House of Commons
Parliament

Tracy Brabin, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, says she has been "horrified by the violence in Kashmir" and achieving peace in the territory is important to many of her constituents.

They hope for peace in the short term and "self-determination" in the long term, she tells the House.

Ms Brabin claims Theresa May had "the unique opportunity to raise human rights abuses in Kashmir" when she met India's PM, Narendra Modi, in November.

The Labour MP asks what was discussed and adds that she is concerned that "the prime minister's anxiety to secure a trade deal may have diluted her comments on Kashmir".

She also adds her voice for calls for pellet guns to be banned, saying their use in Kashmir has caused "devastating" injuries.

Image source, Reuters

House of Lords
Parliament

Culture Minister Lord Ashton of Hyde says the debate is about "what sort of country we want to be after Brexit".

On EU funding, he tells peers that the government will guarantee support for those projects that continue after Brexit.

He adds that EU funding represents "a small percentage" of public funding to arts and culture. 

Concerning EU nationals living in the UK, he says their right to stay will be guaranteed providing this is reciprocated for UK citizens living in the EU.

Westminster Hall

Steve McCabe begins by saying that there is an urgent need for change in the law on IVF provision, calling the current situation "unfair" and saying there is broad cross-party support for change.

Infertility is a problem that does not get much parliamentary or government attention, he says; adding that it is the second most common reason for a woman to visit her GP.

"Too many people think this is a lifestyle decision and not a medical condition," he says and cites anecdotal and research evidence of the mental and emotional health problems caused by the condition.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Jones of Whitchurch tells peers that there are "good reasons to be optimistic" about the creative industries.

She says the reputation of "our fastest growing industry" cannot "easily be diminished".

She echoes previously raised concerns about how the sector would be affected by constraints on freedom of movement.

She also asks the government to carry out a full audit of EU funding "so we know what will need replacing".

Westminster Hall

Labour MP Stephen McCabe is leading a debate in Westminster Hall on the decommissioning of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other NHS fertility services.

Difficulty conceiving is a problem that affects around one in seven couples in the UK. According to NHS Choices, external, 84% of couples will conceive naturally within a year if they have regular unprotected sex, while 92% will conceive within two years.  

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that couples who have been unsuccessful in conceiving after two years should be offered three full cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for women under 40, and one cycle for women between 40 and 42.

However, these are guidelines, and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are not legally required to implement them. There is substantial variation between CCGs in England in terms of what fertility treatments are routinely funded.  

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MPs Shabana Mahmood and Imran Hussain, raise the recent crackdown by Indian authorities and the reported use of non-lethal and lethal force on civilians.

Ms Mahmood says that people in Kashmir are "rising against a loss of hope to force their rights to be respected" and says this has elicited a "brutal" response from the Indian authorities.

She says that such "disproportionate" force has "significantly harmed" and "caused great tragedy" to the Kashmiri people. 

Mr Hussain makes a passionate speech along similar lines and speaks of "indiscriminate maiming and blinding of hundreds of Kashmiris" by the use of non-lethal munitions such as pellet guns. 

Conservative Bob Blackman tells MPs that during the partition of the Indian subcontinent, the Maharajah of Jammu-Kashmir signed the state over to India - "so we should be clear that under international law the whole of Kashmir is an integral part of India", he says.

Mr Blackman also speaks of "numerous violations of the ceasefire" and says it is "quite clear" that Pakistan has caused some of the recent conflict in the region.

House of Lords
Parliament

Former TV producer and Lib Dem peer Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury worries that creative skills are not adequately represented in the Home Office's visa criteria. 

Creative skills cannot be "tangibly assessed", she says and also worries that small enterprises do not have the resources to process visa applications. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Lib Dem Baroness Benjamin expresses concerned about the impact on children's content production.

She says the children's content is produced "in the most creative styles imaginable" and argues that this has been possible because producers have been able to work inside Europe and out.

She urges the government to continue paying into the Creative Europe Funding Scheme - "as other non-EU nations do".

House of Commons
Parliament

The House of Commons Library have produced a detailed research briefing pack for the debate today on Kashmir.

Debate packs are produced after the announcement of parliamentary business. They are intended to provide a summary or overview of the issue being debated and identify relevant briefings and useful documents, including press and parliamentary material.   

The Library briefing summary, with a link to the full document, can be found here, external.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, Reuters

Plaid Cymru peer Lord Wigley recalls his time at university in the 1960s when he met a group of musicians on a European-wide tour.

They had to procure, for themselves and their instruments, entry documents for every individual country which had to be produced at every border.

"Heaven forbid we go back to that situation."

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Steve Baker speaks about the logistics of a possible referendum in Kashmir; asking who would be able to vote, how would a result be decided, and on what basis would the result be considered legitimate.

He says that we saw with the EU referendum in the UK "where politics generally proceeds no further than harsh language" that passions ran "extremely high". 

Mr Baker says that in a region of the world where live conflict amongst nuclear armed powers is a risk, "we have to ask ourselves" how a referendum would proceed peacefully during the campaign and afterwards.

Speaking about the reported atrocities that many MPs are referencing in their speeches and of videos he has seen online, Mr Baker says that MPs must have a "relentless focus on objective fact" when discussing these reports.

If the allegations are true, he says that situation in Kashmir is an "urgent and pressing issue" for the whole world. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall, claims he is willing to criticise India but alleges that the debate has seen questions raised "that are untrue and are not relevant".

Simon Danczuk, one of the signatories of the backbench motion, intervenes to claim that India's government makes it difficult for people to visit Indian-administered Kashmir.

"When you come to visit a place you must be free of any prejudices before you go," Mr Sharma says.

He says that Pakistan has in the past "attacked India" to change the Line of Control and   accuses "subversive elements in Pakistan" of "using terrorism to further their ends".

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour peer and film producer Lord Puttnam expresses "profound disagreement" with Lord Blencathra and sets out two matters "where reassurance and help are likely to be needed".

Firstly he urges the government to retain the "country of origin" principle which allows broadcasters to transmit across the EU.

If the principle is not retained, he argues that thousands of jobs and the UK's "vibrant broadcasting hub" will be at risk.

Secondly, he says that 31-35% of staff in the UK's visual effects and animations industry are from the EU.

Are we seriously going to jeopardise a preeminence it has taken 50 years to build by losing a third of our staff? he asks.

House of Commons
Parliament

"India and Pakistan have evolved but Kashmir is still a region beset by political disagreement, violence and human rights violations," says Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani.

The two countries are currently "at an impasse", she adds.

She says the ability of Kashmiris to vote on whether to join India or Pakistan "or even determine their own future [is] the cornerstone of any civilised democracy".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative Lord Belncathra says the exporting achievement of the creative industries is "phenomenal" and argues that Brexit will not change this.

He notes that the UK's largest gaming export market is America, not Europe.

He argues that those EU nationals that are "highly skilled" and therefore valuable to the industry would "obviously" qualify under a new visa system.

Concerning funding, he tells peers that the gaming industry received £547,000 from Creative Europe compared to £45m in Treasury tax relief.

"So what if we leave the EU," he says "the British government is worth 82 times the EU subsidy."

House of Commons
Parliament

Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, says he is "pleased to be the first member of Parliament of Kashmiri heritage".

He urges UK ministers to make "far stronger representation" to the government of India about the actions of its troops.

He alleges that people in Indian-administered Kashmir are living under "tyranny".

House of Commons
Parliament

Today's cross-party motion on Kashmir reads:

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem Lord Clement-Jones kicks off the debate by celebrating the success of the creative industries sector, noting that it is growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy.

He identifies a number of commons themes that he argues need to be considered:

• The need to access talent: he argues that freedom of movement for people with specialist skills is "crucial"
• The future of intellectual property: he notes that the broad principles of copyright are covered by international treaties but that the enforcement levers are at an EU level
• Loss of funding from organisations such as Creative Europe and Horizon 2020