Parliamentary search - Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill (HL)

Type

Parliamentary proceeding

Reference

447 c921-61

Session

2005-06

Department

Wales Office

Legislative stage

Second reading

Procedure

Programme motions
Money resolutions
Queen's consent

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill (HL) . Brought from Lords. Explanatory Notes Bill 132-EN also published
Thursday, 16 February 2006
Bills
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Lord Hain | 447 c926 (Link to this contribution) I thought, Madam Deputy Speaker, that you were going to remind all Members that there is a World cup...

Roger Williams | 447 c926 (Link to this contribution) Surely the Secretary of State highlights the weaknesses of the Bill? The commissioner’s proposed pow...

Show all contributions (79)

Lord Hain | 447 c926 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is not recognising the devolution settlement. The devolution set...

Adam Price | 447 c927 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State just said that the commissioner will be able to make representations to him. ...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?

Lord Hain | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Of course I will give way, but I wonder whether the hon. Lady wants to stop me watching the World cu...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Well, it is nice to know that the Secretary of State for Wales is supporting the English team.

Chris Ruane | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) He did not say that.

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Well, if he did not say it, he will have the opportunity to do so when he returns to the Dispatch Bo...

Speaker | 447 c926 (Link to this contribution) Order. I remind all hon. Members that we are discussing a Bill that relates to Wales.

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c933 (Link to this contribution) That point is valid. The Government should be thinking about how they will cope with the pensioner h...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c932-3 (Link to this contribution) Methinks that I have given the Secretary of State an opportunity to make a little party political br...

Philip Hollobone | 447 c933 (Link to this contribution) One significant point about those figures is that if the United Kingdom as a whole contained the sam...

Betty Williams | 447 c927 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend may be aware that the UK charity Counsel and Care has expressed concern that th...

Lord Hain | 447 c927-31 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. The commissioner will certainly be able to take into account that important agenda and any i...

Lord Hain | 447 c927 (Link to this contribution) It is not a question of a formal right. I have received letters from the Children’s Commissioner for...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c932 (Link to this contribution) I understand that point, which prompts the question why there will not be a commissioner for England...

Lord Hain | 447 c932 (Link to this contribution) This is one of many pioneering bright ideas from Wales and from Welsh Labour. Who knows what might h...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c931-2 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Secretary of State for taking the House through the details of the Bill—never b...

Lord Hain | 447 c932 (Link to this contribution) I have mentioned common-sense arrangements. The Children’s Commissioner for Wales already has inform...

Philip Hollobone | 447 c936 (Link to this contribution) Those of us with some limited experience of local government know that the trend is increasingly to ...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c936-7 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right that there is a danger of that. There is a question about points of access t...

Chris Ruane | 447 c937 (Link to this contribution) And why not?

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c937 (Link to this contribution) I note the hon. Gentleman’s comment.

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c933-6 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. It will be interesting to see exactly what the commissioner...

Lord Hain | 447 c936 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps I can help the hon. Lady. It is important that we do not blur channels of accountability. Th...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c936 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate that intervention. However, we need to examine that independence carefully, especially ...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c923 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State forgets that Wales has been used by the Labour Government as a laboratory bec...

Lord Hain | 447 c922-3 (Link to this contribution) I intend to deal with that matter later in my speech, but I can point out to my hon. Friend that the...

David Leslie Taylor | 447 c922 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, not least because three years ago almost to the day I introdu...

Lord Hain | 447 c922 (Link to this contribution) When it was introduced, the Chancellor made it clear that it was intended to deal with the particula...

Roger Williams | 447 c922 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State fails to mention the £200 given to pensioners to mitigate council tax increas...

Lord Hain | 447 c922 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, there is generous council tax benefit for the lowest income pen...

Philip Hollobone | 447 c922 (Link to this contribution) Those figures do not take account of the huge increases in council tax that many vulnerable older pe...

Lord Hain | 447 c923 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. The former workers of ASW and their families are grateful to my hon. Friend for championing ...

Lord Hain | 447 c923 (Link to this contribution) In that case, why did the Welsh Conservatives, along with the Liberal Democrats, support that revalu...

Lord Hain | 447 c921 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. The Bill enables the National Assembly to s...

Albert Owen | 447 c921 (Link to this contribution) I very much welcome the Bill and the partnership between the National Assembly for Wales and this Pa...

Lord Hain | 447 c921-2 (Link to this contribution) Indeed I do, and my hon. Friend makes a very important point, which is as applicable in his Ynys Môn...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?

Lord Hain | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Dream on. The pensioners of Wales will benefit from this pioneering Bill—probably one of the first s...

Julie Morgan | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way, while he is still considering the Bill’s background. Do...

Lord Hain | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) No. I need to make progress on the Bill itself.

Lord Hain | 447 c925 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. The scandalous way in which many generations of women have been discriminated against in not...

Adam Price | 447 c923-4 (Link to this contribution) In the ASW case, the Government completely disregarded the conclusions and recommendations of the in...

David Evennett | 447 c924 (Link to this contribution) I am listening with great interest to the Secretary of State’s speech and Conservative Members suppo...

Lord Hain | 447 c924 (Link to this contribution) We would not set up the commissioner for older people only to take no notice, would we? I am sure th...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c924-5 (Link to this contribution) I understood that the Bill related to establishing a commissioner for older people and devolved matt...

Lord Hain | 447 c924 (Link to this contribution) Of course it is. If the hon. Gentleman had taken the trouble to inquire into the Bill, he would know...

Angela Watkinson | 447 c937 (Link to this contribution) As an older person who is one quarter Welsh, I suggest that we should view the matter as a rich seam...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c937-8 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend looks eternally young to me and I shall always remind the Secretary of State that I a...

Nia Griffith | 447 c938 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak in the important debate on establishing a ...

Julie Morgan | 447 c942 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not welcome the clause allowing the commissioner to enter homes such as thos...

Cheryl Gillan | 447 c940 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will agree that a reply often comes from the Secretary of State for Wales...

Roger Williams | 447 c940-2 (Link to this contribution) I agree with the hon. Lady, and I am sure that we will raise these points in Committee. Our constitu...

Lord Hain | 447 c940 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way, and I apologise to the hon. Lady for butting across her, ...

Roger Williams | 447 c939 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the Secretary of State.

Roger Williams | 447 c942-3 (Link to this contribution) Help the Aged has expressed concern about the question of the commissioner’s having power to enter s...

Madeleine Moon | 447 c943-8 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I promise that I shall be brief, so that Members ...

Julie Morgan | 447 c951-3 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to speak in this debate and to follow the hon. Member for Carmarthen, East and Dine...

Adam Price | 447 c948-51 (Link to this contribution) In the interests of Anglo-Welsh relations—and of any Wrexham supporters who might be in our midst—I ...

Julie Morgan | 447 c954 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the average council tax in my area of Cardiff is lower post revalua...

David Jones | 447 c953-4 (Link to this contribution) As the father of two extremely avid Wrexham supporters, I assure the Secretary of State and everyone...

Chris Ruane | 447 c955 (Link to this contribution) Explain yourself.

David Jones | 447 c954 (Link to this contribution) That might well be the case, but it is absolutely clear that if there had been no revaluation or reb...

Chris Ruane | 447 c955 (Link to this contribution) That is ups and downs.

David Jones | 447 c955 (Link to this contribution) They would be paying less than is the case after rebanding or revaluation.

Speaker | 447 c955 (Link to this contribution) Order. We cannot have such general, casual conversation. I think that the House has taken the point....

David Jones | 447 c955-7 (Link to this contribution) We could to and fro on the point ad nauseam, but in my part of Wales, certainly, pensioners are payi...

David Jones | 447 c955 (Link to this contribution) Well, from a sedentary position—

Roger Williams | 447 c959-60 (Link to this contribution) The Minister will accept that we have done nothing other than try to maximise the effect of the work...

Nick Ainger | 447 c957-9 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is correct, but it would be an unwise Minister who cut the budget of a commission...

David Jones | 447 c957 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the Minister says, but there will be a difference. At present, the Assembly is a body co...

Nick Ainger | 447 c957 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for all the contributions that have been made. I appreciated both their content and th...

Nick Ainger | 447 c960 (Link to this contribution) It depends on the nature of the complaint, of course. Clearly, if it is about the payment of a pensi...

Angela Watkinson | 447 c933 (Link to this contribution) What relationship does my hon. Friend predict that the new commissioner will have with the National ...

Roger Williams | 447 c940 (Link to this contribution) We understand what the Secretary of State is saying, but we wish that the Bill were able to improve ...

Julie Morgan | 447 c923 (Link to this contribution) On the ASW case, in welcoming the huge increase that has gone into the financial assistance scheme, ...

Roger Williams | 447 c938-9 (Link to this contribution) Welsh Liberal Democrats also welcome the Bill and will not oppose its Second Reading. However, we sh...

Subjects

Complaints

Access

Devolved matters

Age

Cross border cooperation

Equality

Finance

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Pensioners

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