Select Committee
Parliament

The Human Rights Joint Committee is taking evidence on the conditions in learning disability inpatient units.

The purpose of these hearings is to hear the experiences of those with disability and autism of these inpatient settings. Their views on restraint and human rights in these settings will be asked for.

The committee are taking evidence from two people from the charity My Life My Choice. MLMC is an Oxfordshire-based charity which aims to help people with learning disabilities.

Later in this session, Julie and Jeremy Newcombe will speak about their experiences. Jeremy’s daughter, Bethany, is kept in isolation.

Julie’s 23-year-old son spent 19 months in several inpatient settings.

Autism is not a mental health condition, but the symptoms from it can result in mental health conditions developing.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow justice minister Imran Hussain says his party are not opposed to the principle of reform, but cannot support the changes proposed by the bill and will be voting against it.

They have made clear their reservations throughout, he says, as they feel there is insufficient scrutiny of powers and functions delegated under the proposed changes, whilst there is also no minimal qualification requirement.

"In court no decision is small or inconsequential," he says. "We rightly expect a minimum standard of our judges."

"This bill fails to provide sufficient safeguards for decision made by authorised staff and no right to reconsideration," he says, which undermines the "basic principle" that all legal decision should be open to review.

"This bill is a poor replacement for what should have been a thorough bill filled with real court reforms...it is a shadow of what it could and should have been."

House of Commons
Parliament

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With report stage complete, and following Legislative Grand Committee, MPs now begin to debate the bill's third reading.

Justice Minister Lucy Frazer, beginning the debate, says the bill is a "key component" of the government's £1bn reform of courts and the judicial process.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's amendment 5, which would have allowed those whose decision was made by someone in one of the new roles created by the bill the right to a judicial reconsideration, has also been rejected by MPs.

243 voted in favour, but 246 voted against the amendment.

The report stage is completed, with sitting now suspended for five minutes for certification.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Labour's Lord Haskel asks what assessment the government has made of the financial position of Interserve - one of the UK's largest providers of public services - and whether or not public services might be affected by it.

Cabinet Office Minister Lord Young of Cookham says the funding arrangements of Interserve are the responsibility of the company directors. He says the Cabinet Office monitors the financial health of contractors.

Lord Haskel says "the monitoring doesn't seem to work" because "this is happening too many times," he says that Interserve does hospital work, welfare to work, among other government functions. He asks how the government will rectify the problems.

Lord Young replies that individual government departments have contracts with Interserve, and that the Cabinet Office has expressed "full support" for the company's "long term recovery plan". He says that Interserve is taking steps that Carillion did not.

With that, the Lords move on to debates on construction manufacturing and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Academy of the Arts.

House of Commons
Parliament

Following a division, MPs have voted against Labour's amendment 2 to the Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Bill, with 246 voting in favour and 308 against.

The amendment would have meant that those performing judicial functions newly delegated under the bill require a minimum of three years' experience post-qualification.

MPs divide to vote again, this time on amendment 5.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Liberal Democrat Lord Dykes asks what representations the government has received on having a People's Vote on Brexit.

Exiting the EU Minister Lord Callanan says that the government "must respect the will of the people and the democratic process".

Lord Dykes says that a so-called People's Vote - another referendum on EU membership -would be a "separate matter entirely". He says there is an "incredible" number of messages coming in to government departments because of changed circumstances.

Lord Callanan says he hasn't received any messages on people changing their minds.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Justice Minister Lucy Frazer says "we are not sneaking this bill through the House as it was introduced months ago."

"This is certainly not a bill about cuts," Ms Frazer says "this is part of our million pound programme of reform to our judicial process."

Ms Frazer says the government is investing in the justice system "to bring it up to the 21st century", and that the UK's justice system "is renowned across the world for its flexibility".

She says Labour's amendments are "unnecessary" as the qualifications for legal advisers in the magistrates and family courts are reasonably high, and the reforms will "ensure a good career progression for competent staff".

The bill contains "a balanced and fair approach with adequate safeguards", she says.

Labour's Yasmin Qureshi withdraws amendment 1, but MPs then divide to vote on amendment 2.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Crossbencher Lord Trees asks if the recent trade deal between the UK and Saudi Arabia to supply 50,000 lambs which have not been stunned before being killed is consistent with the government position to maintain animal welfare standards after Brexit.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Baroness Vere of Nurbiton says that all exports of animals, either stun or non-stun, must abide by "strict" EU rules on animal welfare.

Lord Trees says that New Zealand are able to export stunned animal carcasses which are still Halal certified. He asks the government to wait to be able to form similar rules in the UK.

Baroness Vere says that New Zealand has "very different rules" on animal welfare. Rules have allowed non-stun animal slaughter for the Muslim and Jewish communities in the UK since the 1930s, she says.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Conservative Lord Naseby asks what the government is doing to ensure provision of serviced plots for self and custom build homes in order to meet housing needs.

Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth says that self and custom build homes can deliver "a crucial part" of "housing market diversity". He says the government is working with Right to Build groups to help people self-build.

Lord Naseby says that across much of Europe, self-build makes up a "huge proportion" of the market. He asks the government to make sure so "thousands of couples" can build their own homes.

Lord Bourne says this is an "important and growing sector" but there are over 30,000 people on the register of self-building homes.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Bob Neill, Chair of the Justice Committee, says that there has been a "long standing proposal to modernise the civil justice system" and that this bill is not about austerity.

He says that the committee giving advice on these new changes have a "broad base" of staff representing different areas of the justice system.

He says he hopes the House will not be "lured" into setting undue restrictions on the judiciary through this amendment.

Voting for it would be setting an "undesirable precedent" of Parliament seeking to take control of the judiciary, he finishes.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow justice minister Yasmin Qureshi says the bill is "sneaking through changes giving unaccountable and non-independent judicial staff more powers".

She says the government is "avoiding proper scrutiny" of this bill, and that she is "concerned" that the minimum qualifications and experience required for members of judicial staff to be given these judicial functions is not clearly outlined.

Ms Qureshi says "the bill seeks to achieve more justice on the cheap" and is "surprised" that the government are not taking the Labour party's concerns on board, as the changes "genuinely questions the judiciary's independence".

"Three years experience post-qualification should be the minimum experience required," she adds, as "the right to a fair trail is important".

Alongside an amendment calling for a member of staff to have a minimum of three years experience to be given judicial functions, Ms Qureshi says another of Labour's amendments "would grant people subject to a decision made under delegated powers to a statutory right to judicial reconsideration".

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

So what did we learn from PMQs today?

No leadership contender broke cover to harry the prime minister.

Instead, a series of backbenchers - Ken Clarke, Kevin Hollinrake, Neil O’Brien, Maggie Throup - asked supportive questions and won loud cheers.

But there's the rub; the cheers were full throated, to be sure, but on closer inspection quite a number of Conservative MPs remained determinedly silent.

So the PM got her show of strength, and if anything seemed more relaxed than usual. But the further away from her you looked on the Tory benches, the less enthusiastic the troops seemed.

Her strategy was pretty clear - to remind her MPs that the real enemy was Jeremy Corbyn. So her answers to the Labour leader’s questions (and those of a number of other MPs) culminated in a general attack on Labour as a menace to the economy.

Jeremy Corbyn began against intense barracking and did well to maintain his composure as his fury mounted. In such charged circumstances, it is hard to maintain composure and coherence, but he did...

But his condemnation of the government for dithering and delay in submitting its Brexit deal to a Commons vote provoked the obvious retort from the other opposition parties, and some of his own troops, that he should put down a no confidence motion against it - culminating in the Lib Dem leader Vince Cable’s barbed question as to whether the PM thought a motion against her from her party was worse than one in the House.

(Mind you, if Mr Corbyn had listened to the entreaties of the Lib Dems and the SNP, and put down a no confidence motion on Monday, he might well have forestalled the Tories’ own confidence vote as they rallied round against an internal threat.)

Extra points, too, to Labour’s Jim McMahon, who cunningly invited the PM to condemn comments from ex Cabinet minister and Brexiteer Priti Patel about food shortages in Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The really clever bit was that he did not mention her name - allowing Theresa May to reject her ideas, without directly repudiating her. A smart bit of micro-politics, rubbing some salt into Conservative divisions.

The PM certainly emerges from this session unscathed; it is less clear that wavering Tory MPs will have been moved into her camp.

And Labour can simply enjoy the blue on blue battling - the sight of Labour’s court jester, Stephen Pound, attempting to orchestrate opposition cheers for the PM as she arrived in the House illustrates how much fun they are having at the moment.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs are now moving on to their main business of the day, the remaining stages of the Courts and Tribunals Bill.

The bill has already passed through the Lords, and will have its report stage and third reading in the Commons this afternoon.

The Courts and Tribunals Bill gives judicial office-holders more flexibility throughout the courts system than is presently allowed, makes it possible for court functions to be delegated from judges to certain court staff, and extends the further availability of role delegation to crown courts.

Labour have tabled an amendment which would stipulate that the minimum legal qualifications for an authorised person should be three years’ experience post-qualification.

House of Commons
Parliament

Following a vote, MPs have rejected Tory MP James Clevery's International Trade and Development Agency Bill.

A total of 42 voted in support of the bill, but 243 voted against it.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour MP Stephen Doughty is speaking in opposition to Mr Cleverly's bill.

Trade and development go hand in hand, and are already central to international development policy, he says. This was the case under the previous Labour governments.

The bill is "essentially a part of an agenda about Brexit", he says, and seeks to "undermine and take apart the work of the Department for International Development". There have been a series of measures introduced already to do this, he suggests.

He adds that some of the suggestions Mr Cleverly made would not be allowed under the Development Act, whilst the bill would introduce considerable unnecessary extra bureaucracy and costs.

Focus should first be on helping those in poverty, he says, but the bill is "blurring objectives".

"It is important we stick with what we have got, it works perfectly well."

MPs divide to vote on whether the bill can proceed.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP James Cleverly is now introducing his private member's bill which seeks to establish an International Trade and Development Agency.

The agency would "coordinate the development and delivery of policy" between the Department of International Trade and the Department of International Development, subsequently linking government trade policy and aid policy.

Mr Cleverly says the government should "buy a man's surplus fish to help him rise out of poverty" and the formation of this Agency could "target development spending at the point of most extreme poverty and hardship".

"It is in this area which gives the best chance of countries becoming economically self-sufficient," he adds, noting that the International Trade and Development Agency would "maximise the benefits of the work of civil servants".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour MP Chris Williamson says it is a matter of fact that the organisation has been engaging in a "smear campaign" against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.

"This is a democratic outrage," he says, calling for an independent inquiry.

Sir Alan Duncan says the suggestions are "utterly untrue".