The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what EU directives related to his Department’s responsibilities are awaiting transposition into UK law.
Dominic Raab
There are currently no EU directives for which MoJ has responsibility awaiting transposition into UK law.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what EU directives related to his Department’s responsibilities are awaiting transposition into UK law.
Matthew Hancock
One Directive is awaiting transposition by the Cabinet Office; it is Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on electronic invoicing in public procurement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment Network Rail has made of the costs and benefits of replacing level crossings with bridges on its England network.
Claire Perry
This is an operational matter for Network Rail who have a policy of actively pursuing closure of level crossings at every opportunity.
The company has already closed nearly 1,000 level crossings since 2009 but, since the circumstances at each level crossing are unique, there are no firm rules about closure. Risk assessments are instead undertaken at every site which informs the identification and implementation of further risk controls.
The United Kingdom already has the best level crossing safety record in Europe but we are supporting Network Rail through a ring-fenced fund to ensure that risks can be reduced even further.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which EU (a) legislative and (b) other proposals his Department is leading negotiations on for the Government in the Council of the EU.
Dominic Raab
This Department is currently leading negotiations on the following legislative proposals:
The following are ongoing negotiations within my department’s remit that the UK does not participate in. My department, however, monitors the negotiations to ensure that these proposals do not negatively impact UK interests.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which EU (a) legislative and (b) other proposals his Department is leading negotiations on for the Government in the Council of the EU.
Matthew Hancock
Cabinet Office Ministers are responsible for four EU proposals being negotiated in the Council of Ministers. They are:
* Proposal for a Council Decision adopting the provisions amending the Act concerning the election of the members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage
* Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of public sector bodies’ websites.
* Proposal for a Regulation of the EP and Council amending Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries as regards conferring of delegated and implementing powers upon the Commission for the adoption of certain measures.
* Proposal for a Regulation of the EP and Council on the provision and quality of statistics for the macroeconomic imbalances procedure
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-02-10.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much was raised from VAT on (a) air source heat pumps, (b) solar panels, (c) draught shipping, (d) insulation, (e) wood fuel boilers and (f) ground source heat pumps in each of the last five years.
Mr David Gauke
This level of detail is not requested on VAT returns and therefore data is not available on how much VAT was raised on (a) air source heat pumps, (b) solar panels, (c) draught shipping, (d) insulation, (e) wood fuel boilers and (f) ground source heat pumps in each of the last five years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, which EU (a) legislative and (b) other proposals her Department is leading negotiations on for the Government in the Council of the EU.
Mr Ben Wallace
The Department is not responsible for leading any negotiations at the EU Council.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which EU (a) legislative and (b) other proposals his Department is leading negotiations on for the Government in the Council of the EU.
Mr David Gauke
HM Treasury is responsible for measures relating to the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. This includes economic policy, taxation issues, financial markets and capital movements, the EU budget, economic relations with countries outside the EU, and coordination of EU positions for international meetings such as the G20, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.
The Department provides Explanatory Memoranda to Parliament on any proposals defined by the terms of reference of the parliamentary EU scrutiny committees, which can be found online.
The speech made by John Redwood, the Conservative MP for Wokingham, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.
I entirely agree with that passionate defence of localism by the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell). Local must mean local and we do not want people in the BBC in London imposing on us their views on how our local radio should be conducted and how big our locality should be. I see behind the centralised planning at the BBC a distorted version of what our constitution should look like within the United Kingdom, and a wish to impose that—against the clear majority wishes of people, whenever they have been asked about these subjects in referendums and elections.
It is not just that the BBC wishes to create phony regional groupings instead of truly local radio, but that it has a very distorted view of devolution. The BBC seems to be an enthusiast for devolution to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but it does not even know England exists. It always wants lopsided devolution. One of the four important constituent parts of the United Kingdom is scarcely ever mentioned; it is never suggested it should have any powers or right to self-government and there is no engagement with English issues on BBC radio in the way that there is a clear engagement with Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland issues. That causes enormous resentment.
In my own case, local radio is organised at the county level, at Radio Berkshire. That makes sense, because it is an area that we can recognise and there is some loyalty to our royal and ancient county. Many people now do not know that it had its borders artificially compressed in a local government reorganisation some 50 years ago, under a Conservative Government that I think made some mistakes, but the county retains an enormous amount of goodwill and residual loyalty, and people are very happy for our local radio to be organised at that scale. If people had real choice, however, I think Wokingham would rather have a different radio from Reading, and I think we would probably rather have a different radio from Windsor, because we have a different set of issues. But we accept that there have to be some compromises because talented people need to be appointed and paid wages, and that cannot be done to a sensible budget at very local levels.
I urge the BBC to look in the mirror and understand why, in many respects, it is getting so out of touch with its audiences. It has a very narrow range of views and issues that it will allow people to discuss, and it has a particularly warped perspective on how we feel about our areas and what our loyalties belong to. I am allowed to express views from time to time on BBC Radio Berkshire. It does not put me through the ordeal of a pre-interview to find out whether my views are acceptable and fit its caricature of a Conservative in the way that nearly always happens if national radio is thinking of interviewing me. Then, I always have the double interview, and I quite often fail the first interview test because my views are clearly too interesting or unacceptable, or do not fit the caricature that the radio wishes to put into its particular drama, so people are spared my voice on radio and I have more free time, which is perhaps a wonderful outcome from those events.
I do not find that my local radio quite plots the drama as strongly as national BBC radio and television. I am very grateful for that because I think that good, independent broadcasting of the kind that the BBC says it believes in should allow people of decent views—not extremists who want to break the law, or racists—to conduct civilised conversations and debates through the medium of the BBC. But all too often, that is truncated or impossible because of the way in which the editors operate and their pre-conceived set of views, about which they wish to create some kind of drama.
Colleagues have made extremely good points, which I will emphasise, about the treatment of staff and the way these kinds of proposals are planned. If the BBC wishes to run truly local services, it must listen to us—the local people and the local people’s representatives—and treat its staff well, and be aware that they have given good service in the past and should be taken on a journey of change that makes sense for them as well as for the BBC. This all looks rather top-down, abrupt and unpleasant. Successful organisations understand that their own journeys, evolving as institutions, are best conducted if, at the same time, they allow good journeys for the staff who give them loyal service. That does not seem to be happening in this case.
I will spare you a bit of time, Madam Deputy Speaker—I have made the main points that I wished to make. The BBC needs to be more open to a wider range of views. If it wants to be local, it has to ask us what local means.