Contributions
394 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDAccess to Education: Local LockdownsIn our mission to level up, I am keen to ensure that every child has the resources and support that they need to thrive. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that the…12 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)I have another supplementary on that.08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)I will come back to it.08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Q This is the first Bill Committee that I have sat on as a new MP, and I have watched the process get to where it has got to already, notwithstanding the years it has taken to get…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Thank you very much, General. I know I said veterans, but I also mean serving personnel. Charles Byrne: Thank you for that response, John, which helps to lay it out. The point of…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Q To follow on from that and a point you made earlier, let us say that this Bill goes through the Committee and Parliament with no changes and becomes law. Would then a major…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)That is outside my remit. Charles Byrne: We are just about to go into our poppy appeal in the most difficult time we have ever had, so I would not give a commitment to any…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Thank you. I appreciate the comments.08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Thank you. It is a pleasure to talk to you again, General. General Sir Nick Parker: I am wearing a rifles tie, rather than—08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)I had my green jackets one on yesterday.08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Q Thank you for that. I think we had a saying in our regiment, “Once a rifleman, always a rifleman”, so we were always the same rank there. On that point, I am well aware of how…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)Q General, it is good to see you. I was barely out of school when I came under your command in Dover, where you were the CO, the commanding officer. We were at very different ends…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)That is why I am in this role. General Sir Nick Parker: I am very prepared to give a view, but treat it with the contempt it deserves. As I said right at the beginning, I welcome…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Third sitting)One hundred per cent. General Sir Nick Parker: And I am not sure that we are able to do that if we are so vulnerable to malicious claims, because that is clogging the system up.…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Sorry for the delay, Chris: I have to stand up because there are not enough microphones for social distancing. Thank you for everything you have done and for your service. It is…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Based on your contacts—those 5,000 to 20,000 veterans—what would the veteran community feel now if this Bill were stopped? Lieutenant Colonel Parker: I do not think they would…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Not all of those were investigated. Judge Blackett: What I am saying is that the fact that there is a presumption against prosecution would not stop the knock on the door and…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Fourth sitting)That is brilliant. Those are all my questions. Thank you very much.08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Fourth sitting)Q I have a supplementary question, following Kevan Jones’s question about the five-year presumption against prosecution. We do not know what we are going to come up against next…08 Oct 2020HANSARDOverseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill (Fourth sitting)Okay. So now you have said that, what would your words to him be? Judge Blackett: I believe in a Bill with some of the items that I have suggested. What I would say is that the…08 Oct 2020