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Smoking Policy
35. Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the right hon. Member representing the House of Commons Commission what plans she has to implement a smoking policy for staff working areas. [2320]
Mrs. Ann Taylor: The Commission's policy on smoking for its staff is that individual heads of Department make arrangements by mutual agreement with their staff. The Board of Management is presently carrying out a review of that policy at the specific request
of the House of Commons Commission. A policy on smoking in offices of hon. Members and their staff is primarily a matter for the Administration Committee.
Mrs. Campbell: I welcome the review. Does my right hon. Friend regard it as unsatisfactory that the House of Commons and the associated office buildings are some of the few public buildings in which smoking is still permitted in libraries, corridors and reception areas, and that it is permitted even in the Division Lobbies? Will she try to ensure that the review is speeded up and that we get a smoking policy that applies to the whole of this building and to the offices she mentioned?
Mrs. Taylor: I have a great deal of sympathy with my hon. Friend's point. Although the Committees of the House have looked at this matter in the past, the fact that we have a new Parliament with new Members may mean that this is an opportune time to revisit the issue. Many hon. Members will have a great deal of sympathy with her point of view.
Points of Order
3.30 pm
Mr. Alex Salmond (Banff and Buchan): On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Earlier today, on Question 7, you allowed the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) to ask a question from the Dispatch Box. I understand that there is currently an element of confusion in the Tory party and I know that the right hon. Member might be suffering an identity crisis as to whether he is a Front or Back Bencher--perhaps his prospects depend on the outcome of the leadership contest. However, I do not think that there are any recent precedents--there may be some longer-standing ones--for a question such as that being put from the Dispatch Box. I do not think that it is a good practice, and I hope that you will not allow it in future.
Madam Speaker: There are many recent precedents for such an occurrence. I watched very carefully today. I am given the names of those on the Front Bench who are currently responsible for Question Time--there were four Members on the Front Bench and they were entitled to four questions, including the one asked by the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth), but they took only three. I have no complaints and I do not think that the House could have either.
Mr. Alan Clark (Kensington and Chelsea): On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You will have heard the Secretary of State for Scotland, in replying to my supplementary question to Question 7, stigmatise an assertion that I made as being fiction. I accept that that was a slip of the tongue, because we all accept that in this House we do not accuse each other of lying, but can it be put on the record that he said that the item in The Herald, which asserted that the cost of a job at the Hyundai factory in Fife would be £120,000, was a lie?
Madam Speaker: Ministers are responsible to themselves for the comments that they make, but I doubt whether the right hon. Gentleman actually used those words. I tend to listen very carefully to what is said in such heated exchanges.
Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset): On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Some time ago, the Labour party issued rules of conduct to its Back Benchers on how they should conduct themselves in this House. It struck me that those rules actually stopped them from holding their own executive to account if it seemed that they were being critical of the Government. I saw you looking round for Labour Members standing during questions about expenditure on Scottish matters, so you will have noticed that no Labour Member stood on those questions. Will you look at those rules of conduct and perhaps send them to the Nolan committee, and so make sure that the Labour Whips have not gagged all Labour Members?
Madam Speaker: Those are party political matters in which I certainly have no intention of intervening, whether they involve the Labour party or any other party in the House. I have been in this Chair for just over five years now, and there were times when a previous Government had no Members of their own party standing and I was at a loss in terms of calling Members to speak. It is quid pro quo.
DELEGATED LEGISLATION
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(4) (Standing Committees on Delegated Legislation),
That the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (General) Amendment Regulations 1997 (S.I., 1997, No. 852) be referred to a Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation.--[Mr. Graham Allen.]
Question agreed to.
17 Jun 1997 : Column 119
Orders of the Day
Local Government Finance (Supplementary Credit Approvals) Bill
Order for Second Reading read.
3.34 pm
The Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Ms Hilary Armstrong): I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
In our manifesto, we stated our long-held commitment to help meet housing need by building new houses and rehabilitating old ones, through the phased release of capital receipts from council house sales. We shall now honour that commitment.
There is a good reason why we made that commitment. Since 1979, more than £22 billion has been raised from sales of council housing, a policy which has enabled many people to realise their dream of owning their own home. But where did the money go? How did the Government use that extremely valuable asset? Very little of it went back into housing. Now we want to make sure that some of the money is put back into housing, so that tenants and homeless families can know that they, too, may benefit from the opportunities that a decent home brings.
This Government were elected on a promise to govern for the many, not just for the few. We shall not forget those who were left behind by an Administration who lacked a housing policy and ensured that many of those folk simply never had a chance.
The need to spend more on housing is clear. During the previous Parliament, there were successive cuts to housing capital programmes. Local authorities in particular have suffered as allocations under the housing investment programme, for investment in both public and private housing, have been cut from more than £1.7 billion in 1991-92 to less than £900 million this year.
Those cuts to local authority resources have had a major effect on council housing stock. Tenants have to live in properties that often lack adequate kitchens and bathrooms; doors, windows and roofs are not being replaced until long after they have reached the end of their useful lives. Local authorities have to patch and mend instead of undertaking long-lasting repairs and improvements.
That is a waste of scarce resources. Last year, local authorities estimated that the backlog of work needed to bring the stock up to a reasonable state of repair was £20 billion. Obviously, that is a local authority estimate, not ours, and it needs to be treated with some caution. But none of us can deny that the decline in resources over a number of years has resulted in the deterioration of much local authority housing stock.
Mr. William O'Brien (Normanton):
What my hon. Friend is saying about the provision of new housing and improvements to old housing in local authority stock is most welcome. Will she also bear in mind the question of rents? Under the Tory Government, private housing and housing associations had to ratchet up rents in line with the Government's philosophy. What we want is affordable
Ms Armstrong:
That is one of the several real difficulties that the former Administration left us, but I can assure my hon. Friend that we shall bear it in mind, and that this initiative--contrary to the claims of some Conservative Members--will not lead to the raising of rents. [Interruption.] Madam Speaker, you have taught me that I must not respond to sedentary interventions.
Ms Armstrong:
I give way to the right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry).
Mr. David Curry (Skipton and Ripon):
Will the hon. Lady extrapolate her remarks to council tax?
Ms Armstrong:
I am happy to do so. There will be no effect on council tax because, as I shall explain, the supplementary credit approval route enables us to ensure that we account for the additional capital spending in the usual way. Housing-related spending will be accounted for through the housing revenue account, and non-housing spending will be accounted for through the capital element in the standard spending assessment; so there will be no effect on council tax or on rents.
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