off the streets and £80 million for substance misuse treatment services.

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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We are investing £183 million in the expansion of electronic monitoring, which includes £90 million to fund and promote innovation, including in respect of drugs and tags. We are also working carefully on prisoner passports, which are all about resettlement, to make sure that we reduce prisoner and offender homelessness, and there is a big push to encourage them to work with local businesses to get them into work.

Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes
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Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that education and employment are key drivers in getting reoffending down and allowing communities that are blighted by crime to heal? Will he therefore outline to the House the progress that has been made in the prisons strategy White Paper in this area specifically?

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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I thank my hon. Friend for that, as he is absolutely right: those are two core drivers of reoffending. So in the White Paper we set out plans to deliver a prisoner education service that will focus not only on the big challenges we see with inmates on numeracy and literacy, but on encouraging vocational qualifications—a step up during their course in prison. We will be driving better outcomes on work by implementing dedicated employment advisers in prisons and a digital tool to match prisoners to jobs on release.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Holmes and Dominic Raab
Tuesday 20th July 2021

(2 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
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This month marks six years since the joint comprehensive plan of action nuclear deal was signed, yet Iran has faced no consequences for its flagrant violations of the deal. Does my right hon. Friend share my concern that Iran has failed to live up to its nuclear commitments, and will he confirm that nothing is off the table, including the reimposition of sanctions?

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point to the continued systemic non-compliance by Iran with its JCPOA commitments. Of course, Iran is still subject to wide-ranging sanctions. We strongly urge Iran to halt all its activities in violation of the JCPOA and, in line with the new US position, come back to the table and make sure that we can conclude a return to the JCPOA. I would just say that we do not believe that those negotiations can remain open-ended forever.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Holmes and Dominic Raab
Tuesday 19th January 2021

(3 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
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What diplomatic steps he is taking to bring Iran back into compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Dominic Raab Portrait The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab)
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We are very concerned about Iran’s continued systemic non-compliance with its nuclear commitments, and we have made that clear with our E3 partners, including recently at the ministerial meeting of the joint comprehensive plan of action.

Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes [V]
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Recent confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity at its Fordow facility is enormously concerning, and it is arguably the most significant breach of the JCPOA. Will the Foreign Secretary confirm that his Department will press the new Administration under President-elect Biden to rejoin the deal, and put much-needed pressure on Iran to return to compliance?

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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My hon. Friend is right about the risk from the now systemic serial non-compliance from Iran. On 21 December we held a ministerial meeting of the JCPOA ministerial commission, which was an opportunity to set out clearly our position, not just the UK, but with our French and German partners. It is welcome that President-elect Biden and the new Administration have talked about coming back to the JCPOA, and enhancing and strengthening it, and that will be one of the early topics of conversation that we have with the new Administration.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Holmes and Dominic Raab
Tuesday 8th September 2020

(3 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
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The JCPOA—joint comprehensive plan of action—deal did not include terms relating to Iran’s financing of terrorism and development of ballistic missiles. As Iran appears to have both breached its nuclear commitments and allowed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to intervene violently across the region, does my right hon. Friend agree that a new deal addressing these issues is vitally needed?

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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My hon. Friend will know that, along with our E3 colleagues, we have triggered the dispute resolution mechanism for the JCPOA on the nuclear side. It has always been the case that the JCPOA did not encompass the wider destabilising activities in which Iran engages in the region through militias and proxies, and we have always been open and willing, and indeed pressing, to try to incorporate a bigger agreement. But it is also right to say that until there is scope for that wider agreement, what we have is the JCPOA, which provides the vehicle for some kind of restraint on Iran, although I accept that it has been eroded because of systemic non-compliance. We would be reluctant to move to something bigger until it is in place, and should not lose sight of what the JCPOA adds.

Hong Kong National Security Legislation: UK Response

Debate between Paul Holmes and Dominic Raab
Tuesday 2nd June 2020

(3 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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We stand up in the United Nations, the Council of Europe and all the other international forums, as we are doing regarding Hong Kong, and call out those flagrant violations of international law. I have set out the approach that we are taking in relation to Hong Kong. We have raised the matter in the UN Security Council, of which China is obviously a permanent member. China is extremely influential. It deploys all its economic and political leverage—and, indeed, intimidation—to get others to stay quiet. What the United Kingdom has shown—and I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s support—is that we are standing up as a matter of principle and saying, “This is unacceptable”, and we are taking the actions that I described.

Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
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At the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony, Lord Patten said:

“Hong Kong people are to run Hong Kong. That is the promise. And that is the unshakeable destiny.”

Will the Foreign Secretary take this moment to reaffirm this Government’s commitment to the commitment that we made in the joint declaration, and reassure people that Hong Kongers must continue to run Hong Kong and that that resolutely remains British foreign policy?

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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It is precisely because that is at stake—in respect of not only the national security legislation but the previous elections we saw and the forthcoming elections later this year—that we are taking the approach that we are. We are calling out what is a clear and manifest breach of the joint declaration, and I reassure my hon. Friend that we will continue to do so, with our international partners.

Global Britain

Debate between Paul Holmes and Dominic Raab
Monday 3rd February 2020

(4 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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We are absolutely confident that the approach we are taking allows us to grasp the opportunities, including in relation to free trade and in making sure we have full control over our own laws and are fully economically and politically independent.

Paul Holmes Portrait Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
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Around the world protectionism is growing, and the UK has a duty to be a vocal advocate for free trade across the globe. So what reassurance can my right hon. Friend give businesses and manufacturers in my constituency that we will do just that and that free trade will become the backbone of British foreign policy?

Dominic Raab Portrait Dominic Raab
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My hon. Friend will have heard the Prime Minister’s speech this morning, and I am sure it will repay reading. He is clear that at a time when there is protectionism around the world, there is a real case and place—and this would be a real unique selling point for us—for the United Kingdom being a champion of liberal, global free trade. That will have advantages not only for the businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency but for the low-income and middle-income families who appreciate and feel the cost of living pressures, because of the way this increases choice and reduces prices at home.