DPMQ: Clegg quizzed

• [Apr 05] Esther McVey (Wirral West, Conservative): WHAT progress he has made on establishing a commission on a Bill of Rights.

Tony Baldry (Second Church Estates Commissioner; Banbury, Conservative): What progress he has made on establishing a commission on a Bill of Rights.

• Nicholas Clegg : The commission has been established. The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend Mr Harper, who is responsible for political and constitutional reform, announced the membership and terms of reference of the commission in a written statement to the House on 18 March.

Esther McVey (Wirral West, Conservative): I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for his response. In the light of the European Court of Human Rights judgments that have gone against the will of the British public by giving prisoners the right to vote, allowing paedophiles to be removed from the sex offenders register and preventing deportation of those considered dangerous to the country's national security, specifically when could the British Bill of Rights be introduced and how will the Deputy Prime Minister ensure that it will reflect the will of the British public in law?

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• Nicholas Clegg : The commission will be looking at the case for a British Bill of Rights, building on and incorporating all the protections and rights that are already in domestic legislation, translating the rights and responsibilities of the European convention on human rights and building on them, but I think that there is a lot more that the commission can do as well. The Court, by universal acknowledgment, is not working as well as it should. There is a backlog of 140,000 cases, for instance. The Government will assume the chairmanship of the Court in November, and the commission will be providing us, I hope, with useful input on how we can improve the performance of the Court in Strasbourg.

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Tony Baldry (Second Church Estates Commissioner; Banbury, Conservative): Will the Deputy Prime Minister give the House an assurance that a British Bill of Rights will be written by Members of this House and not by the judges, particularly as they now appear to be making what many of us consider to be unconscionable orders that prevent constituents talking to their MPs? That must be unconscionable, so any Bill of Rights must be written by this House and not by the judges.

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• Nicholas Clegg : Clearly a British Bill of Rights, as I have said, must build on and incorporate the rights that British citizens already enjoy. British judges, parliamentarians and politicians have a long and proud tradition of drafting rights, which apply not only in this country but in others. I think back to the role of Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, the Lord Chancellor in the Churchill and Macmillan Governments, who played such a crucial role in drafting the European convention on human rights in the first place.

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David Hanson (Delyn, Labour): In 2007 the current Prime Minister said that the Human Rights Act 1998 had to go. Last May the Deputy Prime Minister said that anyone who tampered with it did so at their peril. Could he tell us who is right?

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• Nicholas Clegg : It is no secret that the two coalition parties in this Government do not see eye to eye on this issue. That is why we have formed a commission that is composed of- [ Interruption. ] I know that Opposition Members cannot bear the idea that in Governments there are perhaps people who have civilised discussions from differing points of view. The mere concept of different politicians in the same Government seeking agreement from different positions is alien to the right hon. Gentleman and his colleagues, but it is what we do, and do very well, in this Government.

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Sadiq Khan (Tooting, Labour): I welcome the huge number of Liberal Democrat MPs here today to show support for their current leader at the final Deputy Prime Minister's questions before the local and national elections. I also welcome the president of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, who is here today.

Mr Speaker, I am sure you will have been interested by the previous answer that the Deputy Prime Minister gave to the question about his commitment to the Human Rights Act, but Lord McNally in the other place and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change have said that, if the coalition Government considered getting rid of that Act, that would be the time for them to consider getting out of the coalition Government. It is a straightforward question: does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with them or not?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I am a passionate advocate, supporter and defender of the Human Rights Act-full stop.

Ian Murray (Edinburgh South, Labour): What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of holding a UK-wide referendum.

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• Nicholas Clegg : The cost of holding the referendum is similar to the cost of holding a general election. The Government have been very keen to be as cost-efficient as possible, and that is why the referendum is being held on the same day as other elections.

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Ian Murray (Edinburgh South, Labour): Given the rising cost of living for my constituents, partly due to the "Tory VAT bombshell", does the Deputy Prime Minister think that spending up to £250 million on his AV vanity project is a good use of public funds, and does his continued leadership of his party depend on a yes vote?

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• Nicholas Clegg : First, I point out that it was in the hon. Gentleman's manifesto to hold a referendum on AV, and I am sure he has worked out the sums for himself. Secondly, this £250 million figure is complete and utter fiction. This Government have set aside £120 million for the costs of the next general election. If I understand it correctly, this fictional figure has come from the assumption that we will be using electronic counting machines, for which this Government have no plans whatsoever.

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Peter Bone (Wellingborough, Conservative): Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that one cannot put a cost on democracy and that establishing the principle of a referendum might allow us to have future referendums on such things as, say, the European Union?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I certainly accept my hon. Friend's premise that we should always stand ready to provide the British people with an opportunity to have a say on issues that are of huge, overwhelming national concern. I would not recommend it as a monthly event, but it is certainly something that has arisen and will continue to arise from time to time.

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[10857

Nigel Dodds (Belfast North, DUP)

The Deputy Prime Minister seems very reluctant to spell out the precise cost of this referendum, so could he tell us clearly how much he thinks it is going to cost? How many representations has he received saying that this is the No. 1 priority for people in his constituency?

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• Nicholas Clegg : Of course, at a time of economic difficulty when there are rising living costs, many other priorities impinge on people's lives. That is why, for instance, people will welcome the fact that from tomorrow 23 million basic rate taxpayers will get £200 cash in their pockets because of the income tax we are giving back. I accept that that is more important. As I said before, the cost of the referendum will be roughly the cost of every general election.

Jim Cunningham (Coventry South, Labour): If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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• Nicholas Clegg : As Deputy Prime Minister, I support the Prime Minister on the full range of Government policies and initiatives. I take special responsibility for this Government's programme of political and constitutional reform. As part of this, I would like to confirm again that we will be publishing a draft Bill on House of Lords reform before the end of May.

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Jim Cunningham (Coventry South, Labour): Can the Deputy Prime Minister tell us why he broke his election pledge in relation to elections to the House of Lords? He said that it would be 100% elected, but now he is saying 80%.

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• Nicholas Clegg : I am grateful for Labour Members' sudden fanatical interest in reforming the House of Lords, given that during 13 years in government they did precisely nothing about it. Of course I am a supporter of a fully elected House of Lords, but I have always said that if we want to prevent the fate of previous attempts to reform the other place, we should not make the best the enemy of the good. We need to proceed not only with idealism but with a degree of pragmatism, and that will be reflected, I hope, in the draft Bill that we will publish before the end of next month.

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Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood, Conservative): I congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister on the news of the coalition Government's announcement on the new social mobility and internship strategy. I hope, Mr Speaker, that through your good offices we can soon match that internship strategy in this place. May I ask, in particular, how the new internship scheme will benefit my constituents, as too often these schemes are dominated by people from London or with London connections?

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• Nicholas Clegg : If we are to open up internships in Government and elsewhere-I am delighted that a large number of businesses have already announced that they will be introducing greater meritocracy and transparency in how they administer internships in their own offices-that will depend heavily on people being able to apply for and secure those internships from wherever they live across the whole of the country.

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Harriet Harman (Leader of the Opposition; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour): The Deputy Prime Minister knows that the replacement scheme for the abolished education maintenance allowance will mean a 60% cut, but does he recognise that his new scheme introduces uncertainty because it is discretionary? Under the new scheme, young people will not know in advance whether they will get a bursary, whether the college they choose will give it to them and how much they will get. What would he say to the thousands of young people who are going to be left in the dark?

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• Nicholas Clegg : We always said that the previous system-I am sure that the right hon. and learned Lady would be fair enough to recognise that the previous Government acknowledged this, too-would be altered and changed as the compulsory education age went up to 17 in 2013 and to 18 in 2015. What we are doing is what we always said we would do: we are not scrapping the thing altogether but replacing it with a £180 million fund that can be targeted precisely at those people for whom financial support is necessary to continue in full-time education. As she will know, we are providing more money for those who are particularly vulnerable than was available under the old EMA scheme. Yes, we are providing discretion, because directors and principals of further education colleges and sixth forms have told us that that is the best way to ensure that they, who know the individual pupils, can provide the support that is needed.

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Harriet Harman (Leader of the Opposition; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour): But the Deputy Prime Minister has not answered the point about uncertainty for students who will not know in advance. His answer will not wash with the 600,000 young people who will lose out under the EMA abolition and who, if they manage to stay in education, will face massively increased tuition fees. Even in the constituency of his ludicrously titled advocate for access to education, London South Bank university, which has always done all it can to provide quality higher education to local people on low incomes, now says that it will have to charge £8,450. He said that the £9,000 fees would be the exception rather than the rule, but it has turned out that he is wrong. Is that not just typical of this coalition of cuts, chaos and confusion?

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• Nicholas Clegg : What is typical is that the right hon. and learned Lady is jumping on the latest bandwagon without checking her facts. Less than half the universities that have published figures so far have said that they will seek to charge £9,000 for some courses, but there are still several weeks-in fact, two or three months-to go before the Office for Fair Access provides its consent to those plans, which can go ahead only if those universities provide much greater opportunities for disadvantaged children to gain access to those universities. She ignores the fact that if we include bursaries and fee waivers, the average level of charges imposed on individual students will be a whole lot lower.

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Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk, Conservative): Given that successive Governments have centralised powers from once mighty councils and municipalities, what steps will the Deputy Prime Minister take to ensure that localism is embedded in our constitution and that future Governments cannot reverse those moves?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I strongly agree with my hon. Friend that one of the key things that we must deliver as a Government is the reversal of the outrageous arrogation of power to central Government under Labour over the past 13 years. That is a painstaking job that must be reflected in the way we give more freedom to teachers in the classroom, more financial autonomy to our local authorities and more devolution in how our great NHS works. Across the piece, we must reverse the tide of centralisation that was one of the most baleful characteristics of the previous Labour Government.

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John Bercow (Speaker)

I call Stephen Pound. He is not here.

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John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead, Labour): Will the Deputy Prime Minister answer the question that he has been asked twice by Opposition Members? How much will the referendum cost? I know that answering a straight question is a bit of an alien concept to him, but will he give us a straight answer? How much will it be?

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• Nicholas Clegg : As I said before, it is the same as that of a general election. One thing I can tell the hon. Gentleman is that if there is a change in the electoral system it will not-I repeat, not-cost £250 million.

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Duncan Hames (Chippenham, Liberal Democrat): Does the Deputy Prime Minister consider the rules on reporting of political donations to be adequate when the no campaign in this referendum canvasses for support from the public without telling them where the money is coming from?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I strongly agree. If we are going to have the two sides of the argument deployed up and down the country in this all-important referendum, the least the public can expect is to find out who is bankrolling the no campaign. I hope that the people in the no campaign will come clean with the British people very soon.

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Stephen McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak, Labour): I see that the Deputy Prime Minister is now to play a role in the health legislation. I am in the midst of consulting GPs in Selly Oak on that. Does he agree with his colleague, the GP Evan Harris, that one of the vital amendments is the right for GPs to opt out of commissioning?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I certainly agree that there should be nothing doctrinaire about the point at which GP consortia become the commissioning bodies in the NHS. That is why exacting requirements will be applied to consortia. If they are not ready by April 2013, they will not be given the new commissioning powers.

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Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Liberal Democrat): Following the Budget's impact on energy investor confidence, do the Government have plans to enable this country finally to offer the stability needed for long-term strategic investment decisions?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I know how strongly my hon. Friend feels about this issue, and he has spoken about it before. As I have explained to him, it is right that the Government have asked an industry that is making huge profits because of the rise in world oil prices to make a significant contribution to ensuring that we can bring the price down on the forecourt and at the petrol pump for millions of people who are finding it difficult to deal with increasing living costs. As he knows, there was an emergency meeting of PILOT, at which it was made clear by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and others that we want to work with the industry to ensure that we can provide the right environment to foster its investment decisions in future.

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Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk, Labour): As well as being responsible for having probably destroyed the electoral hopes of the Liberal party, the Deputy Prime Minister is formally responsible for the West Lothian question. He will know that a private Member's Bill is in Committee, under which every piece of legislation would be labelled according to which parts of the United Kingdom it affected. That would start a process of denying Members from Scotland the right to vote on all legislation in this House. Does he support that Bill?

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• Nicholas Clegg : This is a very difficult issue- [ Interruption. ] It is an issue that has bedevilled Governments for a long time. We do not support the Bill, but we support the establishment of a commission to look into the West Lothian question, and we will establish one in due course.

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Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire, Conservative): Further to the question from Michael Connarty, can the Deputy Prime Minister give us a little more clarity on his timetable for establishing the West Lothian commission?

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• Nicholas Clegg : There is a need to ensure that we do not overlap the important work of the commission on the West Lothian question with the equally important work that we are doing on the reform of the other place. Once we have established the progress on that draft Bill, which we will publish before the end of next month, we will be in a clearer position to determine the timetable for proceeding on the West Lothian question.

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Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby, Labour): Last month, my constituent Christina O'Brien was one of four Liverpool passport office workers who were dismissed because they had been given permanent contracts by mistake. Ten others were switched to temporary contracts. Will the Deputy Prime Minister pursue the appalling treatment of these hard-working employees with the Home Office? They have done nothing wrong, and they deserve to get their jobs back.

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• Nicholas Clegg : The hon. Gentleman speaks with great conviction and passion about the fate of his constituents. Of course, I would be happy to receive further information from him and look into the case.

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Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes, Conservative): Returning to House of Lords reform, if media reports are correct, elections will be held on a regional basis. My constituents treasure their connection with the historic county of Lincolnshire, and do not want to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Yorkshire and Humber region. Can the Deputy Prime Minister assure me that they will be consulted fully on where they will be placed?

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• Nicholas Clegg : That is one of the reasons why we are publishing a draft Bill before the end of next month, as I have said. The draft Bill will, in turn, be subject to exhaustive scrutiny by a Joint Committee of both Houses, to which he and all other hon. Members will be able to make representations on issues of concern to them.

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Liz Kendall (Leicester West, Labour): When the Deputy Prime Minister signed the foreword to the Government's national health service White Paper, which part of the policy did he disagree with?

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• Nicholas Clegg : I actually think that the basic ideas that we need less bureaucracy in the NHS, that GPs, who know the patients best, should have greater responsibility in it and that we need greater accountability, less centralisation and a greater role for local authorities are accepted across the piece as the right approach, except perhaps on the Labour Benches. The key thing now is to ensure that we get the details and the implementation right. As the Secretary of State for Health said very clearly yesterday, where there are legitimate concerns, for instance about the governance of a GP consortium or the role of the private sector, we will seek to address them. That will then lead to substantive changes through amendments at the end of the process, in about two months' time.

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Greg Hands (Chelsea and Fulham, Conservative): One of the most scandalous statistics in our democracy is the fact that of 5.5 million British subjects abroad, only about 15,000 are registered. What are we going to do to improve the registration rates of British subjects abroad?

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• Nicholas Clegg : My hon. Friend is right to identify that as a real problem, and we are examining right now how we can improve the situation so that even if British citizens live and work abroad, they can continue to participate in the democratic life of our country.

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David Winnick (Walsall North, Labour): May I, in all fairness, congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister on showing since last May that the idea that his party is some kind of progressive alternative to Labour is absolute nonsense? For that alone, he deserves every possible congratulation.

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• Nicholas Clegg : Let us just look at some of the things that have been happening. Last Friday- [Interruption.]

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John Bercow (Speaker): Order. I know that the Deputy Prime Minister is quite capable of looking after himself, but Mr Winnick has asked the question, and Members must hear the answer. The Deputy Prime Minister must be heard.

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• Nicholas Clegg : I wanted to give the hon. Gentleman some specific examples of progress: last Friday-the start of the implementation of the pupil premium, with £2.5 billion for the most disadvantaged children in our schools by the end of this Parliament; tomorrow-the delivery of a new tax threshold that will take 880,000 people on low pay out of paying any income tax, and the delivery of a triple guarantee for all pensioners, restoring the earnings link that Labour failed to restore in 13 years.

By the way, tomorrow is the beginning of the financial year when the hon. Gentleman's party promised details of £14 billion-worth of cuts, according to its plans for the reduction of the deficit. Where are they? When will Labour come clean with the British people?

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John Bercow (Speaker): We come to questions to the Attorney-General. I call Jack Dromey. [Interruption.] Order. I appeal to Members who are leaving the Chamber, particularly those who are walking past someone who is to ask a question, to do so quickly, quietly and preferably with some dignity.

• Full Debate in Parliament

• DPMQs: By golly, by gosh, he's finally getting the hang of this [Paul Walter Lib Dem Voice Apr 05]